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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nell, of Shorne Mills, by Charles Garvice
+
+
+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: Nell, of Shorne Mills
+       or, One Heart's Burden
+
+
+Author: Charles Garvice
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2007  [eBook #22961]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank, Brownfox, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS
+
+Or, One Heart's Burden
+
+by CHARLES GARVICE
+
+Author of
+"Better Than Life," "A Life's Mistake," "Once in a Life,"
+"'Twas Love's Fault," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A. L. Burt Company
+Publishers  ::  ::  ::  New York
+1898
+
+
+
+NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"Dick, how many are twenty-seven and eight?"
+
+The girl looked up, with narrow eyes and puckered brow, from the
+butcher's book, which she was laboriously "checking," at the boy who
+leaned back on the window seat picking out a tune on a banjo.
+
+"Thirty-nine," he replied lazily but promptly, without ceasing to peck,
+peck at the strings.
+
+She nodded her thanks, and traveled slowly up the column, counting with
+the end of her pencil and jotting down the result with a perplexed face.
+
+They were brother and sister, Nell and Dick Lorton, and they made an
+extremely pretty picture in the sunny room. The boy was fair with the
+fairness of the pure Saxon; the girl was dark--dark hair with the sheen
+of silk in it, dark, straight brows that looked all the darker for the
+clear gray of the eyes which shone like stars beneath them. But the eyes
+were almost violet at this moment with the intensity of her mental
+effort, and presently, as she raised them, they flashed with a mixture
+of irritation and sweet indignation.
+
+"Dick, if you don't put that banjo down I'll come over and make you.
+It's bad enough at most times; but the 'Old Folks at Home' on one
+string, while I'm trying to check this wretched book, is intolerable,
+and not to be endured. Put it down, Dick, or I'll come over and smash
+both of you!"
+
+He struck a chord, an exasperating chord, and then resumed the more
+exasperating peck, peck.
+
+"'Twas ever thus," he said, addressing the ceiling with sad reproach.
+"Women are born ungrateful, and continue so. Here am I, wasting this
+delightful afternoon in attempting to soothe a sister's savage breast by
+sweet strains of heavenly music, and she----"
+
+With a laugh, she sprang from her seat and went for him. There was a
+short and fierce struggle, during which the banjo was whirled hither and
+thither; then he got her down on the floor, sat upon her, and
+deliberately resumed pecking out the "Old Folks at Home."
+
+"Let me get up, Dick! Let me get up this instant!" she cried indignantly
+and breathlessly. "The man's waiting for the book. Dick, do you hear?
+I'll pinch you--I'll crumple your collar! I'll burn that beast of a
+banjo directly you've gone out. Dick, I'm sure you're hurting me
+seriously. Di-ck! I've got a pain! Oh, you wait until you've gone out!
+I'll light the fire with that thing! Get up!"
+
+Without a change of countenance, as if he were deaf to her entreaties
+and threats, he tuned up the banjo, and played a breakdown.
+
+"Comfortable, Nell? That's right. Always strive for contentment,
+whatever your lot may be. At present your lot is to provide me with a
+nice, springy seat, and it will so continue to be until you promise--on
+your honor, mind--that you will not lay a destructive hand on this
+sweetest of instruments."
+
+"Oh, let me get up, Dick!"
+
+"Until I receive that promise, and an abject apology, it is a case of
+_j'y suis, j'y reste_, my child," he responded blandly.
+
+She panted and struggled for a moment or two, then she gasped:
+
+"I--I promise!"
+
+"On your word of honor?"
+
+"Yes, yes! Dick, you are breaking my ribs or something."
+
+"Corset, perhaps," he suggested. "And the apology? A verbal one will
+suffice on this occasion, accompanied by the sum of one shilling for the
+purchase of cigarettes."
+
+"I shan't! You never said a word about a shilling!"
+
+"I did not--I hadn't time; but I shall now have time to make it two."
+
+The door opened, and a servant with a moon-shaped face and prominent
+eyes looked in. She did not seem at all surprised at the state of
+affairs--did not even smile.
+
+"The butcher's man says shall he wait any longer, miss?"
+
+"Yes, tell him to wait, Molly," said the boy. "Miss Nell is tired, and
+is lying down for a little while; resting, you know."
+
+"I--I promise! I apologize! You--you shall have the shilling!" gasped
+the girl, half angrily, half haughtily.
+
+He rose in a leisurely fashion, got back to his window seat, and held
+out his long, shapely hand.
+
+She shook herself, put up one hand to her hair, and took a shilling from
+her pocket with the other.
+
+"Tiresome boy!" she exclaimed. "If I live to be a hundred, I shall never
+know why boys were invented."
+
+"There are lots of other things, simpler things, that you will never
+know, though you live to be a Methuselah, my dear Nell," he said; "one
+of them being that twenty-seven and eight do not make thirty-nine."
+
+"Thirty-nine? Why, of course not; thirty-five!" she retorted. "That's
+where I was wrong. Dick, you are a beast. There's the book, Molly, and
+there's the money----Oh, give me back that shilling, Dick; I want it!
+I've only just got enough. Give it me back at once; you shall have it
+again, I swear--I mean, I promise."
+
+"Simple child!" he murmured sweetly. "So young, so simple! She really
+thinks I shall give it to her! Such innocence is indeed touching! Excuse
+these tears. It will soon pass!"
+
+He mopped his eyes with his handkerchief, as if overcome by emotion, and
+the exasperated Nell looked at him as if she meant another fight; but
+she resisted the temptation, and, with a shrug of her shoulders, pushed
+the book and money toward the patient and unmoved Molly.
+
+"There you are, Molly, all but the shilling. Tell him to add that to the
+next account."
+
+"Yes, miss. And the missis' chocklut; it's just the time?"
+
+Nell glanced at the clock.
+
+"So it is! There'll be a row. It's all your fault, Dick. Why don't you
+go for a sail, or shrimping, or something? A boy's always a nuisance in
+the house. I'll come at once, Molly. There!" she exclaimed, as a woman's
+thin voice was heard calling in a languid and injured tone:
+
+"Molly!"
+
+"''Twas the voice of the sluggard----'" Dick began to quote; but Nell,
+with a hissed "Hush! she'll hear you!" ran out, struggling with her
+laughter. Five minutes later, she went up the stairs with a salver on
+which were a dainty chocolate service and a plate of thin bread and
+butter, and entering the best bedroom of the cottage, carried the salver
+to a faded-looking woman who, in a short dressing jacket of dingy pink,
+sat up in the bed.
+
+She was Mrs. Lorton, the stepmother of the boy and girl. She had been
+pretty once, and had not forgotten the fact--it is on the cards that she
+thought herself pretty still, though the weak face was thin and hollow,
+the once bright eyes dim and querulous, the lips drawn into a
+dissatisfied curve.
+
+"Here is your chocolate, mamma," said the girl. She hated the word
+"mamma"; but from the first moment of her introduction to Mrs. Lorton,
+she had declined to call her by the sacred name of "mother." "I'm afraid
+I'm late."
+
+"It is ten minutes past the time," said Mrs. Lorton; "but I do not
+complain. I never complain, Eleanor. A Wolfer should at least know how
+to suffer in silence. I hope it is hot--really hot; yesterday it was
+cold--quite cold, and it caused me that acute indigestion which, I
+trust, Eleanor, it will never be your lot to experience."
+
+"I'm sorry, mamma; but yesterday morning you were asleep when I brought
+it in, and I did not like to wake you."
+
+"Not asleep, Eleanor," said Mrs. Lorton, with an air of long-suffering
+patience--"no, alas! not asleep. My eyes were closed, I have no doubt;
+but I was merely thinking. I heard you come in----Surely that is not all
+the cream! I have few fancies, Heaven knows; but I have always been
+accustomed to half cream and half chocolate, and an invalid suffers
+acutely from these deprivations, slight and trifling though they may
+appear to one in your robust, I had almost said savage state of health."
+
+"Isn't there as much as usual? I will go and see if there is some
+more," said the girl, deftly arranging the tray. "See, it is quite hot
+this morning."
+
+"But it will be cold before you return, doubtless," sighed Mrs. Lorton,
+with saintly resignation. "And, Eleanor, may I venture to ask you not to
+renew the terrible noise with which you have been filling the house for
+the last half hour. You know how I dislike crushing the exuberance of
+your animal spirits; but such a perfectly barbaric noise tortures my
+poor overstrained nerves."
+
+"Yes, mamma. We'll--I'll be quiet."
+
+"Thank you. It is a great deal to ask. I am aware that you think me
+exacting. This butter is anything but fresh."
+
+"It was made this morning."
+
+"Please, oh, please do not contradict me, Eleanor! If there is one
+characteristic more plainly developed in me than another it is my
+unerring taste. This butter is not fresh. But do not mind. I am not
+complaining. Do not think that. I merely passed the remark. And if you
+are really going to get me my usual quantity of cream, will you do so
+now? Cold chocolate two mornings in succession would try my digestion
+sadly."
+
+The girl left the room quickly, and as she passed the dining-room door
+she looked in to say hurriedly:
+
+"Dry up, Dick. Mamma's been complaining of the noise."
+
+"'Eleanor, I never complain,'" he murmured; but he put down the banjo,
+rose and stretched himself, and left the room, pretending to slip as he
+passed Nell in the passage, and flattening her against the wall.
+
+She gave him a noiseless push and went for the remainder of the cream.
+
+Mrs. Lorton received it with a sigh and a patient "I thank you,
+Eleanor;" and while she sipped the chocolate, and snipped at the bread
+and butter--she ate the latter as if it were a peculiarly distasteful
+medicine in the solid--the girl tidied the room. It was the only really
+well-furnished room in the cottage; Nell's little chamber in the roof
+was as plain as Marguerite's in "Faust," and Dick's was Spartan in its
+Character; but a Wolfer--Mrs. Lorton was a distant, a very distant
+connection by a remote marriage of the noble family of that name--cannot
+live without a certain amount of luxury, and, as there was not enough to
+go round, Mrs. Lorton got it all. So, though Nell's little bed was
+devoid of curtains, her furniture of the "six-guinea suite" type and her
+carpet a square of Kidderminster, her stepmother's bed was amply draped,
+possessed its silk eider-down and lace-edged pillows; there was an
+Axminster on the floor, an elaborate dressing table furnished with a
+toilet set, and--the fashionable lady's indispensable--a cheval glass.
+
+"I think I will get up in half an hour, if you will be good enough to
+send Molly up to me," said Mrs. Lorton, sinking onto her pillow as if
+exhausted by her struggle with the chocolate.
+
+"Yes, mamma," assented the girl. "What will you have for lunch?"
+
+"Lunch!" sighed Mrs. Lorton, with an assumption of weary indifference.
+"It is really of no consequence, Eleanor. I eat so little, especially in
+the middle of the day. Perhaps if you could get me a sweetbread I might
+manage a few morsels. But do not trouble. You know how much I dislike
+causing trouble. A sweetbread nicely browned--on a small, a very small
+piece of toast; quite dry, please, Eleanor."
+
+"Yes, mamma, I know," said Eleanor; but she looked out of the window
+rather doubtfully. Sweetbreads were not easily obtained at the only
+butcher's shop in the village; and, when they were, they were dear; but
+she had just paid the long-running bill, and----
+
+"I'll go up to Smart's and see about it," she said. "Is there anything
+you want in the village, mamma?"
+
+Mrs. Lorton sighed again; she rarely spoke without a sigh.
+
+"If you really want the walk and are going, Eleanor, you might ask Mrs.
+Porter if she has got that toilet vinegar for me. She promised to get it
+down from London quite a week ago. It is really too ridiculous! But what
+can one expect in this hole, and living among a set of barbarians? I
+know that I shall never grow accustomed to this life of savagery; my
+memory of the past is too acute, alas! But I must stifle it; I must
+remember that the great trial of my life has been sent for my good, and
+I will never complain. Not one word of discontent shall ever pass my
+lips. My dear Eleanor, you surely are not going to be so mad as to open
+that window! And my neuralgia only just quiet!"
+
+"I beg your pardon, mamma. The room seemed so hot, and I forgot. I've
+closed it again; see! Let me draw the eider-down up; that's it. I won't
+forget the toilet vinegar."
+
+"I thank you, Eleanor; and you might get this week's _Fashion Gazette_.
+It is the only paper I care for; but it is not unnatural that I should
+like to see it occasionally. One may be cut off from all one's friends
+and relations, may be completely out of the world of rank and
+refinement, but one likes now and then to read of the class to which one
+belongs, but from which one is, alas! forever separated."
+
+"I'll get the _Fashion Gazette_ if Mrs. Porter has it, mamma. I won't be
+long, and Molly will hear you if you want her before the time."
+
+Mrs. Lorton sighed deeply in acknowledgment, and Nell left the room.
+
+She had been bright and girlish enough while romping with her brother,
+but the scene with her stepmother had left its impression on her face;
+the dark-gray eyes were rather sad and weary; there was a slight droop
+at the corners of the sweetly curved lips; but the change lent an
+indescribable charm to the girlish face. Looking at it, as it was then,
+no man but would have longed to draw the slim, graceful figure toward
+him, to close the wistful eyes with a kiss, to caress the soft hair with
+a comforting hand. There was a subtle fascination in the very droop of
+the lips which would have haunted an artist or a poet, and driven the
+ordinary man wild with love.
+
+Mrs. Lorton had called Shorne Mills a "hole," but as a matter of fact,
+the village stood almost upon the brow of the hill down which ran the
+very steep road to the tiny harbor and fishing place which nestled under
+the red Devon cliffs; and barbaric as the place might be, it was
+beautiful beyond words. No spot in this loveliest of all counties was
+more lovely; and as yet it was, so to speak, undiscovered. With the
+exception of the vicarage there was no other house, worthy the name, in
+the coombe; all the rest were fishermen's cots. The nearest inn and
+shops were on the fringe of the moor behind and beyond the Lorton's
+cottage; the nearest house of any consequence was that of the local
+squire, three miles away. The market town of Shallop was eight miles
+distant, and the only public communication with it was the carrier's
+cart, which went to and fro twice weekly. In short, Shorne Mills was out
+of the world, and will remain so until the Railway Fiend flaps his
+coal-black wings over it and drops, with red-hot feet, upon it to sear
+its beauty and destroy its solitude. It had got its name from a flour
+and timber mill which had once flourished halfway down the coombe or
+valley; but the wheels were now silent, the mills were falling to
+pieces, and the silver stream served no more prosaic purpose than
+supplying the fishing folk with crystal water which was pure as the
+stars it reflected. This stream, as it ran beside the road or meandered
+through the sloping meadows, made soft music, day and night, all through
+the summer, but swelled itself into a torrent in the winter, and roared
+as it swept over the smooth bowlders to its bridegroom, the sea;
+sometimes it was the only sound in the valley, save always the murmur of
+the ocean, and the shrill weird cry of the curlew as it flew from the
+sea marge to the wooded heights above.
+
+Nell loved the place with a great and exceeding love, with all the love
+of a girl to whom beauty is a continual feast. She knew every inch of
+it; for she had lived in the cottage on the hill since she was a child
+of seven, and she was now nearly twenty-one. She knew every soul in the
+fishing village, and, indeed, for miles around, and not seldom she was
+spoken of as "Miss Nell, of Shorne Mills;" and the simple folk were as
+proud of the title as was Nell herself. They were both fond and proud of
+her. In any cottage and at any time her presence was a welcome one, and
+every woman and child, when in trouble, flew to her for help and comfort
+even before they climbed to the vicarage--that refuge of the poor and
+sorrowing in all country places.
+
+As she swung to the little gate behind her this morning, she paused and
+looked round at the familiar scene; and its beauty, its grandeur, and
+its solitude struck her strangely, as if she were looking at it for the
+first time.
+
+"One could be so happy if mamma--and if Dick could find something to
+do!" she thought; and at the thought her eyes grew sadder and the sweet
+lips drooped still more at the corner; but as she went up the hill, the
+fine rare air, the brilliant sunshine acted like an anodyne, and the
+eyes grew brighter, the lips relaxed, so that Smart's--the
+butcher's--face broadened into a smile of sympathy as he touched his
+forehead with a huge and greasy finger.
+
+"Sweetbreads! No, no, miss; I've promised the cook up at the
+Hall----There, bless your heart, Miss Nell, don't 'ee look so
+disappointed. I'll send 'em--yes, in half an hour at most. Dang me if it
+was the top brick off the chimney I reckon you'd get 'ee, for there
+ain't no refusin' 'ee anything!"
+
+Nell thanked him with a smile and a grateful beam from her gray eyes,
+and then, still lighter-hearted, went on to Mrs. Porter's. By great good
+luck not only had the toilet vinegar arrived from London, but a copy of
+the _Fashion Gazette_; and with these in her hand Nell went homeward.
+But at the bend of the road near the cottage she paused. Mrs. Lorton
+would not want the vinegar or the paper for another hour. Would there be
+time to run down to the jetty and look at the sea? She slipped the paper
+and the bottle in the hedge, and went lightly down the road. It was so
+steep that strangers went cautiously and leaned on their sticks, but
+Nell nearly ran and seemed scarcely to touch the ground; for she had
+toddled down that road as a child, and knew every stone in it; knew
+where to leave it for the narrow little path which provided a short cut,
+and where to turn aside for the marvelous view of the tiny harbor that
+looked like a child's toy on the edge of the opal sea.
+
+Women and children came out of the cottages as she went swiftly past,
+and she exchanged greetings with them; but she was in too great a hurry
+to stop, and one child followed after her with bitter complaint.
+
+She stood for a moment or two talking to some of the men mending their
+nets on the jetty, called down to Dick, who was lying--he was always
+reclining on something--basking in the stern of his anchored boat; then
+she went, more slowly, up the hill again.
+
+As she neared the cottage, a sound rose from the house and mingled with
+the music of the stream. It was the yelp of staghounds. She stopped and
+listened, and wondered whether the stag would run down the hill, as it
+sometimes did; then she went on. Presently she heard another sound--the
+tap, tap of a horse's hoofs. Her quick ear distinguished it as different
+from the slow pacing of the horses which drew the village carts, and she
+looked up the road curiously. It was not the doctor's horse; she knew
+the stamp, stamp of his old gray cob. This was a lighter, more nervous
+tread.
+
+Within twenty paces of the cottage she saw the horse and horseman. The
+former was a beautiful creature, almost thoroughbred, as she knew; for
+every woman in the district was a horsewoman by instinct and
+association. The latter was a gentleman in a well-made riding suit of
+cords. He was riding slowly, his whip striking against his leg absently,
+his head bent.
+
+That he was not one of the local gentry Nell saw at the first glance. In
+that first glance also she noted a certain indescribable grace, an air
+of elegance, which, as a rule, was certainly lacking in the local
+gentry. She could not see his face, but there was something strange,
+distinguished in his attitude and the way he carried himself; and,
+almost unconsciously, her pace slackened.
+
+Strangers in Shorne Mills were rare. Nell, being a woman, was curious.
+As she slowly reached the gate, the man came almost alongside. And at
+that moment a rabbit scuttled across the road, right under the horse's
+nose. With the nervousness of the thoroughbred, it shied. The man had it
+in hand in an instant, and touched it with his left spur to keep it away
+from the girl. The horse sprang sideways, set its near foot on a stone,
+and fell, and the next instant the man was lying at Nell's feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+For a moment Nell was too startled to do anything but cry out; then, as
+the man did not move, she knelt beside him, and still calling for Molly,
+almost unconsciously raised his head. He had fallen on his side, but had
+turned over in the instant before losing consciousness; and as Nell
+lifted his head she felt something wet trickle over her hand, and knew
+that it was blood.
+
+She was very much frightened--with the exception of Dick's boyish falls
+and cuts, it was the first accident at which she had "assisted"--and she
+had never longed for any one as she longed for Molly. But neither Molly
+nor any one else came, and Nell, in a helpless, dazed kind of fashion,
+wiped the blood from the wound.
+
+Then suddenly she thought of water, and setting his head down as gently
+as she could, she ran to the stream, saturated her handkerchief, and,
+returning, took his head on her lap again, and bathed his forehead.
+
+While she was doing this she recovered her presence of mind sufficiently
+to look at him with something like the desire to know what he was like;
+and, with all a woman's quickness of perception, saw that he was
+extremely good-looking; that he was rather dark than fair; that though
+he was young--twenty-nine, thirty, flashed through her mind--the hair on
+his temples was faintly flecked with gray.
+
+But something more than the masculine beauty of the face struck her,
+struck her vaguely, and that was the air of distinction which she had
+noticed in his bearing as he came down the road, and an expression of
+weariness in the faint lines about the mouth and eyes.
+
+She was aware, without knowing why, that he was extremely well dressed;
+she saw that the ungloved hand was long and thin--the hand of a
+well-bred man--and that everything about him indicated wealth and the
+gentleman.
+
+All these observations required but a second or two--a man would only
+have got at them after an hour--and, almost before they were made, he
+opened his eyes with the usual dazed and puzzled expression which an
+individual wears when he has been knocked out of time and is coming back
+to consciousness.
+
+As his eyes opened, Nell noticed that they were dark--darker than they
+should have been to match his hair--and that they were anything but
+commonplace ones. He looked up at her for an instant or two, then
+muttered something under his breath--Nell was almost certain that he
+swore--and aloud, in the toneless voice of the newly conscious, said:
+
+"I came off, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes," said Nell.
+
+She neither blushed nor looked shy. Indeed, she was too frightened, too
+absorbed by her desire for his recovery to remember herself, or the fact
+that this strange man's head was lying on her knee.
+
+"I must have been unconscious," he said, almost to himself. "Yes, I've
+struck my head."
+
+Then he got to his feet and stood looking at her; and his face was, if
+anything, whiter than it had been.
+
+"I'm very sorry. Permit me to apologize, for I must have frightened you
+awfully. And"--he looked at her dress, upon which was a large wet patch
+where his head had rested--"and I've spoiled your dress. In short, I've
+made a miserable nuisance of myself."
+
+Nell passed his apology by.
+
+"Are you hurt?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"No; I think not," he replied. "I can't think how I managed to come off;
+I don't usually make such an ass of myself."
+
+He went for his hat, but as he stooped to pick it up he staggered, and
+Nell ran to him and caught his arm.
+
+"You are hurt!" she said. "I--I was afraid so!"
+
+"I'm giddy, that's all, I think," he said; but his lips closed tightly
+after his speech, and they twitched at the corners. "I expect my horse
+is more damaged than I am," he added, and he walked, very slowly, to
+where the animal stood looking from side to side with a startled air.
+
+"Yes; knees cut. Poor old chap! It was my fault--my fau----"
+
+He stopped, and put his hand to his head as if he were confused.
+
+Nell went and stood close by him, with a vague kind of idea that he was
+going to fall and that she might help him, support him.
+
+"You are in pain?" she asked, her brow wrinkled with her anxiety, her
+eyes darkened with her womanly sympathy and pity.
+
+"Yes," he admitted frankly. "I've knocked my head, and"--he touched his
+arm--"and, yes, I'm afraid I've broken my arm."
+
+"Oh!"--cried Nell, startled and aghast--"oh! you must come into the
+house at once--at once."
+
+He glanced at the cottage.
+
+"Your house?"
+
+"Yes," said Nell. "Oh, come, please. You may faint again----"
+
+"Oh, no, I shan't."
+
+"But you may--you may! Take my arm; lean on me----"
+
+He took her arm, but did not lean on her, and he smiled down at her.
+
+"I don't look it, but I weigh nearly twelve stone, and I should bear you
+down," he said.
+
+"I'm stronger than I look," said Nell. "Please come!"
+
+"I'll put the bridle over the gate first," he said.
+
+"No, no; I will do it. Lean against the gate while I go."
+
+He rested one hand on the gate. She got the horse--he came as quietly as
+his master had done--and hitched the bridle on the post; then she drew
+the man's arm within hers, and led him into the house and into the
+drawing-room.
+
+"Sit down," she said; "lean back. I won't be a moment. Oh, where is
+Molly? But perhaps I'd better not leave you."
+
+"I'm all right. I assure you that I've no intention of fainting again,"
+he said; and there was something like a touch of irritation in his tone.
+
+Nell rang the bell and stood looking down at him anxiously. There was
+not a sign of self-consciousness or embarrassment in her face or manner.
+She was still thinking only of him.
+
+"I'm ashamed of myself for giving you so much trouble," he said.
+
+"It is no trouble. Why should you be ashamed? Oh, Molly! don't cry out
+or scream--it is all right! Be quiet now, Molly! This gentleman has been
+thrown from his horse, and----Oh, bring me some brandy; and, Molly,
+don't tell--don't frighten mamma."
+
+Molly, with her mouth still wide open, ran out of the room, and Nell's
+eyes returned to the man.
+
+He sat gazing at the carpet for a while, his brow knit with a frown, as
+if he found the whole affair a hideous bore, his injured arm across his
+knee. There was no deprecating smile of the nervous man; he made no more
+apologies, and it seemed to Nell that he had quite forgotten her, and
+was only desirous of getting rid of her and the situation generally. But
+he looked up as Molly came fluttering in with the brandy; and as he took
+the glass from Nell's hand--for the first time it shook a little--he
+said:
+
+"Thanks--thanks very much. I'm all right now, and I'll hasten to take
+myself off."
+
+He rose as he spoke, then his hand went out to the sofa as if in search
+of support, and with an articulate though audible "Damn!" he sank down
+again.
+
+"I'm afraid I'll have to wait for a few minutes," he said, in a tone of
+annoyance. "I can't think what's the matter with me, but I feel as giddy
+and stupid as an owl. I'll be all right presently. Is the inn near
+here?"
+
+"No," said Nell; "the inn is a long way from here; too far----"
+
+He did not let her finish, but rather impatiently cut in with:
+
+"Oh, but there must be some place where I can go----"
+
+"You must not think of moving yet," she said. "I don't know much--I have
+not seen many accidents--but I am sure that you have hurt yourself; and
+you say that you have broken your arm?"
+
+"I'm afraid so, confound it! I beg your pardon. I'll get to the inn--I
+have not broken my leg, and can walk well enough--and see a doctor."
+
+Mrs. Lorton's step was heard in the passage, and the voice of that lady
+was heard before she appeared in the doorway, demanding, in an injured
+tone:
+
+"Eleanor, what does this mean? Why do you want brandy, and at this time
+of the day? Are you ill? I have always told you that some day you would
+suffer from this continual rushing about----"
+
+Then she stopped and stared at the two, and her hand went up to her hair
+with the gesture of the weakly vain woman.
+
+"Who is it, Nell? What does it mean?" she demanded.
+
+The man rose and bowed, and his appearance, his self-possession and
+well-bred bow impressed Mrs. Lorton at once.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said, in her sweetest and most ingratiating
+manner, with a suggestion of the simper which used to be fashionable
+when she was a girl. "There has been an accident, I see. Are you very
+much hurt? Eleanor, pray do not stand like a thing of stock or stone;
+pray, do not be so useless and incapable."
+
+Nell blushed and looked round helplessly.
+
+"Please sit down," went on Mrs. Lorton. "Eleanor, let me beg of you to
+collect your senses. Get that cushion--sit down. Let me place this at
+your back. Do you feel faint? My smelling salts, Eleanor!"
+
+The man's lips tightened, and the frown darkened the whole of his face.
+Nell knew that he was swearing under his breath and wishing Mrs. Lorton
+and herself at the bottom of the sea.
+
+"No, no!" he said, evidently struggling with his irritation and his
+impatience of the whole scene. "I'm not at all faint. I've fallen from
+my horse, and I think I've smashed my arm, that's all."
+
+"All!" echoed Mrs. Lorton, in accents of profound sympathy and anxiety.
+"Oh, dear, dear! Nell, we must send for the doctor. Will you not put
+your feet up on the sofa? It is such a relief to lie at full length."
+
+He rose with a look of determination in his dark eyes.
+
+"Thank you very much, madame, but I cannot consent to give you any
+further trouble. I am quite capable of walking to anywhere, and I
+will----" He broke off with an exclamation and sank down again. "I must
+be worse than I thought," he said suddenly, "and I must ask you to put
+up with me for a little while--half an hour."
+
+Mrs Lorton crossed the room with the air of an empress, or a St. Teresa
+on the verge of a great mission, and rang the bell.
+
+"I cannot permit you to leave this house until you have recovered--quite
+recovered," she said, in a stately fashion. "Molly, get the spare room
+ready for this gentleman. Eleanor, you might assist, I think! I will see
+that the sheets are properly aired--nothing is more important in such a
+case--and we will send for the doctor while you are retiring."
+
+Molly plunged out, followed by Nell, and Mrs. Lorton seated herself
+opposite the injured man, and, folding her hands, gazed at him as if she
+were solely accountable for his welfare.
+
+"I'm very much obliged to you, madame," he said, at last, and by no
+means amiably. "May I ask to whom I am indebted for so much--kindness?"
+
+"My name is Lorton," said the dear lady, as if she had picked him up and
+brought him in and given him brandy; "but I am a Wolfer."
+
+He looked at her as if he thought she were mad, and Mrs. Lorton hastened
+to explain.
+
+"I am a near relative of Lord Wolfer."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes; I beg your pardon," he said, with a touch of relief. "I
+didn't understand for a moment."
+
+"Perhaps you know Lord Wolfer?" she asked sweetly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I've heard of him."
+
+"Of course," she assented blandly. "He is sufficiently well known, not
+to say famous. And your name--if I may ask?"
+
+He frowned, and was silent for an instant.
+
+"Vernon," he said reluctantly, "Drake Vernon."
+
+"Indeed! The name seems familiar to me. Of the Northumberland Vernons, I
+suppose?"
+
+"No," he replied, rather shortly.
+
+"No? There are some Vernons in Warwickshire, I remember," she suggested.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'm not connected with any of the Vernons," he said with a grim courtesy.
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked rather disappointed, but only for a moment; for,
+foolish as she was, she knew a gentleman when she saw one, and this Mr.
+Vernon, though not one of the Vernons, was evidently a gentleman and a
+man of position. She smiled at him graciously.
+
+"Sometimes one scarcely knows with whom one is connected," she said. "If
+you will excuse me, I will go and see if your room is prepared. We have
+only one servant--now," she sighed plaintively, "and my daughter is
+young and thoughtless."
+
+"She is not the latter, at any rate," he said, but coldly enough. "Your
+daughter displayed extraordinary presence of mind----"
+
+"My stepdaughter, I ought to explain," broke in Mrs. Lorton, who could
+not endure the praise of any other than herself. "My late husband--I am
+a widow, Mr. Vernon--left me his two children as a trust, a sacred
+trust, which I hope I have discharged to the best of my ability. I will
+rejoin you presently."
+
+He rose and bowed, and then leaned back and closed his eyes, and swore
+gently but thoroughly.
+
+Mrs. Lorton returned in a few minutes with Molly.
+
+"If you will come now? We have sent for the doctor."
+
+"Thank you, thank you!" he said, and he went upstairs with them; but he
+would not permit them to assist him to take off his coat, and sat on the
+edge of the bed waiting with a kind of impatient patience for the
+doctor.
+
+By sheer good luck it was just about the time old Doctor Spence made his
+daily appearance in Shorne Mills, and Nell, running up to the crossway,
+caught him as he was ambling along on his old gray cob.
+
+"Eh? what is it, my dear? That monkey of a brother got into mischief
+again?" he said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "What? Stranger? Broke
+his arm? Come, come; you're frightened and upset. No need, no need!
+What's a broken arm! If it had been his neck, now!"
+
+"I'm not frightened, and I'm not upset!" said Nell indignantly, but with
+a smile. "I'm out of breath with running."
+
+"And out of color, too, Nell. No need to run back, my dear. I'll hurry
+up and see what's wrong."
+
+He spoke to the cob, who understood every word and touch of his master,
+and jolted down the steep road, and Nell followed slowly. She was rather
+pale, as he had noticed, but she was not frightened. In all her
+uneventful life nothing so exciting, so disturbing had happened as this
+accident. It was difficult to realize it, to realize that a great strong
+man had been cast helpless at her feet, that she had had his head on her
+lap; she looked down at the patch on her dress and shuddered. Was she
+glad or sorry that she had chanced to be near when he fell? As she asked
+herself the question her conscience smote her. What a question to arise
+in her mind! Of course she should be glad, very glad, to have been able
+to help him. Then the man's face rose before her, and appealed to her by
+its whiteness, by the weary, wistful lines about the lips and eyes.
+
+"I wonder who he is?" she asked herself, conscious that she had never
+seen any one like him, that he was in some way different to any one of
+the men she had hitherto met.
+
+As she walked slowly, thoughtfully down the road, a strange feeling came
+upon her; it was as if she had touched, if only with the finger tips,
+the fringe of the great unknown world.
+
+The doctor, breaking away from the lengthy recountal of Mrs. Lorton,
+went upstairs to the spare room, where still sat Mr. Drake Vernon on the
+edge of the bed, very white, but very self-contained.
+
+"How do you do, doctor?" he said quietly. "I've come a cropper and
+knocked my head and broken some of my bones. If you'll be so good----"
+
+"Take off your coat. My good sir, why didn't you let them help you to
+undress?" broke in the old man, with the curtness of the country doctor,
+who, as a rule, is no respecter of persons.
+
+"I've given these good people trouble enough already," was the reply.
+"Thanks; no, you don't hurt me--not more than can be helped. And I'm not
+going to faint. Thanks, thanks."
+
+He got undressed and into bed, and the doctor "went over" him. As he got
+to the injured arm, Mr. Vernon drew his signet ring from his finger and
+slipped it in his pocket.
+
+"Rather nasty knock on the head; broken arm--compound fracture,
+unfortunately."
+
+"Oh! just patch me up so that I can get away at once, will you?"
+
+The old man shook his head.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Vernon; but that is rather too large an order. Frankly, you
+have knocked yourself about rather more seriously than you think. The
+head----And you are not a particularly 'good patient,' I'm afraid. Been
+living rather--rapidly, eh?"
+
+Vernon nodded.
+
+"I've been living all the time," was the grim assent.
+
+"I thought so. And you pay the usual penalty. Nature is inexorable, and
+never lets a man off with the option of a fine. If one of my fishermen
+had injured himself as you have done, I could let him do what he
+pleased; but you will have to remain here, in this room--or, at any
+rate, in this house--for some little time."
+
+"Impossible!" said Vernon. "I am a stranger to these people. I can't
+trespass on their good nature; I've been nuisance enough already----"
+
+"Oh, nonsense," retorted the doctor calmly. "We are not savages in these
+parts. They'd enjoy nursing and taking care of you. The good lady of the
+house is just dying for some little excitement like this. It's a quiet
+place; you couldn't be in a better; and whether you could or couldn't
+doesn't matter, for you've got to stay here for the present, unless you
+want brain fever and the principal part in a funeral."
+
+Drake Vernon set his lips tight, then shrugged his shoulders, and in
+silence watched the doctor's preparations for setting the arm.
+
+It is a painful operation, but during its accomplishment the patient
+gave no sign, either facial or vocal, of the agony endured. The doctor
+softly patted the splintered arm and looked at him keenly.
+
+"Been in the service, Mr. Vernon?" he said.
+
+Vernon glanced at him sharply.
+
+"How did you know that?" he demanded reluctantly.
+
+"By the way you held your arm," replied the doctor. "Was in the service
+myself, when a young army doctor. Oh, don't be afraid; I am not going to
+ask questions; and--and, like my tribe, I am as discreet as an owl. Now,
+I'll just give you a sleeping draft, and will look in in the evening, to
+see if it has taken effect; and to-morrow, if you haven't brain fever,
+you will be on the road to recovery. I'm candid, because I want you to
+understand that if you worry yourself----"
+
+"Make the draft a strong one; I'm accustomed to narcotics," interrupted
+Vernon quietly.
+
+"Opium, or chloral, or what?"
+
+"Chloral," was the reply.
+
+"Right. Comfortable?"
+
+"Oh, yes. Wait a moment. I was hunting with the Devon and Somerset
+to-day. I know scarcely any one--not one of the people, I may say;
+but--well, I don't want a fuss. Perhaps you won't mind keeping my
+accident, and my presence here to yourself?"
+
+"Certainly," said the doctor. "There is no friend--relative--you would
+like sent for?"
+
+"Good Lord, no!" responded Mr. Vernon. "I shall have to get away in a
+day or two."
+
+"Will you?" grunted the old doctor to himself, as he went down the
+stairs.
+
+The day passed slowly. The little house was filled with an air of
+suppressed excitement, which was kept going by Mrs. Lorton, who,
+whenever Nell or Molly moved, appeared from unexpected places, attired
+in a tea gown, and hissed a rebuking and warning "Hush!" which
+penetrated to the remotest corner of the house, and would certainly have
+disturbed the patient but for the double dose of sulphonal which the
+doctor; had administered.
+
+About the time she expected Dick to return, Nell went down the road to
+meet him, fearing that he might enter singing or whistling; and when she
+saw him lounging up the hill, with a string of fish in his hand, she ran
+to him, and, catching his arm, began to tell her story in a whisper, as
+if the injured Mr. Vernon were within hearing.
+
+Dick stared, and emitted a low whistle.
+
+"'Pon my word, you've been a-going of it, Nell! Sounds like a play: 'The
+Mysterious Stranger and the Village Maiden.' Scene one. Enter the
+stranger: 'My horse is weary; no human habitation nigh. Where to find a
+resting place for my tired steed and my aching head! Ah! what is this? A
+simple child of Nature. I will seek direction at her hands.' Horse takes
+fright; mysterious stranger is thrown. Maiden falls on her knees: 'Ah,
+Heaven! 'tis he! 'tis he!'"
+
+Nell laughed, but her face crimsoned.
+
+"Dick, don't be an idiot, if you can help it. I know it is
+difficult----"
+
+"Spare your blushes, my child," he retorted blandly. "The Mysterious S.
+will turn out to be a commercial traveler with a wife and seven
+children. But, Nell, what does mamma say?"
+
+"She likes it," said Nell, with a smile. "She is happier and more
+interested than I have ever seen her."
+
+Dick struck an attitude and his forehead.
+
+"Can it be--oh, can it be that the romance will end another way? Are we
+going to lose our dear mamma? Grateful stranger--love at first
+sight----"
+
+"Dick, you are the worst kind of imbecile! He is years younger than
+mamma--young enough to be her son. Now, Dick, dry up, and don't make a
+noise. He is really ill. I know it by the way the old doctor smiles. He
+always smiles and grins when the case is serious. You'll be quiet, Dick,
+dear?"
+
+"This tender solicitude for the sufferer touches me deeply," he
+whimpered, mopping his eyes. "Oh, yes, I'll be quiet, Nell. Much as I
+love excitement, I'm not anxious for a funeral, and a bereaved and
+heartbroken sister. Shall I take my boots off before entering the abode
+of sickness, or shall I walk in on my head?"
+
+The day passed. Dick, driven almost mad by the enforced quietude, and
+the incessant "Hushes!" of Mrs. Lorton, betook himself to his tool shed
+to mend his fishing rod--and cut his fingers--and then to bed. Molly
+went to the sick room in the capacity of nurse, and Mrs. Lorton, after
+desiring everybody that she should be called if "a change took place,"
+retired to the rest earned by pleasurable excitement; and Nell stole
+past the spare-room door to her nest under the roof.
+
+As she undressed slowly, she paused now and again to listen. All was
+quiet; the injured man was still sleeping. She went to the open window
+and looked out seaward. Something was stirring within her, something
+that was like the faint motion of the air before a storm. Is it possible
+that we have some premonition of the first change in our lives; the
+change which is to alter the course of every feeling, every action? She
+knew too little of life or the world to ask herself the question; but
+she was conscious of a sensation of unrest, of disquietude. She could
+not free herself from the haunting presence of the handsome face, of the
+dark and weary, wistful eyes. The few sentences he had spoken kept
+repeating themselves in her ear, striking on her brain with soft
+persistence. The very name filled her thoughts. "Drake Vernon, Drake
+Vernon!"
+
+At last, with an impatient movement, with a blush of shame for the way
+in which her mind was dwelling on him, she left the window and fell on
+her knees at the narrow bed to say her prayers.
+
+But his personality intruded even on her devotions, and, half
+unconsciously, she added to her simple formula a supplication for his
+recovery.
+
+Then she got into bed and fell asleep. But in a very little while she
+started awake, seeing the horse shy and fall, feeling the man's head
+upon her lap. She sat up and listened. His room was beneath hers--the
+cottage was built in the usual thin and unsubstantial fashion--and every
+sound from the room below rose to hers. She heard him moan; once, twice;
+then his voice, thick and husky, called for water.
+
+She listened. The faint cry rose again and again. She could not endure
+it, and she got out of bed, put on her dressing gown, and slipped down
+the stairs. She could hear the voice more plainly now, and the cry was
+still, "Water! water!"
+
+She opened the door, and, pausing a moment, her face crimson, stole
+toward the bed. Molly was in her chair, with her head lolling over the
+back, as if it were a guillotine, her huge mouth wide open, fast asleep.
+
+Nell stood and looked down at the unconscious man. The dark-brown hair
+was tangled, the white face drawn with pain, the lips dry with fever,
+one hand, clenched, opening and shutting spasmodically, on the
+counterpane.
+
+That divine pity which only a woman can feel filled and overran her
+heart. She poured some water into a glass and set it to his lips. He
+could not drink lying down, and, with difficulty, she raised his head on
+her bosom. He drank long and greedily; then, as she slowly--dare one
+write "reluctantly"?--lowered his head to the pillow, he muttered:
+
+"Thanks, thanks, Luce! That was good!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+"Luce!"
+
+It was a strange name--the name of a woman, of course. Nell wondered
+whether it was his sister--or sweetheart? Perhaps it was his wife?
+
+She waited for some minutes; then she woke Molly, and returned to her
+own room.
+
+Drake Vernon was unconscious for some days, and Nell often stole in and
+stood beside the bed; sometimes she changed the ice bandages, or gave
+him something to drink. He wandered and talked a great deal, but it was
+incoherent talk, in which the names of the persons he whispered or
+shouted were indistinguishable. On the fourth day he recovered
+consciousness, but was terribly weak, and the doctor would not permit
+Mrs. Lorton to enter the room.
+
+He put his objection very cleverly.
+
+"I have to think of you, my dear madame," he said. "I don't want two
+patients on my hands in the same house. Talk him back into delirium!" he
+added to himself.
+
+All these days Mrs. Lorton continued to "hush," Nell went about with a
+grave air of suspense, and Dick--it is not given to this historian to
+describe the state of mind into which incessant repression drove that
+youth.
+
+On the sixth day, bored to death, and somewhat curious, he strolled into
+the sick room. Drake Vernon, propped up by pillows, was partaking of
+beef tea with every sign of distaste.
+
+"How are you getting on, sir?" asked Dick.
+
+The sick man looked at the boy, and nodded with a faint smile.
+
+"I'm better, thanks; nearly well, I devoutly trust."
+
+"That's all right," commented Dick cheerfully. "Thought I'd just look
+in. Shan't upset you, or disturb you, shall I, sir?"
+
+"Not in the very least," was the reply. "I'm very glad to see you. Won't
+you sit down? Not there, but some place where I can see you."
+
+Dick sat on the end of the bed and leaned against the rail, with his
+hands in his pockets.
+
+"I ought to introduce myself, I suppose. I'm what is called in the
+novels 'the son of the house'; I'm Nell's brother, you know."
+
+Mr. Vernon nodded.
+
+"So I see, by the likeness."
+
+"Rather rough on Nell, that, isn't it? I'll tell her," said Dick, with a
+spark of mischief in his eye. "Why, she's as black as a coal, and I'm
+fair."
+
+"You are alike, all the same," said the invalid, rather indifferently.
+
+"My name is Dick--Dick, as a rule; Richard, when my stepmother is more
+than usually riled with me."
+
+"Permit me to call you by the shorter name," said Mr. Vernon. "I'm
+afraid I've been a terrible nuisance, and must continue to be for some
+days. The doctor tells me that I can't venture to move yet."
+
+"That's all right," responded Dick cheerfully. "We shall be glad to see
+you about again, of course; but don't worry yourself on our account,
+sir. To tell you the truth, we rather enjoy--that is, some of us"--he
+corrected--"having 'an accident case' in the house. Mamma, for instance,
+hasn't been so happy for a long while."
+
+"Mrs. Lorton must be extremely good-natured and charitable," commented
+Mr. Vernon.
+
+Dick looked rather doubtful.
+
+"Er--ye-s. You see, it's a little change and excitement, and we don't
+get much of that commodity in Shorne Mills. So we're rather grateful to
+you than otherwise for pitching yourself at our front gate. If you could
+have managed to break both arms and a leg, I verily believe that mamma
+would have wept tears of joy."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't say I'm sorry I did not gratify her to that extent,"
+said Mr. Vernon, with a grim smile; but it was a smile, and his dark
+eyes were scanning the boy's handsome face with something approaching
+interest. "Mrs. Lorton is your stepmother? Did I hear her say so, or did
+I dream it?"
+
+"It's no dream; it's real enough," said Dick, with intense gravity. "My
+father"--he seated himself more comfortably--"was Lorton & Lorton, the
+Patent Coffee Roaster, you know--perhaps you've heard of it?"
+
+Mr. Vernon shook his head.
+
+"Ah, well! a great many other people must have done so; for the roaster
+made a pile of money, and my father was a rich man. Molly, you can take
+that beef tea downstairs and give it to Snaps. He won't eat it, because
+he's a most intelligent dog. Thought I'd get her out of the room, sir.
+Molly's a good girl, but she's got ears and a tongue."
+
+"So have I," said Drake Vernon, with a faint smile.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind you. It's only right that you should know something
+about the people in whose house you are staying."
+
+Drake Vernon frowned slightly, for there was the other side of the
+medal: surely, it was only right that the people in whose house he was
+staying should know something about himself.
+
+"Father made a lot of money over a roaster; then my mother died. I was
+quite a kid when it happened; but Nell just remembers her. Then father
+married again; and, being rich, I suppose, wanted a fashionable wife. So
+he married mamma. I dare say that she's told you she's a Wolfer?"
+
+Mr. Vernon nodded.
+
+"There's not much in it," said Dick, with charming candor. "We've never
+set eyes on any of her swell connections, and I don't think she's ever
+heard from them since the smash."
+
+"What smash?" asked Mr. Vernon, with only faint interest.
+
+"Didn't I tell you? Left the part of _Hamlet_ out of the play! Why,
+father added a patent coffeepot to the roaster, and lost all his
+money--or nearly all. Then he died. And we came here, and----There you
+are, sir; that's the story; and the moral is, 'Let well alone'; or 'Be
+content with your roaster, and touch not the pot.' Sounds like the title
+of a teetotal tract, doesn't it?"
+
+"And you are at school, I suppose? No, you are too old for that."
+
+"Thanks. I was trying not to feel offended," said Dick. "Nothing hurts a
+boy of my age like telling him he isn't a man. No; I've left school, and
+I'm supposed to be educated; but it's the thinnest kind of supposition.
+I don't fancy they teach you much at most schools. They didn't teach me
+anything at mine except cricket and football."
+
+"Oxford, Cambridge?" suggested the invalid, leaning on his elbow, and
+looking at the boy absently.
+
+"Wouldn't run to it," said Dick. "Mamma said I must begin the
+world--sounds as if it were a loaf of bread or an orange. I should have
+'begun it' long ago if it were. The difficulty seems to be where to
+begin. I'm supposed to have a taste for engineering--once made a steam
+engine out of an empty meat tin. It didn't work very well, and it blew
+up and burst the kitchen window; but that's a detail. So I'm waiting,
+like Mr. Micawber, for 'something to turn up' in the engineering line. I
+take in the engineering paper, and answer all the advertisements; but
+nothing comes of it. Quite comfortable? Shall I shake up the pillow,
+sir? I know how to do it, for I've seen Nell do 'em for mamma."
+
+"No; thanks, very much. I'm quite comfortable. If you really are
+desirous of taking any trouble, you might get me a sheet of note paper
+and an envelope."
+
+"To say nothing of a pen, some ink, and blotting paper," said Dick,
+rising leisurely.
+
+He brought them and set them on the bed, and Mr. Drake Vernon wrote a
+letter.
+
+"I'm sending for some clothes," he explained. "May I trouble you to post
+it? Any time will do."
+
+"Post doesn't go out till five," said Dick. "And we've only one post in
+and out a day. This is the last place Providence thought of, and I don't
+think it would have mattered much if it had been forgotten altogether."
+
+"It's pretty enough, too, what I saw of it," said Mr. Vernon.
+
+"Oh, it's pretty enough," assented Dick casually; "but it's precious
+dull."
+
+"What do you find to do?" asked the sick man, with an attempt at
+interest.
+
+"Oh, I ride--when I can borrow a horse--and boat and fish--and fish and
+boat."
+
+At that moment a girl's voice, singing in a soft and subdued tone, rose
+from below the window.
+
+Mr. Drake Vernon listened for a moment or two, then he asked:
+
+"Who is that?"
+
+"That's Nell, caterwauling."
+
+"Your sister has a good voice," remarked Mr. Vernon.
+
+"Oh, yes; Nell sings very well," assented Dick, with a brother's
+indifferent patronage.
+
+"And what does your sister find to do?" asked Mr. Vernon.
+
+"Oh, she does ditto to me," said Dick. "Fish, boat--boat, fish; but
+since you've been here, of course----"
+
+He stopped awkwardly.
+
+"Yes, I understand. I must have been a terrible bore to you--to you
+all," said Mr. Drake Vernon, gravely and regretfully. "I'm very sorry."
+
+"No man can say more; and there's no need for you to say as much, sir,"
+remarked Dick philosophically. "As I said, you have been a boon and a
+blessing to the women--and I don't mind, now you're getting better and
+can stand a little noise."
+
+Mr. Vernon smiled.
+
+"My dear fellow, you can make all the row you like," he said earnestly.
+"I'm very much obliged to you for looking in--come in when you care to."
+
+"Thanks," said Dick. "Oh! about the horse. I've had him turned out. I
+don't think he's hurt much; only the hair cut; and he'll be all right
+again presently."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it. I needn't say that directly he's well enough, you
+can----Will you give me that letter again?" he broke off, as if
+something had occurred to him.
+
+Dick complied, and Drake Vernon opened it, added a line or two, and
+placed it in a fresh envelope.
+
+"There was a message I had to give you, but I've forgotten it," said
+Dick, as he took the letter again. "Oh, ah, yes! It was from my sister.
+She asked me to ask you if you'd care to have some books. She didn't
+quite know whether you ought to read yet?"
+
+"I should. Please thank your sister," said Vernon.
+
+"Anything you fancy? Don't suppose you'll find Nell's books very lively.
+She's rather strong on poetry and the 'Heir of Redclyffe' kind of
+literature. I'll bring you some of my own with them. Mamma, being a
+Wolfer, goes in for the _Fashion Gazette_ and the _Court Circular_,
+which won't be much in your line, I expect."
+
+"Not in the least," Mr. Vernon admitted.
+
+"So long, then, till I come back. Sure there's nothing else I can do for
+you, sir?"
+
+He went downstairs--availing himself of the invalid's permission to make
+a noise by whistling "Tommy Atkins"--and Nell looked in at the French
+window, as he swept a row of books from the shelf of the sideboard.
+
+"Dick, what an awful noise!" she said reproachfully, and in the subdued
+voice which had become natural with all of them.
+
+"Shut up, Nell; the 'silent period' has now passed. The interesting
+invalid has lifted the ban, which was crushing one of us, at least. He
+thanks you for your offer of literature, and he has recovered
+sufficiently to write a note."
+
+As he spoke he chucked the letter on the table, and Nell took it up and
+absently read the address.
+
+"Mr. Sparling, 101 St. James' Place," she read aloud.
+
+"Rather a swell address, isn't it?" he asked. "Interesting invalid looks
+rather a swell himself, too. I did him an injustice; there's nothing of
+the commercial traveler about him, thank goodness! And he's decidedly
+good-looking, too. But isn't he white and shaky! I wonder who and what
+he is? Now I come to think of it, he was about as communicative as an
+oyster, and left me to do all the palaver. You'll be glad to hear that
+he admired your voice, and that he inquired how you passed your time;
+also, that he was shocked when I told him that you whiled the dragging
+hours away by dancing the cancan, and playing pitch and toss with a
+devoted brother."
+
+Nell laughed, and blushed faintly.
+
+"What books are you taking, Dick? Let me see."
+
+"No, you don't! I know the kind of thing you'd send--'The Lessons of
+Sickness; or, Blessings in Disguise,' and the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"
+
+"Don't be an ass, Dick!"
+
+"I'm taking some of my own. Nell, you can post this letter. Yes,
+I'll--I'll trust you with it. You'll be a good girl, and not open it, or
+drop it on the way," he adjured her, as he climbed upstairs with the
+books.
+
+"Here you are, sir. Hope you'll like the selection; there's any amount
+of poetry and goody-goody of Nell's; but I fancy you'll catch onto some
+of mine. Try 'Hawkshead, the Sioux Chief,' to begin with. It's a
+stunner, especially if you skip all the descriptions of scenery. As if
+anybody wanted scenery in a story!"
+
+"Thanks," said Mr. Vernon gravely. "I've no doubt I shall enjoy it." But
+he took up one of Nell's books and absently looked at her name written
+on the flyleaf--"Eleanor Lorton." The first name struck him as stiff and
+ill-suited to the slim and graceful girl whose face he only dimly
+remembered; "Nell" was better.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+He took up one of the books and read a page or two; but the simple story
+could not hold him, and he dropped the volume, and, leaning his head on
+his sound arm, stared listlessly at the old-fashioned wall paper. But he
+did not see the pattern; the panorama of his own life's story was
+passing before him, and it was not at all a pleasing panorama. A life of
+pleasure, of absolute uselessness, of unthinking selfishness. What a
+dreary pilgrimage it seemed to him, as he lay in the little bedroom,
+with the scent of Nell's flowers floating up to him from the garden
+beneath, with the sound of the sea, flinging itself against the cliffs,
+burring like a giant bumble bee in his ears. If any one had asked him
+whether his life had been worth living, he would have answered with a
+decided negative; and yet he was young, the gods had been exceeding good
+to him in many ways, almost every way, and there was no great sorrow to
+cast its shadow over him.
+
+"Pity I didn't break my neck," he muttered. "No one would have
+cared--unless it were Luce, and perhaps even she, now----"
+
+He broke off the reverie with a short laugh that was more bitter than a
+sigh, and turned his face to the wall.
+
+Doctor Spence, when he paid his visit later in the day, found him thus,
+and eyed him curiously.
+
+"Arm's getting on all right, Mr. Vernon," he said; "but the rest of you
+isn't improving. I think you'd better get up to-morrow and go
+downstairs. I'd keep you here, of course; but lying in bed isn't a
+bracing operation, especially when you think; and you think, don't you?"
+
+"When I can't help it," replied Vernon, rather grimly. "I'm glad you
+have given me permission to get up; though I dare say I should have got
+up without it."
+
+"I dare say," commented the old doctor. "Always have your own way, as a
+rule, don't you?"
+
+"Always," assented the patient listlessly.
+
+"Ye-s; it's a bad thing for most men; a very bad thing for you, I should
+say. By the way, if you should go downstairs, you must keep quiet----"
+
+"Good heavens, you don't suppose I intend to dance or sing!" broke in
+Vernon, with a smile, of irritation.
+
+"No; I mean that you must sit still and avoid any exertion. You'll find
+that you are not capable of much in the way of dancing or singing," he
+added, with a short laugh. "Try and amuse yourself, and don't--worry."
+
+"Thanks," said Mr. Vernon.
+
+Then, after a pause, he added:
+
+"I must seem an ill-conditioned beast, I'm afraid, doctor; but the fact
+is--well, I have been worried lately, and this ridiculous accident
+hasn't tended to soothe me."
+
+The doctor nodded.
+
+"Life's too short for worry," he said, with the wisdom of age.
+
+"No, you're right; nothing matters!" assented Mr. Vernon. "Well, I'm
+glad I can get up to-morrow. I'll clear out of here as soon as
+possible."
+
+"I shouldn't hurry," remarked Doctor Spence. "They're glad enough to
+have you."
+
+Vernon nodded impatiently.
+
+"So they say--the boy's been in here this morning--but that's nonsense,
+of course."
+
+On his way down the steep village street the doctor met Nell coming up,
+with her quick, bright step, and he stopped the gray cob to speak to
+her.
+
+"Well, Miss Nell," he said, with a smile twinkling in his keen eyes as
+they scanned the beautiful face with the dark tendrils of hair blown
+across her brow, beneath her old sailor hat, the clear gray eyes shining
+like crystal, the red lips parted slightly with the climb. "Just left
+your interesting patient. He'll come down to-morrow. Don't let him fag
+himself; and, see here, Nell, try and amuse him."
+
+The gray eyes opened still wider, then grew thoughtful and doubtful, and
+the doctor laughed.
+
+"Rather difficult, eh?" he said, reading her thoughts. "Well, I should
+say it was somewhat of a large order. But you can play draughts or
+cat's-cradle with him, or read, or play the piano. That's the kind of
+thing he wants. There's something on his mind, and that's worse than
+having a splint on his arm, believe me, Nell."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"I thought--that is, I fancied--he looked as if he were in trouble," she
+said musingly. "Poor man!"
+
+"Oh, I don't know that he wants your pity," remarked the doctor dryly.
+"As a rule, when a man's got something on his mind, he has put it there
+himself."
+
+"That does not make it any the better to have," said Nell absently.
+
+"True, Queen Solomon!" he returned banteringly. "There's not much on
+your mind, I should imagine?"
+
+Nell laughed, and her frank eyes laughed, too, as she met the quizzical,
+admiring gaze of the sharp old eyes.
+
+"What should there be, Doctor Spence?" she responded.
+
+"What, indeed?" he said. "May it be many a day before the black ox
+treads on your foot, my dear!"
+
+With a nod, he sent the cob on again, and Nell continued her climb.
+
+Something on his mind! She wondered what it was. Had some one he cared
+for died? But if that were so, he would be in mourning. Perhaps he had
+lost his money, as her father had done? Well, anyway, she was sorry for
+him.
+
+It need scarcely be said that Mrs. Lorton did not permit the interesting
+stranger to move from bed to sitting room without a fuss. The most
+elaborate preparations were made by Molly, under her mistress'
+supervision. The sofa was wheeled to the window, a blanket was warmed
+and placed over the sofa, so that the patient might be infolded in it; a
+glass of brandy and water was placed on a small table, in case he
+should feel faint, and a couple of huge walking sticks were ready for
+the support of the patient--as if he had broken his leg as well as his
+arm.
+
+"No, remember, please, Eleanor, that there must be no noise; absolute
+quiet, Doctor Spence insisted on. He was most emphatic about the
+'absolute.' Pull down that blind, Molly; nothing is so trying to an
+invalid as a glare of sunlight--and close the window first. There must
+be no draft, for a chill in such a case as this might prove fatal.
+Fatal! I wonder whether it would be better to light a fire?"
+
+"It is very hot, mamma," ventured Nell, who had viewed the closing of
+the window with dismay.
+
+"It may seem hot to you, who are in robust, not to say vulgar, health;
+but to one in Mr. Vernon's condition----"
+
+At this moment he was heard coming down the stairs. He walked firmly
+though slowly, and it was evident to Nell that he was trying to look as
+little like an invalid as possible. He had dressed himself with the
+assistance of Dick, who walked behind with a pillow--which he made as if
+to throw at Nell, who passed quickly through the hall as they
+descended--and, though he looked pale and wan, Mr. Drake Vernon held
+himself erect, like a soldier, and began to make light of his accident,
+and succeeded in concealing any sign of the irritation which he felt
+when Mrs. Lorton fluttered forward with the two sticks and the blanket.
+
+"Thank you--thank you very much; but I don't need them. Put it on? No, I
+think I'd better not. I'm quite warm." He looked round the carefully
+closed room--Dick's complaining "phew!" was almost audible behind him.
+"No, I won't have any brandy, thanks."
+
+"Are you sure, quite sure, you do not feel faint? I know what it is to
+rise from a sick bed for the first time, Mr. Vernon, and I can enter
+into your feelings perfectly."
+
+"Not at all--not at all; I mean that I'm not at all faint," he said
+hastily; "and I'm quite strong, quite."
+
+"Let me see you comfortably rangé," said Mrs. Lorton, who was persuaded
+that she had hit upon a French word for "arranged." "Then I will get you
+some beef tea. I have made it with my own hands."
+
+"It's to be hoped not!" said Dick devoutly, as she fluttered out.
+"Molly's beef tea is bad enough; but mamma's----What shall I do with the
+pillow?"
+
+"Well, you might swallow it, my dear boy," said Mr. Vernon, with a short
+laugh. "Anything but put it under me. Good heavens! Any one would think
+I was dying of consumption! But it is really very kind."
+
+"All right; I'll take it upstairs again," said Dick cheerfully. But he
+met Nell in the passage. There was the sound of a thud, a clear, low
+voice expostulating, and a girl's footstep on the stairs, as Nell,
+smoothing her hair, carried up the pillow.
+
+When she came down Mrs. Lorton met her.
+
+"Get some salt, Eleanor, and take it in to Mr. Vernon. And please say,
+if he should ask for me, that I'm making him some calf's-foot jelly."
+
+Nell took in the salt. Mr. Vernon rose from the sofa on which he had
+seated himself, and bowed with a half-impatient, half-regretful air.
+
+"I'm too ashamed for words," he said. "Why did you trouble? The beef tea
+is all right."
+
+"It's no trouble," said Nell. "Are you comfortable?"
+
+"Quite--quite," he replied; but for the life of him he could not help
+glancing at the window.
+
+Nell suppressed a smile.
+
+"Isn't it rather hot?" she said.
+
+"Now you mention it, I--I think it is, rather," he assented. "I'll open
+the window."
+
+"No, no," said Nell. "I'll do it; you'll hurt your arm."
+
+She opened the window.
+
+"If--if there was a chair," he said hesitatingly. "I'm not used to a
+sofa--and--I'm afraid you'll think me very ungrateful! Let me get the
+chair. Thanks, thanks!" as she swiftly pulled the sofa out of the way
+and put an easy-chair in its place.
+
+"You see, it will be a change to sit up," he said apologetically.
+
+Nell nodded. She quite understood his dislike of the part of interesting
+invalid.
+
+"And there's really nothing the matter with me, don't you know," he said
+earnestly; "nothing but this arm, which doesn't exactly lame me. Won't
+you sit down?"
+
+Nell hesitated a moment, then took a chair at the other side of the
+window.
+
+"You've a splendid view here," he remarked, staring steadily out of the
+window, for he felt rather than saw that the girl was a little shy--not
+shy, but, rather, that she scarcely knew what to say.
+
+"Oh, yes," she assented, in a voice in which there was certainly no
+shyness. "There is a good view from all the windows; we are so high.
+Won't you have your beef tea?"
+
+"Certainly. I'd forgotten it. Don't get up. I'll----"
+
+But Nell had got up before he could rise. As she brought the tray to him
+he glanced up at her. He had been staring at the bedroom wall paper for
+some days, and perhaps the contrast offered by Nell's fresh, young
+loveliness made it seem all the fresher and more striking. There was
+something in the curve of the lips, in the expression of the gray eyes,
+a "sweet sadness," as the poet puts it, which impressed him.
+
+"It's very good to be down again," he said. She had not gone back to her
+chair, but leaned in the angle of the bay window, and looked down at the
+village below. "I seem to have been in bed for ages."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I know. I remember feeling like that when I got up after the measles,
+years ago."
+
+"Not many years ago," he suggested, with a faint smile.
+
+"It seems a long time ago to me," said Nell. "I remember that for weeks
+and months after I got well I hated the sight and smell of beef tea and
+arrowroot. And Doctor Spence--your doctor, you know--gave me a glass of
+ale one day, and stood over me while I drank it. He can be very firm
+when he likes, not to say obstinate."
+
+Mr. Vernon listened to the musical voice, and looked at the slim,
+girlish figure and spirituelle face absently; and when there fell a
+silence he showed no disposition to break it. It was difficult to find
+anything to talk about with so young and inexperienced a girl, and it
+was almost with an air of relief that he turned as Mrs. Lorton entered.
+
+"And how do you feel now?" she asked, with bated breath. "Weak and
+faint, I'm afraid. I know how exhausting one feels the first time of
+getting down. Eleanor, I do hope you have not been tiring Mr. Vernon by
+talking too much."
+
+Mr. Vernon struggled with a frown.
+
+"Miss Lorton has scarcely said two words," he said. "I assure you, my
+dear madame, that there is absolutely nothing the matter with me, and
+that--that I could stand a steam phonograph."
+
+"I am so glad!" simpered Mrs. Lorton. "I have brought this week's
+_Society News_. I thought it might amuse you if I read some of the
+paragraphs--Eleanor, I think you might read them. Don't you think
+indolence is one of the greatest sins of the day, Mr. Vernon?" she broke
+off to inquire.
+
+Vernon smiled grimly, and glanced at Nell, who colored under the amused
+expression in his eyes.
+
+"I dare say it is," he said. "Speaking for myself, I can honestly say
+that I never do anything unless I am compelled."
+
+Nell laughed, her short, soft laugh; but Mrs. Lorton was not at all
+discomfited.
+
+"That is all very well for a man, though I am sure you do yourself an
+injustice, Mr. Vernon; but for a young girl! I think you will find
+something interesting on the third page, under the heading of 'Doings of
+the Elite,' Eleanor."
+
+Nell took the paper--the journal she especially detested, and Dick never
+failed to mock at--and glanced at Mr. Vernon; but he looked straight
+before him, down at the jetty below; and, not shyly, but, with a kind of
+resignation, she began:
+
+"'Lord and Lady Bullnoze have gone on a visit to the Countess of
+Crowntires. Her ladyship is staying at the family seat, Cromerspokes,
+which is famous for its old oak and stained glass. It is not generally
+known that Lady Crowntires inherited this princely estate from her aunt,
+the Duchess of Bogshire.'"
+
+"A most beautiful place," commented Mrs. Lorton. "I've seen a photograph
+of it--a private photograph."
+
+Nell looked appealingly and despairingly at Mr. Vernon, but his face was
+perfectly impassive; and, smothering a sigh, she went on:
+
+"'Lord Pygskin will hunt the Clodford hounds next season. His lordship
+has been staying at Blenheim for some weeks, recovering from an attack
+of the gout. It is said that his engagement with the charming and
+popular Miss Bung has been broken off.'"
+
+"Dear me! How sad!" murmured Mrs. Lorton. "I am always so sorry to hear
+of these broken engagements of the aristocracy. Miss Bung--I think it
+said last week--is the daughter of the great brewer. Poor girl! it will
+be a blow for her!"
+
+Not a smile crossed the impassive face; Nell thought that perhaps he was
+not listening, but she went on mechanically:
+
+"'The marriage of the Earl of Angleford has caused quite a flutter of
+excitement among the elite. His lordship, as our readers are aware, is
+somewhat advanced in years, and had always been regarded as a confirmed
+bachelor----'"
+
+At this point Nell became aware that the dark eyes had turned from the
+window to her face, and she paused and looked up. There was a faint dash
+of color on Mr. Vernon's cheeks, and a tightening of the lips. It seemed
+to Nell, judging by his expression, that he had suddenly become
+impatient of the twaddle, and she instantly dropped the paper on her
+lap. But Mrs. Lorton was enjoying herself too much to permit of such an
+interruption.
+
+"Why do you stop, Eleanor?" she inquired. "It is most interesting. Pray,
+go on."
+
+Nell again glanced at Mr. Vernon, but his gaze had returned to the
+window, and he shrugged his shoulders slightly, as if he were
+indifferent, as if he could bear it.
+
+----"'A confirmed bachelor,'" resumed Nell, "'and his sudden and
+unexpected marriage must have been a surprise, and a very unpleasant
+surprise to his family; especially to his nephew, Lord Selbie, who is
+the heir presumptive to the title and estates. We say "presumptive,"
+because in the event of the earl being blessed with a son and heir of
+his own, Lord Selbie will, of course, not inherit the title or the vast
+lands and moneys of the powerful and ancient family.'"
+
+"How disappointed he must be!" said Mrs. Lorton, sympathetically.
+"Really, such a marriage should not be permitted. What do you think, Mr.
+Vernon?"
+
+Mr. Vernon started slightly, and looked at the weak and foolish face as
+if he scarcely saw it.
+
+"Why not!" he said, rather curtly. "It's a free country, and a man may
+marry whom he pleases."
+
+"Yes, certainly; that is, an ordinary man--one of the middle class; but
+not, certainly not, a nobleman of Lord Angleford's rank and position.
+How old did it say he is, Eleanor?"
+
+"It doesn't say, mamma," replied Nell.
+
+"Ah, well, I know he is quite old; for I remember reading a paragraph
+about him a few weeks ago. They were describing the ancestral home of
+the Anglefords--Anglemere, it is called; one of the historic houses,
+like Blenheim and Chatsworth, you know. And this poor Lord Selbie, the
+nephew, will lose the title and everything. Dear me! how interesting! Is
+there anything more about him?'
+
+"Oh, yes; a great deal more," said Nell despairfully.
+
+"Then pray continue--that is, if Mr. Vernon is not tired; though,
+speaking from experience, there is nothing so soothing as being read
+to."
+
+Mr. Vernon did not look as if he found the impertinent paragraphs in the
+_Society News_ particularly soothing, but he said:
+
+"I'm not at all tired. It's very interesting, as you say. Please go on,
+Miss Lorton."
+
+Nell looked at him doubtfully, for there was a kind of sarcasm in his
+voice. But she took up the parable.
+
+"'Lord Selbie is, in consequence of this marriage of his uncle, the
+object of profound and general sympathy; for, as the readers must be
+aware, he is a persona grata in society----' What is a persona grata?"
+Nell broke off to inquire.
+
+"Lord knows!" replied Mr. Vernon grimly. "I don't suppose the bounder
+who wrote these things does."
+
+Mrs. Lorton simpered.
+
+"It's Italian, and it means that he is very popular, a general
+favorite."
+
+"Then why don't they say so?" asked Nell, in a patiently disgusted
+fashion. "'Is a persona grata in society. He is strikingly
+handsome----'"
+
+Mr. Vernon's lips curved with something between a grin and a sneer.
+
+--"'And of the most charming manners.'"
+
+"Who writes this kind of rot?" he muttered.
+
+"'Since his first appearance in the circles of the London elite, Lord
+Selbie has been the cynosure of all eyes. To quote Hamlet again, he may
+truthfully be described as the "glass of fashion and the mould of form."
+His lordship is also a good all-round sportsman. He spent two or three
+years traveling in the Rockies and in Africa, and his exploits with the
+big game in both countries are well known. Like most young men of his
+class, Lord Selbie was rather wild at Oxford, and displayed a certain
+amount of diablerie in London during his quite early manhood. He is a
+splendid whip, and his four-in-hand was eclipsed by none other in the
+club. Lord Selbie is also an admirable horseman, and has won several
+cups in regimental races.'
+
+"That is the end of that paragraph," said Nell, stifling a yawn, and
+glancing longingly through the window at the sea dancing in the
+sunlight. "Do you want any more?"
+
+"Is there any?" asked Mr. Vernon grimly. "If so, we'd better have it,
+perhaps."
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Lorton. "If there is anything I dislike more than
+another, it is incomplete information. Go on Eleanor."
+
+Nell sighed and took up the precious paper again.
+
+"'As is well known'--they always say that, because it flatters the
+readers, I suppose," she went on parenthetically--"'Lord Selbie is a
+"Lord" in consequence of his father, Mr. Herbert Selbie, the famous
+diplomatist, having been created a viscount; but, though he bears this
+title, we fancy Lord Selbie cannot be well off. The kind of life he has
+led since his advent in society must have strained his resources to the
+utmost, and we should not be far wrong if we described him as a poor
+man. This marriage of his uncle, the Earl of Angleford, must, therefore,
+be a serious blow to him, and may cause his complete retirement from the
+circles of _ton_ in which he has shone so brilliantly. Lord Selbie, as
+we stated last week, is engaged to the daughter of Lord Turfleigh.'"
+
+Nell dropped the paper and struggled with a portentous yawn.
+
+"Thank you very much, Miss Lorton," said Mr. Vernon politely, with a
+half smile on his impassive face. "It is, as Mrs. Lorton says, very
+interesting."
+
+Nell stared at him; then, seeing the irony in his eyes and on his lips,
+smiled.
+
+"I thought for the moment that you meant it," she said quietly.
+
+Mrs. Lorton heard, and sniffed at her.
+
+"My dear Eleanor, what do you mean?" she inquired stiffly. "Of course,
+Mr. Vernon is interested. Why should he say so if he were not? I'm
+afraid, Eleanor, that you are of opinion that nothing but fiction has
+any claim on our attention, and that anything real and true is of no
+account. I may be old-fashioned and singular, but I find that these
+small details of the lives of our aristocracy are full of interest, not
+to say edifying. What do you think, Mr. Vernon?"
+
+He had been gazing absently out of the window, but he pulled himself
+together, and came up to the scratch with a jerk.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," he said.
+
+Mrs. Lorton smiled triumphantly.
+
+"You see, Eleanor, Mr. Vernon quite agrees with me. I must go and see if
+Molly has put the jelly in the window to cool. Meanwhile, Mr. Vernon may
+like you to continue reading to him."
+
+Mr. Vernon rose to open the door for her--Nell noticed the act of
+courtesy--then sank down again.
+
+"You don't want any more?" she said, looking at the paper on her knee.
+
+"No, thanks," he said.
+
+She tossed it onto a chair at the other end of the room.
+
+"It is the most awful nonsense," she said, with a girlish frankness.
+"Why did you tell mamma that it was interesting?"
+
+He met the direct gaze of the clear gray eyes, and smiled.
+
+"Well--as it happened--it was," he said.
+
+The clear gray eyes opened wider.
+
+"What! All this gossip about the Earl of Angleford, and his nephew, Lord
+Selbie?"
+
+He looked down, then raised his eyes, narrowed into slits, and fixed
+them above her head.
+
+"I fancy it's true--in the main," he said, half apologetically.
+
+"Well, and if it is," she retorted impatiently, "of what interest can it
+be to us? We don't know the Earl of Angleford, and don't care a button
+that he is married, and that his nephew is--what do you
+say?--disinherited."
+
+"N-o," he admitted.
+
+"Very well, then," she said triumphantly. "It is like reading the doings
+of people living in the moon."
+
+"The moon is a long ways off," he ventured.
+
+"Not farther from us than the world in which these earls and lords have
+their being," she retorted. "It all seems so--so impertinent to me,
+when I am reading it. Of what interest can the lives of these people be
+to us, to me, Nell Lorton? I never heard of Lord Angleford, and
+Lord--what is it?--Lord Selbie, before; did you?"
+
+He glanced at her, then looked fixedly through the window.
+
+"I've heard of them--yes," he said reluctantly.
+
+"Ah, well, you are better informed than I am," said Nell, laughing
+softly. "There's Dick; he's calling me. Do you mind being left? He will
+make an awful row if I don't go out."
+
+"Certainly not. Go by all means!" he said. "And thank you for--all the
+trouble you have taken."
+
+Nell nodded and hurried out, and Mr. Vernon leaned back and bit at his
+mustache thoughtfully, not to say irritably.
+
+"I feel like a bounder," he muttered. "Why the blazes didn't I give my
+right name? I wonder what they'd say--how that girl would look--if I
+told them that I was the Lord Selbie this rag was cackling about? Shall
+I tell them? No. It would be awkward now. I shall be gone in a day or
+two, and they needn't know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The following morning, the carrier's cart stopped at the cottage, and
+Dick, having helped the carrier to bring in a big portmanteau, burst
+into the sitting room with:
+
+"Your togs have arrived, Mr. Vernon; and the carrier says that there are
+a couple of horses at the station. They're directed 'Drake Vernon,
+Esquire,' so they must be for you!"
+
+Vernon nodded.
+
+"That's all right," he said. "They were doing nothing in--where they
+were, and I thought I'd have them sent down here. I suppose I must get
+some one to exercise them?"
+
+Dick's eyes sparkled and his mouth stretched in an expressive grin.
+
+"Not much difficulty about that," he said. "For instance, I don't mind
+obliging you--as a favor."
+
+Mr. Vernon smiled.
+
+"I thought perhaps you might be so good," he said; and he added
+casually: "Anybody here who could be trusted to bring them from the
+station?"
+
+"I know a most trustworthy person; his name is Richard Lorton, and he
+will go for 'em in a brace of jiffs," said Dick.
+
+Mr. Vernon flicked a five-pound note across the table.
+
+"There may be some carriage. By the way, one of them is a lady's nag,
+and I fancy they may have sent a sidesaddle."
+
+Dick nodded and repeated the grin.
+
+"I can get them put up at Sandy's," he said. "Sandy used to keep some
+stables going for post horses before the coach ran to Hartland, you
+know. I've got your horse there. Oh, they'll be all right. You trust to
+me."
+
+"I do," said Mr. Vernon. "One moment," as Dick was rushing out to put on
+his well-worn riding suit. "I don't think I'd say anything about--the
+sidesaddle to Miss Lorton--yet."
+
+Once again Dick nodded--a nod so full of comprehension as to be almost
+supernal.
+
+Mr. Vernon went upstairs, and, with Molly's assistance, unpacked the
+huge portmanteau, and, when she had got out of the room, examined the
+contents. Strangely enough, the linen was all new and unmarked. Only on
+the silver fittings of the dressing case were a monogram--in which the
+initial "S" was decipherable--and a coronet.
+
+"Sparling's an idiot!" Vernon muttered. "Why didn't he buy a new case? I
+shall have to keep this locked."
+
+When he came down again, having changed into a blue serge suit, Nell was
+in the drawing-room, arranging some flowers, and she looked up with a
+smile of recognition at his altered appearance.
+
+"Your box has arrived, I see," she said, with the frankness of--well,
+Shorne Mills. "You must be glad. And where has Dick dashed off to? He
+nearly knocked me down in his hurry."
+
+"To Shallop," he said. "I had a couple of horses sent down."
+
+"But you couldn't ride, with your arm in a sling; and you've a horse
+here already."
+
+"Don't suppose it's fit to ride yet," he said, "and I'm not going to
+carry a sling forever. Besides, they were eating their heads off--where
+they were."
+
+He said nothing about the sidesaddle.
+
+"I see. Well, I'm sorry Dick's gone this morning, for I wanted him to
+come out in the boat. It's a good day for mackerel." She looked
+wistfully at the sea shining below them. "Of course I could go by
+myself, but I promised Mr. Gadsby that I wouldn't."
+
+"Who's Mr. Gadsby?"
+
+"The vicar. I got caught in a squall off the Head one day, and--I really
+wasn't in the least danger--but they were all waiting for me at the
+jetty, and they made a fuss--and so I had to promise that I wouldn't go
+out alone. And old Brownie's out with his nets--he goes with me
+sometimes. It's a nuisance."
+
+He stood by the window silently for a moment, then he glanced at her
+wistful face, and said:
+
+"I should be a poor substitute, in my present condition, for old
+Brownie, or old anybody else; but if you'll allow me to go with you, I
+shall be very grateful. I can manage the tiller, at any rate."
+
+Nell's face lit up; she wanted to go very badly; it was a "real"
+mackerel day, and, like the days of other fishing, not to be missed.
+
+"Will you? That's awfully kind of you! Not that I want any help; it
+isn't that, for I can manage the _Annie Laurie_ in half a gale; but
+there's a feeling that, because I'm only a girl, I'm not to be trusted
+alone."
+
+"I quite understand," he said. "I'll promise not to interfere, if you'll
+let me come."
+
+"And it may do you good--it's sure to!" she said eagerly. "There's the
+loveliest of breezes--you must have some wind for mackerel--and----Can
+you go at once?"
+
+"This very minute. I'm all ready," he said.
+
+"All right," she exclaimed, just as Dick might have done. "I'll be ready
+before you can say Jack Robinson!"
+
+She ran out of the room and was down again in a very few minutes. Vernon
+glanced at her as they left the cottage and descended the steep road.
+She had put on a short skirt of rough serge, with a jersey, which
+accentuated every flowing line of her girlish, graceful figure, and the
+dark hair rippled under a red tam-o'-shanter. He was familiar enough
+with the yachting costumes of fashion, but he thought that he had never
+seen anything so workmanlike and becoming as this get-up which Nell had
+donned so quickly and carelessly. As they walked down the steps which
+led to the jetty, Nell exchanging greetings at every step, an old
+fisherman, crippled with rheumatism, limped beside them, and helped to
+bring the boat to the jetty steps.
+
+Nell eyed the _Annie Laurie_ lovingly, but said apologetically:
+
+"She's a very good boat. Old, of course. She is a herring boat, and
+though she isn't fascinatingly beautiful, she can sail. Dick--helped by
+Brownie--decked her over, and Dick picked up a new set of sails last
+year from a man who was selling off his gear. Have you put in the bait
+and the lines, Willy?"
+
+"Aye, aye, Miss Nell; I'm thinkin' you'll be gettin' some mackerel if
+the wind holds. Let me help 'ee wi' the sail."
+
+"No, no," said Nell, "I can manage. Oh, please don't you trouble!" she
+added to Vernon. "If you'll give me the sheet--that's the rope by your
+hand."
+
+Vernon nodded, and suppressed a smile.
+
+"She'll go a bit tauter still, I think," he said, as Nell hoisted the
+mainsail.
+
+She looked at him.
+
+"You understand?" she said, with a little surprise.
+
+Vernon thought of his crack yacht, but answered casually:
+
+"I've done some yachting--yes."
+
+"Yachting!" said Nell. "This isn't yachting. You must feel a kind of
+contempt for our poor old tub."
+
+"Not at all; she's a good boat, I can see," he said.
+
+Nell took up the oars, but she had to pull only a few strokes, for the
+wind soon filled the sail, and the _Annie Laurie_, as if piqued by the
+things that had been said of her, sprang forward before the wind.
+
+Nell shipped the oars, looked up at the sail, and glanced at Vernon, who
+had taken his seat in the stern, and got hold of the tiller with an
+accustomed air.
+
+"Make for the Head," she said. "I'll get the lines ready."
+
+There was silence for a minute or two while she baited the lines and
+paid them out, and Vernon watched her with a kind of absent-minded
+interest.
+
+She was quite intent on her work, and he felt that, so far as she was
+concerned, he might have been old Brownie, or the rheumatic Willy, or
+her brother Dick; and something in her girlish indifference to his
+presence and personality impressed him; for Drake, Viscount Selbie, was
+not accustomed to be passed over as a nonentity by the women in whose
+company he chanced to be.
+
+"That ought to fetch them," she said, eying the baited line with an air
+of satisfaction. "You might keep her to the wind a little more, Mr.
+Vernon; she can carry all we've got, and more."
+
+"Aye, aye!" he responded, in sailor fashion. "You only did her bare
+justice, Miss Lorton," he added. "She's a good boat."
+
+Nell looked round at him with a gratified smile.
+
+"She's a dear old thing, really," she said; "and she behaves like an
+angel in a gale. Many's the time Dick and I have sailed her when half
+the other boats were afraid to leave the harbor."
+
+"Wasn't that rather dangerous, a tempting of Providence?" he said,
+rather gravely, at the thought of the peril incurred by these two
+thoughtless children--for what else were they?
+
+"Oh, I don't know," she replied carelessly. "We know every inch of the
+coast and every current, and if it should ever come on too stiff, we
+should make for the open. It would have to be a bad sea to sink the
+_Annie Laurie_; and if we came to grief----Well, we can die but once,
+you know; and, after all, there are meaner ways of slipping off the
+mortal coil than doing it in a hurricane off Windy Head. There's the
+first fish! If Brownie were here, we should 'wet it'; but I haven't any
+whisky to offer you."
+
+Her low but clear laugh rang musical over the billowing water, and she
+nodded at her companion as if he were one of the fishing men or Dick.
+
+Vernon leaned back and gazed in turn at the sea and the sky and the
+slim, girlish form and beautiful face, and half unconsciously his mind
+concentrated itself upon her.
+
+She was not the first young girl he had known, but she was quite unlike
+any young girl he had hitherto met. He could recall none so free and
+frank and utterly unselfconscious.
+
+Most young girls with whom he had become acquainted had bored him by
+their insipidity or disgusted him by their precocity; but from this one
+there emanated a kind of charm which rested while it attracted him. It
+was pleasant to lean back and look at and listen to her; to watch the
+soft tendrils of dark hair stirred by the wind, to see the frank smile
+light up the gray eyes and curve the sweet red lips; to listen to the
+musical voice, the low brief laugh, which was so distinct from the
+ordinary girl's giggle or forced and affected gayety.
+
+The fish were biting, and soon a pile of silver lay wet and glittering
+in the bottom of the boat.
+
+"Haven't you got enough?" asked Vernon, with your sportsman's dislike of
+"pot hunting."
+
+"For ourselves? Oh, yes; but some of the old people of the Mills like
+mackerel," replied Nell, "and they'll be waiting on the jetty for the
+_Annie Laurie's_ return. Are you getting tired?" she asked, for the
+first time directing her attention to him. "I quite forgot you were an
+invalid."
+
+"Go on forgetting it, please," he said. "In fact, the invalid business
+is played out. I'm far too hungry to keep up the character."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"So am I."
+
+She raised herself on her elbow and looked toward the shore.
+
+"If you'll take her to that cove just opposite us, we'll have some
+lunch. You can eat fish, I hope? It was awfully stupid of me not to
+remember----"
+
+"I can eat anything," he said quickly. "I was just going to propose that
+we should cast lots, in cannibalistic fashion, to decide who should
+lunch on the other."
+
+She laughed, and pulled in her line.
+
+"That's a beauty for the last. Do you know how to cook mackerel?"
+
+"No; but I can learn."
+
+"Very well, then; you'll find a spirit lamp and stove in that locker
+under the tiller. Yes, that's it. And there ought to be some bread and
+butter, and some coffee. Milk, as we don't carry a cow, we shall have to
+do without. We shall be in smooth water presently, and then we can
+lunch."
+
+He sailed the boat into a sheltered cove, and, rather awkwardly, with
+his one hand, extracted the cooking utensils from the locker. Nell
+lowered the sail, dropped the anchor, and came aft.
+
+"I'm afraid I shall have to cook," she said. "Dick generally does it,
+but you've only one hand. There's one fish;" as she cut it open
+skillfully. "How many can you eat?"
+
+"Two--three dozen," he said gravely.
+
+She laughed, and placed three of the silver mackerel in the frying pan.
+
+"Now don't, please, don't say that you haven't a match!" she said, half
+aghast with dread.
+
+He took his silver match box from his pocket, and was on the point of
+handing it to her. Then he remembered the coronet engraved on it, and
+holding it against his side, managed to strike a light and ignite the
+spirit.
+
+"Of course, you have to pretend that you don't mind the smell of cooking
+fish; but it really isn't so bad when one is hungry," she said, as the
+pan began to hiss and the fish to brown.
+
+"There's salt and pepper somewhere," she remarked. "You put them on
+while the fish is cooking; it is half the battle, as Dick says. They're
+in the back of the locker, I think. If you'll move just a little----"
+
+He screwed himself into as small a compass as possible, and she dived
+into the locker and got out a couple of tin boxes.
+
+"And here's the bread--rather stale, I'm afraid--and some biscuits. The
+coffee's in that tin, and the water in this jar. Do you know how to make
+coffee?"
+
+"Rather!" he said, with mock indignation. "I've made coffee under
+various circumstances and in various climes; in the galley of a Porto
+Rico coaster; in an American ravine, waiting for the game; on a Highland
+moor, when the stags had got scent and the last chance of sport in the
+day was gone like a beautiful dream; in an artist's attic in Florence,
+where the tobacco smoke was too thick to cut with anything less than a
+hatchet; and after a skirmish with the dervishes, when a cup of coffee
+seemed almost as precious as the life one had just managed to save by
+the skin of one's teeth; but I never made it under more pleasant
+circumstances than these."
+
+He looked up and round him as he spoke, with a brighter expression on
+his face than she had as yet seen, and Nell regarded him with a sudden
+interest.
+
+"How much you have traveled!" she said--"that mackerel wants turning;
+raise the pan so that the butter can run under the fish; that's it--and
+how much you must have seen! Italy, Egypt, Porto Rico--where is that?
+Oh, I remember! How delightful to have seen so much! You must be a very
+fortunate individual!"
+
+She leaned her chin in her brown, shapely hands, and looked at him
+curiously, and with a frank envy in her gray eyes.
+
+His face clouded for a moment.
+
+"Count no man fortunate until he is dead!" he said, adapting the
+aphorism. "Believe me that I'd change places with you at this moment,
+and throw in all my experiences."
+
+She laughed incredulously.
+
+"With me? Oh, you can't mean it. It is very flattering, of course; but
+it's absurd. Why"--she paused and sighed--"I've never been anywhere, or
+seen anything. I've never been to London even, since I was quite a
+little girl, and----Change places with me!" She laughed again, just a
+little sadly. "Yes, it does sound absurd. For one thing, you wouldn't
+like to be poor; and we are poor, you know."
+
+"Poor and content is rich enough," he remarked sententiously. Then he
+laughed. "I'm as good as a copy book with moral headings this morning."
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"I think that is nonsense, like most copy-book headings. And yet----Yes,
+I should be content enough if it were not for Dick. After all, one can
+be happy though one is poor, especially if one lives in a beautiful
+place like Shorne Mills, and has a boat to sail in the summer, and books
+in the winter, and knows all the people round, and----"
+
+"And happens to be young and full of the joy of life," he said, with a
+smile. "And it's only on your mind!"
+
+She nodded gravely.
+
+"Yes, of course I know that it's not right that he should be hanging
+about the Mills, doing nothing, and wasting his time. I'm always
+worrying about Dick's future. It's a sin that he should be wasted, for
+Dick is clever. You may not think so----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," he said thoughtfully. "But I wouldn't worry. Something
+may turn up----"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"That is what he is always saying; but he says it rather bitterly
+sometimes, and----But I ought not to worry you, at any rate. Those fish
+are just done."
+
+"Then my life is just saved," he responded solemnly.
+
+"There are two plates; you hold them on the top of the stove to
+warm--that's it! And now you fill the kettle--oh! I see you've thought
+of that. It will boil while we eat the fish."
+
+She helped him to some, and they ate in silence for some minutes. Only
+they who have eaten mackerel within a few minutes of their being caught,
+and eaten them while reclining in a boat, with a blue sky overhead and a
+sapphire sea all around, can know how good mackerel can taste. To
+Vernon, who possessed the appetite of the convalescent, the meal was an
+Olympian feast.
+
+"No more?" he said, as Nell declined. "Pray don't say so, or I shall,
+from sheer decency, have to refuse also; and I could eat another half,
+and will do so if you will take the other. You wouldn't be so heartless
+as to deprive me of a second serve, surely!"
+
+Nell laughed and held out her plate.
+
+"I consent because I do not think the recently starving should eat too
+much at first. Didn't you say that you had been in Egypt fighting? You
+are in the army, then?"
+
+He nodded casually, and she looked at him thoughtfully.
+
+"Then we ought not to call you 'Mr.,'" she said. "What are you--a
+colonel?"
+
+He laughed shortly as he picked the fish from the bones.
+
+"Good heavens! do I look so old? No, not colonel. I'm a captain. But I'm
+not in the army now. I left it--worse luck!"
+
+"Why did you leave it?" she asked.
+
+He looked a little bored--not so much bored, perhaps, as reluctant.
+
+"Oh, for a variety of reasons; the most important being the fact that a
+relative of mine wished me to do so."
+
+His face clouded for a moment or two; then he said, with the air of one
+dismissing an unpleasant topic:
+
+"This water's boiling like mad. Now is my time to prove my assertion
+that I am capable of making coffee. I want two jugs, or this jug and the
+tin will do. The coffee? Thanks. I'm afraid I'll have to get you to hold
+the tin. This is the native method: You make it in the tin--so; then,
+after a moment or two, you pour the liquid--not the coffee grounds--into
+the jug, then back, and then back again, and lo! you have café à la
+Français, or Cairo, or Clapham fashion."
+
+"It's very good," she admitted, when it had cooled sufficiently for her
+to taste it. "And that is how you made it on the battlefield?"
+
+"Scarcely," he said. "There was no jug, only an empty meat can; and the
+water--well, the water was almost as thick, with mud, before the coffee
+was put in as afterward, and the men would scarcely have had patience
+to wait for the patent process. Poor beggars! Some of them had not had a
+drop past their lips for twenty-four hours--and been fighting, too."
+
+Nell listened, with her grave gray eyes fixed on his face.
+
+"How sorry you must have been to leave the army!" she said thoughtfully.
+
+"Does warfare seem so alluring?" he retorted, with a laugh. "But you're
+right; I was sorry to send in my papers, and I've been sorrier since the
+day I did it."
+
+Nell curled herself up in the bottom of the boat like a well-fed and
+contented cat, and Vernon, having washed the plates by the simple
+process of dragging them backward and forward through the water,
+stretched himself and felt in his pockets. He relinquished the search
+with a sigh of resignation, and Nell, hearing it, looked up.
+
+"Are you not going to smoke?" she asked. "Dick would have his pipe
+alight long before this; and, of course, I don't mind--if that is what
+you were waiting for. Why should I?"
+
+"Thanks; but, like an idiot, I've forgotten my pipe. I've got some
+tobacco and cigarette paper."
+
+"Then you are all right," she remarked.
+
+"Scarcely," he said carelessly. "This stupid mummy of an arm of mine
+prevents me rolling a cigarette, you see."
+
+"How stupid of me to forget that!" she said. "Give me the tobacco and
+the paper and let me try."
+
+He produced the necessary articles promptly; and showed her how to do
+it.
+
+"Not quite so much tobacco"--she had taken out enough for ten
+cigarettes, and spilled sufficient for another five--"and--er--if you
+could get it more equal along the paper. Like this--ah, thanks!"
+
+In showing her, his fingers got "mixed" with hers, but Nell seemed too
+absorbed in her novel experiment to notice the fact.
+
+"Like that? Rather like a miniature sausage, isn't it? And it will all
+come undone when I let go of it," she added apprehensively.
+
+"If you'll be so good as just to wet the edge with your lips," he said,
+in a matter-of-fact way.
+
+She looked at him, and a faint dash of color came into her face.
+
+"You won't like to smoke it afterward," she said coolly.
+
+He stared at her, then smiled.
+
+"Try me!" he said succinctly.
+
+She gave a little shrug of the shoulders, moistened the cigarette in the
+usual way, and handed it to him gravely.
+
+"I'll try to make the next better," she said. "I suppose you will want
+another?"
+
+"I'm afraid I shall want more than you will be inclined to make," he
+said, "and I shouldn't like to trespass on your good nature."
+
+"Oh, it's not very hard work making cigarettes," she said. "I'd better
+set about the next at once. How is that?" and she held up the production
+for inspection.
+
+"Simply perfect," he said. "You would amass a fortune out in the East as
+a cigarette maker."
+
+She looked up at him, beyond him, wistfully.
+
+"I wish I could amass a fortune; indeed, I'd be content if I could earn
+my living any way," she said, as if she were communing with herself
+rather than addressing him. "If I could earn some money, and help Dick!"
+
+Her voice died away, and she sighed softly.
+
+He regarded her dreamily.
+
+"Don't think of anything so--unnatural," he said.
+
+She raised her eyes, and looked at him with surprise.
+
+"Is it unnatural for a woman--a girl--to earn her own living?" she said.
+
+"Yes," he said emphatically. "Women were made for men to work for, not
+to toil themselves."
+
+Nell laughed, in simple mockery of the sentiment.
+
+"What nonsense! As if we were dolls or something to be wrapped up in
+lavender! Why, half the women in Shorne Mills work! You see them driving
+their donkeys down to the beach for sand--haven't you seen them with
+bags on each side?--and doing washing, and making butter and going to
+market. Why, I should have to work if anything happened to mamma. At
+least, she has often said so. She has--what is it?--oh, an annuity or
+something of the kind; and if she died, Dick and I would have to 'face
+the world,' as she puts it."
+
+He said nothing, but looked at her through the thin blue cloud of his
+cigarette. She looked so sweet, so girlish, so--yes, so helpless--lying
+there in the sunlight, one brown paw supporting her shapely head, the
+other--after the manner of girls--dabbling in the water. A pang of
+compassion smote him.
+
+"It's a devil of a world," he muttered, almost to himself.
+
+"Do you think so?" she said, with surprise. "I don't. At any rate, I
+don't think so this afternoon."
+
+"Why this afternoon?" he asked, half curiously.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps it's the sunshine, or--or--do you think it's
+the mackerel?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"But I feel so happy and free from care. And yet all the old trouble
+remains. There's Dick's future--and--oh, all the rest. But this
+afternoon everything seems bright and hopeful. I wonder why?"
+
+She looked at him wistfully, as if he might perhaps explain; but Vernon
+said nothing.
+
+"Have you really finished that cigarette? You smoke much less quickly
+than Dick. Well, there's another ready; and when you've finished that, I
+think we ought to be getting back. I want--let me see--yes, ten more
+fish, and I can get them when we get farther out."
+
+They set the sail, and the _Annie Laurie_ glided out of the placid
+little cove into the open sea.
+
+As Vernon steered for the Head, behind which Shorne Mills sheltered, he
+sighed unconsciously. He, too, had been happy and free from care that
+morning, and the afternoon seemed full of indescribable peace and
+happiness. He, like Nell, wondered why. A day or two ago--or was it a
+month, a year?--he had been depressed and low-spirited, and firmly
+convinced that life was not worth living; but this afternoon----
+
+What a pretty picture she made in her jersey, that fitted her like a
+skin, with the soft black hair rippling beneath the edge of the
+tam-o'-shanter!
+
+Suddenly the pretty picture called out, "Sail ahead, sir!" and Vernon,
+taking his eyes from her, saw a yacht skimming along the sapphire waves,
+almost parallel with the _Annie Laurie_.
+
+"That's a yacht," said Nell; "and a fine one, too."
+
+He looked at it, shading his eyes with his practicable hand.
+
+"I wonder who she is?" said Nell. "There's a field glass in the
+locker--get it. Can you see her name?"
+
+He put the glass to his eyes and adjusted it; and, as he got the focus,
+an exclamation escaped him.
+
+"What did you say?" inquired Nell.
+
+"Nothing, only that she's a fine vessel," he said indifferently.
+
+"Yes. I should like to be on her," said Nell. "Wouldn't you?"
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"I am content with the _Annie Laurie_," he replied.
+
+She stared at him incredulously, then laughed.
+
+"Thank you for the compliment; but you can't seriously prefer this dear
+old tub to that! I wonder whom she belongs to? How fast she travels. I
+should like to have a yacht like that."
+
+"Would you?" he said, eying her rather strangely. "Perhaps some day----"
+
+He stopped, and knocked the ash from his cigarette.
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Were you going to say that perhaps some day I should own one like her?
+What nonsense! It is like the things one reads in books, when the
+benevolent and wise old gentleman tells the boy that perhaps, if he
+works hard, and is honest and persevering, he may own a carriage and a
+pair like that which happens to be passing at the moment."
+
+Vernon laughed.
+
+"Life is full of possibilities," he said, with his eyes fixed on the
+yacht, which, after sailing broadside to them for some time, suddenly
+put down the helm and struck out for sea.
+
+"I thought they might be making for Shorne Mills," said Nell, rather
+regretfully. "Yachts put in there sometimes, and I should have liked to
+have seen this one."
+
+"Would you?" he said, as curiously as he had spoken before.
+
+"It doesn't matter whether I would or wouldn't; she's gone out into the
+channel now," said Nell.
+
+He stifled a sigh which sounded like a sigh of relief, and steered the
+_Annie Laurie_ for home.
+
+Nell swept the fish into an old reed basket which had held many such a
+catch, and held it up to the admiring and anticipatory gaze of a small
+crowd of women and children which had gathered on the jetty steps at the
+approach of the _Annie Laurie_.
+
+As she stepped on shore and distributed the fish, receiving the short
+but expressive Devonshire "Thank 'ee, Miss Nell, thank 'ee," Vernon
+looked at the beautiful girlish face pensively, and thought--well, who
+can tell what a man thinks at such moments? Perhaps he was thinking of
+the hundred and one useless women of his class who, throughout the whole
+of their butterfly lives, had never won a single breath of gratitude
+from the poor in their midst.
+
+"Come along," she said, turning to him, when she had emptied the basket.
+"I'm afraid we're in for a scolding. I quite forgot till this moment
+that mamma did not know you had gone out."
+
+"What about you?" he said, remembering for the first time that he had
+spent so many hours with this girl alone and unchaperoned.
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Oh, she would not be anxious about me. Mamma is used to my going out
+for a ride--when I can borrow a horse from some one--or sailing the
+_Annie Laurie_ with old Brownie; but she'll be anxious about you. You're
+an invalid, you know."
+
+"Not much of the invalid about me, saving this arm," he said.
+
+As they climbed the hill, they came upon Dick mounted upon a horse the
+like of which Nell had never seen; and she stopped dead short and stared
+at him.
+
+"Hallo, Nell! Hallo, Mr. Vernon! Just giving him a run, after being shut
+up in that stuffy railway box."
+
+"That's right," said Vernon. "Like him?"
+
+"Like him?" responded Dick, with the superlative of approval; "never
+rode a horse to equal him, and the other is as good. And"--in an
+undertone--"the sidesaddle has come."
+
+But Nell, whose ears were sharp, heard him.
+
+"Who is the sidesaddle for?" she asked, innocently and ungrammatically.
+
+Vernon took the bull by the horns.
+
+"For you, if you will deign to use it, Miss Nell," he said.
+
+It was the first time he had addressed her as "Miss Nell," but she did
+not notice it.
+
+"For me?" she exclaimed.
+
+They were opposite Sandy's stables, and Dick dropped off his horse and
+brought out the other.
+
+"Look at her, Nell!" he exclaimed, with bated breath. "Perfect, isn't
+she?"
+
+Nell looked at her with a flush that came and went.
+
+"Oh, but I--I--could not!" she breathed.
+
+Mr. Drake Vernon laughed.
+
+"Why not?" he said argumentatively. "Fair play's a jewel. You can't
+expect to have all the innings your side, Miss Nell. You've treated
+me--well, like a prince; and you won't refuse to ride a horse of mine
+that's simply spoiling for want of exercise!"
+
+Nell looked from him to the horse, and from the horse to him.
+
+"I--I--am so surprised," she faltered. "I--I will ask mamma."
+
+"That's all right," said Vernon, who had learned to know "mamma" by this
+time.
+
+Nell left Dick and Vernon standing round the horses in man fashion. Dick
+was all aglow with satisfaction and admiration.
+
+"Never saw a better pair than these, Mr. Vernon," he said. "I should
+think this one could jump."
+
+She had just won a military steeplechase, and Vernon nodded assent.
+
+"You must persuade your sister to ride her," he said.
+
+As he spoke, he seated himself on the edge of the steep roadway which
+led to the jetty.
+
+"Take the horses in," he said. "I'll come up in a few minutes."
+
+But the minutes ran into hours. He looked out to sea with a meditative
+and retrospective mind. He was going over the past which seemed so far
+away, so vague, since he had gone sailing in the _Annie Laurie_ this
+morning.
+
+Then suddenly the past became the present. There was a stir on the jetty
+below him. Voices--the voice of fashionable people, the voices of
+"society"--rose in an indistinguishable sound to his ears. He moved
+uneasily, and refilled and lit the pipe that he had borrowed of Dick. He
+heard the footsteps of several persons climbing the steep stairs. One
+seemed familiar to him. He pulled at his pipe, and crossed his legs with
+an air of preparation, of resignation.
+
+The voices came nearer, and presently one said:
+
+"I certainly, for one, decline to go any farther. I think it is too
+absurd to expect one to climb these ridiculous steps. And there is
+nothing to see up there, is there?"
+
+At the sound of the voice, clear and bell-like, yet languid, with the
+languor of the fashionable woman, Mr. Drake Vernon bit his lips and
+colored. He half rose, but sank down again, as if uncertain whether to
+meet her, or to remain where he was; eventually he crossed his legs
+again, rammed down his pipe, and waited.
+
+"Oh, but you'll come up to the top, Lady Lucille!" remonstrated a man's
+voice, the half-nasal drawl of the man about town--the ordinary club
+lounger. "There's a view, don't you know--there really is!"
+
+"I don't care for views. Not another step, Archie. I'll wait here till
+you come back. You can describe the view--or, rather, you can't, thank
+Heaven!"
+
+As she spoke, she mounted a few steps, and turned into the small square
+which offered a resting place on the steep ascent, and so came full upon
+Mr. Vernon.
+
+He rose and raised his hat, and she looked at him, at first with the
+vagueness of sheer amazement, then with a start of recognition, and with
+her fair face all crimson for one instant, and, the next, pale, she
+said, in a suppressed voice, as if she were afraid of being overheard:
+
+"Drake!"
+
+He looked at her with a curious smile, as if something in the tone of
+her voice, in her sudden pallor following upon her; blush, were
+significant, and had told himself something.
+
+"Well, Luce," he said; "and what brings you here?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The girl who, with changing color, stood gazing at Lord Drake Selbie
+might have stepped out of one of Marcus Stone's pictures. She was as
+fair as a piece of biscuit china. Her hair was golden, and, strange to
+say in these latter days, naturally so. It was, indeed, like the fleece
+of gold itself under her fashionable yachting hat. Her eyes, widely
+opened, with that curious look of surprise and fear, were hazel--a deep
+hazel, which men, until they knew her, accepted as an indication of Lady
+Lucille's depth of feeling. She was slightly built, but graceful, with
+the grace of the fashionable modiste.
+
+She was the product of the marriage of Art and Fashion of this
+fin-de-siècle age. Other ages have given us wit, beauty allied with
+esprit, dignity of demeanor, and a nobility of principle; this end of
+the nineteenth century has bestowed upon us--Lady Lucille Turfleigh.
+
+It is in its way a marvelous product. It is very beautiful, with the
+delicate beauty of excessive culture and effete luxury. It has the
+subtle charm of the exotic, of the tall and graceful arum, whose
+spotless whiteness cannot bear a single breath of the keen east wind.
+
+It is charming, bewitching; it looks all purity and spirituality; it
+seems to breathe poetry and a Higher Culture. It goes through life like
+a rose leaf floating upon a placid stream. It is precious to look at,
+pleasant to live with, and it has only one defect--it has no heart.
+
+We have cast off the old creeds like so many shackles; we are so finely
+educated, so cultivated, that we have learned to do more than laugh at
+sentiment; we regard it with a contemptuous pity.
+
+There is only one thing which we value, and that is Pleasure. Some
+persons labor under the mistaken notion that Money is the universal
+quest; but it is not so. The Golden God is set up in every market place,
+it stands at every street corner; but it is not for himself that the
+crowd worship at the feet of the brazen image, but because he can buy so
+much.
+
+It is Money which nowadays holds the magician's rod. With a wave he can
+give us rank, luxury, power, place, influence, and beauty. This is the
+creed, the religion, which we teach our children, which is continually
+in our hearts if not on our lips; and it is the creed, the religion, in
+which Lady Lucille was reared.
+
+Her history is a public one. It is the story of how many fashionable
+women? Her father, Lord Turfleigh, was an Irish peer. He had inherited a
+historic title, and thousands of acres which he had scarcely seen, but
+which he had helped to incumber. All the Turfleighs from time immemorial
+had been fast and reckless, but this Turfleigh had outpaced them all,
+and had easily romped in first in the race of dissipation. As a young
+man his name had been synonymous with every kind of picturesque
+profligacy. Every pound he could screw out of the land, or obtain at
+ruinous interest from the Jews, had been spent in what he and his kind
+call pleasure.
+
+He had married for money, had got it, and had spent it, even before his
+patient and long-suffering wife had expiated the mistake of her life in
+the only possible way. She had left Lady Lucille behind, and the girl
+had matriculated and taken honors in her father's school.
+
+To Lady Lucille there was only one thing in life worth having--money;
+and to obtain this prize she had been carefully nurtured and laboriously
+taught. Long before she left the nursery she had grown to understand
+that her one object and sole ambition must be a wealthy and suitable
+marriage; and to this end every advantage of mind and body had been
+trained and cultivated as one trains a young thoroughbred for a great
+race.
+
+She had been taught to laugh at sentiment, to regard admiration as
+valueless unless it came from a millionaire; to sneer at love unless it
+paced, richly clad and warmly shod, from a palace. She had graduated in
+the School of Fashion, and had passed with high honors. There was no
+more beautiful woman in all England than Lady Lucille; few possessed
+greater charm; men sang her praises; artists fought for the honor of
+hanging her picture in the Academy; the society papers humbly reported
+her doings, her sayings, and her conquests; royalties smiled approvingly
+on this queen of fashion, and not a single soul, Lady Lucille herself
+least of all, realized that this perfection was but the hollow husk and
+shell of beauty without heart or soul; that behind the lovely face,
+within the graceful form, lurked as selfish and ignoble a nature as that
+which stirs the blood of any drab upon the Streets.
+
+"Drake!" she said. "Why! I'd no idea! What are you doing here?"
+
+He motioned her to a seat with a wave of his pipe, and she sank down on
+the stone slab, after a careful glance at it, and eyed him curiously but
+with still a trace of her first embarrassment.
+
+She looked a perfect picture, as she sat there, with the steep,
+descending wall, the red Devon cliffs, the blue, glittering sea for her
+background; a picture which might have been presented with a summer
+number of one of the illustrated weeklies; and all as unreal and as
+unlike life as they are. It is true that she wore a yachting costume
+exquisitely made and perfectly fitting; and Drake, as he looked at it,
+acknowledged its claims upon his admiration, but he knew it was all a
+sham, and, half unconsciously, he compared it with the old worn skirt
+and the serviceable jersey worn by Nell, who had gone up the hill--how
+long ago was it? Nell's face and hands were brown with the kiss of
+God's sun; Lady Lucille's face was like a piece of delicate Sèvres, and
+her hands were incased in white kid gauntlets. To him, at that moment,
+she looked like an actress playing in a nautical burlesque at the
+Gaiety; and, for the first time since he had known her, he found himself
+looking at her critically, and, notwithstanding her faultless
+attire--faultless from a fashionable point of view--with disapproval.
+
+"You are surprised to see me, Luce?" he said.
+
+"Of course I am," she replied. "I'd no idea where you were. I've written
+to you--twice."
+
+"Have you?" he said. "That was good of you. I've not had your letters;
+but that's my fault, not yours. I told Sparling not to send any letters
+on."
+
+She looked down, as if rather embarrassed, and dug at the interstices of
+the rough stone pavement with her dainty, and altogether unnautical,
+sunshade.
+
+"But what are you doing here?" she asked. "And--and what's the matter
+with your arm? Isn't that a sling?"
+
+"Yes, it's a sling," he said casually. "I'd been hunting with the Devon
+and Somerset; I found London unbearable, and I came down here suddenly.
+I meant to write and tell you; but just then I wasn't in the humor to
+write to any one, even to you. I lost my way in one of the runs, and was
+riding down the top of the hill here, riding carelessly, I'll admit, for
+when the horse shied, I was chucked off. I broke my arm and knocked my
+head. Oh, don't trouble," he added hastily, as if to ward off her
+commiseration. "I am all right now; the arm will soon be in working
+order again."
+
+"I'm very sorry," she said, lifting her eyes to his, but only for a
+moment. "You look rather pulled down and seedy."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," he said. "And now, as I have explained my presence
+here, perhaps you will explain yours."
+
+"I've come here in the _Seagull_," she said. "Father's on board. He said
+you'd offered to lend the yacht to him--you did, I suppose?"
+
+Drake nodded indifferently.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said. "The _Seagull_ was quite at your father's service."
+
+"Well, father made a party; Sir Archie Walbrooke, Mrs. Horn-Wallis and
+her husband, Lady Pirbright, and ourselves."
+
+Drake nodded as indifferently as before. He knew the persons she had
+mentioned; members of the smart set in which he had spent his life--and
+his money; and Lady Lucille continued in somewhat apologetic fashion:
+
+"We went to the Solent first, for the races; then, when they were all
+over, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves so much that
+father--you know what he is--suggested that we should sail round the
+Devon coast. It hasn't been a bad time; and Sir Archie has been rather
+amusing, and Mrs. Horn-Wallis has kept things going. Oh, yes; it hasn't
+been so bad."
+
+"I'm glad you've been amused, Luce," he said, his eyes resting upon the
+beautifully fair face with a touch of cynicism.
+
+"We'd no idea you were anywhere here," she said, "or, of course, I would
+have written and asked you to join us; though, I suppose, under the
+circumstances----"
+
+She hesitated for a moment, then went on with a little embarrassment,
+which in no way detracted from her charm of voice and manner:
+
+"I told father that, after what had happened, it was scarcely in good
+taste to borrow your yacht. But you know what father is. He said that
+though things were altered, your offer of the _Seagull_ stood good; that
+you told him you didn't mean to use her this season, and that it was a
+pity for her to lie idle. And so they persuaded me--very much against my
+will, I must admit--to join them, and--and here I am, as you see."
+
+Drake puffed at his pipe.
+
+"I see," he said. "I needn't say that you are quite welcome to the
+yacht, Lucille, or to anything that I have. As you say, things
+are--altered. How much they are altered and changed, perhaps your
+letters, if I had received them, would have told me. What was it that
+you wrote me? Oh, don't be afraid," he added, with a faint smile, as she
+turned her head away and poked with her sunshade at the crack in the
+pavement. "I am strong; I can bear it. When a man has come a cropper in
+every sense of the word, his nerves are braced for the receipt of
+unwelcome tidings. I beg you won't be uncomfortable. Of course, you have
+heard the news?"
+
+She glanced at him sideways, and, despite her training, her lips
+quivered slightly.
+
+"Of course," she said. "Who hasn't? All the world knows it. Lord
+Angleford's marriage has come upon us like a surprise--a thunderbolt. No
+one would ever have expected that he would have been so foolish."
+
+Drake looked at her as he never thought that he could have looked at
+her--calmly, waitingly.
+
+"No one expected him to marry," she went on. "He was quite an old
+man--well, not old, but getting on. And you and he were always such
+great friends. He--he always seemed so fond and so proud of you. Why did
+you quarrel with him?"
+
+"I didn't quarrel with him," said Drake quietly. "As you say, we have
+always been good friends. He has always been good to me, ever since I
+was a boy. Good and liberal. We have never had a cross word until now.
+But you know my uncle--you know how keenly set he is on politics. He is
+a Conservative of the old school; one of those old Tories whom we call
+blue, and who are nearly extinct. God knows whether they are right or
+wrong; I only know that I can't go with them. He asked me to stand for a
+place in the Tory-Conservative interest. It was an easy place; I should
+have been returned without difficulty. Most men would have done it; but
+I couldn't. I don't go in very much for principle, either political or
+moral; but my uncle's views--well, I couldn't swallow them. I was
+obliged to decline. He cut up rough; sent me a letter with more bad
+language in it than I've ever read in my life. Then he went and married
+a young girl--an American."
+
+Lady Lucille heaved a long sigh.
+
+"How foolish of you!" she murmured. "As if it mattered."
+
+Drake filled his pipe again, and smiled cynically over the match as he
+lit it.
+
+"That's your view of it?" he said. "I suppose--yes, I suppose you think
+I've been a fool. I dare say you're right; but, unfortunately for me, I
+couldn't look at it in that way. I stuck to my colors--that's a
+highfalutin way of putting it--and I've got to pay the penalty. My
+uncle's married, and, likely enough--in fact, in all probability--his
+wife will present the world with a young Lord Angleford."
+
+"She's quite a young woman," murmured Lucille, with the wisdom of her
+kind.
+
+"Just so," said Drake. "So I am in rather a hole. I always looked
+forward to inheriting Anglemere and the estate and my uncle's money. But
+all that is altered. He may have an heir who will very properly inherit
+all that I thought was to be mine. I wrote and told you of this, though
+it wasn't necessary; but I deemed it right to you to place the whole
+matter before you, Lucille. I've no doubt that the society papers have
+saved me the trouble, and helped you thoroughly to realize that the man
+to whom you were engaged was no longer the heir to the earldom of
+Angleford and Lord Angleford's money, but merely Drake Selbie, a mere
+nobody, and plunged up to his neck in debts and difficulties."
+
+She was silent, and he went on:
+
+"See here, Luce, I asked you to marry me because I loved you. You are
+the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I fell in love with you the
+first time I saw you--at that dance of the Horn-Wallises. Do you
+remember? I wanted you to be my wife; I wanted you more than I ever
+wanted anything else in my life. Do you not remember the day I proposed
+to you, there under Taplow Wood, at that picnic where we all got wet and
+miserable? And you said 'Yes'; and my uncle was pleased. But all is
+changed now; I am just Drake Selbie, with very little or no income, and
+a mountain of debts; with no prospects of becoming Lord Angleford and
+owner of the Angleford money and lands. And I want to know how this
+change--strikes you; what you mean, to do?"
+
+She glanced up at him sideways.
+
+"You--you haven't got my letters?" she said.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'm--I'm sorry," she said. "It isn't my fault. Father--you know what he
+would say. He may be right. He said that--that you were ruined; that our
+marriage would be quite impossible; that--that our engagement must be
+broken off. Really, Drake, it is not my fault. You know how poor we are;
+that--that a rich marriage is an absolute necessity for me. Father is up
+to his neck in debt, too, and we scarcely seem to have a penny of ready
+money; it's nothing but duns, and duns, and duns, every day in the week;
+why, even now, we've had to bolt from London because I can't pay my
+milliner's bill. It's simply impossible for me to marry a poor man. I
+should only be a drag upon him; and father--well, father would be a drag
+upon him, too; you know what father is. And--and so, Drake, I wrote and
+told you that--that our engagement must be considered broken off and at
+an end."
+
+She paused a moment, and looked from right to left, like some feeble
+animal driven into a corner, and restlessly conscious of Drake Selbie's
+stern regard.
+
+"Of course I'm very sorry. You know I'm--I'm very fond of you. I don't
+think there is any one in the world like you; so--so handsome and--and
+altogether nice. But what can I do? I can't run against the wish of my
+father and of all my friends. In fact, I can't afford to marry you,
+Drake."
+
+He looked at her with a bitter smile on his lips, and a still more
+bitter cynicism in his eyes.
+
+"I understand," he said; "I quite understand. When you said that you
+loved me, loved me with all your heart and soul, you meant that you
+loved Drake Selbie, the heir of Angleford, the prospective owner of
+Anglemere and Lord Angleford's money; and now that my uncle has married,
+and that he may have a child which will rob me of the title and the
+money, you draw back. You do not ask whether I have enough, you do not
+offer to make any sacrifice. You just--jilt me!"
+
+"You put it very harshly, Drake," she said, with a frown.
+
+"I put it very truly and correctly," he said. "Can you deny it? You
+cannot! The man who sits here beside you is quite a different man to the
+one to whom you had plighted your troth. He is the same in bone and body
+and muscle and sinew, but he doesn't happen to be Lord Angleford's heir.
+And so you throw him over. No doubt you are right. It is the way of the
+world in which you and I have been bred and trained."
+
+"You are very cruel, Drake," she murmured, touching her eyes with a lace
+handkerchief, too costly and elaborate for anything but ornament.
+
+"I just speak the truth," he said. "I don't blame you. You are bred in
+the same world as myself. We are both products of this modern fin de
+siècle. To marry me would be a mistake; you decline to make it. I have
+only to bow to your decision. I accept your refusal. After this present
+moment you and I are friends only; not strangers; men and women in our
+set are never strangers. But I pass out of your life from this moment.
+Go back to the _Seagull_ with Archie and Mrs. Horn-Wallis, and find--as
+I trust you will--a better man than I am."
+
+She rose rather pale, but perfectly self-possessed.
+
+"I--I am glad you take it so easily, Drake," she said. "You don't blame
+me, do you? I couldn't run against father, could I? You know how poor we
+are. I must make a good marriage, and--and----"
+
+"And so it is 'good-by,'" he said.
+
+He looked so stern, so self-contained, that her self-possession forsook
+her for a moment, and she stood biting softly at her underlip and
+looking by turns at the ultramarine sea and the stern face of the lover
+whom she was discarding. He held out his hand again.
+
+"Good-by, Luce," he said. "You have taught me a lesson."
+
+"What--do you mean?" she asked.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"That women care only for rank and gold, and that without them a man
+cannot hold you. I shall take it to heart Good-by."
+
+She looked at him doubtfully, hesitatingly.
+
+"You will take the _Seagull_ south?" he said. "Be good enough to ask
+your father to wire me as to her whereabouts. I may need her. But don't
+hurry. I'm only too glad that you are sailing her. Good-by."
+
+She murmured "Good-by," and went down the steps slowly; and Drake,
+Viscount Selbie, refilled his pipe. Then he rose quickly and overtook
+her. She stopped and turned, and if he had expected to see signs of
+emotion in her beautiful face, he was doomed to disappointment; indeed,
+the look of apprehension with which she heard his voice had been
+followed by one of relief.
+
+"One moment," he said. "I want to ask you not to mention that you have
+seen me here."
+
+She opened her soft hazel eyes with some surprise and a great deal of
+curiosity.
+
+"Not say that I have seen you?" she said. "Of course, if you wish it;
+but why?"
+
+"The reason will seem to you inadequate, I am afraid," he said coldly;
+"but the fact is, I am staying here under another name--my own is being
+bandied about so much, you see," bitterly, "that I am a little tired of
+it."
+
+"I see," she said. "Then I am not to tell father. How will he know how
+to address the wire about the yacht?"
+
+"Send it to Sparling," he said. "I am sorry to have stopped you.
+Good-by."
+
+She inclined her head and murmured "Good-by" for the second time, and
+went on again; but a few steps lower she stopped and pondered his
+strange request.
+
+"Curious," she murmured. "I wonder whether there is any other reason?
+One knows what men are; and poor Drake is no better than the rest. Ah,
+well, it does not matter to me--now. Thank goodness it is over! Though
+one can always count upon Drake; he is too thorough a gentleman to make
+a scene or bully a woman. Heaven knows I am sorry to break with him, and
+I wish that old stupid hadn't made such a fool of himself; for Drake and
+I would have got on very well. But as things are----As father says, it's
+impossible. I wonder whether they are coming back; I am simply dying for
+tea."
+
+Before she got down to the jetty, her fellow voyagers caught her up.
+They were in the best of spirits, and hilarious over the fact that Sir
+Archie had slipped on one of the grassy slopes and stained his white
+flannel suit with green; and Lady Lucille joined in the merriment.
+
+"I'm sorry I didn't come, after all," she said. "It was rather boring
+waiting there all alone; but perhaps Sir Archie will kindly fall down
+again for my special benefit," and she laughed with the innocent,
+careless laughter, of a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The laugh floated up to Drake as he sat and finished his pipe, waiting
+until the party should get clear away, and his lips tightened grimly.
+Then he sighed and shrugged his shoulders, as he rose and went slowly up
+the hill.
+
+After all, Lucille had only acted as he had expected. As he had said,
+she had engaged herself to Viscount Selbie, the heir to Angleford--not
+to Viscount Selbie, whose nose had been put out of joint by his uncle's
+marriage. He could not have expected a Lady Lucille Turfleigh to be
+faithful to her troth under such changed circumstances. But her
+desertion made him sore, if not actually unhappy. Indeed, he was rather
+surprised to find that he was more wounded in pride than heart. It is
+rather hurtful to one's vanity and self-esteem to be told by the woman
+whom you thought loved you, that she finds it "impossible" to marry you
+because you have lost your fortune or your once roseate prospects; and
+though Drake was the least conceited of men, he was smarting under the
+realization of his anticipations.
+
+"She never loved me," he said bitterly. "Not one word of regret--real
+regret. She would have felt and shown more if she had been parting with
+a favorite horse or dog. God! what women this world makes of them! They
+are all alike! There's not one of them can love for love's sake, who
+cares for the man instead of the money. Not one, from the dairymaid to
+the duchess! Thank Heaven! my disillusionment has come before, instead
+of after, marriage. Yes, I've done with them. There is no girl alive, or
+to be born, who can make me feel another pang."
+
+As he spoke, he heard a voice calling him: "Mr. Vernon! Mr. Vernon!" And
+there, in the garden, which stood out on the hill like a little terrace,
+was Nell. She had taken off her hat, and the faint breeze was stirring
+the soft tendrils on her forehead, and her eyes smiled joyously down at
+him.
+
+"Tea is ready!" she said, her voice full and round, and coming down to
+him like the note of a thrush. "Where have you been? Mamma is quite
+anxious about you, and I have had the greatest difficulty in convincing
+her that there has not been an accident, and that I had not left you at
+the bottom of the bay."
+
+He smiled up at her, but his smile came through the darkness of a cloud,
+and she noticed it.
+
+"Has--has anything happened?" she asked, as she opened the gate for him;
+and her guileless eyes were raised to his with a sudden anxiety. "Are
+you ill--or--or overtired? Ah, yes! that must be it. I am so sorry!"
+
+He frowned, and replied, almost harshly:
+
+"Thanks. I am not in the least tired. How should I be? Why do you think
+so?"
+
+Nell shrank a little.
+
+"I--I thought you looked pale and tired," she said, in a voice so low
+and sweet that he was smitten with shame.
+
+"Perhaps I am a bit played out," he said apologetically, and passing his
+hand over his brow as if to erase the lines which the scene with Lady
+Lucille had etched. "Your convalescent invalid is a trying kind of
+animal, Miss Nell, and--and you must forgive it for snapping."
+
+"There is nothing to forgive," she said quietly. "It was thoughtless of
+me to let you stay out so long, and I deserve the lecture mamma has been
+giving me. Please come in to tea at once, or it will be repeated--the
+lecture, I mean."
+
+They went into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Lorton sat with due state
+and dignity before her tea table; and, having got him into the
+easy-chair, the good lady began at once:
+
+"So thoughtless of Eleanor to keep you out so long! You must be
+exhausted, I am sure. I know how trying the first days of recovery from
+illness are, and how even a little exertion will produce absolute
+collapse. Now, will you have a little brandy in your tea, Mr. Vernon? A
+teaspoonful will sometimes produce a magical effect," she added, as if
+she were recommending a peculiarly startling firework. "No? You are
+quite sure? And what is this Richard is telling me about two horses? He
+came rushing in just now with some story of horses that he had brought
+from Shallop."
+
+Drake looked up with a casual air.
+
+"Yes; they're mine. I was obliged to have them sent down. They were
+spoiling for want of exercise. I must turn them out in some of the
+fields here, or get some one to ride them, unless Dick and Miss Nell
+will be good-natured enough to exercise them."
+
+Nell laughed softly.
+
+"That is one way of putting it, isn't it, mamma? But I tell Mr. Vernon
+that I really must not, ought not, to take advantage of his good nature.
+It's all very well for Dick to----"
+
+"What's all very well for Dick? And don't you take my name in vain quite
+so freely, young party," remarked that individual, entering the room and
+making for the tea table. "Don't you be taken in by all this pretended
+reluctance, Mr. Vernon. It's the old game of Richard III. refusing the
+crown. See English history book. Nell will be on that mare to-morrow
+morning safe enough, won't you, Nellikins? And I say, sir, you must get
+your arm right and ride with her. Perhaps she would not be too proud to
+take lessons from a stranger--from you, I mean--though she does turn up
+her nose at her brother's kindly meant hints, an operation which, as I
+am perpetually telling her, is quite superfluous, for it's turned up
+quite sufficiently as it is."
+
+Nell glanced at Mrs. Lorton, who smiled with the air of a society lady
+settling a point of etiquette.
+
+"If Mr. Vernon has really been so kind as to offer to lend you a horse,
+it would be ungrateful and churlish to refuse, Eleanor," she said.
+
+"That's all right," said Dick. "Though you might say 'Thank you,' Nell.
+But, there; you'll never learn manners, though you may, after some long
+years, learn to ride. Did you see that yacht, sir?" he asked, turning to
+Drake.
+
+Drake nodded carelessly.
+
+"A spanker, wasn't she?" continued Dick. "Now, that's what I call a
+yacht. And hadn't she some swells on board! I met some of them coming up
+the hill. Talk about stylish togs!"
+
+"No one talks of 'stylish togs' but savages in the wilds of London, and
+vulgar boys," remarked Nell.
+
+Dick regarded her wistfully, and raised the last piece of the crust of
+his slice of bread and butter to throw at her, then refrained, with a
+reluctant sigh.
+
+"I never saw anything like it out of a fashion plate. You ought to have
+been there, mamma," he put in, parenthetically. "You'd have appreciated
+them, no doubt, whereas I wasn't capable of anything but staring. They
+were swells--real swells, too; for I spoke to one of the crew who had
+Strolled up from the boat. The yacht's that racer, the _Seagull_. Do you
+know her, Mr. Vernon?"
+
+"I've heard of her," said Drake.
+
+"I forget the name of her owner; though the man told me; but he's a
+nobleman of sorts. There were no end of titled and fashionable people on
+board. A Sir--Sir Archie something; and a Lord and Lady Turfleigh,
+father and daughter--perhaps you know them?"
+
+Drake looked at him through half-closed eyes.
+
+"Yes, I've heard of them," he said. "May I have another cup of tea, Mrs.
+Lorton? Thanks, very much. The sail this morning has made me ravenous."
+
+"I am so delighted," murmured Mrs. Lorton. "What name did you say,
+Richard? Turfleigh! Surely I have heard or seen that name----"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Drake, "but if Dick has quite finished his
+tea, I think I'll stroll down to the stables and look at the horses."
+
+"Oh, right you are! Come on!" exclaimed Dick, with alacrity.
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked after the tall figure as it went out beside the
+boy's.
+
+"Mr. Vernon must be very well off, Eleanor," she said musingly, and with
+a little, satisfied smile at the corners of her mouth. "Three horses.
+And have you noticed that pearl stud? It is a black one, and must have
+cost a great deal; and there is a certain look, air, about him, which
+you, my dear Eleanor, are not likely to notice or understand, but which,
+to one of my experience of the world, is significant. Did he seem to
+enjoy his sail this morning?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," absently replied Nell, who was watching the tall
+figure as it went down the hill.
+
+Mrs. Lorton coughed in a genteel fashion, and her smile grew still more
+self-satisfied.
+
+"He could not be in a better place," she said; "could not possibly, and
+I do trust he will not think of leaving us until he is quite restored to
+health. I must really impress upon him how glad we are to have him, and
+how his presence cheers our dull and lonely lives."
+
+Nell laughed softly.
+
+"Mr. Vernon does not strike me as being particularly cheerful," she
+remarked; "at least, not generally," she qualified, as she remembered
+the unwonted brightness which he had displayed in the _Annie Laurie_.
+
+"In-deed! You are quite wrong, Eleanor," said Mrs. Lorton stiffly. "I
+consider Mr. Vernon a most entertaining and brilliant companion; and I,
+for one, should very deeply deplore his departure. I trust, therefore,
+you will do all you can to make his stay pleasant and to induce him to
+prolong it. Three horses; ahem!"--she coughed behind her mittened
+hand--"has he--er--hinted, given you any idea of his position
+and--er--income, Eleanor?"
+
+Nell flushed and shook her head.
+
+"No, mamma," she said reluctantly. "Why should he? We are not
+curious----"
+
+"Certainly not!" assented Mrs. Lorton, bridling. "I may have my faults,
+but curiosity is certainly not one of them. I merely thought that he
+might have dropped a word or two about himself, or his people, and
+the--ahem!--extent of his fortune."
+
+Nell shook her head again.
+
+"Nary a word--I mean, not a word!" she corrected herself hastily; "and,
+like yourself, mamma, I am not curious. What does it matter what and who
+he is, or who his people are? He will be gone in a day or two, and we
+shall probably never see him again."
+
+She moved away from the window as she made the response, and began to
+sing, and Mrs. Lorton looked after her, and listened to the sweet young
+voice, with a smile on her weakly shrewd face.
+
+"Eleanor has grown a great deal lately," she murmured to herself; "and I
+suppose some men would consider her not altogether bad-looking. I am
+quite certain he is a single man--he would have mentioned his wife; he
+couldn't have avoided it the first night I was talking to him. Three
+horses--yes; I suppose Eleanor really is good-looking. No one is more
+opposed than I am to the vulgar practice of matchmaking, which some
+women indulge in, but it really would be a mercy to get the girl
+settled. Yes; he must not think of leaving us until he is quite strong;
+and that won't be for some weeks, for some time, yet."
+
+Drake went down to the stables with Dick and "looked at" the horses,
+every now and then casting a glance through the open door at the
+_Seagull_ as it sailed across the bay.
+
+Did he regret the woman who had jilted him? Did he wish that he were on
+board his yacht with his friends, with the badinage, the scandal of the
+women, the jests and the doubtful stories of the men? He scarcely knew;
+he thought that he was sorrowing for the fair woman who had deserted
+him; but--he was not sure. From the meadows above there came the tinkle
+of a sheep bell, a lowing of a cow calling to her calf; the scent of the
+tar from a kettle on the beach rose with sharp pungency; the haze of the
+summer evening was blurring the hills which half ringed the sapphire
+sea. There was peace at Shorne Mills--a peace which fell upon the weary
+man of the world. He forgot his troubles for a moment; his lost
+inheritance, his debts, and difficulties; forgot even Woman and all she
+had cost him.
+
+Then suddenly, faintly, there came floating down to him the clear, sweet
+voice of Nell. What was it she was singing?
+
+            "Though years have passed, I love you yet;
+             Do you still remember, or do you forget?"
+
+A great wave of bitterness swept over him, and, between his teeth, he
+muttered:
+
+"They are all alike--with the face and the voice of an angel, and the
+heart of the Man with the Muck-rake. God save me from them from this
+time henceforth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+The weeks glided by, Drake's arm got mended, but he still lingered on at
+Shorne Mills.
+
+There was something in the beauty, the repose, of the place which
+fascinated and held him. He was so weary of the world, sore with
+disappointment, and shrinking from the pity of his friends who were, as
+he knew, dying to commiserate with him over his altered prospects.
+
+The weather was lovely, the air balmy, and for amusement--well, there
+was sailing in the _Annie Laurie_, lounging with a pipe on the jetty,
+listening, and sometimes talking, to the fishermen and sailors, and
+teaching Miss Nell Lorton to ride.
+
+"Not that you need much teaching," he said on the first day they rode
+together--that was before his arm was quite right, and Mrs. Lorton
+filled the air with her fears and anxieties for his safety. "But you
+have 'picked it up,' as they say, and there are one or two hints I may
+be able to give you which will make you as perfect a horsewoman as one
+would wish to see."
+
+"Isn't 'perfect' rather a big word?" said Nell.
+
+She turned her face to him, and the glory of its young beauty was
+heightened by the radiance of the smile which was enthroned on her lips
+and shone in her eyes.
+
+He looked at her with unconscious admiration and in silence for a
+moment.
+
+"There is no reason why you shouldn't be perfect," he said. "You've
+everything in your favor--youth, health, strength, and no end of pluck."
+
+"I ought to curtsy," said Nell, laughing softly. "But one can't curtsy
+on a horse, alas! Please let me off with a bow," and she bent low in the
+saddle, with all a girl's pretty irony. "But don't be sparing of those
+same hints, please. I really want to learn, and I will be very humble
+and meek."
+
+He laughed, as if amused by something.
+
+"I can scarcely fancy you either humble or meek, Miss Nell," he said.
+"Hold the reins a little nearer her neck. Like this. See? Then you've
+room to pull her if she stumbles; which, by the way, isn't likely. And
+you might sit a little closer at the canter. Don't trouble; leave the
+pace to the horse."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"I know!" she said. "How just being told a thing helps one! I should
+like to ride as well as you do. You and the horse seem one."
+
+He was not embarrassed by the compliment.
+
+"Oh, I've ridden all my life," he said, "and under all sorts of
+circumstances, on all sorts of horses, and one gets au fait in time.
+Now, let her have her head and we'll try a gallop. Don't bear too hard
+on her if she pulls--as she may--but ride her on the snaffle as much as
+possible."
+
+They had climbed the hill, and were riding along a road on the edge of
+one of the small moors, and after a moment or two of inspection of the
+graceful figure beside him, he motioned with his hand, and they turned
+on to the moor itself.
+
+As they cantered and galloped over the springy turf and heather, Drake
+grew thoughtful and absent-minded.
+
+The beauty of the scene, the azure sky, the clear, thin air, all soothed
+him; but he found himself asking himself why he was still lingering in
+this out-of-the-way spot in North Devon, and why he was content with the
+simple amusement of teaching a young girl to sit her horse and hold her
+reins properly.
+
+Why was he not on board the _Seagull_, which Lord Turfleigh had left in
+Southampton waters, or in Scotland shooting grouse, with one of the
+innumerable house parties to which he had been invited, and at which he
+would have been a welcome guest, or climbing the Alps with fellow
+members of the Alpine Club?
+
+So they were silent as they rode over this green-and-violet moor, over
+which the curlew flew wailingly, as if complaining of this breach of
+their solitude.
+
+And Nell was thinking, or, rather, musing; for though she was taking
+lessons, she was too good a rider to be absorbed in the management of
+her horse.
+
+Had she not scampered over these same moors on a half-wild Exmoor pony,
+bare-backed, and with a halter for a bridle?
+
+She was thinking of the weeks that had passed since the man who was
+riding beside her had been flung at her feet, and wondering, half
+unconsciously, at the happiness of those weeks. There had scarcely been
+a day in which he and she had not walked or sailed, or sat on the quay
+together. She recalled their first sail in the _Annie Laurie_; there had
+been many since then; and he had been so kind, so genial a companion,
+that she had begun to feel as if he were an old friend, a kind of second
+Dick.
+
+At times, it was true, he was silent and gloomy, not to say morose; but,
+as a rule, he was kind, with a gentle, protective sort of kindness
+which, believe me, is duly appreciated by even such a simple,
+unsophisticated girl as Nell.
+
+As she rode beside him, she glanced now and again at the handsome face,
+which was grave and lined with thought, and she wondered, girllike, upon
+what he was musing.
+
+Suddenly he turned to her.
+
+"Yes, you don't need much teaching," he said, with a smile. "You ride
+awfully well, as it is. With a little practice--you won't forget about
+holding the reins a little farther; from you?--you will ride like Lady
+Lucille herself."
+
+"Who is Lady Lucille?" she asked.
+
+He looked just a shade embarrassed for a moment, but only for a moment.
+
+"Oh, she's the crack fashionable rider," he said casually.
+
+"I feel very much flattered," said Nell. "And I am very grateful for
+your lesson. I hope you won't discontinue them because I show some
+promise."
+
+He looked at her with sudden gravity. Now was the time to tell her that
+he was going to leave Shorne Mills.
+
+"You won't want many more," he said; "but I hope you will let me ride
+with you while I'm here. I must be going presently."
+
+"Must you?" she said.
+
+Girls learn the art of mastering their voices much earlier than the
+opposite sex can, and her voice sounded indifferent enough, or just
+properly regretful.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes, I must leave Shorne Mills, worse luck."
+
+"If it is so unlucky, why do you go? But why is it so unlucky?" she
+asked; and still her tone sounded indifferent.
+
+"It's bad luck because--well, because I have been very happy here," he
+said, checking his horse into a walk.
+
+She glanced at him as she paced beside him.
+
+"You have been so happy here? Really? That sounds so strange. It is such
+a dull, quiet place."
+
+"Perhaps it's because of that," he said. "God knows, I'm not anxious to
+get back to London--the world."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully with her clear, girlish eyes; and he met
+the glance, then looked across the moor with something like a frown.
+
+"There is a fascination in the place," he said. "It is so beautiful and
+so quiet; and--and--London is so noisy, such a blare. And----"
+
+He paused.
+
+She kept the high-bred mare to a walk.
+
+"But will you not be glad to go?" she asked. "It must be dull here, as I
+said. You must have so many friends who--who will be glad to see you,
+and whom you will be glad to see."
+
+He smiled cynically.
+
+"Friends!" he said grimly. "Has any one many friends? And how many of
+the people I know will, I wonder, be glad to see me? They will find it
+pleasant to pity me."
+
+"Pity you! Why?" she asked, her beautiful eyes turned on him with
+surprise.
+
+Drake bit his lip.
+
+"Well, I've had a piece of bad luck lately," he said.
+
+"Oh, I'm sorry!" murmured Nell.
+
+He laughed grimly.
+
+"Oh, it's no more than I had a right to expect. Don't forget what I told
+you about holding your reins--that's right."
+
+"Is it about money?" she asked timidly. "I always think bad luck means
+that."
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes; I've lost a great deal of money lately," he replied vaguely.
+"And--and I must leave Shorne Mills."
+
+"I am sorry," she said simply, and without attempting to conceal her
+regret. "I--we--have almost grown to think that you belonged here. Will
+you be sorry to go?"
+
+He glanced at her innocent eyes and frowned.
+
+"Yes; very much," he replied. "There is a fascination in this place. It
+is so quiet, so beautiful, so remote, so far away from the world which I
+hate!"
+
+"You hate? Why do you hate it?" she asked.
+
+He bit his lip again.
+
+"Because it is false and hollow," he replied. "No man--or woman--thinks
+what he or she says, or says what he or she thinks."
+
+"Then why go back to it?" she asked. "But all the people in London can't
+be--bad and false," she added, as if she were considering his sweeping
+condemnation.
+
+"Oh, not all," he said. "I've been unfortunate in my acquaintances,
+perhaps, as Voltaire said."
+
+He looked across the moor again absently. Her question, "Then why go
+back to it?" haunted him. It was absurd to imagine that he could remain
+at Shorne Mills. The quiet life had been pleasant, he had felt better in
+health here than he had done for years; but--well, a man who has spent
+so many years in the midst of the whirl of life is very much like the
+old prisoner of the Bastille who, when he was released by the
+revolutionary mob, implored to be taken back again. One gets used to the
+din and clamor of society as one gets used to the solemn quiet of a
+prison. Besides, he was, or had been, a prominent figure in the
+gallantry show, and he seemed to belong to it.
+
+"One isn't always one's own master," he said, after a pause.
+
+Nell turned her eyes to him.
+
+"Are not you?" she said, a little shyly. "You seem so--so free to do
+just what you please."
+
+He laughed rather grimly.
+
+"Do you know what I should do if I were as free as I seem, Miss Nell?"
+he asked. "I should take one of these farms"--he nodded to a rural
+homestead, one of the smallest and simplest, which stood on the edge of
+the moor--"and spend the rest of my life making clotted cream and
+driving cows and pigs to market."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I can scarcely imagine you doing that," she said.
+
+"Well, I might buy a trawler, and go fishing in the bay."
+
+"That would be better," she admitted. "But it's very tough weather
+sometimes. I have seen the women waiting on the jetty, and on the
+cliffs, and looking out at the storm, with their faces white with fear
+and anxiety for the men--their fathers and husbands and sweethearts."
+
+"There wouldn't be any women to watch and grow white for me," he
+remarked.
+
+"Oh, but don't you think we should be anxious--mamma and I?" she said.
+
+He looked at her, but her eyes met his innocently, and there was not a
+sign of coquetry in her smile.
+
+"Thanks. In that case, I must abandon the idea of getting my livelihood
+as a fisherman," he said lightly. "I couldn't think of causing Mrs.
+Lorton any further anxiety."
+
+"Shall we have another gallop?" she asked, a moment or two afterward.
+"We might ride to that farm there"--she pointed to a thatched roof just
+visible above a hollow--"and get a glass of milk. I am quite thirsty."
+
+She made the suggestion blithely, as if neither her own nor his words
+had remained in her mind; and Drake brightened up as they sped over the
+springy turf.
+
+A woman came out of the farm, and greeted them with a cordial welcome in
+the smile which she bestowed on Nell, and the half nod, half curtsy, she
+gave to Drake.
+
+"Why, Miss Nell, it be yew sure enough," she said pleasantly. "I was
+a-thinkin' that 'eed just forgot us. Bobby! Bobby! do 'ee come and hold
+the horses. Here be Miss Nell of Shorne Mills."
+
+A barefooted, ruddy-cheeked little man ran out and laughed up at Nell as
+she bent down and stroked his head with her whip. Nell and Drake
+dismounted, and she led the way into the kitchen and living room of the
+farm.
+
+The room was so low that Drake felt he must stoop, and Nell's tall
+figure looked all the taller and slimmer for its propinquity to the
+timbered ceiling. The woman brought a couple of glasses of milk and some
+saffron cakes, and Nell drank and ate with a healthy, unashamed
+appetite, and apparently quite forgot Drake, who, seated in the
+background, sipped his milk and watched and listened to her absently.
+She knew this woman and her husband and the children quite intimately;
+asked after the baby's last tooth as she bent over the sleeping mite,
+and was anxious to know how the eldest girl, who was in service in
+London, was getting on.
+
+"Well, Emma, her says she likes it well enough," replied the woman,
+standing, with the instinctive delicacy of respect, with her firm hand
+resting on the spotlessly white table; "leastways her would if there was
+more air--it's the want o' air she complains of. Accordin' to she, there
+bean't enough for the hoosts o' people there be. Oh, yes, the family's
+kind enough to her--not that she has much to do wi' 'em; for she's in
+the nursery--she's nursemaid, you remembers, Miss Nell--and the mistress
+is too grand a lady to go there often. It's a great family she's in, you
+know, Miss Nell, a titled family, and there's grand goin's-on a'most
+every day; indeed, it's turnin' day into night they're at most o' the
+time, so says Emma. She made so bold, Emma did, to send her best
+respects to you in her last letter, and to say she hoped if ever you
+came to London she'd have the luck to see you, though it might be from a
+distance."
+
+Nell nodded gratefully.
+
+"Not that I am at all likely to go to London," she said, with a laugh.
+"If I did, I should be sure to go and see Emma."
+
+Emma's mother glanced curiously at Drake; and he understood the
+significance of the glance, but Nell was evidently unconscious of its
+meaning.
+
+"And this is the gentleman as is staying at the cottage, Miss Nell?" she
+said. "I hope your arm's better, sir?"
+
+Drake made a suitable and satisfactory response, and Nell, having talked
+to the two little girls, who had got as near to her as their shyness
+would permit, rose.
+
+"Thank you so much for the milk and cakes, Mrs. Trimble," she said. "We
+were quite famishing, weren't we?"
+
+"Quite famished," assented Drake.
+
+Mrs. Trimble beamed.
+
+"You be main welcome, Miss Nell, as 'ee knows full well; I wish 'ee
+could ride out to us every day. And that's a beautiful horse you're on,
+miss, surely!"
+
+"Isn't it?" said Nell. "It's Mr. Vernon's; he is kind enough to lend it
+to me."
+
+Mrs. Trimble glanced significantly again at Drake; but again Nell failed
+to see or understand the quick, intelligent question in the eyes.
+
+"Speakin' o' Emma, I've got her letter in my pocket, Miss Nell; and I'm
+thinkin' I'll give it 'ee; for the address, you know. It's on the top,
+writ clear, and if you should go to London----"
+
+Nell took the precious letter, and put it with marked carefulness in the
+bosom of her habit.
+
+"I shall like to read it, Mrs. Trimble. Emma and I were such good
+friends, weren't we? And I'll be sure to let you have it back."
+
+The whole of the family crowded out to see Miss Nell of Shorne Mills
+drive off, and Drake had to maneuver skillfully to get a coin into
+Bobby's chubby, and somewhat grubby, hand unseen by Nell.
+
+They rode on in silence for a time. The scene had impressed Drake. The
+affection of the whole of them for Nell had been so evident, and the
+sweet simplicity of her nature had displayed itself so ingenuously, that
+he felt--well, as he had felt once or twice coming out of church.
+
+Then he remembered the woman's significant glance, and his conscience
+smote him. No doubt all Shorne Mills was connecting his name with hers.
+Yes; he must go.
+
+She was singing softly as she rode beside him, and they exchanged
+scarcely half a dozen sentences on the way home; but yet Nell seemed
+happy and content, and as she slipped from her saddle in front of the
+garden gate, she breathed a sigh of keen pleasure.
+
+"Oh, I have enjoyed it so much!" she said, as he looked at her
+inquiringly. "Is there anything more beautiful and lovable than a
+horse?"
+
+As she spoke, she stroked the mare's satin neck, and the animal turned
+its great eyes upon her with placid affection and gratitude. Drake
+looked from the horse to the girl, but said nothing, and at that moment
+Dick came out to take the horses down to the stables.
+
+"Had a good ride, Nell?" he asked. "Wants a lot of coaching, doesn't
+she, Mr. Vernon? But I assure you I've done my best with her; girls are
+the most stupid creatures in the world; and the last person they'll
+learn anything from is their brother."
+
+Nell managed to tilt his cap over his eyes as she ran in, and Dick
+looked after her longingly, as he exclaimed portentously:
+
+"That's one I owe you, my child."
+
+Nell laughed back defiantly; but when she had got up to her own room,
+and was taking off the habit, something of the brightness left her face,
+and she sighed.
+
+"I am sorry he is going," she murmured to her reflection in the glass.
+"How we shall miss him; all of us, Dick and mamma! And I shall miss him,
+too. Yes; I am sorry. It will seem so--so dull and dreary when he has
+gone. And he does not seem glad to go. But perhaps he only said that to
+please me, and because it was the proper thing to say. Of course,
+I--we--could not expect him to stay for the rest of his life in Shorne
+Mills."
+
+She sighed again, and stood, with her habit half unbuttoned, looking
+beyond the glass into the past few happy weeks. Yes, it would seem very
+dull and dreary when he was gone.
+
+But he still lingered on; his arm got well, his step was strong and
+firm, his voice and manner less grave and moody. He rode or sailed with
+her every day, Dick sometimes accompanying them; but he was only
+postponing the hour of his departure, and putting it away from him with
+a half-hesitating hand.
+
+One afternoon, Dick burst into the sitting room--they were at tea--with
+a couple of parcels; one, a small square like a box, the other, a larger
+and heavier one.
+
+"Just come by the carrier," he said; "addressed to 'Drake Vernon,
+Esquire.' The little one is registered. The carrier acted as auxiliary
+postman, and wants a receipt."
+
+Drake signed the paper absently, with a scrawl of the pen which Dick
+brought him, and Dick, glancing at the signature mechanically, said:
+
+"Well, that's a rum way of writing 'Vernon'!"
+
+Drake looked up from cutting the string of the small box, and frowned
+slightly.
+
+"Give it me back, please," he said, rather sharply. "It isn't fair to
+write so indistinctly."
+
+Dick handed the receipt form back, and Drake ran his pen quickly through
+the "Selbie" which he had scrawled unthinkingly, and wrote Drake Vernon
+in its place.
+
+Dick took the altered paper unsuspectingly to the carrier.
+
+"So kind of you to trouble, Mr. Vernon!" said Mrs. Lorton. "As if it
+mattered how you wrote! My poor father used to say that only the
+illiterate were careful of their handwriting, and that illegible
+caligraphy--it is caligraphy, is it not?--was a sign of genius."
+
+"Then I must be one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived," said
+Drake.
+
+"And I'm another--if indifferent spelling is also a sign," said Dick
+cheerfully; "and Nell must cap us both, for she can neither write nor
+spell; few girls can," he added calmly. "Tobacco, Mr. Vernon?" nodding
+at the box.
+
+By this time Drake had got its wrapper off and revealed a jewel case. He
+handed it to Mrs. Lorton with the slight awkwardness of a man giving a
+present.
+
+"Here's a little thing I hope you will accept, Mrs. Lorton," he said.
+
+"For me!" she exclaimed, bridling, and raising her brows with juvenile
+archness. "Are you sure it's for me? Now, shall I guess----"
+
+"Oh, no, you don't, mamma," said Dick emphatically. "I'll open it if you
+can't manage it. Oh, I say!" he exclaimed, as Mrs. Lorton opened the
+case, and the sparkle of diamonds was emitted.
+
+Mrs. Lorton echoed his exclamation, and her face flushed with all a
+woman's delight as she gazed at the diamond bracelet reposing on its bed
+of white plush.
+
+"Really----My dear Mr. Vernon!" she gasped. "How--how truly magnificent!
+But surely not for me--for me!"
+
+He was beginning to get, if not uncomfortable, a little bored, with a
+man's hatred of fuss.
+
+"I'm afraid there's not much magnificence about it," he said, rather
+shortly. "I hope you like the pattern, style, or whatever you call it. I
+had to risk it, not being there to choose. And there's a gun in that
+case, Dick."
+
+Dick made an indecent grab for the larger parcel, and, tearing off the
+wrapper, opened the thick leather case and took out a costly gun.
+
+"And a Greener!" he exclaimed. "A Greener! I say, you know, sir----"
+
+He laughed excitedly, his face flushed with delight, as he carried the
+gun to the window.
+
+"Is it not perfect, simply perfect, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton, holding
+out her arm with the bracelet on her wrist. "Really, I don't think you
+could have chosen a handsomer one, Mr. Vernon, if you had gone to London
+to do so."
+
+"I am glad you are pleased with it," he said simply.
+
+"Pleased? It is perfect! Eleanor, haven't you a word to say? No; I
+imagine you are too overwhelmed for words," said Mrs. Lorton, with a
+kind of cackle.
+
+"It is very beautiful, mamma," she said gravely; and her face, as she
+leaned over the thing, was grave also.
+
+Drake looked at her as he rose, and understood the look and the tone of
+her voice, and was glad that he had resisted the almost irresistible
+temptation to order a somewhat similar present for her.
+
+"I say, sir, you must get your gun down, and we must go for some
+rabbits," said Dick eagerly. "And I can get a day or two's shooting over
+the Maltby land as soon as the season opens. I'm sure they'd give it
+me."
+
+"That's tempting, Dick," said Drake; "and it adds another cause to my
+regret that I am leaving to-morrow."
+
+"Leaving to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton, with a gasp. "Surely not!
+You are not thinking, dreaming of going, my dear Mr. Vernon?"
+
+"It's very good of you," he said, picking up his cap and nearing the
+door. "But I couldn't stay forever, you know. I've trespassed on your
+hospitality too much already."
+
+"Oh, I say, you know!" expostulated Dick, in a deeply aggrieved tone. "I
+say, Nell, do you hear that? Mr. Vernon's going!"
+
+"Miss Nell knows that I have been 'going' for some days past, only that
+I haven't been able to tear myself away. It's nearly five, Miss Nell,
+and we ordered the boat for half-past four, you know," he added, in a
+matter-of-fact way.
+
+She rose and ran out of the room for her jacket and tam-o'-shanter, and
+they went out, leaving Mrs. Lorton and Dick still gloating over their
+presents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Nell walked rapidly and talking quickly as they went down to the jetty,
+and it was not until the _Annie Laurie_ was slipping out into the bay
+that she grew silent and thoughtful. She sat in the stern with her arm
+over the tiller, her eyes cast down, her face grave; and Drake, feeling
+uncomfortable, said at last:
+
+"Might one offer a penny for your thoughts, Miss Nell?"
+
+She looked up and met the challenge with a sweet seriousness.
+
+"I was thinking of something that you told me the other day--when we
+were riding," she said.
+
+"I've told you so much----" "And so little!" he added mentally.
+
+"You said that you had been unlucky, that you had lost a great deal of
+money lately," she said, in a low voice.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes; I think I did. It's true unfortunately; but it doesn't much
+matter."
+
+"Does it not?" she asked. "Why did you give mamma so costly a present?
+Oh, please don't deny it. I don't know very much about diamonds, but I
+know that that bracelet must have cost a great deal of money."
+
+"Not really," he said, with affected carelessness. "Diamonds are very
+cheap now; they find 'em by the bucketful in the Cape, you know."
+
+She looked at him with grave reproach.
+
+"You are trying to belittle it," she said; "but, indeed, I am not
+deceived. And the gun, too! That must have been very expensive. Why--did
+you spend so much?"
+
+He began to feel irritated.
+
+"Look here, Miss Nell," he said; "it is true that I have lost some
+money, but I'm not quite a pauper, and, if I were, the least I could do
+would be to share my last crust with--with your people for their amazing
+goodness to me."
+
+"A diamond bracelet and an expensive gun are not crusts," she said,
+shaking her head.
+
+"Oh, dash it all!" he retorted impatiently. "The stupid things only very
+inadequately represent my----Oh, I'm bad at speech making and expressing
+myself. And don't you think you ought to be very grateful to me?"
+
+She frowned slightly in the effort to understand.
+
+"Grateful! I have just been telling you that I think you ought not to
+have spent so much. Why should I be grateful?"
+
+"That I didn't buy something for you," he said.
+
+She colored, and looked away from him.
+
+"I--I should not have accepted it," she said.
+
+"I know that," he blurted out. "If I thought you would have done so--but
+I knew you wouldn't. And so I've got a grievance to meet yours. After
+all, you might have let me give you some trifle----"
+
+"Such as a diamond bracelet, worth perhaps a hundred pounds?"
+
+"To remember me by. After all, it's only natural I should want to leave
+something behind me to remind you of me."
+
+"We shan't need such gifts to--to remind us," she said simply. "I think
+we had better luff."
+
+The sail swung over as she put the helm down; there was silence for a
+moment or two, then he said:
+
+"I'm sorry I've offended you, Miss Nell. Perhaps it was beastly bad
+taste. I see it now. But just put yourself in my place----" He slid over
+the thwart in his eagerness, and coiled himself at her feet. "Supposing
+you had broken your confounded arm--I beg your pardon!--your arm, and
+had been taken in and tended by good Samaritans, and nursed and treated
+like a prince for weeks, and had been made to feel happier than you've
+been for--for oh, years, would you like to go away with just a 'Oh,
+thanks; awfully obliged; very kind of you'? Wouldn't you want to make a
+more solid acknowledgment? Come, be fair and just--if a woman can be
+fair and just!--and admit that I'm not such a criminal, after all!"
+
+She looked down at him thoughtfully, then turned her eyes seaward again.
+
+"What do you want me to say?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, well; I see that you won't change your mind about these things, so
+perhaps I'd better be content if you'll say: 'I forgive you.'"
+
+A smile flitted across her face as she looked down at him again, but it
+was rather a sad little smile.
+
+"I--I forgive you!" she said.
+
+He raised his cap, and took her hand, and, before she suspected what he
+was going to do, he put his lips to it.
+
+Her face grew crimson, then pale almost to whiteness. It was the first
+time a man's lips had touched her virgin hand, and----A tremor ran
+through her, her eyes grew misty, as she looked at him with a
+half-pained, half-fearful expression. Then she turned her head away, and
+so quickly that he saw neither the change of color nor the expression in
+her eyes.
+
+"I feel like a miscreant who had received an unexpected pardon," he said
+lightly, and yet with a touch of gravity in his voice, "and, like the
+miscreant, I at once proceed to take advantage of the lenity of my
+judge."
+
+She turned her eyes to him questioningly; there was still a
+half-puzzled, half-timid expression in them.
+
+"I want to be rewarded--as well as pardoned--rewarded for my noble
+sacrifice of the desire to bestow a piece of jewelry upon you."
+
+"Rewarded?" she faltered.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes. After the awful rebuke and scolding you have administered, you
+cannot refuse to accept some token of my--some acknowledgment of my
+gratitude, Miss Nell. See here----"
+
+He felt in his waistcoat pocket, then in those of his coat, and at last
+brought out a well-worn silver pencil case.
+
+"I want you to be gracious enough to accept this," he said. "Before you
+refuse with haughty displeasure and lively scorn, be good enough to
+examine it. It is worth, I should say--shall I say five shillings? That,
+I should imagine, is its utmost value. But, on the other hand, it is a
+useful article, and I display my natural cunning in selecting it--it's
+the only thing I've got about me that I could offer you, except a match
+box, and, as you don't smoke, you've no use for that--because you will
+never be able to use it, I hope and trust, without thinking of the
+unworthy donor and the debt of gratitude which no diamond bracelet could
+discharge."
+
+During this long speech, which he had made to conceal his eager desire
+that she should accept, and his fear, that she should not, Nell's color
+had come and gone, but she kept her eyes fixed on his steadily, as if
+she were afraid to remove them.
+
+"Are you going to accept it--or shall I fling it into the sea as a
+votive offering? It would be a pity, for it is useful, a thing of sorts,
+and has been my constant companion for many a year. Yes, or no?"
+
+He held the pencil up, as if he were offering it by auction.
+
+Nell hesitated, then she held out her hand without a word. He dropped
+the battered pencil case into it, and his bantering tone changed
+instantly.
+
+"Thank you!" he said gravely, earnestly. "I--I was afraid that you were
+going to refuse, and--well, that would have hurt me. And that would have
+hurt you; for I know how gentle-hearted you are, Miss Nell."
+
+Her hand closed over the pencil case tightly until the silver grew warm,
+then she slipped the thing into her pocket.
+
+"Please observe," he said, after a pause, during which he lit a
+cigarette, "that I am not in need of any token as a reminder. I am not
+likely to forget--Shorne Mills."
+
+He turned on his elbow and gazed at the jetty and the cottages which
+straggled up from it in the narrow ravine to the heights above, to the
+unique and quaint village upon which the still hot sun was shining as
+the boat danced toward it.
+
+"No. I shan't find it difficult to remember--or regret."
+
+He stifled a sigh. A sigh rose to her lips also, but she checked it, and
+forced a smile.
+
+"One does not break one's arm every day, and it is not easy to forget
+that," she said; "and yet, I dare say you will remember Shorne Mills. I
+don't think you will see many prettier places. Isn't it quite lovely
+this evening, with the sun shining on the cliffs and making old
+Brownie's windows glitter--like--like the diamonds in mamma's bracelet?"
+
+She laughed with a girlish mischievousness, and ran on rapidly, as if
+she must talk, as if a pause were to be averted as a peril.
+
+"I've heard people say that there is only one other place in the world
+like it--Cintra, in Portugal, isn't it?"
+
+He nodded. He was gazing at the picturesque little place, the human
+nests stuck like white stones in the cleft of the cliffs; and something
+more than the beauty of Shorne Mills was stirring, almost oppressing,
+his heart. He had stayed at, and departed from, many a place as
+beautiful in other ways as this, and had left it with some little
+regret, perhaps, but never with the dull, aching feeling such as weighed
+upon him this evening.
+
+"And at night it's lovelier still," went on Nell cheerfully, after a
+snatch of song, just sung under her breath, to show how happy and free
+from care she was at that moment. "To sail in on the tide of an autumn
+evening when the lights have been lit, and every cottage looks like a
+lantern; and the blue haze hangs over the village, and the children's
+voices come floating over the water as if through a mist; then, on
+nights like that, the sea is all phosphorescent, and the boat leaves a
+line of silvery light in its wake; and one seems to have all the world
+to oneself----"
+
+She stopped suddenly and sighed unconsciously. Was she thinking that,
+when that autumn night came, and Drake Vernon was not with her, she
+would indeed have all the world to herself, and that all the world is
+all the nicer when one has a companion? He lowered his eyes to her face.
+
+"That was a pretty picture," he said, in a low voice. "I shall think of
+that--wherever I may be in the autumn."
+
+Nell laughed as the boat ran beside the jetty slip, and she rose.
+
+"Do you think you will? Perhaps you will be too much amused, engrossed
+with whatever you are doing. I know I should be, if--if I were to leave
+Shorne Mills, and go into the big world."
+
+"You do yourself an injustice," he said, rather curtly; and she laughed,
+and flushed a little.
+
+"I deserve that," she said. "Of course, I should not forget Shorne
+Mills; but you----Ah, it is different!"
+
+She sprang out before he could get on shore and offer his hand.
+
+"I shall want her to-morrow morning at eleven, Brownie," she said to the
+old fisherman who was preparing to take the _Annie Laurie_ to her
+moorings.
+
+He touched his forehead.
+
+"Aye, aye, Miss Nell! And you'll not be wanting me?" he asked, as a
+matter of form, and with a glance at Drake, who stood waiting with his
+hands in his pockets.
+
+"Oh, yes, please," she said. "I forgot; Mr. Vernon is going away
+to-morrow," she added cheerfully; and she began to sing under her breath
+again as they climbed upward. But Drake did not sing, and his face was
+gloomy.
+
+Throughout that evening, Mrs. Lorton contributed to the entertainment of
+her guest by admiring her bracelet and deploring his departure.
+
+"Of course I am aware that you must be anxious to go," she said, with a
+deep sigh. "It has been dull, I've no doubt, very dull; and I am so
+sorry that the state of my health has prevented me going out and about
+with you. There are so many places of interest in the neighborhood which
+we could have visited; but I am sure you will make allowances for an
+invalid. And we will hope that this is not your last visit to Shorne
+Mills. I need not say that we shall be glad, delighted, indeed, at any
+time----"
+
+Every now and then Drake murmured his acknowledgments; but he made the
+due responses absently. He was left entirely at Mrs. Lorton's mercy that
+evening--for Nell had suddenly remembered that she ought really to go
+and see old Brownie's mother, a lady whose age was set down at anything
+between a hundred and a hundred and ten, and Dick was in his "workshop"
+cleaning the new and spotless gun.
+
+Nell did not come in till late, was full of Grandmother Brownie's
+sayings and wonderfully maintained faculties, and ran off to bed very
+soon, with a cheerful "Good night, Mr. Vernon. Dick has ordered the trap
+for nine o'clock."
+
+Drake got up early the next morning; there were the horses to be
+arranged for--he was going to leave two behind, for a time, at any rate,
+in the hope that Dick and Miss Nell might use them; and he had to say
+good-by--and tip--sundry persons. He performed the latter operation on
+so liberal a scale that amazement sat upon the bosom of many a man and
+woman in Shorne Mills for months afterward. Molly, indeed, was so
+overcome by the sight and feel of the crisp ten-pound note, and her face
+grew so red and her eyes so prominent, that Drake was seriously afraid
+that she was going to have a fit.
+
+Nell had got up a few minutes after him, and had prepared his farewell
+breakfast; but she was not present, and Mrs. Lorton presided. It was not
+until the arrival of the trap that she came in hurriedly. She had her
+outdoor things on, and explained that she had had to go to the farm to
+order a fowl; and she was full of some story the farmer's wife had told
+her--a story which had made her laugh, and still seemed to cause her so
+much amusement that Mrs. Lorton felt compelled to remind her that Mr.
+Vernon was going.
+
+"Ah, yes! I suppose it is time. The train starts at ten-forty-five. Have
+you got some lunch for Mr. Vernon, Dick?"
+
+She had packed a neat little packet of sandwiches with her own hands,
+but put the question casually, as if she hoped that somebody had
+considered their departing guest's comfort.
+
+The girl's bright cheerfulness got on Drake's nerves. His farewell to
+Mrs. Lorton lacked grace and finish, and he could only hold out his hand
+to Nell, and say, rather grimly and curtly:
+
+"Good-by, Miss Nell."
+
+Just that; no more.
+
+Her hand rested in his for a moment. Did it tremble, or was it only
+fancy on his part? She said, "Good-by, and I hope you will have a
+pleasant journey," quite calmly.
+
+Dick burst in with:
+
+"Now, Mr. Vernon, if you've kissed everybody, we'd better be starting,"
+and Drake got into the trap.
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked after the departing guest, and waved her hand with an
+expression of languid sorrow; then turned to Nell with a sigh.
+
+"I might have known that he would go; but still I must say that it is a
+disappointment--a great disappointment. These trials are sent for our
+good, and----I do wish you would not keep up that perpetual humming,
+Eleanor. On an occasion like this it is especially trying. And how pale
+you look!" she added, staring unsympathetically.
+
+"I've--I've rather a headache," said Nell, turning toward the door. "I
+suppose it was hurrying up to the farm. It is very hot this morning.
+I'll go and take off my hat."
+
+She went upstairs slowly, slipped the bolt in her bedroom door, and,
+taking off her hat, stood looking beyond the glass for a moment or two;
+then she absently drew an old and somewhat battered pencil case from her
+pocket. She gazed at it thoughtfully, until suddenly she could not see
+it for the tears that gathered in her eyes, and presently she began to
+tremble. She slipped to her knees besides the bed, and buried her
+forehead in the hands clasped over Drake's "token of remembrance and
+gratitude."
+
+And as she struggled with the sobs that shook her, she still trembled;
+for there was something in the feeling of utter, overwhelming desolation
+which frightened her--something she could neither understand nor resist,
+though she had been fighting against it all through the long and weary
+night.
+
+Oh, the shame of it! That she should cry because Mr. Drake Vernon had
+left Shorne Mills! The shame of it!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+All the way up to town Drake felt very depressed. It is strange that we
+mortals never thoroughly appreciate a thing until we have lost it, or a
+time until it has slipped past us; and Drake only realized, as the
+express rushed along and took him farther and farther away from Shorne
+Mills, how contented, and, yes, nearly happy, he had been there,
+notwithstanding the pain and inconvenience of a broken limb.
+
+As he leaned back and smoked, he thought of the little village in the
+cleft of the cliffs, of the opaline sea, of the miniature jetty on which
+he had so often sat and basked in the sunlight; but, more than all, he
+thought of The Cottage, of the racketing, warm-hearted Dick, and--and of
+Nell of Shorne Mills.
+
+It seemed hard to realize, and not a little painful, that he should
+never again sit in the parlor which now seemed to him so cozy, and
+listen to the girl playing Chopin and Grieg; or ride beside her over the
+yellow and purple moor; or lie coiled up at her feet as she sailed the
+_Annie Laurie_.
+
+He began to suspect that he had taken a greater interest in her than he
+was aware of; he had grown accustomed to the sweet face, the musical
+voice, the little tricks of manner and expression which went to make up
+a charm which he now felt she certainly possessed. He looked round the
+carriage and sighed as if he missed something, as if something had gone
+out of his life.
+
+They had been awfully good to him; they had in very truth played the
+part of the good Samaritan; and in his mind he compared these simple
+folk, buried in an out-of-the-way fishing village, with some of his
+fashionable friends. Which of them would have nursed him as he had been
+nursed at The Cottage, would have treated him as one of the family,
+would have lavished upon him a regard nearly akin to affection? It was a
+hollow world, he thought, and he wished to Heaven he had been born in
+Shorne Mills, and got his living as a fisherman, putting in his spare
+time by looking after, say, the _Annie Laurie_!
+
+He had wired to his man, and he found his rooms all ready for him. He
+wondered as he looked round the handsome and tastefully furnished
+sitting room, while Sparling helped him off with his coat, whether he
+should be able to afford to keep them up much longer.
+
+"Any news, Sparling?" he asked. "Hope you've been all right," he added,
+in the pleasant and friendly way with which he always addressed those
+who did service for him.
+
+"Thank you, my lord," said Sparling, "I've been very well; but I was
+much upset to hear of your lordship's accident, and very sorry you
+wouldn't let me come to you."
+
+The man spoke with genuine sympathy and regret, for he was attached to
+Drake, and was fully convinced that he had the best, the handsomest, and
+the most desirable master in all England.
+
+"Thanks; very much," said Drake; "but it was nothing to speak of, and
+there was no reason for dragging you down there. There wasn't any
+accommodation, to tell the truth, and you'd have moped yourself to
+death."
+
+"You're looking very well, my lord--a little thinner, perhaps," said
+Sparling respectfully.
+
+Drake sighed at the naïve retort, then sighed unaccountably.
+
+"Oh, I've done some fishing, boating, and riding," he said, "and I'm
+pretty fit--fitter than I've been for some time. There's an awful pile
+of letters, I see."
+
+"Yes, my lord; you told me not to send them on. Will your lordship dine
+at home to-night?"
+
+Drake replied in the affirmative, had a bath, and changed, and sat down
+to one of the daintily prepared dinners which were the envy and despair
+of his bachelor friends. It was really an admirable little dinner; the
+claret was a famous one from the Anglemere cellars, and warmed to a
+nicety; the coffee was perfection; Sparling's ministrations left nothing
+to be desired; and yet Drake sank into his easy-chair after the meal
+with a sigh that was weary and wistful.
+
+There had never been anything more than soup and a plain joint, with a
+pudding to follow, at the dinners at The Cottage; but the simple meal
+had been rendered a pleasant one by Dick's cheerful and boyish nonsense;
+and whenever Drake looked across the table, there had been Nell's sweet
+face opposite him, sometimes grave with a pensive thoughtfulness, at
+others all alight with merriment and innocent, girlish gayety.
+
+His room to-night seemed very dull and lonely. It was strange; he had
+never been bored by his own society before; he had rather liked to dine
+alone, to smoke his cigarette with the evening paper across his knee or
+a book on the table beside him. He tried to read; but the carefully
+edited paper, with its brilliant articles, its catchy little paragraphs,
+and its sparkling gossip, didn't interest him in the least. He dropped
+it, and fell to wondering, to picturing, what they were doing at that
+precise moment at The Cottage. Mrs. Lorton, no doubt, was sitting in her
+high-backed chair reading the _Fashion Gazette_; Dick was lounging just
+outside the window, smoking a cigarette, mending his rod, and whistling
+the last comic song. And Nell--what was Nell doing? Perhaps she was
+playing softly one of the pieces he had grown fond of; or leaning half
+out of the window squabbling affectionately with the boy.
+
+Or perhaps they were talking of him--Drake. Did they miss him? At the
+thought, he was reminded of the absurd song--"Will They Miss Me When I'm
+Gone?" And, with something like a blush for his sentimental weakness, as
+he mentally termed it, he sprang up and took his letters. They consisted
+mostly of bills and invitations. He chucked the first aside and glanced
+at the others; both were distasteful to him. He felt as if he should
+like to cut the world forever.
+
+And yet that wouldn't do. Everybody would say that he was completely
+knocked over by the ruin of his prospects, and that he had run away. He
+couldn't stand that. He had always been accustomed to facing the music,
+however unpleasant it might be; and he would face it now. Besides, it
+would never do to sit there moping, and wishing himself back at Shorne
+Mills; because that was just what he was doing.
+
+He turned over the gilt-edged cards and the scented notes--there seemed
+to be a great many people in town, notwithstanding the deadness of the
+season--and he selected one from a certain Lady Northgate. She was an
+old friend of his, and she had written him a pretty little note, asking
+him to a reception for that night. It was just the little note which a
+thorough woman of the world would write to a man whom she liked, and who
+had struck a streak of bad luck. Most of Drake's acquaintances who were
+in town would be there; and it would be a good opportunity of facing the
+situation and accepting more or less sincere sympathy with a good grace.
+
+It was a fine night; and he walked to the Northgates' in Grosvenor
+Square; and thought of the evening he and Nell had sailed in to Shorne
+Mills with the lights peeping out through the trees, and the stars
+twinkling in the deep-blue sky. It already seemed years since that
+night, but he saw the girl's face as clearly as if she were walking
+beside him now.
+
+The face vanished as he went up the broad staircase and into the
+brilliantly lighted room; and Shorne Mills seemed farther away, and all
+that had happened there like a dream, as Lady Northgate held out her
+hand and smiled at him.
+
+She was an old friend, and many years his senior; but of course she
+looked young--no one in society gets old nowadays--and she greeted him
+with a cheerful badinage, which, however skillfully, suggested sympathy.
+
+"It was a good boy to come!" she said. "I scarcely half expected you,
+and Harry offered to bet me ten to one in my favorite gloves that you
+wouldn't; but, somehow, I thought you would turn up. I wrote such a
+pretty note, didn't I?"
+
+"You did; you always do," said Drake. "It was quite irresistible."
+
+Lord Northgate, who was the "Harry" alluded to, came up and gave Drake a
+warm grip of the hand.
+
+"What the deuce are you doing here?" he asked. "Thought you were
+shooting down at Monkwell's place, or somewhere. Jolly glad Lucy didn't
+take my bet. And where have you been?"
+
+"With the Devon and Somerset," replied Drake, with partial truth.
+
+"Wish I had!" grumbled Northgate. "Kept at the Office." He was in the
+Cabinet. "There's always some beastly row, or little war, just going on
+when one wants to get at the salmon or the grouse. I declare to goodness
+that I work like a nigger and get nothing but kicks for halfpence! I'd
+chuck politics to-morrow if it weren't for Lucy; and why on earth she
+likes to be shut in town, and sweltering in hot rooms, playing this kind
+of game, I can't imagine."
+
+"But then you haven't a strong imagination, Harry, dear," said his wife
+pleasantly.
+
+"I've got a strong thirst on me," said Northgate, "and a still stronger
+desire to cut this show. Come down to the smoking room and have a cigar
+presently, old chap."
+
+Drake knew that this was equivalent to saying, "I'm sorry for you, old
+man!" and nodded comprehendingly.
+
+"You're looking very well, Drake," said Lady Northgate, as her husband,
+struggling with a fearful yawn, sauntered away. "And not at all
+unhappy."
+
+Drake shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What's the use? Of course, it's a bad business for me; but all the
+yowling in the world wouldn't better it. What can't be cured must be
+endured."
+
+Lady Northgate nodded at him approvingly.
+
+"I knew you'd take it like this," she said. "You won't go down to Harry
+for a little while?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Drake, with a smile. "I'm going the round; I'm not going
+to shirk it."
+
+He was one of the most popular men in London, and there were many in the
+room who really sympathized with and were sorry for him; and Drake, as
+he exchanged greetings with one and another, felt that the thing hadn't
+been so bad, after all. He made this consoling reflection as he leaned
+against the wall beside a chair in which sat a lady whom he did not
+know, and at whom he had scarcely glanced; and he was roused from his
+reverie by her saying:
+
+"May I venture to trouble you to put this glass down?"
+
+He took the glass and set it on the pedestal of the statuette beside
+him, and, as in duty bound, returned to the lady. She was an extremely
+pretty little woman, with soft brown hair and extremely bright eyes,
+which, notwithstanding their brightness, were not at all hard. He felt,
+rather than knew, that she was perfectly dressed, and he noticed that
+she wore remarkably fine diamonds. They sparkled and glittered in her
+hair, on her bosom, on her wrists, and on her fingers.
+
+He had never seen her before, and he wondered who she was.
+
+"You have just come up from the country?" she said.
+
+The accent with which she made this rather startling remark betrayed her
+nationality to Drake. The American accent, when it is voiced by a person
+of culture and refinement, is an extremely pretty one; the slight drawl
+is musical, and the emphasis which is given to words not usually made
+emphatic, is attractive.
+
+"Yes," said Drake. "But how did you know that?"
+
+"Your face and hands are so brown," she replied, with a frankness which
+was robbed of all offense by her placidity and unself-consciousness.
+"Nearly all the men one meets here are so colorless. I suppose it is
+because you have so little air and sun in London. At first, one is
+afraid that everybody is ill; but after a time one gets used to it."
+
+Drake was amused and a little interested.
+
+"Have the men in America so much color?" he asked.
+
+"Well, how did you know I was an American?" she inquired, with a
+charming little air of surprise. "I suppose my speech betrayed me? That
+is so annoying. I thought I had almost entirely lost my accent."
+
+"I don't know why you should want to lose it," said Drake, honestly
+enough. "It's five hundred times better than our London one!"
+
+"I didn't say I wanted to exchange it for that," she remarked.
+
+"Don't exchange it for any other, if I may be permitted to say so."
+
+"That's very good of you," she said; "but isn't it rather like asking
+the leopard not to change his spots? And after all, I don't know why we
+shouldn't be as proud of our accent as you are of yours."
+
+"I'm quite certain I'm not proud of mine," said Drake.
+
+She smiled up at him over her fan; a small and costly painted affair,
+with diamonds incrusted in the handle.
+
+"You are more modest than most Englishmen," she said.
+
+"I don't know whether to be grateful or not for that," remarked Drake.
+"Are we all so conceited?"
+
+"Well, I think you are all pretty well satisfied with yourselves," she
+replied. "I never knew any nation so firmly convinced that it was the
+pick of creation; and I expect before I am here very long I shall become
+as fully convinced as you are that the world was made by special
+contract for the use and amusement of the English. Mind, I won't say
+that it could have been made for a better people."
+
+"That's rather severe," said Drake. "But don't you forget that you were
+English yourself a few years ago; that, in a sense, you are English
+still."
+
+"That's very nicely said," she remarked; "more especially as I didn't
+quite deserve it. I was wanting to see whether I could make you angry."
+
+Drake stared at her with astonishment.
+
+"Why on earth should you want to make me angry?" he asked.
+
+"Well, I've heard a great deal about you," she replied. "And all the
+people who talked about you told me that you were rather hot-tempered.
+Lady Northgate, for instance, assured me you could be a perfect bear
+when you liked."
+
+Drake smiled.
+
+"That was extremely kind of Lady Northgate."
+
+"Well, so long as it wasn't true. I've heard so much about you that I
+was quite anxious to see you. I am speaking to Lord Drake Selbie, am I
+not?"
+
+"That's my name," said Drake.
+
+"The nephew of Angleford?"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+She looked up at him as if waiting to see how he took the mention of his
+uncle's name; but Drake's face could be as impassive as a stone wall
+when he liked.
+
+"You know my uncle?" he asked, in a tone of polite interest.
+
+"Yes," she said; "very well. I met him when he was in America. His wife
+is a great friend of mine. You know her, of course?"
+
+"I'm sorry to say I have not had that pleasure," said Drake. "I was
+absent from England when the present Lady Angleford came over, after her
+marriage."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the lady. "I suppose I ought not to have mentioned her?"
+
+"Good heavens! Why not?" asked Drake.
+
+"Well, of course," she drawled slowly, but musically, "I know that Lord
+Angleford's marriage was a bad thing for you. It wouldn't be my fault if
+I didn't, seeing that everybody in London has been talking about it."
+
+"Well, it's not a particularly good thing for me," Drake admitted; "but
+it's no reason why I should dislike any reference to my uncle or his
+wife."
+
+"You don't bear her any ill will?" she asked.
+
+This was extremely personal, especially coming from a stranger; but the
+lady was an American, with an extremely pretty face and a charming
+manner, and there was so much gentleness, almost deprecatory gentleness
+in her softly bright eyes, that Drake, somehow, could not feel any
+resentment.
+
+"Not the very least in the world, I assure you," he replied. "My uncle
+had a perfect right to marry when he pleased, and whom he pleased."
+
+"I didn't think you'd be angry with him," she said, "because everybody
+says you were such friends, and you are so fond of him; but I thought
+you'd be riled with her."
+
+Drake laughed rather grimly.
+
+"Not in the least," he said. "Of course, I should have preferred that my
+uncle should remain single, but I can't be absurd enough to quarrel with
+a lady for marrying him. He is a very charming man, and perhaps she
+couldn't help herself."
+
+"That's just it--she couldn't," said the lady naïvely. "And have you
+been to see your uncle since you've been back?" she asked.
+
+"Not yet," replied Drake. "I only came back to London an hour or two
+ago, but I will look him up to-morrow."
+
+"I knew you would," she said; "because that was such a nice letter you
+wrote, and such a pretty present you sent to Lady Angleford."
+
+As she spoke, she transferred her fan to her left hand and raised her
+right arm, and Drake recognized upon her wrist a bracelet which he had
+sent Lady Angleford as a wedding present. He colored and frowned
+slightly, then he laughed as he met the now timid and quite deprecatory
+gaze of the upturned eyes.
+
+"Was this quite fair, Lady Angleford?" he said, smiling.
+
+"Well, I don't know," she said, a little pathetically. "I thought it
+was, but I'm not quite sure now. You see, I wanted to meet you and talk
+to you, and know exactly how you felt toward me without your knowing who
+I was."
+
+Drake went and sat down beside her, and leaned toward her with one arm
+stretched on the back of her chair.
+
+"But why?" he asked.
+
+"Well, you see, I was a little afraid of you. When Lord Angleford asked
+me to marry him and I consented, I didn't quite realize how things stood
+between you and him. It was not until I came to Europe--I mean to
+England--that I realized that I had, so to speak, come between your
+uncle and you. And that made me feel bad, because everybody I met told
+me that you were such a--a good fellow, as they call it----"
+
+"One Englishman will become conceited, if you don't take care, Lady
+Angleford," put in Drake, with a smile.
+
+"That's what everybody says; and I found that you were so much liked and
+so popular; and it was hateful to me that I should cause a quarrel
+between you and Lord Angleford. It has made me very unhappy."
+
+"Then don't be unhappy any longer, Lady Angleford," he said. "There has
+been, and there need be, no quarrel between my uncle and me."
+
+"Ah, now you make me happy!" she said; and she turned to him with a
+little flush on her face which made her prettier than ever. "I have been
+quite wretched whenever I thought of you or heard your name. People
+spoke of you as if you had died, or got the measles, with a kind of pity
+in their voices which made me mad and hate myself. You see, as I said, I
+didn't realize what I was doing. I didn't realize that I was coming
+between an hereditary legislator and his descendant and heir."
+
+Drake could not help smiling.
+
+"You had better not call my uncle an hereditary legislator, Lady
+Angleford. I don't think he'd like it."
+
+"But he is, isn't he?" she said. "It is so difficult for an American to
+understand these things. We are supposed to have the peerage by heart;
+but we haven't. It's all a mystery and a tangle to us, even the best of
+us. But I try not to make mistakes. And now I want you to tell me that
+we are friends. That is so, isn't it?"
+
+She held out her tiny and perfectly gloved hand with a mixture of
+timidity and impulsiveness which touched Drake.
+
+"Indeed, I hope we are, Lady Angleford," he said.
+
+She looked at him wistfully.
+
+"You couldn't call me 'aunt,' I suppose?"
+
+Drake laughed outright.
+
+"I'm afraid I couldn't," he said. "You are far too young for that."
+
+"I am sorry," she said. "I think I should have liked you to call me
+aunt. But never mind. I must be satisfied with knowing that we are
+friends, and that you bear me no ill will. And now, I think I will go.
+My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?"
+
+"Quite a perfect success," said Drake. "And I congratulate you upon it."
+
+"Don't tell Lord Angleford," she said. "He'll say it was 'so American';
+and I do hate him to say that."
+
+Drake promised that he would not relate the little farce to his uncle,
+and got her cloak and took her down to the Angleford carriage. As he put
+her in and closed the door, she gave him her hand, and smiled at him
+with a little air of triumph and appeal.
+
+"We are friends, aren't we?" she asked.
+
+"The best of friends, Lady Angleford," he replied. "Good night."
+
+He went back to say good night to Lady Northgate.
+
+"You played it rather low down upon me, didn't you?" he remarked.
+
+"My dear Drake, what could I do?" she exclaimed. "That poor little woman
+was so terribly anxious to gain your good will. She didn't understand in
+the least the harm she was doing you. And what will you do? She is
+immensely rich--her father was an American millionaire----"
+
+Drake's face hardened. One thing at least he knew he couldn't do: he
+could not bring himself to accept charity from Lady Angleford. Lady
+Northgate understood the frown.
+
+"Don't kill me before all these people, Drake!" she said. "I dare say
+it's very silly of me, but I can't help plotting for your welfare. You
+see, I am foolish enough to be rather fond of you. There! Go down and
+drink that soda and whisky with Harry. If you won't let your friends
+help you, what will you do?"
+
+"I give it up; ask me another. Don't you worry about me, my dear lady; I
+shall jog along somehow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The next morning, while at breakfast, he received a little note from
+Lady Angleford, asking him to dinner that night. It was a charming
+little note, as pleading and deprecating as her eyes had been when she
+looked at him at the Northgates'.
+
+Drake sent back word that he would be delighted to come, and at eight
+o'clock presented himself at his uncle's house in Park Lane. Lord
+Angleford was, like Northgate, detained in London by official business.
+He was a very fine specimen of the old kind of Tory, and, though well
+advanced in years, still extremely good-looking--the whole family was
+favored in that way--and remarkably well preserved. His hair was white,
+but his eyes were bright and his cheeks ruddy, and, when free from the
+gout, he was as active as a young man. Of course, he was hot-tempered;
+all gouty men are; but he was as charming in his way as Lady Angleford,
+and extremely popular in the House of Lords, and out of it.
+
+Though he had fallen in love with a pretty little American, perhaps he
+would not have married her but for the little tiff with Drake; but that
+little tiff had just turned the scale, and, though he had taken the step
+in a moment of pique, he had not regretted it; for he was very fond and
+proud of his wife. But he was also very fond and proud of Drake, and was
+extremely pleased when Lady Angleford had told him that she had met
+Drake, and was going to ask him to dinner.
+
+"Oh, all right," he had said. "I shall be very glad to see him--though
+he's an obstinate young mule. I think you'll like him."
+
+"I do like him very much indeed," she had said. "He is so handsome--how
+very like he is to you!--and he's not a bit stand-offish and superior,
+like most Englishmen."
+
+"Oh, Drake's not a bad sort of fellow," said Lord Angleford, "but he's
+too fond of having his own way."
+
+At this Lady Angleford had smiled; for she knew another member of the
+family who liked his own way.
+
+She was waiting for Drake in the drawing-room, and gave him both her
+hands with a little impulsiveness which touched Drake.
+
+"I am so glad you have come," she said; "and your uncle is very glad,
+too. You won't--get to arguing, will you? You English are such dreadful
+people to argue. And I think he has a slight attack of the gout, though
+he was quite angry when I hinted at it this morning."
+
+Drake sincerely hoped his uncle hadn't, for everybody's sake. At that
+moment the earl came into the room, held out his hand, and said, as if
+he had parted with Drake only the night before:
+
+"How are you, Drake? Glad to see you. You've met Lady Angleford already?
+Isn't it nearly dinner time?"
+
+Drake took Lady Angleford in. There were no guests besides himself, and
+they had quite a pleasant little dinner. Lady Angleford talked with all
+the vivacity and charm of a cultured American who has seen both sides of
+the world, and kept her eyes open, and Drake began to feel as if he had
+known her for years. The earl was in a singularly good humor and
+listened to, and smiled at, his young wife proudly, and talked to Drake
+as if nothing had happened. It was just like old times; and Drake, as he
+opened the door for Lady Angleford, on her way to the drawing-room,
+smiled down at her, and nodded as she looked up at him questioningly.
+
+Then he went back to his chair, and the butler put the Angleford port in
+its wicker cradle before the earl.
+
+"I oughtn't to touch a drop," he said, "for I've had a twinge or two
+lately; but on this occasion----"
+
+He filled his glass, and passed the bottle to Drake--the butler had left
+the room.
+
+"So you met Lady Angleford last night?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and I take this, the first opportunity, to congratulate you.
+And Lady Angleford is as charming as she is pretty; and you won't mind
+my saying that I consider you an extremely lucky man."
+
+Of course, the earl looked pleased.
+
+"Thanks," he said; "that's very good of you, Drake--especially as my
+marriage may make all the difference to you."
+
+Drake looked at his cigarette steadily.
+
+"I've no reason to complain, sir; and I don't," he said. "You might have
+married years ago, and I'm rather surprised you didn't."
+
+The earl grunted.
+
+"I don't suppose I should have done so now, if you hadn't been such a
+stubborn young ass. That put my back up. But though I don't regret what
+I've done--no, by Jove!--I don't want you to think I am utterly
+regardless of your future. This port improves, doesn't it? Of course,
+you may be knocked out of the succession now----"
+
+"Most probably so, I should think," said Drake.
+
+"Just so. And, therefore, it's only right that I should do something for
+you."
+
+"You are very good, sir," said Drake.
+
+The earl colored slightly.
+
+"Now look here, Drake; I'm always suspicious of that d----d quiet way of
+yours! I was very glad when Lady Angleford told me that you were coming
+here, and I made up my mind that I would let bygones be bygones and act
+squarely by you. As I said, I'm not a bit sorry that I married; no,
+indeed!--you've seen Lady Angleford--but I don't want to leave you in
+the lurch. I don't want you to suffer more than--than can be helped.
+I've been thinking the matter over, and I'll tell you what I'll do. Have
+some more port."
+
+Unluckily for Drake, the old man filled his own glass before passing the
+bottle. Drake sipped his port and waited, and the earl went on:
+
+"Of course, I meant to continue your allowance; but I can see that under
+the circumstances that wouldn't be sufficient. Something might happen to
+me----"
+
+"I sincerely trust nothing will happen to you, sir," said Drake.
+
+The earl grunted.
+
+"Well, I'm not so young as I was; and I might get chucked off my horse,
+or--or something of that sort; and then you'd be in a hole, I imagine;
+for I suppose you've got through most of your mother's money?"
+
+"A great deal of it," admitted Drake.
+
+"Yes; I thought so. Well, look here; I'll tell you what I'll do, Drake.
+As you may know, Lady Angleford has a fortune of her own. Her father was
+a millionaire. That leaves me free to do what I like with my own money.
+Now, I'll settle ten thousand a year on you, Drake--but on one
+condition."
+
+Drake was considerably startled. After all, ten thousand a year is a
+large sum; and though the earl was immensely rich, Drake had not
+expected him to be so liberal. On ten thousand a year one can manage
+very comfortably, even in England. Drake thought of his debts, of all
+that a settled income would mean to him, and his heart warmed with
+gratitude toward his uncle.
+
+"You are more than kind, sir," he said. "Your liberality takes my breath
+away. What was the condition?"
+
+The earl fidgeted a little in his chair.
+
+"Look here, Drake," he said, "I've never worried you about your way of
+life; I know that young men will be young men, and that you've lived in
+a pretty fast set. That was your business and not mine, and as long as
+you kept afloat I didn't choose to interfere. But I think it's time you
+settled down; and I'll settle this money on you on condition that you do
+settle down. You're engaged to a very nice girl--just you marry and
+settle down, and I'll provide the means, as I say."
+
+Drake looked straight before him. Had this offer been made a month
+before he would have accepted it without a moment's hesitation, for he
+had thought himself in love with Luce, and, more important, he had
+thought that she had cared for him. But now all was changed. He knew
+that if a hundred thousand a year were dependent upon marrying Luce he
+couldn't accept it.
+
+The earl stared at him, and filled another glass with the port, which
+was a poison to him.
+
+"Eh? What the devil do you mean? I say that if you'll settle down and
+marry Luce I will provide a suitable income for you. What the blazes are
+you hesitating about? Why--confound it!--aren't you satisfied? You don't
+want to be told that I'm not bound to give you a penny!"
+
+The old man's handsome face was growing red, and his eyes were beginning
+to glitter; the port was doing its fell work.
+
+"I know," said Drake, with a quietude which only made his uncle more
+angry, "and I'm very much obliged to you. I know what ten thousand a
+year means; but I'm afraid I can't fulfill the conditions."
+
+"What the devil do you mean?" demanded the earl.
+
+Drake smoked in silence for a moment or two. Most men would have said at
+once that Lady Lucille Turfleigh had, on his change of prospects, jilted
+him; but Drake had some old-world notions of honor in respect to women,
+and he could not give Lady Luce away.
+
+"I'm afraid I can't marry Luce," he said. "Our engagement is broken
+off."
+
+The earl swore a good old Tory oath.
+
+"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" he said. "One of the nicest
+girls I know, and--devoted to you. More devoted to you than you deserve.
+And you don't mean to marry her? I suppose you've seen some one else?"
+
+Drake grew hot, but he still clung to his notion of honor.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Drake," said the earl, bringing down his port
+glass on the table so violently that it snapped off at the stem, "you
+young fellows of the present day haven't any idea of honor. Here's a
+girl, a beautiful girl, and nice in every way, simply devoted to you,
+and you go and throw her over. For some insane fancy, I suppose! Well,
+see here, I'm d----d if I'll countenance it. I abide by my condition.
+You make it up with Luce and marry her, and I'll settle this money on
+you, as I've said. If not----"
+
+Drake knocked the ash off his cigarette and looked straight before him.
+He could still save himself by telling the truth and sacrificing Lady
+Luce. But that was not his way.
+
+"I'm sorry, sir----" he began.
+
+"Sorry be d----d!" broke in the earl tempestuously. "Will you, or will
+you not?"
+
+"I can't," said Drake quietly.
+
+The old man rose to his feet, flinging his serviette aside.
+
+"Then, by Heaven! I've done with you!" he exclaimed. "I made you a fair
+offer. I've only asked you to act like a gentleman, a man of honor. Am I
+to understand that you refuse?"
+
+Drake had also risen slowly.
+
+"I'm afraid I must, sir," he said.
+
+"All right," said the earl, red with anger. "Then there's nothing more
+to be said. You can go your own way. But permit me to tell you----"
+
+"Oh, don't, sir!" said Drake, rather sadly. "I can't do what you ask.
+God knows I would if I could, but--it's impossible. For Heaven's sake,
+don't let us quarrel----"
+
+"Quarrel! I am as cool as a cucumber!" exclaimed the earl, his face the
+color of beetroot. "All I say is"--here a twinge of the gout checked his
+utterance--"that you're behaving shamefully--shamefully! We'd better
+join the ladies--I mean Lady Angleford----"
+
+"I think I'll get you to excuse me, sir," said Drake. "There is no need
+to upset Lady Angleford. She asked me here with the very best
+intentions, and she would be disappointed if she knew we had--quarreled.
+There is no need to tell her. I'll clear out. Make my excuse to her."
+
+"As you like," said the earl shortly. "But let me tell you that I think
+you are----"
+
+"No end of a fool, I've no doubt," said Drake, with a rather weary
+smile. "I dare say I am. But I can't help it. Good night, sir."
+
+The earl muttered something that sounded like "good night," and Drake
+left the house. He ought to have said good night to Lady Angleford, but
+he shirked it. He bore her no animosity; indeed, he liked her very
+much--so much that he shrank from telling her about this quarrel with
+his uncle; and he knew that if he went to her she would get it out of
+him.
+
+He walked home, feeling very miserable and down on his luck. How he
+hated London, and all that belonged to it! Like a whiff of fresh air the
+memory of Shorne Mills wafted across his mind. He let himself in with
+his latchkey, and, taking a sheet of note paper, made some calculations
+upon it. There was still something remaining of his mother's fortune to
+him. If he were not Lord Drake Selbie, but simply Mr. Drake Vernon, he
+could manage to live upon it. The vision of a slim and graceful girl,
+with soft black hair and violet-gray eyes, rose before him. It seemed to
+beckon him, to beckon him away from the hollow, heartless world in which
+he had hitherto lived. He rose and flung open wide the window of his
+sitting room, and the breath of air which came through the London
+streets seemed fragrant with the air which wafted over Shorne Mills.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No pen, however eloquent, can describe the weariness of the hours for
+Nell which had passed since "Mr. Drake Vernon" had left Shorne Mills.
+Something had seemed to have gone out of her life. The sun was shining
+as brightly, there was the same light on the sea, the same incoming and
+outgoing tide; every one was as kind to her as they had been before he
+left, and yet all life seemed a blank. When she was not waiting upon
+mamma she wandered about Shorne Mills, sailed in the _Annie Laurie_, and
+sometimes rode across the moor. But there was something wanting, and the
+lack of it made happiness impossible. She thought of him all day, and at
+night she tossed in her little bed sleeplessly, recalling the happy
+hours she had spent with him. God knows she tried hard to forget him, to
+be just the same, to feel just the same, as she had been before he had
+been thrown at her feet. But she could not. He had entered into her life
+and become a principal part of it, absorbed it. She found herself
+thinking of him all through the day. She grew thin and pale in an
+incredibly short time. Even Dick himself could not rouse her; and Mrs.
+Lorton read her a severe lecture upon the apathy of indolence.
+
+Life had been so joyous and so all-sufficing a thing for her; but now
+nothing seemed to interest her. There was a dull, aching pain in her
+heart which she could not understand, and which she could not get rid
+of. She longed for solitude. She often walked up to the top of the hill,
+to the purple moor over which she had ridden with Drake Vernon; and
+there she would sit, recalling every word she had said, every tone of
+his voice. She tried to forget him, but it was impossible.
+
+One evening she walked up the hill slowly and thoughtfully, and seated
+herself on a mossy bank, and gave herself up to that reverie in which we
+dream dreams which are more of heaven than of earth.
+
+Suddenly she heard the sound of footsteps. She looked up listlessly and
+with a slight feeling of impatience, seeing that her reverie was
+disturbed.
+
+The footsteps came nearer, a tall figure appeared against the sunset.
+She rose to her feet, trembling and filled with the hope that seemed to
+her too wild for hope.
+
+In another moment he was beside her. She rose, quivering in every nerve.
+
+Was it only a dream, or was it he? He held her hand and looked down at
+her with an expression in his eyes and face which made her tremble, and
+yet which made her heart leap.
+
+"Nell!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+They stood and looked at each other in silence for a moment; but what a
+silence!
+
+It almost seemed to Nell as if it were not he himself who stood before
+her, but just a vision of her imagination, called up by the intensity of
+her thoughts of him. The color came and went in her face, leaving it, at
+last, pale and startled. And he, too, stood, as incapable of speech as
+any of the shy and bashful young fishermen on the quay; he, the man of
+the world, who had faced so many "situations" with women--women of the
+world armed with the weapons of experience, and the "higher culture." At
+that moment, intense as it was, the strength of the emotion which swept
+over him and mastered him, amazed him.
+
+He knew, now that he was face to face with her, how he had missed this
+girl, how keen and intolerable had been his longing for her.
+
+He remembered to hold out his hand. Had he done so yet? For the life of
+him, he could not have told. The sight of the sweet face had cast a
+spell over him, and he did not know whether he was standing or sitting.
+
+As she put her small hand in his, Nell recovered something of her
+self-possession; but not all, for her heart was beating furiously, her
+bosom heaving, and she was in agony lest he should see the mist of dew
+which seemed to cover her eyes.
+
+"I'm afraid I startled you," he said.
+
+Nell smiled faintly, and drew her hand away--for he had held it half
+unconsciously.
+
+"I think you did--a little," she admitted. "You see, I--we did not
+expect you. And"--she laughed the laugh he had heard in his dreams,
+though it had not always been so tremulous, so like the flutelike quaver
+of this laugh--"and even now I am not quite sure it is you."
+
+"It is I--believe me," he said. "It is the same bad penny come back."
+
+Then it flashed upon him he must give some reason for his return.
+Incredible as it may seem, he was not prepared with one. He had made up
+his mind to come; he would have gone through fire and water to get back
+to Shorne Mills, but he had quite forgotten that some excuse would be
+necessary.
+
+But she did not seem to see the necessity.
+
+"Are you quite well now?" she asked, just glancing up at him.
+
+"Quite," he said; "perfectly well."
+
+"And how did you come? I mean when--have you been staying near?"
+
+"I came by this morning's train," he said, "and I walked over; my
+luggage follows by the carrier. I enjoyed the walk."
+
+"You must be quite strong again," she said, with a quiet little
+gladness. "Mamma--and Dick--will be so glad to see you!"
+
+"They haven't forgotten me?" he asked insanely.
+
+She laughed again.
+
+"They have talked of very little else but you, since you have been gone,
+and Dick is like a boy who has lost a schoolfellow."
+
+She said it so frankly that Drake's heart sank.
+
+"Well--I've thought--I've missed you--Dick," he said, stumbling over the
+sentence. "Shorne Mills is, as you said, not the kind of place one
+forgets in a hurry."
+
+"Did I say that?" she asked. "I don't remember it."
+
+"Ah! but I do," he said. "I remember----"
+
+"Hadn't we better walk on?" she said. "You must be tired, and will be
+glad of some tea--or something."
+
+He seemed to notice for the first time that they had been standing, and
+they walked on.
+
+Her heart was still beating fast--beating with a new and strange
+happiness glowing through her. Only a few minutes ago she had felt so
+weary and wretched; the familiar scene, which she loved so dearly, had
+seemed flat and dreary and full of melancholy, and now--oh! how lovely
+it was! how good it was to look upon!
+
+Why had everything changed so suddenly? Why was every pulse dancing to
+the subtle music with which the air seemed full?
+
+The question came to her with a kind of dread and fear; and her eyes,
+which shone like stars, grew momentarily troubled and puzzled.
+
+He scarcely dared look at her. The longing to touch her, to take her in
+his arms--that longing of passionate love which he had never felt
+before--rose imperiously in his heart; but something restrained him. She
+was so young, so innocent and girlish that a kind of awe fell upon him.
+When, as she walked beside him, the sleeve of her jacket came in contact
+with his arm, a thrill ran through him, and he caught his breath.
+
+But he would hold himself in check; not at this moment, when she was
+startled by his sudden appearance, would he tell her. It was more than
+likely that he would frighten her, and that she would fly from him.
+
+"And is there any news?" he asked.
+
+She looked up as if she had come from a reverie.
+
+"News! There is never any news at Shorne Mills!" she said, smiling
+brightly. "Nothing ever happens. Dick has shot some rabbits--and there
+was a good catch of mackerel yesterday, and--that's all."
+
+Her eyes shone up at him, and he looked into their depths. "I wish I'd
+been here," he said. "But perhaps they'll have another big catch."
+
+"Are you going to stay?"
+
+The question sprang from her lips almost before she knew it, and she bit
+them a moment after the words were spoken; for it seemed to her that he
+must have noticed the eagerness, the anxiety in the query; but Drake
+only thought that she had asked with some surprise.
+
+"A--a little while," he replied.
+
+"Mamma and Dick will be very pleased," she said, in as matter-of-fact a
+tone as she could.
+
+"I wired to Mrs. Brownie, asking her if she could put me up--old Brownie
+lets some rooms, he told me----"
+
+Her face fell for a moment.
+
+"You are not coming to us--to The Cottage?" she said cheerily.
+
+"No; I couldn't trespass upon Mrs. Lorton's hospitality," he replied.
+
+"I hope you will be comfortable----" She hesitated. "Mrs. Brownie's
+cottage is very small and----"
+
+"Oh, I'm used to roughing it," he cut in; "and perhaps, when I find it
+too small, you will let me come up and see you----"
+
+"In our palatial mansion--for a change."
+
+She was bright again, and her eyes were sparkling. After all, though he
+would not be under the same roof, he would be near--would be in Shorne
+Mills.
+
+"I think I'll go down to Mrs. Brownie's and see if it is all right, and
+then come up for a cup of tea, if I may," he said, as they neared The
+Cottage.
+
+He opened the gate for her; she gave him a little nod, her sweet face
+radiant with the new-born happiness which suffused her whole being, and
+ran in.
+
+"Mamma--guess who has come!" she exclaimed breathlessly, as she entered
+the sitting room where Mrs. Lorton was reclining on the sofa with the
+_Fashion Gazette_ and a bottle of eau de Cologne beside her. "Dick, I
+will give you three guesses--with a box of cigarettes as a prize," as
+Dick sauntered in with the gun under his arm.
+
+"My dear Eleanor, why this excitement?" asked Mrs. Lorton rebukingly.
+"Your face is flushed, and your hat is on one side----"
+
+"You'll have to give up drinking in the daytime, Nell," remarked Dick.
+"No, mamma, the gun will not go off, because it is not loaded. I wish it
+would, because I'm stone-broke and haven't any more cartridges. If I had
+a sister worthy of the name, she would advance me a small sum out of her
+pocket money."
+
+"Guess, guess!" broke in Nell impatiently.
+
+Dick smiled contemptuously.
+
+"Some conceited clown to lecture in the schoolroom?" he said. "We know
+you of old, my dear Nell. Is there to be any tea this afternoon?"
+
+"Clown!" retorted Nell scornfully. "Really, I've a good mind not to tell
+you until he--he comes himself."
+
+"He--who? I must ask you to restrain your excitement, Eleanor. My nerves
+are in a very sad condition to-day, and I cannot--I really cannot bear
+any mental strain."
+
+"It's Mr. Drake Vernon," said Nell, more soberly.
+
+Dick uttered the yell of a rejoicing red Indian; and Mrs. Lorton slid
+into an upright position with incredible rapidity.
+
+"Mr. Vernon! Go on, you're joking, Nell!" cried Dick; "and yet you look
+pleased enough for it to be true! Mr. Vernon! Hurrah! Sorry, mamma, but
+my feelings, which usually are under perfect control----"
+
+"Is my hair tidy, Eleanor? Take this eau de Cologne away. Where is he?
+Did you think to bring a tea cake for tea? No, of course not; you think
+of nothing, nothing! I sometimes wonder why you have not imitated some
+of the Wolfer tact and readiness."
+
+"I met Mr. Vernon on the moor, away from the village. I will make some
+toast. He is coming up presently. He is going to stay at the
+Brownies'--this is my best hat. Do be careful!"
+
+For Dick, in his joy, had fallen against her in the passage and nearly
+knocked her hat off; then he seized her by the arm, and, fixing her with
+a gaze of exaggerated keenness, demanded in melodramatic tones, but too
+low for Mrs. Lorton to hear:
+
+"What means this sudden and strange return of the interesting stranger?
+Speak, girl! Attempt not to deceive; subterfuge will not avail ye! Say,
+what means this unexpected appearance? Ah! why that crimson blush which
+stains your nose----"
+
+Nell broke from him--half ashamedly, for was she, indeed, blushing?--and
+ran to make the toast, and Dick went to the gate to watch for Drake.
+
+Drake found the Brownies expecting him, and was shown the tiny sitting
+room and bedroom they had hastily prepared; and, his luggage having
+arrived, he had a wash and a change.
+
+And as he dried himself on the lavender-scented towel, he invented an
+excuse for his return. He was filled with a strange gladness; the surge
+of the waves as they beat against the jetty sang a welcome to him; he
+could hear the fishermen calling to each other, as they cleaned their
+boats, or whistling as they sat on the jetty spreading their nets to
+dry; it was more like coming back to his birthplace, or some spot in
+which he had lived for years, than to the little seaside village which
+he had seen for the first time a few weeks ago.
+
+As he went up slowly to The Cottage, every man, woman, and child he met
+touched his hat or curtsied and smiled a welcome to him, and Dick's
+"Hallo, Mr. Vernon! then it is you, and Nell wasn't spoofing us. How are
+you? Come in!" went straight to his heart.
+
+He went in with his hand on the boy's shoulder, and was received by Mrs.
+Lorton with a mixture of stately dignity and simpering pleasure, which,
+however, no longer roused his irritation and impatience.
+
+"I am quite sure you will not be comfortable at the Brownies', Mr.
+Vernon," she said; "and I need not say that we shall be glad if you are
+not. Your room awaits you whenever you feel inclined to return to
+it--Richard, tell Eleanor that we are ready for the tea. And how did
+you leave London, Mr. Vernon? I am aware that it is not the season; but
+there are always some good families remaining in town," et cetera.
+
+Drake answered with as fair an imitation of interest as he could manage;
+then Nell came in, followed by Molly, with the tea. There was no longer
+any sign of a blush on the girl's face, but the gray eyes were still
+bright, and a smile--such a tender, joyous, sunny smile--lurked in
+ambush at the corners of her sweet lips. She did not look at him, and
+was quite busy with the teacups and saucers; but she listened to every
+word he said, as if every word were too precious to miss.
+
+"I was obliged to come down--the horses, you know," he said, as if that
+fully explained his return; "and, to tell you the truth, my dear Mrs.
+Lorton, I was very glad of the excuse. London is particularly hateful
+just now; though, as you say, there are a good many people there still."
+
+"Did you meet my cousin Wolfer?" asked Mrs. Lorton.
+
+Drake expressed his regret at not having done so.
+
+"I think you would like him," she said, with her head on one side, and
+with a long sigh. "It is years since I have seen him. When last we
+met----"
+
+"'He wore a wreath of roses!'" murmured Dick, under his breath.
+
+--"And no doubt he would find me much changed; one ages in these
+out-of-the-way places, where the stir and bustle of the great world
+never reaches one."
+
+"Mamma dropping into poetry is too touching!" murmured Dick; then aloud:
+"Nell, my child, if you are going to have a fit you had better leave the
+room. This is the second time you have shot out your long legs and
+kicked me. You had better see Doctor Spence."
+
+The boy's badinage, Nell's half-shy delight, filled Drake with joy; even
+Mrs. Lorton's folly only amused him. He leaned back and drank his tea
+and ate his toast--he knew that Nell had made it, and every morsel was
+sweet to him--with a feeling of happiness too deep for words. And yet
+there was anxiety mixed with his happiness. Was the delight only that
+which would arise in the heart of a young girl, a child, at the visit of
+a friend?
+
+"Shall we go down and look at the boat?" he asked, after he had
+dutifully listened to some more of Mrs. Lorton's remarks on fashion and
+nobility.
+
+"Right you are!" said Dick; "and if you will promise to behave yourself
+like a decent member of society, you shall come too, Nell. You won't
+mind my bringing my little sister, sir?"
+
+Drake smiled, but the smile died away as they walked down to the jetty;
+he could have dispensed with the presence of Nell's little brother.
+
+"We might go for a short sail, mightn't we?" he said, as they stood
+looking at the boat. "Pity you didn't bring your gun, Dick!"
+
+"Oh, I can fetch it!" said Dick promptly. "I shan't be ten minutes."
+
+Drake waved to Brownie to bring the _Annie Laurie_ to the steps, and
+helped Nell into the boat; then ran up the sail, and pushed off.
+
+"Aren't we going to wait for Dick?" said Nell innocently.
+
+"Oh, we'll just cruise about till he comes," said Drake. "Let me take
+the tiller."
+
+He steered the boat for the bay, and lit his pipe. It was just as if he
+had not left Shorne Mills; and, as he looked around at the multicolored
+cliffs, the sky dyed by the setting sun with vivid hues of crimson and
+yellow, and at Nell's lovely and happy face, he thought of the world in
+which he had moved last night; and its hollowness and falsity, its
+restless pursuit of pleasure, its selfish interests appalled him. He had
+resolved, or only half resolved, perhaps, last night, that he would "cut
+it"--leave it forever. Why shouldn't he? Why should he go back?
+
+Even before he had met Nell, he had been utterly weary of the old life;
+and, even if he had still hankered after it, it was now not possible for
+him. It was very improbable that he would inherit the title and estates;
+he had quarreled with his uncle; he had learned the bitter truth, that
+the women of his set were incapable of a disinterested love. And he had
+desired to be loved for himself alone. Does not every man desire it?
+
+Why should he not remain as "Drake Vernon," without title or fortune? If
+he won a woman's love, it would be for himself, not for the rank he
+could bestow----
+
+"There is Dick!" said Nell.
+
+Drake awoke from his reverie.
+
+"Scarcely worth while going back for him, is it?" he said. "Besides,
+he'll want to shoot something--and these gulls look so happy and
+contented----"
+
+"Why, you told him to get his gun!" she said, with surprise. "But it
+doesn't matter. He's going out in Willy's boat, I see. I suppose he
+thinks we shan't turn back for him. Isn't it lovely this evening?"
+
+"Yes," he assented absently.
+
+If--if Nell, now, for instance, were to--to promise to be his wife, he
+would be sure that it was for himself she cared! She did not know that
+he was anything other than just Mr. Drake Vernon. No carking doubts of
+the truth and purity of her love would ever embitter his happiness.
+
+"Where are we going?" she asked, turning on her elbow as he steered for
+the cove where they had lunched the other day.
+
+"I've a fancy to look into that cave," he said. "What a capital place it
+would be for a picnic! Shall we go ashore for a few minutes?"
+
+He threw out the anchor, leaped to the shore, and pulled the boat in for
+her. She prepared to jump, as usual, but as she stood, her slight figure
+poised on the gunwale, he took her in his arms and lifted her out.
+
+Her face went crimson for an instant, but she turned aside, and walked
+up the beach, and by the time he had overtaken her the crimson had gone;
+but the grip of his arms had set her tingling, and her heart was beating
+fast; and yet it was so foolish to--to mind; for had not Brownie and
+Willy, and half the fishermen of Shorne Mills, lifted her out of a boat
+when the sea was rough and the boat unsteady?
+
+"Let us sit down," Drake said.
+
+There was a big bowlder just within the cave, and Nell seated herself on
+it, and he slid down at her side.
+
+"If Dick is angry, you will have to protect me," she said, breaking the
+silence which seemed to oppress her with a sense of dread.
+
+"I will; especially as it was my fault," he said. "I didn't want
+Dick--for a wonder. I wanted to be--alone--with you again. I have wanted
+it every minute since I left you. Do you know why?"
+
+She had grown pale; but she tried to smile, to meet the ardent gaze of
+his eyes; but she could not.
+
+"Hadn't--hadn't we better be going back?" she faltered; "it is growing
+late."
+
+But her voice was so low that she wondered whether she had spoken aloud.
+
+"I want to tell you that I have missed you, how I have longed for you,"
+he went on, not speaking with the fluency for which some of his men
+friends envied him, but brokenly, as if the words were all inadequate to
+express his meaning. "All the way up to London I thought of you--I could
+not help thinking of you. All the time I was there, whether I was alone
+or in the midst of a mob of people, I thought of you. I could see your
+face, hear your voice. I could not rest day or night. I felt that I must
+come back to you; that there would be no peace or contentment for me
+unless I could see you, hear you, be near you."
+
+She sat, her hands clasped tightly, her eyes downcast and hidden by the
+long dark lashes. Every word he was faltering was making the strangest,
+sweetest music in her ears and in her heart. That he should miss
+her--want to come back to her!--oh, it could not--could not be true!
+
+"Do you know why?" he went on, looking up at her with a touch of
+anxiety, of something like fear in his eyes, for her downcast face told
+him nothing; her pallor might only be a sign of fear. "It was because
+I--love you."
+
+She trembled, and raised her eyes for one instant; but she could not
+meet his--not yet.
+
+"I love you," he said, his voice deepening, so that it was almost
+hoarse. "I love you."
+
+Just the three words, but how much they mean! Is it any wonder that the
+poet and the novelist are never weary of singing and writing them? and
+that the world will never be weary of hearing and reading them? How much
+hangs upon the three little words! Love: it is the magic word which
+transforms a life. It means a heaven too great for mortals to imagine,
+or a hell too deep to fathom. To Nell the words spoke of a mystery which
+she could not penetrate, but which filled her heart with a joy so great
+as almost to still it forever.
+
+"Dearest, I have frightened you!" he said, as she sat so silent and so
+motionless. "Forgive me! It seems so sudden to you; but I--I have felt
+it for days past, have known it so long, it seems to me. I have been
+thinking, dwelling on it. Nell, do you--care for me? Can you love me?"
+
+Her hands unclasped and went with a swift motion to her eyes, and
+covered them. His heart sank with a sudden dread. She was not only
+frightened; she did not care for him--or was it because she did not
+know? She was so young, so girlish, so innocent!
+
+"Forgive me--forgive me!" he pleaded, and he ventured to touch her arm.
+"I have--startled you; you did not expect--it was unfair to bring you
+here. But I can't take it back. I love you with all my heart and soul.
+See, Nell--you will let me call you that? It's the name I love above all
+others--the name I think of you by. I--I won't harass you. You--you
+shall have time to think. I will go away for--for a few days--and you
+shall think over----No, no!" he broke off, springing to his feet and
+bending over her with a sudden passion which swept all before it. "I
+can't go. I can't leave you again, unless--unless I go forever. I must
+have your answer now--now! Speak to me, Nell. 'Yes' or 'No'?"
+
+He drew her hands from her face as she rose, and her eyes were lifted
+and met his. Love's sweet surrender shone in them; and, with a cry of
+wonder and joy, he caught her to him.
+
+"Nell, Nell!" was all that he could say. "Is it true? You--you love me,
+Nell?"
+
+She hid her face on his breast, and her hands trembled on his shoulders.
+
+"Yes--yes," she breathed, almost inaudibly. Then: "Do I?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+He took her face in his hands and turned it up to him, but paused as her
+lips nearly met his.
+
+"Do you? Why, don't you know, dearest?" he asked tenderly.
+
+"Yes, ah! yes, I do," she said, and the tears sprang to her eyes as
+their lips met. "It was because I loved you that I was so sorry when you
+went; that every hour and day was a misery to me, and seemed to hang
+like lead; it was because I loved you that I could not think of anything
+else, and--and all the world became black and dark, and--and--I hated to
+be alive. It was because--because of that, was it not?"
+
+He answered with the lover's mute language.
+
+"And--and you love me! It seems so wonderful!" she murmured, looking at
+him with her eyes, now deep as violets and dewy with her tears. "So
+wonderful! Why--why do you?"
+
+He laughed--the laugh that for the first time in his life had left his
+lips.
+
+"Have you no looking-glass in your room, Nell?" he asked. "You beautiful
+angel! But not only because you are the loveliest----"
+
+She put her hand to his lips, her face crimson; but he kissed it and
+laid it against his cheek.
+
+--"You are not only the loveliest woman I know, but the sweetest, Nell,"
+he said. "No man could help loving you."
+
+"How foolish!" she breathed; but, ah! the joy, the innocent pride that
+shone in her eyes! "You must have met, known, hundreds of beautiful
+women. I never thought that I--that any one could care for me----"
+
+"Because there's not a spark of vanity in my Nell, thank God!" he said.
+"See here, dearest, you speak of other women--it is because you are
+unlike any other woman I have ever known--thank God again!--because you
+are so. Ah, Nell! it's easier to love you than to tell you why. All I
+know is that I'm the happiest man on earth; that I don't deserve----"
+His voice grew grave and his face clouded. "The best of us doesn't
+deserve the love of the worst woman; and I, who have got the sweetest,
+the dearest----Ah, Nell! if you knew how bad a bargain you have made!"
+
+She laid her face against his hand, and her lips touched it with a kiss,
+and she laughed softly, as one laughs for mere joy which pants for
+adequate expression.
+
+"I am satisfied--ah, yes! I am satisfied!" she whispered. "It is you who
+have made the bad bargain--an ignorant girl--just a girl! Why, Dick will
+laugh at you! And mamma will think you are too foolish for words."
+
+He looked down at her--he was sitting on the bowlder now, and she was on
+the sand at his feet, her head resting against him, his arm round her.
+
+"Mrs. Lorton knows nothing about me," he said. "I'm afraid, when she
+knows----"
+
+His words did not affect her. In a sense, she was scarcely noting them.
+This new happiness, this unspeakable joy, was taking complete possession
+of her. That his lips should have touched hers, that his arm should be
+round her, that her head should be resting against him, his kisses upon
+her hair, was all so wonderful that she could scarcely realize it. Would
+she awake presently and find that she was in her own room, with the
+pillow wet with the tears that had fallen because "Mr. Drake Vernon" had
+left Shorne Mills forever?
+
+"Does she not?" she said easily. "She knows as much about you as I do,
+and I am content. But mamma will be pleased, because she likes you. And
+Dick"--she laughed, and her eyes glowed with her love for the boy--"Dick
+will yell, and will tease me out of my life. But he will be glad,
+because he is so very fond of you. What do you do to make everybody like
+you so much, Mr. Vernon?"
+
+"Oh, 'Drake, Drake, Drake'!" he said.
+
+"Drake," she murmured, and he stifled the word on her lips with kisses.
+
+"I'm by no means sure that Mrs. Lorton will be pleased," he said, after
+a moment. "See here, Nell--I never saw such hair as yours. It is dark,
+almost black, and yet it is soft and like silk----"
+
+"And it is all coming down. Ah, no, you cannot coil it up. Let it be for
+a moment. Do you really like it? Dick says it is like a horse's mane."
+
+"Dick is a rude young scamp to whom I shall have to teach respect for
+his sister. But Mrs. Lorton, dearest--I'm afraid she won't be pleased. I
+ought to have told you, Nell, that I'm a poor man."
+
+"Are you?"
+
+She nestled a little closer, and scooped up the sand with her disengaged
+hand--the one he was not holding--and she spoke with an indifference
+which filled Drake to the brim with satisfaction.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I was not always so poor; but I am one who has had
+losses, as Shakespeare puts it."
+
+"I am sorry," she said simply, but still with a kind of indifference.
+"Mamma said you must be rich because you--well, persons who are poor
+don't keep three horses and give diamond bracelets for presents."
+
+She spoke with the frankness and ingenuousness of a child, and Drake
+stroked her hair as he would that of a child.
+
+"Yes, that's reasonable enough," he said. "But I've lost my money
+lately. See?"
+
+She nodded, and looked up at him a little more gravely.
+
+"Yes? I am sorry. I suppose it must have seemed very hard to you. I have
+never been rich, but I can imagine that one does not like losing his
+money and becoming poor. Poor--Drake!"
+
+"Then, you don't mind?" he inquired. "You don't shrink from the prospect
+of being a pauper's bride, Nell?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Why should I?" she said simply. "We've always been poor--at least,
+nearly since I can remember; and we have always been happy, Dick and I.
+Now, it would not have been so nice if you had been very rich."
+
+"Why not?" he asked, lifting a tress of her hair to his lips.
+
+She thought for a moment.
+
+"Oh, don't you see? I should have felt that you had been foolish to--to
+love me----" There was an interlude. Should he ever grow tired of
+kissing her? he asked himself. "And I should have been afraid."
+
+"Afraid of what?"
+
+"Well, that you would be ashamed of me when you took me into the society
+of fashionable people, and----Oh, I am very glad that you are not rich!
+That sounds unkind, I am afraid."
+
+"Nell," he said solemnly, "I have long suspected that you were an angel
+masquerading as a mere woman, but I am now convinced of it."
+
+She laughed, and softly rubbed her cheek against his arm.
+
+"And I have long suspected that you were a rich man and a 'somebody'
+masquerading as a poor one, and I am delighted to hear that I was
+mistaken."
+
+He started at the first words of her retort, but breathed a sigh of
+relief as she concluded.
+
+"Poor or rich, I love you, Nell," he said, with a seriousness which was
+almost solemn, "and I will do my level best to make you happy. When you
+are my wife----"
+
+The blood rushed to her face, and her head dropped.
+
+"That will be a long time hence," she whispered.
+
+"No, no!" he said quickly, passionately. "I couldn't wait very long,
+Nell. But when you are my wife, I will try to prove to you that poor
+people can be happy. We shall just have enough to set up a house in some
+foreign land."
+
+She looked up at him gravely.
+
+"And leave mamma and--Dick? Yes?"
+
+The acquiescence touched him.
+
+"You won't mind, dearest--you won't mind leaving England?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"How cold and cruel I have become," she said, as if she were communing
+with herself. "But I do not care; I feel as if I could leave any one--go
+anywhere--if--if--I were with you!"
+
+She moved, so that she knelt beside him, and her small brown hands were
+palm downward on his breast; her eyes shone like stars with the light of
+a perfect love glowing in them; her sweet lips quivered, as, with all a
+young girl's abandonment to her first passion, she breathed:
+
+"Do you think I care whether you are poor or rich? I love you! Do you
+think I care whether you are handsome or ugly? It is you I love. Do you
+think I care where I go, so that you take me with you? I could not live
+without you. I would rather wander through the world, in rags, and
+starving, cold, and hungry, than--than marry a king and live in a
+palace! I only want you, you, you! I have wanted you since--since that
+first day--do you remember? I--turn your eyes away, don't look at me; I
+am so ashamed!--I came down to you that night--the first night! You were
+calling for water, and I--I raised you on my arm, and--and oh! I was so
+happy! I did not know, guess, why; but I know now. I--I must have loved
+you even then!"
+
+She hid her eyes on his arm, and he kissed her hair reverently.
+
+"And every day I--I grew to love you more. I was only happy when I was
+with you. I wondered why. But I know now! And you were always so kind
+and gentle with me; so unlike any other man I had met--the vicar, Doctor
+Spence--and I used to like to listen to you; and--and when you touched
+me something ran through me, something filled me with gladness."
+
+She paused for breath, her eyes fixed on his face, as if she were not
+seeing him, but the past, and her own self moving and being in that
+past.
+
+"And then you went, and all the happiness, all the gladness, seemed to
+go, and--bend lower--I--I can only whisper it--the night you went I
+flung myself on the bed and--and cried."
+
+"My Nell, my dearest!" was all he could say.
+
+"I cried because it seemed to me that my life had come to an end; that
+never, so long as I should live, should I know one moment of happiness
+again. It was as if all the light had gone out of the sky, as if the sun
+had turned cold--ah! you don't know!"
+
+"Do I not, dearest?"
+
+"And then, when I saw you to-day, all the light and warmth came rushing
+back, and I knew that it was you who were my light, my sun, and that
+without you I was not living, but only a shadow and a mockery of life."
+
+Her hands fell from his breast, her head sank upon his knees, she sobbed
+in the abandonment of her passion.
+
+And the man was awed by it, and almost as white as herself. He gathered
+her in his strong arms and murmured passionate words of love and
+gratitude and devotion.
+
+"Nell, Nell, my Nell! God make me more worthy of your love!" he said
+brokenly, hoarsely.
+
+She raised her head from his knees and offered him--of her own free
+will--her sweet lips, and then clung to him with a half-tearful,
+maidenly shame.
+
+"Let me go!" she said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The light that never was on earth or sky beamed on the _Annie Laurie_ as
+it skimmed toward the jetty.
+
+Nell sat in the stern, and Drake lay at her feet, his arms round her,
+his face upturned to hers.
+
+God knows he was grateful for her love. God also knows how unworthy he
+felt. This love is such a terrible thing. A maiden goes through the ways
+of life, in maiden meditation fancy free, pausing beside the brook to
+pluck the flowers which grow on its bank, and thinking of nothing but
+the simple girlish things which pertain to maidenhood. Then suddenly a
+shadow falls across her path. It is the shadow of the Man, and the love
+which shall raise her to heaven or drag her down to the nethermost hell.
+A glance, a word, and her fate is decided; before her stretch the long
+years of joy or misery.
+
+And, alas! she has no choice! Love is lord of all, of our lives, of our
+fate, and none can say him nay. No one of us can elect to love a little
+wisely, or unwisely and too well.
+
+But there was no doubt, no misgiving, in Nell's mind that night. She had
+given herself to this man who had fallen at her feet in Shorne Mills,
+and she had given herself fully and unreservedly. His very presence was
+a joy to her. It was a subtle delight to reach out her hand and touch
+him, though with the tips of her fingers. The gates of paradise had
+opened and she had entered in.
+
+How short the hour seemed during which they had sailed toward the jetty!
+She breathed a sigh, which Drake echoed.
+
+"Let me lift you out," he pleaded. "I want to feel you in my arms--once
+more to-night!"
+
+She surrendered herself, and, for a moment, her head sank on his
+shoulder.
+
+They walked up the hill almost in silence; but every now and then his
+hand sought hers, and not in vain.
+
+She looked up at the starlit sky in a kind of wondering amazement. Was
+it she?--was it he?--were they really betrothed? Did he really love her?
+Oh, how wonderful--wonderful it was! And they said there was no real
+happiness in this world.
+
+She could have laughed with the scorn of her full, complete joy!
+
+They entered The Cottage side by side, and were met by Dick, with
+half-serious indignation.
+
+"Well, upon my word, for a clear case of desertion, I never----Why
+didn't you wait for me? I've got a couple of gulls, and----What's the
+matter with you, Nell? You look as if you'd found a threepenny piece."
+
+"Just in time for supper," simpered Mrs. Lorton.
+
+Drake took Nell's hand and led her into the light of the lamp, which
+illumined the night and perfumed the day.
+
+"I've brought Nell back, Mrs. Lorton," he said, with the shyness of the
+newly engaged man, "and--and she has promised to be my wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Drake's announcement was received with amazed silence for a moment; then
+Dick flung up his piece of bread behind his back, caught it dexterously,
+and burst out with:
+
+"See the conquering hero comes! Hurrah! Nell--Nell! Don't run away! Wait
+for the congratulations of your devoted brother!"
+
+But Nell had fled to her room, and, on pretense of chivying her, Dick
+discreetly withdrew, leaving Drake to the inevitable interview with Mrs.
+Lorton.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what to say," she murmured. "It is so unexpected,
+so quite unlooked for. It is like a bolt out of the green----" She meant
+blue, but had got the colors mixed. "I had no idea that you had any
+serious intentions!"
+
+Then she remembered that she had to play the part of guardian, and
+endeavored to fill the rôle with the dignity due to a lady of her
+exalted birth.
+
+"I need not say that I--er--congratulate you, Mr. Vernon. Eleanor is
+a--er--dear girl; she has been the comfort and consolation of my life,
+and--er--the parting with her will be a great--a very great--trial.
+Pardon my emotion!" She snuffed into a handkerchief, and wiped her eyes
+with a delicate touch or two. "But I should not dream of standing in the
+way of her happiness. No! If she has made her heart's choice, I shall
+not attempt to dissuade her. And I feel that she has chosen wisely. Of
+course, my dear Mr. Vernon, though we have had the pleasure of your
+presence with us for some time, we do not--er--know----"
+
+Drake winced slightly. Should he tell her the truth? Should he say, "My
+name's Drake Vernon, right enough, but I happen to be Lord Selbie?"
+
+But he shrank from the avowal, the confession. He knew that it would
+call forth quite a torrent of amazement and self-satisfaction; that he
+would be asked why he had concealed his full name and rank--and
+to-night, of all nights, he felt unequal to the scene which would most
+certainly follow the confession.
+
+"I will tell you all--I can," he said, with a pause before the last
+words which, fortunately for him, Mrs. Lorton was too excited to notice.
+"I'm afraid Nell hasn't made a very wise choice. I'm not worthy of her;
+but that goes without saying; no man alive is. But even in the usual
+acceptation of the term, I'm not what is called a good match."
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked blank and rather puzzled as she thought of the
+diamond bracelet and the three horses.
+
+"I--we--er--imagined that you were well off," she said.
+
+"I've met with reverses lately," said Drake; "and I'm poorer than I was
+a--er--little while ago."
+
+Mrs. Lorton drew herself up a little, and her expression grew less
+complaisant.
+
+"Indeed?" she said interrogatively.
+
+"Yes," he went on quietly. "I am quite aware that Nell deserves----Perhaps
+I'd better tell you the income we shall have to get along on."
+
+He mentioned the sum which the remnant of his fortune would produce,
+and, though it was much smaller than Mrs. Lorton had expected, it was
+large enough to cause her countenance to relax something of its
+stiffness.
+
+"It is not a large income," she said. "And I cannot but remember that
+Eleanor, though she is not a Wolfer by birth, is connected with the
+family; and that, if she were taken up by them, she might--one never
+knows what may happen under favorable circumstances. A season in London
+with my people----"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"I know," he said, "Nell is worthy of the best, and no doubt if she were
+in London I should stand a poor chance; but it's my luck that she isn't,
+you see. And"--his voice dropped--"and I'm conceited enough to believe
+that she cares for me; and I don't suppose my poverty will make any
+difference. Heaven knows, I wish I were rich, for her sake!"
+
+"Well, we must make the best of it," said the good lady. "After all,
+money isn't everything." She spoke as if she were suffering from the
+burden of a million. "True hearts are more than coronets. I must write
+and tell my cousin, Lord Wolfer."
+
+"I wouldn't! I mean, is it necessary--at any rate, just yet?" said
+Drake. It was just possible that Lord Wolfer might interest himself
+sufficiently to ask questions; he might, indeed, connect "Drake Vernon"
+with the two first names of Viscount Selbie. And Drake--well, this was
+the first bit of romance in his life, and he clung to it. The idea of
+marrying Nell, of marrying her as plain "Drake Vernon," down on his
+luck, was sweet to him. He could tell her after the wedding, when they
+were too far away to suffer from the fuss which Mrs. Lorton would
+inevitably make over the revelation.
+
+"You see, we shall have to be married very quietly; and I'm thinking of
+spending some time abroad, on the Continent--Nell will like to see a
+foreign city or two--and, do you think it's worth while troubling your
+people?"
+
+The "your people" flattered her, and she yielded, with a sigh.
+
+"As you please, Mr. Vernon--but I suppose I must now call you 'Drake'?"
+she broke off, with a simper; "though, really, it sounds so strange,
+and--er--so familiar."
+
+Drake wondered whether he ought to kiss her as he murmured assent.
+
+"I'll do my best to make Nell happy," he said; "and you must make the
+best of a bad bargain, my dear Mrs. Lorton; and if you feel like being
+very good to me, you'll help me persuade Nell to an early marriage."
+
+She brightened up at the word marriage, and at the prospect of playing a
+part in the function beloved of all women; and when Nell stole in, with
+pink cheeks and glowing eyes, drew the girl to her and bestowed a
+pecklike kiss upon her forehead.
+
+Mrs. Lorton provided the conversation during that meal, and, while she
+prosed about the various marriages in the Wolfer family, Nell listened
+in dutiful silence, now and again flushing and thrilling as Drake's hand
+touched hers or his eyes sought her face.
+
+And Dick behaved very well. He reserved his chaff for a future occasion,
+and only permitted himself one allusion to the state of affairs by
+taking Nell's hand and murmuring: "Beg pardon, Nell! Thought it was a
+spoon!"
+
+As Drake walked down the hill to the Brownies' cottage his heart
+throbbed with the first pure happiness of his life. Nell's kiss, which
+she had given him at parting at the gate, glowed warm upon his lips. And
+if his happiness was alloyed by the reflection that he was deceiving her
+in the matter of his rank, he thrust it from him.
+
+After all, what did it matter? What would she care? It was he, the man,
+not the viscount, whom she loved. Yes, the gods had been good to him,
+notwithstanding the ruin of his prospects; for was he not loved for
+himself alone?
+
+He smiled, with a sense of the irony of circumstances, when he
+remembered that only a few weeks ago he had congratulated himself that
+he had "done with women!" But at that time he had not fallen in love
+with Nell of Shorne Mills, and won her love; which made all the
+difference!
+
+And Nell? She lay awake in a sleepless dream. Every word he had spoken
+came back to her like the haunting refrain of a beautiful song; the
+expression in his eyes, the touch of his hand--ah! and more, the kiss of
+his lips--were with her still. It was her first love. No man before
+Drake had ever spoken of love to her; it was her virgin heart which he
+had won; and when this is the case the man assumes the proportions of a
+god to the girl.
+
+And it seemed so wonderful, so incredible, that he should have fallen in
+love with her, that he should have chosen her; as his queen, as his
+wife. She tried to draw a mental picture of herself, to account for his
+preference for her, and failed to find any reason for it. He had said
+that she was--beautiful. Oh, no--no! He must have met a hundred women
+prettier than she was; but he had chosen her. How strange! how
+wonderful! Sleep came to her at last, but it was a sleep broken by
+dreams--dreams in which Drake--she could think of him as "Drake"--held
+her in his arms and murmured his love. She could feel his kisses on her
+lips, her hair. Once the dream turned and twisted somewhat, and he and
+she seemed separated--a vague something came between them, an intangible
+mist or cloud which neither could pass, though they stood with
+outstretched hands and yearning hearts; but this dream passed, and she
+slept the sleep of joy and peaceful happiness.
+
+Happiness! It is given to so few to know happiness that one would like
+to linger over the days which followed their betrothal. For every day
+was an idyl. Drake had resolved to send the horses up to London for
+sale; he had given Sparling notice, six months' wages, and a character
+which would insure him a good place; but he clung to the horses, and
+Nell and Dick and he had some famous rides before the nags went to
+Tattersall's.
+
+And what rides they were! Dick, wise beyond his years, would lag behind
+or canter a long way in front; and Nell and Drake would be left alone to
+whisper together, or clasp hands in silent ecstasy.
+
+And there was the _Annie Laurie_. To sail before the wind, with the sun
+shining brightly from the blue sky upon the opal sea; to hold his
+beloved in his arms; to feel the warmth of her lips on his; to know that
+in a few short weeks she would be his own, his wife!--the rapture of it
+made him catch his breath and fall into a rapt silence.
+
+One day, as they were sailing homeward, the _Annie Laurie_ speeding on a
+flowing tide and a favorable breeze, his longing became almost
+insupportable.
+
+"See here, Nell," he said, with the timidity of the man whose every
+pulse is throbbing with passion, "why--why shouldn't we be married at
+once? I mean, what is the use of waiting?"
+
+"Married!"
+
+She drew away from him and caught her breath.
+
+"Why not?" he asked. "I shan't be any the richer for waiting, and--and I
+want you very badly."
+
+"But I am here--you have got me," she said, with all the innocence of a
+child. "Oh, why should we hurry?"
+
+He bit his pipe hard.
+
+"I know," he said, rather huskily. "But I want you altogether--for my
+very own. I don't want to have to part with you at the gate of The
+Cottage. You don't understand; but I don't want you to. But, Nell, as we
+are going to be married, we might as well be married now as months
+hence."
+
+Her head sank lower; the _Annie Laurie_ lost the wind, and fell off and
+rolled on the ground swell.
+
+"Do you--want to marry me--so soon?" she murmured.
+
+"So soon!" he echoed. "Why, it is months--weeks--since we were engaged."
+
+"But--but--aren't you happy--content?" she asked. "I--I am so happy. I
+know that you love me; that is happiness enough."
+
+He drew her to him and kissed her with a reverence which he thought no
+woman would have received from him.
+
+"No; it is not enough, dearest," he said. "You don't understand. I'll
+put the banns up to-morrow--no; I'll get a special license. I want you
+for my own, all my own, Nell."
+
+When they sailed into the slip by the jetty, Dick was waiting for them.
+
+"Hal-lo!" he yelled. "I've been waiting for you for the last two hours.
+I've news for you."
+
+"News?" said Drake.
+
+Nell was coiling the sheet in a methodical fashion, and thinking of
+Drake's words.
+
+"Yes. The Maltbys are going to give a dance, and you and I and Nell are
+asked."
+
+"And who are the Maltbys?" he inquired, with a lack of interest which
+nettled Dick.
+
+"The Maltbys are our salt of the earth," he replied; "they are our
+especial 'local gentry'; and, let me tell you, an invitation from them
+is not to be sneezed at."
+
+"I didn't sneeze," said Drake, clasping Nell's hand as he helped her out
+of the boat.
+
+"It's for the fifth," said Dick; "and it's sure to be a good dance;
+better still, it's sure to be a good supper. Now, look here, don't you
+two spoons say you 'don't care about it,' for, I've set my mind upon
+going."
+
+Drake laughed easily.
+
+"Would you like to go?" he asked of Nell.
+
+"Would you?" she returned.
+
+Loverlike, he thought of a dance with her. She was, her girlish
+innocence, so sparing of her caresses, that the prospect of holding her
+in his arms during a waltz set him aching with longing.
+
+"Yes," he said, "if you like."
+
+"All right," she said. "Yes, I should think we might go, Dick."
+
+"I should think so!" he shouted. "Fancy chucking away the chance of a
+dance!"
+
+"How did they come to ask us?" Nell inquired. "We don't know them very
+well," she explained to Drake. "The Maltbys are quite grand folk
+compared with us; and, though Lady Maltby calls once in a blue moon, and
+sends us cards for a garden party now and again, this is the first time
+we have been invited to a dance."
+
+"You have to thank me, young people," said Dick, with exaggerated
+self-satisfaction. "I happened to meet young Maltby--he's home for a
+spell; fancy he's sent down from Oxford--and he asked me to go rabbiting
+with him. He's not much of a shot, though he is a baronet's son and
+heir, and I rather think I put him up to a wrinkle or two. Anyway, the
+other day he mentioned that they were going to have a dance--quite an
+informal affair--and asked if I'd care to go; and Lady Maltby's just
+sent a note."
+
+"All right," said Drake.
+
+Then he suddenly remembered his masquerade, and looked grave and
+thoughtful. Yes, it was just possible that some one there might
+recognize him.
+
+"Who are the Maltbys?" he asked. "I never heard of them."
+
+Dick's eyes twinkled.
+
+"I can't truthfully say that that argues you unknown," he said; "for
+they are very quiet people, and only famous in their own straw yard. Old
+Sir William hates London, and he and Lady Maltby seldom leave the
+Grange."
+
+"There is no daughter, only this one son," explained Nell. "They are not
+at all 'grand,' and I think you will like them. Lady Maltby is always
+very kind, and Sir William is a dear old man, who loves to talk about
+his prize cattle."
+
+"Do you happen to know who is staying at the house?" asked Drake.
+
+After all, perhaps, he would run no risk of detection; as he had never
+met the Maltbys, it was highly improbable that they had heard of him.
+
+"Oh, it's not a large party. I remember some of the names, because young
+Maltby ran over them. He said there weren't enough in the house to make
+up a dance. I shrewdly conjectured that that's one reason why we were
+asked."
+
+"Wise but ungrateful youth!" said Drake. "Let us hear the names."
+
+Dick repeated all that he could remember.
+
+"Know any of them?" he asked.
+
+"No," replied Drake, with relief.
+
+"The fifth," mused Nell, thinking of her dress. "It is very short
+notice."
+
+"It's only a scratch affair; but, all the same, I should wear my white
+satin with Brussels lace, and put on my suite of diamonds and rubies, if
+I were you," advised Dick.
+
+Nell laughed, as she glanced up at Drake.
+
+"I am just wondering whether I have outgrown my nun's veiling," she
+said simply. "It's the only dress I have. I'm afraid"--she
+hesitated--"I'm afraid you will think it a very poor one!"
+
+"Are you?" he said significantly. "You never can tell. Perhaps I shall
+admire it."
+
+As he spoke he asked himself whether he should send up to Bond Street
+for some jewels for her; but he resisted the temptation. Later on, when
+they were married, he would give himself the treat of buying her some of
+the things women loved. Even in the matter of the engagement ring he had
+held himself in check, and only a very simple affair encircled the third
+finger of Nell's left hand.
+
+They found Mrs. Lorton in a flutter of excitement, and she handed Drake
+the note of invitation with the air of an empress conferring a patent of
+nobility.
+
+"Very good people," she said; "though not, of course, the crème de la
+crème. I am included in the invitation, but I shall not accept. The
+scene would but recall others of a more brilliant description in which I
+once moved--er--not the least of the glittering throng. No, Eleanor, you
+will not need a chaperon. You have Drake, who, I trust, will enjoy
+himself in what may be novel circumstances," she added, with affable
+patronage.
+
+"You will not need a new dress, Eleanor--Dick tells me that he must have
+a new suit."
+
+"Oh, no; I am all right!" said Nell cheerfully.
+
+She found that the old frock could, with a little alteration, be
+utilized, and for several evenings Drake sat and watched her as she
+lengthened the skirt and bestowed new lace and ribbons upon the thing,
+and, as he smoked, imagined how she would look on the night of the
+dance. He knew that not one of the other women, let them be arrayed in
+all the glory of the Queen of Sheba herself, would outshine his star.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+On the night of the fifth Nell sang softly to herself as she stood
+before the glass putting the last touches to her toilet. She was
+brimming over with happiness, and as she looked at the radiant
+reflection she wondered whether her lover would be satisfied. It is the
+question which every woman who loves asks herself. It is for the man of
+her heart that she lives and has her being; it is that she may find
+favor in his sight that she brushes the hair he has kissed; it is with
+the hope that his eye may be caught, his fancy pleased, that she puts
+the flower at her bosom or winds the filmy lace around her neck. And it
+was of Drake--Drake--Drake--she thought and dreamed as she turned from
+the glass and went down the stairs.
+
+She had heard the wheels of the fly he had procured from Shallop, and
+she found him in the little hall waiting for her.
+
+He looked up at the lovely vision with startled admiration, for hitherto
+he had only seen her in week-a-day attire; and this slight, graceful
+form, clad in soft white, seemed so pure, so virginal and ethereal,
+that, not for the first time, his joy in her loveliness was tempered
+with awe.
+
+"Nell!" was all he could say, and he stretched out his arms, then let
+them fall. "I should crush you or break you," he said, half seriously.
+"Is that the dress I saw you making up--that! It looked like----"
+
+"A rag," she finished for him, her eyes shining down upon him with a
+woman's gratitude for his admiration. "Will it do? Do I look--passable?"
+
+"No," he said; "no one could pass you! Nell, my angel--yes, you are like
+an angel to-night!" he broke off, in lower tones. "You--you frighten me,
+dearest. I dread to see you spread your wings and fly away from me."
+
+She laughed shyly and shook her head.
+
+"And--and--how different you look!" she said; for it was the first time
+she had seen Drake in the costume which we share with the waiter; and
+her pride in him--in his tall figure and square shoulders--glowed in her
+eyes. If he had been lame and halt she would have still loved him;
+but--well, there is no woman who is not proud of her sweetheart's good
+looks. Sometimes she is prouder of them than of her own.
+
+"Let me put this wrap around you," he said; and as he did so she raised
+her head with a blush and an invitation in her eyes, and he kissed her
+on the lips. "See here, dearest," he said, "your first dance! And as
+many as you will give me afterward. Did I ever mention that I was
+jealous? Nell, I inform you of the gruesome fact now; and that I shall
+endure agonies every time I see you dancing with another man."
+
+"Perhaps you will be spared that pain," she said. "I may be a
+wallflower, waiting for you to take pity on me."
+
+"Yes, I should think that very probable," he retorted ironically. "Oh,
+Nell, how I love you, how proud----"
+
+Dick came out of the dining room at that moment, and at sight of Nell
+fell back against the wall in an assumed swoon.
+
+"Is it--can it be--the simple little fishergirl of Shorne Mills? My
+aunt, Nell, you do look a swell! Got 'em all on, Drake, hasn't she?
+Miss Eleanor Lorton as Cinderella! Kiss your brother, Nell!"
+
+He made a pretended rush at her with extended arms, and Nell shrieked
+apprehensively:
+
+"Keep him off, Drake! He'll crush my dress! Dick--Dick, you dare!"
+
+Dick winked at Drake.
+
+"You are requested not to touch the figure. Drake, have you observed and
+noticed this warning? But so it is in this world! One man may kiss this
+waxwork, while another isn't permitted to lay a finger on it. Now, are
+we going to the Maltbys' dance, or have you decided to remain here and
+spoon? And hasn't any one a word of approval for this figure? Between
+you and me, Drake, I rather fancy myself to-night. I do hope I shan't
+break any young thing's heart, for I'm not--I really am not--a marrying
+man. Seen too much of the preliminary business with other people, you
+know."
+
+They got into the fly, laughing, and Drake, as they drove along,
+compared this departure for a simple country dance with his past
+experiences. How seldom had he gone to a big London crush without
+wishing that he could stay at home and smoke or read!
+
+"Remember," he whispered to Nell, as they alighted at the Grange, "your
+first dance and as many as you can give me!"
+
+One or two other carriages set down at the same time, and they entered
+the hall, a portion of a small crowd, so that Lady Maltby, a buxom,
+smiling lady of the good old type of the country baronet's wife, had
+only time to murmur a few words; and Drake passed on with Nell on his
+arm.
+
+As they went up the room, a dance started, and he drew Nell aside, and
+standing by her, looked round curiously and a trifle apprehensively. But
+there was no person whom he knew, and Sir William, who came up to them,
+had even got Drake's name wrongly.
+
+"Glad to see you, Miss Lorton. Dear, dear! how the young ones do grow!
+Glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Verney Blake, and to congratulate
+you. I think I've met a relative of yours--an uncle, I fancy----"
+
+Drake's face grew expressionless in an instant.
+
+--"Sir Richard--or--was it Sir Joseph--Blake? He took the first for
+shorthorns in seventy-eight."
+
+Drake drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"No relation of mine, Sir William, I regret," he said.
+
+"No? Same name, too. Funny! But there are a good many Blakes. So you're
+going to run off with the belle of Shorne Mills, eh? Lucky fellow!"
+
+With a chuckle he ambled off to his wife, to be sent to some one else,
+and Drake bent to Nell.
+
+"Come!" was all he said, and he put his arm round her. The floor was
+good, the band from the garrison town knew its business, and Nell----Was
+he surprised that she should dance so well? Was not every ordinary
+movement of hers graceful? But the fact that she could dance like an
+angel, as he put it to himself, did not make his love for her any the
+less or his pride in her diminish, be certain. He himself had been the
+best dancer in his regiment, and this, his first waltz with the girl he
+adored, sent the blood spinning through his veins.
+
+"Aren't we in step rather--nicely?" she whispered, trying to speak
+casually, but failing utterly; for the joy that throbbed in her heart
+made it impossible for her to keep her voice steady. "Oh, Drake, I--I
+was afraid that I might not be able to dance, it is so long--ever so
+long--since----Why, this is my first real ball, and I am dancing with
+you! And how well you waltz! But you have danced so often--this is not
+your first ball!"
+
+He glanced at her with a pang of uneasiness, but her eyes shone up at
+him innocent of any other meaning than the simplest one, innocent of any
+doubt of him, any question of his past.
+
+"He would be a rank duffer who couldn't dance with you, Nell," he said.
+
+Her hand tightened on his with the faintest pressure, and she closed her
+eyes with a happy sigh.
+
+"If it could only go on forever!" was her thought; and she prayed that
+no other man might want her to dance, for a long time.
+
+She would have liked to sit out the dances she could not have with
+Drake, to sit and watch him. And she would not be jealous. Why should
+she be? Was he not her very own, her sweetheart, the man who loved her?
+
+The waltz came to an end all too soon, and as Drake led her to a seat,
+young Maltby approached her with two young fellows. She was the
+prettiest girl in the room, though she was the simplest dressed, and the
+men were anxious to secure her.
+
+Drake hastily scribbled his initials on several lines of her program,
+then had to resign her to her next partner, and, in discharge of his
+duty, seek a partner for himself.
+
+Lady Maltby introduced him to a daughter of a local squire, a fresh
+young girl, with all a country girl's frankness.
+
+"What a pretty girl that was with whom you were dancing!" she said, as
+they started. "She is really lovely!"
+
+"And yet they say that women never admire each other," he remarked.
+
+"Do you mean that?" she asked, looking up at him with her frank, blue
+eyes. "What nonsense! I love to see a pretty woman; and I quite looked
+forward to coming here to-night, because we are to have a famous London
+beauty."
+
+"Oh! Which one?" asked Drake absently; his eyes were following Nell, who
+happened to look across at him at the moment, and who smiled the smile
+which a woman only accords her lover.
+
+"I don't remember her name," said the girl. "But she is very beautiful,
+I am told; though I find it hard to believe that she can be lovelier
+than she is," and she nodded in Nell's direction.
+
+Drake felt very friendly toward the girl.
+
+"She is as good as she is beautiful," he said; then, as the triteness
+and significance of the words struck him, he laughed slightly.
+
+His partner glanced up at him shyly.
+
+"Oh--I beg your pardon!" she said. "I didn't know. How--how proud you
+must be!"
+
+"I am," said Drake.
+
+"And of course you want to be dancing with her now? If I were you I
+should hate to have to dance with any one else. I wish--you would
+introduce me to her after this waltz!"
+
+"With pleasure!" said Drake, wondering what on earth the girl's name
+was--for, of course, he had not caught it.
+
+But the introduction was not made, for her next partner came up
+immediately the dance was finished and bore her off; and Drake leaned
+against the wall and watched Nell.
+
+She was dancing with a subaltern from the garrison town, and was
+evidently enjoying herself. It was a pleasure to him to look at her; and
+it occurred to him that even if the bright little American, with the
+pleasant voice and tender heart, had not stepped in to ruin his
+prospects; if the title and estates were as near to him as they had been
+a few months ago; if he were moving in London society, in his own
+critical and exclusive set, he would not have made any mistake in asking
+Nell to be his wife. She would have justified his choice in any society,
+however high.
+
+It occurred to him that where they were going on the Continent he might,
+perhaps, procure a little amusement for her; there might be a dance or
+two at the hotels at which they would stay; or he might take her to one
+of the big state balls for which there would be no difficulty in
+obtaining an invitation.
+
+Yes, he thought as he watched her--her lips half parted with a smile of
+intense enjoyment, her eyes shining with the light of youth and
+ignorance of care--she should have a happy time of it or he would know
+the reason why; he would simply devote his life to watching over her, to
+screening her from every worry, to----
+
+"Are you staying in the house, Mr. Blake?"
+
+It was Sir William who had toddled up and addressed the reflective
+guest. Sir William never knew exactly how the house party was composed;
+and sometimes a man had been staying at the Grange for a fortnight
+without Sir William comprehending that the man was sleeping beneath his
+roof.
+
+"No? Beg your pardon! I should have liked to show you my Herefords
+to-morrow morning. I think you'd admire 'em; they're the best lot I've
+had, and I ought to do well with them at the show. But perhaps you don't
+take an interest in cattle-breeding?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," said Drake pleasantly, and with his rather rare
+smile--he was brimming over with happiness and would have patted a
+rhinoceros that night, and Sir William was anything but a rhinoceros.
+"Every man ought to take an interest in cattle-breeding and
+horse-breeding. I did a little in the latter way myself." He pulled up
+short. "I shall be very glad to come over to-morrow morning, if you'll
+allow me."
+
+"Do, do!" said Sir William genially, and evidently much gratified. "But,
+look here, you'll have to come over early, because I've got to go and
+sit on the bench, and shall have to leave here soon after ten. Why not
+come over to breakfast--say, nine o'clock?"
+
+"Thanks!" said Drake; "I shall be very glad to."
+
+At this moment Lady Maltby came up to them with a rather anxious
+expression on her pleasant face.
+
+"I can't think what has come to the Chesney party, William," she said.
+"I didn't expect them very early, but it's getting rather late now. Do
+you think they've had an accident?"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" returned Sir William cheerily. "They've had a jolly
+good dinner, and don't feel like moving. Don't blame them, either.
+Suppose we go and have a cigar, Mr. Blake?"
+
+Drake glanced toward Nell, saw that she was surrounded, exchanged a
+smile with her, then went off with Sir William to the smoking room. They
+were in the middle of their cigars, and talking cattle and horses, when
+Drake heard a carriage drive up.
+
+"That's the Chesney people, I dare say," said Sir William, and
+continued to dilate on a new rule which he was anxious that the
+Agricultural Society should adopt, and Drake and he discussed it
+exhaustively.
+
+Nell had just finished a dance when she saw Lady Maltby hurry across the
+room to receive four persons, two ladies and two men, who had just
+arrived. It was the belated Chesney party. Their entrance attracted a
+good deal of attention, and Nell herself was startled into interest and
+curiosity by the appearance of one of the new arrivals. She thought that
+she had never imagined--she had certainly never seen--so beautiful a
+woman, or one so magnificently dressed.
+
+A professional beauty in all her war paint is somewhat of a rara avis in
+a quiet country house, and this professional beauty was the acknowledged
+queen of her tribe. Her hair shone like gold, and it had been dressed by
+a maid who had acquired her art at the hands of a famous Parisian
+coiffeur; her complexion, of a delicate ivory, was tinted with the blush
+of a rose; her lips were the Cupid-bow lips which Sir Joshua Reynolds
+loved to paint. Naturally graceful, her figure was indebted to her
+modiste for every adventitious aid the art of modern dressmaking can
+bestow. Nell knew too little of dress to fully appreciate the exquisite
+perfection of the _toilette de la danse_; she could only admire and
+wonder. It was of a soft cream silk, rendered still softer in appearance
+by cobweb lace, in which, as if caught by the filmy strands, as in a
+net, were lustrous pearls. Diamonds glittered in the hair which served
+them as a setting of gold. Her very gloves were unlike those of the
+other women, and seemed to fit the long and slender hands like a fourth
+skin.
+
+"How beautiful!" she said involuntarily, and scarcely aware that she had
+spoken aloud.
+
+The man who was sitting beside her smiled.
+
+"Like a picture, is she not?" he said. "In fact, I never see her but I
+am reminded of a Lely or a Lawrence; one of those full-length pictures
+in Hampton Court, you know!"
+
+"I don't know," said Nell. "I've never been there."
+
+"Well, you won't think it a fair comparison when you do see them," he
+said; "for there isn't one of them half as beautiful as Lady Luce."
+
+"What is her name?" asked Nell, who had not caught it.
+
+He did not hear the question, for the music had struck up again, and
+with a bow he went off to his next partner. It was evident to Nell that
+the beauty was not known to Lady Maltby, for Nell saw the other lady
+introducing them. Nell felt half fascinated by the new arrival, and sat
+and watched her, looking at her as intently as one gazes at something
+quite new and strange which has swung suddenly into one's own ken.
+
+Nell was engaged for that dance, but her partner did not turn up. She
+was not sorry, for she wanted to rest; the room was hot, and, though she
+was by no means tired, she was not eager to dance the waltz--unless it
+were to be danced with Drake. She was sitting not very far from the
+window; some considerate soul had opened it a little, and Nell got up
+and went to it and looked out. It opened onto a wide terrace; the stars
+were shining brightly, the night air came to her softly and wooingly.
+How nice it would be to go out there! Perhaps if she stole out, and
+waited, presently Drake would come into the ballroom, and, missing her,
+would come in search of her, for he would guess that she would be out
+there, and they would have a few minutes by themselves under the starlit
+sky. It was worth trying for.
+
+She went out, without opening the window any wider, and leaning on the
+stone coping, looked up at the sky, and then to where, far away, the few
+lights which were still burning showed her where Shorne Mills nestled
+amid its trees.
+
+As long as life lasted she would never be able to think of Shorne Mills
+without thinking of Drake; she thought of him now, and longed for him;
+and as she heard the window open wider she turned with a little throb of
+expectation. But instead of Drake's tall figure, two ladies came out.
+Nell recognized the beauty by her dress, and saw that the lady who was
+with her was the one who had accompanied her to the ball.
+
+Nell's disappointment was so acute as to embarrass her for a moment,
+and, reluctant, with a girl's shyness, to be found there alone, she
+rather foolishly drew back quietly into the shadow accentuated by the
+contrast of the light streaming from the half-open window. She retreated
+as far as the corner of the terrace, and, finding a seat there, over
+which she had nearly stumbled, she sank into it. Beside her was a marble
+statue of the god Pan. The pedestal almost, if not quite, concealed her;
+and, although she was already ashamed of having taken flight, so to
+speak, she decided to remain where she was until the other two women
+returned to the ballroom, or Drake came out and she could call to him.
+
+Lady Luce went and leaned upon almost the very spot where Nell had
+leaned; and she looked up at the sky and toward the twinkling lights,
+and yawned.
+
+"Sorry you have come, dear?" said Lady Chesney, with a little laugh. "I
+know you so well that that yawn speaks volumes."
+
+"It is rather slow, isn't it?" admitted Lady Luce, with the soft little
+London drawl in her languid voice.
+
+"My dear Luce, I told you it would be slow. What did you expect? These
+dear, good people are quite out of the world--they are antediluvians.
+The best people imaginable, of course, but not of the kind which gives
+the sort of hop you care for. I'm sorry you came; but I did warn you,
+dear, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes, I know," assented Lady Luce.
+
+"And, really, you seemed so bored--forgive me, dear; I don't want to be
+offensive--that I thought that perhaps, after all, this rustic
+entertainment might amuse you."
+
+"I'm not bored, but I'm very sick and sorry for myself," said Luce. "One
+always is when one has been a fool."
+
+"My dear girl, you did it for the best."
+
+"That always seems to me such a futile, and altogether ineffectual,
+consolation," said Luce; "and people never offer it to you unless you
+have absolutely made a fool of yourself."
+
+"But I think, and everybody thinks with me, that you acted very wisely
+under the circumstances. He could not expect you to marry a poor man.
+Good heavens! fancy Luce and poverty! The combination is not to be
+imagined for a moment! It is not your fault that circumstances are
+altered, and that if you had only waited----"
+
+Lady Luce made a little impatient movement with her hand.
+
+"If I had only waited!" she said, with a mixture of irritation and
+regret. "It was just my luck that I should meet him when I did."
+
+There was a pause. It need scarcely be said that Nell was extremely
+uncomfortable. These two were discussing a matter of the most private
+character, and she was playing the unwelcome part of listener. Had she
+been a woman of the world, it would have been easy for her to have
+emerged from her hiding place, and to have swept past them slowly, as if
+she had seen and heard nothing, as if she were quite unconscious of
+their presence. But Nell was not a woman of the world; she was just Nell
+of Shorne Mills, a girl at her first ball, and her first introduction to
+society. She could not move--could only long for them to become either
+silent or to go away and leave her free to escape.
+
+"I suppose he was very much cut up?" remarked Lady Chesney.
+
+"That goes without saying," replied Luce. "Of course. He was very fond
+of me; or, why should he have asked me to marry him? You wouldn't ask
+the question if you had seen him the day I broke with him. I never saw a
+man so cut up. It made me quite ill."
+
+"Then the love was not altogether on one side, dear?" said Lady Chesney.
+
+Lady Luce shrugged her white shoulders in eloquent silence.
+
+"Where did the dramatic parting take place?" asked Lady Chesney.
+
+"Here," said Lady Luce.
+
+"Here?"
+
+"Well, near here. At a little port--fishing place, called--I forget the
+name--something Mills."
+
+"Oh! you mean Shorne Mills."
+
+Nell's discomfort increased, and yet a keen interest reluctantly awoke
+in her. It seemed so strange to be listening to what seemed to her a
+life's drama, the scene of which was pitched in Shorne Mills.
+
+"The yacht put in quite unexpectedly," continued Luce. "I didn't want to
+land at all, but Archie worried me into doing so. We climbed a miserable
+kind of steep place. I refused to go any farther. They went on, and I
+turned into a kind of recess to rest--and found Drake there."
+
+For a moment the name did not strike with its full significance upon
+Nell's mind, and the soft voice had continued for a sentence or two
+before she realized that the man of whom this woman was speaking, the
+lover whose loss she was regretting, bore the same name as Drake. She
+had no suspicion that the men were the same; it only seemed strange and
+almost incredible that there should be two Drakes at Shorne Mills.
+
+"I can imagine the scene," said Lady Chesney; "and I can quite
+understand how you feel about it. But, Luce, is it altogether hopeless?"
+
+Lady Luce laughed bitterly.
+
+"You don't know Drake," she said. There was a pause. "And yet"--she
+hesitated, and her tone became thoughtful and speculative--"sometimes I
+think that I could get him back. He is very fond of me; it must have
+nearly broken his heart. Yes; sometimes I feel sure that if I could have
+him to myself for, say, ten minutes, it would all come right."
+
+"Don't you know where he is?"
+
+"No. There was a row royal between his uncle and him, and he
+disappeared. No one knows where he is. It is just possible that he has
+gone abroad."
+
+"There is danger in that," said Lady Chesney gravely. "One never knows
+what a man may do in a moment of pique. They are strange animals."
+
+"You mean that he might be caught on the rebound, and marry some 'dusky
+bride' or ruddy-cheeked dairymaid?" said Lady Luce, with a little laugh
+of scorn. "You don't know Drake. He's the last man to marry beneath him.
+If I were not afraid of seeming egotistical, dear, I would say that he
+has known me too long and loved me too well----But there! don't let us
+talk any more about it. The gods may send him to my side again. If they
+do, I shall avail myself of their gracious favor and get him back; if
+not----" She sighed, and shrugged her shoulders. "Heavens! how I wish I
+had a cigarette!"
+
+"My dear, you shall have one," said Lady Chesney, with a laugh. "I know
+where the smoking room is. I'll go and get you one, you poor, dear
+soul!"
+
+She went in, and Nell rose from her seat. She could not remain a moment
+longer, even if she had to tell this lady she had overheard their
+conversation, and beg her pardon for having played, most reluctantly,
+the eavesdropper. But as she stood fighting with her nervousness, a man
+came out through the window. Her heart leaped with relief and
+thanksgiving, for it was Drake.
+
+"Is that you?" he said, as he saw the figure against the coping.
+
+Lady Luce turned; the light streamed full upon her face, and he stopped
+dead short and stared at her.
+
+"Luce!" he exclaimed, in a low voice.
+
+She stood for a moment as motionless as one of the statues. Another
+woman would have started, would probably have shrunk back, with a cry of
+amazement or of joy; but she stood for just that instant, motionless and
+silent, and looking at him with her eyes dilating with surprise and
+delight. Then, holding out both hands, she moved toward him, murmuring:
+
+"Drake! Thank God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Lady Luce came forward to him with both hands extended; and the "Drake,
+thank God!" was perhaps as genuinely a devout an expression as she had
+ever uttered. For it seemed to her that Providence had especially
+intervened in her behalf and sent him to her side. We all of us have an
+idea that Providence is more interested in us than in other persons.
+
+Drake stood and looked at her for an instant with the same surprise
+which had assailed him when he recognized her; then he took the small,
+exquisitely gloved hands. How could he refuse them? As he had said, the
+members of their set could not be strangers, though two of them had been
+lovers and one had been jilted. They had to meet as friends or
+acquaintances, as individuals of a community, which, living for
+pleasure, could not be bored by quarrels and estrangements.
+
+In the "smart" set a man lives not for himself alone, but for the other
+men with whom he plays and shoots and jokes and drinks; for the women
+with whom he drives and rides and dances. He must sink personal feeling,
+likes and dislikes, or the social ship which he joins as one of the
+crew, the ship which can sail only on smooth and sunlit waves, will
+founder. So Drake took her hands and smiled a greeting at her.
+
+"Why! To find you here! What are you doing here, Drake?" she said.
+
+She had no right to call him "Drake"; she had lost that right the day
+she had jilted him; but she called him "Drake," and the name left her
+lips softly and meltingly.
+
+"I might ask the same of you, Luce," he replied gravely, and unconscious
+in the stress of the moment that he, too, had used the Christian name.
+
+But, alas! Nell had heard it! She had, half mechanically, shrunk behind
+the pedestal; she shrank still farther behind it as Drake spoke, and she
+put up her hand on the cold marble as if for support. For she was
+trembling in every limb, and a sensation as of approaching death was
+creeping over her. The terrace and the two figures grew misty and
+indistinct, the music of the band sounded like a blurred discord in her
+ears, and the blood rushed through her veins like fire one moment and
+like ice the next.
+
+She would have rushed out of her hiding place and into the house, but
+she could not move. Was she going to die? or was this awful, sickening
+weakness only a warning that she was going to faint? She pressed her
+forehead against the marble, and the icy coldness of the unsympathetic
+stone revived her. She found that she could hear every word, though the
+two had moved to the stone rail.
+
+"It is quite a shock!" said Lady Luce. She put her handkerchief to her
+lips, her eyes, and then looked up at him with the smile, the confession
+of weakness, which is one of woman's most irresistible weapons.
+
+"I--I am staying at the Chesneys'--you know the Chesneys? No? There is a
+small party--some of us came over to-night to this dance--they are old
+friends of the Maltbys. Drake, I can scarcely believe it is you!"
+
+He stood beside her patiently, and yet impatiently. He was thinking of
+Nell even at that moment; wondering where she was, how soon he could get
+away from Lady Luce and find Nell.
+
+"You are staying here?" she asked, meaning at the Maltbys'.
+
+He nodded, thinking it well to leave her misconception uncorrected.
+
+"How strange! Drake, it--it is like Fate!" she murmured; and, indeed,
+she felt that it was.
+
+"Like Fate?" he asked.
+
+"Yes--that--that we should meet here, in this out-of-the way place, so
+soon. Oh, Drake, if you knew how glad I am!"
+
+She put out her hand and touched his arm with the timid touch, the
+suggestion of a caress, which women can convey so significantly.
+
+Drake glanced toward the open window apprehensively. Nell--any
+one--might come out any moment, and----
+
+"Shall we walk to the end of the terrace?" he said. "You will catch
+cold----"
+
+As he spoke he looked down at her. There was only a man's inquiry, and
+consideration for a woman's bare shoulders, in the look; but to Nell,
+whose eyes were fixed upon him with an agonized intentness, it seemed
+that the look was eloquent of tenderness and passion.
+
+"Yes, yes," assented Lady Luce quickly. "Some one may come, and--and--we
+have so much to say, haven't we, Drake?"
+
+He drew her arm within his mechanically, as he would have drawn it if he
+had been leading her to a dance, or in to dinner, and they moved beyond
+Nell's hearing.
+
+Drake bit his lip, and glanced sideways toward the house. What could she
+have to say to him? and what did this sudden tenderness, this humility,
+of hers mean?
+
+Suddenly it occurred to him that she had seen his uncle, and heard of
+the old man's offer. Ten thousand a year was not a large income for one
+in Lady Lucille Turfleigh's position; but--well, she might have been
+tempted by it. His face hardened with an expression of cold cynicism
+which Nell had never seen.
+
+"What have we to say, Luce?" he asked. "I thought you and I had
+exhausted all topics of absorbing interest when we parted the other
+day."
+
+She winced, and looked up at him reproachfully.
+
+"Oh, how cruel of you, Drake!" she murmured, "As if I hadn't suffered
+enough!"
+
+"Suffered!"
+
+He smiled down at her, with something as nearly approaching a sneer as
+Drake Selbie could bring himself to bestow upon a woman.
+
+"Yes. Drake, did you think I was quite heartless? that--I--I--did what I
+did without suffering? Ah, no, you couldn't think that; you know me too
+well."
+
+Her audacity brought a smile to his lips, and he found it difficult to
+restrain a laugh of amusement. It was because he had learned to know her
+so well that he himself had not suffered a pang at their broken
+engagement--at least, no pang since he had learned to know and love
+Nell.
+
+Where was she? How could he get away from this woman, whose face was
+upturned to him with passionate pleading on it?
+
+"Have you seen my uncle lately?" he asked grimly, but with a kind of
+suddenness.
+
+"No," she replied, and the lie came "like truth"--so like truth that
+Drake felt ashamed of his suspicion of her motive.
+
+She had not, then, heard of his uncle's offer? Then--then why was she
+moved at sight of him? Why were her eyes moist with unshed tears, the
+pressure of her hand on his arm tremulous and beseeching?
+
+"No," she said; "I--I have been scarcely anywhere. I have--not been
+well. I came down here to the Chesneys' to bury myself--just to bury
+myself. I have been so wretched, so miserable, Drake."
+
+"I'm sorry," he said gravely. "But why?"
+
+She looked up at him reproachfully.
+
+"Don't you--know? Ah, Drake, can't you guess? Don't--don't look at me
+like that and smile. It is not like you to be so--so hard."
+
+"We men are hard or soft as you women make us, Luce," he said quietly.
+"Remember that I have been through the mill. I was not hard or
+cruel--once."
+
+It was an unwise thing to say. Never, if you have done with a woman, or
+she has done with you, talk sentiment, says Rousseau. It was unwise, for
+it let Luce in.
+
+"I know! Yes, it was all my fault. Drake, do you think I don't know
+that? Do you think that I don't tell myself so every hour of the day,
+every hour at night, when I lay awake thinking of--of the past?"
+
+"The past is buried, Luce," he said, with a short laugh. "Don't let us
+dig it up again. After all, you acted wisely----"
+
+"No; I acted like a fool!" she broke in; and she meant it. "If I had
+only listened to the cry of my own heart--if I had only refused to obey
+father, and--and stuck to you! But, Drake, though you think me
+heartless, and--and sneer----"
+
+"I didn't mean to sneer, Luce," he said. "Forgive me if I did so
+unintentionally. I quite understood your difficulty, and, as I told you
+the day we parted, I--well, I made allowances for you. You did what most
+women of our set would have done."
+
+"Would they? But perhaps they really are heartless, while I----Drake,
+you can't tell what I have suffered; how--how terribly I have missed
+you! I--yes, I will tell you the truth. Do you know, Drake, that I had
+made a vow that whenever we met, whether it was soon, or not for years,
+I would tell you all. Yes--though, like a man, you should despise me for
+it!"
+
+"I'm not likely to despise you for it, Luce," he said. As he spoke, Lady
+Chesney came out onto the terrace. She looked up and down, saw the two
+figures standing together, and, with a smile, returned to the house.
+
+"No; you are too generous for that, Drake; even if I--I confess that I
+have not spent one happy--oh, the word is a mockery!--that I have been
+wretched since the hour I--I left you."
+
+His face grew grave, almost stern.
+
+"I'm sorry," he said simply. "Candidly, I didn't think----"
+
+"No, I know! You thought that I only cared for you because----You told
+me that I was heartless and mercenary, you remember, Drake. But, ah; it
+wasn't true! Yes, I've been brought up at a bad school. I've been taught
+that it's a sacred duty for every girl, as poor as I am, to make a good
+match; and I thought--see how frank I am!--that I could part from you,
+oh, not easily, but without breaking my heart. But I--I was mistaken! I
+miss you so dreadfully! There is not another man in the world I can care
+for, or even dream of caring for."
+
+"Hush!" he said sternly.
+
+There was always something impressive about Drake, a touch of the
+manliness which is somewhat rare nowadays, the manliness which women are
+so quick to acknowledge and bow to; and Lady Luce shrank a little; but
+her hand tightened on his arm, and her brown, velvety eyes dimmed with
+genuine tears--for she was more than anxious, and more than half in love
+with him--looked up at him penitently, imploringly.
+
+"Drake--you believe me?" she whispered. "Don't--don't punish me too
+badly! See, I am at your feet--a woman--Drake"--her voice sank to a
+whisper, became almost inaudible, and her head drooped forward until it
+nearly rested on his breast. "Drake--forgive--me and----"
+
+Her voice broke suddenly.
+
+He was moved to something like pity. Is there any man alive who can
+resist the prayer, the touch of a beautiful woman, especially if she is
+the woman he has once loved? If such a man there be, his name is not
+Drake Selbie.
+
+"Hush!" he said again, but in a gentler voice. "God knows, I loved you,
+Luce----"
+
+She uttered a faint cry. It was no louder than the sough of the night
+breeze.
+
+"Drake--Drake! ah, Drake!" she breathed, her face lifted to his, her
+other hand touching his breast. "Say it again! It's the sweetest music
+I've heard since--since----Say it again, Drake. I won't ask for any
+more----"
+
+"Don't!" he said hoarsely. The caress of her hand made him miserable; it
+had no power to thrill him now. "I want to tell you, Luce----"
+
+"No--no," she said quickly, eagerly. "Don't scold me to-night. I am so
+happy now. It is as if I had come back to life. Say it once more, Drake.
+Just 'I forgive you'!"
+
+"I forgive you; but, listen, Luce," he added quickly.
+
+She slid her white arm round his neck, and drew his head down and kissed
+him. The next moment, before he could say a word, she drew away from him
+quickly.
+
+"Go in--I will come presently," she said. "There is some one--there is a
+door."
+
+Confused, almost hating her for the kiss she had stolen--with Nell
+flashing on his mind--he turned and entered the house by the door to
+which she had pointed.
+
+She stood for a moment, then she went toward Lady Chesney. Her face was
+pale, but there was a smile on her lips, a glow of triumph in her brown
+eyes, as she paused in the light from the open window.
+
+Lady Chesney looked at her, then laughed.
+
+"My dear, you look transformed. Was that--but of course it was! Well?
+But one need not ask any questions. Your face tells its own tale."
+
+Luce laughed, and touched her lips with her handkerchief.
+
+"Yes, it was Drake," she said. "What luck! what luck! And they say there
+is no Providence!"
+
+"And--and it is all right?" asked Lady Chesney, anxiously.
+
+Lady Luce laughed softly.
+
+"Oh, yes! Didn't I tell you that if I could have him to myself for ten
+minutes----And we have been longer, haven't we? You see, he was fond of
+me, and----Oh! have you brought a cigarette? I am simply dying for one
+now!"
+
+Lady Chesney held one out to her.
+
+"Here it is. But hadn't you better go in? They will miss you----"
+
+Lady Luce shrugged her shoulders as she struck a match from the gold box
+Drake had given her.
+
+"What does it matter what these people think?" she retorted. "Nothing
+matters now. I have got Drake back, and----All the same, we will get out
+of sight of the window, lest we shock these simple folk. Yes, I am a
+lucky young woman."
+
+They passed along the terrace, and Nell, as if released from a spell,
+fell into the seat and covered her face with her hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Presently she let them fall slowly and looked vacantly with her brows
+drawn--as if waiting for the return of some sharp pain--in the direction
+of Shorne Mills. The lights had gone out; so also had died the light of
+her young life.
+
+She tried to realize what this was that had happened to her; but it was
+so difficult--so difficult! Only a little while ago she had been happy
+in the possession of Drake's love. He had been hers--was her sweetheart,
+her very own; he was to have been her husband; she was to have been his
+wife.
+
+And now--what had happened? Was she dead--had she done some evil thing
+which had turned his love for her to hate and driven him from her?
+
+Slowly the numbed sensation, the feeling of stupor passed, and the
+truth, as she thought of it, came upon her with a rush and made her
+press her hand to her heart as if a knife had stabbed it.
+
+Drake loved her no longer. He had never loved her. The woman he had
+loved was the most beautiful of God's creatures, and Drake had only
+turned to her--Nell--in a moment of pique. And this woman with the
+perfect face, and soft, lingering voice; this woman whose every movement
+was grace itself, who carried herself like an empress--an empress in the
+first flush of her beauty and power--had changed her mind and called him
+back to her. And he had gone.
+
+The fact caused such intense misery as to leave no room for resentment.
+At that moment there was not one spark of anger, one drop of bitterness
+in Nell's emotion; only misery so acute, so agonizing, as to be like a
+physical pain.
+
+It seemed to her so natural, so reasonable, that he should desert her
+when this siren with the melting eyes, the caressing laugh, should
+beckon him; for who could have resisted her? Not any man who had once
+loved her.
+
+Nell's head moved slowly from side to side, like that of an animal
+stricken to death. Her throat had grown tight, her eyes were hot and
+burning, the sound, as of the plash of waves, sang in her ears; but she
+could not cry. It seemed to her that she would never be able to cry
+again. She looked vaguely at the other women as they walked at the far
+end of the terrace, and she shivered as if with bodily fear. There was
+something terrible, Circe-like, to her in the face, the movements, the
+very voice of this woman who had taken Drake from her.
+
+Presently the two exquisitely dressed figures passed into the house, and
+Nell rose, steadying herself by the pedestal. As she did so, she looked
+up. A streak of light shot right across the statue, and the cruel face
+with its leering eyes seemed to smile down upon her mockingly,
+jeeringly, and she actually shrank, as if she dreaded to hear the satyr
+lips shoot some evil gibe at her.
+
+And all the while the music, a waltz of Waldteufel's, soft and ravishing
+and seductive, floated out to her, and mocked her with the memory of the
+happiness that had been hers but an hour--half an hour ago. She
+staggered to the edge of the terrace and leaned her head on her hands,
+and, closing her eyes, tried hard to persuade herself that it was only a
+dream; just a dream, from which she should wake shuddering at the unreal
+misery one moment, then laughing at its unreality the next.
+
+But it was true. The dream had been the happiness of the last few weeks,
+and this was the awakening.
+
+Before her mental vision passed, like a panorama, the days which the
+gods had given her--that they might punish her all the more cruelly for
+daring to be so happy.
+
+Yes; how often had she asked herself what right she, Nell of Shorne
+Mills, had to so much joy? What had she done to deserve it?
+
+She remembered now how, sometimes, she had been terrified by the
+intensity of her joy. That day Drake had told her that he loved her; the
+morning he had taken her in his arms and kissed her; the night he had
+looked down into her eyes and sworn that no man in all the world loved
+any woman as he loved her. She had not deserved it, had no right to it,
+and God had punished her for her presumption in daring to be so happy.
+
+But now what was she to do?
+
+She asked the question with a kind of despair.
+
+It never for one moment occurred to her that she should accuse Drake of
+his faithlessness, much less that she should upbraid him. Indeed, what
+would be the use? Could she--she, an ignorant, half-taught girl, just
+Nell of Shorne Mills--contend against such a woman as this Lady Luce?
+
+Luce! Luce! She remembered--for the first time that night, strangely
+enough--how he had murmured the name in his delirium. She had forgotten
+that, she had not thought of it, and had not asked who the woman was
+whose visage haunted him in his fever.
+
+If she had only done so! He would have told her--yes, for Drake was
+honest; he would have told her--and she would not have allowed herself
+to fall in love with him. Even as it was, she had fought against it; but
+her struggle had been of no avail. She had loved him almost from the
+first moment.
+
+And now she had lost him forever!
+
+"Drake, Drake, Drake!" her heart called to him, though her lips were
+mute.
+
+What should she do?
+
+No; she would not upbraid him. There should be no "scene." She knew
+instinctively how much he would loathe a scene. She would just tell
+him--what? That--that--it had all been a mistake; that--she did not love
+him, and--and ask him to give her back her freedom.
+
+That was all. Not one word of Lady Luce would she say. He would go--go
+without a word; she knew that.
+
+And now she must go back to the ballroom, and try and look and behave as
+if nothing had happened.
+
+Was she very white? she wondered dully. She felt as if she had died, and
+was buried out of reach of any pain, beyond all possibility of further
+joy. Her life was indeed at an end. That kiss of Drake's--to her it had
+appeared as if indeed it had been his, and not Luce's only, stolen from
+him unawares--that kiss had killed her.
+
+Let Ibsen be a great poet and dramatist, or a literary fraud, there are
+one or two things which he says which strike men with the force of a
+revelation; and when he speaks of the love-life which is given to every
+man and woman, and calls him and her a murderer who kills it, he speaks
+truly, and as one inspired.
+
+Nell's love-life lay dead at her feet, and Drake, though all
+unconsciously, had slain it.
+
+She wiped her lips, though they were dry and parched, and with trembling
+hands smoothed her hair--the lips and the hair Drake had kissed so
+often, with such rapture--and slowly, fighting for strength and
+self-possession, passed into the ballroom.
+
+The brilliant light, the music, the dancers, acted upon her
+overstrained nerves as a dash of cold water upon a swooning man. For the
+first time since the blow had fallen pride awoke in her. She had lost
+Drake forever; but she would make no moan; other women before her had
+lost their lovers and their husbands by death, and they had to bear
+their bereavements; she must learn to bear hers.
+
+A young fellow hurried up to her with a mingled expression of relief and
+complaint.
+
+"Oh, Miss Lorton; this is ours!" he said. "I have been looking for you
+everywhere, everywhere, on my honor, and I was nearly distracted!"
+
+Nell moistened her lips and forced a smile.
+
+"I have been out on the terrace; it--it was hot."
+
+"And--you didn't feel faint? You look rather pale now!" he said
+apprehensively. "Would you rather not dance?"
+
+"No, no; I would rather dance!" she replied, with a kind of feverish
+impatience. "I--I think I am cold." She shivered a little. "I shall be
+all the better for a dance!"
+
+She went round like one moving in a dream; her eyes looking straight
+before her in a fixed gaze, her lips curved with a forced smile. After a
+moment or two she grew warmer; the blood began to circulate, a hectic
+flush started out on her cheeks.
+
+Any one seeing her would have thought she was enjoying herself
+amazingly; would not have suspected that her heart was racked by agony;
+that the music was beating upon her brain, inflicting pain with every
+stroke; that she longed, with an aching longing, to be in the dark, in
+her own room, alone with her unspeakable misery.
+
+One talks glibly enough of women's sufferings; but not one of us ever
+comes near gauging them, for the gods who have denied them some things
+have granted to the least of them the great power of enduring in
+silence, of smiling while they suffer, of murmuring commonplaces while
+the iron is cutting deeper and deeper into their souls. The nobler the
+woman the greater this power of hers; and there was much that was noble
+in poor Nell. And as she danced, those who looked at her were full of
+admiration or envy. She was so young; her loveliness was so untainted by
+the world; the delicate droop of the pure lips was so childlike, while
+it hinted of the deeper nature of the woman, that many who regarded her
+and then glanced at the professional beauty, mentally accorded Nell the
+palm.
+
+And among them was Drake. He had gone straight to the smoking room, had
+lit a cigarette, and, pacing up and down, had, with stern lips and
+frowning brows, revolved the problem which fate had set him.
+
+He swore under his breath, after the manner of men, as he went over the
+scene with Luce. What devil of ill chance had sent her down there? And
+why--why had she changed her mind? Was it really true that she--cared
+for, him still? He could scarcely believe it; and yet the caress of her
+hand, the look in her eyes, the--the--kiss----He flung the cigarette
+away--for he had bitten it in two--and fumed mentally. And what did she
+mean, think? Was it possible that she thought he could go back to her?
+
+He laughed grimly, in mockery of the idea. Why, even if there had been
+no Nell, he could not have gone back to Luce. And there was Nell! Yes,
+thank God! there was Nell, his dear, sweet, beautiful Nell! His girl
+love, the girl who was like a pure star shining in God's heaven compared
+with a flame from--yes, from the nethermost pit. Love! He, who now knew
+what love meant, laughed scornfully at the idea in connection with Lady
+Luce. Passion it might be--but love! And she had left him with a kiss,
+as if she were convinced that she had recovered him! Oh, it was
+damnable, damnable!
+
+Why--why, she might even behave in the ballroom as if--as if she had a
+right to claim him! She might even tell the Chesneys that--that----
+
+He strode out of the smoking room in time to see the Chesney party
+taking their departure. As Lady Luce shook hands with the hostess and
+murmured her thanks for "a delightful evening"--and for once they were
+genuine and no idle formula--he saw her glance round the room as if in
+search of some one; but he drew back out of sight.
+
+Then, when they had gone, he reëntered the ballroom and his eyes sought
+Nell. She met them, and he smiled, but rather anxiously, with a feeling
+of disquietude; for there was----Was there something strange in the
+expression of her face? But as she smiled back--can one imagine what
+that smile cost Nell?--he drew a breath of relief, found a partner, and
+joined in the dance.
+
+By this time the party had reached the after-supper stage, and the
+waltzes had grown faster. A set of lancers had been danced with so much
+spirit and enjoyment that it had been encored. Some of the men were
+talking and laughing just a little loudly, and the women's faces were
+flushed with the one glass of champagne which is generally all they
+permit themselves, the spell of the music, and the excitement of rapid
+and rhythmical movement. Couples found their way into the anterooms and
+recesses, or sat very close together in corners of the great, broad
+staircase.
+
+Some of the men had boldly deserted the ballroom and retreated to the
+smoking room, where they could play whist and drink and smoke: "Must
+wait for my womenfolk, you know."
+
+Dick, at this, his first dance, was enjoying himself amazingly. He had
+gone steadily through the program, and as steadily through most of the
+dishes at supper, and he was now flirting, with all a boy's ardor, with
+a plump little girl, the niece of Lady Maltby.
+
+She was "just out," and Dick had danced three dances in succession with
+her before she remembered that she was committing a breach of etiquette.
+
+"Dance again with you? Oh, I couldn't!" she said, when Dick, with inward
+tremors but an outward boldness, begged for the fourth. "I mustn't--I
+really mustn't!"
+
+"Why not?" demanded Dick innocently.
+
+"If you weren't such a boy you wouldn't ask," she retorted severely, but
+with a smile lurking in her bright young eyes.
+
+"I bet I'm as old as you are," he said.
+
+"Are you? I don't think you are. You look as if you'd just come from
+school. I'm----No, I won't tell you. It was just a trick to learn my
+age. But if you must know why I won't dance again with you, it is
+because no lady ought to dance three times in succession with a man."
+
+"But I'm only a boy, which makes all the difference, don't you see?"
+said Dick naïvely. "Nobody cares what a boy does, you know. Come along."
+
+She pretended to eye him severely.
+
+"No; I won't 'come along.' And I think it's very rude of you not to take
+an answer."
+
+"All right," he said cheerfully. "Then will you come and have some
+supper?"
+
+"Why, it isn't half an hour ago since we had some."
+
+"Then come and see me eat some more," he suggested.
+
+"Thank you; but I am never very fond of seeing animals fed, even at the
+Zoo!"
+
+"That was rather good," he said, with a grin. "My sister, Nell couldn't
+have put that one in more neatly."
+
+"Your sister Nell? That's the girl over there, dancing with Captain
+White? How pretty she is!"
+
+"Think so? Yes, she is, now you mention it. We are considered very much
+alike."
+
+The girlish laughter, which he had been waiting for, rang out, and,
+taking advantage of it, Dick coaxed her into a corner on the stairs,
+where they could flirt to their hearts' content.
+
+"I wonder whether you'd be offended if I told you that you were the
+jolliest--I mean nicest--girl I've met?" said the young vagabond, with
+an assumption of innocence and humility which robbed the remark of any
+offense--at any rate, for his hearer, whose eyes sparkled.
+
+"Not at all. And I wonder whether you'd mind if I told you that I think
+you are the rudest and most--most audacious boy I ever met?"
+
+"Not the least in the world, because it's no news--I mean that I'm--what
+was it--the rudest and most audacious? I have a sister, you know, and
+she deals in candor, candor in solid blocks. But what a mission my
+condition opens up before you, Miss Angel!"
+
+"A mission?" she asked reluctantly, young enough to know that she was
+going to be caught somehow.
+
+"Yes," he said, with demure gravity. "The mission of my reformation. If
+you think me so bad to-night, I don't know, I really don't, what you
+would have thought of me yesterday, before I had had the advantage of
+your elevating society. Now, Miss Angel, here is a chance for you--the
+great chance of your life! Continue your elevating influence. Your
+cousin has asked me to a rabbit shoot to-morrow."
+
+"You'll shoot somebody. They really ought not to allow boys to carry
+guns----"
+
+"Who's rude now?" he asked, with a grin. "I was going to say, when you
+interrupted me, that if you came out with the luncheon party, I should
+have the opportunity of a lesson in--in deportment and manners. See?"
+
+"I shouldn't think of coming," she declared promptly.
+
+"Oh, yes, you will," he said teasingly, and with an air of conviction.
+"Women always do what they wouldn't think of doing."
+
+"Really!" she retorted, with mock indignation. "There is only one thing
+I can do, and it is my duty. I shall tell your sister----Oh, look!" she
+broke off suddenly, and with something like dismay in her voice, as she
+pointed downward.
+
+Dick leaned over, and saw Nell, sitting on an old oak bench just below
+them. She was leaning back; her eyes were closed, and her face white.
+
+"Oh, go to her; she is not well. I am so sorry! Go to her at once!"
+
+Dick ran down the stairs, and the girl followed a step or two, then
+stood watching them timidly.
+
+"Hallo, Nell! What's the matter?" asked Dick.
+
+She opened her eyes and rose instantly, struggling with all a woman's
+courage beating in her heart to renew the fight, to play her part to the
+end of that never--never-ending night.
+
+"Nothing, nothing. I am just a little tired, I think."
+
+At this moment Drake came up.
+
+"This is my dance, Nell," he said. His face, his voice were grave, for
+his soul was still disquieted within him. "I have been looking for
+you----"
+
+He stopped suddenly and put out his hand, for her face had grown white
+again. She had raised her eyes to his for a moment with the look of a
+dumb animal in pain; but she lowered them instantly and bent aside to
+take up her dress.
+
+"I am tired," she said, forcing a smile. "The heat--could we not go
+home? I--I mean, Dick and I--there is no need for you----"
+
+"Yes, yes; at once; this instant!" he said. "Wait while I get you some
+water--wait----"
+
+He went off quickly, and Nell turned to Dick.
+
+"Will you order the fly, Dick?" she said, in a tone that was quite new
+to him.
+
+It was, though the boy did not know it, the voice of the woman who has
+just parted with her girlhood.
+
+"Don't wait, please. I shall be all right."
+
+Dick left her, and Miss Angel came down to her timidly.
+
+"Is there anything I can do--I know what it is. You feel faint----"
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"God grant you may never know what it is," she thought, looking up at
+the girl's face, and feeling years and years older than she.
+
+"Perhaps it is," she said. "But I shall be all right the moment I get
+into the air."
+
+Miss Angel whipped off her shawl, which Dick had insisted upon her
+wearing.
+
+"Come with me--you can wait just outside the hall. I know what it is;
+you want to get outside at once--at once!"
+
+Nell went out with her, and as she felt the cool, fresh air, she drew a
+breath of relief; then she turned to the girl.
+
+"I am all right now; you must not wait. I have your wrap----"
+
+Dick came up with the fly, and Drake appeared with her cloak and a glass
+of wine. He had got his hat and coat as he came along. She drank some of
+the wine, and turned to hold out her hand to the girl and wish her good
+night and thank her.
+
+"I am quite, quite right now!" Drake heard her say; and his fears--for
+to a man a woman's fainting fit is a terrible thing--were somewhat
+dispelled.
+
+They got into the fly, and it drove off. Nell, instead of sinking into
+the corner, sat bolt upright and forced a smile.
+
+"What a jolly evening!" said Dick, with a deep sigh. "Don't wonder you
+girls are so fond of parties."
+
+"Yes," she said, with a brightness which deceived both of them, "it has
+been very jolly. What a pretty girl that is with whom you were sitting
+out, Dick!"
+
+"I always thought you had great taste," he said approvingly. "She was
+the nicest girl there--as I ventured to tell her."
+
+Nell laughed--surely the hollowness of the laugh must strike them, she
+thought--but neither of the two noticed its insincerity, and Dick
+rattled on, suspecting nothing.
+
+Drake sat almost silent. To be near her, to have her so close to him,
+was all the sweeter after the hateful scene with Luce. Heaven! how
+different was this love of his to that other woman from whom he had
+escaped! It was a terrible word, but it was the only fitting one to his
+mind.
+
+He would tell Nell in the morning. Yes, he would tell Nell who he was,
+and--and--of his engagement to Luce. It would be an unpleasant, hateful
+story, but he would tell it. There had been too much concealment, too
+much deceit; he had been a fool to yield to the temptation to hide his
+identity; he would make a clean breast of it to-morrow. Once he
+stretched out his hand in the direction of hers, but Nell, though her
+eyes were not turned in his direction, saw the movement, and quickly
+removed her hand beyond his reach.
+
+The fly drew up at The Cottage, and Dick jumped out and opened the door
+with his key, and purposely went straight into the house. As Drake
+helped Nell out, she drew her hand away to gather up her dress, and went
+quickly into the little hall, and he followed her.
+
+Her heart beat fast and painfully. She felt as if she could not lift her
+eyes; as if she were the guilty one. Would he--would he attempt to kiss
+her? Oh, surely, surely not! He could not be so false. She held out her
+hand.
+
+"I am so sleepy," she said. "Good night!"
+
+He looked at her as he held her hand, and at that moment the kiss which
+Luce had taken burned like fire upon his lips. He shrank from touching
+the pure lips of the girl he loved while the other woman's kiss still
+lingered on his consciousness. It would be desecration.
+
+"You are all right now--not faint?" he said; and there was a troubled
+expression in his face and voice.
+
+Nell thought she could read his mind, and knew the reason of his
+hesitation. A few hours ago he would have lost no time in catching her
+to his heart. But now--he loved her, no longer.
+
+Her face went white, though she strove to keep the color in it.
+
+"Yes, oh, yes!" she said. "I am only tired and--sleepy."
+
+"Then I won't keep you," he said gravely. "Good night."
+
+He had turned; but even as he turned, the longing in his heart grew too
+fierce for restraint. He swung round suddenly and caught her to him, drew
+her head upon his breast, and kissed her with passionate love--and
+remorse.
+
+Nell strove for strength to repulse him, to free herself from his arms;
+but the strength would not come. For a moment she lay motionless, her
+lips upturned to his, her eyes seeking his, with an expression in them
+which haunted Drake for many a long year afterward.
+
+"Nell," he said hoarsely, "I--I have something to tell you to-morrow.
+I--I have to ask your forgiveness. I would tell you to-night, but--I
+haven't courage. To-morrow!"
+
+The words broke the spell. The flush of a hot, unbearable shame burned
+in her veins and shone redly in her face. With an effort, she drew
+herself from his arms and blindly escaped into the sitting room.
+
+Drake raised his head and looked after her, biting his lip.
+
+"Why not tell her to-night?" he asked himself. There was no guardian
+angel to whisper, "The man who hesitates is lost!" and thinking, "Not
+to-night; she is too tired--to-morrow!" he left the house.
+
+Nell stood in the center of the room, her face white, her hands shaking;
+and Dick, as he peeled off what remained of his gloves, surveyed her
+critically.
+
+"If I were you, young person, I'd have a stiff glass of grog before I
+tumbled into my little bed. Look here, if you like to go up now, I'll
+have a smoke, and bring you some up presently. You look--well, you look
+as if you were going to have the measles, my child."
+
+Nell laughed discordantly.
+
+"Do I?" she said, pushing the hair from her forehead with both hands,
+and staring before her vacantly. "Perhaps I am."
+
+"Measles--or influenza," he said, with a pursing of the lips. "Get up to
+bed, Nell."
+
+"I'm going," she said.
+
+She came round the table, and, leaning both hands on his shoulders, bent
+her lovely head and kissed him.
+
+"Dick, you--you care for me still?" she asked, in a strained voice.
+
+He stared at her, as, brother like, he wiped the kiss from his lips.
+
+"Care for you? What----Look here, Nell, you're behaving like a
+second-class idiot. And your lips are like fire. I'm dashed if I don't
+think you are going to have something."
+
+She laughed and shook her head, and went upstairs. How long the few
+stairs seemed! Or was it that her legs seemed to have become like lead?
+
+As she passed Mrs. Lorton's room, that lady's voice called to her. Nell
+opened the door, leaning against it.
+
+"Is that you, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton. "What a noise you made coming
+in! Really, I think you might have shown some consideration. You know
+how lightly I sleep. I've the news for you." There was a touch of
+self-satisfaction in her voice. "A letter has come. Here it is. You had
+better read it and think over it."
+
+Nell crossed the room unsteadily in the dim flicker of the night light,
+and took the letter held out to her--took it mechanically--wished Mrs.
+Lorton good night, and went to her own room.
+
+Before she had got there she had forgotten the letter, and it fell from
+her hand as she dropped on her knees beside the bed, her arms flung wide
+over the white counterpane, her whole frame shaking.
+
+"Drake, Drake, Drake!" rose from her quivering lips. "Oh, God! pity
+me--pity me! I cannot bear it--I cannot bear it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Nell woke with that sickening sense of loss which all of us have
+experienced--that is, all of us who have gone to bed with sorrow lying
+heavily upon our hearts. The autumnal sun was pouring in through the
+windows, the birds were singing; some of them waiting on the tree
+outside for the crumbs which Nell had been in the habit, ever since she
+was a child, of throwing to them. Even in her misery of last night she
+had not forgotten the birds; in the misery of her awakening she
+remembered them, and went unsteadily to the lattice window.
+
+The keen air, as it blew upon her face, brought the full consciousness
+of the sorrow that had befallen her.
+
+Yesterday morning she was the happiest girl in all the world; this
+morning she was the most wretched.
+
+She put her hands to her face, as if some one had struck her, and she
+called all her woman's courage to meet and combat her trouble. The
+bright world seemed pressing down upon her heavily, the shrill notes of
+the birds clamoring their gratitude as they greedily fought for the
+crumbs, pierced through her head. She swayed to and fro, as if she were
+about to fall; for, in the young, mental anguish produces an absolute
+physical pain, and her head as well as her heart was aching.
+
+She would have liked to have thrown herself upon the bed, but Dick would
+be clamoring for his breakfast presently, and Mrs. Lorton would want her
+chocolate. Life is a big wheel, and one has to push it round, though its
+edges are set with spikes of steel, and our hands are torn in the effort
+to keep it moving.
+
+As she dressed herself with trembling hands, she kept saying to
+herself--her lips quivering with the unspoken words:
+
+"I have lost Drake--I have lost Drake; I have got to bear it!"
+
+He would be here presently--or, perhaps, he would not come. Perhaps he
+would write to her. And yet, no; that would not be like him; he was no
+coward; he would come and tell her the truth, would ask her to forgive
+him.
+
+And what should she say? Yes; she would forgive him; she would make no
+"scene" with him; she would not utter one word of reproach, but just
+tell him that he was free. She would even smile, if she could; would
+assure him that she was not going to break her heart because the woman
+he had loved before he had met her--Nell--had won him back. After all,
+he was not to blame. How could any man resist such a woman as Lady Luce?
+She--Nell--was just an interlude in his life's story; he had thought
+himself in love with her; and, perhaps, if this beautiful creature,
+before whom all hearts seemed to go down, had not desired to lure him
+back, he would have remained faithful to the "little girl" whom he had
+chanced to meet at that "out-of-the-way place in Devonshire, don't you
+know." Nell could almost hear Lady Luce referring to the episode in
+these terms, if ever it should come to her ears.
+
+No; there should be no scene. She would give him both her hands, would
+say "good-by" quite calmly, and would then take her broken heart to the
+solitude of her own room, and try to begin to repair it.
+
+Dick shouted for his breakfast, and she went downstairs. He was busy
+reading a letter, and his face was full of eagerness, his eyes sparkling
+with excitement.
+
+"I say, Nell, what a good chap Drake is!" he exclaimed. "He never said a
+word to me about it; but he's been worrying Bardsley & Bardsley for
+weeks past, and they've written to say that they think they can take me
+on. Just think of it! Bardsley & Bardsley! The biggest firm in the
+engineering line! Drake must have a great deal of influence; and I don't
+know how on earth he managed it. I didn't know he knew any one connected
+with the profession. It's a most splendid chance, you know!"
+
+Nell went round beside him, and laid her hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"I am very glad, Dick," she said.
+
+Something in her voice must have struck him, for he looked up at her
+quickly, and with surprise.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Nell?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing," she said. "I have a headache."
+
+"Just so. 'After the opera is over,' you know. That's the penalty one
+pays for one's first dance. And you were queer last night, too, weren't
+you? Why didn't you lie in bed?"
+
+"Never mind me," said Nell. "Tell me about this letter. When are you
+going, Dick?"
+
+A fresh pang smote her. Was she going to lose the boy as well?
+
+"Oh, they don't say," he replied. "They're going to let me know. They
+may send me abroad; you can't tell. What a good chap Drake is, and what
+a lot we owe him? Upon my word, Nell, you're a lucky girl to have got
+hold of such a fellow for your young man."
+
+Nell turned away with a sickening pain about her heart. No; she would
+not tell the boy at this moment. She wouldn't spoil his happiness with
+the wet blanket of her own misery. She must even, when she came to tell
+him, make light of the broken engagement, take the blame upon herself,
+and prevent any rupture of the friendship between Drake and Dick.
+
+He was almost too excited to eat any breakfast; certainly too excited to
+notice Nell's untouched cup and plate.
+
+"I must see Drake about this at once," he said. "I think I'll go down
+and meet him. He's sure to be coming up here, isn't he?" he added, with
+a bantering smile; and Nell actually tried to smile back at him.
+
+As she took the chocolate up to Mrs. Lorton, she tried to put her own
+trouble out of her head, and to think only of Dick's good fortune. How
+she had longed for some such chance as this to come to the boy, and now
+it had come. But who had sent it? Drake! Well, all the more reason that
+she should forgive him, and utter no word of reproach or bitterness.
+
+"You are ten minutes late, Eleanor!" said Mrs. Lorton peevishly. "And,
+good heavens! what a sight you look! If one late night has this effect
+upon you, what would half a dozen have? I am quite sure that I never
+looked half as haggard and colorless as you do, even when I'd been
+through a whole season." For a moment the good lady was quite convinced
+that she had been a fashionable belle. "I should advise you to keep out
+of Drake's sight for an hour or two; at any rate, until you have got
+some color in your face, and your eyes have ceased to look like boiled
+gooseberries."
+
+The mention of Drake brought the color to Nell's face quickly enough,
+but for an instant only. It was white again, as she resolved to tell
+Mrs. Lorton that the engagement was broken off.
+
+"It doesn't matter, mamma," she said; and she tried to smile.
+
+Mrs. Lorton stared at her over the chocolate.
+
+"Doesn't matter?" she echoed. "You think he's so madly in love with you
+that it doesn't matter how you look, I suppose? Don't lay that
+flattering unction to your soul, Eleanor. I've known many an engagement
+broken off in consequence of the man coming suddenly upon the girl when
+she had a bad cold and had got a red nose and eyes."
+
+"Perhaps I've had a bad cold without knowing it, mamma, and Drake must
+have come upon me when my nose and eyes were appallingly red, for our
+engagement--is--broken--off."
+
+Mrs. Lorton nearly dropped the cup of chocolate, and stared and gasped
+like a fish out of water.
+
+"Broken off!" she exclaimed. "Take this cup away! Give me the sal
+volatile. Open the window! No, don't open the window! What are you
+talking about? Are you out of your mind?"
+
+Nell took the cup, got the sal volatile, and soothed the flustered woman
+in a mechanical fashion.
+
+"Hush, hush, mamma!" she said. "I don't want Dick to know yet."
+
+"But why--how----What have you been doing?" demanded Mrs. Lorton; and
+Nell could have laughed.
+
+"Nothing very bad, mamma," she said.
+
+"But you must have," insisted Mrs. Lorton. "Of course it's your fault."
+
+"Is it absolutely necessary that there should be any fault?" said Nell
+wearily. "But let us say that it is my fault. Perhaps it is!" She
+laughed unconsciously, and with a touch of bitterness. "What does it
+matter whose fault it is? The reason isn't of any consequence at all;
+the fact is the only important thing, and it is a fact that our
+engagement is broken. It was broken last night, and I tell you at once,
+mamma; and I want to beg you not to ask me any questions. Drake--Mr.
+Vernon--will no doubt go away to-day, and we shan't see him any more."
+She went to the window to arrange the blind, and Mrs. Lorton didn't see
+the twitching of the white lips which spoke so calmly. "And I want to
+forget him; I want you, too, to try and forget him, and not to remind me
+of him by a single word. It was very foolish, my thinking that he cared
+for me----Oh, I can't say another word----"
+
+She stopped suddenly, her hands writhing together.
+
+Mrs. Lorton stared at the counterpane with a half-sly, half-speculative
+expression in her faded eyes.
+
+"After all," she said meditatively, "it was not such a particularly good
+match. One knows nothing about him or his people, and--and I suppose
+you've not felt quite satisfied. Yes, perhaps you might do better. You
+may have some chances now. You've read the letter, and made up your
+mind, of course?"
+
+"The letter?" echoed Nell stupidly.
+
+Mrs. Lorton stared at her angrily, and with a flush of resentment on her
+peevish face.
+
+"The letter I gave you last night, of course," she said. "Do you mean to
+tell me that you haven't read it? The most important letter I have ever
+received! At least, it is of the greatest importance to you. It is from
+my cousin, Lord Wolfer. What have you done with it, Eleanor?"
+
+Nell put her hand to her head.
+
+"I must have left it in my room," she said. "I will go and fetch it."
+
+Mrs. Lorton snorted.
+
+"Such gross carelessness and indifference is really shameful!" she flung
+after Nell.
+
+Nell found the letter beside the bed, and returned with it to Mrs.
+Lorton's room.
+
+"Why, it's all crumpled up, as if you had been playing shuttlecock with
+it!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton indignantly. "It is absolutely disrespectful
+of you, not to say ungrateful. Read it, if you please, and slowly; I
+could not bear to have my cousin's letter gabbled over. I, at least,
+know what is due to a Wolfer."
+
+It was a moment or two before Nell's burning eyes could accomplish the
+task of deciphering the lines of handwriting which seemed to have been
+formed by a paralytic spider that had fallen into the ink and scrambled
+spasmodically across the paper. There was no need to tell her to read
+slowly, and she stumbled over every other word of the letter, which ran
+thus:
+
+
+"MY DEAR SOPHIA: You will doubtless be surprised at hearing from me,
+and, indeed, I should not have written, for, as you are aware, my time
+is fully occupied with public affairs, and I rarely write private
+letters; but I have promised Lady Wolfer to communicate with you
+directly, as, for obvious reasons, which you will presently see, she
+does not desire my secretary to know of the proposal which I am about
+to make you; as, in the event of your declining the proposition, there
+would be no need for the fact of its having been made to become the
+common knowledge of my household and the servants' hall. As you are
+doubtless aware, by reading the public prints, Lady Wolfer takes a great
+interest and a prominent part in the movement which is being made toward
+the amelioration of the position of woman; indeed, I may say, with
+pardonable pride, that she is one of the great leaders in this social
+revolution, which, we trust, will place woman upon the throne from which
+man has hitherto thrust her.
+
+"This being so, Lady Wolfer's time is, as you will readily understand,
+much absorbed; so completely, indeed, that she is unable to pay any
+attention to those smaller and meaner; household cares to which women
+less highly gifted very properly devote so much of their time. Having no
+daughter of our own, it occurred to us that it might, perhaps, be a
+beneficial arrangement for your stepdaughter, Miss Lorton, if she would
+come to us and render Lady Wolfer such assistance as is afforded by the
+ordinary housekeeper. You will say: Why not engage a duly qualified
+person for the post? I reply: We have done so, and do not find the
+ordinary person, though apparently duly qualified, satisfactory. Lady
+Wolfer is of an extremely sensitive and delicate organization, and it is
+absolutely necessary that the person with whom she would be brought in
+daily contact should be young and docile.
+
+"I have referred to the photograph of Miss Lorton which you were good
+enough to send me some months ago, and you will be pleased to hear that
+Lady Wolfer approves of the young lady's personal appearance. I take it
+for granted--you, her guardian, being a Wolfer--that she has been
+properly trained; and if she should be willing to come to us on what is
+termed a month's trial, we shall be very pleased to receive her. She may
+come at any moment, and without any notice beyond a mere telegram. I
+will not speak of the advantages accruing from such a position as that
+which she would hold, for I am quite sure you will be duly sensible of
+them, and will point them out to her.
+
+"I trust that you are in good health, and with best wishes for your
+prosperity and happiness,
+
+          "I remain, dear Sophia, yours very truly,
+
+                                                    "WOLFER.
+
+"P. S.--I omitted to say that I should be pleased to pay Miss Lorton an
+honorarium of fifty guineas per annum."
+
+At another time Nell would have found it difficult to refrain from
+laughing at the stilted phraseology of the letter, at the pomposity
+with which the proposal was made, and the meanness which strove to hide
+itself in a postscript; but a Punch and Judy show would have seemed a
+funereal performance at that moment, and she stared as blankly at the
+letter when she had finished it as if she had been reading some language
+which had no meaning for her.
+
+Mrs. Lorton emitted a cough of self-satisfaction.
+
+"It is extremely kind and thoughtful of my Cousin Wolfer," she said;
+"and I must say that I think you are an extremely fortunate girl,
+Eleanor, to have had such an offer made you. Of course, if you had been
+still engaged to Mr. Vernon, you would have been obliged to have sent a
+refusal to Lord Wolfer; but, as it is, I presume you will not hesitate
+for a moment, but will jump at such an opportunity."
+
+Nell looked before her blankly, and remained silent.
+
+"It will be a chance such as few girls of your position ever meet with;
+for, of course, when my cousin speaks of a housekeeper, he does not wish
+us to infer that you would be expected to take the position of a menial.
+No; he will not forget that though you are not my daughter, I married
+your father, and that you are, therefore, connected with the family. Of
+course, you will go into society, you will meet the elite and the crème
+de la crème, and will, therefore, enjoy advantages similar to those
+which I enjoyed, but which I, alas! threw away. Really, when one comes
+to consider it, this breach of your engagement with this Mr. Vernon is
+quite providential, as it removes the only obstacle to your accepting my
+cousin's noble offer."
+
+Nell woke with a start when the stream of self-complacent comment had
+ceased, and realized that she was being asked to decide. What should she
+do? To leave Shorne Mills, to go into the world among strangers, to
+enter a big house as a poor relation--she shrank from the prospect for a
+moment, then she nerved herself to face it. After all, she could never
+be happy at Shorne Mills again. Every tree, every rock, every human
+being would remind her of Drake, of the lover she had lost. With Dick
+gone, there would be nothing for her to do, nothing to distract her mind
+from the perpetual brooding over the few past weeks of happiness, and
+the long, gray life before her. With these people there would be sure to
+be some work for her, something that would save her from spending every
+hour in futile regret and hopeless longing.
+
+"Well, Eleanor?" demanded Mrs. Lorton impatiently.
+
+"I have made up my mind; I will go," said Nell.
+
+Mrs. Lorton flushed eagerly.
+
+"Of course you will," she said. "It would be wicked and ungrateful to
+neglect such a chance. When will you go? Fortunately, you have some new
+clothes, and you will get what else you want in London. There are one
+or two things I should like you to get for me. You could pick them up at
+some of the sales; they are all on now, and things are sold ridiculously
+cheap. And, Eleanor, be sure and send me a full description of Lady
+Wolfer's dresses. You might snip off a pattern, perhaps. And I shall
+want to hear all about the people who go to the house, and the dinner
+parties and entertainments. I should say that it is not at all unlikely
+that Lady Wolfer may ask me to go and stay there. Of course, she will be
+curious to know what I am like--have I mentioned that we have never
+met?--and you will tell her that I--I--have been accustomed to the
+society in which she moves; and you might say that you are sure the
+change will do me good. Write often, and be sure and tell me about the
+dresses."
+
+"But I shall leave you all alone, mamma," said Eleanor. "Are you sure
+you won't be lonely?"
+
+Mrs. Lorton drew a long sigh, and assumed the air of a martyr.
+
+"You know me too well to think that I should allow my selfish comfort to
+stand in the way of your advancement, Eleanor. Of course, I shall miss
+you. But do not think of that. Let us think only of your welfare. I
+shall have Molly, and must be content."
+
+Nell checked a sigh at the evident affectation of the profession. It was
+not in Mrs. Lorton to miss any human being so long as her own small
+comforts were assured.
+
+"Then I think I will go at once--to-night," said Nell. "Why should I
+not? They want me--some one--at once, and----"
+
+"Certainly," assented Mrs. Lorton eagerly. "I should go at once. You
+will write immediately, and tell me what the house is like, and the
+dresses."
+
+Nell went downstairs, feeling rather confused and bewildered by the
+sudden change in her life. She was to have been Drake's wife; she was
+now to be--what was it, companion, housekeeper?--to Lady Wolfer!
+
+Dick met her at the bottom of the stairs.
+
+"I can't find Drake," he said, of course, with an injured air. "They say
+he left the cottage early this morning--they thought he was coming up
+here, as usual; but he hasn't been, has he?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"See, Dick, I've some news for you," she said. "I am going to London."
+
+She gave him the letter to read, and he read it, with a running
+commentary of indignant and scoffing exclamations.
+
+"Of all the pompous, stuck-up letters, it's the worst I ever imagined!
+And you say you're going? Oh, but look here! What will Drake say?"
+
+Nell turned away.
+
+"I don't think he will object," she said, almost inaudibly.
+
+Dick stared at her.
+
+"Look here, young party, what is up between you two? Is there anything
+wrong? Oh, dash it! don't look as if I'd said there was a ghost behind
+you! What is it?"
+
+"Drake--Drake and I are not going to be married," she said, trying to
+smile, but breaking down in the attempt. "We--we have agreed--to--to
+part!"
+
+Dick uttered a low whistle, and gazed at her, aghast.
+
+"All off!" he said. "Phew! Why--when--how?"
+
+She began to collect some of her small belongings--a tiny workbasket,
+some books, and such like, and answered as she moved to and fro,
+studiously keeping her face turned away from him:
+
+"I can't tell you; don't ask me, Dick. Don't--don't ask him. It--it is
+all right. It is all for the best, as mamma would say; and--and----" She
+went behind him and laid her hand on his shoulder, her favorite attitude
+when she was serious or pleading. "And mind, Dick, it is to make no
+difference between you--and Drake. It--is--yes, it is all my fault. I--I
+was foolish and----"
+
+She could bear no more; and, with a quick movement of her hand to her
+throat, hastened from the room.
+
+Dick looked after her ruefully for a moment or two, then his face
+cleared, and he winked to himself.
+
+"What an ass I am to be upset by a lovers' quarrel. Of course, it's all
+in the game. The other business would pall after a time if there wasn't
+a little of this kind of thing chucked in for a change. I wonder whether
+that jolly girl, Miss Angel, will come down to the lunch? Now, there's a
+girl no chap could have even a lovers' quarrel with. Poor old Drake! Bet
+I shall find 'em billing and cooing as usual when I come back," And Dick
+grinned as he marched off with his gun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Drake rode over to the Grange for breakfast, according to his promise.
+He was glad of the ride, glad of an hour or two in which he could think
+over the dramatic events of the preceding night, and, so to speak, clear
+his brain of the unpleasant glamour which Lady Luce's words and behavior
+had produced.
+
+Not for a moment did he swerve from his allegiance to Nell; never for a
+moment did the splendor of Luce's beauty, the trick of her soft voice,
+her passionate caress, eclipse the starlike purity of Nell's nature and
+personality. If it were possible, he loved Nell better and more
+devotedly, longed for her more ardently, since his meeting with Luce,
+than he had done before.
+
+All the way to the Grange he rehearsed what he would say to Nell when he
+rode back to The Cottage. He would tell her everything; would beg her to
+forgive him for his deception, his concealment of his full name and
+title, and--yes, he would admit that he had once loved, or thought that
+he had loved, Lady Luce; but that now----Well, there was only one woman
+in the world for him, and that was Nell.
+
+He found Sir William standing on the lawn, dressed in riding cords of
+the good old kind, loose in fit and yellow in color, and surrounded by
+dogs of divers shapes and various breeds. He was as ruddy-cheeked and
+bright-eyed as if he had been to bed last night at ten o'clock, and he
+scanned the well-set-up Drake as he rode up, with a nod of approval.
+
+"Up to time, Mr. Vernon--got your name right at last, eh? None the worse
+for the hop last night, I suppose? Don't look any, anyway. That's a good
+nag you're riding. Bred him yourself, eh? Gad! It's the best way, if
+it's the dearest."
+
+He called for a groom to take the horse, and bade Drake come in to
+breakfast.
+
+"You'll find nobody down, and we shall have it all to ourselves. That's
+the worst of women: keep 'em up half an hour later than usual, or upset
+their nerves with a bit of a row or anything of that kind, and, by
+George! they've got to lie abed the next morning! Now, help yourself to
+anything you see--have anything else cooked if you don't fancy what's
+here. I always toy with half a pound of steak, just to lay a foundation;
+been my breakfast, man and boy, for longer than I can remember."
+
+Drake ate his breakfast and listened to the genial old man--not very
+attentively, it is to be feared, for he was thinking of Nell most of the
+time--and when the baronet had demolished his steak, they went to the
+farm, followed by the motley collection of dogs which had waited outside
+with more or less patience for the reappearance of their master, and
+welcomed him with a series of yappings and barkings which might have
+been heard a mile off.
+
+The farm was a good one, and Drake gradually got interested in the
+really splendid cattle which Sir William exhibited with the enthusiasm
+of a breeder. The morning slipped away, but though Drake glanced at his
+watch significantly now and again, Sir William would not let him go;
+and at last he said:
+
+"What's your hurry, Vernon? Why not ride to Shallop with me? You could
+look around the town while I'm on the bench--unless you care to step
+into court and see how we administer justice--hah! hah! it's only a few
+'drunk and disorderlies' or a case of assault that we get nowadays; or
+perhaps a petty larceny--anyway, you will ride into the town with me,
+and we will have a bit of lunch together at the Crown and Scepter. No, I
+won't take any refusal! To tell you the truth, I want to have a chat
+with you about that last bull I showed you."
+
+Drake, thinking that it would be quicker to consent--that is to say, to
+ride into Shallop and cut across the country to Shorne Mills, yielded;
+the horses were brought round, and after Sir William had disposed of a
+tankard of ale, by way of a good, old-fashioned stirrup cup, the two men
+started.
+
+Sir William talked and joked as they rode along, and Drake pretended to
+listen, while in reality he continued his rehearsal of all he would say
+to Nell when presently he should be by her side, with his arms round her
+and her head on his breast.
+
+It was market day at Shallop, and the usual crowd of pigs and sheep and
+cattle, with their attendant drovers and farmers, blocked the streets.
+Sir William pulled up occasionally, throwing a word to one and another,
+but the two men reached the Town Hall at last, and Drake was just on the
+point of remarking that he would be off, when he saw Sir William grow
+very red in the face and very bulgy about the eyes, while at the same
+time his big hand went in a helpless kind of fashion to his
+old-fashioned neck stock.
+
+Drake could not imagine what was the matter, and was still in the first
+throes of amazement when Sir William suddenly swayed to and fro in the
+saddle, and then fell across his horse's neck to the ground.
+
+Drake was off his horse in a moment, and had raised the old man's head
+as quickly. A crowd collected almost as rapidly as if the place had been
+London, and cries of "Dear, dear! it's Sir William! it's a fit! Fetch a
+doctor!" rose from all sides.
+
+A doctor presently pushed his way through the gaping mob of farmers and
+tradesmen, and knelt beside Drake.
+
+"Apoplexy," he said, pursing his lips and shaking his head. "Always
+thought it would happen. Let us get him to the hotel."
+
+Between them they carried the stricken man to the Crown and Scepter, at
+which--irony of fate!--Sir William would have lunched, and got him to
+bed.
+
+"I've warned him once or twice," said the doctor, with a shrug of the
+shoulders. "But what's the use! You tell a man to cut tobacco and
+spirits, or they will kill him, or to refrain from rump steak and old
+ale for breakfast, and he obeys you--until the next time!"
+
+"Is he going to die?" asked Drake sadly, for he had taken a fancy to the
+old man.
+
+"No-o; I don't think so. Not this time. We shall have to keep him quiet.
+Lady Maltby ought to know--ought to be here. And we mustn't frighten
+her. Would you mind riding over for her--bringing her, I mean? She'll
+want some one with her who can keep a cool head, and I fancy you can do
+that, sir."
+
+"That's all right," said Drake at once; "of course I'll go."
+
+So it happened that, instead of riding to Shorne Mills and seeing Nell,
+and telling her the truth, the whole truth, which would have turned her
+misery to happiness, he was going as fast as his horse could carry him
+back to the Grange.
+
+It was not the first time he had broken bad news--he had seen men fall
+in the hunting field, and on the race course, and had had more than once
+to carry the tidings to the bereaved--and he fulfilled his sad task with
+all the tact of which he was capable. So well, indeed, that even if he
+had intended permitting Lady Maltby to proceed to Shallop without him,
+she would not have let him go. The poor woman clung to him, as women in
+their hour of need always cling to the strong man near them.
+
+They found Sir William coming back to consciousness--a condition which,
+though fortunate for him, was unfortunate for Drake; for the sick man
+seemed to cling to him and to rely upon him just as Lady Maltby had
+done. He implored Drake not to leave him, and Drake sat on one side of
+the bed, with the frightened wife on the other, until Sir William fell
+into a more or less refreshing slumber.
+
+It was just four when he mounted his horse and rode to Shorne Mills. The
+performance of a good deed always brings a certain amount of
+satisfaction with it, and, as he rode along, Drake felt more at ease
+than he had done since the scene with Lady Luce. Indeed, last night
+seemed very far away, and the incident on the terrace of very little
+consequence. Death, or the warning of death, is so solemn a thing that
+other matters dwarf beside it. But his resolution to tell Nell
+everything had not weakened, and he urged his rather tired horse along
+the steep and switchbacky road.
+
+At a place called Short's Cross he caught sight of the Shorne Mills
+carrier on his way to the station. But Drake did not guess that Nell
+was sitting under the tilt cover, that by just turning his horse and
+riding hard for a minute or two he could be beside her. He glanced at
+the cart, thought of the day he had first seen it, and of all that had
+happened since, and, gently touching his horse with his whip, rode on.
+
+The sun was sinking as he crossed the moor, and the cliffs were dyed a
+fiery red as he came in sight of them and The Cottage on the brow of the
+hill. His heart beat fast during the few minutes spent in reaching the
+garden gate. What would she say? Would she be much startled when she
+learned that he was "Lord Selbie"? Would she understand that he had
+never really loved Luce; that it was she--Nell--whom he wanted for his
+wife, had wanted almost from the first day of his seeing her?
+
+At the sound of the horse's hoofs Dick came out of The Cottage, and down
+to the gate.
+
+"Hallo!" he exclaimed. "Why, where on earth have you been?"
+
+Drake explained as he got off the horse.
+
+"I breakfasted at the Grange. I don't think I mentioned it last night,
+did I? Then I rode into Shallop with Sir William, and he had a fit of
+some sort--apoplexy, I fancy--and I had to come back and fetch Lady
+Maltby. Then the poor old chap came to, and--well, he felt like wanting
+company, and I couldn't leave him until he fell asleep."
+
+"Poor old chap! I haven't heard a word of it," said Dick. "I say, come
+in! Mamma will be delighted to hear news of that kind--no, no; I don't
+mean--you know what I mean. Something exciting like that is like a
+bottle of champagne to her."
+
+"I'll take the horse in; he's had rather a hard day of it," said Drake.
+"I've bucketed him up hill and down dale; obliged to, you know."
+
+As he spoke, he looked beyond Dick and toward the open door of The
+Cottage wistfully. Why didn't Nell come out? As a rule, it was she who
+first heard the sound of his footsteps or his horse's.
+
+"I'll take it. Oh, I say, Drake, how awfully kind of you
+to--to----Bardsley & Bardsley, you know! Upon my word, I don't know how
+to thank you! I don't, indeed!"
+
+"That's all right," said Drake. "Hope it's what you want, Dick. If it
+isn't, we must find something else. Anyway, you can try it."
+
+"What I want! Rather! I should think so! As I told Nell----"
+
+"Where is Nell, by the way?" cut in Drake, with all a lover's
+impatience.
+
+Dick looked rather taken aback.
+
+"Oh--ah--that is--I say, you know, what's this shindy between you and
+Nell?" he said, with a somewhat uneasy grin.
+
+"Shindy? What do you mean?" demanded Drake.
+
+Dick began to look uncomfortable.
+
+"I don't know anything about it," he said hesitatingly, "only what she
+told me. She was awfully upset this morning; red-eyed and white about
+the gills, and all I could understand was that it was 'all over' between
+you." He grinned again, but more uncomfortably. "Of course, I knew it
+was only a lovers' tiff--'make it up and kiss again,' don't you know."
+
+His voice and the grin died away under the change in Drake's expressive
+countenance.
+
+"What is the matter, anyway?" he demanded. "Is there a real quarrel?"
+
+"I don't know what you are talking about," said Drake, speaking as a man
+speaks when a cold fear is beginning to creep about his heart.
+
+"Well, I don't know myself," said Dick desperately. "Oh, I've got a
+letter for you somewhere--perhaps that will explain. Now, what did I do
+with it? Oh, I know! Wait a moment!"
+
+He ran into the house, and Drake waited, mechanically stroking his
+horse's sweating neck.
+
+Dick came out and held out a letter.
+
+"She gave me this for you."
+
+Drake opened the letter, and read:
+
+"DEAR DRAKE: I may call you so for the last time. I am writing to tell
+you that our engagement must come to an end. I have found that I have,
+that we both have, made a mistake. You, who are so quick to understand,
+will know, even as you read this, that I have discovered all that you
+have kept secret from me, and that, now I know it all, it is impossible,
+quite impossible, that I should----" Here a line was hastily scratched
+through. "I want you to believe that I don't blame you in the least; it
+is quite impossible that I could care for you any longer, or that I
+could consent to remain your promised wife; indeed, I am sorry, very,
+very sorry, that we should have met. If I had known all that I know now,
+I would rather have died than have let you speak a word of love to me.
+
+"So it is 'good-by' forever. Please do not make it harder for me by
+writing to me or attempting to see me--but I know that you have cared,
+perhaps still care enough for me not to do so. Nothing would induce me
+to renew our engagement, though I shall always think kindly of you, and
+wish you well. I return the ring you gave me. You will let me keep the
+silver pencil as a souvenir of one who will always remain as, but can
+never be more than, a friend.
+
+               "Yours,                              ELEANOR LORTON."
+
+Men take the blows of Fate in various fashions. Drake's way was to take
+his punishment with as little fuss as possible. His face went very
+white, and his nostrils contracted, just as they would have done if he
+had come an ugly cropper over a piece of timber.
+
+"Where--where is Nell?" he asked, in so changed and strained a voice
+that Dick started, and gaped at him, aghast.
+
+"She's----Didn't I tell you? Didn't she tell you? She's gone----"
+
+"Gone!" repeated Drake dully.
+
+"Yes; she's gone to London, to some relations of ours--that is, mamma's,
+you know!"
+
+Drake didn't know where she had gone, but he thought he understood why
+she had gone. She meant to abide by her resolution to break with him.
+Her love had changed to distrust, perhaps--God knew!--to actual dislike.
+
+He turned to the horse and mechanically arranged the bridle.
+
+"It--it doesn't matter," he said. "I'll take the horse down. Oh, by the
+way, Dick, I may have to go to London to-night."
+
+"What, you, too!" said Dick. "I say, there's nothing serious the matter,
+is there? It's only a lovers' tiff, isn't it?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," said Drake, as calmly as he could. "See here, Dick, we
+won't talk about it; I can't. Your--your sister has broken our
+engagement----Hold on! there's no use discussing it. She's quite right.
+Do you hear? She's quite right," he repeated, with a sudden fierceness.
+"Everything she says is right. I--I admit it. I am to blame."
+
+"Why, that's what she said!" exclaimed the mystified and somewhat
+exasperated Dick.
+
+"What she has said is true--too true," continued Drake; "and there's no
+more to be said. When you write--if you see her, tell her that--that--I
+obey her--it's the least I can do--and that I won't--won't worry her.
+Her word, her wish, is law to me. And--and you may say I deserve it all.
+You may say, too, that----"
+
+He broke off, and slowly, with the heaviness of a man become suddenly
+tired, got on his horse.
+
+"No; say nothing, excepting that I obey her, and that I won't worry her.
+Good-by, Dick."
+
+He held out his hand, and Dick, with an anxious face and bewildered
+eyes, clung to it.
+
+"Here, I say, Drake; this is awful! You don't mean to say it's 'good-by'!
+I don't understand."
+
+"I'm afraid it is," said Drake, pulling himself together, and forcing a
+smile. "I'm sorry to leave you, Dick; you and I have been good friends;
+but--well, the best of friends must part. I shall have gone to-night. I
+can catch the train. Look up Bardsley & Bardsley."
+
+With a nod--the nod which we give nowadays when we are saying farewell
+with a broken heart--he turned the horse down the hill and rode away.
+
+He tossed his things into a portmanteau, got the one available trap to
+carry them to the station, and caught the night mail. At Salisbury he
+changed for Southampton, and reached that flourishing port the next
+morning.
+
+The sailing master of the _Seagull_ happened to be on board when the
+owner of that well-known yacht was rowed alongside, and he hastened to
+the side and touched his hat as Drake climbed the ladder.
+
+"Did you wire, my lord?" he asked. "I haven't had anything."
+
+"No; I came rather unexpectedly," said Drake quietly. "Is everything
+ready?"
+
+"Quite, my lord, or nearly so. I think we could sail, say, in half a
+dozen hours."
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"If my cabin is ready, I'll go below and change," he said. "We'll sail
+as soon as possible."
+
+"Certainly, my lord. Where are we bound for?" asked Mr. Murphy, in as
+casual a manner as he could manage; for, though he was used to short
+notice, this, to quote his expression to the mate later on, "took the
+cake."
+
+Drake looked absently at the sky line.
+
+"Oh, the Mediterranean, I suppose," he said listlessly. He stood for a
+moment with his hand upon the rail of the saloon steps, and Mr. Murphy
+ventured to inquire:
+
+"Quite well, I hope, my lord?" for there was a pallor on his lordship's
+face which caused the worthy skipper a vague uneasiness. He had seen his
+master under various and peculiar circumstances, but had never seen him
+look quite like this.
+
+"Perfectly well and fit, thanks, captain," said Drake. "Will you have a
+cigar? Wind will just suit us, will it not?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About the same time Nell's cab arrived at Wolfer House, Egerton Square.
+There were several other cabs and carriages standing in a line opposite
+the house, and Nell's cab had to wait some little time before it could
+set her down; but at last she was able to alight, and a footman
+escorted her and her box into a large and rather gloomy hall. He seemed
+somewhat surprised by her box, and eyed her doubtfully as she inquired
+for Lady Wolfer.
+
+"Lady Wolfer? Yes, miss. Her ladyship is in the dining room. The meeting
+is now on. Perhaps you had better walk in."
+
+Sharing the man's hesitation, Nell followed him to the door. As he
+opened it, the sound of a woman's voice, thin, yet insistent and
+rasping, came out to meet her. She saw that the room was crowded. Nearly
+all who were present were women--women of various ages, but all with
+some peculiarity of manner or dress which struck Nell at the very first
+moment. But there were some men present--men with fat and rather flabby
+faces, men small and feeble in appearance, men long-haired and
+smooth-shaven.
+
+At the end of the room, behind a small table, stood a woman, still
+young, dressed in a tailor-made suit of masculine pattern and cut. Her
+hair was pretty in color and texture, but it was cut almost close, and
+just touched the collar of her covert coat. She wore a bowler hat, her
+gloves were on the table in front of her--thick, dogskin gloves, like a
+man's. She held a roll of paper in her hand, which was bare of rings,
+though feminine enough in size and shape. A pince-nez was balanced on
+her nose, and her chin--really a pretty chin--was held high in an
+aggressive manner.
+
+Nell had an idea that this was Lady Wolfer, and she edged as close to
+the wall as she could, and watched and listened to the speaker with a
+natural curiosity and anxiety.
+
+"To conclude," the orator was saying, with a wave of the roll of paper
+and a jerk of the chin, "to conclude, we are banded together to wage a
+war against our old tyrant--a war of equity and right. Oh, my sisters,
+do not let us falter, do not let us return the sword to the scabbard
+until we have cleaved our way to that goal toward which the eyes of
+suffering womanhood have been drawn since the gospel of equal rights for
+both sexes sounded its first evangel!"
+
+It was evidently the close, the peroration, of the speech; there was a
+burst of applause, much clapping of hands, and immediately afterward a
+kind of stampede to some tables, behind which a couple of footmen were
+preparing to dispense light refreshments.
+
+Nell, much mystified, and rather shy and frightened, remained where she
+was; and she was just upon the point of inquiring for Lady Wolfer, when
+the recent speaker came down the room, talking with one and another of
+the presumably less hungry mob, and catching sight of Nell's slight and
+rather shrinking figure, advanced toward her.
+
+"This is a new disciple, I suppose," she said, smiling through her
+eyeglasses.
+
+"I--I wish to see Lady Wolfer," said Nell, trying not to blush.
+
+"I am Lady Wolfer," said the youngish lady with the short hair and
+mannish suit; and she spoke in a gentler voice than Nell would have been
+inclined to credit her with.
+
+"I am--I am Nell Lorton."
+
+Lady Wolfer looked puzzled for a moment; then she laughed and held out
+her hand.
+
+"Really? Why, how young and----" She was going to say "pretty," but
+stopped in time. "Did you wire? But of course you did. I must have
+forgotten. I have such a mass of correspondence!" She laughed again. "I
+thought you were a new disciple! Come with me!"
+
+And, with what struck Nell as scant courtesy, her ladyship left the
+other ladies, took her by the hand, and led her out of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Lady Wolfer led Nell to her ladyship's own room. It was as unlike a
+boudoir as it well could be; for the furniture was of the simplest kind,
+and in place of the elegant trifles with which the fair sex usually
+delight to surround themselves, the tables, the couch, and even the
+chairs were littered with solid-looking volumes, blue books, pamphlets,
+and sheets of manuscript paper.
+
+There was a piano, it is true; but its top was loaded with handbills and
+posters announcing meetings, and the dust lay thick on its lid. The
+writing table was better suited to an office than a lady's "own room,"
+and it was strewn with the prevailing litter.
+
+Lady Wolfer cleared a chair by sweeping the books from it, and gently
+pushed Nell into it.
+
+"Now, you sit down for a moment while I ring for a maid to take you to
+your room. Heaven only knows where it is, or in what condition you will
+find it! You see, I quite forgot you were coming. Candid, isn't it? But
+I'm always candid, and I begin at once with you. By the way, oughtn't
+you to have come earlier--or later?"
+
+Nell explained that she had had her breakfast at the station, and spent
+an hour in the waiting room, so as not to present herself too early.
+
+"How thoughtful of you!" said Lady Wolfer. "You don't look--you look so
+young and--girlish."
+
+"I'm not very old," remarked Nell, with a smile. "Perhaps I'm not old
+enough to fill the position."
+
+"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't throw a doubt upon your staying!" said
+her ladyship quickly. "I'm so tired of old, or what I call old, people,
+and I am sure you will do beautifully. For, though you are so young, you
+look as if you could manage; and that is what I can't do--I mean manage
+a house. I can talk--I can talk the hind leg off a donkey, as Archie
+says"--she stopped, looking slightly embarrassed for a moment, and Nell
+supposed that her ladyship alluded to Lord Wolfer--"but when it comes to
+details, fortunately there is always somebody else."
+
+While she had been speaking, Lady Wolfer had taken off her hat and
+jacket, and flung them onto the book-and-paper-strewn couch.
+
+"I'm just come in from a breakfast meeting to attend this one at home,"
+she explained. "And I've got to go out again directly to a
+committee--the Employment of Women Bureau. Have you ever heard of it?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"No? I'm half inclined to envy you. No, I'm not! If it weren't for my
+work, I should go out of my mind."
+
+She put her hand to her head, and for an instant a wearied, melancholy
+expression flitted across her face, as if some hidden trouble had reared
+its head and grinned at her.
+
+The door opened, and a maid appeared.
+
+"Burden, this is Miss Lorton," said Lady Wolfer. "Is her room ready?"
+
+Burden looked exceedingly doubtful.
+
+"I expected it! Please have it got ready at once; and send some wine and
+biscuits, please."
+
+A footman brought them, and Lady Wolfer poured some wine out for Nell.
+
+"Oh, but you must! Heaven knows when we shall have lunch; they'll very
+likely consider that scramble downstairs as sufficient. But you'll see
+to all that for the future, won't you?"
+
+"You must tell me, Lady Wolfer----" began Nell, but her ladyship, with a
+grimace, stopped her.
+
+"My dear girl, I can't tell you anything, excepting that Lord Wolfer
+takes his breakfast early--not later than nine--is seldom in to lunch,
+and still less frequently at home to dinner; but when he does dine here,
+he dines at eight. The cook, who is, I believe, rather a decent sort of
+man, knows what Lord Wolfer likes, and you can't go very far wrong, I
+fancy, if you have a joint of roast beef or a leg of mutton on the menu;
+the rest doesn't matter."
+
+Nell began to feel daunted. There was just a little too much carte blanche
+about it.
+
+"And as to the other servants, why, there's an old person named
+Hubbard--Old Mother Hubbard, I call her--who is supposed to look after
+them."
+
+Nell could not help smiling.
+
+"I don't quite see where I come in," she remarked.
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed.
+
+"Oh, don't you?" she replied, as if she had been explaining most fully.
+"You are the figurehead, the goddess of the machine. You will see that
+all goes right, and give Lord Wolfer his breakfast, and preside at the
+dinner when I'm out on the stump----"
+
+"On the what?" asked the mystified Nell.
+
+"Out speaking at meetings or serving on committees," said Lady Wolfer.
+"And you will arrange about the dinner parties and--and all that kind of
+thing, you know--the stupid things that I'm expected to do, but which I
+really haven't any time for. Do you quite see now?"
+
+"I will do all I can," Nell said, and she laughed.
+
+Lady Wolfer glanced at her rather curiously.
+
+"How pretty you look when you laugh--quite different. You struck me as
+looking rather sad and sobered when I first saw you; but when you
+laugh----I should advise you not to laugh when you first see Lord
+Wolfer, or he'll think you too absurdly young and girlish for the post.
+Do take your hat and jacket off! It will be some time before your room
+is ready. Let me help you."
+
+Nell got her outdoor things off quickly, and Lady Wolfer looked at her
+still more approvingly.
+
+"You really are quite a child, my dear!" she said, and for some reason
+or other she sighed. "Why didn't Wolfer tell me about you before, I
+wonder? I wish he had; I should like to have had you come and stay with
+us. But he is so reserved----" she sighed again. "But never mind; you
+are here now. And how tired you must be! You are looking a little pale
+now. Why don't you drink that wine? When you are rested--quite
+rested--to-night, after dinner, perhaps--let me see, am I going
+anywhere?"
+
+She consulted a large engagement slate of white porcelain which stood
+erect on the crowded table.
+
+"Hem! yes, I have to speak at the Sisters of State Society. Never mind;
+to-morrow, after lunch--if I'm at home. Yes, I can see that we shall be
+great friends, and that is what I wanted. The others--I mean your
+predecessors--were such terrible old frumps, without any idea above
+cutlets and clean sheets, that they only bored and worried me; but you
+will be quite different----"
+
+"Perhaps I shan't be able to rise to the cutlet and clean sheets,"
+suggested Nell diffidently; but her ladyship laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes, you will!" she declared. "I am an excellent judge of
+character--it's one of my qualifications for the work I'm engaged
+in--and I can see that you are an admirable manager. I suppose you ran
+the house at home?"
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"'Home' meant quite a small cottage," she said. "This is a mansion."
+
+"Same thing," commented Lady Wolfer encouragingly. "It's all a question
+of system. I haven't any; you have; therefore you'll succeed where I
+fail. You've got that quiet, mousy little way which indicates strength
+of character----What beautiful hair you have, by the way."
+
+Nell blushed.
+
+"It's no prettier than yours. Why do you wear it so short, Lady Wolfer?"
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed--just a little wearily, so it struck Nell.
+
+"Why? Oh, I don't know. All we advanced women get our hair cut. I
+imagine we have a right to do so, and that by going cropped we assert
+that right."
+
+"I see," said Nell. "But isn't it--a pity?"
+
+Lady Wolfer looked at her curiously, with an expression which Nell did
+not understand at that early period of their acquaintance.
+
+"Does it matter?" she said. "We women have been dolls too long----"
+
+"But there are short-haired dolls," said Nell, with her native
+shrewdness.
+
+Lady Wolfer did not seem offended.
+
+"That was rather smart," she remarked. "Take care, or we shall have you
+on a public platform before long, my dear."
+
+"Oh, I hope not! I mean--I beg your pardon."
+
+"Not at all," said Lady Wolfer, with no abatement of her good humor.
+"There's no danger--fortunately, for you. No, my dear; I can see that
+yours is a very different métier. Your rôle is the 'angel of the
+house'--to be loved and loving." She turned to the desk as she spoke,
+and did not see the flush that rose for an instant to poor Nell's pale
+face. "You will always be the woman in chains--the slave of man. I hope
+the chain will be of roses, my dear."
+
+She stifled a sigh as she finished the pretty little sentence; and Nell,
+watching her, saw the expression of unrest and melancholy on her
+ladyship's face again. Nell wondered what was the matter, and was still
+wondering when there came a knock at the door.
+
+"Come in!" said Lady Wolfer; and a gentleman entered. He was young and
+good-looking, his tall figure clad in the regulation frock coat, in the
+buttonhole of which was a delicate orchid. The hat which he carried in his
+lavender-gloved hands shone as if it had just left the manufacturer's
+hands, and his small feet were clad in the brightest of patent-leather
+boots.
+
+"I beg pardon!" he began, in the slow drawl which fashion had of late
+ordained. "Didn't know you weren't alone. Sorry!"
+
+At the sound of his voice a faint flush rose to Lady Wolfer's rather
+pretty face.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said, nodding familiarly. "I thought it was
+Burden."
+
+"I've come to take you to the meetin'," said the beautifully dressed
+gentleman, clipping off his "g" in the manner approved by the smart set.
+
+"Thanks. This is Sir Archie Walbrooke," said Lady Wolfer, introducing
+him; "and this is my cousin--we are cousins, you know, my dear--Miss
+Lorton."
+
+Sir Archie bowed, and stared meditatively at Nell.
+
+"Goin' to the meetin', too?" he asked. "Hope so, I'm sure. Great fun,
+these meetin's."
+
+"No; oh, no," explained Lady Wolfer. "Miss Lorton has come to set us all
+straight, and keep us so, I hope."
+
+"Trust I'm included; want it," said Sir Archie--"want it badly."
+
+"Oh, you're incorrigible--incorrigibly stupid, I mean," retorted Lady
+Wolfer. "She has come to take care of us--Wolfer and me."
+
+"Run the show--I see," he said gravely. "If it isn't a rude question, I
+should like to ask: 'Who's goin' to take care of Miss Norton?'"
+
+"Lorton, Lorton," corrected Lady Wolfer. "And it is a rude question, to
+which you won't get an answer. Go downstairs and smoke a cigarette. I'll
+be ready presently."
+
+"All right--delighted; but time's up, you know," he said; and, with a
+bow to Nell, sauntered out.
+
+Lady Wolfer sat down at the desk, and wrote rapidly for a moment; then
+she said casually--a little too casually, it would have struck a woman
+of the world:
+
+"That is a great friend of mine--and Lord Wolfer's," she added quickly.
+"He is an awfully nice man, and--and very useful. He is a kind of tame
+cat here, runs in and out as he likes, and plays escort when I'm
+slumming or attending meetings. I hope you'll like him. He's not such a
+fool as he looks, and though he does clip his 'Gees'--sounds like a
+pun, doesn't it?--and cuts his sentences short, he--he is very
+good-natured and obliging."
+
+"He seems so," said Nell, a little puzzled to understand why Lady Wolfer
+did not take her maid or one of her lady friends to her meetings,
+instead of being taken by Sir Archie Walbrooke.
+
+Burden knocked at the door at this moment, and announced that Miss
+Lorton's room was ready.
+
+"Very well," said Lady Wolfer, as if relieved. "Be sure that Miss Lorton
+has everything she wants. And, oh, Burden, please understand that all
+Miss Lorton's orders are to be obeyed--I mean, obeyed without hesitation
+or question. She is absolutely in command here."
+
+"Yes, my lady," responded Burden respectfully.
+
+Nell followed her to a corridor on the next floor, and into a large and
+handsomely furnished room with which the bedchamber communicated. Her
+box had been unpacked, and its modest contents arranged in a wardrobe
+and drawers. The rooms looked as if they had been got ready hurriedly,
+but they were handsome and richly furnished, and Burden apologized for
+their lack of homeliness.
+
+"I'll get some flowers, miss," she said. "There's a big box of them
+comes up from the country place every morning. And if you think it's
+cold, I'll light a fire----"
+
+"Oh, no, no," said Nell, as brightly as she could.
+
+"And can I help you change, miss? I'm your maid, if you please."
+
+Nell shook her head, still smiling.
+
+"It is all very nice," she said, "and I shall only be a few minutes. I
+should like to go over the house," she asked, rather timidly.
+
+"If you ring that bell, miss, I will come at once; and I will tell Mrs.
+Hubbard that you want to go round with her," said Burden.
+
+Nell, after the ardently desired "wash and change," sat down by the
+window and looked onto the grimy London square, whose trees and grass
+were burned brown, and tried to convince herself that she really was
+Nell of Shorne Mills; that she really was housekeeper to Lady Wolfer;
+that this really was life, and not a fantastic dream. But it was
+difficult to do so. Back her mind would travel to Shorne Mills and
+to--to Drake.
+
+What had he done and said when he had got her letter? Ah, well, he would
+understand; yes, he would understand, and would take it as final. He
+would go away, to Lady Luce. They would be married. She would not think.
+
+Providence had sent her work--work to divert her mind and save her from
+despair, and she would not look back, would not dwell upon the past.
+But how her tender, loving heart ached and throbbed with the memory of
+those happy weeks, with the never-to-be-forgotten kisses of the man who
+had won her heart, whose face and voice haunted her every moment of the
+day.
+
+She sprang to her feet and rang the bell, and Burden came in and led her
+along the broad corridors and across the main hall. A middle-aged woman
+in a stiff, black dress stood waiting for her, and gave her a stately
+bow.
+
+"I am Mrs. Hubbard, miss," she began, rather searchingly; but Nell's
+sweet face and smile melted her at once. "I shall be pleased to take you
+hover, miss," she commenced, a little less grumpily. "It's a big 'ouse,
+and not a heasy one to manage; but per'aps, your ladyship--I beg your
+pardon, miss--per'aps you have been used to a big 'ouse?"
+
+"No, indeed," said Nell, whose native shrewdness told her that this was
+a woman who had to be conciliated. "I have never lived in anything
+bigger than a cottage, and I shall need all your help, Mrs. Hubbard. You
+will have to be very patient with me."
+
+Mrs. Hubbard had been prepared to fight, or, at any rate, to display a
+haughty stand-offishness; but she went down before the sweet face and
+girlish voice, and, if the truth must be told, by a certain something in
+Nell's eyes, which shone there when the _Annie Laurie_ was beating
+before a contrary wind; a directness of gaze which indicated a spirit,
+not easily quelled, lurking behind the dark-gray eyes.
+
+Mrs. Hubbard instantly realized that this beautiful girl, young as she
+was, was compounded of different material to the "old frumps" who had
+preceded her, and whom Mrs. Hubbard had easily vanquished, and the old
+lady changed her tactics with rather startling promptitude.
+
+She conducted Nell over the large place; the footmen and maidservants
+stood up, questionably at first, but respectfully in the end, and Nell
+tried to grasp the extent of the responsibility which she had
+undertaken.
+
+"I think it all rests with you, Mrs. Hubbard," she said, as she sat in the
+housekeeper's room, Mrs. Hubbard standing respectfully--respectfully!--in
+front of her. "I am too young and inexperienced to run so large a place
+without your help; but I think--I only think--I can do it, if you stand by
+me. Will you do so? Yes, I think you will."
+
+She looked up with the smile which had made slaves of all Shorne Mills
+in her gray eyes, and Mrs. Hubbard was utterly vanquished.
+
+"If you come to me every morning after breakfast, we can talk matters
+over," said Nell, "and can decide between us what is to be done, and
+what not to be done; but you must never forget, please, that I know so
+little about anything."
+
+And Mrs. Hubbard went back to the servants' hall with her mouth and her
+eyes set firmly.
+
+"Now, mind," she said, with an imperial dignity to the curious and
+expectant servants, "there's to be no more goings-on from this time
+forth. No more coming in by the area gate after eleven, and no more
+parties in the servants' 'all when 'is lordship and ladyship is dining
+out! An' I'll 'ave the bells answered the first time, an' no waitin'
+till they're rung twice or three times, mind! An' if you want to see the
+policeman, Mary Jane, you can slip out for five minutes; he don't come
+into the house, you understan'!"
+
+Little dreaming of the domestic reformation she had brought about, Nell
+went back to her room, and resumed her endeavor to persuade herself that
+she was not moving in a dream.
+
+Presently a gong sounded, and, guessing that it rang for lunch, she went
+down to the smaller dining room, in which Mrs. Hubbard had told her that
+meal was usually served.
+
+The butler and footman were in attendance, but, though covers were laid
+for three, there was no one present but herself.
+
+She looked round the richly decorated and handsomely furnished room, and
+felt rather lonely and helpless, but it occurred to her that either Lord
+or Lady Wolfer might come in, and that it was her place to be there; so
+she sat at the head of the table--where the butler had drawn back her
+chair for her--and began her lunch.
+
+By this time, she was feeling hungry--for she had eaten nothing since
+her very early breakfast, excepting the biscuit in Lady Wolfer's room;
+and she was in the middle of her soup when the footman went in a
+leisurely manner to the door and opened it, and a gentleman entered.
+
+Now, Nell, from Mrs. Lorton's talk of him, and his letter, had imagined
+Lord Wolfer as, if not an old man, one well past middle age; she was,
+therefore, rather startled when she saw that the gentleman who went
+straight to the bottom of the table, thus proving himself to be Lord
+Wolfer, was anything but old; indeed, still young, as age is reckoned
+nowadays. He was tall and thin, and very grave in manner and expression;
+and Nell, as with a blush she rose and eyed him, noticed, even in that
+first moment, that--strangely enough--his rather handsome face wore the
+half-sad, half-wistful expression which she had seen cross Lady Wolfer's
+pretty countenance.
+
+He had not noticed her until he had gained his chair, then he started
+slightly, as if aroused from a reverie, and came toward her.
+
+"You are--er--Miss Lorton?" he said, with an intense gravity in his
+voice and eyes.
+
+"Yes," said Nell. "And you are--Lord Wolfer?"
+
+"Your cousin--I am afraid very much removed," he responded. "When did
+you arrive? I hope you had a pleasant journey?" he replied and asked as
+he sank into his seat.
+
+Nell made a suitable response.
+
+"You will take some soup? Oh, you have some. Yes; it was a long journey.
+Have you seen my wife--Lady Wolfer? Yes? I'm glad she was in. She is
+very seldom at home." He did not sigh, by any means; but his voice had a
+chilled and melancholy note in it. "And Sophia--Mrs. Lorton--is, I hope,
+well? It is very kind of you to put in an appearance so soon. I'm afraid
+you ought to be in bed and resting."
+
+Nell laughed softly, and he looked as if the laugh had startled him, and
+surveyed her through his eyeglasses with a more lengthened and critical
+scrutiny than he had hitherto ventured on. The fresh, young loveliness
+of her face, the light that shone in her dark-gray eyes, seemed to
+impress him, and he was almost guilty of a common stare; but he
+remembered himself in time, and bent over his plate.
+
+"I am not at all tired, Lord Wolfer," said Nell. "I am not used to
+traveling--this is the first long journey I have made--but I am
+accustomed to riding"--she winced inwardly as she thought of the rides
+with Drake--"and--and--sailing and yachting."
+
+The earl nodded.
+
+"Put the--the cutlets, or whatever they are, on the table, and you may
+go," he said to the butler; and when the servants had left the room he
+said to Nell:
+
+"I seldom lunch at home, and I like to do so alone."
+
+Nell smiled. Grave as he looked, she did not feel at all afraid of him.
+
+"I did not mean that," he said, with an answering smile. "I meant
+without the servants. And so you have come to our assistance, Miss
+Lorton?"
+
+"I don't know whether that is the way to put it," said Nell, with her
+usual frankness. "I'm afraid that I shall be of very little use; but I
+am going to try."
+
+His lordship nodded.
+
+"And I think you will succeed--let me hand you a cutlet. Our great
+trouble has been--may I trouble you for the salt? Perhaps you would
+prefer to have the servants in the room?"
+
+"No, oh, no!" replied Nell, quickly, as, reaching to her fullest extent,
+she pushed the salt. "It is much nicer without them--I mean that I am
+not used to so many servants."
+
+He inclined his head.
+
+"As you please," he said courteously. "Our great trouble has been that
+my wife's public duties have prevented her from taking any share in
+domestic matters. She is--er--I presume she is not coming in to lunch?"
+he asked, with a quick glance at Nell, and an instant return to his
+plate.
+
+"N-o; I think not," replied Nell. "Lady Wolfer has gone to a
+meeting--I'm sorry to say I forget what it is. Some--some Sisters--no, I
+can't remember. It is very stupid of me," she wound up penitently.
+
+"It is of no consequence. Lady Wolfer is greatly in request; there is no
+movement of the advanced kind with which she is not connected," said his
+lordship; and though he spoke in a tone of pride, he wound up with a
+stifled sigh which reminded Nell of the sigh which she had heard Lady
+Wolfer breathe. "She is--er--an admirable speaker," he continued, "quite
+admirable. Did she go alone?"
+
+The question came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and apparently so
+irrelevantly, that Nell was almost startled.
+
+"No," she replied. "A gentleman went with her."
+
+The earl laid down his knife and fork suddenly, then picked them up
+again, and made a great fuss with the remains of his cutlet.
+
+"Oh! Did you--er--did you hear who it was?"
+
+"Yes," said Nell, "but I can't remember his name. It has quite gone for
+the moment;" and she knit her brows.
+
+The earl stared straight at the épergne.
+
+"Was it--Sir Archie Walbrooke?" he said, in a dry, expressionless voice.
+
+Nell laughed, as one laughs at the sudden return of a treacherous
+memory.
+
+"Of course, yes! That was the name," she said brightly. "How stupid of
+me!"
+
+But Lord Wolfer did not laugh. He bent still lower over the cutlet, and
+worried the bone a minute or two in silence; then he consulted his
+watch, and rose.
+
+"I beg you will excuse me," he said. "I have an appointment--a
+meeting----"
+
+He mumbled himself out of the room, and Nell sat and gazed at the door
+which had closed behind him.
+
+She was too innocent, too ignorant of the world, to have even the
+faintest idea of the trouble which lowered over the house which she had
+entered; but a vague dread of something intangible took possession of
+her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+If Nell wanted work that would prevent her dwelling upon her heart's
+loss, she had certainly found it at Egerton House. Before a week had
+passed she had slipped into her position of presiding genius; and,
+marvelous to relate, seeing how young and inexperienced she was, she
+filled it very well.
+
+At first she was considerably worried by the condition of domestic
+affairs. Meals were prepared for persons who might or might not be
+present to eat them. Sometimes she would sit down alone to a lunch
+sufficient for half a dozen persons; at others, Lady Wolfer would come
+down at the last moment and say:
+
+"Oh, Nell, dear"--it had very quickly come to "Nell"--"ever so many
+women are coming to lunch--nine or ten, I forget which. I ought to have
+told you, oughtn't I? And I really meant to, but somehow it slipped out
+of my head. And they are mostly people with good appetites. Is there
+anything in the house? But, there! I know you will manage somehow, won't
+you, dear?"
+
+And Nell would summon the long-suffering Mrs. Hubbard, and additions
+would hastily be made to the small menu, and Nell would come in looking
+as cool and composed as if the guests had run no risk of starvation.
+
+The dinner hour, as Lady Wolfer had said, was eight, but it was often
+nine or half-past before she and Lord Wolfer put in an appearance; and
+more than once during the week the earl had been accompanied by persons
+whom he had brought from the House or some meeting, and expected to have
+them provided for.
+
+The cook never knew how many guests to expect; the coachman never knew
+when the horses and carriages would be wanted; the footmen were called
+upon to leave their proper duties and wait upon a mob of "advanced
+women" collected for a meeting--and a scramble feed--in the dining room,
+when perhaps a proper lunch should have been in preparation for an
+ordinary party.
+
+There was no rest, no cessation of the stir and turmoil in the great
+house, and amid it all Nell moved like a kind of good fairy, contriving
+to just keep the whole thing from smashing up in chaotic confusion.
+
+Presently everybody began to rely upon her, and came to her for
+assistance; and the earl himself was uneasy and dissatisfied if she were
+not at the head of the breakfast table, at which he and she very often
+made a duet. He seemed to see Lady Wolfer very seldom, and gradually
+got into the habit of communicating with her through Nell. It would be:
+
+"May I trouble you so far, Miss Lorton, as to ask Lady Wolfer if she
+intends going to the Wrexhold reception to-night?" Or: "Lady Wolfer
+wishes for a check for these bills. May I ask you to give it to her?
+Thank you very much. I am afraid I am giving you a great deal of
+trouble."
+
+Sometimes Nell would say: "Lady Wolfer is in her room. Shall I tell her
+you are here?" and he would make haste to reply:
+
+"Oh, no; not at all necessary. She may be very much engaged. Besides, I
+am just going out."
+
+Grave and reserved, not to say grim, though he was, Nell got to like
+him. His pomposity was on the surface, and his stiffness and hauteur
+were but the mannerisms with which some men are cursed. At the end of
+the week he startled her by alluding to the salary which he had offered
+her in his letter.
+
+"I am afraid you thought it a very small sum, Miss Lorton," he said. "I
+myself considered it inadequate; but I asked a friend what he paid in a
+similar case, and I was, quite wrongly, I see, guided by him."
+
+"It is quite enough," said Nell, blushing. "I think it would have been
+fairer if you had not paid me anything--at any rate, to start with."
+
+"We will, if you please, increase it to one hundred pounds," he said,
+ignoring her protest. "I beg you will not refuse; in fact, I shall
+regard your acceptance as a favor."
+
+He rose to leave the room before Nell could reply, and Lady Wolfer,
+entering with her usual rapidity, nearly ran against him. He begged her
+pardon with extreme courtesy, and was passing out, when she stopped him
+with a:
+
+"Oh, I'm glad I've seen you. Will the twenty-fourth do for the dinner
+party? Are you engaged for that night? I'm not, I think."
+
+The earl's grave eyes rested on her pretty, piquant face as she
+consulted her ivory tablets, but his gaze was lowered instantly as she
+looked up at him again.
+
+"No," he said. "Is it a large party?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I'm afraid so. I'm going over the list with Nell, here. Oh, for
+goodness' sake, don't run away, dear!" she broke off, as Nell, thinking
+herself rather de trop, moved toward an opposite door; and Nell, of
+course, remained.
+
+"She's the most awful girl to get hold of!" said her ladyship. "If ever
+you want to speak to her, to have a nice, quiet chat with her, she has
+always got to go and 'see to something.'"
+
+"I can understand that Miss Lorton's time must be much occupied," said
+the earl, with a courteous little inclination of the head to Nell.
+
+"Yes, I know; but she might occupy it with me sometimes," remarked her
+ladyship.
+
+"I can give you just five minutes," said Nell, laughing. "This is just
+my busiest hour."
+
+The earl waited for a minute, waited as if under compulsion and to see
+if Lady Wolfer had anything more to say to him, then passed out. On his
+way across the hall he met Sir Archie Walbrooke.
+
+"Mornin', Wolfer," said the young man, in his slow, self-possessed way.
+"Lady Wolfer at home? Got to see her about--'pon my honor, forget what
+it was now!"
+
+The earl smiled gravely.
+
+"You will find her in the library, Walbrooke," he said, and went on his
+way.
+
+Sir Archie was shown into the room where Lady Wolfer and Nell were
+conferring over the dinner party, and Lady Wolfer looked up with an
+easy:
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it? What brings you here? Oh, never mind, if you can't
+remember; I dare say I shall presently. Meanwhile, you can help us make
+out this list."
+
+"Always glad to make myself useful," he drawled, seating himself on the
+settee beside Lady Wolfer, and taking hold of one side of the piece of
+paper which she held.
+
+They were soon so deeply engaged that Nell, eager to get to Mrs.
+Hubbard, left them for a while.
+
+When she came in again, the list was lying on the floor, Lady Wolfer was
+leaning forward, with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her pretty
+face lined and eloquent of some deep emotion, and Sir Archie was talking
+in a low, and, for him, eager tone.
+
+As Nell entered, Lady Wolfer rose quickly, and Sir Archie, fumbling at
+his eyeglass, looked for the moment somewhat disconcerted.
+
+"If we're goin' to this place, hadn't we better go?" he said, with his
+usual drawl; and Lady Wolfer, murmuring an assent, left the room. Nell,
+following her to her room to ask a question about the dinner party, was
+surprised and rather alarmed at finding her pale and trembling.
+
+"Oh, what is the matter?" Nell asked. "Are you ill?"
+
+"No, oh, no! It is nothing," Lady Wolfer replied hastily. "Where is my
+hat? No, don't ring for my maid. Help me--you help me----"
+
+She let her hand rest for a moment on Nell's arm, and looked into her
+grave eyes wistfully.
+
+"Were you--were you ever in trouble, Nell?" she asked. "I mean a great
+trouble, which threatened to overshadow your life--not a death; that is
+hard enough to fight, but--how foolishly I am talking! And how white you
+have gone! Why, child, you can't know anything of such trouble as I
+mean! What is it?" she broke off, as the maid knocked at the door and
+entered.
+
+"The phaëton is ready, my lady; and Sir Archie says are you going to
+drive, or is he? because, if so, he will change his gloves, so as not to
+keep your ladyship waiting."
+
+"I don't care--oh, he can drive," said Lady Wolfer. She spoke as if the
+message, acting as a kind of reminder, had helped her to recover her
+usual half-careless, half-defiant mood. "About this dinner, Nell; will
+you ask Lord Wolfer if there is any one he would like asked, and add
+them to the list? Where did I leave it? Oh, it's in the library."
+
+Nell went down for it, and, as she opened the door, Sir Archie came
+forward with an eager and anxious expression on his handsome face--an
+expression which changed to one of slight embarrassment as he saw that
+it was Nell.
+
+"The list? Ah, yes; here it is. I'm afraid it's not fully made out; but
+there's plenty of time. Is Lady Wolfer nearly ready?"
+
+Nell went away with a vague feeling of uneasiness. Had Lady Wolfer been
+telling Sir Archie of her "trouble"? If so, why did she not tell her
+husband? But perhaps she had.
+
+Nell had no time to dwell upon Lady Wolfer's incoherent speech, for the
+coming dinner party provided her with plenty to think about. She had
+hoped that she herself would not be expected to be present, but when on
+the following evening she expressed this hope, Lady Wolfer had laughed
+at her.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "don't expect that you are going to be let
+off. Of course, you don't want to be present; neither do I, nor any of
+the guests. Everybody hates and loathes dinner parties; but so they do
+the influenza and taxes; but most of us have to have the influenza and
+pay the taxes, all the same."
+
+"But I haven't a dress," said Nell.
+
+"Then get one made. Send to Cerise and tell her that I say she is to
+build you one immediately. Anyway, dress or no dress, you will have to
+be present. Why, I shouldn't be at all surprised if my husband refused
+to eat his dinner if you were not."
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"And I know that Lord Wolfer would not notice my presence or my
+absence," she said.
+
+Lady Wolfer looked at her rather curiously, certainly not jealously, but
+gravely and wistfully.
+
+"My dear Nell, don't you know that he thinks very highly of you, and
+that he considers you a marvel of wisdom and cleverness?"
+
+"I should be a marvel of conceit and vanity if I were foolish enough to
+believe that you meant some of the pretty things you say to me,"
+remarked Nell. "And have I got the complete list of all the guests? I
+asked Lord Wolfer, and he said that he should like Lord and Lady
+Angleford invited."
+
+Lady Wolfer nodded.
+
+"All right. You will find their address in the _Court Guide_. But I think
+he has the gout, and Lady Angleford never goes anywhere without him.
+Did--did my husband say anything more about the party--or--anything?" she
+asked, bending over the proofs of a speech she was correcting.
+
+"No," said Nell. "Only that he left everything to you, of course."
+
+"Of course," said her ladyship. "He is, as usual, utterly indifferent
+about everything concerning me. Don't look so scared, my child," she
+added, with a bitter little laugh. "That is the usual attitude of the
+husband, especially when he is a public man, and needs a figure to sit
+at the head of his table and ride in his carriages instead of a wife!
+There! you are going to run away, I see. And you look as if I had talked
+high treason. My dear Nell, when you know as much of the world as you
+know of your prayer book----Bah! why should I open those innocent eyes
+of yours? Run away--and play, I was going to say; but I'm afraid you
+don't get much play. Archie was saying only yesterday that we were
+working you too hard, and that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves."
+
+Nell flushed rather resentfully.
+
+"I am much obliged to Sir Archie's expression of sympathy," she began.
+
+"Yes! You sound like it!" said Lady Wolfer, laughing. "My dear, why
+don't you get angry oftener? It suits you. Your face just wants that
+dash of color; and I'd no idea your eyes were so violety! You can give
+me a kiss if you like--mind the ink! Ah, Nell, some day some man will go
+mad over that same face and eyes of yours. Well, don't marry a
+politician, or a man who thinks it undignified to care for his wife!
+There, do go!"
+
+As Nell went away, puzzled by Lady Wolfer's words and manner, her
+ladyship let her head fall upon her hand, and, sighing deeply, gazed at
+the "proof" as if she had forgotten it.
+
+Nell did not send for Madame Cerise, but purchased a skirt of black lace,
+and set to work to make up the bodice. She was engaged on this one evening
+two nights before the dinner, when Burden came in with:
+
+"A gentleman to see you, miss. He's in the library. It's Mr. Lorton,
+your brother, I think----"
+
+Nell was on the stairs before the maid had finished, and running into
+the library, had got Dick in her arms--and his brand-new hat on the
+floor.
+
+"Dick! Oh, Dick! Is it really you?"
+
+"Yes; but there won't be much left of me if you continue garroting me;
+and would you mind my picking up my hat? It is the only one I've got,
+and we don't grow 'em at Shorne Mills! Why, Nell, how--yes, how thin
+you've got! And, I say, what a swagger house! I'd always looked upon
+mamma's swell relations as a kind of 'Mrs. Harrises,' until now."
+
+He nodded, as he endeavored to smooth the roughened silk of his hat.
+
+"Mamma--tell me; she is all right, Dick?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I've got no end of messages. She's had your letters, all of
+'em; and she hopes that you are taking advantage of your splendid
+position. Is it a splendid position, Nell? They seemed to think me of
+some consequence when I mentioned, dissembling my pride in the
+connection, that I was your brother."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"Yes, yes; it is all right, and I am quite--happy. And Shorne Mills,
+Dick, are they all well?"
+
+"And kicking. I've got a hundred messages which you can sum up in 'love
+from all.' And, Nell, I've only time to say how are you, for I'm going
+to catch the Irish mail. Fact! Bardsley & Bardsley are sending me to
+some engineering work there. How's that for high? Ah, would you!"
+gingerly whisking his hat behind him. "Keep off; and, Nell, how's
+Drake?"
+
+The abrupt question sent the blood rushing through Nell's face, and then
+as suddenly from it, leaving it stone white.
+
+"Drake--Mr. Vernon?" she said, almost inaudibly. "I--I do not know. I--I
+have not seen--heard."
+
+"No? That's rum! I should have thought that tiff was over by this time.
+Can't make it out! What have you been doing, Miss Lorton?"
+
+Nell bravely tried to smile.
+
+"You--you have seen him? You never wrote and told me, Dick! You--you
+gave him my note?"
+
+Dick nodded rather gravely.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And--and----" She could not speak.
+
+"Oh, yes; I gave it him, and he said----Well, he looked broken up over
+it; quite broken up. He said--let me see; I didn't pay very much
+attention because I thought he'd write to you and see you. They
+generally wind up that way, after a quarrel, don't they?"
+
+"It does not matter. No, I have not seen or heard," said Nell.
+
+"Well, he said: 'Tell her that it's quite true.' Dashed if I know what
+he meant! And that he wouldn't worry you, but would obey you and not
+write or see you. I think that was all."
+
+It was enough. If the faintest spark of hope had been left to glow in
+Nell's bosom, Drake's message extinguished it.
+
+Her head dropped for a moment, then she looked up bravely.
+
+"It was what I expected, Dick. It--was like him. No, no; don't speak;
+don't say any more about it. And you'll stay, Dick? Lady Wolfer will be
+glad to see you. They are all so kind to me, and----"
+
+"I'm so glad to hear that," said Dick; "because if they hadn't been I
+should have insisted upon your going home. But I suppose they really are
+kind, and don't starve you, though you are so thin."
+
+"It's the London air, or want of air," said Nell. "And mamma, does
+she"--she faltered wistfully--"miss me?"
+
+"We all miss you--especially the butcher and the baker," replied Dick
+diplomatically. "And now I'm off. And, Nell--oh, do mind my hat!--if you
+know Drake's address, I should like to write to him."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Strange," said Dick. "I wrote to the address in London to which I
+posted the letters when he was ill, and it came back 'Not known.' I--I
+think he must have gone abroad. Well, there, I won't say any more;
+but--'he was werry good to me,' as poor Joe says in the novel, you know,
+Nell."
+
+Yes, it was well for Nell that she had no time to dwell upon her heart's
+loss; and yet she found some minutes for that "Sorrow's crown of
+sorrow," the remembrance of happier days, as she leaned over her black
+lace bodice that night when the great house was silent, and the quiet
+room was filled with visions of Shorne Mills--visions in which Drake,
+the lover who had left her for Lady Luce, was the principal figure.
+
+On the night of the big dinner party, she, having had the last
+consultation with Mrs. Hubbard and the butler, went downstairs. The vast
+drawing-room was empty, and she was standing by the fire and looking at
+the clock rather anxiously--for it was quite on the cards that Lady
+Wolfer would be late, and that some of the guests would arrive before
+the hostess was ready to receive them--when the door opened and her
+ladyship entered. She was handsomely dressed, and wore the family
+diamonds, and Nell, who had not before seen her so richly attired and
+bejeweled, was about to express her admiration, when Lady Wolfer stopped
+short and surveyed the slim figure of her "housekeeper companion" with
+widely opened eyes and a smile of surprise and friendly approval.
+
+"My dear child, how--how----Ahem! no, it's no use; I must speak my mind!
+My dear Nell, if I were as vain as some women, and, like most, had a
+strong objection to being cut out in my own house by my own cousin, I
+should send you to bed! Where did you get that dress, and who made it?"
+
+Nell laughed and blushed.
+
+"I bought it in Regent Street--half of it--and made the rest; and please
+don't pretend that you like it."
+
+"I won't," said Lady Wolfer succinctly. "My dear, you are too pretty for
+anything, and the dress is charming! Oh, mine! Mine is commonplace
+compared beside it, and smacks the modiste and the Louvre; while
+yours----Archie is right; you have more taste than Cerise herself----"
+She broke off as the earl entered. "Don't you admire Nell's dress?" she
+said, but with her eyes fixed on one of her bracelets, which appeared to
+have come unfastened.
+
+The earl looked at Nell--blushing furiously now--with grave attention.
+
+"I always admire Miss Lorton's dresses," he said, with a little bow.
+Then his eyes wandered to the white arm and the open bracelet, and he
+made a step toward his wife; then he hesitated, and, before he could
+make up his mind to fasten it, she had snapped to the clasp.
+
+"I tell her she will cause a sensation to-night," she said, moving away.
+
+He looked at his wife gravely.
+
+"Indeed, yes," he said absently. "Is it not time some of them arrived?"
+
+As he spoke, the footman announced Lady Angleford.
+
+She came forward, her train sweeping behind her, a pleasant smile on her
+mignonne face.
+
+"Am I the first, Lady Wolfer? That is the punishment for American
+punctuality!"
+
+"So good of you!" murmured Lady Wolfer. "And where is Lord Angleford?"
+
+"I'm sorry, but he has the gout!"
+
+Lady Wolfer expressed her regret.
+
+"And Lord Selbie?" she asked. "Shall we see him?"
+
+"Did you ask him?" asked Lady Angleford, her brow wrinkling eagerly. "Is
+he in England? Have you heard that he has returned?"
+
+Another woman would have been embarrassed, but Lady Wolfer was too
+accustomed to getting into scrapes of this kind not to find a way out of
+them.
+
+"Isn't that like me? Nell, dear--this is my cousin and our guardian
+angel, Miss Lorton--Lady Angleford! Did we ask Lord Selbie?"
+
+Nell smiled and shook her head.
+
+"N-o," she said; "his name was not on the list, I think."
+
+Lady Angleford, who had been looking at her with interest, went up to
+her.
+
+"It wouldn't have been any use," she said. "He is abroad--somewhere."
+
+She stifled a sigh as she spoke.
+
+"Then there is no need for us to feel overwhelmed with guilt, Nell,"
+said Lady Wolfer. "Come and warm yourself, my dear. Oh, that gout! No
+wonder you won't join the 'Advance Movement!' You've quite enough to try
+you. Nell, come and tell Lady Angleford how hard I work."
+
+Nell came forward to join in the conversation; but all the time they
+were talking she was wondering where she had heard Lord Selbie's name!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Lord Selbie?--Lord Selbie? Nell worried her memory in vain. She had read
+extracts from the _Fashion Gazette_ so often, the aristocratic names had
+passed out of her mind almost before she had pronounced them, and it was
+not surprising that she should fail to recall this Lord Selbie's.
+
+She had not much time or opportunity for reflection, for the other
+guests were arriving, and the party was almost complete. As she stood a
+little apart, she noticed the dresses, and smiled as she felt how
+incapable she would be of describing their magnificence to mamma. It was
+her first big dinner party, and she was amused and interested in
+watching the brilliant groups, and in listening to the small talk.
+
+Lady Wolfer's clear voice could be heard distinctly; but though she
+talked and laughed with apparent ease and freedom, Nell fancied that her
+ladyship was not quite at her ease, that there was something forced in
+her gayety, and that her laugh now and again rang false. Nell saw, too,
+that Lady Wolfer's glance wandered from time to time to the door, as if
+she were waiting for some one.
+
+The earl came up to Nell.
+
+"Are we all here? It is late," he said, in his grave way, and glancing
+at the clock.
+
+Nell looked around and counted.
+
+"One more," she said, in as low a tone. As she spoke, the door opened,
+and Sir Archie Walbrooke entered.
+
+Nell heard Lady Wolfer hesitate in the middle of a sentence, and saw her
+turn away, with her back to the door.
+
+Sir Archie came across the room in his usual deliberate fashion, as
+self-possessed and impassive as if he were quite ignorant that he had
+kept a roomful of people waiting.
+
+Lady Wolfer gave him her hand without breaking off her conversation with
+the prime minister, who was chatting and laughing with the carelessness
+of a boy, and as if he had never even heard of a ministerial crisis.
+
+"Afraid I'm late," said Sir Archie, in slow and even tones. "Cab horse
+fell down--nearly always does when I'm behind one. Strange."
+
+"I will hand your excuse to the cook," said Lady Wolfer. "I hope he will
+believe it. None of us do, I assure you."
+
+The butler announced dinner, and the party coupled and filed in, the
+earl taking a dowager duchess, a good-natured lady with an obvious wig
+and cheeks which blushed--with rouge--like unto those of a dairymaid.
+Nell fell to the lot of an undersecretary for the colonies, who was so
+great a favorite of the prime minister's that no one dreamed of asking
+the great man without sending an invitation to his friend, who was
+generally known as "Sir Charles." Like most clever men, he was
+simplicity itself, and he watched Nell through his pince-nez as she
+surveyed the brilliant line of guests round the long, oblong table, with
+an interest in her interest.
+
+"How well Lady Wolfer is looking to-night," he said, staring at the
+hostess at the head of the table. Her eyes were bright, a faint flush on
+her cheeks, and her soft hair, which her maid had arranged as
+advantageously as short hair can be dressed, shone in the subdued light
+of the shaded candles. "One is so accustomed to seeing her in--well,"
+and he smiled, "strictly business garb, that full war paint strikes one
+with the revelation of her prettiness."
+
+"Yes; isn't she pretty?" said Nell eagerly. "But I always think she is;
+though, of course, I like her best in evening dress."
+
+He smiled at the promptitude of her ingenious admiration.
+
+"If I had my way, your sex should always wear one of two costumes: a
+riding habit or dinner dress."
+
+"That would be rather inconvenient," said Nell. "Imagine walking out on
+a wet day in a habit or a ball frock!"
+
+"I know," he said. "But I don't think you ought to walk out on a wet
+day."
+
+"You ought to live in Turkey," said Nell, with a laugh.
+
+"That is rather neat," he said approvingly; "but pray, don't repeat my
+speech to Lady Wolfer; she would think me exceedingly frivolous, and I
+spend my time in the endeavor to convince her of my gravity and
+discretion."
+
+"Are all politicians supposed to be grave?" asked Nell, glancing at the
+prime minister, who had just related an anecdote in his own inimitable
+manner, and was laughing as heartily as if he had not a care in the
+world.
+
+Sir Charles followed her eyes and smiled.
+
+"Judging by Mr. Gresham, one would answer with an emphatic negative," he
+said. "But he is an exception to the rule. He is only grave when he is
+in the House--and not always then. I have known him crack a joke--and
+laugh at it--at the very moment the fate of his ministry swung in the
+balance. Some men are born boys, and remain so all their lives, and
+some----" He stopped and involuntarily looked at his host, who sat at
+the end of the table, his tall, thin figure bolt upright, his face with
+a kind of courteous gravity. He had heard the anecdote and paid it the
+tribute of a smile, but the smile had passed quickly, and his
+countenance had resumed its wonted seriousness in a moment.
+
+"I always regard Lord Wolfer as a model of what a statesman should
+seem," said Sir Charles. "I mean that he, more than any man I know,
+comes up to the popular idea of a great statesman--that is, in manner
+and bearing."
+
+Nell remained silent. It was not befitting that she should discuss her
+host and employer; and she wondered whether the clever undersecretary
+beside her knew who she was and the position she held in the house. She
+did not know enough of the world to be aware that nowadays one discusses
+one's friends--even at their own tables--with a freedom which would have
+shocked an earlier generation.
+
+"I often think," he continued, "that Lord Wolfer would have served the
+moralists as an instance of the vanity of human wishes."
+
+"Why?" Nell could not help asking.
+
+"Think of it!" he said, with a slight laugh. "He is the bearer of an old
+and honored title, he is passing rich, he is a cabinet minister, he is
+married to an extremely clever and charming lady--we agreed that she is
+pretty, too, didn't we?--and----" He paused a moment. "Should you say
+that Lord Wolfer is a happy man?"
+
+As he put this significant question, which explained his remark about
+the vanity of human wishes, Nell looked at the earl. He was apparently
+listening to the duchess by his side; but his eyes, under their
+straight, dark brows, were fixed upon his wife, who, leaning forward
+slightly, was listening with downcast eyes and a smile to Sir Archie, a
+few chairs from her.
+
+Nell flushed.
+
+"N-o, I don't know," she said, rather confusedly. "Lord Wolfer has so
+much on his mind--politics, and----He is nearly always at work; he is
+often in his study writing until early morning."
+
+Sir Charles looked at her quickly.
+
+"You know them very well. You are staying here?" he asked.
+
+"I live here," said Nell simply. "I am what Sir Archie Walbrooke calls
+'general utility.' Lady Wolfer has so much to do, and I help her keep
+house, or try and persuade myself that I do."
+
+Sir Charles was too much a man of the world to be discomfited; but he
+laughed a little ruefully as he said:
+
+"That serves me right for discussing people with a lady with whom I
+haven't the honor and pleasure of an acquaintance. It reminds me of that
+very old story of the man at the evening party, which you no doubt
+remember."
+
+"No; I've heard so few stories, old or new," said Nell, smiling. "Please
+tell it me."
+
+"I will if you'll tell me your name in exchange; mine is Fletcher, but I
+am usually called Sir Charles because Mr. Gresham honors me with his
+close friendship. 'Charles, his friend,' as they used to put it in the
+old play books, you know."
+
+"I see; and my name is Lorton, Eleanor Lorton, commonly called Nell
+Lorton--because I have a brother. And the story?"
+
+Sir Charles laughed.
+
+"Oh, it's too old; but, old as it is, I had forgotten to take its moral
+to heart. A man was leaning against the wall, yawning, at an evening
+party. He was fearfully bored, for he knew scarcely any one there, and
+had been brought at the last moment by a friend. As he was making up his
+mind to cut it, another man came and leaned against the wall beside him
+and yawned, also. Said the first: 'Awful slow, isn't it?' 'Yes,' replied
+Number Two, 'frightful crush and beastly hot.' 'Dreadful. I could stand
+it a little longer if that woman at the piano would leave off squalling.
+Come round to my club, and let us get a drink and a smoke.' 'Nothing
+would give me more pleasure! Wish I could!' replied Number Two. 'But you
+see, unfortunately for me, this is my house, and the lady at the piano
+is my wife.'"
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"It is a good story," she said. "The first man must have felt very
+foolish."
+
+"Yes," assented Sir Charles; "I know exactly how he felt. I hope you
+forgive me, Miss Lorton? Can I make amends in any way for my stupidity?"
+
+"You might tell me who some of the people are," said Nell. "I only know
+them by name--and scarcely as much as that. I have not been here very
+long, and this is my first dinner party."
+
+"How I envy you!" he said, with a sigh. "Dear me! I seem fated to put my
+foot into it to-night! But you know what I mean, or you would if you
+dined out as often as I--and Mr. Gresham do. Whom would you like me to
+tell you about? I think I know everybody here. One moment! Mr. Gresham
+is going to tell the story of his losing himself in London; it was in
+one of the new streets, for the making of which he had been a strong
+advocate."
+
+They waited until the story was told, and the prime minister had enjoyed
+the laughter, and then Nell said:
+
+"That little lady with the diamond tiara and the three big rubies on her
+neck is Lady Angleford--I know her name because I was introduced to her
+before dinner. I like the look of her so much; and she has so pleasant a
+voice and smile. Please tell me something about her."
+
+"An easy task," said Sir Charles. "She is Lord Angleford's young
+wife--an American heiress. I like her very much. In fact, though I have
+not known her very long, I am honored with her friendship. And yet I
+ought not to like her," he added, almost to himself.
+
+Nell opened her eyes upon him.
+
+"Why not?" she asked.
+
+Sir Charles was silent for a moment; then he said, as if he were
+weighing his words, and choosing suitable ones for his auditor:
+
+"Lord Angleford has a nephew who is a great, a very great friend of
+mine--Lord Selbie. He was Lord Angleford's heir; but--well, his uncle's
+marriage may make all the difference to him."
+
+Nell knit her brows and made another call on her memory.
+
+"Of course!" she exclaimed, in a tone of triumph, which rather surprised
+Sir Charles. "I remember reading about it. Lord Selbie! Yes--oh, yes; I
+recollect."
+
+Her voice grew sad and absent, as she recalled the afternoon when Mrs.
+Lorton had insisted upon her reading the stupid society paper to Drake.
+How long ago it seemed! How unreal!
+
+"I dare say," said Sir Charles. "It's one of those things which the
+world chatters about, and the newspapers paragraph. Poor Selbie!"
+
+"Was he a very great friend of yours?" asked Nell, rather mechanically,
+her eyes wandering from one face to another.
+
+"Yes, very great," replied the undersecretary, with a warmth which one
+does not look for in a professional politician. "We were at Eton
+together, and we saw a great deal of each other afterward, though he
+went into the army, and I, for my sins, fell into politics. He is one of
+the best of fellows, an Admirable Crichton, at once the envy and the
+despair of his companions. There is scarcely anything that Selbie
+doesn't do, and he does all things well--the best shot, the best rider,
+the best fencer, the best dancer of his set, and the best-hearted. Poor
+old chap!"
+
+It was evident that he had, in his enthusiasm, almost forgotten his
+auditor.
+
+"Where is he now?" asked Nell. "I heard Lady Angleford say that he is
+abroad."
+
+"Yes. No one knows where he is. He has disappeared. It sounds a strong
+word, but it is the only one that will meet the case. And perhaps it was
+the best thing he could do. When a man's prospects are blighted, and his
+ladylove has jilted him----"
+
+Nell turned quickly. She had tried to remember the whole of the
+paragraph she had read to Drake, but she could not.
+
+"What was the name of the lady who--who jilted him?" she asked.
+
+Sir Charles was about to reply, and if he had spoken, Nell would have
+learned Drake's identity; but at that moment there came a lull in the
+conversation, and before it had recommenced, the prime minister leaned
+forward and asked a question of his friend. The answer led to a general
+discussion, and at its close Lady Wolfer smiled and raised her eyebrows
+at the duchess, received a responsive nod, and the ladies rose.
+
+Sir Archie was the gentleman nearest the door, and he opened it for
+them. As Lady Wolfer was passing through, a flower fell from the bosom
+of her dress. He picked it up and held it out to her, with a bow and a
+smile; but she had turned to say something to the lady behind her, and
+he drew his hand back and concealed the flower in it.
+
+Nell, who chanced to be looking at him, was, perhaps, the only one who
+saw the action, and she thought little of it. He could scarcely
+interrupt Lady Wolfer by a too-insistent restoration of the blossom.
+
+With the flower in his hand, Sir Archie went back to the table. The
+other men had closed up near the earl, but Sir Archie retained his seat.
+He allowed the butler to fill his glass and raised it to his lips with
+his right hand; then, after a moment or two, he took the flower from his
+left and fixed it in the buttonhole of his coat.
+
+It was a daring thing to do; but he had been--well, not too sparing of
+the wine, and his usually pale and impassive face was flushed, and
+indicative of a kind of suppressed excitement.
+
+Perhaps he thought that no one would recognize the flower, and probably
+no one did--no one, that is, but the earl. His eyes, as they glanced
+down the row of men, saw the blossom in its conspicuous place in Sir
+Archie's coat, and the earl's face went white, and his thin lips
+twitched.
+
+"Have you any wine, Walbrooke?" he asked.
+
+The butler had left the room.
+
+Sir Archie started, as if his thoughts had been wandering.
+
+"Eh? Oh--ah! thanks!" he said.
+
+He took the decanter from the man next him, and filled his glass. The
+earl's eyes rested grimly upon the flower for a moment, then, as if with
+an effort, he turned to Mr. Gresham and got into talk with him. No man
+in the whole world was more ready to talk than the prime minister. The
+other men joined in the conversation, which was anything but
+political--all but Sir Archie. He sat silent and preoccupied, filling
+his glass whenever the decanter was near him, and drinking in a
+mechanical way, as if he were scarcely conscious of what he was doing.
+Now and then he glanced at the flower in his coat, deeming the glance
+unnoticed; but the earl saw it, and every time he detected the downward
+droop of the eyes, his own grew sterner and more troubled.
+
+Meanwhile, in the drawing-room, the ladies were sipping their coffee and
+conversing in the perfunctory fashion which prevails while they are
+awaiting the arrival of the gentlemen.
+
+Lady Wolfer, who had, up to the present, borne her part in the
+entertainment extremely well, suddenly appeared to have lost all
+interest and all desire to continue it. She seated herself beside the
+fire and next the easy-chair into which the duchess had sunk, and gazed
+dreamily over the screen which she held in her hand. Some of the ladies
+gathered in little groups, others turned to the books and albums, one or
+two yawned almost openly. A kind of blight seemed falling upon them.
+Nell, who was unused to the phenomena of dinner parties, looked round,
+aghast. Were they all going to sleep? Suddenly she realized that it was
+at just such a moment as this that she was supposed to come in. She
+went up to Lady Wolfer and bent down to her.
+
+"Won't somebody play or sing?" she asked. "They all seem as if they were
+going to sleep."
+
+"Let them!" retorted Lady Wolfer, almost loudly enough for those near to
+hear. "I don't care. Ask some one to sing, if you like."
+
+Nell went up to a young girl who stood, half yawning, before a picture
+of Burne-Jones'.
+
+"Will you play or sing?" she asked.
+
+The girl looked at her with languid good humor.
+
+"I'd sing; but I can't. I have no parlor tricks," she said. "Besides,
+what's the use? Nobody wants it," and she smiled with appalling candor.
+
+Nell turned from her in despair, and met Lady Angleford's eyes bent upon
+her with smiling and friendly interest. Nell went up to her appealingly.
+
+"I want some one to sing or play--or do something, Lady Angleford," she
+said.
+
+Lady Angleford laughed, the comprehensive, American laugh which conveys
+so much.
+
+"And they won't? I know. It isn't worth while till the gentlemen come
+in," she said. "I know that--now. It used to puzzle me at first; but I
+know now. You English are so--funny! In America a girl is quite content
+to sing to her lady friends; but here--well, only men count as audience.
+They will all wake up when the men appear. I have learned that. Or
+perhaps you will play or sing?"
+
+Lady Wolfer was near enough to hear.
+
+"Yes, Nell, sing," she said, with a forced smile.
+
+Nell looked round shyly, then went to the piano.
+
+"That's the sweetest girl I've seen in England," said Lady Angleford to
+her neighbor, who happened to be the dowager duchess. Her grace put up
+her eyeglasses, with their long holder, and surveyed the slim, girlish
+figure on its way to the grand piano.
+
+"Yes? She's awfully pretty. And very young, too. A connection of the
+Wolfers', isn't she? Rather sad face."
+
+"A face with a history," said Lady Angleford, more to herself than the
+duchess. "Do you know anything about her, duchess?"
+
+Her grace shrugged her fat shoulders sleepily.
+
+"Nothing at all. She's here as a kind of lady companion, or something of
+the sort. Yes, she's pretty, decidedly. Are you going on to the
+Meridues' reception?"
+
+Nell sat down and played her prelude rather nervously; then she sang one
+of the songs which she had sung in The Cottage at Shorne Mills--one of
+the songs to which Drake had never seemed tired of listening. There was
+a lull in the lifeless, perfunctory conversation, and one or two of the
+sleepy women murmured: "Thank you! Thank you very much!"
+
+"Bravo! Sing us something else, Nell!" said Lady Wolfer.
+
+Nell was in the middle of the second song when the men filed in. Some of
+them came straight into the room and sought the women they wanted,
+others hung about the doors, and, hiding their yawns, glanced quite
+openly at their watches.
+
+The earl made his way to his wife where she was sitting by the fire, her
+eyes fixed on the flames, which she could just see over the top of her
+hand screen.
+
+"I have to go on to the Meridues' when these have gone," he said. "Are
+you coming, Ada?"
+
+She glanced up at him. His eyes were fixed on the bosom of her dress, on
+the spot where the white blossom had shone conspicuously, but shone no
+longer; and there was a wistful, yearning expression on his grave face.
+
+She did not raise her eyes.
+
+"I don't know. I may be tired. Perhaps I may follow you."
+
+He bowed, almost as he would have bowed to a stranger; then, as he was
+turning away, he said casually, but with a faint tremor in his voice:
+
+"You have lost your flower!"
+
+She raised her eyes and looked at him coldly.
+
+"My flower? Ah, yes. My maid must have put it in insecurely."
+
+The earl said nothing, but his grave eyes slowly left her face and
+wandered to Sir Archie and the flower in his buttonhole.
+
+"I will wait for you until twelve," he said, with cold courtesy.
+
+Lady Wolfer rose and went toward Lady Angleford.
+
+"I wish you'd join us, my dear," she said. "Why, the woman movement
+sprang from America. You ought to sympathize with us."
+
+"Oh, but I'm English now," said Lady Angleford, "and, being a convert,
+I'm more English than the English. What a charming specimen of your
+country you have in Miss Lorton! I don't want to rob you of her, but do
+you think you could spare her to come to us at Anglemere? We are going
+there almost directly."
+
+Lady Wolfer replied absently:
+
+"Yes, certainly; ask her. It will not matter to me."
+
+"Not matter!" said Lady Angleford. "Why, I should have thought you would
+have suffered pangs at the mere thought of parting with her. She is an
+angel! Did you hear her sing just now? I don't know much about your
+English larks, but I was comparing her with them----"
+
+Lady Wolfer fanned herself vigorously.
+
+"Ask her, by all means," she said. "Oh, yes; of course I shall miss
+her."
+
+As she spoke, Sir Archie came toward her. A faint flush rose to her
+face. Her eyes fell upon the white flower in his buttonhole.
+
+"Why--how----Is that my flower?" she said, in a low voice.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "It is yours. You dropped it, and I picked it up. Has
+any one a better right to it?"
+
+She looked up at him half defiantly, half pleadingly.
+
+"You have no right to it," she said, in a low voice, which she tried in
+vain to keep steady. "You--you are attracting attention----"
+
+She glanced at the women near her, some of whom were eying the pair with
+sideway looks of curiosity.
+
+"I am desperate," he said; "I can bear it no longer. I told you the
+other day that I had come to the end of my power of endurance. You--you
+are cold--and cruel. I want your decision; I must have it. I cannot
+bear----"
+
+"Hush!" she said warningly, the screen in her hand shaking. "I will
+speak to you later--after--after some of them have gone. No; not
+to-night. Do not remain here any longer."
+
+"As you please," he said, with a sullen resentment; and he crossed the
+room to Nell, and began to talk to her. As a rule, he talked very
+little; but the wine had loosened his tongue, and he launched out into a
+cynical and amusing diatribe against society and all its follies.
+
+Nell listened with surprise at first; then she began to feel amused, and
+laughed.
+
+He drew a chair near her and bent toward her, lowering his voice and
+speaking in an impressive tone quite unusual with him. To the casual
+observer it might well have seemed that they were carrying on a
+desperate flirtation; but every now and then he paused absently, and
+presently he rose almost abruptly and went into an anteroom.
+
+An antique table with writing materials stood in a recess. He wrote
+something rapidly on a half sheet of note paper, and placing it inside a
+book, laid the volume on the pedestal of a Sèvres vase standing near the
+table.
+
+When he left Nell, Lady Wolfer crossed over to her.
+
+"Sir Archie has been amusing you, dear?" she said, casually enough; but
+the smile which accompanied the remark did not harmonize with the
+unsmiling and anxious eyes.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing. "He has been talking the most utter
+nonsense."
+
+"He--he is very strange to-night," said Lady Wolfer, biting her lip
+softly. Not to innocent Nell could she even hint that Sir Archie had
+taken more wine than was good for him. "He has been talking utter
+nonsense to me. Did you notice the flower in his coat?"
+
+"No," said Nell, with some surprise. "Why?"
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed unnaturally.
+
+"Nothing. Yes! Nell, I want you to get that flower from him. It--is a
+bet."
+
+"I--get it from him?" said Nell, opening her gray eyes.
+
+Lady Wolfer flushed for a moment.
+
+"It is only a piece of folly," she said. "But--but I want you to get it.
+Ask him for it--he cannot refuse. Oh, I can't explain! I will, perhaps;
+but get it!"
+
+She moved away as Sir Archie reappeared in the doorway. He came straight
+up to Nell.
+
+"I think I'll be off," he said. "Some of the others have gone already."
+
+He went toward Lady Wolfer as if to say "Good night," but, with the
+skill which every woman can display on occasion, Lady Wolfer turned from
+him as if she did not see him, and joined in the conversation which was
+being carried on by the duchess and Lady Angleford.
+
+"I've come to say good night, Lady Wolfer," he said.
+
+She met his gaze for a moment.
+
+"Good night," she said, in the conventional tone. He bowed over her
+hand, looked at her with an intense and questioning gaze for an instant,
+then left her and came back to Nell.
+
+"Oh, I've forgotten!" he exclaimed, half turning as if to rejoin the
+group he had left; then he hesitated, and added: "Will you be so kind as
+to give Lady Wolfer a message for me?"
+
+"Yes, certainly," said Nell, rather absently; for she was wondering how
+she could ask for the flower, on which her eyes were unconsciously
+fixed.
+
+"Thanks! You are always so kind. Will you tell her, please, that the
+book she wants is on the Sèvres pedestal, just behind the vase. She will
+want it to-night."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"I won't forget," she said. "Are you going to take that poor flower into
+the cold, Sir Archie?"
+
+She blushed as she asked the question; but he was too absorbed in the
+fatal game of passion to notice her embarrassment.
+
+"The flower?" he said unthinkingly. "It is nearly faded already; too
+poor an offering to make you, Miss Lorton; but if you will accept
+it----"
+
+He had expected her to refuse laughingly, but she replied simply:
+
+"Thank you; yes, I should like to have it," and in his surprise he took
+it from his coat, and, with a bow, handed it to her, wished her good
+night, and left her. At the door he paused and looked in the direction
+of Lady Wolfer, met her eyes for an instant, then went out.
+
+Nell was about to place the flower on the table, but, quite
+unthinkingly, stuck it in the bosom of her dress. As she was crossing
+the room to some people who were taking their departure, the earl came
+up to her.
+
+"I am going to the library presently, and may not see Lady Wolfer before
+I leave. Will you please tell her that I hope she will not go out
+to-night? I think she is looking tired--and--and overstrained. Do you
+not think so?"
+
+His tone was so full of anxiety, there was so sad and strained an
+expression in his grave face, as he looked toward his young wife, who
+was talking rather loudly and laughing in a way women will when there is
+anything but laughter in their hearts, that Nell's sympathy went out to
+him. It was as if suddenly she understood how much he cared for the
+woman who was wife to him in little more than the name.
+
+"Yes, yes! I will tell her," she said. "I am sure she will not go if you
+do not wish it."
+
+He smiled bitterly, and, for once dropping the cold reserve which
+usually masked him, said, with sad bitterness:
+
+"You think she considers my wishes so closely?"
+
+Nell looked up at him, half frightened by the intensity of his
+expression.
+
+"Why--yes!" she faltered.
+
+He smiled as bitterly as he had spoken; then his manner changed
+suddenly, and his eyes became fixed on the flower in her dress.
+
+"Where did you get that flower? Who----" he asked, almost sternly.
+
+Nell's face flamed; then, ashamed of the uncalled-for blush, she
+laughed.
+
+"Sir Archie Walbrooke gave it me," she said.
+
+The earl looked at her with surprise, which gradually changed to a keen
+scrutiny, under which Nell felt her blush rising again. But she said
+nothing, and, after a moment during which he seemed to be considering
+deeply, he passed on, his hands clasped behind his tall figure, his head
+bent.
+
+Immediately the last guest had gone, Lady Wolfer went to her own
+apartments. Nell stood in the center of the vast and now empty room, and
+looked round her absently, and with that sense of some pending calamity
+which we call presentiment.
+
+Innocent of the world and its intrigues, as she was, she could not fail
+to have seen that neither the earl nor the countess was happy; and that
+the endless work and excitement in which they endeavored to absorb
+themselves only left them dissatisfied and wretched.
+
+She liked them both; indeed, she had grown very fond of Lady Wolfer, and
+her heart ached for the woman who had striven to hide her unhappiness
+behind the mask of a forced gayety and recklessness. For a moment, a
+single moment, as she caught sight of the flower, a vague suspicion of
+the danger which threatened the countess arose in Nell's mind; but she
+put the suspicion from her with a shudder, for it was too dreadful to be
+entertained.
+
+Sometimes she went to Lady Wolfer's room after she had retired, and,
+remembering the earl's message, she went now upstairs and knocked at the
+countess' door.
+
+A low voice bade her come in, and Nell entered and found Lady Wolfer
+sitting on a low chair before the fire. She was alone, and the figure
+crouching before the blaze, as if she were cold, aroused Nell's pity.
+She crossed the room and bent over her.
+
+"Are you ill, dear, or only tired?" she asked gently.
+
+Lady Wolfer started and looked up at her, and Nell saw that her face was
+white and drawn.
+
+"Is it you?" she said. "I thought it was Wardell"--Wardell was her maid.
+"Yes, I am tired."
+
+"Lord Wolfer has asked me to beg you not to go out to-night. He saw that
+you looked tired," she said.
+
+Lady Wolfer gazed in the fire, and her lips curled sarcastically.
+
+"He is very considerate," she said. "Extraordinarily so! One would think
+he cared whether I was tired or not, wouldn't one, eh, dear?"
+
+"Why do you say that, and so bitterly?" Nell said, in a low voice. "Of
+course he cares. He is always kind and thoughtful."
+
+Lady Wolfer rose abruptly and, with a short, hard laugh, began to pace
+up and down the room.
+
+"He does not care in the least!" she said, in a harsh, strained voice.
+"Why did you come in to-night? I wish you hadn't! I--I wanted to be
+alone. No, do not go! Stay, now you are here," for Nell had moved to
+the door. She went back and laid her hand on the unhappy woman's arm.
+
+"Won't you tell me what is the matter?" she said.
+
+Lady Wolfer stopped and sank into the chair again.
+
+"I'm almost tempted to!" she said, with a reckless laugh. "It might be
+useful to you--as a 'frightful example,' as the temperance people say.
+Oh, don't you know? You are young and innocent, Nell, but--but you
+cannot fail to have seen how wretched I am! Nell, you are not only young
+and innocent, but beautiful. You have all your life before you--you,
+too, will have to choose your fate--for we do choose it! Don't wreck
+your life as I have wrecked mine; don't, don't marry a man who does not
+love you--as I did!"
+
+"Hush!" said Nell, startled and shocked. "You are wrong, quite wrong!"
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed bitterly.
+
+"I've said too much; I may as well tell you all," she said, with a shrug
+of her white shoulders. "It was a marriage of convenience. We--my
+people--were poor, and it was a great match for me. There was no talk of
+love--love!" She laughed again, and the laugh made Nell wince. "It was
+just a bargain. Such bargains are made every day in this vile marriage
+market of ours. I was as innocent as you, Nell. The glitter of the
+thing--the title, the big house, the position--dazzled me. I thought I
+should be more contented and satisfied. Other girls have done the same
+thing, and they seemed happy enough. But I suppose I am different. I
+wearied of the whole thing--the title, the big house, the diamonds,
+everything--before the first month. I wanted something else; I scarcely
+knew what----Ah, yes, I did! I did! I wanted love--the thing they all
+laugh and sneer at! I had sold myself for gold and place and power, and
+when I had gotten them they all turned to Dead Sea fruit, dust and
+ashes, on my lips!"
+
+She gripped her hands tightly, and bent lower over the fire, and Nell
+sank on her knees beside her, pale herself, and incapable of speech.
+
+"For a time I tried to bear it, to live the weary, dragging life; then,
+when I was nearly mad--I tried to find relief in the world outside my
+own home. I was supposed to be clever--clever! I could write and talk. I
+took up this woman's rights business!" She laughed again. "All the time
+they were lauding me to the skies and flattering and fooling me, I knew
+how stupid the whole thing was. But it seemed the only chance for me,
+the only way of forgetting myself and--and my slavery. At any rate, it
+served as an excuse for getting out of the house, for not inflicting my
+presence upon the man who had bought me, and who regarded me simply as
+the figurehead for his table, the person to receive his guests and play
+the necessary part in his public life."
+
+"No, no! You're wrong, wrong!" said Nell earnestly.
+
+Lady Wolfer seemed scarcely to have heard her.
+
+"I ought to have known that it would not help me long. It has come to an
+end. I am going to end it. I cannot bear this life any longer--I cannot,
+I cannot! I will not! I have only one life--that I know of----"
+
+"Oh, hush, hush!" Nell implored. "You are all wrong! I know it, I am
+sure of it! You think he does not care for you. He does, he does! If you
+had seen his face to-night--had heard his voice!"
+
+Lady Wolfer looked at her with a half-startled glance; then she shook
+her head and smiled bitterly.
+
+"No, I am not wrong," she said. "I know what love is--at last! It
+beckons me--I have resisted--God knows I have struggled with and fought
+against it--have kept it from me with both hands--but my strength has
+failed me at last, and----"
+
+Nell caught her arm and clung to it.
+
+"Oh, what do you mean?" she asked, in vague terror.
+
+Lady Wolfer started, and slowly unclasped Nell's hands.
+
+"I have said too much," she said, panting and moistening her parched
+lips. "I did not mean to tell you--no, I will not say another word. I
+don't know why I am so unnerved, why I take it so much to heart I
+think--Nell, I am fond of you; you know it?"
+
+Nell made a gesture of assent, and touched the countess' clasped hands
+lovingly, tenderly.
+
+"I--I think it is your presence here that--that has made me
+hesitate--has made me realize the gravity of what I am going to do. I--I
+never look at you, hear you speak, but I am reminded that I was once,
+and not so long ago, as innocent as you. But I can hesitate no longer. I
+have to decide, and I have decided!"
+
+She rose and stood with her hands before her face for the moment; then
+she let them fall with a sigh, and forced a smile.
+
+"Go now, dear!" she said. "I--I wish I had not spoken so freely; but
+that tender, loving heart of yours is hard to resist."
+
+"What is it you have decided to do?" Nell asked, scarcely above her
+breath.
+
+A deep red rose slowly to the countess' face, then slowly faded, leaving
+it pale and wan, and set with determination.
+
+"I cannot tell you, Nell," she said. "You--you will know soon enough.
+And when you know, I want you--I want you to think not too badly of me,
+to remember how much I have suffered, how hard and cruel my life has
+been--how I have hungered and thirsted for one word, one look of love;
+that I have struggled and striven against my fate, and have yielded only
+when I could endure no longer. Oh, go now, dear!"
+
+"Let me stay with you to-night! I can sleep on this couch--on this
+chair--beside you, if you like," pleaded Nell, confused and frightened,
+but aching with pity and sympathy. "I know that it is all wrong, that
+you are mistaken. If I could only convince you! If I could only tell you
+what I saw in Lord Wolfer's eyes as he looked at you to-night!"
+
+The countess shook her head.
+
+"It is you who are mistaken," she said, "and it is too late. No, you
+shall not stay. I have done wrong to say so much. Try--try and forget
+it. But yet--no, don't forget it, Nell. Remember me and my wretchedness,
+and let it be a warning to you, if ever you are tempted to marry a man
+who does not love you, whom you do not love. Ah, but you must go, Nell!
+I am worn out!"
+
+Nell went to her and put her arm round her neck, and drew her face down
+that she might kiss her, but the countess gently put Nell's arm from
+her, and drew back from the proffered kiss.
+
+"No; you shall not kiss me!" she said, in a low voice. "You will be glad
+that you did not--presently! Stay--give me that flower!" she said,
+holding out her hand, but looking away.
+
+Nell started, and drew the flower from her bosom as if it had been
+something poisonous, and flung it in the fire.
+
+The countess shrugged her shoulders with an air of indifference, and
+turned to watch the flower withering and consuming in the fire, and
+Nell, with something like a sob, left her.
+
+What should she do? She understood that her friend stood on the verge of
+a precipice; but how could she--Nell--with all her desire to save her,
+drag her back?
+
+As she was going to her room she heard a step in the hall, and, looking
+over the balustrade, saw the earl pass from the library to the
+drawing-room. For an instant she was half resolved to go down to him,
+to--what? How could she tell him? She dared not!
+
+Lord Wolfer wandered into the drawing-room and stood before the fire,
+looking into it moodily, as he leaned against the great mantelpiece of
+carved marble.
+
+He was thinking of the flower which he had seen first in his wife's
+possession, then in Sir Archie's, and lastly in Nell's; and of her blush
+and confusion when he had asked her how she came by it. He knew Sir
+Archie, knew him better and more of his life than Sir Archie suspected.
+The man was a perfect type of the modern lover; incapable of a fixed
+passion, as fickle as the wind. Could it be that he had transferred,
+what he would have called his "devotion," from the countess to Nell? It
+seemed at first sight too improbable; but Wolfer knew his world and the
+ethics of the smart set of which Sir Archie Walbrooke was a conspicuous
+member too well to scout the idea as impossible. The fact that Sir
+Archie had spent the last three months flirting with one woman would be
+no hindrance to his transferring his attentions to a younger and
+prettier one.
+
+The harassed man turned away with a weary sigh, wandered purposelessly
+into the anteroom, and, in a mechanical fashion, fingered the various
+articles on the writing table. His eye fell on the book on the pedestal,
+and he took up the volume absently, intending to restore it to its place
+in the bookcase. On his way he opened the book, and a half sheet of note
+paper fell from it and fluttered to his feet. He picked it up, read what
+was written on it, and stood for a moment motionless, his eyes fixed on
+the carpet, his lips writhing.
+
+How long he stood there he did not know, but presently he was aroused by
+the sound of footsteps. He listened. Some one--the rustling of a
+dress--was approaching the room. He slipped the note into the book and
+replaced the volume on the pedestal, and quickly stepped behind the
+portière curtains.
+
+He expected his wife. Should he come forward and confront her? His stern
+face grew red with shame--for her, for himself. Then, with a sudden leap
+of the heart, with a sensation of relief which was absolutely painful in
+its intensity, he saw Nell enter the room and go straight to the
+pedestal. Her face was pale and troubled, and she looked round with what
+seemed to him a guilty expression in the gray eyes. Then she opened the
+book as he had done, but, as if she expected to find something, took out
+the note, and after a moment of hesitation read it. He saw her face
+flush hotly, then grow white, and her hand go out to the pedestal as if
+for support. For a moment she stood as motionless as he had done, then
+she thrust the note into her pocket, dropped the book from her hand--it
+fell on the floor unregarded by her--and slowly left the room.
+
+Wolfer passed his hand over his brow with a bewildered air, then, as if
+obeying an irresistible impulse, he followed her up the stairs.
+
+Quietly but slowly. He knew that she had not seen him, did not know that
+he was following her, and he waited at the end of the corridor,
+watching her with a heart throbbing with an agony of anxiety. Was she
+going to carry the note to his wife? But she did not even hesitate at
+the door of Lady Wolfer's room, but went straight to her own, and he
+heard the key turn as she locked it.
+
+The sweat was standing in great drops upon his forehead, and he put up a
+trembling hand and wiped them away as he looked toward his wife's door.
+Should he go in and question her? Should he ask her straightly whether
+the note was intended for her or Nell? It seemed too horrible to suspect
+the girl who had seemed innocence and purity itself, and yet had he not
+seen her go straight for the book, as if she had known that it was there
+waiting for her?
+
+Like a man in a dream he went down to the library, and, locking the
+door, flung himself into a chair, and buried his face in his hands. What
+was he to think?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+Nell stood in the middle of the room with the note which she had found
+in the book in her hand. She had read it half mechanically and
+unsuspectingly, as one reads a scrap of paper found in a volume, or in
+some unexpected place; and, trembling a little, she went to the electric
+light and read the note again. It ran thus--and with every word Nell's
+face grew pale:
+
+"I can wait no longer. You cannot say I have been impatient--that I
+haven't endured the suspense as well as a man could. If you love me, if
+you are really willing to trust yourself to me, come away with me
+to-morrow. God knows I will try and make you happy, and that you can
+never be under this roof with a man who doesn't care for you. I will
+come for you at seven to-morrow morning--we can cross by the morning
+boat. Don't trouble about luggage; everything we want we can get on the
+other side. For Heaven's sake, don't hesitate! Be ready and waiting for
+me as the clock strikes. Don't hesitate! The happiness of both our lives
+lies in your hands.                                     ARCHIE."
+
+Nell sank into a chair and stared at the wall, trying to think; but for
+a moment or two the horror and shame of the thing overwhelmed her. She
+had read of such incidents as these, for now and again one of the new
+school of novels reached The Cottage; but there is a lot of difference
+between reading, say, of a murder, and watching the committal of one.
+She was almost as much ashamed and shocked as if the note had been
+intended for herself.
+
+She was not ashamed of having read it--though the mere touch of the
+paper was hateful to her--for she felt that Providence had ordained it
+that she should stand between Lady Wolfer and the ruin to which Sir
+Archie was beckoning her.
+
+But what should she do? Should she take the letter to Lady Wolfer and
+implore her to send Sir Archie a refusal? This was, of course, Nell's
+first impulse, but she dared not follow it; dared not run the risk of
+letting Lady Wolfer see the note. The unhappy woman's face haunted Nell,
+and her reckless words, and her tone of desperation, still rang in
+Nell's ears. No; she dared not let Lady Wolfer know that this man would
+be waiting for her. Few women in the position of the countess could
+resist such a note as this, such an appeal from the man who, she
+thought, loved her. But if she did not take the note to the countess,
+what was she to do?
+
+Sir Archie would be, then, in the library at seven o'clock; he would ask
+for the countess; she would go to him, and--Nell shuddered, and walked
+up and down. If there were any one to whom she could go for advice! But
+there was no one. At all costs, the truth must be kept from the earl;
+his wife must be saved.
+
+It was a terrible position for a young and inexperienced girl; but,
+despite her youth and inexperience, the note could scarcely have fallen
+into better hands than Nell's; for she possessed courage, and was not
+afraid for herself. Most girls, keenly though they might desire to save
+their friend, would have destroyed the note and left the rest to
+Providence; but Nell's spirit had been trained in the bracing air of
+Shorne Mills, and her views tempered by many a tussle with tide and wind
+in the _Annie Laurie_; and the pluck which lay dormant in the slight
+figure rose now to the struggle for her friend's safety. She had grown
+to love the woman who had confided her heart's sorrow to her that night,
+and she meant to save her. But how? Sir Archie would be there at seven,
+and Lady Wolfer must be kept in ignorance of his presence; and he must
+be sent away convinced of the hopelessness of his passion.
+
+Nell walked up and down, unconscious of weariness, ignorant that in his
+own room the earl was listening to her footsteps, and putting his own
+construction upon her agitation. Now and again she thought of Drake and
+her own love affair. Were all men alike? Were there no good men in the
+world? Were they all selfish and unscrupulous in the quest of their own
+interest and amusements? Love! The word sounded like a mockery, a
+delusion, a snare. Drake had loved, or thought he loved her, until Lady
+Luce had beckoned him back to her; and this other man, Sir Archie--how
+long would he continue to love the unhappy woman if she yielded to him?
+
+The silver clock on the mantelshelf struck five, and Nell, worn out at
+last, and still apparently far away from any solution of the problem
+which she had set herself, flung herself on the bed. She had scarcely
+closed her eyes before a way of helping Lady Wolfer presented itself to
+her.
+
+Her face crimsoned, and she winced and closed her eyes with a slight
+shudder; but though she shrank from the ordeal, she resolved to make it.
+Lady Wolfer had been kind to her, had won her love, and, more than all
+else, had confided in her, and she--Nell--would save her at any cost.
+
+A little before seven she rose, and changed her dinner dress for a plain
+traveling one, and, putting on her hat and jacket, went down to the
+library slowly and almost stealthily. A maidservant was sweeping the
+hall, and she looked up at Nell, clad in her outdoor things, with some
+surprise.
+
+"I expect Sir Archie Walbrooke at seven o'clock," said Nell. "I am in
+the library, please."
+
+She spoke quite calmly and casually, buttoning her glove in a leisurely
+fashion as she passed on her way; and the maid responded unsuspiciously,
+for the coming and going at Wolfer House were always somewhat erratic.
+
+Nell went into the library, and, closing the door, turned up the
+electric light a little--for the maids had not yet been to the room, and
+the shutters were still closed. The morning was a wet and chilly one,
+and Nell shuddered slightly as she sat and watched the second hand of
+the clock, which at one moment seemed to move slowly and at the next
+appeared to fly. She had not decided upon the words she would use; she
+would be guided by those which Sir Archie might speak; but she was
+resolved to fight as long as possible, to hide every tremor which, at
+these moments of waiting and suspense, quivered through her.
+
+Then she heard his voice, his slow step--no quicker than usual this
+morning--crossing the hall; the door opened, and he was in the room.
+Nell rose, and stood with her back to the light; and, closing the door,
+he came toward her with a faint cry of satisfaction and relief.
+
+"Ada!" he said. "You have come----"
+
+Nell raised her veil, but, before she had done so, he had seen that she
+was not the countess; and he stopped short and stared at her.
+
+"Miss Lorton!" he exclaimed, under his breath, so taken aback that the
+shock of his disappointment was revealed in his face and voice. "I--I
+thought--expected--to see Lady Wolfer. Is--is she up? Does she know that
+I am here? You have a message for me?"
+
+He tried to speak casually, and forced a smile, as if the appointment
+was quite an ordinary one; but Nell saw that the hand that held his hat
+shook, and that his color, which had risen as he entered the room and
+greeted her, had slowly left his face, and her courage rose.
+
+"Yes, I have a message for you, Sir Archie," she said, keeping her voice
+as steady as she could, and saying to herself: "It is to save her--save
+her!"
+
+"Yes?" he said, with suppressed eagerness and anxiety. "What is it? I--I
+am rather pressed for time." He glanced at his watch. "Won't she see me?
+If you would go up and ask her. I shan't detain her more than a minute."
+
+"No; she cannot see you," said Nell. "I am to ask you to go--where you
+are going--without seeing her."
+
+He looked at her steadily, gnawing his lip softly.
+
+"I--I don't understand," he said, still trying to smile. "She--told you
+that I am going--abroad?"
+
+Nell inclined her head gravely.
+
+"Yes? But didn't she tell you that--that I must see her before I go?
+That--that it is important?"
+
+"She cannot see you," said Nell, her heart beating fast. "She wishes you
+to go, and--and to remain abroad----"
+
+His face crimsoned, then went pale.
+
+"You know--she has told you why--why I have come this morning?" he said,
+in a low voice.
+
+"Yes, I know," assented Nell, the shame, for him, dyeing her face.
+
+He stared at her for a moment in silence; then he said, half defiantly,
+half sullenly:
+
+"Very well, then. If you know why I am here, you must know that I cannot
+take such a message, that I cannot go--without her. For Heaven's sake,
+Miss Lorton, go and fetch her! There is no time to lose. Her--my
+happiness is at stake. I beg your pardon; I'm afraid I'm brusque;
+but----For Heaven's sake, bring her! If I could see her, speak to her
+for a moment----"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"I cannot," she said. "It would be of no use. Lady Wolfer would not go
+with you."
+
+He came nearer to her and lowered his voice, almost speaking through his
+teeth.
+
+"See here, Miss Lorton, you--you have no right to be in this
+business--to interfere with it. You--you are too young to
+understand----"
+
+Nell crimsoned.
+
+"No," she said, almost inaudibly. "I understand. I--I have seen your
+letter." Her calm, almost her courage, broke down, and, clasping her
+hands, she pleaded to him. "Oh, yes, I do understand! Sir Archie, go; do,
+do go! It is cruel of you to stay. If--if you really love her, you will go
+and never come back."
+
+His face went white and his eyes flashed.
+
+"No, you don't understand, although you think you do. You say that I am
+cruel. I should be cruel if I did what she asks me, what you wish me to
+do, to leave her in this house, to the old life of misery. I love her; I
+want to take her away with me from the man who doesn't care an atom for
+her, whom she does not love."
+
+"It isn't true!" said Nell, with a sudden burst of indignation, and with
+a sudden insight as inexplicable as it was sudden. "He loves her, and
+she, though she does not know it, cares for him. They would have
+discovered the truth if you had not come between them and made them hard
+and cold to each other. Yes, you are cruel, cruel and wicked! But--but
+perhaps it has not been all your fault--and--I'm sorry if--if I have
+spoken too harshly."
+
+He scarcely seemed to have heard her concluding words, but repeated to
+himself: "She cares for him. She cares for Wolfer--her husband!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Nell eagerly, anxiously. "I know it; I have seen her
+when she was most unhappy. I have heard the truth in her voice--I
+remember little things--the way she has behaved to him, spoken to him,
+when she was off her guard. Yes, it is true she cares for him as much as
+he cares for her; but they have hidden it from each other--and you--you
+have made it harder for them to show their love! But you know the truth
+now, and--and you will go, will you not?"
+
+In her anxiety she laid her hand on his arm imploringly, and looked up
+at him with eyes moist with tears.
+
+He looked at her, his brows knit, his lips set closely.
+
+"By Heaven, if I thought you were right!" broke from him; then his tone
+changed, and his eyes grew hard with resentment. "No; you are wrong,
+quite wrong! And it is you who have come between us, and will rob us of
+our happiness! I--I--beg your pardon!" he faltered, for this slave of
+passion was, after all, a gentleman. "I beg your pardon! If you knew
+what I am suffering, what she must be suffering at this moment! Miss
+Lorton, you are her friend--you have no reason to bear me any ill
+will--I honor you for--for your motives in all this--but I implore you
+to stand aside. If you will go and bring her, I will wait here, and you
+shall hear from her own lips that you are wrong in supposing that any
+affection exists between her and him. I will wait here. Go, I beg of
+you! There is no time to lose!"
+
+"I will not!" said Nell, her slight figure erect, her eyes more eloquent
+than the tone of her resolution to save her friend.
+
+"Then I will ring and ask her to come," he said, and he went toward the
+bell.
+
+Nell sprang in front of it.
+
+"No," she said, in a low voice. "It is I who will ring, and it is the
+earl who shall come."
+
+Sir Archie stood, his hand outstretched to push her aside. Men of his
+class and character dislike a scene. He was not physically afraid of
+Lord Wolfer, but--a scene and a scandal which would leave Lady Wolfer at
+Wolfer House, while he was turned out, was a contretemps to be avoided,
+if possible.
+
+"You must be mad!" he said, between his teeth. "Worse; you are laboring
+under a hideous mistake. She loves me, and you know it--she has never
+cared for Lord Wolfer. Please stand aside."
+
+He put out his hand to gently remove her from before the bell, and at
+his touch the strain which Nell was undergoing became too tense for
+endurance. The color left her face and left it deathly white. With a
+faint moan she put her hand to her throat as if she were choking, and
+swayed to and fro as if she were giddy.
+
+Sir Archie caught her just in time.
+
+"Good heavens, don't faint!" he exclaimed, in a horrified whisper.
+
+At the sound of his voice, at his touch, Nell recovered her full
+consciousness.
+
+"Let me go! Don't touch me!" she breathed, with a shudder; but, before
+she could free herself from his hold, the door opened, and the earl
+entered.
+
+With an oath, Sir Archie turned and glared at him, and Nell sank against
+the mantelshelf, and leaned there, faint and trembling.
+
+The two men stood quite still and looked at each other. In these days we
+have taught ourselves to take the most critical moments of our lives
+quietly. There is no loud declamation, no melodramatic denunciation, no
+springing at each other's throats, or flashing of swords. We carry our
+wrongs to the law courts, and an aged gentleman in an ermine tippet, and
+a more or less grimy wig, avenges us--with costs and damages.
+
+The earl was pale enough, and his eyes wore a stern expression as they
+rested upon his "friend"; but yet there was something in his face which
+seemed to indicate relief; and, presently, after a moment which seemed
+an age to Nell, his gaze left the other man's face and fixed itself on
+her.
+
+"Were you going out with Sir Archie Walbrooke, Miss Lorton?" he asked
+coldly.
+
+Sir Archie started slightly, and would have spoken, but Nell looked at
+him quickly, a look which smote him to silence. She, too, remained
+silent, her hands clasped, her eyes fixed on the ground.
+
+"Is my inference a correct one?" said the earl, still more coldly. "I
+find you here--at this unusual hour--and dressed for traveling. And he
+is here--by appointment, I presume? Ah, do not deny it! It is too
+obvious."
+
+Sir Archie opened his lips, but once more Nell looked at him, and once
+more her eyes commanded, rather than asked, his silence. He suppressed
+an oath, and stood with clenched hands, waiting in helpless
+irresolution. What was this girl going to do? Was she--was it possible
+that she was going to screen Lady Wolfer at the cost of her own
+reputation! The man was not altogether bad, and the remnant of honor
+which still glowed in his breast rose against the idea of such a
+sacrifice. And yet--it was for the woman he loved!
+
+The perspiration broke out on his pale face, and he looked from the
+stern eyes of the earl to Nell's downcast ones.
+
+"I can't stand this!" broke from his lips. "Look here, Wolfer!"
+
+The earl raised his head.
+
+"I have nothing to say to you. I decline to hear you," he said grimly.
+"I am addressing Miss Lorton. I have asked her a question; but it is not
+necessary to inflict the pain of an answer. I am aware that I have no
+legal right to interfere in Miss Lorton's movements, but she is under my
+roof, she is a connection"--his voice grew a shade less stern--"I am,
+indeed, almost in the position of her guardian. Therefore, I deem it my
+duty to acquaint her with the character of the man with whom she
+proposes to--elope."
+
+Nell raised her head, the crimson staining her whole face; and it seemed
+to Sir Archie as if her endurance had broken down; but she checked the
+indignant denial which had sprung to her lips, and, closing her lips
+tightly, sank back into her former attitude--an attitude which convinced
+Lord Wolfer of her guilt.
+
+"Are you aware that this gentleman, who has honored you by an invitation
+to fly with him, is already a married man, Miss Lorton?"
+
+Nell made no sign, but Sir Archie started and ground his teeth.
+
+"He has carefully concealed the fact; but--well, I happen to know it, and
+I think he will not venture to deny it."
+
+He paused, but Sir Archie remained silent.
+
+"Were you ignorant of it?" asked the earl.
+
+Nell opened her lips, and they formed the word "Yes."
+
+"I expected as much," said the earl. "And now that you know the truth,
+are you still desirous of accompanying him?"
+
+Nell, with her eyes fixed on the ground, shook her head.
+
+"No!" she whispered.
+
+Sir Archie swore under his breath.
+
+"I can't stand this!" he said desperately. "Look here, Wolfer, you are
+making a damnable mistake. Miss Lorton----"
+
+The earl turned to him, but looked above his head.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, "I have no desire to hear any explanation of your
+conduct--it would be impossible for you to defend it. But, having
+received Miss Lorton's reply to my question, I have the right to ask you
+to quit my house--and I do so!"
+
+Sir Archie went up to Nell and looked at her straight in the face.
+
+"Do you--do you wish me to remain silent?" he said hoarsely. "Think
+before you speak! Do you?"
+
+Nell looked up instantly.
+
+"Yes!" she replied, in a low voice. "If you will go--forever!"
+
+Sir Archie gazed at her as if he had suddenly become unconscious of the
+earl's presence.
+
+"My God!" he breathed. "You--you are treatin' me better than I deserve.
+Yes, I am goin'," he said, turning fiercely to the earl, who had made a
+slight movement of impatience. "But I want to say this. I want"--he
+moistened his lips, as if speech were difficult--"to tell you--and--and
+her--that--that what has taken place will never be spoken of by me while
+I live. I am goin'--abroad. I shall not return for some time."
+
+The earl made a gesture of indifference.
+
+"Your movements can be of no interest to me," he said, "and I trust that
+they may be of as little importance to this unhappy girl, now that she
+knows the character of the man whom she was about to trust."
+
+Sir Archie laughed--a laugh that sounded hideously grotesque at such a
+moment; then he took up his hat and gloves; but he laid them down again.
+
+"Will you give me a minute--three--with Miss Lorton, alone?" he asked,
+biting his lip.
+
+The earl hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Nell searchingly; then, as
+if satisfied, he said:
+
+"Yes, I will do so, on condition that you leave this house at the
+expiration of that time. I will rejoin you when he has gone."
+
+As he left the room, Sir Archie turned to Nell.
+
+"Do you know what you have done?" he asked hoarsely, and almost
+inaudibly. "Do you know what this means: that you have sacrificed
+yourself for--for her?"
+
+Nell had sunk into a chair, and she looked up at him, and then away from
+him; but in that momentary glance he had read the light of an inflexible
+resolution, an undaunted courage in the gray eyes.
+
+"Yes, I know," she said. "He--he thinks, will always think, that it was
+I----" She broke off with an irrepressible shudder.
+
+Sir Archie's hand went to his mustache to cover the quiver of his lips.
+
+"My God! it's the noblest thing! But--have you counted the cost--the
+consequences?"
+
+"Yes," she said. "But it does not matter. I--I am nobody--only a girl,
+with no husband, no one who loves, cares for me; while she----Yes, I
+know what I have done; but I am not sorry--I don't regret. I have your
+promise?" she looked up at his strained face solemnly. "You will keep
+it?--you will not break your word? You will go away and--and leave her?"
+
+His hands clenched behind him, and he was silent for a moment; then he
+said:
+
+"Yes, by Heaven! I will! The sacrifice shall not be all on your side.
+Tell her--no, tell her nothin', or you will have to tell her all. Tell
+her nothin'. Miss Lorton----" His voice broke, and he hesitated. Nell
+waited, and he found his voice again. "When I hear that there are no
+good women, no noble ones, I--I shall think of what you have done this
+mornin'. Good-by. I--I can't ask you to shake hands. My God! I'm not fit
+for you to touch! I see that now. Good-by!"
+
+He went out of the room with drooping head, but he raised it as he
+passed the earl, and the two men nodded--for the benefit of the footman
+who opened the door.
+
+Nell hid her face in her hands and waited, and presently the earl
+reëntered the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+Lord Wolfer stood, with his hand resting upon the table, in silence for
+a moment or two, regarding Nell, no longer sternly, but with an
+expression of pity which was novel in him. Nell sat with her head
+resting in her hands, her eyes downcast. She was still pale, but her
+lips were set firmly, as if she were prepared for rebuke and reproach.
+
+"Do not be afraid," he said, at last. "I have not returned to--to blame
+you. You are too young to understand the peril--perhaps, too, the
+sin--of the step which you meditated taking. I am a man of the world,
+and I can appreciate the temptation to which you have been subjected.
+Sir Archie--well, all the world knows that such men are difficult to
+resist, and--and your inexperience betrayed you. I know the arts by
+which he gained your affections and hoped to mislead you."
+
+It was almost more than she could bear; but Nell set her teeth hard and
+held her breath; for she felt it well-nigh impossible to resist the
+aching longing to utter the cry of the unjustly accused. "I am
+innocent--innocent!" But she remembered the unhappy woman whom she had
+saved, and suffered in silence.
+
+"That you bitterly regret your--your weakness I am convinced," said Lord
+Wolfer; "and I am quite satisfied with your promise that you will not
+see him--I wish I could add, not think of him--again. He is a dangerous
+man, Miss Lorton"--he paused and paced to the window, and his lips
+twitched--"such men are a peril to every woman upon whom they--they
+chance to set their fickle fancy. At one time--yes, I owe it to you to
+be candid--at one time I feared"--he stopped again, and drummed upon the
+windowsill with his forefinger--"I feared he was paying Lady Wolfer too
+much attention. Even now I am not sure that my fears were groundless. He
+came to the house frequently, and was at my wife's side perpetually,
+before you came."
+
+Nell held her breath. Had her sacrifice been in vain? Had he got an
+inkling of the truth? But he went on sternly and in a low voice:
+
+"If there were any reason for my suspicions, it is evident that he
+transferred his affections to you. It is a terrible thing to say,
+but--but I feel as if--as if--your presence here had averted a dreadful
+catastrophe from us. Yes; that letter might have been meant for my wife,
+and I might have found her here instead of you. Do not think it
+heartless of me if I say that, deeply as I sympathize with you and
+grieve for your--your trouble, I am relieved--relieved of an awful
+apprehension on--on Lady Wolfer's account. I have suffered a great deal
+during the past few months."
+
+"Yes," said Nell, forgetting her own misery in sympathy for him.
+
+He looked at her quickly.
+
+"You have noticed it?"
+
+Nell inclined her head.
+
+"I have lived in the house--I have seen----" she faltered.
+
+He nodded once or twice.
+
+"Yes; I suppose that you could not help seeing that there has been a--a
+gulf between us; that we are not as other, happier, husbands and wives."
+
+He sighed, and passed his hand across his brow wearily.
+
+"But we are not the only couple who, living in the same house, are
+asunder. I am not the only man who has to endure, secretly and with a
+smiling face, the fact that his wife does not care for him."
+
+Nell raised her head, and the color came to her pale face.
+
+"You are wrong--wrong!" she said, in a low voice, but eagerly.
+
+"Wrong? I beg your pardon?" he said gravely.
+
+"It is all a terrible mistake," said Nell. "She does care for you. Oh,
+yes, yes! It is you who have been blind; it is your fault. It is hers,
+too; but you are the man, and it is your place to speak--to tell her
+that you love her----"
+
+He reddened as he turned to her with a curious eagerness and surprise.
+
+"I don't understand you," he said, with a shake in his voice. "Do you
+mean me to infer that--that I have been under a delusion in thinking
+that my wife----"
+
+Nell rose and stretched out her hands with a gesture of infinite
+weariness.
+
+"Oh, how blind you are!" she said, almost impatiently. "You think that
+she does not care for you, and she thinks that of you, and you are both
+in love with each other."
+
+His face glowed, and a strange brightness--the glow of hope--shone in
+his eyes.
+
+"Take care!" he said huskily. "You--you use words lightly, perhaps
+unthinkingly----"
+
+Nell laughed, with a kind of weary irritation.
+
+"I am telling you the truth; I am trying to open your eyes," she said.
+"She loves you."
+
+"Why--why do you think so? Have you ever heard her address a word to me
+that had a note of tenderness in it?"
+
+"Have you ever addressed such a word to her?" retorted Nell.
+
+He started, and gazed at her confusedly.
+
+"You have always treated her as if she were a mere acquaintance, some
+one who was of no consequence to you. Oh, yes, you have been polite,
+kind, in a way, but not in a way a woman wants. I am only a girl,
+but--but"--she thought again of Drake, of her own love story, and her
+lips trembled--"but I have seen enough of the world to know that there
+is nothing which will hurt and harden a woman more than the 'kindness'
+with which you have treated her. I think--I don't know, but I think if I
+cared for a man, I would rather that he should beat me than treat me as
+if I were just a mere acquaintance whom he was bound to treat politely.
+And did you think that it was she who was to show her heart? No; a woman
+would rather die than do that. It is the man who must speak, who must
+tell her, ask her for her love. And you haven't, have you, Lord Wolfer?"
+
+He put his hand to his brow and bit his lips.
+
+"God forgive me!" he murmured. Then he looked at her steadily. "Yes, you
+have opened my eyes! Heaven grant that I may see this thing as you see
+it! Heaven grant it! My dear"--his voice shook with his
+gratitude--"where--where did you learn this wisdom, this knowledge of
+the human heart?"
+
+Nell drew a long breath painfully, and her gray eyes grew dark.
+
+"It isn't wisdom," she said wearily. "Any schoolgirl knows as much,
+would see what I have seen--though a man might not. You have been too
+busy, too taken up with politics--politics!--and she--she has tried to
+forget her troubles in lecturing, and meetings and committees. And all
+the while her heart was aching with longing, with longing for just one
+word from you."
+
+The earl turned his head aside.
+
+"Ah! if you doubt it still, go to her!" said Nell. "Go and ask her!"
+
+"I will," he said, raising his head, his eyes glowing. "I will go."
+
+He moved to the door, then stopped and came back to her; he had
+forgotten her, forgotten the tragic scene in which he had just taken
+part.
+
+"I beg your pardon! Forgive me! It was ungrateful of me to forget your
+trouble, my dear!"
+
+Nell made a gesture of indifference.
+
+"It does not matter," she said dully. "I--I will go."
+
+"Go?" he said.
+
+"Yes. I will go--leave the house at once. I could not stay."
+
+She looked round as if the walls were closing in on her.
+
+Wolfer knit his brows perplexedly.
+
+"I--I do not like the idea of your going. Where will you go?"
+
+"Home," she said; and the word struck across her heart and almost sent
+the tears to her eyes.
+
+He went to the window and came back again.
+
+"If--if you think it best," he said doubtfully. "I know that--that it
+must be painful to you to remain here, that the associations of this
+house----"
+
+"Yes--yes," said Nell, almost impatiently.
+
+"I need not say--indeed, I know that I need not--that no word of--of
+what has occurred this morning will ever pass my lips," he said in a low
+voice.
+
+Nell looked up swiftly.
+
+"Yes. Promise me, promise me on your honor that you will not tell Lady
+Wolfer!" she said.
+
+"I promise," said the earl solemnly.
+
+Nell glanced at the clock and mechanically took up her gloves, which she
+had torn from her hands.
+
+"I will go straight to the station."
+
+"You do not wish to see Ada?" he said, speaking of his wife by her
+Christian name, for the first time in Nell's hearing.
+
+"No," she said, quietly but firmly.
+
+"Perhaps it is best," he murmured. "I will order a carriage for you--you
+will have something to eat?"
+
+"No, no; I will not! The carriage, please! Tell--tell Lady Wolfer that I
+had to go home suddenly. Tell her anything--but the truth."
+
+He inclined his head; then he went to the bureau and took out some
+notes.
+
+"You will let me give you these?" he asked, very humbly and anxiously.
+
+Nell looked at the money with a dull indifference.
+
+"What is owing to me, please. No more," she said.
+
+"If I gave you that, it would leave me beggared," he said gravely.
+"Please give me your purse."
+
+He folded some notes and put them in her purse, and held out his hand.
+
+"You will let me go to the station?" he asked.
+
+"No, no!" said Nell. "I would rather go alone."
+
+"You are not afraid?" he ventured, in a low voice.
+
+Nell was puzzled for a minute; then she understood that he meant afraid
+of Sir Archie. It was the last straw, and she broke down under it; but,
+instead of bursting into tears, she laughed--so wild, so eerie a laugh,
+that Wolfer was alarmed. But the laugh ceased suddenly, and she lowered
+her veil. He held out his hand again, and held hers in a warm and
+grateful grasp.
+
+"God bless you, my dear!" he said. "If you are right, I--I shall owe my
+life's happiness to you!"
+
+Nell went up to her room and told Burden to pack a small hand bag. "I am
+going away for a few days," she said; and though she endeavored to speak
+easily, the maid looked at her anxiously.
+
+"Not bad news, miss, I hope?" she said.
+
+"No; oh, no!" replied Nell.
+
+The earl was waiting for her in the hall, and put her into the brougham;
+and he stood and looked after the carriage with conflicting emotions.
+
+Then he went upstairs, and, after pausing for a moment or two, knocked
+at his wife's door.
+
+"It is I," he said.
+
+He heard her cross the room, and presently she opened the door. She was
+in her dressing robe, and she looked at him as if she were trying to
+keep her surprise from revealing itself in her face.
+
+"May I come in?" he said, his color coming and going. "I--I want to
+speak to you."
+
+She opened the door wide, and he entered and closed it after him.
+
+She moved to the dressing table, and took up a toilet bottle in an
+aimless fashion.
+
+"I have come to tell you that I have to go abroad," he said. He had
+thought out what he would say, but his voice sounded strange and forced,
+and, by reason of his agitation, graver even than usual.
+
+"Yes," she said, with polite interest. "When do you go?"
+
+"To-day--at once," he said. "Can you be ready in time for us to catch
+the afternoon mail?"
+
+She turned her head and looked at him. The sun had come out, and shone
+through the muslin curtains upon her pretty face and soft brown hair.
+
+"I!" she said, surprised and startled. "I! Do you want me to go?"
+
+"Yes," he said.
+
+He stood, his eyes fixed on hers, his brows knit in suspense and
+anxiety.
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+He came a little nearer, but did not stretch out his hands, though he
+longed to do so.
+
+"Because--I want you," he replied.
+
+She looked at him, and something in his eyes, something new, strange,
+and perplexing, made her heart beat fast, and caused the blood to rush
+to her face.
+
+"You--want--me?" she said, in a low voice, which quavered. Its tremor drew
+him to her, and he held out his arms.
+
+"Yes; I have wanted you--I have always wanted you. Ada, forgive me! Come
+to me!"
+
+She half yielded, then she shrank back, her face white, her eyes full of
+remorse and something like fear.
+
+"You--you don't know!" she panted.
+
+"Yes, I know all--enough!" he said. "It was my fault as much--more than
+yours. Forgive me, Ada! Let us forget the past; let us begin our lives
+from to-day--this hour! No, don't speak! It is not necessary to say a
+word. Don't let us look back, but forward--forward! Ada, I love you! I
+have loved you all along, but I was a fool and blind; but my eyes are
+opened, and----Do you care for me? Or is it too late?"
+
+She closed her eyes, and seemed as if about to fall, but he caught her
+in his arms, and, with a sob, she hid her face on his breast, weeping
+passionately.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nell sank into a corner of the luxurious carriage, and stared vacantly
+before her. The reaction had set in, and she felt bewildered and
+confused. She was leaving Wolfer House "under a cloud." For all her life
+one person, at least--Lord Wolfer--would deem her guilty of misconduct.
+She shuddered and closed her eyes. How should she account to mamma for
+her sudden return? Then she tried to console herself, to ease her aching
+heart with the thought of the meeting, the reconciliation of the husband
+and wife. She had not sacrificed herself in vain, not in vain!
+
+What did it matter that the earl deemed her guilty? As she had said, she
+was nobody, a girl for whom no one cared. She was going back to Shorne
+Mills. Well, thank God for that! In six hours she would be home. Home!
+Her heart ached at the word, ached with the longing for rest and peace.
+
+She found that a train did not start until three, and she walked up and
+down the station for some time, trying to forget her unhappiness in the
+bustle and confusion which, even at the end of this nineteenth century,
+make traveling a burden and a trial.
+
+Presently she began to feel faint rather than hungry, and she went into
+the refreshment room and asked for a glass of milk. While she was
+drinking it a gentleman came in. She saw that it was Lord Wolfer, and
+set down the glass and waited. The man seemed totally changed. The
+sternness had disappeared from his face, and his eyes were bright with
+his newly found happiness.
+
+"Why have you come?" she asked dully.
+
+"I had to," he said. "I--I wanted to tell you--you were right--yes, you
+were right! I was blind. We were both blind! We are going abroad
+to-day--together. She has asked for you--almost directly--almost as if
+she--she suspected that you had brought us together! I told her that you
+had been sent for by Sophia. I wish you were not going; I wish you were
+coming with us!"
+
+Nell shook her head wearily; and he nodded. He seemed years younger; and
+his old stiffness had disappeared from his manner, the grave solemnity
+from his voice.
+
+"That is my train," said Nell.
+
+He looked at her wistfully, as if he longed to take her back with him,
+but Nell walked resolutely down the platform, and he put her into a
+first-class compartment. Then he got some papers and magazines, and laid
+them on the seat beside her. It was evident that he did not know how
+sufficiently to express his gratitude.
+
+"Your going is the only alloy to my--our happiness!" he said.
+
+Nell smiled drearily.
+
+"You will soon forget me," she could not help saying.
+
+"Never! Don't think that!" he said. "Have you wired to say that you are
+coming?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"I will do so," he said.
+
+The guard made his last inspection of the carriages, and Wolfer held her
+hand.
+
+"Good-by," he said. "And--and thank you!"
+
+The words were conventional enough, but Nell understood, and was
+comforted.
+
+As the train left the station, the boys from the book stall came along
+with the early edition of the evening papers.
+
+"Paper, miss?" asked one, standing on the step. "Evening paper? Sudden
+death of the Hearl of Hangleford!"
+
+But Nell had no desire for an evening paper, and, shaking her head, sank
+back with a sigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+Beaumont Buildings is scarcely the place one would choose in which to
+spend a summer's day; for, though they reach unto the heavens, they are,
+like most of their kind, somewhat stuffy, the dust of the great city in
+all their nooks and corners, and the noise of the crowded life
+penetrates even to the topmost flat.
+
+The agent, a man of fine imagination and unlimited descriptive powers,
+states that Beaumont Buildings is "situated in a fashionable locality";
+but though Fashion may dwell close at hand, and its carriages sometimes
+roll luxuriously through the street in which the Buildings tower, the
+street is a grimy and rather squalid one, in which most of the houses are
+shops--shops of the cheap and useful kind which cater for the poor.
+
+There is always a noise and a blare in Beaumont Street. The butcher not
+only displays his joints and "block ornaments" outside his shop, but
+proclaims their excellence in stentorian tones; and the grocer and
+fruiterer and fishmonger compete with the costermongers, who stand
+yelling beside their barrows from early morn to late and gaslit night.
+
+The smells of Beaumont Street are innumerable, and like unto the sea
+shells for variety; and the scent of oranges, the pungent odor of fried
+fish, from the shop down the side street, and that vague smell familiar
+to all who dwell in the heart of London, rise and enter the open
+windows.
+
+On the pavement and in the roadway, among the cabs and tradesmen's
+carts, the children play and yell and screech; and at night the song of
+the intoxicated as he rolls homeward, or is conveyed to the nearest cell
+by the guardian of the peace he is breaking, flits across the dreams of
+those in the Buildings who are so unfortunate as to sleep lightly; and
+they are many.
+
+And yet in a small room of a small flat on the fourth floor of this
+Babel of noise and unrest sat Nell.
+
+Eighteen months had passed since she made her sacrifice and left Wolfer
+House. The black dress in which she looked so slight, and against which
+the ivory pallor of her face was accentuated, was worn as mourning for
+Mrs. Lorton; for that estimable lady had genteelly faded away, and Nell
+and Dick were alone in this transitory world.
+
+The sun was pouring through the open window, and Nell had dragged her
+chair into the angle of the wall just out of the reach of the hot beams,
+but still near the window, in the hope of catching something of the
+smoke-laden air which away out in the country must be blowing so fresh
+and sweetly.
+
+As she bent over the coat which she was mending for Dick, she was
+thinking of one place over which that same air was at that moment
+wafting the scent of the sea and the flowers--Shorne Mills; and, as she
+raised her eyes and glanced at the triangular patch of sky which was
+framed by the roofs of the opposite houses, she could see the picture
+she loved quite distinctly, and almost hear--notwithstanding the
+intermezzo banged out by the piano organ in the street below--the songs
+and whistling of the fishermen, and the flap of the sails against the
+masts. Let the noise in and outside the Buildings be as great as it
+might, she could always lose herself in memories of Shorne Mills; and if
+sorrow's crown of sorrow be the remembering of happier days, such
+remembrance is not without its consolation.
+
+When Dick and she had come to the Buildings, two months ago, Nell felt
+as if she should never get used to the crowded place and its
+multitudinous discomforts; but time had rendered life, even amid such
+surroundings, tolerable; and there were moments in which some phase of
+the human comedy always being played around her brought the smile to her
+pale face.
+
+Presently she glanced at the tiny clock on the mantelshelf, and, laying
+the coat aside, put the kettle on the fire, and got ready for tea; for
+Dick would soon be home from the great engineering works on the other
+side of the water, and he liked his tea "to meet him on the stairs."
+
+As she was cutting the bread for the toast there came a knock at the
+door, and in answer to her "Come in!" the door was opened halfway, and a
+head appeared around it.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Lorton. Lorton not in? I thought I heard his
+step," said a man's voice, but one almost as soft as a woman's.
+
+Nell scarcely looked up from her task; the tenants of Beaumont Buildings
+are sociable, and their visits to one another were not limited to the
+fashionable hours. For instance, the borrowing and returning of a
+saucepan or a sewing machine, or some lump sugar, went on all day, and
+sometimes late into the night; and the borrower or lender often granted
+or accepted a loan without stopping the occupation which he or she
+happened to be engaged in at the entrance of the other party.
+
+"Not yet. It is scarcely his time, Mr. Falconer. Is it anything I can
+do?"
+
+The young man came in slowly and with a certain timidity, and stood by
+the mantelshelf, looking down at her as she knelt and toasted the bread.
+He was very thin--painfully so--and very pale. There were shadows round
+his large, dark eyes--the eyes of a man who dreams--and his black hair,
+worn rather long, swept away from a forehead as white as a woman's, but
+with two deep lines between the eyes which told the story of pain
+suffered patiently and in silence.
+
+His hands were long and thin--the hands of a musician--and the one on
+which his chin rested as he leaned against the mantelshelf trembled
+slightly. He had been practicing for three hours. He wore an old, a very
+old black velvet jacket, and trousers bulgy at the knees and frayed at
+the edges; but both were well brushed, and his shirt and collar were
+scrupulously clean, though, like the trousers, they; showed signs of
+wear.
+
+He occupied a room just above the Lortons' flat, and the sound of his
+piano and violin had entered so fully into Nell's daily life that she
+was sometimes conscious of a feeling of uneasiness when it ceased, and
+often caught herself waiting for it to begin again.
+
+"Is it anything I can do?" she asked again, as he remained silent and
+lost in watching her.
+
+"Oh, no!" he said. "I wanted him to help me lift the piano to another
+part of the room. The sun comes right on to it now, and it's hot. I
+tried by myself, but----" He stopped, as if he were ashamed of his
+weakness. "You've no idea how heavy a piano can make itself, especially
+on a hot day."
+
+"He will be in directly, and delighted to help you. Meanwhile, help me
+make the toast, and stop to tea with us."
+
+"I'll help you with the toast," he said. "But I've had my tea, thanks."
+
+It was a falsehood, for he had run out of tea two days before; but he
+was proud as well as poor, which is a mistake.
+
+"Oh, well, you can pretend to drink another cup," said Nell lightly; for
+she knew that the truth was not in his statement.
+
+He stuck a slice of bread on a toasting fork, but did not kneel down
+before the fire for a moment or two.
+
+"Your room faces the same way as mine," he said. "But it always seems
+cooler." His dark eyes wandered round meditatively. Small as the room
+was, it had that air of neatness which indicates the presence of a lady.
+The tea cloth was white, the few ornaments and pictures--brought from
+The Cottage--the small bookcase and wicker-work basket gave a touch of
+refinement, which was wholly wanting in his own sparsely furnished and
+always untidy den. "Coming in here is like--like coming into another
+world. I feel sometimes as if I should like to suggest that you should
+charge sixpence for admission. It would be worth that sum to most of the
+people in the Buildings, as a lesson in the use and beauty of soap and
+water and a duster."
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"I think it is wonderful that they keep their rooms as clean as they do,
+seeing that every time one opens the windows the blacks pour in----"
+
+"Like Zulus into a zareba--if that's what they call it. Yes; no denizen
+of the Buildings would feel strange in Africa, for, whatever the
+weather may be, the blacks are always with us. Should you say that this
+is done on this side?"
+
+He held up the slice on the toasting fork for her inspection.
+
+"Beautifully! Turn it, please."
+
+"I hope to Heaven I shan't drop it! There you are! I knew I should."
+
+"Well, you can keep that one for yourself," said Nell, laughing.
+
+He listened to the laugh, with his head a little on one side.
+
+"I like to hear that," he said, almost to himself, "though, sometimes, I
+wonder how you can do it--you, who must always be longing for the fresh
+air--for the country."
+
+Nell winced.
+
+"What is the use of longing for that which one cannot have?" she said
+lightly, but checking a sigh.
+
+He looked at her quickly, strangely, and a faint dash of color rose to
+his pale face.
+
+"That's true philosophy, at any rate," he said, in a low voice; "but,
+all the same, one can't help longing sometimes."
+
+As he spoke, he stole a glance at the beautiful face; and, in looking,
+forgot the toast, which promptly showed its resentment of his neglect by
+"catching," and filling the apartment with the smell of scorched bread.
+
+"I think that's burning," said Nell.
+
+"And I'm sure of it," he said penitently. "If ever you are in doubt as
+to the statement that man is a useless animal, set me to some simple
+task, Miss Lorton, and I'll prove it beyond question. Never mind, it's
+my slice, and charcoal is extremely wholesome."
+
+"There's another; and do be careful! And how are you getting on?"
+
+He jerked his head toward the sitting room above, where the piano was.
+
+"The cantata? Slowly, slowly," he said thoughtfully. "Sometimes it goes,
+like a two-year-old; at others it drags and creeps along, and more often
+it stops altogether. You haven't heard it lately; perhaps that's the
+reason I'm sticking. I notice that I always get on better and faster
+after you--and Lorton--have been up to mark progress. Perhaps you'll
+come up this evening? It's cruel to ask you, I know, for you must hate
+the sound of my piano and fiddle, just as much as I hate the sound of
+Mrs. Jones spanking Tommy, or the whizzing of the sewing machine of that
+poor girl in the next room. And you must hear them, too--you, who have
+been so used to the quiet of the country, the music of the sea, and the
+humming of bees! Yes, it is harder for you, Miss Lorton, than for any of
+the rest of us; and I often stop in the middle of the cantata and think
+how you must suffer."
+
+"Then don't think of it again," said Nell cheerfully, "for, indeed,
+there is no cause to pity me. At first----" She stopped, and her brows
+knit with the memory of the first few weeks of Beaumont Buildings.
+"Well, at first it was rather--trying; but after a while one gets
+used----"
+
+"Used to the infernal--I beg your pardon--the incessant bangings on a
+piano, and the wailings of Tommy Jones. But you wouldn't complain even
+if you still suffered as keenly as you did when you first came. I know.
+Sometimes I feel that I would give ten years of my life if I could hear
+you say 'Good-by, Mr. Falconer; we are going!' though God knows
+I--we--should all miss you badly enough."
+
+There came a knock at the door--a soft, dull knock, followed by a rattle
+of the handle--and a mite of a boy stood in the opening, inhaling the
+scent of the tea and toast, and gazing wide-eyed at the two occupants of
+the room.
+
+"Please, mother ses will 'oo lend her free lumps o' sugar, Miss 'Orton;
+'cos she've run out."
+
+"Of course I will! And come in, Tommy!" said Nell. "There you are!"
+
+She wrapped half the contents of the sugar basin in a piece of paper and
+gave it him; then, seeing his eyes fixed wistfully on the pile of
+buttered toast, she took a couple of slices, arranged them in sandwich
+fashion, butter side inward, and put them into his chubby and grimy
+fist. "There you are. And, Tommy, you'll be a good boy, and won't eat
+any of the sugar, will you?"
+
+"No; I'll be dood, Miss 'Orton. I'll promise I'll be dood."
+
+"Then there's one lump all to yourself!" she said, sticking it into the
+other fist. "Open the door for him, Mr. Falconer; and don't watch him up
+the stairs; he'll keep his promise," she added, in a low voice, as she
+searched for a comparatively clean spot on Tommy's face on which to kiss
+him.
+
+"Go on--you lucky young beggar!" said Falconer, under his breath, and
+eying Tommy enviously.
+
+"If you've any pity to waste, spend it on the children," said Nell, with
+a sigh. "Oh, what would I give to be a fairy, just for one day, and
+whisk them off to the seaside, into the open fields, anywhere out of
+Beaumont Buildings. Sometimes, when I see the women drive by in their
+carriages, with a lap dog on their knees or stuck up beside them, it
+makes me feel wicked! I want to stick my head out of the window and
+call put: 'Come up here and fetch some of the children for a drive; I'll
+take care of the dog while you're gone!' Dick's late!" she broke off;
+"we'd better begin. Help me wheel the table down to the window."
+
+He attempted to do it by himself, but the color rose to his face and his
+breath came fast, and Nell insisted on bearing a hand.
+
+"That's better!" she said cheerfully, and ignoring the signs of his
+weakness. "You can reach the toast----"
+
+He stood by the window, looking down absently and regaining his breath
+which the effort, slight as it was, had tried.
+
+"There's a brougham stopped at the door," he said. "Doctor, I suppose.
+No, it's a lady--a fashionable lady. Perhaps she's come to take one of
+the children for a drive?"
+
+Nell looked out and uttered an exclamation.
+
+"I--I know her," she said, with some agitation. "I'm afraid she's coming
+here--to see me!"
+
+He moved to the door at once.
+
+"Oh, but stay! Why do you run away?" she exclaimed.
+
+He glanced at his seedy coat with a grave shyness.
+
+"I'll come back if you're mistaken," he said. "Your swell visitor would
+be rather astonished at my appearance; and I'm afraid there isn't time
+to get my frock coat out of pawn."
+
+"Don't go!" begged Nell; but he shook his head and left her; and as she
+heard his step going slowly up the stone stairs, she glanced at the tea,
+and thought pitifully of the meal he was losing; then she stood by the
+table and waited, trying to steady the beating of her heart, to assure
+herself that she had been mistaken; but presently some one knocked, and,
+opening the door, she saw Lady Wolfer standing before her.
+
+Lady Wolfer drew the slight figure to her and kissed her again and
+again.
+
+"You wicked girl!" she said, gazing at her with tender reproach. "Aren't
+you going to let me come in? Why do you stand and look at me with those
+grave eyes of yours, as if you were sorry to see me? Oh, my dear, my
+dear!"
+
+"Yes, come in," said Nell, with something like the sigh of resignation.
+
+Lady Wolfer still held her by the arm, and turned her face to the light.
+There had been a dash of color in it a moment ago, but it had faded, and
+Lady Wolfer's eyes filled with tears as she noticed the thinness and
+pallor of the face.
+
+"Nell, Nell! it is wicked of you! I only knew it last night, when we
+came back. I thought you were at Shorne Mills still! You wrote from
+there--you said nothing about coming to London."
+
+"That was more than two months ago," said Nell, with a grave smile.
+"And--and I said nothing because I knew that you--that Lord
+Wolfer--would want to--to help us. And there was no need--is none."
+
+"No need!" Lady Wolfer looked round the room, listened for a moment to
+the strains of the piano mingling with the squeals of the children in
+the house, the yells of those playing in the street, and scented the
+various odors floating in at the window. "No need! Oh, Nell! isn't it
+wicked to be so stubborn and so proud? And we knew nothing! We thought
+that you had enough----"
+
+"So we have," said Nell. "They have been very good to Dick at the works,
+and he is earning wages, and there--there was some money left--a
+little--but enough."
+
+"Only enough to permit you to live here! In this prison! Nell, you must
+let me take you away----"
+
+Nell shook her head, smiling still, but with that "stubborn" expression
+in her eyes which the other woman remembered.
+
+"And leave Dick!" she said. "No, no! Don't say another word! Call us
+proud and stiff-necked, if you like--we're not, really--but neither Dick
+nor I could take anything from any one while we have enough of our own.
+If we could--if ever we 'run short,' and are in danger of starvation,
+then----But that won't happen. You don't know how clever Dick is, and
+how much they think of him at the works! He'll be in directly, with his
+hands and face all smutty, and famishing for his tea----" She laughed as
+she fetched another cup. "And you've come just in time. Sit down and
+leave off staring at me so reproachfully, and tell me all the news."
+
+"No," said Lady Wolfer. "You tell me; yes, tell me all about it, Nell."
+
+Nell smiled as she poured out the tea--the smile which bravely checks
+the sigh.
+
+"There is not much to tell," she said. "When I got home--to Shorne
+Mills"--should she never be able to speak the words without a pang?--"I
+found mamma unwell, very unwell. She was quite changed----"
+
+"That is why she sent for you, of course," said Lady Wolfer. "Nell, why
+did you go without seeing me, without saying good-by?"
+
+"I had to leave at once," said Nell timidly, and fighting with her
+rising color.
+
+"That day! I shall never forget it," said Lady Wolfer softly, and
+looking straight before her. "Yes, I have something to tell you, dear.
+But go on."
+
+"Mamma was ill; but I was not frightened--not at first. She was always
+an invalid, you know, and I thought that she would get better. But she
+did not; she got weaker every day, and----" The tears came to her eyes,
+and she turned away to the fire for a moment. "Molly and I nursed her.
+Molly was our servant, and like a friend indeed, and the parting with
+her----She did not suffer much, and she was so patient, so changed. She
+was like a child at last; she could not bear me to leave her. I used to
+think that she--she was not very fond of me; but--but all that was
+changed before she died, and she grew to like me as much as she liked
+Dick. He had always been her favorite. To the last she did not think she
+was going to die, and--and--the evening before she went we"--she
+laughed, the laugh so near akin to tears--"we cut out a paper pattern
+for a new dress for her--one of your patterns."
+
+"My poor Nell!" murmured Lady Wolfer.
+
+"Then she died; and the Bardsleys offered Dick a situation--it was very
+kind and unusual, Dick says, and he cannot quite understand it even
+now--and, of course, we had to come to London----"
+
+She stopped, and Lady Wolfer looked round and out of the window.
+
+"No; we had to live in London, to be near the works, you know. We are
+very comfortable and happy."
+
+"My poor Nell!"
+
+"Oh, but don't pity us," said Nell, smiling. "You don't know how jolly
+we are, and how full of amusement our life is. We even go to the theater
+sometimes, and sometimes Dick brings a friend home to tea; and there are
+friends here in the Buildings--one has just left me. And Dick is going
+to be a great man, and rich and famous. Oh, there is not a doubt about
+it. Though Beaumont Buildings are pretty large, we have several castles
+in the air quite as big. And now tell me--about yourself," she broke off
+suddenly, and with a touch of embarrassment. "You are looking very well;
+yes, and younger; and your hair is long; and what a swell you are!"
+
+"Am I?" said Lady Wolfer, in a low voice, and smiling softly. "I am
+glad. Nell, while you have been in such trouble--my poor, dear Nell!--I
+have been so happy. How can I tell you? I feel so ashamed." Her face
+grew crimson, and she looked down as if smitten with shame; then she
+raised her eyes. "It began--my happiness, I mean--the day you left us.
+Do you remember the night before, and--and the wild, wicked words I
+spoke to you?"
+
+Nell nodded slightly, and bent over the tea things.
+
+"I was mad that night--reckless and desperate. I--I thought that my
+husband didn't care for me."
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"Yes; you said I was wrong--that it was all a mistake. How did you know,
+dear? But I did not believe you; and I--I thought--God forgive me!--that
+I owed it to the man who did love me--that other. Nell, I cannot bear to
+speak his name now--now that all is altered! I thought that I was bound
+to go away with him! He had asked me--implored me more than once. I knew
+that he would ask me again, and soon, and--and I should have yielded!"
+
+"No, no!" said Nell, going round to her, and putting her arms round her.
+
+"Yes, ah, yes, I should!" said Lady Wolfer. "I had made up my mind. I
+was reckless and desperate. That very morning I had decided to go,
+whenever he asked me; and that very morning, quite early, while I was
+dressing, my husband came to me, and--Nell, you were right, though even
+now I cannot guess how you knew."
+
+"Spectators see more of the game, dear," said Nell softly.
+
+"And in a moment everything was changed; and I knew the truth--that he
+loved me--had loved me from the first. We had both been blind. But I was
+the worst; for I, being a woman, ought to have seen that his coldness
+was only the screen which his pride erected between his heart and the
+woman whom he thought had only married him for position. We went away
+together that day--our real honeymoon. Forgive me, Nell, if--if I almost
+forgot you! Happiness makes us selfish, dear! But I did not forget you
+for long. And he--Nell, why does he always speak of you as if he owed
+you something----"
+
+She broke off, looking at Nell with a puzzled air.
+
+Nell smiled enigmatically, but said nothing.
+
+"Nell, dear, he bade me bring you back with me."
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"You will not? But you will come and stay with us; you will bring your
+brother? Make your home with us while we are in town, at any rate, dear.
+Ah, don't be stubborn, Nell! Somehow, I feel as if--as if I owed my new
+happiness to you--that's strange, isn't it? But it is so. And you will
+come?"
+
+But Nell was wise in her generation, and remained firm.
+
+"I must stay with Dick," she said. "We are all and all to each other.
+But you shall come and see me sometimes, if you will promise to be good,
+and not try and persuade me into leaving that sphere in which the Fates
+have placed me."
+
+Lady Wolfer sighed.
+
+"You little mule! You always had your own way while you were at Wolfer
+House, and I see you haven't changed. But I give you fair warning, Nell,
+that one day I shall take you at your weakest, and bear you away from
+this--this awful place! It is not fitting that you should be here! Dear,
+don't forget that you are a relation of mine!"
+
+"A poor relation," said Nell, laughing softly. "And, like all poor
+relations, to be kept at a proper distance. Go now, dear; that coachman
+of yours is getting anxious about his horses."
+
+Lady Wolfer pleaded hard, but Nell remained firm.
+
+Her ladyship was welcome to visit at Beaumont Buildings as often as she
+chose, but Beaumont Buildings would keep itself to itself; and, at last,
+her brougham drove away.
+
+It had scarcely turned the corner before Falconer knocked at the
+Lortons' door.
+
+"Gone!" he said.
+
+"Yes, quite gone," said Nell cheerfully, but thoughtfully. "Come and
+have your tea; and I'll have another cup."
+
+He sat down at the table. Tea is a serious meal at Beaumont Buildings,
+and is eaten at the table, not in chairs scattered over the room. But
+Falconer set his cup down at the first sip and pushed his plate away.
+
+"I know the sequel of this comedy," he said.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nell, staring at him.
+
+"Enter swell friend. 'Found at last! Ah, leave this abode of poverty and
+squalor. Come with me!' and the heroine goeth."
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"How foolish you are, Mr. Falconer! The heroine--if you mean me--does
+not 'goeth,' but remains where she is."
+
+"Do you mean it?" he asked, the color rising to his pale face.
+
+"Yes," she said, with a cheerful nod.
+
+"Then pass the toast," he said. "I breathe again, and tea is possible.
+But she wanted you to go? Don't deny it!"
+
+Nell's pale face flushed.
+
+"Yes. She wanted me to go; but I would not. I am going to remain at
+Beaumont Buildings," said Nell resolutely.
+
+As she spoke, the door opened, and Dick entered quickly. His face and
+hands were smudgy, but his eyes were bright in their rings of smoke and
+smut.
+
+"Hallo, Nell; hallo, Falconer!" he cried. "Eaten all the tea? Hope not,
+for I'm famishing. Nell, I've got some news for you--wait till I've
+cleaned myself."
+
+"No, you don't!" said Falconer, catching him by the arm. "What is it?"
+
+"Oh, not much. Only there's a chance of our leaving these beastly
+Buildings. I've got to go down to a place in the country to manage some
+water works, and install the electric light."
+
+Falconer's face fell for a moment, then he smiled cheerfully.
+
+"Congratulations, old fellow!" he said. "When do you go?"
+
+"Oh, in about a fortnight. That's what kept me late. Think of it! The
+country, Nellakins! Jump for joy, but don't upset the tea things!"
+
+"Where is it, Dick?" she asked, as he went to the door.
+
+"At a place called Anglemere. One of the ancestral halls, don't you
+know. 'Historic Castles of England' kind of place."
+
+"Anglemere?" said Nell, wrinkling her brows. "I seem to remember it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+Dick, having "cleaned" and "stoked" himself with tea and toast,
+vouchsafed for further information:
+
+"Anglemere's in Hampshire. It's a tremendous place, so a fellow at the
+works says, who's seen it; one of the show places, you know; 'a
+venerable pile,' with a collection of pictures, and a famous library,
+and all that. Lord Angleford----"
+
+"I remember!" Nell broke in, "I met Lady Angleford at Wolfer House; a
+little woman, and very pretty. She was exceedingly kind to me."
+
+"Sensible as well as pretty," murmured Falconer. He had drawn his chair
+to the window, and was gazing down at the crowded street rather absently
+and sadly. In a fortnight the girl who had brightened his life, who had
+transformed Beaumont Buildings into an earthly paradise for him, would
+be gone!
+
+"Oh!" said Dick. "That would have been the late earl's wife. The present
+one isn't married. He's a young chap--lucky bargee! The late earl died
+about eighteen months ago, suddenly. I heard old Bardsley talking about
+it while I was in the office with him. He's been away traveling----"
+
+"Who--old Bardsley?" asked Nell.
+
+"No, brainless one," said Dick; "the young earl, Lord Angleford. Rather
+a curious sort of customer, I should fancy, for nobody seems to know
+where he has been, or where he is. Left England suddenly--kind of
+disappearance. They couldn't find him in time for the funeral, and he's
+away still; but he's sent orders that this place--the beggar's got
+three or four others in England and elsewhere, I believe--should be put
+in fighting trim--water supply, new stables, electric light--the whole
+bag of tricks. And I--I who speak to you--am going to be a kind of clerk
+of the works. No need to go on your knees to me, Falconer; just simply
+bow respectfully. You will find no alteration in me. I shall be as
+pleasant and affable as ever. No pride in me."
+
+"Thank you--thank you," said Falconer, with exaggerated meekness.
+"But--pardon the curiosity of an humble friend--I don't quite see where
+Miss Lorton comes in."
+
+"Oh, it's this way," said Dick, reaching for his pipe--for your
+engineer, more even than other men, must have his smoke immediately
+after he has stoked: "the place is empty--nobody but caretakers and a
+few servants--and the agent has offered me the use of one of the lodges.
+There is no accommodation at the inn, I understand."
+
+"I see," said Falconer.
+
+"Just so, perspicacious one. It happens to be a tiny-sized lodge, with
+two or three bedrooms. My idea is that Nell and I could take possession
+of the lodge, hire a slavey from the village, and have a good time of
+it."
+
+"Pleasure and business combined," said Falconer. "And it will be nice,
+when the Buildings are as hot as--as a baker's oven, to think of Miss
+Lorton strolling through the woods--there must be woods, of course--or
+sitting with a book beside the stream--for equally, of course, there is
+a stream."
+
+"Get your fiddle and play us a 'Te Deum' for the occasion," said Dick
+suddenly.
+
+When Falconer had left the room, Nell told Dick of Lady Wolfer's visit.
+
+"Oh!" he said, by no means delightedly. "And wants you to go and live
+with her; or offered to make us an allowance, I suppose? At any rate, I
+won't have anything of that kind, Nell," he added, with fraternal
+despotism.
+
+"You need not be afraid. I shall not go--there are reasons----" She
+turned away to hide the sudden blush. "And I am as proud as you, Dick. I
+should like to ask Mr. Falconer to come down to us at this place. He has
+not been looking well lately."
+
+Dick shook his head.
+
+"No, poor beggar! I'm afraid he's in a bad way. Do you hear him cough at
+night? It's worse than he pretends."
+
+"Hush!" said Nell warningly, as the musician reëntered, his violin held
+lovingly under his arm.
+
+Soon the small room was filled with the strains of jubilant music--a "Te
+Deum" of thanksgiving and rejoicing.
+
+"That's for you," he said.
+
+Then suddenly the tune changed to a sad yet delicious melody whose
+sweetness thrilled through Nell, and made her think of Shorne Mills--and
+Drake; and as he played on she turned her face away from him and to the
+open window through which the wailing of the music floated, causing more
+than one of the passers-by in the street beneath to pause and look up with
+wistful eyes.
+
+"And that is for me," said Falconer; "for me--and the rest of us--whom
+you will leave behind. Good night." And with an abrupt nod he left the
+room.
+
+As a rule he played, in his own room, late into the night; but to-night
+the piano and violin were silent, and he sat by the window looking at
+the stars, in each of which he saw the beautiful face of the girl in the
+room below.
+
+"She doesn't even guess it," he murmured. "She will never know that I--I
+love her. And that's all right; for though she wouldn't laugh at the
+love of a pauper with one leg in the grave, she'd pity me, and I
+couldn't stand that. She'd pity me and make herself unhappy over my--my
+folly; and she's unhappy enough as it is. I wonder what it is? As I
+watch her eyes, with that sad, wistful look in them, I feel that I would
+give the world to know, and another world on top of it to be able to
+help her. Sometimes I fancy that the look is a reflection of that in my
+own eyes, and that would mean that she loved some one as I love her. Is
+that the meaning? Is there some one of whom she is always thinking as I
+think of her? The look was in her eyes while I was playing to-night; I
+saw it as I have seen it so often."
+
+He sighed, and hid his face in his long, thin hands.
+
+"They paint love as a chubby, laughing child," he mused bitterly. "They
+should draw him as a cruel, heartless monster, with a scourge instead of
+a toy dart in his hands. If I wrote a love song, it should be the wail
+of a breaking heart. Only two months! It seems as if I had known her for
+years. Was that look always in her eyes? Will it always remain there?
+Oh, God! if I could change it, if I could be the means----Yes; I'd ask
+for nothing more, nothing better, but just to see her happy. They might
+carry my coffin down the stairs as soon as they pleased afterward."
+
+He stretched out his hand for his violin, but drew his hand back.
+
+"Not to-night. They are talking over the brother's slice of luck, and I
+won't break in upon their joy. Good night, my love--who never will be
+mine."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Every evening Dick came home with fresh items of information about the
+work to be done at Anglemere, and Nell began to catch something of the
+excitement of his anticipation.
+
+Sometimes Falconer came down to listen, and he tried to hide the pain
+the prospect of their departure cost him, as now and again he joined in
+the discussion of their plans; but more often he sat gazing out of the
+window, and stealing glances at the beautiful face as it bent over some
+needlework for Dick or herself--more often for Dick.
+
+But one night--it was the night before they were to start--he almost
+betrayed himself.
+
+"To-morrow you will have escaped the piano and violin, Tommy's squeals
+and the yowling of the cats, the manifold charms of Beaumont Buildings,
+and the picturesque cabbages of the costers' barrows, Miss Lorton. I
+wonder whether you will ever come back?"
+
+"Why, of course," said Nell, smiling. "Dick is not going to spend the
+remainder of his life at Anglemere. Oh, yes; we shall be back almost
+before you have missed us, Mr. Falconer."
+
+"Think so?" he said, smiling, too, but with a strange look in his eyes,
+and a tremulous quiver of the thin and too-red lips. "Then you will have
+to be back in a very few minutes after the cab has left the door. No;
+somehow I fancy that Beaumont Buildings is seeing the last of you. Tommy
+must share my dread, for he howled with more than his accustomed
+vehemence when he said 'Good-by' just now."
+
+"That was because you said I ought not to kiss him, because he was so
+dirty," said Nell. "Poor little Tommy! Yes, I think he'll miss me!"
+
+"It's not improbable," he said, in his ironical way. "I wish I were
+seven years old, with a smudgy face and a perpetual sniff. Who knows!
+You might have some pity to spare for me."
+
+Nell laughed with the unconscious heartlessness of the woman who does
+not suspect that the man she is laughing at loves her better than life
+itself.
+
+"Oh, I hope you will miss us, too," she said. "But you will be freer to
+get on with your work. I'm afraid Dick--and I, too!--have often
+interrupted you and interfered with your composing. You must set at the
+cantata while we are away, and have it finished for us to hear when we
+come back. And, Mr. Falconer, you will take care of yourself, won't you?
+You are so careless, you know--about going out in the rain and at night
+without an umbrella or overcoat. I heard you coughing last night."
+
+"Did you?" he said. "I hope I didn't keep you awake! I kept my head
+under the bedclothes as much as I could! Yes, I'll take care, though I
+don't think it matters very much."
+
+Nell looked up at him, startled and rather shocked.
+
+"Why do you say that?" she said reproachfully. "Do you think that
+Dick--and I--wouldn't be sorry if you were ill?"
+
+"Yes," he said, smiling gravely, "you would be sorry. So you would be if
+Tommy got the measles, or the black cat opposite were to slip off the
+tiles and break its neck, or Giles came home sober enough one night to
+kill his wife. There! I've hurt you! I didn't mean to! It's sheer
+cussedness on my part, and I'm an ill-conditioned cur to say a word."
+Then suddenly the smile vanished, and his misery showed itself in his
+dark eyes. "Ah! can't you see what your going means to me--can't you
+see?" He caught his emotion by the throat and checked it. "That--that I
+shall miss you--and Dick; that I shan't have any one to come to with my
+cantata and my cough. There's Dick calling, and good-by. I--I shall be
+out at a music lesson when you start to-morrow."
+
+He held her hand for a moment or two, half raised it slowly, but, with a
+wistful smile and a tightening of his lips, let it fall.
+
+He was not out when they drove away next morning, but his door was
+closed, and he watched them from behind the ragged curtains drawn
+closely over the grimy window. Then, when the cab had rattled away, he
+went out on the landing and found Tommy seated on the stairs, bewailing
+his desertion, with his two chubby, sooty fists kneading his swollen
+eyes.
+
+"Come inside, Tommy," he said. "Let us mingle our tears together. You
+ungrateful young sweep, how dare you cry! She kissed you!"
+
+Nell, of the tender heart, had grown somewhat fond of Beaumont
+Buildings, and she sighed rather wistfully as she looked back at it, and
+thought of the humble friends who would, she knew, miss her; but her
+spirits rose as the train left the tops of the houses and carried Dick
+and her into the fresh air of the great Hampshire downs.
+
+"It seems years, ages, since I saw the country!" she exclaimed. "Dick,
+do you see those sheep? They are white! Think of it! Think of the grimy
+ones in the parks! Couldn't we have a Society for Washing the Poor
+London Sheep, Dick? And look at that farmhouse! Oh, Dick, it isn't
+Devonshire and--and Shorne Mills, but it is the country at last!"
+
+"All right; keep your hair on, young woman," said Dick, looking out of
+the window in a patronizing fashion. "This is all very well; but wait
+until you get to Anglemere. Then you can shout and carry on if you
+like. Old Bardsley--nice old chap when he steps off his perch--says it
+is one of the most delightful 'seats' in England; as if it were a kind
+of armchair! Lucky beggar, this young lord! Nell, I've a kind of feeling
+that I ought to have been the heldest son of an hearl, but that I was
+changed in the cradle, don't you know. I should advise you not to stick
+your head too far out of the window, or one of these tunnels will knock
+it off. A brainless sister I can bear with, but one without any head at
+all would be rather too much."
+
+He was pretty jubilant himself, though, boylike, he tried to play the
+cynic; and when the ramshackle fly drove through the picturesque
+village, and they came in sight of a huge palace of a house which
+gleamed redly through the trees of an English park, and the flyman,
+pointing with his whip, informed them that it was Anglemere, Dick
+emitted a whistle of surprise and admiration.
+
+"I say, that is something like! What signifies the Maltbys' and the
+other places we know, after that?"
+
+But Nell's eyes, after a glance at the great house, were fixed upon the
+lodge at which the fly had stopped.
+
+"Oh, Dick, how pretty!" she exclaimed, her beautiful face radiant with
+delight as she gazed at the ivy-covered little house with its latticed
+windows and Gothic porch.
+
+A young girl--the village slavey Dick had engaged--stood under the porch
+to welcome them, and demurely conducted Nell over the lodge.
+
+They scrambled through a hasty meal, and Dick invited Nell--with a touch
+of importance and dignity which made her smile, to "come up and see the
+house."
+
+They walked up a magnificent avenue, and stood for a moment or two
+looking upon one of the finest specimens of Gothic domestic architecture
+in England.
+
+"Fine, isn't it?" said Dick, with bated breath. "Like a picture in a
+Christmas number, eh, Nell? See the carving along the front, and the
+terrace? And there's the peacock, there, perched behind that stone lion.
+Fancy such a place as this belonging to you, your very own. Yes, Lord
+Angleford's a lucky chap!"
+
+They went up the stone steps to the terrace steps, up which Queen Bess
+had ascended with stately stride, and, crossing the terrace, into the
+hall.
+
+The staircase, broad enough for a coach and four, had sheets of brown
+holland hanging from it, and the pictures, statuary, cabinets, and
+figures in armor were swathed in protecting covers; but enough was
+visible of the magnificence, the antiquity of the grand old hall to
+impress Nell.
+
+Some men were at work, whitewashing and decorating, and they stopped
+their splashing to permit Nell and Dick to go upstairs; and one or two
+of them touched their hats respectfully to the pretty young lady and her
+brother.
+
+The corridors were wide and newly decorated, and lined with priceless
+pictures which Nell longed to linger over; but Dick led her on from one
+room to another; from suites in which the antique furniture had been
+suffered to remain to others furnished with modern luxury.
+
+As they went downstairs again they were met by a dignified old lady who
+introduced herself as the housekeeper; and who, upon being informed that
+Dick was "the gentleman from Bardsley & Bardsley," graciously conducted
+them over the state apartments. Most of us know Anglemere, either from
+having visited it, or from the innumerable photographs of it, but Nell
+had not seen any pictorial representation of it, and its glories broke
+upon her with all the force of freshness. In silent wonder she followed
+the stately dame as she led them from one magnificent room to another,
+remarking with a pleasant kind of condescension:
+
+"This is the great drawing-room. Designed by Onigo Jones. Pictures by
+Watteau. Queen Elizabeth sat in that chair near the antique mantelpiece
+of lapis-lazuli; this chair is never moved. This, the adjoining room, is
+the ballroom. Pictures by Bouchier; notice the painted ceiling, the
+finest in Europe, and costing over twenty thousand pounds. The next room
+is the royal antechamber, so called because James II. used it for
+writing letters while visiting Anglemere. We now pass into the banquet
+hall. Carved oak by Grinling Gibbings. You will remark the lifesized
+figures along the dado. It was here that Charles I., the Martyr, dined
+with his consort, Henrietta. That buffet, large as it is, will not hold
+the service of gold plate. That painted window's said to be the oldest
+of any, not ecclesiastic, in Europe. It is priceless. The pictures round
+the room are by Van Dyck and Carlo Dolci. The one over the mantelpiece
+is a portrait of the seventh Earl of Angleford."
+
+Nell looked up at it. She was half confused by the splendors of the
+place and her efforts to follow the descriptions and explanations of the
+stately housekeeper; but as she raised her eyes to the portrait she was
+conscious of a sensation of surprise. For in some vague way the portrait
+reminded her of Drake. The pictured Angleford wore a ruff, and was
+habited in satin and armor, but the face----
+
+"Come on! What are you staring at?" said Dick, impatiently; and she
+followed the cicerone into another room, and listened to the monotonous
+voice repeating the well-learned lesson.
+
+"We have here the library, the famous Angleford library. There are
+twenty thousand volumes, many of them unique. They are often consulted
+by savants--with the permission of the earl. Many of them are priceless.
+That portrait is Lord Bacon," et cetera, et cetera.
+
+"Let us go," whispered Nell, in Dick's ear. "The greatness of the house
+of Angleford is getting on my nerves! I--I can't help thinking of
+Beaumont Buildings! It is too great a contrast!"
+
+"Shut up!" retorted Dick, who was intensely interested.
+
+Nell went through the remainder of the inspection with a vague feeling
+of dissatisfaction. What right had any one man to such luxury, to such
+splendor, while others were born to penury and suffering?
+
+While she was asking herself this question, the housekeeper had led them
+to the picture gallery, the gallery which artists came from all corners
+of the world to visit.
+
+"Portraits of the earls of Angleford," she said, waving a black-clad,
+condescending arm.
+
+"Is the portrait of the present Earl of Angleford here?" asked Dick,
+with not unnatural interest.
+
+"No, sir. The present earl is not here. You see, it was not thought that
+he would be the earl. That is the late earl. Would you like to see the
+stables? If so, I will call the head coachman----"
+
+But they had seen enough for one day, and, almost in silence, walked
+back to the lodge.
+
+"I wonder whether Lord Angleford knows, realizes, how big a man he is?"
+said Dick, as he smoked his last pipe that night in the sitting room of
+the lodge. "We've seen the house, but we haven't seen the park or the
+estates or the farms, which extend for miles around. Fancy owning all
+this, and a title, a name, which every boy and girl learns about when
+they read their English history!"
+
+"I decline to fancy to realize anything more," said Nell, with a laugh.
+"That old woman's voice rings in my ears, and I feel as if I were
+intoxicated with, overwhelmed by, the grandeur of the Anglefords. I am
+going to bed now, Dick. To bed in a house in the country, with the scent
+of the flowers stealing in at the windows! Oh, think of it! and think
+of--Beaumont Buildings! Dick, would it be possible to obtain the post of
+lodgekeeper to Anglemere House? I envy the meanest laborer on the
+estate. Next to being the earl himself, I think I would like to be
+keeper of one of the lodges, or--or chief of the laundry!"
+
+She went up to her room--a room in which the ceiling was "covered" to
+the shape of the thatched roof.
+
+She was brushing the long tresses of soft, fluffy black hair which
+Drake had loved to kiss, when she heard the sound of a horse trotting up
+the avenue.
+
+She went to the window, and, screened by the curtain, looked out. A full
+moon was shining and flooding the avenue With light.
+
+She waited, looking out absently. The sound came nearer, and suddenly
+the horseman came in sight. Holding the muslin curtain for a screen, she
+still waited and watched for him. Then, with a faint cry--a cry almost
+of terror--she shrank back.
+
+For the man who was riding up the avenue to Anglemere was strangely like
+Drake!
+
+He had passed in an instant; his head was bowed, his face only for a
+moment in the moonlight, and yet--and yet! Was she dreaming--was fancy
+only trifling with her--or was it indeed and in truth Drake himself?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+Nell lay awake for hours, dwelling on the appearance of the horseman who
+had ridden by in the moonlight.
+
+It seemed to her that it was impossible that she, of all persons in the
+world, could be mistaken; and yet how could Drake be here, and why
+should he be riding up the avenue of Anglemere at this time of night?
+
+The sight of him, if it was he, aroused all the love in her heart, which
+needed little, indeed, to arouse it. She had tried to forget him during
+the vicissitudes of the last two years, but she knew that he was still
+enshrined in her heart, that while life lasted she must love him and
+long for him. She endeavored, by thinking of him as betrothed--perhaps
+married--to Lady Luce, as belonging to her, to oust her love for him as
+a sin, as shameful as it was futile; but there was scarcely an hour of
+the day in which her thoughts did not turn to him, and at night she
+awoke from some dream, in which he was the central figure, with an
+aching heart.
+
+Life is but a hollow mockery to the woman, or the man, whose unrequited
+love fills the hours with an unsatisfied longing.
+
+When she awoke in the morning, the likeness to Drake of the man she had
+seen had grown vaguer to her mind, and she persuaded herself that it was
+a likeness only; but her restless night had made her pale and
+preoccupied; but Dick, when he came in to breakfast, was too engrossed
+and excited to notice it.
+
+"I've just been up to the house," he said, as he flung his cap on the sofa
+and lifted the cover from the savory dish of ham and eggs. "By George! we
+shall have to slip into it and look alive! The contractors have had a
+letter from Lady Angleford. It seems the earl's in England, and wants the
+place as soon as possible. The foreman has sent to London for more hands.
+I've wired the Bardsleys, telling them we've got to hurry up. It's always
+the way with these swells; when they want anything, they want it all in a
+minute. Something like ham and eggs! Rather different to the measly rasher
+and the antediluvian eggs from the grocer's opposite. But you don't seem
+to be very keen?" he added, as Nell pushed her plate away and absently
+took a slice of toast. "Miss the good old London air, Nell, or the
+appetizing smells of Beaumont Buildings?"
+
+"I've got a little headache; only a tiny one," said Nell,
+apologetically. "I shall go for a long walk after breakfast, and you
+will see that I shall be all right by lunch."
+
+"Don't talk of lunch to me!" he said. "I shan't have time for it. I
+shall take a hunk of bread and butter in my pocket, and nibble at it for
+a few minutes during the workman's dinner hour; you bet the noble
+British workman won't cut short his precious meal, bless him!"
+
+He was off again as soon as he had swallowed his breakfast, with his
+pipe in his mouth, and a roll of plans and drawings in his hand; and
+Nell, after gazing from the window at the avenue up which the horseman
+had ridden, put on her things and went down to the village, marketing.
+
+It was a picturesque one, and showed every sign of the sleepy prosperity
+which distinguishes a self-respecting English village lucky enough to
+lie outside the gates of such a place as Anglemere.
+
+It was like old Shorne Mills times to Nell, and her spirits rose as she
+walked along with her basket on her arm.
+
+The butcher touched his forehead and smiled with respectful admiration
+as she entered the tiny and scrupulously clean shop.
+
+"You be the young lady from the lodge, miss?" he said, with a pleasant
+kind of welcome. "I heard as you'd come with the electric gentleman. Ah!
+there's going to be grand changes at the Hall, I'm told. Well, miss,
+it's time. Not that I've got aught to say against the old earl, for he
+was a good landlord and a kind-hearted gentleman. But, you see, he
+wasn't here very much--just a month or two in the shooting season, and
+perhaps at Christmas; but we're hoping, here at Anglemere, that the new
+earl will come oftener. It will be a great thing for us, of course,
+miss. But there! you can't expect him to stay for long, he's got so
+many places; and I'm told that some of 'em are finer and grander even
+than the Hall, though it's hard to believe. A piece of steak, miss?
+Certainly; and it's the best I've got you shall have. And about Sunday,
+miss? What 'u'd you say to a leg of mutton--a small leg, seem' that
+there's only two of you?"
+
+"That will do," said Nell.
+
+"Yes, miss. Perhaps you'd like to see it? It's in the meadow there--the
+sheep near the hedge."
+
+The butcher grew radiant at the sweet, low-toned laugh with which Nell
+received this practical suggestion.
+
+"I am afraid I shouldn't be able to judge it through that thick fleece,"
+she said. "But I am more than willing to trust you, thank you."
+
+"Thank you, miss," he said, as he cut the steak with critical care. "I'm
+told that Lord Angleford's in England, and is coming to the Hall sooner
+than was expected. And that's good news for all of us. Fine gentleman,
+the earl, miss! A regular credit to the country that bred him. I've
+knowed him since he was a boy, for, of course, he used to stay here in
+his holidays, and durin' the shootin' and Christmas. A great favorite of
+his uncle's, the old earl, miss, and no wonder, for there wasn't a more
+promising young gentleman among the aristocracy. Always so pleasant and
+frank spoken, and not a bit of side about him. It 'u'd be, 'Hallo,
+Wicks'--which was me, miss--'how are you? And how's the brindle pup?'
+And he'd take his hat off to the missus just as if she was one of his
+grand lady friends."
+
+Nell moved toward the open door, but Mr. Wicks followed her as if loath
+to let her go.
+
+"Rare cut up we was, miss, when we heard that him and the old earl had
+quarreled and the old gentleman had gone and got married, which was just
+like the Anglefords--always so hotheaded and flyaway. Yes, it was a
+cruel blow to Lord Selbie, or so it seemed; but it all turned out right,
+seeing that there wasn't a heir born to cut him out. Not that any of us
+had a word to say about the lady the old earl married. As nice and as
+pretty--begging her pardon--a little lady, though a foreigner, as ever
+you met. Yes, it's all right, and our young gentleman as we was all so
+fond of is coming into his own, as the saying is. Yes, miss, it shall be
+sent up at once, certainly. And good day to you, miss!"
+
+Wherever she went, Nell found the people rejoicing at the coming advent
+of the new lord, who was anything but new to most of them, who, like
+Wicks, knew and were attached to him. Before she had finished her
+shopping, Nell found herself quite interested in the new master of
+Anglemere, and wondered whether she should see him and what he would be
+like. By the time she had got back to the lodge, her headache had gone,
+and she was singing to herself as she arranged some flowers she had
+picked on her way through the woods.
+
+In the afternoon, she went for a long walk; but, long as it was, it did
+not by any means take her out of the domains of the Earl of Angleford,
+which stretched away for miles round the great house. She saw farms
+dotted here and there on the hillsides, and looking prosperous with
+their cattle and sheep feeding in the fields, and the corn waving like a
+green sea on the slopes of the hills. There were large plantations, in
+which she disturbed the game; and parklike spaces, in which colts
+frisked beside the brood mares, for which Anglemere was famous all the
+world over.
+
+Everything spoke in an eloquent and emphatic way of wealth, and Nell
+sighed and grew rather pensive, now and again, as she thought of the
+denizens of Beaumont Buildings, and the grinding poverty in which their
+lives were spent. But that was like Nell--tender-hearted Nell of Shorne
+Mills.
+
+Dick came home to dinner, tired, and approved of the steak, which, he
+declared, beat even the ham and eggs.
+
+"We're getting on first-rate," he said, in answer to Nell's inquiry;
+"and I'm afraid we shan't make a very long stay here. I'd hoped that
+this job would spin out for--oh, ever so long; but it will have to be
+pushed through in a few weeks. They're waking up at the house like mad.
+Money makes the mare go! And there's no end to the money this young lord
+has got. But, from all I hear, he's a decent sort----"
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Please don't you begin to sing his praises, Dick," she said. "I've
+heard a general chorus of laudations all the morning, and I think I am
+just a wee bit tired of my Lord of Angleford! Though I'm very grateful
+to him for this change! I wish we could turn lodgekeepers, Dick! Fancy
+living here always!"
+
+They were seated in the porch--Dick smoking away furiously--and she
+gazed wistfully at the greensward, and the trunks of the great elms
+glowing like copper in the rays of the setting sun.
+
+"And, oh, Dick!" she cried, "if only Mr. Falconer could be here! How he
+would enjoy it! He's always talking of the country, and how much good it
+would do him!"
+
+"Poor beggar--yes!" said Dick, with a nod of sympathy. "I say, Nell, why
+shouldn't we ask him to pay us a visit?"
+
+Nell grew radiant at the suggestion; then looked doubtful.
+
+"But may we?" she asked. "This isn't our lodge, Dick; though I have
+begun to feel as if it were."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Dick emphatically. "The agent placed it absolutely at
+our disposal. A nice state of things if we couldn't ask a friend! Have
+Britons--especially engineers--become slaves? I pause for a reply. No?
+Good! Then I'll write him a line that will fetch him down--with his
+fiddle! What a pity we haven't got a piano!"
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Yes, we could put it in the sitting room, and look at it through the
+window; for there certainly wouldn't be room inside for it and us
+together!"
+
+Dick wrote the next day, and Falconer walked up and down his bare and
+narrow room, with the letter in his hand, his thin face flushing and
+then paling with longing and doubt. To be in the country, in the same
+house with her! And yet--would it not be wiser to refuse? His love grew
+large enough when it was only fed on memory; it would grow beyond
+restraint in such close companionship. Better to refuse and remain where
+he was than to go near her, and so increase the store of agony which the
+final parting would bring him. And so, after the manner of weak man, he
+sat down and wrote a line, accepting.
+
+Dick stole half an hour to go with Nell to meet him at the station, and
+Dick's hearty greeting and Nell's smile brought the blood to his face
+and made the thin hand he gave them tremble.
+
+"The fact is, we couldn't get on without the violin--brought it? That's
+all right. Because if you hadn't, you'd be sent back for it, young man.
+Pretty country, isn't it? All belongs to our young swell. I say 'our,'
+because we feel as if we'd got a kind of share in him, as if he belonged
+to us. You'll hear nothing but 'Lord Angleford,' 'the earl,' all day
+long here; and you'll speedily come to our conviction, that the earth,
+or this particular corner of it, with all that it contains, man, woman,
+and child, birds, beasts, and fishes, was made for his lordship's
+special behoof. Nice little place--kind of fishing box, isn't it?" he
+said, nodding to the vast pile as it came in sight. "That's where I
+spend my laborious days, putting on water for his lordship to drink and
+wash with, and setting up electric light for his lordship to shave
+himself by, though I suppose his lordship's valet does that. And what
+price the lodge? For this is our residence pro tem."
+
+Falconer was almost speechless with delight and happiness; his dark eyes
+glowed with a steady light, which grew brighter and deeper whenever they
+rested on Nell's beautiful face.
+
+His obvious happiness reflected itself on her mood, and it was a merry
+trio which sat down to the simple dinner, that, simple as it was, seemed
+luxurious to the fare which he had left behind at Beaumont Buildings.
+
+After dinner he got out his violin and played for them.
+
+Dick sprawled on the sofa, and Nell leaned back in her cozy chair with
+some useful and necessary darning, and--with unconscious
+cruelty--thought of Drake and Shorne Mills, as the exquisite strains
+filled the tiny room.
+
+Some of the workmen, as they tramped by from their overtime, paused to
+listen, and nodded to each other approvingly, and carried the news to
+the village that "a swell musician fellow" was on a visit at the lodge;
+and the next day, when Nell walked through the village, with Falconer by
+her side, carrying her basket, the good folk eyed his pale face and long
+hair with awed curiosity and interest, and then, when the couple had
+passed, exchanged winks and significant smiles, none of which Nell saw,
+or, if she had seen, would, in her unconsciousness, have understood. For
+it never occurs to the woman whose whole being is absorbed in love for
+one man, that any other man may be in love with her. So Nell was
+placidly happy in the musician's happiness, and never guessed that the
+music he played for her delight was but the expression of the longing of
+his heart, and that when she was not looking, his dark eyes dwelt upon
+her with a sad and wistful tenderness, which was all the more tender
+because of its hopelessness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Now, while all Anglemere talked of its lord and master, it had no
+suspicion that he was near at hand.
+
+Two days before Nell and Dick had arrived at the lodge, the _Seagull_
+sailed, with all the grace and ease of its namesake, into Southampton
+water, with my Lord of Angleford on board.
+
+Drake leaned against the rail and looked with grave face and preoccupied
+air at his native land. Two years had passed since he had last seen it,
+and they had scored their log upon his face. It was handsome still, but
+the temples were flecked with gray, and there were certain lines on the
+forehead and about the mouth which are graven by other hands than
+Time's.
+
+It was the face of one who lived in the past, and could find no pleasure
+in the present; and the expression in his eyes was that of the man to
+whom the gods have given everything but the one thing his heart desired.
+
+As he leaned against the side, with his hands in his pockets, his yacht
+cap tilted over his eyes, he pondered on the vanity of human wishes.
+
+Here he was, the Earl of Anglemere, owner of an historic title, the
+master of all the Angleford estates and wealth. Almost every man who
+heard his name envied him--some doubtless hated him--because of his
+wealth and rank. And yet he would have given it all if by so doing he
+could have been the "Drake Vernon" who had been loved by a certain Nell
+Lorton; and as he looked at the blue water, rippling in the sunlight
+round the stately yacht, his thoughts went back sadly to the _Annie
+Laurie_ and its girl owner, and he sighed heavily.
+
+He had intended to be absent from England for some years--perhaps
+forever, and even when the cable informing him of his uncle's death and
+his own succession to the title had reached him, he had clung to his
+resolution of remaining abroad, for when the news got to him his uncle
+had been long buried, and there seemed to him no need of his return. It
+was easier to forget, or to persuade himself that he forgot, Nell, while
+he was sailing from port to port, or shooting big game in the wild and
+desolate places of the earth, than it would be in England. If Nell had
+still been pledged to him, how differently he would have received this
+gift which the gods had bestowed on him! To have been able to go to her
+and say: "Nell, you will be the Countess of Angleford; take my hand, and
+let me show you the inheritance you will share with me!" That would have
+been a happiness which would have doubled and trebled the value of his
+title and estates. But now! Nell was no longer his; he had lost her,
+and, having lost her, all the good things which had fallen to him were
+of as little value as a Rubens to the blind, or a nocturne of Chopin to
+the deaf.
+
+When the lawyers worried him he sent curt and evasive replies, telling
+them in so many words to do the best they could without him, and when
+Lady Angleford wrote, begging him to return and take up his duties, he
+answered with condolences on her loss, and vague assurances that he
+would be back--some time. Then she wrote again; the kind of letter a
+clever woman can write; the letter which, for all its gentleness, stings
+and irritates:
+
+"Much as you may dislike it, much as it may interfere with your love of
+wandering, the fact remains that you are the Earl of Angleford, my dear
+Drake. And the Earl of Angleford has higher duties than ordinary men.
+The lawyers want you, the estate want you, the people--do you think they
+do not want you? And, most of all, I think, I want you. Do you remember
+our first meeting? It was thought that I had come between you and yours;
+but the fact that I have not done so, the consolation I find in the
+thought, is made of no avail by your absence. You are too good a fellow
+to inflict pain upon a lonely and sorrow-stricken woman, Drake. Come
+back and take your place among your peers and your people. Sometimes I
+think there must be some reason, some mysterious cause, for your
+prolonged absence, your reluctance to take up the duties and
+responsibilities of the position which has fallen to you; but if there
+should be, I beg of you to forget it, to set it aside. You are, you
+cannot help being, the Earl of Angleford. Come and play your part like a
+man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was the kind of letter which few men, certainly not Drake, could
+resist. Wondering bitterly whether she guessed at the reason, the cause
+of his reluctance to return to England, to take up the purple and ermine
+which had fallen from her husband's shoulders, he wrote a short note
+saying that he would "come back." In a second letter he asked her to get
+Angleford ready for him, not dreaming that she would take his request as
+a carte blanche, and turn the old place inside out and make it fit, as
+she considered fitness, for its new lord and master.
+
+As the _Seagull_ glided to her moorings, his expression grew harder and
+sterner. He was a man of the world, and he knew what would be expected
+of him. An earl, the owner of an historic title and vast estates, has a
+paramount duty--that of providing an heir to his title and lands.
+
+Now that he had come back, he would be expected, would be hustled and
+goaded into marrying. Marrying! He swore under his breath, and began to
+pace up and down restlessly, so that Mr. Murphy, the yacht's master,
+thinking that his lordship was in a hurry to land, bustled the crew a
+bit. But when the dingy was lowered and the man-o'-warlike sailors were
+in their places, their lord and master lingered, for he was loath to
+leave the _Seagull_. How many nights had he paced her deck, thinking of
+Nell, calling up the vision of the clear, oval face, the soft, dark
+hair, the eyes that had grown violet-hued as they turned lovingly to
+him. That vision had sailed with him through many a stormy and sunlit
+sea, and he was loath to part with it. On shore, there he would have to
+plunge into his "duties," would have to sign leases, and read deeds, and
+listen to stewards and agents. There would be little time to think, to
+dream of Nell.
+
+The dinghy took him ashore, and he put up at the large and crowded
+hotel, and spent the evening wishing that he was on the _Seagull_. The
+next day it occurred to him that he was within a ride of Anglemere, and
+he procured a horse and rode out to it. He had very little desire to see
+the chief of his "places," and when he had ridden up to the terrace he
+turned his horse down a side road and regained his hotel, little
+thinking that he had passed the window of Nell's room, that her eyes had
+rested upon him.
+
+The sight of the old place had awakened memories which saddened him. He
+had played on that terrace, on the lawn beneath, when a boy. Even as a
+boy he had learned to regard Anglemere as his future home; and he had
+been, in a childish way, proud of the fact. It was his now--and what
+little pride and pleasure could be found in its possession! If
+Nell----With something like an oath he dragged himself up the grandiose
+stairs of the hotel, and went to bed.
+
+In the morning the mate of the yacht brought him a letter from Lady
+Angleford. It said that she had heard that he had arrived at
+Southampton, and that she hoped he would go on to Anglemere and see and
+approve of the alterations and improvements she was attempting, and that
+he would "go into residence" in three weeks' time, as she had asked a
+housewarming party to welcome him.
+
+Drake stared at the letter moodily, and wished himself among the big
+game in Africa, or salmon fishing in Norway; but he felt that Lady
+Angleford was trying to do her duty by him, and knew that he ought to
+follow suit.
+
+He gravitated between the hotel and his yacht for a few days, his face
+growing sterner and more moody each day, then he rode out to Anglemere
+again.
+
+It was a lovely afternoon, and, if he had not been haunted by the vision
+of Nell, Drake would have reveled in the blue sky, the soft breeze, the
+singing of the birds, and the scent of the flowers; but all these
+recalled Nell and Shorne Mills, and only made the aching of his heart
+more acute.
+
+He wondered, as he rode along the well-kept roads, whether she was still
+at Shorne Mills; whether she had forgotten him, whether she was married.
+At the last thought, the blood rushed to his head, and he jerked the
+reins so that the good horse broke into a gallop which carried Drake to
+the southern lodge, where--if he could but have known it!--dwelt Nell
+herself!
+
+The gates were open, and he rode through; but as he passed the lodge,
+the sound of a violin played by a master hand smote upon his ear. He
+pulled the horse into a walk, and approached the house in a dream.
+
+Workmen were all over the place, and he stared about him like a
+stranger; and they eyed him with half-indifferent, half-curious
+scrutiny. He got off his horse and walked up the stone steps of the
+terrace into the hall. Here the foreman of the firm of decorators
+approached him.
+
+"Do you want to see any one, sir?" he asked.
+
+"No," said Drake diplomatically. He was reluctant to announce himself.
+"You are making some alterations?" he said.
+
+"Rather, sir," assented the foreman, with a self-satisfied smile. "We're
+just turning the old place inside out. For the new lord, you know."
+
+"I see," said Drake.
+
+He knew that he ought to have said: "I am the new lord--I am Lord
+Angleford." But he shrank from it. The whole thing, the transformation
+of the old place, though he knew it was necessary, was distasteful to
+him.
+
+"What is that?" and he nodded toward a cluster of small globes in the
+center of the hall.
+
+"Oh, that! That's the electric light," said the man. "There's going to
+be electric lights all over the house. Wait a minute, and I'll turn some
+of it on; though perhaps I'd better not, for the gentleman who manages
+it is away to-day. He's gone to Southampton to see after some things
+which ought to have come this morning."
+
+"Don't trouble," said Drake absently.
+
+"Well, perhaps I'd better not," said the man. "He mightn't like it. He's
+the gent that lives in the lodge."
+
+"In the lodge!" said Drake. "The south lodge?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"He plays the violin?" said Drake.
+
+The man grinned.
+
+"No, no! That's his friend. He's a musician--the gentleman his sister is
+engaged to."
+
+Drake got on his horse and rode away, leaving the park by the east
+lodge.
+
+The three weeks slipped away, and the day for the great gathering at
+Anglemere was near at hand. By dint of working day and night, the
+contractors had succeeded in getting the house finished in time; and
+Lady Angleford, who had come down, with an army of servants, at the
+week's end, expressed her approval and her astonishment that so much
+should have been effected in so short a time.
+
+The lord and master was not to arrive until the evening of the
+twenty-first, the date of the ball, and most of the house party had
+reached Anglemere before him. He had pleaded urgent business as an
+excuse for not putting in an appearance earlier; but, beyond seeing his
+lawyers and listening to their complaints at his absence, he had done
+very little business, and had been cruising in the Solent to while away
+the interval.
+
+The villagers wanted to "receive" him at the station, and talked of a
+"welcome" arch; but no one could find out at what hour to expect him;
+and Lady Angleford, who, with native quickness, had learned a great
+deal of his character in her short acquaintance with him, and was quite
+aware that he disliked fuss of any kind, had discouraged the idea.
+
+The dogcart was sent to the station to meet the six-o'clock train, on
+chance, and he arrived by it, and was driven home, cheered by a few
+groups of the villagers who had hung about in the hope of seeing him.
+
+Lady Angleford met him in the hall, and they went at once to the
+library.
+
+"I can't tell you how glad I am that you have come, Drake--I suppose I
+may call you Drake?" she said, holding out her hand again to him.
+
+"You shall call me by any name that pleases you," he said, smiling at
+her, and speaking very gently, for she was still in mourning, and looked
+very fragile and petite.
+
+"Thanks. And yet I am not a little nervous. I don't know how you'll
+quite take the alterations I have made, whether you will think I have
+been too presumptuous. I shall watch your face with an anxious eye when
+I take you over the place presently."
+
+"My only feeling is one of intense gratitude," he said; "and I can't
+express my thanks and surprise that you should have taken so much
+trouble. I had an idea that the place was all right, that what was good
+enough for my uncle----"
+
+She winced slightly, but smiled bravely.
+
+"No, Drake; he was an old man, and came here but seldom; you are young,
+and, I hope, will spend a great deal of time here. After all, it is your
+real English home."
+
+He nodded, but not very assentingly.
+
+"I don't know," he said, rather moodily. "I am rather a restless mortal,
+and find it difficult to settle in any one place."
+
+"Have you been well?" she asked, as she saw his face plainly, for he had
+turned to the window.
+
+"Oh, yes; quite," he replied.
+
+She looked at him rather doubtfully.
+
+"You are thinner, and----"
+
+"Older," he said, with a smile.
+
+"I was not going to say that; but I was going to say that you looked as
+if you had not been sparing yourself lately."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I had rather a rough time of it in Africa--and a touch of fever. It
+always leaves its mark, you know."
+
+She nodded as if she accepted the explanation; but she was not
+satisfied. A touch of fever does not leave behind the expression of
+weariness which brooded in his eyes.
+
+"If you are not too tired, will you come round with me?" she said.
+"There's an opportunity now, for all the people are out riding or
+driving, and we shall be more free than we shall be when they come
+bustling in."
+
+"Certainly," he said, opening the door for her. "I suppose you have
+filled the house? Is it a large party?"
+
+"I am afraid it is," she said, apologetically; "but the house is not
+quite full, for some of the people who are coming to the dance to-morrow
+will have to stay the night. By the way, I asked you if there was any
+one to whom you would like me to send a card, but you did not reply."
+
+"Didn't I? I humbly beg your pardon, countess! No, there was no one."
+
+He looked round the hall admiringly.
+
+"You have done wonders!" he said; "and in such a short time! I rode over
+here from the hotel the other day, and imagined they would take at least
+a month to finish. And is that the old drawing-room? Can it be possible!
+It is charming! Ah, you have left the dining room untouched--that's
+right."
+
+Lady Angleford laughed.
+
+"There is not an inch of it that has not been touched; but with reverent
+hands, I hope. It is upstairs that we have done most. The bedrooms, you
+will admit, wanted thorough renovating."
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, as he walked beside her. "It's all perfect. It must
+have cost a great deal of money."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Oh, yes; but it does not matter, you know."
+
+He glanced at her questioningly.
+
+"It really does not," she said. "Have you any idea how rich you are,
+Drake?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'm ashamed to say that I don't quite know how I stand. The lawyers
+jawed about it the other day, and I did fully manage to understand that
+my uncle had left me everything. Was that fair, countess?" he added
+gravely.
+
+"Yes," she replied simply. "He wanted to leave me all he could; but I
+would not let him. You know that I have enough, and much more than
+enough, of my own. So why should he leave me any more?"
+
+Drake took her hand, and kissed it gratefully.
+
+"You have been very good to me," he said, in a low voice. "Better than I
+have any right to expect, or deserve."
+
+"No," she said. "And there is no need of gratitude. I wanted to
+atone----No, that's not the right word. I wanted to make up to you for
+the trouble I had, all unconsciously, caused between you and him.
+And--there was another reason, Drake. Don't get conceited; but I took a
+fancy to my nephew the first time I saw him." She laughed softly. "And
+just at present I have no other object in life than the attempt to make
+him happy."
+
+Drake suppressed a sigh.
+
+Happy? Oh, Nell, Nell! How vain and foolish all this splendor, now he
+had lost her!
+
+"So you turned my rambling old place into a palace? Well, it was a
+substantial attempt, and if I am not happy, I shall be the most mulish
+and ungrateful of men. The place is perfect; it lacks nothing, I should
+say," he added, as they descended to the hall again.
+
+"Only a mistress," thought Lady Angleford; but she was too wise to say
+so.
+
+"You haven't told me who is here," he said, as he watched her pour out
+the tea which had been laid in a windowed recess from which was an
+exquisite view of the lawns and the park beyond.
+
+"Oh, a host of your friends," she said. "Do you like sugar, Drake? Fancy
+an aunt having to ask her nephew that! I shall get used to all your fads
+and fancies presently. There are the Northgates, and the Beeches, and
+old Lord Balfreed"--she ran through the list, and he listened absently
+until she came to--"and the Turfleighs."
+
+"The Turfleighs?" he said, with something that was almost a frown; and,
+seeing it, the countess noticed how stern his face had become.
+
+"Yes. Lady Luce and her father will arrive to-morrow, just in time for
+the dance. They are staying at a place near here--the Wolfers'. You
+remember them? They are coming with her, of course."
+
+"Quite a gathering of the clans," he said, as brightly as he could. "It
+is a long time since Anglemere had such a beau fête. Who is that?" he
+broke off to inquire. "One of the guests?"
+
+Lady Angleford looked out of the window.
+
+"I am so near-sighted----"
+
+"A tall, thin man, with long hair," he said. "He has just gone round the
+corner toward the lodge."
+
+"That must be the man who is staying at the south lodge," she said. "His
+name is Falconer, and he is a musician."
+
+"A musician staying at the south lodge?" said Drake, with surprise. "Ah,
+yes! I remember hearing the violin, as I passed the other day."
+
+"Yes," said Lady Angleford. "The young fellow the engineers sent down is
+staying at the lodge with his sister and their friend, this Mr.
+Falconer. They were to have gone yesterday, when the work was completed;
+but I thought they had better stay a few days, until after the dance, at
+any rate, in case anything should go wrong with the electric light. It
+is such a nuisance if they happen to pop out all of a sudden; and they
+generally do when there is something on. You don't mind their being
+here?"
+
+He smiled.
+
+"Why should I? It was a good idea to keep him. I suppose there is to be
+a resident engineer?"
+
+"Yes; I suppose so. It would not be a bad idea to keep this young
+fellow, for I'm told that he has done the work very well. I've not seen
+him or his sister. I hear that she is an extremely pretty girl, and very
+ladylike, and I meant calling at the lodge and asking if they were
+comfortable; but I have been so busy."
+
+"I can quite understand that," he said. "I only hope you will not have
+tired yourself out for to-morrow night."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I am not easily tired; and I'm tough, though I'm small," she retorted,
+with her pretty twang. "By the way, speaking of to-morrow night. I
+wonder whether this Mr. Falconer would come up and play----"
+
+She hesitated, and looked at him doubtfully.
+
+Drake smiled.
+
+"You think he may be some swell musician?" he said. "Too swell to play
+for money? It's likely."
+
+"No, it wasn't that; I was thinking that I could scarcely ask him
+without asking the girl. He's engaged to her, I'm told."
+
+"That's one of those problems which a man is quite unqualified to
+solve," he said indifferently.
+
+"Well, I'll ask them, and chance it. Oh, here are some of the carriages.
+Would you like to run away, or will you----"
+
+But he went to the front to meet and greet his guests.
+
+A couple of hours later, while the trio at the lodge were at supper, the
+servant brought in two notes.
+
+"One for me, and one for you, Mr. Falconer. And from the house! Do you
+see the coronet on the envelope? I wonder what it is? Perhaps a polite
+intimation that we are to clear out!" said Nell.
+
+"Or an equally polite request that we will keep off the grass," said
+Dick. "Do you know how to find out what's in that envelope, Nell?"
+
+"No," she said, holding it up to the light.
+
+"By opening it, my brainless one!"
+
+"Mr. Falconer, you are nearer him than I am; will you oblige me by
+kicking him? Oh, Dick! It's an invitation to the dance to-morrow--for
+you and me."
+
+"And for me," said Falconer. "And will I be so very kind as to bring my
+violin?"
+
+"Very kind of 'em," said Dick. "I should like it very much," as he
+lifted his tankard, "but there won't be any dancing for me to-morrow
+night, unless I indulge in a hornpipe in the engine room. I'm going to
+stick there on guard right away from the beginning to the end of the
+hop. I should never forgive myself if anything went wrong with those
+blessed lights. But you and Falconer can go and foot it to your heart's
+content."
+
+"Quite impossible," said Nell emphatically. "I haven't a dress. So that
+settles me. Besides, Mrs. Hawksley, the housekeeper, has been kind
+enough to ask me to go into the gallery and look on, and I accepted
+gratefully."
+
+"Among the servants?" said Dick, rather dubiously.
+
+"Why not?" said Nell, stoutly. "I don't in the least mind. I shall enjoy
+looking down--for the first time in my life--upon Mr. Falconer."
+
+Falconer smiled and shook his head.
+
+"I haven't a dress suit, and I can't dance, Miss Lorton; and if I had
+and could, I shouldn't go without you. But I'd like to go and play. I
+owe these people a heavy debt for permitting me, through you, to spend
+the happiest days of my life--yes, I'll go and play. They won't mind my
+old velvet jacket, I'm sure."
+
+"Quite the correct thing, my boy," said Dick. "You look no end of a
+musical swell in it; a Paderewski and Sarasati rolled into one. And to
+tell you the truth, I'm relieved to think you're disposed of; for I was
+afraid you'd offer to keep me company in the engine room; and the last
+time you were there you very nearly got mixed up with the engines and
+turned into sausage meat."
+
+Nell was looking at her envelope.
+
+"Lady Angleford addresses me as Miss 'Norton,'" she said, with a smile.
+"I wonder if she would know me if she saw me. Very likely not."
+
+"The right honorable the earl arrived this afternoon, I'm told," said
+Dick. "'I very nearly missed missing him,' as the Irishman said. He'd
+gone into the house just before I came out. There's to be a fine kick-up
+to-morrow night. Not sure that I shan't come up to the gallery for a
+minute or two, after all; only the conviction that the beastly lights
+will know that I am gone and all go out, will prevent me."
+
+On the following evening Dick and Falconer went up to the house before
+Nell, Dick wanting to be present at the lighting up, and Falconer being
+desirous of ascertaining exactly where he "came in" with his violin; and
+Nell, having donned her best dress, went round to the housekeeper's
+room. She had found Mrs. Hawksley "partaking" of a cup of tea, in which
+Nell was easily induced to join, and Mrs. Hawksley chatted in the
+stately way which thinly hid a wealth of motherly kindness.
+
+"I am so glad you have come, Miss Lorton; for it will be a grand sight,
+the like of which you have probably not seen, and may not see again."
+
+And Nell nodded, suppressing a smile as she thought of her short sojourn
+in the world of fashion.
+
+"Some of the dresses, the maids tell me, are magnificent; and the
+jewels! But, there; none of them can be finer than the Angleford
+diamonds. I do hope the countess will wear them, though it's doubtful,
+seeing that her ladyship's still in mourning. You say you've seen the
+countess, Miss Lorton? A sweet-looking lady. It's quite touching to see
+her ladyship and his lordship together, she so young, and his aunt, too!
+You haven't seen the earl yet, have you?"
+
+"No; tell me what he is like, Mrs. Hawksley," said Nell, knowing how
+delighted the old lady would be to comply.
+
+"Well, Miss Lorton, though I suppose I shouldn't, seeing he kind of
+belongs to us, I must say that his lordship will be the handsomest and
+finest gentleman in the room to-night, let who will be coming. Not but
+what he's changed. It gave me quite a turn--as the maids say," she
+picked herself up apologetically--"when he came right into this very
+room, with his hand stretched out, and his 'Well, Mrs. Hawksley, and how
+are you, after this long time?'"
+
+"Because he was so friendly?" asked Nell innocently.
+
+The old lady drew herself up.
+
+"No, Miss Lorton. The Anglefords were always friendly to their old
+servants, because they know that we shouldn't take advantage of it and
+forget our proper places. No, but because he was so changed. He used to
+be so bright and--and boyish, as one may say, with all respect; but now
+he's as grave as grave can be--almost stern-looking, so to speak--and
+there's gray hairs at his temples, and he's a way of looking beyond you
+in a sad sort of fashion. His lordship's had some trouble, I know. I
+said so to his man, but he wouldn't say anything. He hasn't been with
+the earl for some time, and mightn't know----There's the music; and,
+hark; I can hear them moving into the ballroom. We'd better be going up
+to the gallery; and I do hope you will enjoy yourself, Miss Lorton."
+
+Nell followed the old lady into the small gallery, where some chairs had
+been placed for the servants, behind the musicians. She saw Falconer in
+front, his whole soul absorbed in his business; but he turned his eyes
+as she entered, and smiled for a moment.
+
+"Can you see?" asked Mrs. Hawksley. "Go a little nearer to the front.
+Make room for Miss Lorton, please."
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"I can see very well," she said, also in a whisper, for she did not want
+to be seen.
+
+She craned forward and looked down on the brilliant, glittering crowd.
+The lights of which Dick was so proud dazzled her for a moment or two;
+but presently her eyes became accustomed to them, and she recognized
+Lady Angleford, the Wolfers, and others. Lady Angleford was in black
+satin and lace, and, at Drake's request, had put on the family diamonds.
+
+"You are right, Mrs. Hawksley," said Nell. "They are magnificent. What a
+lovely scene!"
+
+"I am glad you are pleased, Miss Lorton," responded the old lady, as if
+she had got up the whole show for Nell's sole benefit. "I am looking for
+the earl, to point him out to you; but I don't see him. He must be under
+the gallery at this moment. Ah! yes; here he comes. Now, quick! lean
+forward. There! that tall gentleman with the fair lady on his arm. Lean
+forward a little more, and you will see him quite plainly. The lady's in
+a kind of pale mauve silk----"
+
+Nell leaned forward with all a girl's eager curiosity; then she uttered
+a faint cry, and drew back. The couple Mrs. Hawksley had pointed out
+were Drake and Lady Luce. Drake!
+
+"What is the matter? Did any one squeeze you? Did you see his lordship?"
+asked Mrs. Hawksley.
+
+"No," said Nell, trying to keep her voice steady. "I--I saw that
+gentleman with the lady in mauve; but----"
+
+Mrs. Hawksley stared at her.
+
+"Well, that is the earl. That is Lord Angleford with Lady Luce Turfleigh
+on his arm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+Nell sat still--very, very still. The vast room seemed to rise and sway
+before her like a ship in a heavy sea; the lights danced in a mad whirl;
+the music roared a chaos of sound in her ears, and a deathly feeling
+crept over her.
+
+"I will not faint--I will not faint!" she said to herself, clenching her
+teeth hard, and gripping her dress with her cold hands. "It is a
+mistake--a mistake. It is not Drake. I thought I saw him the other
+night; it is thinking, always thinking of him, that makes me fancy any
+one like him must be he! Yes; it is a mistake."
+
+She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them and found
+that the room had ceased rocking, and the lights were still, she leaned
+forward, calling all her courage to her aid, and looked again.
+
+A waltz was in progress, and the rich dresses, the flashing jewels
+whirled like the colored pieces of a kaleidoscope, and for a moment or
+two she could not distinguish the members of the glittering crowd; but
+presently she saw the tall figure again. He was dancing with Lady Luce;
+they came down toward the gallery end of the room, floating with the
+exquisite grace of a couple whose steps are in perfect harmony, and Nell
+saw that she had made no mistake--that it was Drake indeed.
+
+She drew a long breath, and sank back; Mrs. Hawksley leaned toward her.
+
+"Do you feel faint, Miss Lorton? It's very hot up here. Would you like
+to go down----"
+
+"No, no!" said Nell quickly, almost anxiously. She did not want to go.
+It was agony to see him dancing with this beautiful woman, whose hair
+shone like gold, whose grace of form and movement were conspicuous even
+among so many graceful and beautiful women; but a kind of fascination
+made Nell feel as if she could not go, as if she must drain her cup of
+misery to the dregs. "No, no; I am not faint--not now. It is hot, but I
+am--all right."
+
+She gazed with set face and panic-stricken eyes at the couple, as they
+floated down the room again. It was Drake, but--how changed! He looked
+many years older--and his face was stern and grave--sterner and graver
+and sadder even than when she had first seen it that day the horse had
+flung him at her feet. It had grown brighter and happier while he had
+stayed at Shorne Mills--it had been transformed, indeed, for the few
+short weeks he had been her lover; but the look of content, of joy in
+life which it wore in her remembrance, had gone again. Had he been ill?
+she wondered. Where had he been; what had he been doing?
+
+But it did not matter, could not matter to her. He was back in England,
+and dancing with the woman he loved--with the beautiful Lady Luce, whom
+he had kissed on the terrace.
+
+"And what do you think of his lordship?" Mrs. Hawksley asked, as if the
+Right Honorable the Earl of Angleford were her special property. "I
+wasn't far wrong, was I, Miss Lorton, when I said that he would be the
+finest, handsomest man in the room?"
+
+"No," said Nell, scarcely knowing what she answered. "That is----" She
+put her hand to her lips. Even now she had not realized that her Drake
+and the earl were one and the same man. "Oh, yes; he is handsome,
+and----" she finished, as the old lady eyed her half indignantly. "But
+I--I have made a mistake. I mean----What was Lord Angleford called
+before he succeeded to the title?"
+
+Mrs. Hawksley looked at her rather curiously.
+
+"Why, Lord Selbie, of course," she said. "He ought, being one of the
+Anglefords, to have been Lord Vernon, Drake Vernon; but his father was a
+famous statesman, a governor of New South Wales and they made him a
+viscount. Do you understand?" she asked, proud of her own knowledge of
+these intricacies of the earl's names and titles.
+
+Poor Nell looked confused. But it did not matter. She had learned
+enough. Drake Vernon, who had made her love him, and had asked her to be
+his wife, had been Lord Selbie. Why had he concealed his rank? Why had
+he deceived her? He had seemed so honest and true, that she would have
+trusted him with her life as freely as she had given him her love; and
+all the while----Oh, why had he done it? Was it worth while to
+masquerade as a mere nobody, to pretend that he was poor? Had he, even
+from the very first, not intended to marry her? Was he only--amusing
+himself?
+
+Her face was dyed, with the shame of the thought, for a moment, then the
+hot flush went and left her pale and wan.
+
+Drake was the Earl of Angleford, and she--she the girl whose heart he
+had broken, was in his house, looking on at him among his guests! The
+thought was almost unendurable, and she slowly rose from her chair; then
+she sat down again, for she was trembling and quite incapable of leaving
+the gallery.
+
+How long she sat in this state she did not know. The ball went on. She
+saw Drake--no, the earl--would she never realize it?--dancing
+frequently. Sometimes he joined the group of dowagers and chaperons on
+the dais at the other end of the room, or leaned against the wall and
+talked with the nondancing men; and wherever he went she saw that he was
+received with that subtle empressement with which the children of Vanity
+Fair indicate their respect for high rank and wealth.
+
+"You can see how high his lordship stands not only in the county, but
+everywhere," said Mrs. Hawksley proudly. "They treat him almost as if he
+were a prince of the blood; and he is the principal gentleman here,
+though there's some high and mighty ones down there, Miss Lorton, I
+assure you. That's the Duchess of Cleavemere in that big chair on the
+dais; and that's her eldest daughter--she'll be as big as the duchess,
+mark my words--seated beside her; and that's the Marquis of Downfield,
+that tall gentleman with the white hair. He's a great man, but he can't
+hold a candle, in appearance, to our earl; and he's a poor man compared
+with his lordship. And that's Lord Turfleigh, that old gentleman with
+the very black hair and mustache; dyed, of course, my dear. The 'wicked
+Lord Turfleigh' they call him--and no wonder. He's the father of Lady
+Luce. Ah! his lordship's going to dance with her again! Look how pleased
+her father looks. See, he's nodding and smiling at her; I'll be bound I
+know what he's thinking of! And I shouldn't be surprised if it came off.
+Lord Selbie and she used to be engaged, but it was broken off when his
+lordship's uncle married. The Turfleighs are too poor to risk a marriage
+without money. But his lordship's the earl now, and, of course----"
+
+Nell understood. It was because the woman he loved had jilted him that
+Drake had hidden himself from the world at Shorne Mills. That was why he
+had looked so sad and cast down the day she had first seen him.
+
+"It's a pity your brother doesn't come up," said Mrs. Hawksley, who was
+standing behind Nell, and could not see the white, strained face. "He'd
+enjoy the sight, I'm sure. I'm half inclined to send a word to him."
+
+Nell caught her arm. Dick must not come up here and recognize Drake,
+must not see her white face and trembling lips. If possible, she must
+leave Anglemere in the morning; must induce Dick to go before he could
+learn that Drake and Lord Angleford were one and the same.
+
+"My brother would not come," she said. "Please do not send for him.
+He--the lights----"
+
+Mrs. Hawksley nodded.
+
+"As you think best, my dear," she said. "But it's a pity. Here's the
+interval now. What is going on in the orchestra?"
+
+Nell looked toward the band, which had ceased playing; but Falconer was
+softly tuning his violin. About half the dancers had left the room, and
+those that remained were pacing up and down, talking and laughing, or
+seated in couples in the alcoves and recesses.
+
+Falconer finished tuning, glanced toward Nell--the gallery was too dimly
+lit for him to see the pallor of her face--then began to play a solo.
+
+Coming after the dance music, the sonata he had chosen was like a breath
+of pure, heather-scented air floating in upon the gas-laden atmosphere
+of the heated room; and at the first strains of the delicious melody the
+people below stopped talking, and turned their eyes up to the front of
+the gallery, where the tall, thin form in its worn velvet jacket stood,
+for that moment, at least, the supreme figure.
+
+Nell, as she listened, felt as if a cool, pitying hand had fallen upon
+her aching heart; as if a voice of thrilling sweetness were whispering
+tender consolation. Never loud, but with an insistent force which held
+the listeners in thrall, sometimes so low that it was but a murmur, the
+exquisite music stole over the senses of all, awakening tender memories,
+reviving scattered hopes, softening, for the short space it held its
+sway, world-hardened hearts.
+
+The tears gathered in Nell's eyes, bringing her infinite relief; but she
+could see through her tears that the great hall was filling with the
+hasty return of those who had been within hearing of the music, and when
+it ceased there rose a burst of applause, led by the earl himself.
+
+"How very beautiful!" exclaimed the duchess, who was on his arm. "The
+man must be a genius. Where did you find him, Lord Angleford?"
+
+Drake did not reply for a moment, as if he had not heard her. The music
+had moved him more deeply, perhaps, than it had moved any other. His
+face was set, his brows knit, and his head drooped as if weighed down by
+some memory. He had been so occupied by his duties as host that he had
+forgotten the past for that hour or two, at any rate; but at the first
+strains of the music Nell came back to him. It was the swell of the tide
+against the _Annie Laurie_; it was Nell's voice itself which he heard
+through the melody of the famous sonata. He listened with an aching
+longing for those past weeks of pure and perfect love, with a loathing
+for the empty, desolate present. "Nell! Nell!" his heart seemed to cry.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "I did not find him. He is here by
+chance."
+
+"He must be a very great musician," said the duchess enthusiastically.
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Falconer," replied Drake. "He's staying at one of the lodges."
+
+"He played superbly. Do you think I could persuade him to come on to the
+court for the ninth? I wish you'd ask him. But surely he is going to
+play again?" she added eagerly.
+
+"I will ask him," said Drake.
+
+"Yes, do, Drake," murmured Lady Luce, who had reëntered the room and
+glided near him. The divine music had not touched her in the least;
+indeed, she had thought the solo rather out of place at a dance--quite
+too sad and depressing; but as she seconded the duchess' request, her
+blue eyes seemed dim with tears, and her lips tremulous. "It was so very
+beautiful! I am half crying!" and the perfectly shaped lips pouted
+piteously.
+
+Drake nodded, led the duchess to a chair, and went slowly up the room
+toward the gallery stairs.
+
+Nell, who had been watching him in a dull, vacant way, lost him for a
+moment or two; then she heard his voice near her, and saw him dimly
+standing in the gallery doorway.
+
+She stifled a cry, and shrank back behind Mrs. Hawksley, so that the
+stout form of the old lady completely hid her.
+
+"Mr. Falconer?" she heard the deep voice say gravely.
+
+Falconer bowed, his violin under his arm, his pale, thin face perfectly
+composed. His music was still ringing in his ears, vibrating in his
+soul, too great to be stirred by the applause which had again broken
+out.
+
+"I have come to thank you for the sonata, Mr. Falconer, and to ask you
+to be so kind as to play again," said Drake, in the simple, impassive
+manner of the Englishman.
+
+"I shall be very pleased, my lord," said Falconer quietly; and he placed
+his violin in position.
+
+Drake looked absently round the gallery. It was only dimly lit by the
+candles in the music stands, and the servants had respectfully drawn
+back, so that Nell was still hidden; but she trembled with the fear that
+those in front of her might move, and that he might see her; for she
+knew how keen those eyes of his could be.
+
+Drake felt that the dim light was a pleasant contrast to the brilliance
+of the room below, and he lingered, leaning against the wall, his arms
+folded, his head drooped. He was so near Nell that she could almost have
+touched him--so near that she almost dreaded that he must hear the wild
+throbbings of her heart. Once, as the violin wailed out a passionate,
+despairing, yet exquisitely sweet passage of the Raff cavatina Falconer
+was playing, she heard Drake sigh.
+
+The cavatina came to an end, the last notes--those wonderful
+notes!--floating lingeringly like a human voice, and yet more exquisite
+than any human voice. Falconer lowered his violin, the applause broke
+out again as vehemently and enthusiastically as if the crowd below were
+at an ordinary concert, and Drake made his way to the player. As he did
+so, he stumbled over a violin case, the servants with a little cry--for
+the stumble of an Earl of Angleford is a matter of importance--moved
+apart, and Drake, putting out his hand as he recovered himself, touched
+Mrs. Hawksley's arm.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "Ah! is it you, Mrs. Hawksley? You are so
+pleasantly dark up here."
+
+His eyes wandered from her face to that of the girl who had been
+shrinking behind her, and he paused, as if smitten by some sudden
+thought or memory. But Nell rose quickly and hid herself in the group,
+and Drake went on to Falconer.
+
+"Thank you again," he said. "I have never heard the cavatina--it was it,
+wasn't it?--better played. I am the bearer of a message from the Duchess
+of Cleavemere, Mr. Falconer. If you are not engaged, the duchess would
+be very glad if you could play for her at Cleavemere Court on the ninth
+of next month. I ask you at once and so unceremoniously, because her
+grace is anxious to know. The ninth."
+
+Falconer bowed.
+
+"May I consider, my lord?" he began hesitatingly.
+
+"Why, certainly," said Drake, in the frank, pleasant fashion which Nell
+knew so well. "Will you send me word? Thanks. That is a fine violin you
+have."
+
+"It was my father's," said Falconer simply, and unconsciously pressing
+the instrument closer to him, as if it were a living thing, a
+well-beloved child.
+
+He had often sold, pawned his belongings for bread, and as often had
+forgotten his cold and hunger because his precious violin had remained
+in his possession; that he had never pawned.
+
+Drake nodded, as if he understood; then he looked round.
+
+"Isn't there some supper going, Mrs. Hawksley?" he said pleasantly.
+
+The old lady curtsied in stately fashion.
+
+"Yes, my lord."
+
+"Then it's high time Mr. Falconer--and the rest of us--were at it," he
+said; and, with a smile and a nod, he left the gallery.
+
+He would have taken Falconer with him to the supper in the banquet room
+below, but he knew that, though none of the men or women there would
+have remarked, or cared about, the old velvet jacket, the musician would
+be conscious of it, and be embarrassed by it.
+
+While Drake had been absent, Lady Luce had stood, apparently listening
+with profound attention and sympathy, but the movement of her fan almost
+gave her away, for it grew rapid now and again, and when Lord Turfleigh
+came up beside her, his hawklike eyes glancing sharply, like those of a
+bird of prey, from their fat rims, she shot an angry and unfilial glance
+at him.
+
+"Where's Drake?" he asked, lowering his thick voice.
+
+"Up there in that gallery somewhere; gone to pay compliments to that
+fiddler fellow who is playing now."
+
+"Gad!" said his lordship, with a stare of contempt at the rapt audience.
+"What the devil does he want with the 'Dead March in Saul,' or whatever
+it is, in the middle of a dance. Always thought he was mad! Has he
+spoken, said anything?"
+
+He lowered his voice still more, and eyed her eagerly.
+
+She shook her head slightly by way of answer, and the coarse face
+reddened.
+
+"Curse me, if I can understand it--or you," he said, his hand tugging
+at his dyed mustache. "You told me, God knows how long ago, that he was
+'on' again; then he bolts--disappears."
+
+"Do you want all these people to hear you?" she asked, her eyes hidden
+by her slowly moving fan.
+
+Her father had been several times to the refreshment buffet, and had
+"lowered"--as he would have put it--the best part of a bottle of
+champagne, and was a little off the guard which he usually maintained so
+carefully.
+
+"They can't hear. I'm not shouting. And you always evade me. You're not
+behaving well, Luce. Dash it all! I've reason to be anxious! This match
+means a good deal to me in the present state of our finances!"
+
+"Hush!" she whispered warningly. "I can't explain now. I don't
+understand it myself; but I've seen enough to know that I should only
+lose him altogether if I tried to force him. You know him, or ought to
+do so! Did you ever get anything from Drake by driving him? He had no
+opportunity of speaking, of explaining."
+
+"By gad! I don't understand it!" he muttered. "Either you're engaged to
+him or you're not. You led me to believe that the match was on
+again----"
+
+The fan closed with a snap, and her blue eyes flashed at him with bitter
+scorn.
+
+"Hadn't you better leave me to play the game?" she asked. "Or perhaps
+you think you can play it better than I can? If so----The man has
+stopped; Drake will be down again. I don't want him to see us talking.
+Go--and get some more champagne."
+
+Lord Turfleigh swore behind the hand that still fumbled at his mustache,
+and walked away with the jerky, jaunty gait of the old man who still
+affects youth, and Lady Luce composed her lovely face into a look of
+emotional ecstacy.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful, Drake!" she said. "Do you know that I have been very
+nearly crying? And yet it was so sweet, so--so soothing! Who is he? And
+what are we going to do now?" she asked, without waiting for an answer
+to her first question, about which she was more than indifferent.
+
+Drake looked round for the duchess.
+
+"I must take the duchess in to supper," he said apologetically. "I will
+find some one for you--or perhaps you will wait until I will come for
+you?"
+
+"I will wait, of course," she said, with a tender emphasis on the "of
+course."
+
+Those who had been listening followed Drake and the duchess to the
+supper room, talking of the wonderful violin playing as they went; and
+Lady Luce seated herself in a recess and waited. Several men came to her
+and offered to take her to supper, but she made some excuse for
+refusing, and presently Drake returned.
+
+She rose and took his arm, and glanced up at him, not for the first time
+that evening, curiously. The easy-going, indolent Drake of old seemed to
+have disappeared, and left in his place this grave and almost
+stern-mannered man. She had always been just a little afraid of him,
+with the fear which is always felt by the false and shifty in the
+presence of the true and strong; and to-night she was painfully
+conscious of that vague and wholesome dread.
+
+He found a place for her at a small table, and a footman brought them
+things to eat and drink; but though she affected a blythe and joyous
+mood, tapping her satin-clad foot to the music which had begun again,
+she was too excited, too anxious, to enjoy the costly delicacies before
+her.
+
+"I have so much to tell you, Drake!" she said, in a low voice, after one
+or two remarks about the ball and its success. "It seems years, ages,
+since I saw you! Why--why did you go away for so long, Drake? And why
+did you not write to me?"
+
+He looked at her with his grave eyes, and her own fell.
+
+"I wrote to no one; I was never much of a hand at letter writing," he
+said.
+
+"But to me, Drake!" she whispered, with a pout. "I wanted to hear from
+you so badly! Just a line that would have given me an excuse for writing
+to you and telling you--explaining----"
+
+He did not smile. He was not the man to remind a woman of her falseness,
+but something in his eyes made her falter and lower her own.
+
+"I went away because I was tired of England," he said. "I came back
+because--well, because I was obliged."
+
+"But you won't go away again?" she said, with genuine dismay in her
+voice and face. "I--I feel as if, as if it were my fault; as if--ah,
+Drake, have you not really forgiven me?"
+
+Her eyes filled with tears, as genuine as her dismay--for think of the
+greatness of the prize for which she was playing--and Drake's heart was
+touched with a pity which was not wholly free from contempt.
+
+"There shall be no such word as forgiveness between us, Luce," he said
+gravely. She caught at this, though it was but a straw, and her hand,
+from which she had taken her glove, stole over to his, and her eyes
+sought his appealingly.
+
+But before he could take her hand--if he had intended doing so--Lady
+Angleford came up to them.
+
+"Drake, they want you to lead the cotillon," she said.
+
+He rose, but stood beside Luce.
+
+"Directly Lady Luce has finished her supper, countess. Please don't
+hurry."
+
+But Lady Luce sprang up at once.
+
+"I have finished long ago; I was not hungry."
+
+"Come, then," he said, and he offered her his arm, "Will you dance it
+with me?"
+
+Her heart leaped.
+
+"Yes. It will not be for the first time--Drake!" and as she entered the
+room with him, her heart thrilled with hope, and her blue eyes sparkled
+with a triumph which none could fail to notice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Certainly not poor Nell, who still remained in her dim corner in the
+gallery. Mrs. Hawksley had begged her to come down to the supper which
+had been laid for her and her brother and Falconer; but Nell, who felt
+that it would be impossible to make even a pretense of eating or
+drinking, had begged them to excuse her; and when they had gone and the
+gallery was empty, she leaned her head against the wall and closed her
+eyes; for she was well-nigh exhausted by the conflicting emotions which
+racked her. She longed to go, to leave the place, to escape from the
+risk of Drake's presence; but she could not leave the house alone, and
+to go from the gallery and absent herself for the rest of the evening
+might attract notice and comment.
+
+Was it possible that Drake had been near her, so near as to almost have
+touched her? She trembled--and thrilled--at the thought; then crimsoned
+with shame for the sinful thrill of joy and happiness which his nearness
+had caused her.
+
+What was he to her now? Nothing, nothing! She had yielded him up to the
+beautiful woman he had loved before he saw her, Nell; and it was
+shameful and unwomanly that she should feel a joy in his proximity.
+
+Falconer came up before the rest of the orchestra, and brought a glass
+of wine and a biscuit for her.
+
+"I am afraid you have a headache, the lights and the music--they are so
+near; and it is hot up here. Will you drink some of this, Miss Lorton?"
+
+His voice was low and tender, though he strove to give it a conventional
+touch and merely friendly tone.
+
+"Thank you, yes," said Nell gratefully. "How good of you to think of me!
+How magnificently you played! I can't tell you how happy your success
+has made me! And such a success! I was as proud as if it were I who was
+playing; and I was prouder still when I saw how quietly you took it.
+Ah, you felt that it was just your due. I suppose genius always takes
+the crowd's applause calmly."
+
+His face flushed, and his dark eyes glowed.
+
+"There is some applause I, at any rate--who am no genius,
+however--cannot take calmly," he said. "I would rather have those words
+of approval from you than the shouting and clapping of a multitude. Yes,
+it made me happy; but I am happier now than words can express."
+
+If Nell had looked up into the eyes bent on hers, she must have read his
+secret in them; but the band had begun to play, and at that moment Drake
+was leading Lady Luce to her place for the cotillon, and Nell's eyes
+were drawn, riveted to the fair face, the blue eyes shining
+triumphantly; and she forgot not only Falconer's presence, but his
+existence.
+
+As he saw that she did not heed him, the color died out from his face,
+and the light from his eyes, and, with a sigh, he left her and went back
+to his place in the orchestra.
+
+The dance proceeded through all its graceful and intricate evolutions,
+and even to the spectators in the gallery it was evident that Lady Luce
+had stepped into the position of the belle of the ball. The excitement
+of hope and fear, the gratification of vanity which sprang from her
+consciousness that she was occupying the most prominent place as the
+earl's partner, had given to her face the touch of warmth it needed to
+make its beauty well-nigh perfect. Her lips were parted with a smile,
+the blue eyes--ordinarily a trifle cold--were glowing, and the diamonds
+sparkled fiercely on her heaving bosom.
+
+Nell could not remove her eyes from her, but sat like a bird held by the
+fascination of the serpent. She was blind to all else but those two--the
+man she loved, the woman to whom she had surrendered him.
+
+The time passed unheeded by her, and Falconer's voice sounded miles away
+as he bent over her.
+
+"Dick has sent up to say that we can go," he said. "There's no fear of
+the lights now; indeed, the ball is nearly over. This is the last
+dance."
+
+Nell rose stiffly and wearily.
+
+"I--I am glad," she said.
+
+"You are tired, very tired," he said. "Will you let me give you my arm?"
+
+He felt her hand tremble as she put it on his arm, and he looked down at
+her anxiously.
+
+"I wish I had taken you out of this before," he said remorsefully. "I
+have spoken to you--asked you--once or twice; but--but you did not seem
+to hear me. It is my fault. I ought to have insisted upon your going."
+
+"No, no!" said Nell. "It is nothing. I am a little tired, and----Is it
+late?"
+
+"Yes," he said. "Most of the people are leaving. It has been a great
+success. Is this the way?"
+
+They had gone down the stairs leading to the lower hall, but here
+Falconer hesitated doubtfully. This second hall led into the larger one,
+through which the guests were passing.
+
+Nell caught a glimpse of them, and shrank back.
+
+"Not there," she said warningly. "There must be a door----"
+
+"Ah, here it is!" he said; and he led her through an opening between
+portière curtains. They found themselves in a small conservatory, and
+Falconer again stopped.
+
+"It is very stupid!" he said apologetically.
+
+"There may be an opening to the terrace," said Nell nervously; "once we
+are outside----"
+
+"Here we are, out in the open air."
+
+Nell drew a long breath, and pushed the hair from her forehead.
+
+"We must go down these steps, and then to the right. I remember----"
+
+They crossed the terrace, when two or three persons came out through a
+window behind them. They were talking, and Nell heard a voice which made
+her wince, and her hand grip Falconer's arm convulsively; for the voice
+was Drake's.
+
+"They have a fine night to go home in," he was saying. "Not much of a
+moon, but better than none."
+
+Nell stopped and looked despairingly at the patch of light which the
+window threw right across their path to the steps.
+
+"Come quickly," said Falconer, in a low voice.
+
+"No, no; we shall be seen!" she implored, in an agitated whisper.
+
+But Falconer deemed it best to go on, and did so.
+
+As they moved, Drake saw them, but indistinctly.
+
+"Good-night, once more!" he called out, in the tone of a host speeding
+parting guests.
+
+Falconer raised his soft felt hat.
+
+"Good-night, my lord," he responded. At the same moment they stepped
+into the stream of light. Drake had been on the point of turning away,
+but as he recognized Falconer's voice and figure, he stopped and took a
+step toward them. Then, as suddenly, he stopped again, gazing after them
+as a man who gazes at a vision of the fancy.
+
+"Who--who is that?" he demanded, almost fiercely.
+
+Lady Luce was just behind him.
+
+"That was the man who played the violin," she said. "Didn't you
+recognize him? How romantic he looks! Quite the idea of a musician."
+
+Drake put his hand to his brow and stood still, looking after the two
+figures, now disappearing in the darkness, made more intense by the
+contrasting streaks of light from the windows.
+
+"My God! How like!" he muttered, taking a step or two forward
+unconsciously.
+
+But Lady Luce's voice aroused him from the half stupor into which he had
+fallen, and he turned back to her.
+
+"I must be mad or dreaming!" he muttered. "What folly! And yet how
+like--how like!"
+
+"Why, what is the matter, Drake?" asked Lady Luce, laying her hand on
+his arm, and looking up at him anxiously. "You are quite pale. You
+look"--she laughed--"as if you had seen a ghost!"
+
+He smiled grimly. She had described his feelings exactly. In the
+resemblance of the girl, whoever she was, on the violinist's arm, he had
+in very truth seen the ghost of Nell of Shorne Mills.
+
+Nell hurried Falconer along, but presently was forced to stop to regain
+her breath. Her heart was beating so wildly that she had to fight
+against the sensation of suffocation which threatened to overcome her.
+
+"Let us wait a minute," said Falconer gently. "You are nervous,
+overtired. We will wait here."
+
+But Nell had got her breath again by this time.
+
+"No, no!" she said, almost vehemently. "Let us go. I know the way----"
+
+"Dick will be waiting for us at the door of the east wing," he said. "If
+you can find that----"
+
+"I know," she said quickly. "That is it on our left. But--but I do not
+want to see any one."
+
+"All the guests are leaving by the front of the house; we are not likely
+to meet any one."
+
+He was somewhat surprised at her agitation, and her evident desire to
+leave the place unseen; for Nell was usually so perfectly self-possessed
+and free from nervousness or gaucherie.
+
+She drew him to the side park under the shadow of the wing, in which few
+of the windows were lighted, and as they waited she gradually recovered
+herself.
+
+"There is Dick," said Falconer presently. "He is waiting for us by that
+window."
+
+Nell looked in the direction he indicated.
+
+"Is that Dick?" she said, peering at the figure. "It is so dark I can
+scarcely see. I don't think it is Dick. If it is, why is he looking in
+at the window?"
+
+"He may be talking to some one inside," said Falconer. "I'll call him.
+Dick!"
+
+As he called, the figure half turned, then swung round away from them,
+and with lowered head moved quickly away from the window, and passed
+into the darkness of the shrubbery.
+
+"How strange!" said Falconer; and he felt puzzled. Why should Dick start
+at the sound of his name, and make off into the darkness?
+
+Falconer bit his lip. It was just possible that Dick, who was young, and
+also particularly good-looking, was carrying on a flirtation with some
+one in the house. If so, the explanation of his sudden flight was
+natural enough.
+
+"Why did he run away? Where has he gone?" said Nell. "You were wrong. It
+was not Dick."
+
+"Very likely," assented Falconer. "It was so dark----Yes, I was wrong,
+for there he stands by the door," he broke off, as, coming round the
+corner, they saw Dick, who was engaged in lighting his pipe.
+
+"Hallo! here you are, at last," he said, cheerfully. "Couldn't tear
+yourselves away from the festive scene? By George! if you'd spent the
+night in an engine room, you'd be glad enough to cut it."
+
+"Poor Dick!" said Nell.
+
+"Oh, I haven't had such a bad time," he said. "They brought me a ripping
+supper, and a special dish with the chef's compliments. I don't know
+where the chef's going when he leaves this terrestrial sphere; but,
+wherever it is, it's good enough for me. Well, Nellikins, enjoyed
+yourself?"
+
+Nell forced a smile.
+
+"Very much," she replied. "It--it was a great success."
+
+"So I hear," said Dick. "But you seem to have taken the cake to-night,
+old man. They told me that you created a perfect furore, whatever that
+is. Anyway, Mrs. Hawksley and the rest came down with the most exciting
+account of your triumph. Seriously, Falconer, I congratulate you. I
+won't say that I prophesied your success long ago, because that's a
+cheap kind of thing to say; but I always did believe you'd hit the
+bull's-eye the first time you got a chance; and you've done it."
+
+"I think they were pleased," said Falconer.
+
+"His lordship and the rest of the swells ought to be very much obliged,"
+remarked Dick. "You've given éclat to his dance. Observe the French
+again? There is no extra charge."
+
+"His lordship was extremely kind," said Falconer, "and his thanks more
+than repaid me for my poor efforts. I don't wonder at his popularity.
+I've always heard that the higher the rank the simpler the manners; and
+Lord Angleford is an instance of it. My acquaintance with the nobility
+is extremely limited----"
+
+"Ditto here," said Dick. "Though the young lady on your arm has lived in
+marble halls, and hobnobbed with belted earls and lords of high degree.
+But I'm glad to hear that this one is affable."
+
+Falconer laughed.
+
+"Affable is the wrong word; it means condescension, doesn't it? And Lord
+Angleford was anything but condescending. He might have known me for
+years, if one judged by the tone of his voice and manner; and, as I
+said, I'm more than repaid."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to hear he made a favorable impression on you," Dick
+said. "I haven't had the pleasure of making his acquaintance yet; but I
+shall probably see him before I go. But your success doesn't end here,
+Falconer. I'm told that you are going to play at Cleavemere Court. By
+George! if you knock them there as you did here--which, of course, you
+will do--your fortune's made. The duchess has no end of influence, and
+you'll be paragraphed in the papers, and get engagements at the houses
+of other swells, and before we know where we are, we shall see 'Señor
+Falconer's Recitals at St. James' Hall,' advertised on the front page of
+the _Times_. And serve you right, old man, for if ever a man deserved
+good luck, it is you. Eh, Nell?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Nell.
+
+"And did you see his lordship, our all-puissant earl, my child?"
+
+"Yes," she said, beginning to tremble--but, indeed, she had been
+trembling all through the conversation. How should she be able to get
+away from the house--the place which belonged to Drake? "Yes, I saw him.
+Dick, did a man--a man with a slight figure something like yours--pass
+you just before we came up?"
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"Are you sure? He must have passed by you."
+
+"A figure like mine, did you say? Yes; I'm quite sure he didn't. I have
+too keen an eye for grace of form to let such a figure pass unnoticed."
+
+"It may have been a servant or one of the guests," Falconer said.
+
+"Oh, draw it mild!" remonstrated Dick. "Do I look like a flunkey or a
+groom? What is it you think you have seen?"
+
+"A man was standing looking in at one of the windows of the inner side
+of the wing," said Nell. "We thought it was you; but, when Mr. Falconer
+called, the man, whoever he was, turned and walked into the shrubbery."
+
+"A 'particular friend' of one of the maids, I dare say," remarked Dick
+easily. "And I've no doubt you have broken up a very enjoyable spooning.
+Now, would you like----Now what is it?"
+
+For Nell had stopped short, and had seized his arm.
+
+"There!" she exclaimed, in a whisper. "There he is again--that is the
+man!"
+
+They had come to the lodge by this time, and Nell was gazing rather
+nervously toward the big gates.
+
+"Where?" asked Dick. "I can see no one. Nell, you have had too much
+champagne. You'll be seeing snakes presently if you don't mind. Where is
+he?"
+
+Nell laughed, but a little shakily.
+
+"He has gone, of course. He went quickly through the gate."
+
+"And why shouldn't he?" said Dick, with a yawn. "Oh, Falconer! when I
+think of the cool tankard into which I shall presently plunge my
+beak----What's come to you, Nell? It isn't like you to 'get the
+nerves.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The man whom Nell and Falconer had mistaken for Dick passed through the
+lodge gates, and, turning to the right, walked quickly, but not
+hurriedly, beside the high park fencing, and presently came up with a
+dogcart which was being walked slowly along the road.
+
+The cart was a very shabby one, but the horse was a very good one, and
+looked as if it could stretch itself if it were required to do so. In
+the cart was a young man in clerical attire. He looked like a curate,
+and his voice had the regulation drawl as he leaned down and asked:
+
+"Well, Ted?"
+
+The man addressed as Ted shook his head.
+
+"The girl was right," he said, with an air of disappointment. "She's got
+'em all on."
+
+"Then it's no use trying it to-night," said the curate. "Perhaps a
+little later? It must be darkish for some time."
+
+Ted shook his head again.
+
+"No use! Too risky. It will be hours before they all go to bed and the
+house is quiet; the servants always keep it up after a big affair like
+this; some of 'em won't go to bed at all, perhaps. Besides, I was
+spotted just now."
+
+The Parson, as he was called by the burgling fraternity, of which he and
+Ted were distinguished members, swore under his breath.
+
+"How was that?" he asked.
+
+"I was looking in at one of the windows of the servants' quarters,
+getting a word or two with the girl, when a couple of the swells came
+along. They saw me, and mistook me for some one by the name of Dick, and
+called to me. I walked off as quickly as I could, and I swear they
+didn't see my face, neither then nor just now, when, as luck would have
+it, they caught sight of me going out of the gates. They went into the
+lodge with the young fellow they'd mistaken me for."
+
+The Parson swore again.
+
+"What's to be done? Did you see the things?"
+
+Ted nodded emphatically.
+
+"Yes! They're the best swag I've ever seen. There's a fortune in them;
+and, if we had any luck, we might get a few more in addition."
+
+"They'll be in the bank to-morrow," said the Parson gloomily. "These
+swells know how to take care of their jewelry, especially when they're
+family diamonds like these. We've lost our chance for the present, Ted.
+Jump up."
+
+But Ted shook his head.
+
+"Not yet. The girl promised to meet me if she could, and I reckon she'll
+try to." He smiled and smoothed his mustache. "You drive on slowly and
+wait for me at the turn of the road. I'll come to you, say, in a quarter
+of an hour."
+
+The dogcart went on, and Ted followed until he came to a small gate in
+the park fencing, and, opening this, he stood just inside it. His hand
+went to his pocket for his pipe, but, with the smoker's sigh, he dropped
+it back again, for he could not risk striking a match.
+
+After he had been waiting there for a few minutes he heard footsteps and
+the rustle of a skirt among the undergrowth, and presently a woman stole
+out from the darkness, and, running up to the man, clutched his arm,
+panting and trembling with fear and excitement.
+
+Now, when Lord and Lady Wolfer had started for the Continent, on the day
+of what may be called their reconciliation, Burden, her maid, had
+refused to go. She was a bad sailor, and hated what she called "foreign
+parts"; and she begged her mistress to leave her behind. Lady Wolfer,
+full of sympathy in her newly found happiness, had not only let the girl
+off, but had made her a handsome present, and given her an excellent
+written character.
+
+Burden took a holiday, and went home to her people, who kept what is
+called a "sporting public" in the east of London.
+
+Sport, like charity, is made to cover a lot of sins; and Burden, while
+assisting in the bar of the pub, made the acquaintance of several
+persons who were desirable neither in the matter of morals nor manners.
+
+One of these was a good-looking young fellow who went by the name of
+Ted. He was supposed to be a watchmaker and jeweler by trade--a working
+jeweler--but he spent most of his time at the public which Burden now
+adorned, and though he certainly did not carry on his trade there,
+always appeared to have as much money as leisure.
+
+Cupid, who seems to be indifferent to his surroundings, hovered about
+the smoky and beery regions of the Blue Pig, and very soon worked
+mischief between Burden and Ted.
+
+He was pleasant spoken as well as good-looking, and had a free-and-easy
+way, was always ready with an order for the play or one of the music
+halls, and--in short, Burden fell in love with him. But when he asked
+her to marry him, Burden, who was a respectable girl, and, as Lady
+Wolfer's maid, had held a good position for one of her class, began to
+make inquiries.
+
+She did not go on with them, but she learned enough to rouse her
+suspicions.
+
+The jewelry business evidently served as a blind for less honest
+pursuits. She took alarm, and, like a sensible girl, fled the paternal
+pub and sought a fresh situation.
+
+As chance--there is no such thing, of course--would have it, Lady Luce
+was changing maids at this time.
+
+Burden, armed with her most excellent and fully deserved "character,"
+applied for and obtained the situation.
+
+She ought to have been thankful for her escape, and happy and contented
+in a service which, though very different from that of Lady Wolfer's,
+was good enough. But Burden had lost her heart; and when one has lost
+one's heart, happiness is impossible.
+
+She longed for a sight, just a sight, of her good-looking Ted; and one
+day, while the Turfleighs were stopping at Brighton, her heart's desire
+was gratified.
+
+She saw her handsome Ted on the pier. He was, if anything, handsomer
+than ever, was beautifully dressed--quite the gentleman, in fact, and
+though Burden had fully intended to just bow and pass on, she stopped
+and talked to him. Cupid slipped round her the chains from which she had
+so nearly freed herself, and----The woman who goes back to a man is
+indeed completely lost.
+
+They met every day; but alas, alas! Ted no longer spoke of marriage; and
+his influence over the woman who loved him unwisely and too well, grew
+in proportion to her devotion and helplessness.
+
+She soon learned that the man to whom she had given herself was a
+criminal, one of a skillful gang of burglars. But it was too late to
+draw back; too late even to refuse to help him.
+
+It was Burden who clung to the man in hiding behind the park gate.
+
+"What made you hurry so, old girl?" he said soothingly, and putting his
+arm round her. "What's your fear?"
+
+"Oh, Ted, Ted!" she gasped. "It's so dark----"
+
+"All the better," he said coolly. "Less chance of any one seeing you."
+
+"But some one saw you as you were standing by the window. It was Miss
+Lorton--they called out--they may have suspicions."
+
+"Don't you worry," he said. "They only thought it was some one after one
+of the girls. And it was the truth, wasn't it? What a frightened little
+thing it is! You'd be scared by your own shadow!"
+
+"I am! I am, Ted!" said the unhappy girl. "I start at the slightest
+noise; and I'm so--so nervous, that I expect Lady Lucille to send me
+away every day."
+
+The man frowned.
+
+"She mustn't do that," he said, half angrily. "I can't have that; it
+would be precious awkward just now! That would spoil all our plans."
+
+"I know! I know!" she moaned. "Oh, if you'd only give it up! Give it up
+this time, only this one time to please me, Ted, dear."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'd do anything to please you, but I'm not alone in this plant, you
+know; there's others; and I can't go back on my pals; so you mustn't go
+back on me."
+
+He spoke in the tone which the man who has the woman in his power can
+use so effectually; then his voice grew softer, and he stroked her cheek
+gently.
+
+"And think of what this means if we pull this off, Fan! No more dodging
+and hiding, no more risks of chokee and a 'life' for me, and no more
+slaving and lady's-maiding for you! We'll be off together to some
+foreign clime, as the poet calls it; and, with plenty of the ready, I
+fancy you'll cut a dash as Mrs. Ted."
+
+It was the one bait which he knew would be irresistible. She caught her
+breath, and, pressing closer to him, looked up into his eyes eagerly.
+
+"You mean it, Ted? You won't deceive me again? You'll keep your word?"
+
+"Honor bright!" he responded. "Why shouldn't I? You know I'm fond of
+you. I'd have married you months ago if I'd struck a piece of luck like
+this; but what was the use of marrying when I had to--work, and there
+was the chance of my being collared any day of the week? No! But I
+promise you that if we pull this off, I am going to settle down; I shall
+be glad enough to do it. We'll have a little cottage, or a flat on the
+Continong, eh, Fan? Is the countess going to send the diamonds back to
+the bank to-morrow?"
+
+He put the question abruptly, but in a low and impressive voice.
+
+Burden shook her head.
+
+"No," she replied reluctantly. "I--I asked her maid; they were talking
+about them just before I came out. Everybody was talking about them at
+the ball, and her ladyship's maid gives herself airs on account of
+them."
+
+"Gases about them? Very natural. And she says?"
+
+"There's a dinner party the night after next, and the countess thought
+it wasn't worth while sending them to the bank for one day. She's going
+to keep them in the safe in her room."
+
+Ted's eyes glistened, and he nodded.
+
+"Who keeps the key of the safe, Fan?" he asked; and though they were far
+from any chance of listeners, his voice dropped to a whisper.
+
+"The countess," replied Burden, still reluctantly.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I must have that key, Fan. Yes, yes! Remember what we are playing for,
+you and me! You get that key and put it in the corner of the windowsill
+where I was standing to-night."
+
+"No, no!" she panted. His arm loosened, and he looked down at her
+coldly.
+
+"You mean that you won't? Very well, then. But look here, my girl, we
+mean having these diamonds, with or without your help. You can't prevent
+us, for I don't suppose you'd be low enough to split and send me to
+penal servitude----"
+
+"Ted! Ted!" she wailed, and put her arms round him.
+
+He smiled to himself over her bowed head.
+
+"What's the best time? While they're at dinner?"
+
+She made a sign in the negative.
+
+"No," she whispered, setting her teeth, as if every word were dragged
+from her. "No; the maid will be in the room putting the countess' things
+away; afterward--while they are in the drawing-room."
+
+He bent and kissed her, his eyes shining eagerly.
+
+"There! You've got more sense than I have, by a long chalk! I should
+never have thought of the maid being in the room. Clever Fan! Now,
+you'll put the key on the sill--when? Say ten o'clock. And you'll see,
+Fan, that the little window on the back staircase isn't locked, and
+keep at watch for us?"
+
+"No, no!" she panted. "I will not! I cannot! I--I should faint! Don't
+ask me, Ted; don't--don't, dear! I shall say 'I'm ill'--and I shall
+be--and go to bed!"
+
+"Not you!" he said, cheerfully and confidentially. "You'll just hang
+about the landing and keep watch for us; and if there's any one there to
+spoil our game, you'll go to the window and say, just loud enough for us
+to hear: 'What a fine night!'"
+
+She hid her face on his breast, struggling with her sobs.
+
+"Why, what is there to be afraid of!" he said. "If all's clear we shall
+have the things in a jiffy, and if it isn't we shall take our hook as
+quietly as we came, and no one will be the wiser. Should you like
+Boulogne, Fan, or should you like Brussels? We could be married directly
+we got on the other side. Boulogne's not half a bad place, and you'd
+look rather a swell at the Casino."
+
+It was the irresistible argument again. She raised her head.
+
+"You--you will go quietly; there will be no--no violence, Ted?"
+
+"Is it likely?"
+
+She shuddered.
+
+"There--there was in that case at Berkeley Square, Ted!" and she
+shuddered again.
+
+His face darkened.
+
+"That was an accident. The gentleman was an obstinate old fool. But
+there's no fear of anything of that kind in this affair. I tell you we
+shall not be in the house more than five minutes, and if we're seen it
+won't matter. I'm in decent togs, and my pal is the model of a curate.
+Any one seeing us would think we were visitors in the house. You shall
+have a regular wedding dress, Fan. White satin and lace--real lace, mind
+you! Come, give us a kiss to say that it's done with, Fan!"
+
+He took her face in his hands and kissed her, and with a choking sob she
+clung to him for a moment as if she could not tear herself away. But,
+having got what he wanted, the man was anxious to be off.
+
+"Ten o'clock, mind, Fan! And a sharp lookout. There, let me put your
+shawl round your head. I'll wait here till I hear you're out of the
+wood."
+
+But he remained only a moment or two after she had left him, and, with
+quick, light steps, he joined his confederate.
+
+"It's all right," he said, as he got into the dogcart. "I've found out
+what I wanted. And I've managed with the girl. Had a devil of a job,
+though! That's the worst of women! You've always got to play the
+sentimental with them; nothing short of making love or offering to marry
+'em is any use. It's a pity this kind of thing can't be worked without a
+petticoat. There's always trouble and bother when they come in.
+To-morrow night, Parson, ten o'clock, you and I are men or mice; but
+it's going to be men," he added, between his teeth. "Did you bring my
+barker as well as your own?"
+
+The Parson touched the side pocket of his overcoat, and nodded
+significantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The day following a big dance is always a slack one, and the house party
+at Anglemere came down late for breakfast, the last stragglers
+endeavoring to screen their yawns behind their hands, and receiving the
+usual "plans for the day" with marked coolness.
+
+Drake, though he had slept but little, did his duty manfully, and
+proposed sundry rides and drives; but the majority of the party seemed
+to prefer a lounge in the drawing-room, or a quiet saunter in the
+garden; but eventually a drag started for some picturesque ruins, and
+some of the more energetic rode or drove to a flower show in the
+neighborhood.
+
+It is an understood thing nowadays that your host, having provided for
+your amusement, is not necessarily compelled to join in your pursuits;
+in short, that his house shall not only be Liberty Hall for his guests,
+but for himself, and Drake, having dispatched the various parties,
+started a quiet game in the billiard room, and seen that the
+drawing-room windows were open and shaded, took his hat and stick and
+went out for a walk.
+
+Lady Luce had not yet put in an appearance. She remained in bed or in
+her room on such occasions, and only sallied forth in time for luncheon,
+thereby presenting a fresh complexion and bright eyes with which to
+confound her less prudent sisters.
+
+Drake had been thinking of her as well as of Nell. He knew that he would
+have to marry. The present heir to the title and estates was anything
+but a desirable young man, and it behooved Drake to keep him out of the
+succession if possible.
+
+Drake, with all his freedom from pride and side, was fully sensible of
+the altitude of his position, and he knew the world looked to him for an
+heir to Angleford.
+
+Yes, he would have to marry, and as he had lost Nell, why, not marry
+Luce? He had an idea that she cared for him, as much as she cared for
+any other than herself, and he knew that she would fill the place as
+well as, if not better than, another.
+
+Their names had been coupled together. Society expected the match. Why
+should he not ask her to renew the engagement, and ask her at once? The
+house would be comparatively empty, for most of the guests would not
+return until dinner time, and he would have the opportunity of making
+his proposal.
+
+He stopped dead short, half resolved to obey the impulse; then, after
+the manner of men, he walked on again, and away from Anglemere, and,
+instead of returning to the house in time for lunch, found himself at
+one of the outlying farms.
+
+It is needless to say that he was accorded a hearty welcome. They did
+not fuss over him; the Anglemere tenants were prosperous and
+self-respecting; and though they regarded their lord and master as a
+kind of sovereign, and felt greatly honored by his presence under their
+roof, there was nothing servile in their attentions.
+
+Drake sat down to the midday meal with a ruddy-cheeked child on each
+side of him, and chatted with the farmer and his wife, the farmer eating
+his well-earned dinner with his usual appetite, the latter waiting on
+them with assiduity and perfect composure. Now and again Drake made a
+joke for the sake of the children, who laughed up at him with round eyes
+and open mouths; he discussed the breeding and price of poultry, the
+rival merits of the new churns and "separators" with the dame, and the
+prospects of the coming harvest with the good man. For a wonder the
+farmer did not grumble. The Anglefords were good landlords; there was no
+rack-renting, no ejections, and a farm falling vacant from natural
+causes was always eagerly tendered for.
+
+After the meal, which Drake enjoyed exceedingly, he and the farmer sat
+at the open window with their pipes and a glass of whisky and water, and
+continued their conversation.
+
+"I'm hearing that your lordship thinks of coming to Anglemere and living
+among us," said the farmer. "And I hope it's true, with all my heart.
+The land needs a master's presence--not that I've anything to complain
+of. Wood, the steward, has acted like a gentleman by me, and I hear no
+complaints of him among the neighbors. But all the same, it ain't like
+having the earl himself over us. It makes one's heart ache to see that
+great place shut up and empty most o' the year. Seems as if there ought
+to be some one living there pretty nigh always, and as if there ought to
+be little children running about the terrace an' the lawns. Begging your
+lordship's pardon, if I'm too free."
+
+"That's all right, Styles," said Drake. "I know what you mean."
+
+The farmer nodded, and stopped his pipe with his fat little finger.
+
+"I make so bold because I remember your lordship a wee chap so high." He
+put his hand about eighteen inches from the floor, as usual. "And a
+rare, hot-spirited youngster you was! Many's the time you've made me
+lift you into the cart, and you'd allus insist upon driving, though the
+reins were most too thick for your hands. Well, my lord, what we feels
+is that we'd like to live long enough to see another little chap--a
+future lordship--a-running about the place."
+
+Drake nodded gravely and took a drink. Even this simple fellow was aware
+of Drake's duty to the title and estates.
+
+"Perhaps you may some day, Styles," he said, smiling, and checking the
+sigh.
+
+The farmer nodded twice, with pleasure and satisfaction.
+
+"Glad to hear it, my lord; and I hope the wedding's to be soon."
+
+"Soon or late, I hope you will come and dance at the wedding ball,
+Styles," Drake responded, with a laugh, as he got up to go.
+
+But the laugh was not a particularly happy one, and he walked toward
+home in anything but a cheerful mood; for it is hard to be compelled to
+have to marry one woman while you are in love with another.
+
+He entered the park by the small gate behind which Ted and Burden had
+stood on the preceding night, and was treading his way through the wood
+when he saw two figures--those of a man and a girl--walking in the
+garden behind the south lodge. He glanced at them absently for a moment,
+then he stopped, and, leaning heavily on his stick, caught his breath.
+
+The man was Falconer, and the girl was--Nell!
+
+They were pacing up and down the path slowly, she with her eyes
+downcast, some flowers in her hands, he with his face turned toward her,
+a rapt look in his eyes, his hands, folded behind his back, twitching
+nervously. They turned full face to Drake as he stood watching them, and
+he saw her distinctly. It seemed marvelous to him that he had not fully
+recognized her last night, that he had not guessed that the young
+engineer was Dick. The blood rushed to his face, then left it pale, and
+he stood, unseen by them, gnawing at his mustache.
+
+In all his musings on the past, all his thoughts and dreams of her, the
+possibility of her being engaged or married had never occurred to him.
+He had always pictured her as still "Nell of Shorne Mills," living at
+The Cottage as she had done when she and he were lovers.
+
+And it was she--she, Nell!--to whom this musician was engaged! A wave of
+bitterness swept over him, and in the agony of his jealousy he could
+have laughed aloud.
+
+He had been sighing for her, longing for her, feeding his soul on his
+memory of her, all these months, while she had not only forgotten him,
+but had learned to love another man!
+
+He stood and stared at them, as if he saw them through a mist, too
+overwhelmed to move; but presently he saw Nell look up with tears in her
+eyes, and hold out her hand slowly, timidly.
+
+Falconer took it and put his lips to it. The sight broke the spell that
+held Drake, and, with a muttered oath, he turned and walked away quickly
+through the wood toward the house.
+
+The first dinner bell was ringing as he entered the hall. Most of the
+guests had gone up to dress, but one or two still lingered in the hall,
+and among them Lady Angleford and Lady Luce. The former came to meet him
+as he entered.
+
+"Why, where have you been, Drake?" she said, with the little maternal
+manner with which she always addressed him.
+
+Lady Luce was lounging in a chair, playing with a grayhound, and she
+looked up at him with a smile, then lowered her eyes, as if she were
+afraid their welcome should be too marked.
+
+"I've been for a walk," he said. His face was flushed, his eyes
+bright--too bright--with suppressed emotion. "I've been lunching at the
+Styles' farm----"
+
+"That's a long way! Aren't you tired? Will you have some tea? I'll get
+some made in a moment or two. Do!"
+
+"No, no; thanks!" he said, as he pitched his cap on the stand. "It's too
+late."
+
+As he spoke he went up to Lady Luce and looked down at her, his face
+still flushed, his eyes still unnaturally bright.
+
+"What have you been doing with yourself, Luce?" he asked.
+
+She glanced up at him for a moment, then lowered her eyes and drew the
+dog's sleek head close to her.
+
+"I don't know," she said, with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
+"Nothing, I think. It has been an awfully long day."
+
+"Luce has been bored to death, and--for once--has admitted it," said
+Lady Angleford, laughing. "Her yawns and sighs have been too awful for
+words."
+
+He stood and looked down at her. She was perfectly dressed, and looked
+like a girl in the light frock, with its plain blouse and neat sailor
+knot. At any rate, if he married her he would have a beautiful wife;
+and that was something. That she loved him, was still more.
+
+Now that he knew Nell had forgotten him, there was no reason why he
+should hesitate.
+
+He bent lower, and his hand fell on the dog's head and touched hers.
+
+"Luce!" he said.
+
+She looked up, saw that the words she had been longing for were
+trembling on his lips, and her face grew pale.
+
+"Luce, I want to speak to you," he said, in a low voice. Lady Angleford
+had gone to a table to collect her work; there was no one within
+hearing. "I want to ask you----"
+
+Before he could finish the all-important sentence, Wolfer and one or two
+other men who had been riding came in at the door.
+
+"Bell gone?" exclaimed Wolfer. "Afraid we are late. Had a capital ride,
+Angleford! What a lovely country it is! Is my wife in yet?"
+
+Drake bit his lip; for, having made up his mind to the plunge, he
+disliked being pulled up on the brink.
+
+"After dinner," he whispered, bending still lower, and he went upstairs
+with the other men. Lord Turfleigh, who was with them, paused at the
+landing, murmured an excuse, and toddled heavily down again. Lady Luce
+had picked up her book and risen, and she lifted her head and looked at
+her father with an unmistakable expression on her face.
+
+He raised his heavy eyebrows and stretched his mouth in a grin of
+satisfaction.
+
+"No!" he said, in a thick whisper. "Really?"
+
+She nodded, and flashed a smile of exultant triumph round the hall.
+
+"Yes. He had nearly spoken when you came in! My luck, of course! Another
+minute! But he will speak to-night!"
+
+"My dear gyurl!" he murmured. "You make your poor old father a proud and
+happy man. My own gyurl!"
+
+She glanced at Lady Angleford warningly, and going up to her, took her
+arm and murmured sweetly:
+
+"Let us go upstairs together, dear."
+
+Lady Angleford looked at her with a meaning smile.
+
+"How changed you have suddenly become, Luce!" she said. "Where are all
+your yawns gone? One would think you had heard news!"
+
+Luce turned her face with a radiant smile.
+
+"Perhaps I have," she said, in a low voice. "I--I will tell
+you--to-morrow!"
+
+They parted at the door of Lady Angleford's room, Lady Luce's being
+farther down the corridor. Next to Lady Angleford's was the suite which
+had been prepared for Drake, and he came out of the room which adjoined
+the one she used as a dressing room as she was going into it.
+
+"I'm sorry if my absence to-day was inconvenient, countess," he said.
+
+"Not in the least! Everybody was disposed of; indeed, I was so free that
+Lady Wolfer and I went for a long drive. How changed she is! I don't
+know a happier woman! And she has given up all that woman's rights
+business."
+
+Drake nodded, with, it must be admitted, little interest.
+
+"By the way," he said, as casually as he could, "what is the name of the
+young engineer and his sister who are staying at the lodge?"
+
+"Lorton," replied the countess. "So stupid of me! I thought it was
+Norton, and I addressed the invitation so; but Mrs. Hawksley tells me
+that it is Lorton. The brother comes from Bardsley & Bardsley."
+
+Drake nodded. He needed no confirmation of the fact of Nell's presence.
+
+"And she's engaged to this Mr. Falconer?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied the countess. "There can be no doubt of it. Mrs.
+Harksley says that his attentions to her last night--at the ball, I
+mean--were quite touching. They walked home together arm in arm. I
+really must call on her. They say she is extremely pretty."
+
+"No need to call, I think," he said. "I mean," he went on, as the
+countess looked surprised, "that--that they will be gone directly."
+
+"Oh, but I thought he might be going to remain as resident engineer."
+
+"No, I think not," said Drake, almost harshly. "From all I hear, he's
+too young."
+
+Lady Angleford nodded, and went into her room, where her maid was
+awaiting her.
+
+"Will you wear your diamonds, my lady?" she asked.
+
+The countess nodded absently, and took the key of the safe from her
+purse; but when the maid placed the square case which held the marvelous
+jewels on the dressing table, Lady Angleford changed her mind.
+
+"No, no," she said; "not to-night. It is only a house party. Put them
+back, please."
+
+The maid replaced the case in the safe, but she could not turn the key.
+
+"You must be quick. I am afraid I'm late," said the countess.
+
+"I can't turn the key, my lady," said the woman.
+
+Lady Angleford rose and tried to turn it, but the key remained
+obstinately immovable.
+
+"Knock at the earl's door and ask him if he will be kind enough to come to
+me," she said.
+
+The maid did so, and Drake came in.
+
+"I can't lock the safe, Drake," said the countess. "I am so sorry to
+trouble you."
+
+"It's no trouble," he responded. "Literally none," he added, with a
+short laugh. "You hadn't quite closed the door. See?"
+
+"We were stupid. How like a woman!" she said penitently.
+
+"Take care of the key," he said. "The diamonds had better be sent to the
+bank the day after to-morrow, unless you want to wear them again soon."
+
+"No," she said. "They make such a fuss about them; and--well, they are
+rather too much of a blaze for such a little woman as I am."
+
+"Nonsense!" he said. "Here's the key."
+
+He laid it on the dressing table, and she was about to take it up to
+replace it in her purse, and put the purse in one of the small drawers
+of the dressing table, when there came a knock at the door, and Burden
+entered.
+
+"I--I beg your ladyship's pardon," she faltered, drawing back.
+
+"What is it?" asked the countess.
+
+"I wanted to borrow some eau de Cologne for my lady," said Burden. "I
+thought your ladyship had gone down, or I wouldn't----"
+
+"Give her the eau de Cologne," said the countess to her maid. "Please
+ask Lady Luce to keep it. I shall not want it."
+
+Burden took the bottle and went out. On the other side of the door she
+paused a moment and caught her breath. Chance, or the devil himself, was
+working on Ted's behalf, for she had happened to enter the room at the
+very moment the countess had put the key in the purse, and the purse in
+the drawer. And all day Burden had been wondering how she should get
+that key.
+
+She went on after a moment or two, and Lady Luce looked up from her
+chair in front of the dressing table, as Burden entered.
+
+"Where have you been?" she asked sharply.
+
+"I went to borrow some eau de Cologne, my lady," replied Burden.
+
+"Well, please be quick; you know we are late. I will wear----" she
+paused a moment. She wanted to look her best that night. The beauty
+which had caught Drake in the past, the beauty which was to ensnare him
+again, and win for her the Angleford coronet, must lack no advantage
+dress could lend it. "The silver gray and the pearls, please," she
+said, after a moment or two of consideration. "Why, what is the matter
+with you?" she asked sharply, as she saw the reflection of Burden's face
+in the glass. "Are you ill, or what?"
+
+Burden tried to force the color to her face and keep her hands steady.
+
+"I--I am not very well, my lady," she faltered. "I--I have had bad
+news."
+
+"Bad news! What news?" asked Lady Luce coldly.
+
+"My--mother is very ill, my lady," replied Burden, on the spur of the
+moment.
+
+Lady Luce moved impatiently.
+
+"It is a singular thing that persons of your class are always in some
+trouble or other; you are either ill yourselves, or some of your
+relations are dying. I am very sorry and all that, Burden, but I hope
+you were not thinking of asking me to let you go home, because I really
+could not just now."
+
+"No, my lady; perhaps a little later----"
+
+"Well, I'll see," said Lady Luce irritably. "I don't suppose you could
+do any good if you were to go home; I suppose there's some one to look
+after your mother; and, after all, she may not be so bad as you think.
+Servants always look at the worst side of things, and meet troubles
+halfway."
+
+"Yes, my lady," said Burden.
+
+"And do, for goodness' sake, try and look more cheerful, my good girl!
+It's like having a ghost behind me. Besides, if you are worrying
+yourself about your mother you can't dress me properly; and I want you
+to be very careful to-night--of all nights!"
+
+She leaned back and smiled at her face in the glass, and thought no more
+of the maid's pale and anxious one. Had she been not so entirely
+heartless, had she even only affected a little interest and expressed
+some sympathy, the unhappy girl might have broken down and confessed her
+share in the meditated crime; but Lady Luce was incapable of pretending
+sympathy with a servant. In her eyes servants were of quite a different
+order of creation to that of her own class; hewers of wood and drawers
+of water, of no account beyond that which they gained from their value
+to their masters or mistresses. To consider the feelings of the servants
+who waited upon her would have seemed absurd to Lady Luce, almost,
+indeed, a kind of bad form.
+
+The dinner bell had rung before she was dressed, and she hurried down to
+find herself the last to arrive in the drawing-room. She sought Drake's
+face as she entered. It still wore the expression of suppressed
+excitement which she had noticed when he came in from his walk, and he
+smiled with a kind of reluctant admiration as he noticed the magnificent
+dress, and the way in which it set off her beauty.
+
+At dinner his altered mood was so marked that several persons who were
+near him noticed it. He, who had been so quiet and grave, almost stern
+in his manner and speech, to-night talked much and rapidly, and laughed
+freely.
+
+The flush on his face deepened, and his eyes flashed so brightly that
+Wolfer, who was sitting near him, could not help noticing how often
+Drake permitted the butler to fill his glass, and wondered whether
+anything had happened, and whether he were drinking too much.
+
+But Drake's gayety was infectious enough, and the dinner was a much
+livelier one than any that had preceded it.
+
+Lady Luce was, perhaps, the most quiet and least talkative; but she sat
+and listened to Drake's stories and badinage, with a smile in her eyes
+and her lips slightly apart.
+
+In a few hours he would speak the word which would make her the future
+Countess of Angleford!
+
+The ladies lingered at the table rather longer than usual, for Drake's
+stories had suggested others to the other men, and his high spirits had
+awakened those of the persons near him. But Lady Angleford rose at last,
+and the ladies filed off to the drawing-room.
+
+The men closed up their ranks, and Drake sent the wine round briskly.
+There was no dance to cut short the pleasant "after-the-ladies-have-gone"
+time; and they sat long over their wine, so that it was nearly ten
+o'clock when Drake, with his hand on the decanter near him, said:
+
+"No more, anybody? Sure? Turfleigh, you will, surely!"
+
+But the old man knew that he had had enough. He, too, was excited, and
+under a strain, and he rose rather unsteadily and shook his head.
+
+"No, thanks. Er--er--I fancy we've rather punished that claret of yours
+to-night, my dear boy."
+
+"It's a sad heart that never rejoices!" Drake retorted, with a laugh
+which sounded so reckless that Wolfer glanced at him with surprise.
+
+"We'd better have a cigarette in the smoking room before we go into the
+drawing-room," said Drake, and he led the way.
+
+As they went, talking and laughing, together across the hall, a
+white-faced woman leaned over the balustrade above, and watched them.
+
+The other servants were in the servants' hall, enjoying themselves; the
+gentlemen were in the smoking room, and the ladies in the drawing-room.
+She was alone in the upper part of the house, which was so quiet and
+still that the sound of a clock, in one of the rooms, striking ten was
+like that of a church bell in her ears.
+
+She started and pressed her hand to her heart, then stole to the window
+on the back staircase, and, keeping behind the curtain, listened. Her
+heart beat so loudly as to almost deafen her, but she heard a slight
+noise outside, and something fell with a soft tap against the window
+sill. It was the top of the ladder falling into its place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+Burden had switched off some of the electric lights in the
+corridor--was, indeed, prepared to switch the remainder if any one
+happened to come up--and she could just see a face through the window.
+The sight of it almost made her scream, for the face was partially
+covered by a crape mask, through which the eyes gleamed fiercely.
+
+Burden clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle the cry of terror, and,
+absolutely incapable of remaining on the spot, fled to her own room and
+locked herself in.
+
+Ted raised the window noiselessly and stepped into the corridor. He had
+a plan of the house, drawn from Burden's description, and he made
+straight for the countess' room. The Parson stood at the bottom of the
+ladder on guard. And each man carried a revolver loaded in all six
+barrels.
+
+A few minutes before the burglar had so neatly effected his entrance,
+the men left the smoking room for the drawing-room--all excepting Lord
+Turfleigh, who had taken a soda and brandy with his cigar, and deemed it
+prudent to indulge in a little nap before joining the ladies.
+
+Drake was a little less excited than he had been, but he was still
+resolved to ask Luce to be his wife, and he meant to take her into the
+conservatory, or one of the rooms where they could be alone for a few
+minutes. But when he entered the drawing-room she was playing. He went
+up to the piano, and, bending over it as if to look at the music,
+whispered:
+
+"Will you go into the conservatory presently?"
+
+She nodded, and without raising her eyes, but with a sudden flush. Drake
+went across the room to where Lady Angleford and Lady Wolfer were
+seated, talking, and the first word he heard was Nell's name.
+
+"Of course it is the same," Lady Wolfer was saying eagerly. "Her brother
+was at the engineers, Bardsley & Bardsley! And Nell has been near us all
+this time, and in this house, and I didn't know it! If I had, I would
+have gone to her at once. She's the dearest and sweetest girl in all the
+world, and I owe her----" She stopped and sighed, but not sadly. "She
+left us quite suddenly to go to her stepmother, who was a cousin of my
+husband's; and I have only seen her once since. They--she and her
+brother--were living in one of these large mansions--a dreadfully
+crowded and noisy place; but, though they were poor, she seemed quite
+happy and contented. I begged her to come and live with me, but she
+would not leave her brother--though for that matter we should have been
+delighted to have him also, especially if he is anything like her. Oh,
+yes, the dearest girl! And you don't know how much I owe her! Some day I
+may be tempted to tell you." She sighed again, and was silent for a
+moment, as she recalled the scene in her bedroom on the night of the
+dinner party, the night before Nell had left Wolfer House so suddenly.
+"I must go and see her to-morrow morning. They say she is engaged to the
+young man, the violinist."
+
+Lady Angleford nodded.
+
+"Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would
+account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an
+extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your
+dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of
+her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me."
+
+Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set
+sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he
+listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to
+a man who certainly was not worthy of her.
+
+Lady Angleford looked up at him.
+
+"We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake," she said.
+"She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a
+time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young
+to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom
+one knows."
+
+"I will see," he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with
+some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him
+and sighed.
+
+"How changed he is!" she said, in a low voice.
+
+"In what way?" asked Lady Wolfer.
+
+The countess was silent for a moment or two.
+
+"He seems as if he were unhappy about something," she said; "as if
+something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into
+the title, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was
+bright and cheerful; but now----I noticed the change the moment he came
+into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for
+anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now
+one would think he possessed all that a man could desire."
+
+"The vanity of human wishes, my dear!" said Lady Wolfer. "Something may
+have happened while he was abroad," she suggested in a low voice.
+
+"You mean a love affair? I don't think so."
+
+The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was
+about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the
+last man in the world to marry for the sake of "convenience."
+
+Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the
+piano; but she was playing a long piece--an interminable one, as it
+seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not
+finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling
+had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there
+was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his
+dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down,
+and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were
+fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as
+his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.
+
+It was a peculiar sound, like the soft bang which is made by the closing
+of a safe door. For a moment Drake paid no heed to it; then suddenly its
+significance struck upon him. Lady Angleford was in the drawing-room.
+Who could be at the safe?
+
+He stepped outside the door, and waited for a second or two, then he
+opened the door softly, and saw a man rising from his knees in front of
+the safe. The man turned at the moment and stood with the case of
+diamonds in his hand--two other cases bulged from his side pockets--his
+eyes gleaming through his mask.
+
+Now, in fiction the hero who is placed in this position always cries
+aloud for help, and instantly springs at the burglar; but in real life
+the element of surprise has to be taken into account; and Drake was too
+amazed at the moment to fling himself upon the thief. Besides, it is
+your weak and timid man who immediately cries for help. Drake was
+neither weak nor timid, and it would not occur to him to shriek for
+assistance. So the two men stood motionless as statues, and glanced at
+each other while you could count twenty. Then the burglar whipped a
+revolver from his pocket and presented it.
+
+"Stand out of my way!" he said gruffly, and disguising his voice, for
+he knew how easily a voice can become a means of identification. "Better
+stand out of my way, or, by God! I'll fire!"
+
+Drake laughed, the short laugh of a strong man ridiculing the proposal
+that he shall probably stand aside and permit a thief to pass with his
+booty.
+
+"Put down that thing," he said. "You know you can't fire; too much
+noise. Put it down--and the cases. No? Very well!"
+
+He sprang aside with one movement, and with the next went for the man.
+
+Ted was really a skillful craftsman, and had taken the precaution to
+fasten a string across the room, from the bed to the grate.
+
+Drake's foot caught in it, and he went sprawling on his face.
+
+Ted sprang over him, and gained the corridor. With a dexterity beyond
+all praise, he switched off the remaining lights and then pushed up the
+window and dropped, rather than climbed, down the ladder.
+
+Drake was on his feet in a moment and out in the corridor in the next.
+He had heard the window pushed up, and knew the point at which the man
+had made his escape.
+
+Even then he did not give the alarm, and he did not turn up the lights,
+for he could see into the night better without them. He leaned out of
+the window and peered into darkness, and distinguished two forms gliding
+toward the shrubbery.
+
+It was a long drop, but he intended taking it. He swung one leg over the
+sill as some one came up the stairs.
+
+It was Sparling.
+
+"Why are all the lights out?" he exclaimed. "Who's there?" for there was
+light enough from the hall for him to see Drake dimly.
+
+"All right; it's I," said Drake quietly. "Turn up the lights. There are
+burglars. Don't shout; you'll frighten the ladies. Get the bicycle lamp
+from my room--quick!"
+
+Sparling tore into the room, and came dashing out with the lamp, and,
+with trembling hands, lit it.
+
+"Drop it down to me when I call," said Drake. "I'll risk its going out.
+Then get some of the men and search the grounds. And--mind!--no
+frightening the ladies!"
+
+Then he lowered himself, dropped, and called up. He caught the lamp,
+which was still alight, and covering the glass with his hand, ran in the
+direction the men had taken; and as he ran he buttoned his dress coat
+over the big patch of white made by his wide shirt front.
+
+He had stalked big game often enough to be aware that his only chance of
+tracking the thieves lay in his following them quietly and unseen, and
+he ran on tiptoe, and keeping as much as possible among the shrubs as he
+went, his ears and eyes strained attentively, he endeavored to put
+himself in their place.
+
+"Yes," he muttered, "they'll make for the road, where there'll be a trap
+waiting for them--or bicycles; but which part of the road?"
+
+The park fence was high, but easily climbable by an experienced burglar,
+and they might make for it at any point; presumably the nearest.
+
+By this time he was cool enough, but extremely angry; and he blamed
+himself for falling so easily into the string trap. What he ought to
+have done----At this point in his futile reflections he stopped and
+listened, not for the first time, and he fancied he heard a rustling
+among the trees in front of him. He ran on as softly as possible, and
+presently saw a figure--one only--going swiftly in the direction of the
+lodge.
+
+Drake understood in a moment; one man had gone to bring the vehicle near
+the gates, and this other man was waiting for it.
+
+Up to this instant Drake had given no thought to the fact that he was
+pursuing two men, desperate, and, no doubt, armed, while he had no kind
+of weapon upon him. But now he smiled with a grim satisfaction as he saw
+that he had only one man to deal with.
+
+Their separation was a point in his favor.
+
+Steadily he followed on the man's track, and in a moment or two he saw
+the glimmer of the light from the lodge window; and as he saw it, he
+heard the roll of wheels approaching the gates.
+
+The burglar, unacquainted with the topography of the road, was breaking
+his way through the undergrowth; and Drake, seeing that there was a
+chance of cutting him off by striking into one of the paths, turned into
+it.
+
+He had to run for all he was worth now, and as he sped along he was
+reminded of his old college days, when he sprinted for the mile
+race--and won it. He reached a corner where the narrow path joined the
+wider one leading to the gate, and here he stopped, listening intently,
+and still covering the light of the lamp with his hand. Suddenly he
+heard footsteps near the lodge, and with a thrill of excitement more
+keen than any other chase had given him, he ran toward them.
+
+As he did so, he caught sight of a woman's dress, and a faint cry of
+alarm and surprise arose. Was there a woman in the business?
+
+Before he could answer the mental question he saw a figure--the figure
+he had been pursuing--dash from the woods on the right and make for the
+path he had just left. Drake swung round sharply and tore after him. The
+man looked over his shoulder, swore threateningly, and snatched
+something from his pocket. In drawing the revolver, however, he dropped
+something, and Drake saw, with immense satisfaction, that it was the
+diamond case.
+
+"Give in, my man!" he said.
+
+Ted laughed, caught up the case, and rushed on in the direction of the
+gate. But at that moment the tall figure of Falconer ran from the lodge.
+
+Falconer stood for a moment, then he took in the situation, and dashing
+to the gate, flung it close. Ted heard the clang of the gate, and ran
+back toward Drake, with revolver raised.
+
+Death stared Drake in the face; but it is at such moments that men of
+his temperament are coolest. He sprang aside as he had done in Lady
+Angleford's room. The revolver "pinged," there was a flash of light, but
+the bullet sped past him, and Drake flung himself upon his man.
+
+Ted was as slippery as an eel, and striking Drake across the head with
+the revolver, he ran into the woods, with Drake after him; but the man
+knew there was no escape for him in that direction, and after a moment
+or two he turned and faced Drake again.
+
+"Keep off, you fool, or I'll shoot you!" he growled hoarsely.
+
+"Give in," said Drake again. "The game's up!"
+
+Ted laughed shortly, and aimed the revolver again; but as his finger
+pressed the trigger, a cry rose from behind him, his arm was struck
+aside, and once more the bullet whizzed past its mark, and Drake was
+saved.
+
+He saw the figure of a woman struggling with the burglar, saw the man
+raise his hand to strike her from him, saw her fall to the ground, and
+knew, by some instinct, that it was Nell.
+
+In that instant the capture of the man was of no moment to him. With a
+cry, he flung himself on his knees beside her.
+
+"Nell, Nell!" he panted. "Is it you?"
+
+She remained quite motionless under his words, his touch, and he raised
+her head and tried to see her face.
+
+The lamp he had dropped some moments before.
+
+Suddenly a great shudder ran through her. She sighed, and opened her
+eyes.
+
+"Drake!" she murmured; "Drake! Is he----"
+
+He thought she referred to the man.
+
+"Never mind him," he said eagerly. "Are you hurt? Tell me?"
+
+She put her hand to her head, and struggled to her feet, swaying to and
+fro as if only half conscious, then her hands went out to him, and she
+uttered a cry of terror and anxiety.
+
+"He--he shot you!" she gasped.
+
+"No, no!" he responded quickly. "There is no harm done, if the brute has
+not hurt you."
+
+She shook her head and leaned against the tree, trembling and panting.
+
+"I was in the garden. I--heard you and the man running, and--and--I--ran
+across the path----"
+
+"In time to save my life," he said gravely. "But I'd rather have died
+than you should come to harm."
+
+As he spoke, he heard the noise of a struggle behind him. He had
+absolutely ceased to care what became of the man whom he had been
+pursuing so relentlessly for a few minutes before; but the noise, the
+hoarse cries, which now broke upon them had recalled him to a sense of
+the situation.
+
+"They are struggling at the gate--I must leave you," he said hurriedly.
+And he ran down the path.
+
+As he approached the gate, he saw Falconer and the burglar struggling
+together. Falconer was losing ground every moment, and as Drake was
+nearly upon them, Ted got his opponent under him; but Falconer still
+clung to him, and Ted could not get free from him. As he shot a glance
+at Drake he ground his teeth.
+
+"Let me go, you fool!" he hissed. "Let me----"
+
+He got one arm free, the glimmer of steel flashed in the dim light as he
+struck downward, and Falconer with a sharp groan loosed his hold.
+
+Ted was clear of him in an instant and sprang for the gate; but as he
+opened it Drake was upon him. Ted was spent with his struggle with
+Falconer; he had dropped his revolver; Drake had seized the arm which
+held the knife--seized it in a grip like that of a vise.
+
+"Parson! Quick!" cried Ted. The dogcart drove up to the gate, and the
+Parson was about to spring to the aid of his mate, when another figure
+came running up. It was Dick.
+
+"Why, what on earth's the matter?" he cried.
+
+At the sound of his voice, the Parson, counting his foes with a quick
+eye, leaped into the cart and drove away at a gallop. Ted cursed at the
+sound of the retreating cart and struck out wildly, but Drake had pinned
+him against the gate.
+
+"Knock that knife out of his hand!" he said sharply, and Dick did so. In
+another moment the burglar was on his back in the road with Drake's knee
+on his chest.
+
+"That will do!" he panted. "I give in! It's a fair cap! But if that
+white-livered hound had stood by me, I'd have beaten the lot of you! As
+it is, I've given as good as I've got, I fancy!" and he nodded
+tauntingly as he glanced to where Dick knelt beside Falconer.
+
+Drake tore off the mask, and Ted shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You can take your knee off my chest, my lord," he said; "you're a tidy
+weight. Oh, I'm not going to try to escape. I know when I'm done. But it
+was a near thing."
+
+Sparling and a couple of grooms with lanterns came running toward them,
+and Drake rose.
+
+"Look to him," he said quietly. "He is not armed."
+
+Ted took the cases from his pockets and flung them down as the men
+surrounded him; then he drew out a cigarette case, and, with a cockney
+drawl, said:
+
+"Can one of you oblige me with a light?"
+
+Sparling knocked the cigarette out of his hand, and one of the grooms
+growled:
+
+"Shall I give him one over the head, for his cheek, Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"Yes; that's about all you flunkeys can do; hit a man when he's down,"
+said Ted. "But you needn't trouble. Here comes the peelers."
+
+His quick ears had caught the heavy footsteps of the policeman, who came
+running up, and, before he was asked to do so, he held out his hands for
+the handcuffs.
+
+"Is the cove dead?" he asked curtly; but no one answered him; indeed, no
+answer was possible, for Falconer lay like one dead, and Drake, who
+supported his head, could perceive no movement of the heart.
+
+"One of you take a cart and go for the doctor," he said gravely.
+
+As he spoke, Nell came toward them. The climax had been reached so
+quickly that Falconer had been wounded and the burglar caught before she
+could find strength to follow Drake; for the reaction which had followed
+upon her discovery of the fact that he was unhurt had made her weaker
+than the man's blow had done.
+
+But now, as she saw the circle of men bending and kneeling round a
+prostrate figure, her terror rose again and she hurried forward. Pushing
+one of the men aside, she looked down, and with a cry fell on her knees
+beside the unconscious man and gazed with horror-stricken eyes.
+
+"He is dead! He is dead! He has killed him!" she moaned.
+
+There was a moment's silence, while Drake looked at her with set face
+and gloomy eyes; for at the anguish in her voice a pang of jealousy shot
+through him, of envy; for how willingly he would have changed places
+with the injured man!
+
+He rose, lantern in hand, and went round to her.
+
+"He is not dead," he said, almost inaudibly.
+
+"Oh, thank God!" she breathed.
+
+"But he is badly hurt, I am afraid," said Drake gravely. Then he turned
+to the men. "We will carry him to the lodge. Gently!"
+
+They lifted the wounded man and bore him along slowly. As they did so,
+Nell walked by his side, and half unconsciously took his hand and held
+it fast clasped in her trembling one. Even at that moment he saw her
+actions, and his heart ached. Yes, to have Nell hold his hand thus, to
+have her sweet eyes resting on him so tenderly, so anxiously, he would
+have willingly been in Falconer's place.
+
+They carried Falconer up to his room, and Drake, with the skill he had
+acquired in many a knife-and-gun-shot accident, staunched the wound.
+Falconer had been stabbed in the chest, and the blood was flowing, but
+slowly.
+
+Drake was so absorbed in the task that he had forgotten Dick's presence
+until, looking up, he caught Dick's eye fixed on him with sheer wonder.
+
+"Drake!" he said, in a whisper. "You here?"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"Yes; it's a strange meeting, Dick, isn't it? But we have been near each
+other--though we didn't know it--for some days past. You are 'the young
+engineer,' and I----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and Dick leaped at the truth.
+
+"You are Lord Angleford?" he said.
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"Yes. I'll explain presently. Just now all we can think of is this poor
+fellow."
+
+"Poor chap!" said Dick sadly. "If I'd only come up a minute or two
+sooner--I'd gone down to the village for some 'bacca. Who'd have thought
+he was such a plucky one. For he's not strong, Drake, you see."
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"No," he said; "but it is not always the strongest who are the bravest.
+Who is that?" for there came a knock at the door.
+
+Dick went and opened it. Nell stood there, white to the lips, but calm
+and composed. He answered the question in her eyes.
+
+"All right, Nell! Don't be frightened. He'll pull through; won't he,
+Drake?"
+
+She turned her eyes upon him, and he met their appeal steadily.
+
+"I hope so," he said.
+
+She stole into the room, and, with her hands clasped, looked down at
+Falconer in silence.
+
+"I hope so," repeated Drake emphatically. "There are not so many brave
+men that the world can afford to lose one."
+
+She raised her eyes to his face quickly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "he was unarmed and knew that it was a struggle for
+life, that the man was desperate and would stick at nothing. It was the
+pluckiest thing I have ever seen." Then he remembered how she had sprung
+forward to strike up the burglar's arm, and he added, under his breath,
+"almost the pluckiest."
+
+The crimson dyed her face for a moment, and her eyes dropped under his
+regard; but she said nothing, and presently she stole out again.
+
+It seemed an age to the two men before the doctor arrived, though the
+time was really short; it seemed another age while he made his
+examination. He met Drake's questioning gaze with the grave evasion
+which comes so naturally to the smallest of country practitioners.
+
+"A nasty wound, my lord!" he said. "But I've known men recover from a
+worse one. Unfortunately, he is not a strong man. This poor fellow has
+known the meaning of privation." He touched the thin arm, and pointed to
+the wasted face. "They tell their own story! Now, if it were you, my
+lord----" he smiled significantly.
+
+"Would to God it had been!" said Drake. The village nurse, whom the
+doctor had instructed to follow him, entered and moved with professional
+calm to the bedside, and the doctor gave her some instructions.
+
+"I'll send you some help, nurse," he said.
+
+As he spoke, Nell came to the door.
+
+"No," she said, very quietly; "there is no need; I will help."
+
+Almost as if he had heard her, Falconer's lips quivered, and he murmured
+something. Nell glided to the bed, and kneeling beside him, took his
+hand. His eyes opened, with the vacant stare of unconsciousness for a
+moment, then they recognized her, and he spoke her name.
+
+"Nell!"
+
+"Yes," she whispered, in response. "It is I. You are here at the lodge.
+Here is Dick, and"--her voice fell before Drake's steady regard--"you
+are with friends, and safe."
+
+He smiled, but his eyes did not leave her face.
+
+"I know," he said. "I--I am more than content."
+
+Drake could bear it no longer. Dick followed him out of the room, and
+they went downstairs.
+
+"I will wire for Sir William, the surgeon," said Drake, very quietly.
+"He will come down by the first train. Everything shall be done.
+Tell--tell your sister----"
+
+Dick nodded gravely.
+
+"He's one of the best fellows in the world; he's worth saving, Drake----"
+he said. "I beg your pardon," he broke off. "I--I suppose I ought to call
+you 'my lord' now. I can scarcely realize yet----"
+
+Drake flushed almost angrily.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no!" he exclaimed. "There need be no difference
+between you and me, Dick, whatever there may be between----I'll come
+across in the morning to inquire, and I'll tell you all that has
+happened. Dick, you'll have to forgive me for hiding my right name down
+there at Shorne Mills. It was a folly; but one gets punished for one's
+follies," he added, as he held out his hand.
+
+Still confused by the discovery that his old friend "Drake Vernon" was
+Lord Angleford, Dick could only let him go in silence, and Drake passed
+out.
+
+As he did so, he looked up at the window of the sick room. A shadow
+passed the blind, and as he recognized it he sighed heavily. Yes;
+notwithstanding his wound and his peril, the penniless musician was the
+lucky man, and he, my Lord of Angleford, the most unfortunate and
+unhappy.
+
+Slowly he made his way toward the house, and as he went the face and the
+voice of the woman he loved haunted him. For a moment she had rested in
+his arms, and he could still feel her head on his breast, still hear the
+"Drake, Drake!"
+
+She had not forgotten him, then; she still remembered him with some
+kindness, though she loved Falconer? Well, he should be grateful for
+that. It would be good to think of all through the weary years that lay
+before him.
+
+How beautiful she was! With what an exquisite tenderness her eyes had
+dwelt upon the wounded man! He started, and almost groaned, as he
+remembered that not so long ago those eyes had beamed love and
+tenderness upon himself.
+
+"Oh, Nell, Nell!" broke from him unconsciously. "Oh, my dear, lost love!
+how shall I live without you, now that I have seen you, held you in my
+arms again?"
+
+The great house loomed before him; the hall door was open; figures were
+standing and flitting in the light that streamed on the terrace; and
+with a pang he awoke to the responsibilities of his position, to the
+remembrance of his interview with Luce. There she stood on the top of
+the steps, a shawl thrown round her head, her face eager and anxious.
+
+"Drake! Is it you?" she exclaimed; and she came down the steps to meet
+him, her hand outstretched.
+
+The others crowded round, all talking at once. He shook her hand, held
+it a moment, then let it drop.
+
+"He is all right, I hope," he said.
+
+"He!" she murmured. "It is you--you, Drake!"
+
+He frowned slightly.
+
+"Oh! I?" he said, with self-contempt. "I have got off scot-free. Where is
+the countess?"
+
+Lady Luce looked at him keenly, and with a half-reproachful air.
+
+"I--I--have been very frightened, Drake," she said.
+
+For the life of him he could not even affect a tenderness.
+
+"On my account? There was not the least need."
+
+Lady Angleford came forward hurriedly.
+
+"Drake! You are not hurt! Thank God!" And her hands clasped his arm.
+
+"You have got your jewels?" he said, in the curt tone with which a man
+tries to fend off a fuss. "Are they all there?"
+
+She made an impatient movement.
+
+"Yes, yes--oh, yes! As if they mattered! Tell me how that poor man is.
+How brave of him!"
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"Yes. He will pull round, I hope. We shall know more in the morning.
+Hadn't you ladies better go to bed? Wolfer, I have wanted a drink once
+or twice in my life, but never, I think, quite so keenly as now."
+
+The men gathered round him as he stopped at the foot of the stairs to
+wish the women good night. Luce came last, and as she held out her hand,
+looked at him appealingly. Was he going to let her go without the word
+she had been expecting--the word he had promised? He understood the
+appeal in her eyes, but he could not respond. Not to-night, with Nell's
+face and voice haunting him, could he ask Lady Luce to be his wife.
+To-morrow--yes, to-morrow!
+
+She smiled at him as he held her hand, but as she went up the stairs the
+smile vanished, and, if it is ever possible for so beautiful a woman to
+become suddenly plain, then Lady Luce's face achieved that
+transformation.
+
+Gnawing at her underlip, she entered her room, flung herself into a
+chair, and beat a tattoo with her foot. The door opened softly, and
+Burden stole in. She was very pale, there were dark marks under her
+eyes, and she trembled so violently that the brushes rattled together as
+she took them from the table.
+
+Lady Luce looked up at her angrily.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" she demanded. "You look more like a ghost
+than a human being, or as if you'd been drinking."
+
+Burden winced under the insult, and stole behind her mistress' chair;
+but Lady Luce faced round after her.
+
+"You're not fit to do my hair, or anything else!" she said. "What is the
+matter now? Your mother or one of your other relations, I suppose. You
+always have some excuse or other for your whims and fancies."
+
+"I--I am rather upset, my lady!" Burden responded, almost inaudibly.
+"The--the robbery----"
+
+"What does it concern you?" said Lady Luce sharply. "It is no affair of
+yours; your business is to wait upon me, and if you can't or won't do it
+properly----"
+
+The brush fell from Burden's uncertain hand, and Lady Luce sprang to her
+feet in a passion.
+
+"Oh, go away! Get out of my sight!" she said contemptuously. "Go down to
+the kitchen and tremble and shake with the other maids. I can't put up
+with you to-night."
+
+"I'm--I'm very sorry, my lady. I'm upset--everybody's upset."
+
+"Oh, go--go!" broke in Lady Luce impatiently. "If you are not better
+to-morrow, you'd better go for good!"
+
+Burden stood for a moment uncertainly; then, with a stifled sob, left
+the room, and went down the corridor toward the servants' apartments;
+but halfway she stopped, hesitated, then descended the back stairs and
+stole softly along one of the passages. A door from the smoking room
+opened on to this passage, and against this she leaned and listened.
+
+Sparling and the grooms who had joined in the pursuit of the burglars
+had come back full of the chase and its results, and there was an
+excited and dramatic recital going on in the servants' hall at that
+moment; but she dared not go there, though she was in an agony of
+anxiety to know the whole truth and the fate of her lover. Her face, her
+overwrought condition, would have betrayed her; so, at the least, would
+have caused surprise and aroused suspicion. She could not face the
+servants' hall, but she knew that the gentlemen would be discussing the
+affair in the smoking room, and that if she could listen unseen she
+should hear what had happened to Ted. It was Ted, and nothing, no one
+else she cared about.
+
+All the men were in the smoking room, and all were plying Drake with
+questions. Drake, knowing that he would have to go through it, was
+giving as concise an account of it as was possible. He was wearied to
+death, not only of the burglary, but of the emotions he had experienced,
+and his voice was low and his manner that of a man talking against his
+will; but Burden heard every word, for, at its lowest, Drake's voice was
+singularly clear.
+
+She listened, motionless as a statue, till he came to the point where
+the burglar had turned and faced him. Then she moved and had hard work
+to stifle a moan.
+
+"That was a near thing, Angleford!" said Lord Turfleigh, over the edge
+of his glass; "a deuced near thing! If I'd been you, I should have cried
+a go, and let the fellow off. Dash it all! a man in your position has
+no right to risk his life, even for such diamonds as the Angleford."
+
+Drake laughed shortly.
+
+"I didn't think of the diamonds," he said quietly. "It was a match
+between me and the man. He missed me and bolted to cover. I followed,
+and he slipped behind a tree and aimed; but he missed--fortunately for
+me."
+
+"Missed you?" said Lord Wolfer, who had been listening attentively and
+in silence. "How was that? You must have been very near?"
+
+Drake was silent for a moment; then, as if reluctantly, he replied:
+
+"There were several persons engaged in the game. One of them was a young
+lady who is staying at the lodge--the south lodge. She happened to be
+out, strolling in the garden, and heard the rumpus. And she"--he lit a
+fresh cigarette--"she sprang on him and struck his arm up!"
+
+"No!" exclaimed one of the men. "Dash it all! Angleford, if this isn't
+the most dramatic, sensational affair I've ever heard of."
+
+"Yes?" came in Drake's grave, restrained tones. "Yes, that saved my
+life."
+
+There was a moment's silence, an impressive silence, then he went on:
+
+"And did for the man. If he had disposed of me, he could have shot poor
+Mr. Falconer at the gate and got off. As it was----" He stopped and
+seemed to consider. "Well, it left me free to collar him at the gate,
+but not, unfortunately, until he had wounded Falconer."
+
+"Poor devil!" muttered Lord Turfleigh. "Hard lines on him, eh,
+Angleford?"
+
+"Yes," said Drake gravely.
+
+"Then, as I understand it," said Lord Wolfer, "your life, the salvation
+of the countess' jewels, and the capture of the burglar are due to this
+lady?"
+
+"That is so," assented Drake quietly.
+
+"Who is she? What is her name?" asked several men, in a breath.
+
+There was a pause, during which Burden listened breathlessly.
+
+"Her name is Lorton," said Drake, very quietly. "She is staying at the
+south lodge."
+
+Burden started and bit her lip. Lorton? Where had she heard----
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Lord Wolfer. "You don't mean that Miss Lorton
+who was with us?"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"The same," he said gravely.
+
+Burden's lips twitched, and her hands gripped the edge of the door frame.
+
+There was silence for a moment, then one of the men asked:
+
+"And what do you think the fellow will get, Angleford?"
+
+"It all depends," replied Drake, after a pause. "If this fellow Falconer
+should die----Well, it will be murder. If not--and God grant he may
+not!--it will be burglary simply, and it will mean penal servitude for
+so many years."
+
+"And serve him right, whichever way it goes!" cried one of the men.
+"Anyway, this young lady, this Miss Lorton, is a brick! Here's her
+health!"
+
+Burden waited for no more. She was white still, but she was trembling no
+longer. Her eyes were glowing savagely, and her lips were strained
+tightly. Her sweetheart was captured; he would either be hanged or
+sentenced to penal servitude; and Miss Lorton was the person with whom
+she had to reckon!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+Before morning Falconer became delirious. He did not rave nor shout, but
+he talked incessantly, with his eyes wide open and fixed vacantly, and
+his long hand plucking at the bedclothes. Nell stole in from her room,
+though she had promised to rest and leave the night duty to the village
+nurse, and, sitting beside him, held his hand.
+
+At the touch of her cool fingers he became quiet for a moment or two,
+and something like a smile crossed his pain-lined face; but presently he
+began again. Sometimes he was back at the Buildings, and he hummed a bar
+or two of music while his fingers played on the counterpane as if it
+were a piano. Once or twice he murmured her name in a tone which brought
+the color to Nell's face and made her heart ache. But it did not need
+the whisper of her name to tell her Falconer's secret. She knew that he
+loved her, for he had told her so at the moment when Drake had seen them
+walking together in the garden.
+
+And as she sat and held his hand, she tried to force her mind from
+dwelling on Drake, and to remember the devotion of the stricken man
+beside her.
+
+Though he had confessed his love, he had asked for nothing in return. He
+had said that he knew that his passion was hopeless, but that he could
+not help loving her, that he must continue to do so while life lasted.
+
+"I will never speak of it again," he had said. "You need not be afraid.
+I don't know why I told you now; it slipped out before I knew----No,
+don't be afraid. All I ask is that you should still look upon me as a
+friend, that you will still let me be near you as often as is possible.
+It is too much to ask? If so, I will go away--somewhere, and cease to
+trouble you with the sight of me!"
+
+And Nell, with tears in her eyes--as Drake had seen--had given him her
+hand in silence, for a moment or two, and then, almost inaudibly, had
+answered:
+
+"I am sorry--sorry! Oh, why did you tell me? No, no; forgive me! But you
+must not go. I--I could not afford to lose your--friendship!"
+
+"That you shall not do!" he had said, very quietly, and with a brave
+smile. "Please remember that I said I knew there was no hope for me. How
+could there be? How could it be possible for you--you!--to care for me?
+But a weed may dare to love the sun, Miss Lorton, though it is only a
+weed and not a stately flower. I ought not to have told you; but that
+little success of mine, and the prospect it has opened out, must have
+turned my head. But you have forgiven me, have you not? and you will try
+and forget that I was mad enough to show you my heart?"
+
+He had not waited for her to respond, but had left her at once, and, so
+that she should not think him quite heartbroken, had hummed an air as he
+went.
+
+And now that he lay here 'twixt life and death, Nell's heart ached for
+him, and she longed, with a longing beyond all words, that she could
+have returned the love he bore her.
+
+But alas, alas! she had no love to give. Drake had stolen it long ago,
+there at Shorne Mills; and though he had flung it from him, it could not
+come back to her.
+
+Even as she sat, with Falconer's hand in hers, she could not keep her
+mind from dwelling on Drake, though the failure of her attempt to do so
+covered her with shame. She had been in his arms again, had heard his
+voice, and the glamour of his presence and his touch were upon her.
+
+His face hovered before her in the dim light of the sick room, and
+filled her with the aching longing of unsatisfied love.
+
+Oh, why could she not forget him? Why could she not bring herself to
+accept, to return, the love of the man who loved her with all his heart
+and soul? He was all that was good, he was a genius, and a brave man to
+boot! Surely any woman might be proud to possess him for a husband,
+might learn to love him!
+
+She turned and looked at him as he lay, his head tossing restlessly on
+the pillow, his lips moving deliriously; but though her whole being was
+stirred with pity for him, pity is not love, though it may be nearly
+akin, and one cannot force love as one forces a hothouse plant.
+
+After a while he became weaker, and the rambling, incoherent talk
+ceased; but she was still holding his hand when Dick and the doctor came
+in again. She sought the latter's face eagerly, but he merely smiled
+encouragingly.
+
+"He has had a better night than I expected," he said, "and the
+temperature is not exceedingly high. You had better get some rest, Miss
+Lorton; you have been sitting up, I see."
+
+Dick drew Nell out of the room.
+
+"Drake--confound it! Lord Angleford, I mean!--has sent for Sir William.
+Is--is he going to die, do you think. Nell?"
+
+Nell shook her head, her eyes filling.
+
+"I don't know; I hope not. You--you have seen Dra--Lord Angleford,
+Dick?"
+
+"Just now. He came to inquire. Nell, I can't understand it, though he
+has tried to explain why he hid his real name; and--and--Nell--he didn't
+tell me why you and he broke it off."
+
+She flushed for a moment.
+
+"There was no need," she said. "It does not matter."
+
+Dick sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"No, I suppose it doesn't; but it's a mysterious affair. I hear he is
+going to marry that fair woman, Lady Luce."
+
+Nell inclined her head, her lips set tightly.
+
+"It's a pity we can't get away from here," he said gloomily. "It's jolly
+awkward. Though Drake was more than friendly with me last night and just
+now. He's awfully changed."
+
+They were standing by the window of the sitting room, and Nell was
+looking out with eyes that saw nothing.
+
+"Changed?"
+
+"Yes; he looks years older, and he's stern and grave as if----Well, he
+doesn't look the same man, and it strikes me that he's anything but
+happy, though he is the Earl of Angleford, and going to marry one of the
+most beautiful woman in England."
+
+Nell stood with compressed lips and eyes fixed on vacancy.
+
+"He got a nasty blow last night," said Dick, after a pause.
+
+Her manner changed in a moment, and her eyes flew round to him.
+
+"He was hurt?" she said, with a catch in her breath.
+
+Dick nodded.
+
+"Yes; that ruffian struck him with the revolver or something. And I
+say, Nell, I haven't heard your share in this affair yet. Drake told me
+that the fellow struck you."
+
+"Did he?" she said indifferently. "I--I don't remember. Was Lord
+Angleford badly hurt? Tell me."
+
+"Oh, no; I think not; not badly," replied Dick. "There's a bruise on his
+temple; but what's that to the damage poor Falconer suffered? Drake says
+that it was the pluckiest thing he's seen. Oh, Lord! what a sickening
+business it is! Thank goodness, they've got the fellow. It will be a
+lifer for him, that's one consolation."
+
+Nell shuddered.
+
+"And they've got the jewels back, that's another," said Dick, more
+cheerily. "Though I'd rather the fellow had got off with them than poor
+Falconer should have been hurt. What beastly bad luck, just after he'd
+struck oil and got a start! Drake says that Falconer will be a
+celebrity, if he lives; and you may depend Drake will do his best to
+make his words good. There'll be a 'Falconer boom,' mark my words. I
+never saw any one so concerned about a man as Drake is about him. He was
+here outside talking with the doctor before it was light. The whole of
+the remainder of the big house is to be placed at our disposal. In
+short, if it had been Drake himself who was stabbed, there couldn't be
+more concern shown. Here's the breakfast, and for the first time in my
+life, I don't want it. Why the deuce can't the swells look after their
+blessed diamonds?"
+
+Nell gave him his coffee, and then stole up to her own room and flung
+herself on the bed.
+
+Drake was hurt. It might have been Drake instead of Falconer lying
+between life and death. Her heart throbbed with thankfulness; but the
+next moment she hid her face in her hands for very shame. She tried to
+sleep, but she could not, and it was almost a relief when the servant
+knocked and said that two ladies from the Hall were downstairs.
+
+"But I was not to disturb you if you was asleep, miss," she added, with
+naïveté.
+
+Nell bathed her face and smoothed her hair quickly, and went down; and,
+as she entered the sitting room, was taken into Lady Wolfer's embrace.
+
+"My dear, dear Nell!" she cried, in the subdued tones due to the sick
+room above. "Why, it's like a fairy story! Why didn't I or some of us
+know you were here, till last night? You remember Lady Angleford, dear?"
+
+The countess came forward and held out her hand with her friendly and
+gentle smile.
+
+"Come to the light and let me look at you," Lady Wolfer went on, drawing
+Nell to the window; "though it's scarcely fair, after all you have gone
+through. Nell, who would have thought that we were entertaining a
+heroine unawares? We knew you were an angel, of course; but a heroine--a
+heroine of romance! You dear, brave girl!"
+
+Nell colored painfully.
+
+"The whole place, the whole county, by this time, to say nothing of
+London and every other place where a telegraph wire runs, is full of
+it."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry!" said poor Nell, aghast.
+
+Lady Angleford smiled.
+
+"It is the penalty one pays for heroism, Miss Lorton," she said; "and
+you must forgive me for being grateful to you for saving Lord
+Angleford's life."
+
+"Oh, but I didn't--indeed I didn't!" exclaimed Nell, in distress.
+
+"Oh, but indeed you did!" retorted Lady Wolfer. "Lord Angleford says so,
+and he ought to know. He says that but for you the wretch would have
+shot him--he was quite close."
+
+Nell's face was white again now, and the countess came to her aid.
+
+"We are forgetting one of the objects of our visit," she said. "You know
+how anxious we are about Mr. Falconer, Miss Lorton. I hope he is in no
+danger, my dear?"
+
+She took Nell's hand as she spoke, and pressed it, and Nell colored
+again under the sympathy in the countess' eyes.
+
+"When I heard that he had been injured, I wished with all my heart that
+the man had got clear off with the miserable diamonds--I was going to
+say 'my' miserable diamonds, but they are only mine for a time. But I am
+sure Lord Angleford joins me in that wish. All the diamonds in the world
+are not worth rescuing at such a price as Mr. Falconer--and you--have
+paid. I hope you can tell us he is better. We are all terribly anxious
+about him."
+
+Now, even in the stress and strain of the moment, Nell noticed a certain
+significance in the countess' tone, a personal sympathy with herself,
+conveyed plainly by the "and you," and it puzzled her. But she put the
+faint wonder aside.
+
+"I don't know," she said simply. "He is very ill--he was badly stabbed.
+He has been delirious most of the night----"
+
+"My poor Nell!" murmured Lady Wolfer, pressing her hand.
+
+"I hope the nurse you have in to help you is a good one," said the
+countess, as if she took it for granted that Nell was also nursing him.
+"If not, we will send to London for one; indeed, Sir William may bring
+one with him. I don't know what Lord Angleford telegraphed."
+
+"I wish we could do something for you, Nell," whispered Lady Wolfer.
+"Only last night, before the burglary, we were arranging that we would
+come down here and carry you--by main force, if necessary--up to the
+Hall. And now----But, dear, you must not lose heart! He may not be badly
+hurt; and the surgeons do such wonderful things now. Perhaps, when Sir
+William comes, he may tell you that there is no danger whatever, and
+that you will have him well again before very long."
+
+Her eyes dwelt on Nell's with tender pity and womanly sympathy; and
+Nell, still puzzled, could only remain silent. As if she could not say
+enough, Lady Wolfer drew her to the window, and continued, in a lower
+voice:
+
+"I meant to congratulate you, Nell, and I do. I--we all admired him so
+much the other night, little guessing the truth; and now that he has
+proved himself as brave as he is clever, one can understand your losing
+your heart to him. All the same, dear, I think he is a very--very lucky
+man."
+
+The red stained Nell's face, and then left it pale again. She opened her
+lips to deny that she and Falconer were engaged, but at that moment a
+dogcart drove through the gate and stopped at the lodge.
+
+"Here is Drake!" said the countess. "He has been to Angleford to see the
+police."
+
+Nell drew away from the window quickly, and the countess went out as
+Drake got down from the cart.
+
+"How is he?" Nell heard him ask. Though she had moved from the window,
+she could see him. He looked haggard and tired, and she saw the bruise
+on his temple. Her heart beat fast, and she turned away and leaned her
+arm on the mantelshelf. "And--and Miss Lorton?" he inquired, after the
+countess had replied to his first question.
+
+She lowered her voice.
+
+"She looks very ill, but she is bearing up wonderfully. It is a terrible
+strain for her, poor girl."
+
+Drake nodded gloomily.
+
+"Tell her that Sir William will be down by the midday train. And tell
+her not to give up hope. I saw the wound, and----"
+
+"Hush! She may hear," whispered the countess.
+
+He glanced toward the window, and the color rose to his face.
+
+"Is she there?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. Would you like to see her?"
+
+He hesitated for a moment, his eyes fixed on the ground; then he said,
+rather stiffly:
+
+"No; she might think it an intrusion"--the countess stared at him. "No;
+I won't trouble her. But please tell her that everything shall be done
+for--him."
+
+The countess accompanied him to the gate.
+
+"You have been to the police?"
+
+He nodded almost indifferently.
+
+"Yes; the man is well known. We were flattered by the attentions of a
+celebrated cracksman. I've seen the detective in charge of the case, and
+given him all the particulars. He says that the men were assisted by
+some one inside the house--one of the servants, he suggests."
+
+The countess looked startled.
+
+"Surely not, Drake! Who could it be?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders with the same indifference.
+
+"Can't tell. It doesn't matter. I've sent the things to the bank, and
+the other people will look after their jewels pretty closely after this.
+I wouldn't worry myself, countess."
+
+"But you are worrying, Drake!" she said shrewdly, as she looked at his
+haggard face. "About this poor Mr. Falconer, of course!"
+
+He started slightly, but he was too honest to assent.
+
+"Partly; but there is no need for you to follow my example. I'll go on
+now."
+
+He got up and drove off, but slowly, and he put the horse to a walk as
+he neared the house.
+
+He had not seen Luce that morning, for he had been out, inquiring at the
+lodge at six, and had gone straight on to Anglebridge, where he had
+breakfasted.
+
+In his heart he had been glad of the excuse for his absence, for the few
+hours of reprieve. But he would have to see her now, would have to ask
+her to be his wife--while his heart ached with love for Nell!
+
+As he drove up to the door, one of the Angleford carriages came round
+from the stables. He glanced at it absently, and entered the hall
+slowly, draggingly, and was amazed to find Lord Turfleigh, in overcoat
+and hat, standing beside a pile of luggage.
+
+"By George! just in time, Drake!" he exclaimed, his thick voice
+quavering with suppressed excitement, his hands shaking as he tugged at
+his gloves. "Just had bad news--deuced bad news!"
+
+But though he described the intelligence as bad, there was a note of
+satisfaction in his voice.
+
+"I'm sorry. What is it?" asked Drake.
+
+"Buckleigh--Buckleigh and his boy gone down in that infernal yacht of
+his!" said Lord Turfleigh hoarsely.
+
+He turned aside as he spoke to take a brandy and soda which the footman
+had brought.
+
+The Marquis of Buckleigh was Lord Turfleigh's elder brother, and, if the
+news were true, Lord Turfleigh was now the marquis, and a rich man.
+
+Drake understand the note of satisfaction in the whisky-shaken voice.
+
+"Just time to catch the train!" said the new marquis. "Where the devil
+is Luce? I always said Buckleigh would drown himself----Where is Luce?
+She thinks I'll go without her; but I won't!" He swore.
+
+At that moment Lady Luce came down the stairs. She was coming down
+slowly, reluctantly, her fair face set sullenly; but at sight of Drake
+her expression changed, and she ran down to him. There might yet be time
+for the one word.
+
+"Drake!" she cried, in a low voice, "I am going----You have heard?"
+
+"Yes, yes," her father broke in testily. "I've told him. Get in. It will
+be a near thing as it is. Come on, I tell you!" and he shambled down the
+steps to the carriage.
+
+She held Drake's hand and looked into his eyes appealingly.
+
+"You see! I must go!" she murmured.
+
+He nodded gravely.
+
+"But you will come back?" he said, as gravely. "Come back as soon as you
+can."
+
+Her face lit up, and she breathed softly. She was now the daughter of a
+rich man, but she wanted Drake, none the less.
+
+"The Fates are against me, Drake," she whispered; "but I will come
+back."
+
+"Where the devil is that confounded maid of yours, Luce?" Turfleigh
+called to her.
+
+Burden came down the stairs. Her veil was drawn over the upper part of
+her face, but the lower part was white to the lips.
+
+"I'm half inclined to leave her behind," said Lady Luce irritably. "Pray
+be quick, Burden!"
+
+Burden got up on the box seat without a word.
+
+Drake put Lady Luce in, held her hand for a moment, then the carriage
+started, and he was standing alone, staring after it half stupidly.
+
+He was still free!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+Two days later, Nell sat beside Falconer. He was asleep, but every now
+and then he moved suddenly, and his brows knit as if he were suffering.
+
+The great surgeon--who, by the way, was small and short of stature--had
+come down, made his examination, said a few cheerful words to the
+patient, gone up to the Hall to dinner--at which he had talked fluently
+of everything but the case--and returned to London with a big check from
+Drake. But though he did not appear to have accomplished anything beyond
+a general expression of approval of everything the local man had done,
+all persons concerned felt encouraged and more hopeful by his visit; and
+when Falconer showed signs of improvement it was duly placed to Sir
+William's credit. There is much magic in a great name.
+
+But the improvement was very slight, and Nell, as she watched the
+wounded man, often felt a pang of dread shoot through her. Sometimes she
+was assailed by the idea that Falconer was not particularly anxious to
+live. When he was awake he would lie quite still, save when a spasm of
+pain visited him, with his dark eyes fixed dreamily upon the window;
+though when she spoke to him he invariably turned them to her with a
+world of gratitude, a wealth of devotion in them.
+
+And for the last two days the pity in Nell's tender heart had grown so
+intense that it had become own brother to love itself. When a woman
+knows that she can make a good man happy by just whispering "I love
+you," she is sorely tempted to utter the three little pregnant words,
+especially when she herself knows what it is to long for love.
+
+She could make this man who worshiped her happy, and--and was it not
+possible in doing so she might find, if not happiness, contentment for
+herself?
+
+A hundred times during the last two days she had asked herself this
+question, until she had grown to desire that the answer might be in the
+affirmative. Perhaps if she were betrothed to Falconer she would learn
+to forget Drake, for whose voice and footstep she was always waiting.
+
+On this afternoon, as she sat at her post, she was dwelling on the
+problem, which had become almost unendurable at last, and she sighed
+wearily.
+
+Falconer awoke, as if he had heard her, and turned his eyes upon her
+with the slow yet intense regard of the very weak.
+
+"Are you there still?" he asked, in a low voice. "I thought you promised
+me that, if I went to sleep, you would go out, into the garden, at
+least."
+
+"It wasn't exactly a promise. Besides, I don't think you have been
+really asleep; and if you have it is not for long enough," she said,
+smiling, and "hedging" in truly feminine fashion. "Are you feeling
+better--not in so much pain?"
+
+"Oh, yes," he replied. "I'm in no pain." He told the falsehood as
+admirably as he managed his face when he was awake, but it gave him away
+when he was asleep. "I shall be quite well presently. I wish to Heaven
+they would let me be removed to the hospital!"
+
+"That sounds rather ungrateful," said Nell, with mock indignation.
+"Don't you think we are taking enough care of you?"
+
+He sighed.
+
+"When I lie here and think of all the trouble I've given, I sometimes
+wish that that fellow's knife had found the right place. Though I
+suppose they'd have hanged him if it had."
+
+Nell shuddered.
+
+"Is that the only reason you regret he did not kill you?" she said.
+
+"Am I to speak the truth?"
+
+"Nothing else is ever worth speaking," she remarked, in a low voice.
+
+"Well, then, yes. I am not so enamored of life as to cling to it very
+keenly," he said, stifling a sigh. "I don't mean because I have had a
+rough time of it--the majority of the sons of men find the way paved
+with flints--but because----What an ungrateful brute I must seem to you.
+Forgive me; I'm still rather weak."
+
+"Rather!"
+
+"Very weak, then; and I talk like a hysterical girl. But, seriously, if
+any man were given his choice, I think he'd prefer to cross the river at
+once to facing the gray and dreary days that lie before him."
+
+"But the days that lie before you are brilliant; crimson with fame and
+fortune, instead of gray and dreary," she said. "Have you forgotten your
+success at--at the ball? that you were to play at the duchess'?
+Everybody says that you will become famous, that a great future lies
+before you, Mr. Falconer."
+
+"Do they?" he said, gazing at the window dreamily. "No, I have not
+forgotten. I wonder whether they are right?"
+
+"I know, I feel, they are right," she said quietly. "Very soon we shall
+all be bragging of your acquaintance--I, for one, at any rate. I shall
+never lose an opportunity of talking of 'my friend, Mr. Falconer, the
+great musician, you know.'"
+
+"Yes," he said, looking at her with a faint smile. "I think you will be
+pleased. And I----"
+
+He paused.
+
+"Well?" she asked.
+
+"If the prophecy comes true, I shall spend my time looking back at the
+old days, and sighing for the Buildings, for that sunny room of yours,
+with the tea kettle singing on the hob, and----Has Dick come back from
+Angleford?"
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"And the man? Has he been committed for trial?"
+
+"Yes," she replied. "But I don't want to speak of that--it isn't good
+for you."
+
+He was silent a moment; then he said:
+
+"Do you know, I've got a kind of sneaking pity for the man. He wanted
+the diamonds badly--he needed them more than the countess did. What
+would it have mattered to her if he had got off with them? And he risked
+his liberty and his life for them. A man can't do more than that for the
+thing he wants."
+
+Nell tried to laugh.
+
+"I have never listened to a more immoral sentiment," she said. "I think
+you had better go to sleep again. But I understand," she added, as if
+she were compelled to do so.
+
+"And I fancy the reflection that he made a good fight for it--and it was
+a good one; he was a plucky fellow!--must console him for his failure.
+After all, one can only try."
+
+"Try to steal other people's jewels," said Nell.
+
+"Try for what seems the best--what one wants," he said dreamily. "I
+wonder whether he would have been satisfied if he had got off with, say,
+a small box of trinkets?"
+
+"I should imagine he would consider himself very lucky," said Nell, her
+eyes downcast.
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Falconer quietly. "Somehow, I fancy you're
+wrong. He would have hankered after those diamonds for the rest of his
+life, and no amount of small trinkets would have consoled him for having
+missed them. Though I dare say, being a plucky fellow, he would have
+made the best of it."
+
+Nell began to tremble. The parable was plain to her. The man beside her
+had failed to win the woman he loved, and would try to make the best of
+the poor trinkets of fame and success. Her lips quivered, and her eyes
+drooped lower.
+
+"Perhaps--perhaps he would have tried for the diamonds again," she said,
+almost inaudibly.
+
+He looked at her with a sudden light in his eyes, a sudden flush on his
+white face.
+
+"Do--do you think so? Do you think it would have been any use?"
+
+Nell rose, and brought some milk and water for him.
+
+"I--I don't know," she said. "I--I think, if he felt that he wanted them
+so badly, he would have tried again; and that--that--he might----"
+
+He raised himself on his elbow and looked at her fixedly, his breath
+coming fast, his eyes searching hers.
+
+"Ah!" he said. "You think that if he came to the countess and whined
+for the things, she would have given them to him out of sheer pity! Is
+that it?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"One can't imagine his being such a cur, such a fool, as to do it!" he
+said, sinking back. "And yet that is what I am! See how weak and
+cowardly I am, Nell! I promised that I would never again trouble you
+with my love; that I would be content to be your friend--your friend
+only; and yet a few days' sickness, and I am crawling at your feet and
+begging you to take compassion on me! And you'd do it!--yes, I know what
+you meant when you said that the man would try for the diamonds
+again!--out of womanly pity you would! Oh, shame on me for a cur to take
+advantage of my weakness!"
+
+"Hush, hush!" she said brokenly. "I meant what I said; I--I----" She
+tried to smile. "I am a woman, and--and may change my mind!"
+
+"But not your heart!" he said. He raised himself on his elbow again.
+"For God's sake, don't tempt me! I--I am not strong enough to resist. I
+want my diamonds so badly, you see, that I would stoop to stealing them.
+Nell, don't tempt me!"
+
+He sank back, and put his hand over his eyes as if to shut out the
+beautiful face of the girl he loved.
+
+Nell sank into a chair, and sat silent for a moment; then she said, in a
+low voice:
+
+"I want to tell you the truth."
+
+He took his hand away from his eyes, and fixed them on her downcast
+face.
+
+"Go on," he said. "Tell me everything; why--why you have aroused a
+hope--the dearest hope of my life----But no; it never was a hope, only a
+hopeless longing. Ah! if you knew what such love meant, you would
+forgive me for my weakness, for my cowardice. To long day and night! If
+you knew!"
+
+"Perhaps I do!" she whispered, in so low a voice that it was wonderful
+he should have heard her. But he did hear, and he turned to her quickly.
+
+"You! And I--I never guessed it! Oh, forgive me! forgive me! Then indeed
+there never was any hope for me. I understand! How blind I have been!
+Who----No; I've no right to ask. Now I understand the look in your eyes
+which has often haunted and puzzled me. Oh, what a blind, blundering
+fool I have been all this time!"
+
+"Hush!" she said, still so low that he could only just hear the broken
+murmur. "I--I am glad you did not know. I--I would not have told you
+now, if--if it were not all past and done with!"
+
+"Nell!" he said.
+
+"Yes, it is all past and done with," she repeated. "And--and I want to
+forget it. I want you--to help me! Oh! must I speak more plainly? Won't
+you understand? If you will be content to take me--knowing what I have
+told you--if you will be content to wait until I--I have quite
+forgotten! and I shall soon, very soon----"
+
+He stretched out his hand to her, an eager cry on his lips.
+
+"Content!" he said. "You ask me if I shall be content!"
+
+Then, as she put out her hand to meet his, he saw her face. It was white
+to the lips, and there was a look in her eyes more full of agony than
+his own had worn at his worst times. He let his hand fall on the bed.
+
+"Is it all past?" he asked doubtfully.
+
+She was about to speak the word "Yes," when a voice came from below
+through the open window. It was Drake talking to Dick. The blood flew to
+her face, her brows came together, and she shrank as if some one had
+struck her.
+
+Falconer, with his eyes fixed upon her, heard the voice, saw the change
+on her face. The light died out of his eyes, and slowly, very slowly, he
+drew his hand back.
+
+Nell stood looking before her, her lips set tightly, her eyes downcast.
+It was a terrible moment, in which she appeared under a spell so deep as
+to cause her to forget the presence of the man beside her. And, as he
+watched her, the life seemed to die out of his face as well as his eyes.
+
+The door opened, and Dick came in.
+
+"Drake's come to inquire after the patient," he said. "How are we,
+Falconer?"
+
+"Better," said Falconer, with a smile; "much better. Couldn't you
+persuade Miss Lorton to take down the report, Dick?"
+
+Dick nodded commandingly at Nell.
+
+"Yes; you go, Nell."
+
+She hesitated a moment; then she raised her head and glanced at Falconer
+reproachfully.
+
+"Yes, I will go," she said, almost defiantly.
+
+Drake leaned against the rails in the sunlight, softly striking his
+riding whip against his leg. His horse's bridle was hitched over the
+gate, and as he waited for Dick he thought of the time when the bridle
+had been hitched over another gate.
+
+He heard a step lighter than Dick's on the stairs behind him, and slowly
+turned his head. The sun was streaming through the doorway, so that the
+slim, graceful figure and lovely face were set as in an aureole. A
+thrill ran through him, the color rose to his bronzed face, and he
+stood motionless and speechless for a moment; then he raised his hat.
+
+"How is Mr. Falconer?" he asked.
+
+He had not seen her since the night of the burglary, the night he had
+held her in his arms, and the blunt question sounded like a mockery set
+against the aching longing of his heart.
+
+"He is better," she said.
+
+Her eyes rested on him calmly, and she spoke quite steadily, so that he
+did not guess that her heart was beating wildly, and that she had to
+clench the hand beside her in her effort to maintain her composure.
+
+"I am glad," he said simply. "It has been an anxious time--must be so
+still--for you, I am afraid."
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+He stood looking at her, and then away from her, and then at her again,
+as if his eyes must return to her against his will.
+
+"I--I am glad to see you. I wanted to tell you--to thank you for what
+you did for me the other night. You know that I owe you my life?"
+
+She shook her head and forced a smile.
+
+"Isn't that rather an--exaggeration, Lord Angleford?"
+
+He bit his lip at the "Lord Angleford." And yet how else could she
+address him?
+
+"No," he said; "it is the simple truth. The man would have shot me."
+
+"Then I am glad," she said quietly, as if there were no more to be said.
+
+He bit his lip again.
+
+"You are looking pale and thin."
+
+"Oh, no," she said. "I am quite well."
+
+Why did he not go? Every moment it became more difficult for her to
+maintain her forced calm. If he would only go! But he stood, his eyes
+now downcast, now seeking hers, his brows knit, as if he found it awful
+to remain, and yet impossible to go.
+
+"Will you tell Mr. Falconer that directly he is able to go out I will
+send a carriage for him--a pony phaëton, or something of that sort?" he
+said, at last.
+
+Nell inclined her head.
+
+"We will leave here as soon as he can be moved," she said.
+
+His frown deepened.
+
+"Why?" he asked sharply. "Why should you?"
+
+The blood began to mount to her face, and, gnawing at his mustache, he
+turned away. But as he did so Dick came down the stairs, two at a time.
+
+"Hi, Drake!" he called out. "Don't go. Falconer would like to see you!"
+
+Drake hesitated just for a second--then----
+
+"I shall be very glad," he said.
+
+Nell moved aside to let him pass, and went into the sitting room, and he
+followed Dick upstairs. She went to the window, and stood looking out
+for a moment or two, then she caught up her hat and left the house, for
+she knew that she could not see him again--ah! not just yet.
+
+Drake went up the stairs slowly, trying to brace himself to go through
+the ordeal like a man--and a gentleman. He was going to congratulate Mr.
+Falconer on his good fortune in winning the woman he himself loved. It
+was a hard, a bitterly hard thing to have to do, but it had to be done.
+
+"Here's Lord Angleford, old man," said Dick, introducing him. "I don't
+know whether visitors are permitted yet, but you can lay the blame on
+me; and you needn't palaver long, Drake."
+
+"I will take care not to tire Mr. Falconer," said Drake, as he went to
+the bedside and held out his hand.
+
+Falconer took it in his thin one, and looked up at the handsome face
+with an expression which somewhat puzzled Drake.
+
+"I'm glad to hear you're better," he said. "I suppose I ought not to
+refer to the subject, but I can't help saying, Falconer, how much we--I
+mean Lady Angleford--and all of us--are indebted to you. But for you the
+fellow would have got off, and her diamonds would have been lost."
+
+Falconer noticed the friendly "Falconer," and though his heart was
+aching, he could not help admiring the man who stood beside him with all
+the grace of health and high birth in his bearing; and he sighed
+involuntarily as he drew a contrast between himself and "my lord the
+earl."
+
+"All the same," Drake went on, "the countess would rather have lost her
+diamonds than you should be hurt."
+
+"Her ladyship is very kind," said Falconer. His eyes, unnaturally
+bright, were fixed on Drake's face, his voice was low but steady. "I am
+glad I was of some little use in saving them. The man has been committed
+for trial, I hear?"
+
+Drake nodded indifferently.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I wish he had dropped the jewel cases and got off. It
+would have saved a lot of bother. But don't be afraid that you will be
+wanted as a witness," he added quickly. "I and one or two of the men who
+were present when he was captured will be sufficient. There will be no
+need to worry you--or Miss Lorton."
+
+Falconer nodded.
+
+"I hope you will be able to get out soon," said Drake. "I told Miss
+Lorton that I would send a carriage for you--something bulky and
+comfortable. Perhaps you'll let me drive you?"
+
+Falconer nodded again, and Drake began to feel vaguely uncomfortable
+under his fixed gaze and taciturnity; and being uncomfortable, he
+blundered on to the subject that tortured him.
+
+"But Miss Lorton can drive you well enough; she is a perfect whip.
+And--and now I am mentioning her, I will take the opportunity of
+congratulating you upon your engagement, Falconer."
+
+Falconer's lips twitched, but his eyes did not leave Drake's face, which
+had suddenly become stern and grim.
+
+"You knew Miss Lorton before she came here, Lord Angleford?" said
+Falconer.
+
+Drake colored, and set his lips tightly.
+
+"Yes," he said, trying to speak casually. "We met----"
+
+He stopped, overwhelmed by a thousand memories. His eyes fell, but
+Falconer's did not waver.
+
+"Then it is as an old friend of hers that you congratulate me, Lord
+Angleford?" he said.
+
+"Yes, an old friend," said Drake, his throat dry and hot. "I wish you
+every happiness, my dear fellow; and I think you----"
+
+Falconer raised himself on his elbow.
+
+"You are laboring under a mistake, Lord Angleford," he said, very
+quietly. "You think that Miss Lorton--is betrothed to me?"
+
+Drake nodded. His face had grown pale; there was an eager light in his
+eyes. Falconer dropped back with a sigh.
+
+"You are wrong," he said. "Who told you?"
+
+Drake was silent a moment. The blood was rushing through his veins.
+
+"Who told me? I heard--everybody said----"
+
+He dropped into the chair and leaned forward, his face stern and set.
+
+Falconer smiled as grimly as Drake could have done.
+
+"What everybody says is rarely true, my lord. We are not betrothed."
+
+"You don't----" exclaimed Drake.
+
+A worm will turn if trodden on too heavily. Falconer turned. His face
+grew hot, his dark eyes flashed.
+
+"Yes, my lord, I love her!" he said, and the lowness of his voice only
+intensified its emphasis. "I love her so well--so madly, if you
+like--that I choose to set conventionality at defiance, and speak the
+truth. I love her, but I can never win her, because there is one who
+comes between her and me. Wait!"--for Drake had risen, and was gazing
+down at the wan face with flashing eyes. "I do not know who he is. She
+has never uttered a word to guide me; but I can guess. Wait a moment
+longer, my lord! Whoever he may be, he is not worthy of her; but she
+cares for him, and that is enough for me, and should be enough for him.
+If I were that man----"
+
+He stopped, for his breath had failed him. Drake leaned over him as if
+he would drag the conclusion of the sentence from him.
+
+"If I were that man, I'd strive to win her as I'd strive for heaven! Ah,
+it would be heaven!" His lips twitched, and he turned his face away for
+a moment. "I would count everything else as of no account. I would
+thrust all obstacles aside, would go through fire and water to reach
+her----"
+
+Drake caught him by the arm.
+
+"Take care!" he said hoarsely. "You bid me hope! Dare I do so?"
+
+Falconer looked at him fixedly.
+
+"Go to her and see. Wait, my lord. I love her as dearly--more dearly,
+perhaps, God knows!--than you do. She would be mine at a word."
+
+Drake stood motionless, his face white and set.
+
+"But that word will never be spoken by me. So I prove my love. Prove
+yours, my lord, and go to her!"
+
+Drake tried to speak, but could not. His hand closed over Falconer's for
+a moment, then he hurried from the room and went down the stairs.
+
+Dick was lounging in the porch with a cigarette, and he stared at
+Drake's hurried appearance, at his white, set face.
+
+"Where is Nell? Where is your sister?" Drake demanded.
+
+"Heaven only knows! She went out when you came in. She's in the wood, I
+should think."
+
+Drake strode down the path and into the wood. His brain was on fire. She
+was free--they were both free! There was heaven in the thought!
+
+Nell was seated at the foot of one of the big elms, and heard his quick,
+firm steps. She looked up, and would have risen and flown, but he was
+upon her before she could move--was upon her, and in some strange,
+never-to-be-explained way had got her hand in his.
+
+"Nell--Nell!" was all he could say, as he knelt beside her and looked
+into her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+At the passionate "Nell! Nell!" at the grasp of his hand, the blood
+rushed to Nell's face, and her breath came painfully. She was startled
+and not a little alarmed. Why was he kneeling at her feet, why did he
+call upon her name with the appeal of love, the note of entreaty, in his
+voice? He was no longer Drake Vernon, but the Earl of Angleford, the
+promised husband of Lady Lucille.
+
+The color left her face, and she drew her hand from his and shrank away
+from him, so that she almost leaned against the tree.
+
+He half rose and looked at her penitently, and with something like shame
+for his vehemence. Indeed, he had rushed from the lodge in search of
+her, remembering nothing, thinking of nothing, but the fact that they
+were both free. But now he realized how suddenly he had come upon her,
+how great a shock his passionate words, his excited manner, must have
+been to her.
+
+"Forgive me!" he said, still on one knee; "forgive me! I have frightened
+you. I forgot."
+
+Nell tried to still the throbbing of her heart, to regain composure; but
+she could not speak. He rose and stood before her, his eyes fixed on
+her, eloquent with love and admiration. She had never seemed more
+beautiful to him than at this moment. Her face was thinner and paler
+than it had been in the happy days at Shorne Mills, but it had grown in
+beauty, in that spiritual loveliness which replaces in the woman that
+which the girl loses. The gray eyes were pure violet now, and fuller and
+deeper, as they mirrored the soul which had expanded in the bracing
+atmosphere of sorrow and trial.
+
+He had fallen in love with an innocent, unsophisticated girl; he was
+still more passionately in love with her now that, a girl still in
+years, she had developed into glorious, divine womanhood. His eyes
+scanned her face hungrily, yet reverently, as he thought: Was it
+possible that he had once kissed those beautiful lips, had once heard
+them murmur "I love you?" And was it possible that he might again hear
+those magic words? His soul thirsted for them. It seemed to him that if
+he were to lose her now, if she were to send him away, life would not be
+worth having, that nothing remained for him in the future but misery and
+despair. To few men is it given to love as he loved the girl before him,
+and in that moment he suffered an agony of suspense which might well
+have caused the recording angel to blot out the follies of his past
+life.
+
+But he must not frighten her, he must not drive her away from him by
+revealing the intensity of his passion.
+
+So his voice was calm, and so low that it was little more than a
+whisper, as he said:
+
+"I have come in search of you; I have something to say that I hope, I
+pray, you will hear. Won't you sit down again?" and he motioned to the
+place where she had been seated.
+
+But Nell shook her head and remained standing, her hands clasped loosely
+before her, her eyes downcast.
+
+"What is it, Lord Angleford?" she said, in a voice as low as his. "I--I
+want to go back to the lodge."
+
+"Wait a few minutes," he said imploringly. "I will not keep you long. I
+have just left the lodge. He--Mr. Falconer--is all right; he will not
+mind--will not miss you for a few minutes. And I must speak to you. All
+my happiness, my future, depends on it--upon you!"
+
+"Ah, let me go!" she said, almost inaudibly; for at every word he spoke
+her heart went out to him, and she was tempted to forget that he was no
+longer her lover, but the betrothed of Lady Lucille. Whatever he said,
+she must not forget that!
+
+"No; it is I who will go, when I have spoken, and if you tell me," he
+said gravely. "When you sent me away last time I went--I obeyed you. I
+promise to do so now if you send me away again. Nell--ah! I must call
+you so. It is the name I think of you by, the name that is engraven on
+my heart! Nell, I want to ask you if there is no hope of my recovering
+my lost happiness. Do you remember when I told you that I loved you,
+there at Shorne Mills? I told you I was not worthy of you. Even then I
+was deceiving you."
+
+She drew nearer to the tree, and put her hand against it for support.
+
+"I was masquerading as Drake Vernon. I concealed my real name and rank;
+but I had no base motive in doing so. I was sick of the world, and weary
+of it and myself, and I longed to escape the maddening notoriety which
+harassed me. And then, when I thought--ah, no! I won't say thought, for;
+I know that then, then, Nell, you loved me!"
+
+Her lips quivered, but she kept the tears back bravely.
+
+"Then it seemed so precious a thing to know that you should have loved
+me for myself alone, that you were not going to marry me for my rank and
+position, as many another girl would have done, that I was tempted to
+play the farce to the end. It was folly, but the gods punish folly more
+surely and quickly than they punish crime. The night that you
+discovered I had deceived you, I had resolved to tell you the truth and
+beg your forgiveness. But it was too late. Most of our good resolutions
+come too late, Nell. You had learned that I had deceived you; you had
+learned that I was not worthy to win and hold the love of a pure and
+innocent girl, and you sent me away."
+
+She raised her eyes and glanced at him, half bewildered. Was it possible
+that he thought that was her only reason for breaking the engagement?
+
+"You were right, Nell. I think you would be right if you sent me away
+now; but I am daring to hope that you won't do so. It is but the
+shadow--the glimmer of a hope, and yet I cling to it, for it means so
+much to me--so much!"
+
+There was silence for a moment, then he went on:
+
+"I left Shorne Mills that day, and I sailed in the _Seagull_, determined
+that I would accept your sentence, that I would never harass or worry
+you, that, if it were possible, you should never be troubled by the
+sight of me. But, Nell, though I left you, I carried your image with me
+in my heart. I tried to forget you, but I could not. I have never ceased
+to love you; not for a single day have you been absent from my mind, not
+for a single day have I ceased to long for you!"
+
+She looked at him again, wonder and indignation dividing her emotion.
+There was truth in his accents, in his eyes. Had he forgotten Lady
+Lucille?
+
+"There was no more wretched and unhappy man on God's earth than I was at
+that time," he went on. "Nell, if you had been called upon to find a
+punishment heavy enough for the deceit which I practiced, I do not think
+you could have hit upon a heavier one. For I could not be rid of my love
+for you. I could not forget your sweet face; your dear voice haunted me
+wherever I went, and I moved like a man under a curse, the curse of
+weariness and despair."
+
+His voice almost broke, and he put his hand to his forehead as if he
+still felt the weight of the weary months.
+
+"Then came the news of my uncle's sudden death; but when I had got over
+my grief for him--he had been good to me, and I was fond of him!--even
+then I could find no pleasure in the inheritance which had fallen to me.
+Of what use was the title and the rest of it, if all my happiness was
+set upon the girl I had lost forever? I came home to do my duty, in a
+dull, dogged fashion, came home with the conviction that I should not be
+able to rest in England, that I should have to take to wandering again.
+I loved you still, Nell, but I hoped--see, now, I tell you the
+truth!--that I might at least get some peace, might learn to deaden my
+heart. And then, as the Fates would have it, I find you here, and----"
+
+He paused for a moment and caught his breath.
+
+"Hear that you were going to marry another man."
+
+Nell started slightly, and the color rose to her face. She had forgotten
+Falconer!
+
+"That was the last drop in my cup of misery. Somehow, I had always
+thought of you as the little girl of Shorne Mills, as--as--free. I had
+not reflected that it was inevitable that some other man should admire
+and love you. You see, you--you still, in some strange way, seemed to
+belong to me, though I knew I had lost you!"
+
+No words he could have uttered could have touched her more sharply and
+deeply than this simple avowal. She turned her head aside so that he
+might not see the quivering of her lips, the tenderness which sprang
+into her eyes.
+
+"That was the hardest blow of all that Fate had dealt me, Nell. It
+almost drove me mad to know that you once loved me, and yet that you
+were to be the wife of another man! It made me mad and desperate for a
+time, then I had to face it, as I had faced my loss of you. But,
+Nell----"
+
+He paused again, and ventured to draw a little nearer to her; but as she
+still shrank from him, and leaned against the tree, he stopped short and
+did not venture to take her hand.
+
+"Now I have just left Mr. Falconer, I have heard from his own lips that
+there is no engagement, that----Oh, Nell! It was the knowledge that you
+were still free that sent me to you just now, that made me cry out to
+you as I did! I love you, Nell, more dearly, more truly, if that be
+possible, than I did! Won't you forgive me the folly which made you send
+me away from you? Won't you let me try and win back your love?"
+
+There was silence, broken only by the rustle of the leaves in the summer
+breeze, by the note of a linnet singing in the branches above their
+heads.
+
+"See, dear, I plead as a man pleads for his life! And on your answer
+hangs all that makes life worth living. Forgive me, Nell, and give me
+back your love! I have been punished enough, rest assured of that.
+Forgive me that past folly and deceit, Nell! I'll teach you to forget in
+time. Dearest, you loved me, did you not? You loved me until that night
+of the ball--at the Maltbys'--when you discovered who I was!"
+
+Back it all came to her, and she turned her face to him with grief and
+reproach in her violet eyes.
+
+"I was on the terrace," she said, almost inaudibly. "It is you who
+forget. It was not because you kept your right name and rank from me. I
+was on the terrace. I saw you and--and Lady Luce!"
+
+He started, and his hand fell to his side. He could not speak for a
+moment, the shock was so great, and in silence he recalled, saw as in a
+flash of lightning, all the incidents of that night.
+
+"You--you were there? You saw--heard?" he said, half mechanically.
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+She was calm, unnaturally calm now, and her voice was grave and sad
+rather than reproachful.
+
+"I saw and heard everything. I saw her and Lady Chesney before you came
+out. I heard Lady Luce telling her friend that you and she were engaged,
+that you had parted, but that she still cared for you, and that you
+would come back to her; and when you came out of the house on the
+terrace, I saw her--and you----Oh, why do you make me tell you? It is
+hateful, shameful!"
+
+She turned her face away, as if she could not bear his gaze fixed on her
+with amazement, and yet with some other emotion qualifying it.
+
+"You saw Lady Luce come to meet me, heard her speak to me, saw her kiss
+me?" he said, almost to himself; and even at that moment she was
+conscious of the fact that there was no shame in his voice, none in his
+eyes.
+
+She made a motion with her hand as if imploring him to say no more, to
+leave her; but he caught at her hand and held it, though she strove to
+release it from his grasp.
+
+"My God! and that was the reason? Why, oh, Nell! Nell! why did you not
+tell me what you had seen? Why did you say no word of it in your letter?
+If you had done so--if you had only done so!"
+
+She looked at him sadly.
+
+"Was it not true? Were you not engaged to her?" she asked, almost
+inaudibly.
+
+"Yes," he replied quickly. "I kept that from you; but it was true. You
+read of the engagement in that paragraph in the stupid paper, you
+remember? I ought to have told you, and I thought that it was because I
+had not, as well as because I had concealed my rank, that you broke with
+me. But, Nell, my engagement with her was broken off by herself; when
+there was a chance of my losing the title and the estates, she jilted
+me. I was free when I asked you to be my wife. You believe that? Great
+heavens! you do not think me so bad, so base----"
+
+"No," she said, with a sigh. "No; but you went back to her. Oh, I do not
+blame you! She is very beautiful; she was a fitting wife----"
+
+He uttered an exclamation--it was very like an oath--and caught her hand
+again.
+
+"No, no," he said, almost fiercely. "You are wrong--wrong!"
+
+She sighed again.
+
+"I saw you--and her," she said, as if that were conclusive.
+
+"I know it," he said. "You saw her come toward me and greet me as
+if--Heaven! I can scarcely bear to speak of it, to recall it!--as if she
+were betrothed to me. You saw her kiss me. But, Nell--ah! my dearest,
+listen to me, believe me!"--for she turned away from him in the
+bitterness of her agony, the remembrance of the agony she had suffered
+that night on the terrace. "You must believe me! The kiss was hers, not
+mine. I would rather have died than my lips should have touched her that
+night."
+
+Nell's heart began to throb, and something--a vague hope--the touch of a
+joy too great and deep for words--began to steal over her.
+
+"I am a fool, and weak, but, as Heaven is my witness, I had no thought
+for her that night. All my heart, my love, were yours! The very sight of
+her, her presence, was painful to me! Even as she came toward me, I was
+thinking of you, was in search of you. And her kiss! If the lips had
+been those of one of the statues on the terrace, it could not have moved
+me less. Nell, be merciful to me! What could I do? I am a man, she is a
+woman. Could I thrust her from me? I longed to do so; I would have told
+her I loved her no longer, that my love was given to another, to you,
+Nell; but there was no time. She left me before I could scarcely utter a
+word. And then I went in search of you--and the rest you know. Think,
+Nell! When you sent me away, did I go to her? No; I left England with my
+disappointment and my misery. Ah, Nell, if you had only told me that you
+had beheld the scene on the balcony! Go back to her--and leave you!"
+
+He laughed with mingled bitterness and desperation. The strain was
+growing too tense for mere words.
+
+At such moments as this, the man, if there is aught of manliness in him,
+has need of more than words.
+
+"Think, dearest!" he said hoarsely. "Compare yourself with poor Luce!
+You say she is 'beautiful.' Do you never look in the glass? Dearest, you
+are, in all men's sight, ten times more lovely! The pure and flawless
+gem against the falsely glittering paste! Oh, Nell, if my heart was not
+so heavy, I could laugh, laugh! And you thought I had left you for her,
+gone back to her! And so you sent me away to exile and misery!"
+
+His voice grew almost stern.
+
+"Nell! It is you who ought to plead for forgiveness! Yes! You have
+sinned against me!"
+
+She started and looked at him, open-eyed in her amazement.
+
+"Yes, you also have sinned, Nell! You ought to have spoken to me,
+brought your accusation. I could have explained it all; we should have
+been married--and happy! And I should have been spared all these months
+of unhappiness, this awful hell upon earth!"
+
+He had struck the right note at last. Convince a woman that she has been
+cruel to you, and, if she loves you, the divine attribute of pity will
+awaken in her, and bring her, who a moment before was as inflexible as
+adamant, to your feet.
+
+Nell, panting for breath, looked at him; questioningly at first, then,
+by short degrees, pleadingly, almost penitently.
+
+"Drake!" she breathed piteously.
+
+He sprang forward and caught her in his arms, and pressed a torrent of
+kisses upon her lips, her hair.
+
+"Nell! My love, my dearest! Oh, have I got you back again? Have I? Tell
+me you believe me, Nell! Tell me that I may hope; that you will love me
+again!"
+
+She fought hard to resist him; but when a man holds the woman he loves,
+and who loves him, in his arms, the woman fights in vain. Every sense in
+her plays traitor, and fights on the man's side.
+
+Nell put her hands on his broad chest, and tried to hold him off; but he
+would not be denied.
+
+"Nell, I love you!" he cried hoarsely. "I want you. Let the past go.
+Don't hold me at arm's length, dearest! I love you! Nell, you will take
+me back?"
+
+She still struggled and protested against the flood of happiness which
+overwhelmed her.
+
+"But--but she?" she said, meaning Luce. "Since you have been
+here----They say----Ah, Drake!"
+
+He laughed as he pressed her to him.
+
+"Let them say!" he retorted. "Nell, I'll tell you the whole truth. If
+you had been engaged to poor Falconer, I should have married Luce----"
+
+"Ah!" she breathed, with a shudder she could not repress.
+
+"But you are not. And I am still free! And you are free! Nell, lift your
+head! Give me one kiss--only one--and I will be satisfied."
+
+Her head still drooped for a moment, then she raised it and kissed him
+on the lips.
+
+The summer breeze made music in the leaves, the linnet sang his heart
+out above their heads, the soft air breathed an atmosphere of love, and
+these two mortals were, after months of misery, happy beyond the power
+of words to express.
+
+And as they sat, hand in hand, talking of the past, and picturing the
+future, neither of them naturally enough gave a thought to Lady Luce.
+
+And yet he had asked her to come back to Anglemere; and without doubt
+she would come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+It was an enchanted world to these two. For some time they sat side by
+side, or, rather, Drake sat at Nell's feet, her hand sometimes resting,
+lightly as a dove's wing, with a caress in its touch, upon his head.
+There were long spells of silence, for such joy as theirs is shy of
+words; but now and again they talked.
+
+They had so much to tell each other, and each was greedy of even the
+smallest detail. Drake wanted to hear of all that had happened to her
+since the terrible parting on the night of the Maltbys' ball--how long
+ago it seemed to them as they sat there in the sunshine that flickered
+through the leaves and touched Nell's hair with flashes of light.
+
+And Nell told him everything--everything excepting the episode of Lady
+Wolfer and Sir Archie--that was not hers to tell, but Lady Wolfer's
+secret, and Nell meant to carry it to the grave with her; not even to
+this dearly loved lover of hers could she breathe a word of that crisis
+in Ada Wolfer's life. And yet, if she had been free to tell him about it
+then and there, how much better it would have been for them both, how
+much difference it would have made in their lives!
+
+"And was there no one, no other man whom you saw, who could teach you to
+forget me, Nell?" he asked, half fearfully.
+
+Nell blushed and shook her head.
+
+"Surely there was some one among all you knew who was not quite blind,
+who was sensible enough to fall in love with the loveliest and the
+sweetest girl in all London?"
+
+Nell's blush grew warmer as she remembered some of the men who had paid
+court to her, who would have been her suitors if she had not kept them
+at arm's length.
+
+"There was no one," she said simply.
+
+"Falconer?" he said, in a low voice.
+
+The color slowly ebbed from her face, and her eyes grew rather sad as she
+reflected that her happiness had been purchased at the cost of his pain
+and self-sacrifice.
+
+"Yes," she said, in a whisper, for she could not hide the truth from
+him; her heart was bare to his gaze. "If--if you had not come, if he had
+chosen to accept me, I should have married him. But you came at the very
+moment, Drake; and at the sound of your voice----He saw my face, and
+read the truth."
+
+"Poor Falconer," he said, very gravely. "He is a better man than I am,
+than I shall ever be, even under the influence of your love, and the
+happiness it will bring me. I owe him a big debt, Nell; and though I
+can't hope to pay it, I must do what I can to make his life more
+smooth."
+
+"He is very proud," she said, a little proudly herself.
+
+"I know, I know; but he must let me help him in his career. I can do
+something in that direction, and I will. But for him! Ah, Nell, I don't
+like to think of it; I don't like to contemplate what might have
+happened if I had lost you altogether. Yes; I owe him a debt no man
+could hope to repay. I wish it had been I who had lived at Beaumont
+Buildings and played the violin to you, instead of him. All that time I
+was sailing in the _Seagull_, or wandering about Asia, wondering whether
+there was anything on earth, or in the waters under the earth, that
+could bring me a moment's pleasure, a moment of forgetfulness."
+
+"And--and--you thought of me all that time? There was no one else?"
+
+"There was no one else," he said, as simply as she had answered his
+question. "Though sometimes----Do you want me to tell you the whole
+truth, dearest?"
+
+"The whole truth," she responded, looking down at him with trustful
+eyes, and yet with a little anxious line on her brow. For what woman
+would not have been apprehensive? She had cast him off, and he had been
+wandering about the world, free to love again, to choose a wife.
+
+"Well, sometimes I tried to efface your image from my mind, to forget
+Nell of Shorne Mills, in the surest and quickest way. I went to some
+dinners and receptions; I joined in a picnic or two, and an occasional
+riding party. Once I sailed in a man's yacht which had three of the
+local belles on board, and I tried to fall in love with one of them--any
+of them--but it was of no use. Now and again I endeavored to persuade
+myself that I was falling in love. There was one, a girl who was
+something like you; she had dark hair, and eyes that had a look of yours
+in them; and when she was silent I used to look at her and try----But
+when she spoke, her voice was unlike yours, and her very unlikeness
+recalled yours; and I saw you, even as I looked at her, as you stood on
+the steps at the quay, or sat in the stern of the _Annie Laurie_, and my
+heart grew sick with longing for you, and I'd get up and leave the girl
+so suddenly that she used to stare after me with mingled surprise and
+indignation. What charm do you exert, what black magic, Nell, that a
+big, strong, hulking fellow like me cannot get free from the spell you
+throw over him? Tell me, dearest."
+
+Her eyes rested on him lovingly, and there was that in the half-parted
+lips which compelled him to rise on his elbow and kiss them.
+
+"And yet you could have married Lady Luce," she said, not reproachfully,
+but very gravely. "Did you not think of her, Drake?"
+
+"No," he replied gravely. "I gave no thought to her until I came home
+and saw her. And it was not for love of her that I should have married
+her, Nell, but in sheer desperation. You see, it did not matter to me
+whom I married if I could not have you."
+
+"And yet--ah, how hard love is!--she cares for you, Drake! I have seen
+her--I saw her on the terrace, I saw her at the ball here."
+
+He laughed half bitterly.
+
+"My dear Nell, don't let that idea worry you. There is nothing in it; it
+is quite a mistaken one. Luce is a charming woman, the most finished
+product of this fin de siècle life----"
+
+"She is very beautiful," Nell said, just even to her rival.
+
+"I'll grant it, though compared to a certain violet-eyed girl I
+know----"
+
+Nell put her hand over his lips; and he kissed it, and went on gravely.
+
+"No, it is not given to Luce to love any one but herself. She and her
+kind worship the Golden Image which we set up at every street corner.
+Rank, wealth, the notoriety that is paragraphed in the society papers,
+those are what Luce worships, and marries for. By the accident of birth
+I represent most of these things, and so----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
+
+"And now chance has helped me again, for her father has inherited the
+Marquisate of Buckleigh, and he will be rich. It is likely enough that
+she would have jilted me again."
+
+"But you were not engaged to her?" said Nell, drawing her hand from his
+head, where it had rested lightly.
+
+"No," he said. "But I should have been, and she knows it. The whole
+truth, dearest! No, I am free, thank God! Free to win back my old
+love."
+
+Nell drew a sigh of relief, and her hand stole back to him.
+
+"She will let me go calmly and easily enough. There are at least two
+marriageable dukes in the market, and Luce----"
+
+"Ah, Drake, I do not like to hear you speak so harshly--even of her."
+
+"Forgive me, Nell. You are right," he said penitently. "But I can't
+forget that by her play acting on the terrace that night she nearly
+robbed me of you forever, and caused both of us months of misery. I
+can't forget that."
+
+"But you must!" said Nell gently. "After all, it may not have been
+acting."
+
+He laughed again, and drew her down to him.
+
+"Ah, Nell, not even after the experience you had at Wolfe House, do you
+understand the fashionable woman, the professional beauty. It was all
+'theater' on Luce's part, believe me! She would have made a magnificent
+actress. But do not let us talk about her any more. Tell me again how
+you used to live in Beaumont Buildings. Nell, we'll go there after we
+are married--we'll go and see the rooms in which you lived. I want to
+feel that I know every bit of your life since we parted."
+
+At the "after we are married," spoken with all the confidence of the
+man, Nell's face grew crimson.
+
+"And now, dearest, you will come up to the Hall?" he said, after a
+pause, and as if he were stating an indisputable proposition. "By
+George! how delighted the countess will be to hear of our reconciliation
+and engagement! She knows nothing of our love and our parting. I told no
+one; my heart was too sore; but I think I shall tell her now, and she
+will be simply delighted. You'll like her, Nell; she's such a dear,
+tender-hearted little woman. I don't wonder at my uncle falling in love
+with her. Poor old fellow! She has been wonderfully good to me. You'll
+come up to the Hall, and be treated like a princess."
+
+"No, Drake," she said. "I must not. I must stay with--him; he needs me
+still."
+
+He was silent a moment, then he kissed her hand assentingly.
+
+"It shall be as you will, my queen!" he said quietly. "Ah, Nell, I shall
+make a bad husband; for I foresee that I shall spoil you by letting you
+have your own way too much. I wanted you at the Hall, wanted you near
+me. But I see--I see you are right, as always. But, Nell, there must be
+no delay about our marriage. Directly Falconer is well enough to----"
+
+She drew her hand away, but he recovered it and held it against his
+face.
+
+"There must be no other chance of a slip between the cup and the lip,"
+he said, almost solemnly. "I want you too badly to be able to wait.
+Besides, do you forget that we have been engaged two years? Two years! A
+lifetime!"
+
+At this moment a "Coo-ee!" sounded through the wood--an impatient and
+half indignant "Coo-ee!"
+
+It was Dick, and he approached them, yelling:
+
+"Nell! Nell! Where on earth are you, Nell?"
+
+They had barely time to move before he was upon them.
+
+"I say, Nell, where on earth have you been? I'm starving----Hallo!" he
+broke off, staring first at Nell's red and downcast face, and then at
+Drake's smiling and quite obviously joyous one. "What----"
+
+Drake took Nell's hand.
+
+"We quite forgot you, Dick, and everybody and everything else. But
+you'll forgive us when you hear that Nell and I have--have----"
+
+"Made it up again!" finished Dick, with a grin that ran from ear to ear.
+"By George, you don't say so! Well, I said it was only a tiff; now,
+didn't I, Nell? But it was a pretty long one. Eighteen months or
+thereabouts, isn't it?"
+
+For a moment the two lovers looked sad, then Drake smiled.
+
+"Just eighteen months too long, Dick," he said. "But you might wish us
+joy."
+
+"I do, I do--or I would, if I wasn't starving!" retorted Dick. "While
+you have been spooning under the spreading chestnut tree, I've been
+wrestling with the electric dynamos; and the sight of even bread and
+cheese would melt me to tears. But I am glad, old man," he said, in a
+grave tone--"glad for both your sakes; for any one could see with
+three-quarters of an eye, to be exact, that you were both miserable
+without each other. Oh, save me from the madness of love!"
+
+"There was a very pretty girl by the name of Angel at the Maltbys'
+dance," put in Drake musingly; "a very pretty girl, indeed, who sat out
+most of the dances, if I remember rightly, with a young friend of mine."
+
+Dick's face grew a healthy, brick-dust red, and he glanced shyly from
+one to the other.
+
+"Well hit, Drake, old man!" he said. "Yes; there was one, and I've seen
+her in London once or twice----"
+
+"Oh, Dick, and you never told me!" said Nell reproachfully.
+
+"I don't tell you everything, little girl," he remarked severely; "and I
+won't tell you any more now unless you come on and give me something to
+eat. See here, now; I'll walk in front, and promise not to look
+round----"
+
+Nell, blushing painfully, looked at Drake appealingly, and he seized
+Dick by the arm and marched him off in the direction of the lodge, Nell
+following more slowly.
+
+As they entered, the nurse came down from Falconer's room, and Nell
+inquired after him anxiously.
+
+"He is much better, miss," said the nurse; "and he asked me to say that
+he should be glad if you and his lordship would go up to him."
+
+Drake nodded, and he followed Nell up the stairs.
+
+Falconer was sitting up, leaning back against a pile of pillows; and he
+greeted them with a smile--the half-sad, half-patiently cynical smile of
+the old days in Beaumont Buildings--the smile which served as a mask to
+hide the tenderness of a noble nature.
+
+Nell came into the room shyly, with the sadness of the self-reproach
+which was born of the knowledge that her happiness had been gained at
+the cost of this man who loved her with a love as great as Drake's; but
+Drake came up to the bed boldly, and held out his hand.
+
+"We have come--to thank you, Falconer," he said, in the tone with which
+one man acknowledges his debt to another. "No, not to thank you, for
+that's impossible. Some things are beyond thanks, and this that you have
+done is one of them. You have brought happiness where there was nothing
+but misery and despair. Some day I will tell you the story of our
+separation; but that must wait. Now I can only try and express my
+gratitude----"
+
+He stammered and broke down; for with Falconer's eloquent eyes upon him,
+he realized the extent of the man's self-sacrifice, and it seemed to him
+that any attempt to express his own gratitude was worse than absolute
+silence. Can you thank a man for the gift of your life?
+
+Falconer looked from one to the other, the half-sad smile lighting up
+his wan face.
+
+"I know," he said simply. And indeed he knew how he should feel if he
+were in the place of this lucky man, this favored of the gods. "I know.
+There is no need to say anything. You are happy?"
+
+His eyes rested on Nell. She slipped to her knees beside the bed and
+took his hand; but she could not speak; the tears filled her eyes, and
+she gazed up at him through a mist.
+
+"Ah! what can I say?" she murmured.
+
+He smiled down at her with infinite tenderness.
+
+"You have said enough," he said simply, "and I am answered. Do you think
+it is nothing to me, your happiness? It is everything--life itself!"
+His dark eyes glowed. "There is no moment since I knew you that I would
+not have laid down this wretched life of mine, if by so doing I could
+have made you happy at a much less cost."
+
+He turned his eyes to Drake with sudden energy.
+
+"Don't pity me, Lord Angleford. There is no need."
+
+Drake took his other hand and pressed it.
+
+"You must get well soon, or her--our--happiness will be marred,
+Falconer," he said warmly.
+
+Falconer nodded.
+
+"I shall get well," he said. "I am better already. We artists are never
+beyond consolation. Art is a jealous mistress, and will brook no rival."
+
+"And you worship a mistress who will make you famous," said Drake.
+
+Falconer smiled.
+
+"We are content, though she should deny us so much as that," he said.
+"Art is its own reward."
+
+Nell rose from her knees and stole from the room. When she had gone,
+Falconer raised his head and looked long and seriously at Drake.
+
+"Be good to her, my lord," he said, very gravely. "You have won a great
+prize, a ruby without a blemish; value it, cherish it."
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"I know," he said simply.
+
+Nell stole into the room again. She was carrying Falconer's violin
+carefully, tenderly. She put it in his hands, held out eagerly to
+receive it, and he placed it in position, turned it swiftly, and began
+to play, his eyes fixed on hers gratefully.
+
+Nell and Drake withdrew to the window, their heads reverently bent.
+
+He played slowly, softly at first, a sad and yet exquisitely sweet
+melody; then the strain grew louder, though not the less sweet, and the
+tiny room was throbbing with music which expressed a joy which only
+music could voice.
+
+Drake's hand stole toward Nell's, and grasped it firmly. Her head
+drooped and the tears rose to her eyes, and soon began to trickle down
+her cheeks. The exquisite music seemed to reach her soul and raise it to
+the seventh heaven, in even which there are tears.
+
+"Drake!" she murmured. "Drake!"
+
+"Nell, my dearest!" he responded, in a whisper.
+
+Then suddenly the music ceased. Falconer slowly dropped the violin on
+the bed and fell back, his eyes closed, his face as calm as that of a
+child falling to sleep.
+
+"Go now," whispered Nell; and Drake stole from the room, leaving Nell
+kneeling beside the musician, who had apparently fallen asleep.
+
+Drake went down the stairs like a man in a dream, the strange, weird
+music still ringing in his ears, and walked up to the Hall.
+
+The countess met him as he entered, and he took her hand and led her
+into the library without a word.
+
+"Oh, what is it, Drake?" she asked anxiously, for she knew that
+something had happened.
+
+He placed her in one of the big easy-chairs, and stood before her, the
+light of happiness on his face.
+
+"I've something to tell you, countess," he said. "I am going to be
+married."
+
+She smiled up at him.
+
+"I am very glad, Drake. I have expected it for some time past. What a
+pity it is that she should have had to go!"
+
+"She! Who?" he exclaimed.
+
+For the moment he had forgotten Lady Luce.
+
+The countess stared at him.
+
+"Who?" she said, with surprise. "Why, who else should it be but Luce?"
+
+His brows came together, and he made an impatient movement.
+
+"No, no!" he said. "It is Nell--I mean Miss Lorton."
+
+She rose with amazement depicted on her countenance.
+
+"Miss Lorton! At the lodge?"
+
+"Yes," he said impatiently. "We were engaged nearly two years ago. There
+was a--a--misunderstanding--but it is all cleared up. I want your
+congratulations, countess."
+
+She was an American, and therefore quick to seize a point.
+
+"And you have them, Drake. That sweet, beautiful girl! I am glad!
+But--but----"
+
+"What?" he asked impatiently.
+
+"But Luce!" she stammered. "We all thought that----"
+
+"You are wrong," he said, almost hoarsely. "It is Miss Lorton. Go to her
+at the lodge, and----"
+
+He said no more, but went to the writing table.
+
+Lady Angleford, all in amaze, left the room.
+
+He took up a pen and scribbled over a sheet of note-paper, then tore it
+up. He filled several other sheets, which he destroyed, but at last he
+wrote a few words which satisfied him.
+
+Then he remembered that he did not know Luce's address; and, for want of
+a better, he addressed the letter, announcing his engagement to Miss
+Lorton, to Lord Turfleigh's club in London; and, like a man, was
+satisfied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+Was it any wonder that Nell should lie awake that night asking herself
+if this sudden joy and happiness that had come to her was real--that
+Drake loved her still--had never ceased to love her--and was hers again?
+
+Perfect happiness in this vale of tears is so rare that we may be
+pardoned for viewing it with a certain amount of incredulity, and with a
+doubt of its stability and lasting qualities. But Drake's kisses were
+still warm on her lips, and his passionate avowal of love still rang in
+her ears.
+
+And next morning, almost before she had finished breakfast, down came
+the countess to set the seal, so to speak, upon the marvelous fact that
+Nell of Shorne Mills was to be the wife of the Earl of Angleford.
+
+Nell, blushing, rose from the table to receive her, and the countess
+took and held her hand, looking into the downcast face with the tender
+sympathy of the woman, who knows all that love means, for the girl who
+has only yet learned the first letters of its marvelous alphabet.
+
+"My dear, you must forgive me for coming so early. Mr. Lorton, if you do
+not go on with your breakfast, I will run away again. I am so glad to
+meet you. Now, pray, pray, sit down again."
+
+But Dick, who knew that the countess wished to have Nell alone, declared
+that he had finished, and took himself off. Then the countess drew Nell
+to her and kissed her.
+
+"My dear, I am come to try and tell you how glad I am! Last night Drake
+and I sat up late talking of you. He has told me all your story. It is a
+romance--a perfect romance! And none the less charming because, unlike
+most romances in life, it has turned out happily. And we are all so
+pleased, so delighted--I mean up at the Hall; and I am sure the people
+on the estate will be as pleased, for I know that you have become a
+general favorite, even though you have been here so short a time. Lady
+Wolfer begged me to let her come with me this morning, but I would not
+yield. I wanted you all to myself. Not that I shall have you for long, I
+suppose, for Drake will be sure to be here presently."
+
+Nell's blush grew still deeper. She was touched by the great lady's
+kindness, and the tears were very near her eyes.
+
+"Why are you all so glad?" she faltered, gratefully and wonderingly. "I
+know that there is a great difference between us. I am--well, I am a
+nobody, and Drake is stooping very low to marry me. You must all feel
+that."
+
+"My dear," said the countess, with a smile, "no man stoops who marries a
+good and innocent girl. It's the other way about--at least, that's my
+feeling; but then I'm an American, you know; and we look at things
+differently on the other side. But, Nell, we are glad because you have
+made Drake happy. None of us could fail to see that he has been wretched
+and miserable, but that now he has completely changed. If you had seen
+the difference in him last night! But I suppose you did," she put in
+naïvely. "He seemed to have become years younger; his very voice was
+changed, and rang with the old ring. And you have worked this miracle!
+That is why we are all so delighted and grateful to you."
+
+The tears were standing in Nell's eyes, though she laughed softly.
+
+"And yet--and yet he ought to have married some one of his own rank."
+The color rushed to her face. "I did not know who he was when--when I
+was first engaged to him at home, at Shorne Mills."
+
+"I know--I know. He has told me the whole story. It was very foolish of
+him--foolish and romantic. But, dear, don't you see that it proves the
+reality, the disinterestedness of your love for him? And as for the
+difference of rank--well, it does not matter in the least. Drake's rank
+is so high that he may marry whom he pleases; and he is so rich that
+money does not come into the question."
+
+"It is King Cophetua and the beggar maid," murmured Nell.
+
+"If you like; but there is not much of the beggar maid about you, dear,"
+retorted the countess, holding Nell at arm's length and scanning the
+refined and lovely face, the slim and graceful form in its plain morning
+frock. "No, my dear; there is nothing wrong about the affair, excepting
+the extraordinary misunderstanding which parted you for a time, and
+brought you so much unhappiness. But all that is past now, and you and
+he must learn to forget it. And now, my dear, I want you to come up with
+me to the Hall."
+
+But Nell shook her head.
+
+"I can't do that, countess," she said. "I can't leave Mr. Falconer. He
+is much better and stronger this morning; the nurse says that he slept
+all night, for the first time; but he still needs me--and--I owe him so
+much!" she added in a low voice.
+
+The countess looked at her keenly for a moment; then she nodded.
+
+"I see. Drake told me that I should find you harder to move than you
+look. And I am not sure that you are not right," she said. "When you
+come to stay at the Hall it will be as mistress." Nell's face crimsoned
+again. "But, my dear girl, we can't pass over the great event as if it
+were of no consequence. Drake's engagement, under any circumstances,
+would be of the deepest interest to all of us, to the whole country; but
+his engagement to you will create a profound sensation, and we must
+demonstrate our satisfaction in some way. I'm afraid you will have to
+face a big dinner party."
+
+Nell looked rather frightened.
+
+"Oh!" she breathed. "Is--is it necessary? Can't we just go on as if--as
+if nothing had happened?"
+
+The countess laughed.
+
+"That's exactly what Drake said when I spoke to him about it last night.
+It is nice to find you so completely of one mind. But I'm afraid it
+wouldn't do. You see, my dear, the people will want to see you, to be
+introduced to you; and if we pursue the usual course there will be much
+less talk and curiosity than if we let things slide. Yes, you will have
+to run the gauntlet; but I don't think you need be apprehensive of the
+result," and she looked at her with affectionate approval.
+
+"Very well," said Nell resignedly. "You know what is best, and I will do
+anything you and Drake wish."
+
+"What a dutiful child!" exclaimed the countess, banteringly. "And though
+you won't come and stay at the Hall, you will come up and see us very
+often, to lunch and tea and----"
+
+"When Mr. Falconer can spare me," said Nell quietly.
+
+"Yes. And about him, dear. We talked of him last night, and his future.
+That will be Drake's special care. He, too, owes him a big debt, and he
+feels it. Mr. Falconer is a genius, and the world must be made to know
+it before very long. And your brother, dear; you will let him come up to
+the Hall?"
+
+Nell laughed softly.
+
+"You are thinking of everything," she said. "Even of Dick. Oh, yes,
+he'll come. Dick isn't a bit shy; but he thinks more of his electric
+machines than anything else on earth just at present."
+
+"I know," said the countess, laughing. "But we must try and lure him
+from them now and again. I am sure we shall all like him, for he is
+wonderfully like you. Now, about the dinner, dear. Shall we say this day
+week?"
+
+"So soon!" said Nell.
+
+"Yes; it mustn't be later, for this wretched trial is coming on; the
+assizes are quite close, you know; and Drake will have to be there as
+witness. My dear, I'm glad they did not get off with the diamonds! You
+little thought that night, when you saved Drake's life, and prevented
+the man getting away, that you were fighting for your own jewels."
+
+"Mine!" said Nell.
+
+The countess laughed.
+
+"Why, yes, you dear goose! Are they not the Angleford diamonds, and will
+they not soon be yours?"
+
+Nell blushed and looked a little aghast.
+
+"I--I haven't realized it all yet," she said. "Ah! I wish Drake
+were--just Drake Vernon! I am afraid when I think----"
+
+The countess smiled and shook her head.
+
+"There is no need to be afraid, my dear," she said shrewdly. "You will
+wear the Angleford coronet very well and very gracefully, if I am not
+mistaken, because you set so little store by it. And now here comes
+Drake! It is good of him to give me so long with you. Give me a kiss
+before he comes--he won't begrudge me that surely! Ah, you happy girl!"
+
+Drake drove up in a dogcart.
+
+"I can't get down; the mare won't stand"--he hadn't brought a groom, for
+excellent reasons. "Please tell Nell to get her things on as quickly as
+she can!" he said to the countess as she came out.
+
+Nell looked doubtful.
+
+"I will go upstairs first," she said. But Falconer was asleep, and when
+she came down she had her outdoor things on.
+
+Drake bent down and held out his hand to help her up.
+
+"You won't be long?" she asked, and she looked up at him shyly, for,
+after their long separation, he seemed almost strange to her.
+
+"Just as long as you like," he said, understanding the reason for her
+question, and glancing at the window of Falconer's room. "Dick tells me
+that he is better this morning. I couldn't say how glad I am, dearest
+Nell," he whispered, as the mare sprang at the collar and they whirled
+through the gates and down the road. "Is it you really who are sitting
+beside me, or am I dreaming?"
+
+Nell's hand stole nearer to his arm until it touched it softly.
+
+"I have asked myself that all night, Drake," she said, almost inaudibly.
+"It is so much more like a dream than a reality. Are we going through
+the village?" she asked, suddenly and shyly.
+
+"Yes," he said. "We are. Nell, I want to show my treasure to the good
+folk who have known me since I was a boy. Perhaps the news has reached
+the village by this time--for the servants at the Hall know it, and I
+want them to see how happy you have made me!"
+
+There could be no doubt of the news having got to the village, for as
+the dogcart sped through it the people came to the doors of the shops
+and cottages, all alive with curiosity and excitement.
+
+Drake nodded to the curtseys and greetings, and looked so radiantly
+happy that one woman, feeling that touch of nature which makes all men
+kin, called out to them:
+
+"God bless you, my lord, and send you both happiness!"
+
+"That's worth having, Nell," he said, very quietly; but Nell didn't
+speak, and the tears were in her eyes. "A few days ago I should have
+laughed or sneered at that benediction," he said gravely. "What a change
+has come over my life in a few short hours! There is no magic like that
+of love, Nell."
+
+They were silent for some time after they had left the village behind
+them, but presently Drake began to call her attention to the various
+points of interest in the view; the prosperous farms, and thickly wooded
+preserves; and Nell began, half unconsciously, to realize the extent of
+the vast estate--the one of many--of which the man she was going to
+marry was lord and master.
+
+"I'm going to take you to a farm which has been held by the same family
+for several generations," he said. "I think you will like Styles and his
+wife; and you won't mind if they are outspoken, dearest? I was here to
+lunch only the other day, and Styles read me a lecture on my duties as
+lord of Angleford. One of the heads was that I ought to choose a wife
+without loss of time. I want to show him that I have taken his sermon to
+heart."
+
+"Perhaps he may not approve of your choice," said Nell.
+
+Drake laughed.
+
+"Well, if he doesn't, he won't hesitate to say so," he said.
+
+They pulled up at the farm, and Styles came down to the gate to welcome
+them, calling to a lad to hold the mare.
+
+"Yes, we will come in for a minute or two, Styles, if Mrs. Styles will
+have us," said Drake.
+
+Mrs. Styles, in the doorway, wiping her hands freshly washed from the
+flour of a pudding, smiled a welcome.
+
+"Come right in, my lord," she said. "You know you be welcome well
+enough." She looked at Nell, who was blushing a little. "And all the
+more welcome for the company you bring."
+
+"Sit down, my lord; sit ye down, miss--or is it 'my lady'?" said Styles,
+perfectly at ease in his unaffected pleasure at seeing them.
+
+"This is Miss Lorton, the young lady who is rash enough to promise to be
+my wife, Mrs. Styles," said Drake. "I drove over to introduce her to you,
+and to show that I took your good advice to heart."
+
+The farmer and his wife surveyed Nell for a moment, then slowly averted
+their eyes out of regard for her blushes.
+
+"I make so bold to tell your lordship that you never did a wiser thing
+in your life," said Styles quietly, and with a certain dignity; "and if
+the young lady be as good as she is pretty--and if I'm anything of a
+judge, I bet she be!--there's some sense in wishing your lordship and
+her a long life and every happiness."
+
+Drake held out his hand, and laughed like a boy.
+
+"Thanks, Styles," he said. "It was worth driving out for. And I'm happy
+enough, in all conscience, for the present."
+
+"I've heard of Miss Lorton, and I've heard naught but good of her," said
+Mrs. Styles, eying Nell, who had got one of the children on her knee;
+"and to us as lives on the estate, miss, it's a matter of importance who
+his lordship marries. It may just mean the difference between good times
+or bad. Us don't want his lordship to marry a fine London lady as 'u'd
+never be contented to live among us. And there be many such."
+
+Nell fought against her shyness; indeed, she remembered the simple folk
+of Shorne Mills, who talked as freely and frankly as this honest couple,
+and plucked up courage.
+
+"I'm not a fine London lady, at any rate, Mrs. Styles," she said, with a
+smile. "I have lived for nearly all my life in a country village, much
+farther away from London than you are; and I know very little of London
+life."
+
+"You don't say, miss!" exclaimed Mrs. Styles, much gratified.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing softly. "And I could finish making this
+apple pudding, if you'd let me, and boil it after I'd make it."
+
+Mrs. Styles gazed at her in speechless admiration, and Drake laughed
+with keen enjoyment of her surprise.
+
+"Oh, yes; Miss Lorton is an excellent cook and housekeeper, Mrs. Styles;
+so I hope you are satisfied?"
+
+"That I be, and more, my lord," responded Mrs. Styles. "But, Lor'! your
+lordship do surprise me, for she looks no more than a schoolgirl--begging
+her pardon."
+
+"Oh, she's wise for her years!" said Drake. "Yes, I'll have a glass of
+your home-brewed, Styles."
+
+Mrs. Styles brought some milk and scones for Nell, and the two women
+withdrew to the settle and talked like old friends, while Drake, his
+eyes and attention straying to his beloved, discussed the burglary at
+the Hall with Styles. As Mrs. Styles' topic of conversation was
+Drake--Drake as a lad and a young man--Nell was in no hurry to go; but
+suddenly she remembered Falconer--he might be wanting her--and she got
+up and went to Drake, who, his beloved brier in his mouth, leaned back
+in an easy-chair and talked to the farmer as if time were of no
+consequence. He sprang up as she approached him.
+
+"Well, good-by, Styles. I said you should dance at my wedding, and so
+you shall," he said.
+
+"Thank you, my lord," he responded. "I'll do my best, but I thought your
+lordship was only joking. Here's a very good health to you, my lord, and
+your future lady."
+
+"And God bless ye both," said Mrs. Styles, in the background.
+
+They drove away in grand style, the mare insisting on putting on frills
+and standing on her hind legs; and Drake, when the mare had settled down
+to her swinging trot, stole his hand round Nell's waist, and pressed her
+to him.
+
+"Do you know why I took you there this morning, Nell?" he said, in a low
+voice.
+
+Nell shook her head shyly.
+
+"I'll tell you. The sudden good fortune has seemed so unreal to me that
+I haven't been able to realize it, to grasp it. It wasn't enough for the
+countess to know and congratulate us--it wasn't enough, somehow. I
+wanted some of the people on the estate to see you, and, so to speak,
+set their seal on our engagement and approaching marriage. Do you
+understand, dearest? I'm not making it very plain, I'm afraid."
+
+But Nell understood, and her heart was brimming over with love for him.
+
+"You have been accepted this morning into the--family, as it were," he
+said. "And now I feel as if it were impossible that I should lose you
+again. Styles will go down to the inn to-night and talk about our visit,
+and give a detailed account of the 'new ladyship,' and everybody on the
+estate will know of my good fortune. It is almost as if"--he paused, and
+the color rose to his face--"as if we were married, Nell. I feel that
+nothing can separate us now."
+
+She said not a word, but she pressed a little closer to him, and he bent
+and kissed her.
+
+"You don't mind my taking you to the Styles', dearest?" he asked.
+
+"No, oh, no!" she replied. "I would rather have gone there than to any
+of the big houses--I mean the county people, Drake. I like to think I am
+not the sort of person they dreaded. What was it? 'A fine London lady.'
+Perhaps it would be better for you if I were; but for them--well,
+perhaps for them it will be better that I am only one of themselves,
+able to understand and sympathize with them. Drake, you will not forget
+that I am only a nobody, that I am only Nell of Shorne Mills."
+
+He smiled to himself, for he knew that this girl whom he had won was, by
+virtue of her beauty and refinement, qualified to fill the highest place
+in that vague sphere which went by the name of "society."
+
+"Don't you worry, dearest," he said. "You have won the heart of the
+Styles family; and that is no mean conquest. That farm on the right is
+the Woodlands, and that just in front is the Broadlands. You will learn
+all the names in time, and I want you to know them; I want you to feel
+that you have a part and lot in them. Nell, do you think you will ever
+be as fond of this place as you are of Shorne Mills?"
+
+"Yes," she said; "because--it is yours, Drake."
+
+He looked down at her gratefully.
+
+"But you shan't lose Shorne Mills," he said resolutely. "I mean to buy
+some land there, and build a house, just on the brow of the hill--you
+know, Nell; that meadow above The Cottage?--and we'll go there every
+summer, and we'll sail the _Annie Laurie_."
+
+So they talked, with intervals of silence filled with his caresses,
+until they reached the lodge. And as they came up to it, they heard the
+strains of a violin.
+
+Nell awoke with a start.
+
+"Oh, I had almost forgotten!" she said remorsefully.
+
+"Listen!" Drake whispered.
+
+Nell, in the act of pushing the dust cloak from her, listened.
+
+Falconer was playing the "Gloria in Excelsis."
+
+"Oh, how happy I have been!" she murmured, half guiltily.
+
+"And how happy you will be, Heaven grant it, dearest!" Drake murmured,
+as he released her hand and she got down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up
+and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotamia' seven times!"
+
+It was the night of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as Dick put
+it, she was to be "on view" as the fiancée of my lord of Angleford, and
+Nell had come down to the little sitting room dressed and ready to
+start.
+
+Dick and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered
+sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his
+violin with him.
+
+"Don't tease her, Dick," said Falconer, with the gentle, protective air
+of an elder brother. "She does not look a bit nervous."
+
+"But I am!" said Nell, laughing a little tremulously; "I am--just a
+little bit!"
+
+"And no wonder!" said Falconer promptly. "It is rather an ordeal she has
+to go through; to know that everybody is regarding you critically. But
+she has nothing to be afraid of."
+
+"Now, there I differ with you," said Dick argumentatively. "If I were in
+Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth
+did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah,
+would you?" as Nell, laughing and blushing, caught up the sofa cushion.
+"You throw it and rumple my best hair, if you dare."
+
+Nell put the cushion down reluctantly.
+
+"It's a mean shame; you know I can't fight now."
+
+"Though you have your war paint on," said Falconer, looking at her with
+a half-sad, half-proud admiration and affection.
+
+"It's not much of a war paint," said Nell, but contentedly enough. "It's
+the dress I made for a party at Wolfer House--Dick, you know that the
+Wolfers have had to go? Lord Wolfer's brother was ill. I am so sorry!
+She would have made me feel less nervous, and rather braver. Yes, I'm
+sorry! It's an old dress, and I'm afraid Drake's jewels must feel quite
+ashamed of it," and she glanced at the pearls which he had given her a
+day or two ago, and which gleamed softly on her white, girlish neck and
+arms.
+
+"You hear her complaining, Falconer!" said Dick, with mock sternness and
+reproval. "You'd find it hard to believe that I offered to remain at
+home and pop my dress suit, that she might buy herself fitting raiment
+for this show. Oh, worse than a serpent's tooth, it is to have an
+ungrateful sister!"
+
+"I thought it was a new dress," remarked Falconer, still eying it and
+the wearer intently.
+
+Nell shook her head, coloring a little, as she said:
+
+"No; I wanted to wear this one. I didn't want to appear in a grand frock
+as if I were a fashionable lady."
+
+"Fine feathers do not always make a fine lady," observed Dick,
+addressing the ceiling. "No one would mistake you for anything
+but--what you are, a simple ch-e-ild of Nachure."
+
+"Don't tease her, Dick," remonstrated Falconer; but Nell laughed with
+enjoyment.
+
+"I don't mind in the least, Mr. Falconer. It's quite true, too; my plain
+frock is more suitable than anything Worth could turn out."
+
+"My dear Falconer, I'm sorry to see you so easily imposed on. Don't you
+see that she's as vain as a peacock, and that she's only playing at the
+humble and meek? Besides, I expect that idiot Drake--who slipped out
+just as we came down--he'll be late for dinner if he doesn't mind!--has
+been telling her that she looks rather pretty----"
+
+Nell blushed, for Drake had indeed told her that she looked more than
+pretty.
+
+"And, of course, she believes him. She'd believe him if he told her that
+the moon was made of green cheese. Put that cushion down, my child, or
+it will be worse for you. And I hope you will behave yourself properly
+to-night. Remember that the brother who has brought you up with such
+anxious care will be present, to say nothing of the friend to whose
+culture and refined example you owe so much. Don't forget that it is bad
+manners to put your knife in your mouth, or to laugh too loudly.
+Remember we shall be watching you closely and anxiously."
+
+"It is time we started," said Falconer. "Let me put that shawl more
+closely round you, Miss Lorton. It's a fine night, but one cannot be too
+careful."
+
+It was so fine that they had decided to walk the short distance to the
+Hall; and they set out, Falconer with his precious violin in its case
+under his arm, and Dick smoking a cigarette. They were all rather silent
+as they approached the great house, and Dick, looking up at it, said
+with a gravity unusual with him:
+
+"It's hard to realize that you are going to be the mistress of this huge
+place, Nell."
+
+Nell made no response; but she, too, looked up at the house with the
+same thought.
+
+Indeed, it was hard to realize. But the next moment Drake came out to
+meet them, and took her upon his arm, with a whispered word of loving
+greeting for her, and a warm welcome to the two men.
+
+"I needn't say how glad I am to see you, Falconer," he said, "or how
+delighted the countess and the rest of them will be. You must be
+prepared for a little hero worship, I'm afraid, for the countess has
+been diligent in spreading the story of your pluck."
+
+As he lovingly took off Nell's shawl, he whispered:
+
+"Dearest, how sweet and beautiful you look! If you knew how proud I
+am--how proud and happy!"
+
+Then he led them into the drawing-room. A number of guests had already
+arrived, and as the countess came forward and kissed Nell, they looked
+at her with a keen curiosity, though it was politely veiled.
+
+Nell was a little pale as the countess introduced her to one after
+another of the county people; but Drake stood near her; and everybody,
+prepossessed by her youth, and the girlish dignity and modesty which
+characterized her, was very kind and pleasant; and soon the threatened
+fit of shyness passed off, and she felt at her ease.
+
+The room, large as it was, got rather crowded. Guests were still
+arriving. Some of the women were magnificently dressed in honor of the
+occasion, but Nell's simple frock distinguished her, as the plain
+evening dress of the American ambassador is said to distinguish him
+among the rich uniforms and glittering orders of the queen's levee; and
+the women recognized and approved her good taste in appearing so simply
+dressed.
+
+"She is sweetly pretty," murmured the local duchess to Lady Northgate.
+"I don't wonder at Lord Angleford's losing his heart. Half the men in
+the room would fall in love with her if she were free. And I like that
+quiet, reticent manner of hers; not a bit shy, but dignified and yet
+girlish. Yes, Lord Angleford is to be congratulated."
+
+"So he would be if she were not half so pretty," said Lady Northgate;
+"for he is evidently too happy for words. See how he looks at her!"
+
+"Who is that bright-looking young fellow?" asked the duchess, putting up
+her pince-nez at Dick.
+
+"That is her brother. Isn't he like her? They are devoted to each other;
+and that is Mr. Falconer, the great violinist. Of course, you've heard
+the story----"
+
+"Oh, dear, yes," said the duchess. "And I want to congratulate him. I
+wish you'd bring the boy to me, dear."
+
+Lady Northgate went after him, but at that moment a young lady with
+laughing eyes came into the room, and Dick started and actually blushed.
+
+Drake, who was standing near him, laughed at his confusion.
+
+"An old friend of yours, I think, Dick, eh? Miss Angel. She's stopping
+in the house; came to-day. If you're good, you shall take her in to
+dinner."
+
+"I'll be what she is by name, if I may!" said Dick, eagerly. "I'll go
+and tell her so," and he made his way through the crowd to her.
+
+"Afraid you've forgotten me, Miss Angel," he said. "Hop at the Maltbys',
+you know!"
+
+Her eyes danced more merrily, but she surveyed him demurely for a
+moment, as if trying to recall him, then she said:
+
+"Oh, yes; the gentleman who was so very--very cool; I was going to say
+impudent; pretty Miss Lorton's brother."
+
+"You might have said Miss Lorton's pretty brother!" retorted Dick
+reproachfully. "But you'll have time to say it later on, for I'm going
+to take you in to dinner."
+
+"'Going to have the honor' of taking me in to dinner, you mean!" she
+said, with mock hauteur.
+
+"No; 'pleasure' is the word," said the unabashed Dick. "I say, how
+delighted I am to see you here----"
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Because I know so very few of this mob."
+
+"Oh, I see. I'll recall my thanks, please."
+
+Dick grinned.
+
+"I thought you were rather too previous with your gratitude. But isn't
+it jolly being here together!"
+
+"Is that a question or an assertion? Because, if it's the former, I beg
+leave to announce that I see no reason for any great delight on my
+part."
+
+"Oh, come now! You think! You can resume the lesson on manners you
+commenced at the Maltbys'. I want it badly; for I have been among a
+rough set lately. I'm a British workingman, you know--engineer. Come
+into this corner, and I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"I don't know that I want to hear," she retorted. "But, oh, well, I'll
+come after I've spoken to your sister. How lovely she looks to-night! If
+I were a man, I should envy Lord Angleford."
+
+"Would you? So should I if he were going to marry another young lady I
+know."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" she asked, with admirably feigned innocence and
+interest.
+
+"Oh, you can't see her just now. No looking-glass near," he had the
+audacity to add, but under his breath.
+
+The dinner hour struck, the carriages were setting down the last
+arrivals, and Lady Angleford was looking round and smilingly awaiting
+the butler's "Dinner is served, my lady!" when a footman came up to her
+and said something in a low voice.
+
+The countess went out of the room, and found her maid in the hall.
+
+The woman whispered a few words that caused Lady Angleford to turn pale
+and stand gazing before her as if she had suddenly seen a ghost.
+
+"Very well," she said.
+
+The maid hurried upstairs, but the countess stood for quite half a
+minute, still pale, and gazing into vacancy.
+
+Then she went back to the drawing-room, and, with a mechanical smile,
+passed among the guests until she reached Drake, who was talking to the
+duke and Lord Northgate.
+
+"You want me, countess?" he said, feeling her eyes fixed on him, and he
+followed her to a clear space.
+
+"Drake," she said, lifting her eyes to his face pitifully, "Drake,
+something dreadful has happened--something dreadful. I don't like to
+tell you, but I must. She is here!"
+
+She whispered the announcement as if it were indeed something dreadful.
+
+Drake looked at her in a mystified fashion.
+
+"She! Who?" he asked.
+
+"Luce!"
+
+He did not start, but his brows came together, and his face grew stern,
+for the first time since his reconciliation to Nell.
+
+"Luce!" he echoed. "Impossible!"
+
+"Oh, but she is!" she murmured, in despair. "She arrived a quarter of an
+hour ago."
+
+"But I wrote, telling her," he muttered helplessly.
+
+The countess made a despairing gesture.
+
+"Then she did not get your letter. She sent a telegram this morning,
+saying that she was able, unexpectedly, to come, but I have not had it.
+And if I had received it, there would not have been time to prevent her
+coming." She glanced at the slim, girlish figure of Nell, where it
+stood, the center of a group, and almost groaned. "What shall we do?"
+
+At such times a man is indeed helpless, and Drake stood overwhelmed and
+idealess.
+
+"She says that we are not to wait--that she will come down when she is
+dressed. She--she----Oh, Drake! she does not know, and she will think
+that--that you still--that she----"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know. But I am thinking of Nell," he said grimly. "Luce must be told.
+She--yes, she must go away again. She will, when she knows the truth."
+
+"But--but who is to tell her?" said the poor countess, aghast at the
+prospect before her.
+
+Drake shook his head.
+
+"Not you, countess. I will tell her."
+
+"You, Drake!"
+
+"Yes--I," he said, biting his lips. "She found little difficulty in
+telling me, there at Shorne Mills----No, no; I ought not to have said
+that. But I am anxious to spare Nell, and my anxiety makes me hard. Wait
+a moment."
+
+He went to the window, and, putting aside the curtains, looked out at
+the night, seeing nothing; then he came back.
+
+"Put the dinner back for a quarter of an hour, and send word to her and
+ask her to go into your boudoir. I will wait her there."
+
+"Is there no other way, Drake?" she asked, pitying him from the bottom
+of her heart.
+
+"There is none," he said frankly. "It is my fault. I ought to have found
+out her address; but it is no use reproaching oneself. Send to her,
+countess!"
+
+She left the room, and Drake went back to the duke, talked for a moment
+or two, then went up to the countess' room and waited. He had to face an
+ordeal more severe than any other that had hitherto fallen to his not
+uneventful life; but faced it had to be; and he would have gone through
+fire and water to save Nell a moment's pain. Besides, Luce was to be
+considered, though, it must be confessed, he felt little pity for her.
+
+Presently the door opened; but it was Burden who entered. She was
+looking pale and emaciated, as if she were either very ill, or
+recovering from illness, and Drake, even at that moment of strain and
+stress, noticed her pitiable appearance.
+
+"How do you do, Burden?" he said. "I am afraid you have not been well."
+
+Burden curtsied, and looked up at him with hollow eyes.
+
+"Thank you, my lord," she faltered. "My lady sent me to tell your
+lordship that she will be here in a minute or two."
+
+She left the room, and Drake leaned against the mantelshelf with his
+hands in his pockets, his head sunk on his breast; and in a minute or
+two the door opened again, and Luce glided toward him with outstretched
+hands.
+
+"Drake! How sweet of you to send for me--to wait!" she murmured.
+
+He took one of her hands and held it, and the coldness of his touch, the
+expression of his face, startled her.
+
+"Drake! What is the matter?" she asked. "Are--are you not glad to see
+me? Why do you look at me so strangely? I came the moment I could get
+away. There has been so much to do; and father"--she paused a moment and
+shrugged her shoulders--"has been very bad. The excitement and
+fuss----You know the condition he would be in, under the circumstances.
+I told Burden to wire this morning to say I was coming, but she forgot
+to do so. She seems half demented, and I am going to get rid of her.
+What is the matter, Drake?"
+
+She had moved nearer to him, expecting him to take her in his arms and
+kiss her; but his coldness, his silence, was telling upon her, and the
+question broke from her impatiently.
+
+"Haven't you had my letter?" he asked.
+
+"Your letter? No. Did you write? I am sorry! What did you write?"
+
+"I wrote"--he hesitated a moment, but what was the good of trying to
+"break" the news? "I wrote to tell you of my engagement----"
+
+She started and stared at him.
+
+"Your engagement! Your----Drake! What do you mean? Your engagement!
+To--to whom?"
+
+"Sit down, Luce," he said gravely, tenderly, and he went to lead her to
+a chair; but she shook her hand free and stood, still staring at him
+blankly, her face growing paler.
+
+"I wrote and told you all about it. I am engaged to Miss Lorton. You do
+not know her; but she is the young lady I met at Shorne Mills, the place
+in Devonshire----I was engaged to her then, but it was broken off, and
+we were separated for a time; but we met again----I am sorry, very
+sorry, that you did not get my letter."
+
+Her face was perfectly white by this time, her lips set tightly. He
+feared she was going to faint; but, with a great effort she fought
+against the deadly weakness which assailed her.
+
+"So that was what you wrote!" she breathed, every word leaving her lips
+as if it caused her pain to utter. "You--you--have deceived me."
+
+"No, Luce," he said quickly.
+
+"Yes, yes! When I left here you----Is it not true that you intended
+asking me to be your wife, to renew our engagement? Answer!"
+
+She glanced up at him, her teeth showing between her parted lips.
+
+He inclined his head.
+
+"Yes, it is true; but I had not met--I had not heard----Oh, what is the
+use of all this recrimination, Luce? I am engaged to the girl I love."
+
+She raised her hand as if to strike him. He caught it gently, and as
+gently released it.
+
+"I will go," she panted. "I will go at once. Be good enough to order my
+carriage----"
+
+She put her hand to her head as if she did not know what she was saying;
+and Drake's heart ached with pity for her--at that moment, at any rate.
+
+"Don't think too hardly of me, Luce," he said, in a low voice. "And you
+have not lost much, remember."
+
+She clasped her hands and swayed to and fro for a moment.
+
+"I see! It is your revenge. I once jilted you, and now----"
+
+"For God's sake, don't say--don't think----No man could be so base, so
+vile!" he said sternly.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"It is your revenge; I see it. Yes, you have scored. I will go--at once.
+Open the door, please!"
+
+There was nothing else to be done. He opened the door for her, and she
+swept past him. Outside, she paused for a moment, as if she did not know
+where she was, or in which direction her room lay; then she went
+slowly--almost staggered--down the corridor, and, bursting into her
+room, fell into a chair.
+
+So sudden was her entrance, so tragic her collapse, that the nervous
+Burden uttered a faint shriek.
+
+"Oh, my lady! what is the matter?" she cried, her hand against her
+heart.
+
+Lady Luce sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes gleaming from her
+white face, in silence for a moment; then she laughed, the laugh which
+borders on hysteria.
+
+"Congratulate me, Burden!" she said bitterly; "congratulate me! Lord
+Angleford is engaged!"
+
+Burden stared at her.
+
+"To--to your ladyship?" she said, but doubtfully. "I do congratulate
+you."
+
+"You fool!" cried Luce savagely. "He is engaged to another woman. He has
+jilted me! Oh, I think I shall go mad! Jilted me! Yes, it is that, and
+no less. Oh, my head! my head!"
+
+Burden hurried to her with the eau de Cologne, but Lady Luce pushed it
+away.
+
+"Keep out of my sight! I can't bear the sight of any human being!
+Engaged! 'I am engaged to Miss Lorton!'"--she mimicked Drake's voice in
+bitter mockery.
+
+Burden started, and let the eau de Cologne bottle fall with a soft thud
+to the floor.
+
+"What--what name did your ladyship say?" she gasped, her face as white
+as her mistress's, her eyes starting.
+
+Lady Luce glared at her.
+
+"You fool! Are you deaf? Lorton! Lorton!" she almost snarled at the
+woman.
+
+Burden stooped to pick up the bottle, but staggered and clutched a
+chair, and Lady Luce watched her with half-distraught gaze.
+
+"What is the matter with you? Why do you behave like a lunatic?" she
+demanded. "Do you know this girl? Answer!"
+
+Burden moistened her lips.
+
+"Is it the young lady--who helped catch Ted--I mean the burglar, my
+lady?" she asked hoarsely.
+
+"I suppose so. Yes. Well? Speak out--don't keep me waiting. I'm in no
+humor to be trifled with. You know her--something about her?"
+
+Burden tried to control her shaking voice.
+
+"If--if it is the same young lady who was at Lady Wolfer's----I was her
+maid, you remember----"
+
+"I remember, you fool! Quick!"
+
+"Then--then I know something. She's very pretty--and young, with dark
+hair----"
+
+Lady Luce sprang to her feet.
+
+"You idiot! You drive me mad. I've not seen her. But if it be the
+same----Well--well?"
+
+"Then--then Lord Angleford is to be pitied. He has been
+deceived--deceived cruelly," said Burden, in gasps.
+
+Lady Luce caught her by the shoulders and glared into her quailing eyes.
+
+"Listen to me, Burden: pull yourself together. Tell me what you
+know--tell me this instant! Well? Sit there in that chair. Now!" She
+pressed the shoulders she still held with the gesture of an Arab slave
+driver. "Now, quick! Who is she? What do you know against her?"
+
+In faltering accents, and yet with a kind of savage pleasure, Burden
+spoke for some minutes; and as Lady Luce listened, the pallor of her
+face gave place to a flush of fierce, malicious joy.
+
+"Are you sure? You say you saw, you listened? Are you sure?" she
+said--hissed, rather--at the end of Burden's story.
+
+"I--I am quite sure," she responded. "I--I could swear to it. I was just
+outside the library."
+
+Lady Luce paced up and down with the gait of a tigress.
+
+"If I could only be sure," she panted; "if I could only be sure! But you
+may be mistaken. Wait!" Her hand fell upon Burden's shoulder again. "Go
+downstairs, look at the people, and tell me if you see her there.
+Quick!"
+
+Burden, wincing under the savage pressure of her hand, rose, and stole
+from the room.
+
+In less than five minutes she was back.
+
+"Well?" demanded Lady Luce, as Burden closed the door and leaned against
+it.
+
+"It--it is the same. I saw her," she said suddenly.
+
+Lady Luce sank into a chair, and was silent and motionless for a
+moment; then she sprang up and laughed--a hideous laugh for such perfect
+lips.
+
+"Get out my pale mauve silk. Dress me, quick! I am not going to leave
+the house. I am going downstairs to make Miss Lorton's acquaintance!
+Quick!"
+
+Burden got out the exquisite dress. The flush which had risen to her
+mistress' face was reflected in her own. This Miss Lorton had helped to
+capture her beloved, her "martyred" Ted, and he was going to be avenged!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+After Luce had swept from the room, Drake remained for a minute or two
+thinking the thoughts that a man must think under such circumstances;
+then he went slowly down to the drawing-room.
+
+The countess was watching and waiting for him, and she looked up at his
+grave countenance anxiously as he came toward her.
+
+"It is all right," he said, in his quiet way; "she is going at once."
+
+His composure, the Angleford impassiveness which always came to their
+aid in moments of danger and difficulty, impressed her; she drew a
+breath of relief, and signed to the butler, who was hovering about
+awaiting her signal. "Dinner is served, my lady," he announced solemnly;
+and Drake gave the duchess his arm, and the company went into the dining
+room in pairs "like the animals into Noah's Ark," as Dick whispered to
+Miss Angel, who, to his great delight, he was taking in.
+
+It was a large party, and a brilliant one. The great room in the glory
+of its new adornment was worthy of the house and its guests. If the
+truth must be told, Nell was at first a little nervous, though it was
+not her first experience, as we know, of an aristocratic dinner party.
+She was seated on the left of Drake, and on pretense of moving one of
+her glasses, he succeeded in touching her hand, and, as he did so, he
+looked at her as a man looks who sees joy before him and an abiding
+happiness; then he turned and talked to the duchess, for he knew that
+Nell would like to be left alone for a few minutes.
+
+It was impossible for any party, however large and aristocratic, over
+which the countess presided, to be dull, and very soon they were all
+talking, and some of them laughing, for there were two young persons
+present, at any rate, who were by no means overawed by the splendor of
+the appointments or the rank of the guests. Dick would have found it
+possible to be merry at a Quakers' meeting, and Miss Angel, though she
+tried to preserve a demure, not to say repressive, mood, very soon
+yielded to Dick's light-hearted influence; and not only she, but those
+near them, were kept by him in ripples of laughter.
+
+It was just what Drake wanted, and he looked down the table toward Dick
+with approval and gratitude.
+
+"Dick hasn't changed a bit--thank Heaven!" he said to Nell.
+
+"Your brother's the most charming boy I've met for a very long time,"
+remarked the duchess. "Of course, he will come with you and the rest to
+me on the ninth. I am so glad to see Mr. Falconer here, and I hope he
+will be well enough to join us!"
+
+Nell glanced at Falconer with a sisterly regard, and Drake said:
+
+"We'll bring him, if we have to pack him in cotton wool!"
+
+The dinner was, inevitably, a lengthy one; but it was never for a moment
+dull, and the countess almost forgot Lady Luce as she realized the
+success of her party. She felt as a captain of a vessel feels when he
+has left behind him the perilous rocks on which he had nearly struck.
+Drake, too, almost forgot the ordeal through which he had just passed.
+How could he do otherwise when his darling was within reach of his hand,
+under his roof, at his table? The ladies remained some time after the
+appearance of the dessert, but the countess rose at last, and led the
+way to the drawing-room. There, of course, Nell was made much of. Some
+of the younger women drew their chairs near her, and showed as plainly
+as they could--and how plainly women can show things when they
+like!--that they were eager to welcome her into the county's social
+circle; and it required no effort on their part, for Nell's charm, which
+Drake had found so potent, was irresistible. There was some playing and
+singing, and the countess wanted Nell to do one or the other; but she
+shook her head.
+
+"Mr. Falconer will want me to play his accompaniments presently," she
+said. Not even in this full tide of her happiness did she forget him.
+
+Meanwhile, the men were having a very pleasant time in the dining room.
+Drake, like all the Anglefords, was a capital host. Anglemere was famous
+for its claret and its port, as we know, and Dick and the other young
+men waxed merry; and the duke voiced the general sentiment when, leaning
+back in his chair and sipping his claret, he said:
+
+"The gods might be envious of you, Angleford. If I were asked to spot a
+happy man, I should pitch upon you. I congratulate you upon your
+engagement. She's one of the prettiest and most charming girls I've ever
+met. That sounds rather banal, but I mean it. I hope you'll let us see a
+great deal of her, for Mary"--Mary was the duchess--"has, I can see,
+taken a great fancy to her. And I'm very glad to hear that you intend to
+make this your home; at least, so I hear from Styles, who appears to be
+in your confidence."
+
+And he laughed.
+
+And Drake laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes, Styles and I are old friends," he said. "We mean to live here
+a great deal. I shall keep up the Home farm; they've offered me the
+mastership of the hounds, and I think I shall take it. Nell's a capital
+horsewoman. In fact, we shall lead a country life most of the time, and
+see as much as we can of our people."
+
+"You're right," said the duke emphatically. "It's the best of all lives.
+If we all lived on our estates and looked after our people, we should
+hear very little of socialism, and such like troubles. It's the
+absenteeism which is answerable for most of the mischief."
+
+They discussed county affairs, "horses, hounds, and the land," for some
+minutes; then Drake, who was anxious to go to Nell, asked the men if
+they would have any more wine, and, receiving a negative, rose, and made
+for the drawing-room.
+
+Miss Angel was singing; Dick of course, was turning over her music.
+There was a little hushed buzz of conversation which is not too loud to
+permit the song to penetrate, and which indicates that things are going
+well. Drake went to Nell and leaned over the tall back of her chair
+without a word. When the song was finished, the countess went up to
+Falconer and asked him to play. A footman brought the precious violin,
+and Nell went to the piano and struck up the piece which they had
+chosen. Conversation ceased, and every one prepared to listen with eager
+anticipation.
+
+Falconer may have played as well in his life, but he certainly never
+played better. One could have heard a pin drop during the softer notes
+of the exquisite music, so intense and almost breathless was the silence
+of the rapt audience. When the last note had died away, the countess
+went up to him.
+
+"It is useless trying to thank you, Mr. Falconer," she said, "but if you
+will play again----"
+
+"Certainly," said Falconer. He turned to Nell. "What shall I play next?"
+he asked, as if the choice must naturally rest with her.
+
+She turned over the music and set up a Chopin, and he had placed the
+violin in position, when the door opened, and Lady Luce swept slowly in.
+She was superbly dressed, her neck and arms and hair were all a-glitter
+with diamonds. Though she was rather pale, her face was perfectly
+serene, and she smiled sweetly as she crossed the room.
+
+Her entrance caused a surprise; the countess happened to be standing
+with her back to the door, and did not see her come in; but she felt the
+sudden silence and turned to ascertain the cause. For a moment she was
+rooted to the spot, and the color left her face. It says much for her
+aplomb that she did not cry out. Her confusion lasted only for a moment,
+then she went toward Lady Luce with outstretched hand.
+
+"I am so sorry to be so late," said Luce, in her sweetest tones, "but my
+maid, who is a perfect tyrant, refused to dress me until I had
+rested----"
+
+"Your dinner?" almost gasped the countess.
+
+"I had some sent up to my room," said Lady Luce sweetly.
+
+She looked round. Drake stood by the piano, his face sternly set. Why
+had she remained? What was she going to do? He glanced at Nell, and saw
+that she had gone white, and that her eyes were fixed on Lady Luce. What
+should he do?
+
+Instinctively, he went to meet Luce, who was advancing with a placid
+smile, and the ease of a woman who is at peace with all the world, and
+sure of her welcome.
+
+"How do you do, Lord Angleford?" she said, as if this were their first
+meeting for some time. "I am so glad that I was able to get here
+to-night, though I wish that I could have arrived earlier. But I am
+interrupting the music! Please don't let me!"
+
+She moved away from him with perfect grace, and, greeting one and
+another, went and seated herself in a chair beside the duchess--and
+opposite Nell at the piano. There was a little buzz of conversation
+round her, then she herself raised her fan as a sign for silence, and
+Falconer began to play again.
+
+It was well for Nell that she knew every note of the nocturne by heart,
+for the page of music swam before her eyes, and she could not see a
+note. She felt Lady Luce's gaze, rather than saw it, and her heart
+throbbed painfully for a while; but presently the influence of the music
+stole over her and helped her--if only Falconer could have known
+it!--and she said to herself: "What can it matter to me if she is here?
+I know that Drake loves me, and me alone; that she is nothing to him and
+I am everything. It is she who should feel confused and embarrassed, not
+I. And yet how calm, how serene she is! Can she have forgotten that
+night on the terrace? Can she have forgotten all that has happened? Yes,
+it is she whose heart should be beating as mine is now."
+
+When the nocturne came to an end, and the applause which greeted it
+broke out, Lady Luce, still clapping her hands, rose and went toward
+Drake.
+
+"Will you please introduce me to Miss Lorton?" she said. "I am all
+anxiety to know her."
+
+She smiled at him so placidly that even Drake, who knew her better than
+did any other man, was completely deceived.
+
+"She means to forget the past," he said to himself. "She is behaving
+better than I had any reason to expect."
+
+He drew a breath of relief, and his stern face relaxed somewhat as he
+nodded slightly and went toward Nell, who had risen from the piano and
+stood near Falconer. She looked at Drake and Lady Luce as calmly as she
+could, and Drake made the introduction in as ordinary a tone as he could
+manage. Lady Luce held out her hand with a sweet smile.
+
+"I am so glad to meet you, Miss Lorton," she said. "I have heard so much
+about you; and I dare say you have heard something about me, for Lord
+Angleford and I are very old friends. How charmingly you played that
+difficult accompaniment! Shall we go and sit down somewhere together and
+have a chat?"
+
+What could Nell say or do? Both she and Drake were helpless. Nell stood
+with downcast eyes, the color coming and going in her face, and Drake
+looked from one to the other, half relieved, half in doubt.
+
+"Let us go and sit on that ottoman," said Lady Luce, indicating one in
+the center of a group of ladies.
+
+Nell, as she followed, glanced at Drake as if she were asking, "Must I
+go?" He made a slight gesture in the affirmative, returning her glance
+with one of tender love and trust.
+
+The countess stood at a little distance, watching them, though
+apparently absorbed in conversation, and no one would have guessed the
+condition of her mind as she saw the two women seated side by side.
+Presently she went up to Drake.
+
+"What does it mean?" she asked. "Why has she not gone? Why is she so--so
+friendly with Nell?"
+
+Drake shrugged his shoulders with a kind of smiling despair.
+
+"I can't tell you," he replied. "I think she is going to behave
+sensibly. At any rate, there is no need for anxiety. I have told Nell
+everything. She will trust me."
+
+"Yes; but I wish she had gone," said the countess, in a low voice.
+
+Drake smiled grimly.
+
+"So do I. But she hasn't."
+
+"She is too serene and contented," murmured the countess.
+
+Drake shrugged his shoulders again.
+
+"I know," he said significantly. "But what does it matter? She can do no
+harm. Nell knows everything."
+
+"I like the way you say that," said the countess. "But don't leave her."
+
+He nodded as if he understood, and gradually made his way toward the
+group among which Luce and Nell were sitting. As he approached, Lady
+Luce looked up with a smile.
+
+"I have been telling Miss Lorton that if there is one thing I adore upon
+earth, it is a romantic engagement, and that I quite envy her, and you,
+too, Lord Angleford! A glamour of romance will surround you for the rest
+of your lives. As I have often said to Archie, life without sentiment
+would not be worth having. By the way, Miss Lorton, you know Sir Archie
+Walbrooke?"
+
+Nell had scarcely been listening, for she had been wondering whether she
+could now rise and leave Lady Luce; but at the name of Sir Archie
+Walbrooke, she turned with a sudden start, and the color rose to her
+face. Lady Luce looked at her sweetly; then, as if she had suddenly
+remembered something, exclaimed, in a low voice:
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon! I quite forgot. How stupid of me!" Then she
+laughed softly and looked from Nell to Drake. "But of course you've told
+Lord Angleford? It is always the best way."
+
+The color slowly left Nell's face; a look of pain, of doubt, even of
+dread, came into her eyes. Drake glanced from one woman to the other.
+
+"What is it Nell must have told me, Lady Luce?" he asked easily.
+
+Lady Luce hesitated, seemed as if in doubt for a moment, and smiled in
+an embarrassed fashion.
+
+"Have you told him?" she asked Nell, in a low, but perfectly audible
+voice.
+
+Nell rose, then sank down again. She saw in an instant the trap which
+Lady Luce had set for her; and it seemed to her a trap from which she
+could not escape. It was evident that Lady Luce had become informed of
+the scene that had taken place between Sir Archie, Lord Wolfer, and Nell
+in the library at Wolfer House, and that Lady Luce intended to denounce
+her in the drawing-room before Drake and the large party gathered
+together in her honor.
+
+For one single instant there rose in her heart a keen regret that she
+had not told Drake; but it was only for an instant; for Nell's nature
+was a noble one, and she knew that at no time and under no circumstances
+whatever could she have sacrificed her friend, even to save her life's
+happiness--and Drake's.
+
+That chilly morning in the dim library she had taken her friend's folly
+and sin upon her own shoulders, scarcely counting, scarcely seeing the
+cost, certainly not foreseeing this terrible price which she would have
+to pay for it. And now--now that the terrible moment had come when
+Drake--she cared little for any other--would hear her accused of that
+which a pure woman counts the worst of crimes, she would not be able to
+rise, and, with uplifted head, exclaim: "I am innocent!"
+
+She felt crushed, overwhelmed, but she could not remain silent; she had
+to speak; the eyes of those who were near were fixed upon her waitingly.
+
+"I have not told him," she said at last, in a low but clear voice.
+
+Lady Luce bit her lip softly, as if very much confused.
+
+"I am so sorry I spoke!" she said, in an apologetic whisper. "It was
+very foolish of me--I am always blurting out awkward things--it is the
+impulsive Celtic temperament! Pray forgive me, Miss Lorton, and try and
+forget my stupid blunder."
+
+There was an intense silence. Nell looked straight before her, as one
+looks who hears the knell of the bell which signals the hour of her
+execution. Drake stood with his hands clasped behind him, his face
+perfectly calm, his eyes resting on Nell with infinite love and trust.
+The others glanced from one to the other with doubtful and
+half-suspicious looks. It seemed as if no one could start a
+conversation; the air was heavy with suspense and suspicion. The
+countess was quick and clever. She saw that for Nell's sake the matter
+must not be allowed to rest where it was; she knew that Lady Luce would
+have effected her purpose and cast a shadow of scandal over Nell's
+future life if not another word was spoken. Convinced that Nell was
+innocent of even the slightest indiscretion, she felt that it would be
+wiser to force Lady Luce's hand.
+
+So she came forward with a smile of tolerant contempt on her pretty,
+shrewd face, and said slowly, and with her musical drawl:
+
+"Oh, but, Lady Luce, we cannot let you off so easily. What is this
+interesting story in which Miss Lorton and Sir Archie Walbrooke are
+concerned?"
+
+Lady Luce rose with well-feigned embarrassment.
+
+"Pardon me, Lady Angleford," she said. "I have blundered and have asked
+forgiveness; I have not another word to say."
+
+She was crossing the room in front of Drake, and he saw her lip curl
+with a faint sneer. He laid his hand upon her arm gently but firmly.
+
+"We will hear the story, if you please, Lady Luce," he said.
+
+She bit her lip, as if she were driven into a corner, and did not know
+what to do.
+
+"Not here, at any rate!" she said, in a low voice, and looking round at
+the silent group.
+
+Some of them rose and moved away; but Drake held up his hand.
+
+"Oh, do not lose an amusing story!" he said, with a smile eloquent of
+contempt. "Now, Lady Luce, if you please."
+
+She looked from him to Nell.
+
+"What am I to do?" she asked, as if in great distress. "Miss Lorton, you
+see my predicament; please come to my aid, and help me to escape. Tell
+Lord Angleford that you do not wish me to say any more."
+
+Still looking straight before her, Nell responded, almost inaudibly:
+
+"Speak! Yes--tell them!"
+
+Lady Luce still seemed reluctant; at last she said, with an embarrassed
+laugh:
+
+"After all, it may amount to nothing, and you'll be very much
+disappointed. Indeed, it is very likely not true."
+
+Her reluctance was not altogether feigned, for it needed even her
+audacity and assurance to make such an accusation as she was about to
+bring against the future Countess of Angleford, and under her future
+roof; but she braced herself to a supreme effort, and, though she was
+really as white as Nell, she looked round boldly, as if confident of the
+truth of the thing she was going to say.
+
+"Everybody knows what Sir Archie is," she began. "He's the worst flirt
+and the most dangerous man in England. Everybody has heard stories of
+his delinquencies; some of them are true, but many of them, I dare say,
+are false, and I've not the least doubt that Miss Lorton will tell us
+that the story that she was about to elope with him from Wolfer House
+one morning, but that she was stopped by Lord Wolfer, is an absurd
+fable. The story goes that she did not know, until Lord Wolfer told her
+at the very moment that she and Sir Archie were leaving the house, that
+Sir Archie was a married man. Now that's the whole affair, and I really
+think Miss Lorton will be grateful to me for giving her an opportunity
+of rising in true dramatic fashion and exclaiming: 'It is not true!'"
+
+She nodded at Nell and laughed softly.
+
+There were many who echoed her laugh, for, indeed, the story did sound
+like an absurd fable. All eyes were turned on Nell, and all waited for
+her to bring about with a denial the satisfactory dénouement. Drake did
+not laugh, for his heart was burning with fury against the audacity, the
+shameless insolence, of Lady Luce; but he smiled in a grim fashion as
+his eyes still rested on Nell's face.
+
+A moment passed. Why did she not rise? Why did she not, at any rate,
+speak? Four words would be enough: "It is not true!"
+
+But she remained motionless and silent. A kind of consternation began to
+creep over those who were watching, Drake went up to her and laid his
+hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Pray relieve Lady Luce's anxiety, Nell, and tell her that she has
+amused us with a canard too ridiculous to be anything but false," he
+said tenderly.
+
+She looked up at him, her brows drawn, her eyes pitiful in their agony
+of appeal, her lips quivering.
+
+"It is true!" she said, in a voice which, though low, was perfectly
+audible.
+
+There was an intense silence. No one moved; every eye was fixed on her
+in breathless excitement. They asked themselves if it were possible they
+had heard aright. Drake's hand pressed more heavily on Nell's shoulder;
+she could hear his breath coming heavily, could feel him shake. A faint
+cry escaped Lady Angleford's parted lips.
+
+"Nell!" she cried.
+
+Nell rose and looked at her with the same agony of appeal in her eyes,
+but with her face firmly set, as if she were buoyed up by an inflexible
+resolution.
+
+"What Lady Luce has said is true," she said. "I will go----"
+
+Drake was by her side in an instant. He took her cold hand and drew it
+within his arm.
+
+"No!" he said. "You will not go----"
+
+He looked at Lady Luce, and there was no need to finish the sentence.
+
+She smiled, and fanned herself slowly.
+
+"Of course, Miss Lorton can explain it all," she said. "I am very sorry
+to have been the cause, the innocent cause, of such an unpleasant scene.
+But really you forced me to speak; and we all know that though Miss
+Lorton has admitted her--what shall I call it?--little escapade, there
+must be some satisfactory explanation. No one will believe for a moment
+that she really intended to elope with Sir Archie."
+
+While she had been speaking, some of the guests had edged toward the
+door. At such moments the kindest thing one can do is to remove oneself
+as quickly as possible. When a sudden death happens in a ballroom, the
+dancing ceases, the music stops, the revelers vanish. Something worse
+than death had happened in this drawing-room. The happiness of more than
+one life had been blasted as by a stroke of lightning.
+
+There was a general movement toward the door. A group of old
+friends--county neighbors, real friends of Drake and the
+countess--gathered round the little group. Falconer and Dick pushed
+their way through them none too ceremoniously.
+
+"I'll take my sister home, Lord Angleford," said Dick hotly; while
+Falconer took her hand, his face white, his eyes flashing.
+
+Nell would have drawn away from Drake and turned to them; but he put his
+arm round her waist and held her by sheer force.
+
+"I beg that no one will go," he said; and his voice, though not loud,
+rang like a bell. Everybody stopped. "I think every one has heard Lady
+Lucille's accusation against my future wife," he said. "For reasons
+which concern herself and me only, my future wife"--he laid an emphasis
+on the words--"has seen fit not to deny this accusation. I am quite
+content that it should be so. If we have any friends here let----"
+
+Before he could finish his appeal, the door opened, and Lord and Lady
+Wolfer entered the room. They were in traveling dress, and Lady Wolfer
+looked pale and in trouble, while Wolfer's face was grave and stern.
+
+"If any friend, whether it be man or woman, deems an explanation due to
+them, I will ask Miss Lorton if she can give it to them," continued
+Drake. "If she should not think fit to do so----"
+
+Lady Wolfer, until now unnoticed except by a very few, came through the
+circle which at once had formed round the principal actors in this
+social tragedy. She went straight up to Nell, and took her hand and drew
+her into her embrace, as if to shelter and succor her. With a faint cry,
+Nell's head fell on Lady Wolfer's bosom. Lady Wolfer looked round, not
+defiantly, but with the air of one facing death bravely.
+
+"I will explain," she said. "It was not she who was going to elope with
+Sir Archie Walbrooke. It was I!"
+
+"No, no; you must not!" panted Nell.
+
+The living circle drew closer, and listened and stared in breathless
+silence.
+
+"It was I!" said Lady Wolfer.
+
+"You!" exclaimed Lady Luce. "Then Burden----"
+
+"Burden lied," said Lady Wolfer. "I want to tell every one; it is due to
+this saint, this dear girl, who sacrificed herself to me. I only heard
+this morning from my husband that he had found a note which Sir Archie
+had sent me, asking me to leave England with him. He placed this note on
+a pedestal in my drawing-room. Both my husband and Nell saw it, not
+knowing that the other had seen it. It never reached me; but this dear
+girl kept the appointment which Sir Archie had made for the library the
+next morning. She wanted to save me. I know, almost as if I had been
+there, how she pleaded with him, how she strove for my honor. While they
+were there my husband came upon them. The letter was not addressed to
+me, and he leaned to the conclusion that it was intended for Nell. She
+permitted him to make the hideous mistake, and, to save me, she left the
+house with her reputation ruined--in his eyes, at least. Until this
+morning he has never breathed a word of this to a soul. I am confident
+that Sir Archie Walbrooke, who went away full of remorse and penitence,
+has also kept silent. It was reserved for a woman to strike the blow
+aimed at the honor and happiness of an innocent and helpless girl--a
+girl so noble that she is ready to lay down her life's happiness and
+honor rather than betray the friend she loves. Judge between these two,
+between us three, if you will."
+
+It was not a moment for cheering, but sudden exclamations burst from the
+men, most of the women were in tears, and Nell was sobbing as she lay on
+her friend's bosom.
+
+Lady Luce alone remained smiling. Her face was white, her breath came in
+quick, labored gasps.
+
+"What a charming romance!" she exclaimed, with a forced sneer. "So
+completely satisfactory!"
+
+At the sound of her voice, the countess' spirit rose in true Anglo-Saxon
+fashion. She checked her sobs, wiped her eyes with a morsel of lace she
+called a handkerchief, and, sweeping in a stately manner to the door,
+said, with the extreme of patrician hauteur:
+
+"A carriage for Lady Lucille Turfleigh, please!"
+
+Lady Luce shrugged her shoulders, turned, and slowly moved toward the
+door; and, as she went, the crowd made way for her, and left her a clear
+passage, as if she had suddenly become infectious.
+
+Nell did not see her go, did not hear the mingled expressions of
+indignation and congratulation which buzzed round her.
+
+All she heard was Drake's "Nell! Nell! My dearest! my own!" as he put
+his arms round her and drew her head to his breast.
+
+Those persons who are fortunate enough to receive invitations to the
+summer and shooting parties, which Lord and Lady Angleford give at
+Anglemere, have very good reason to congratulate themselves; but those who
+are still more fortunate to receive a letter from Nell, asking them to
+spend a fortnight at the picturesque and "cottagy" house which Drake has
+built at a certain out-of-the-way spot in Devonshire called Shorne Mills,
+go about pluming themselves as if they had drawn one of the prizes in
+life's lottery. For only very intimate and dear friends are asked to
+Shorne Mills.
+
+The house is not large. With the exception of the grooms, there are no
+menservants; there is no state, and very little formality; life there is
+mostly spent in the open air, in that delicious mixture of sea and
+moorland air in which everyday worries and anxieties do not seem able to
+exist.
+
+At The Cottage no one finds time hanging heavily on his or her hands; no
+one is bored. It is a small Liberty Hall. There are horses to ride;
+there are tramps to be taken across the heather-scented hills; there are
+yachting and fishing in the bay, and there is always light-hearted
+laughter round and about the house--especially when her ladyship's
+brother, Mr. Dick Lorton, is present; and he and the famous musician,
+Mr. Falconer, always come down together, and remain while the family
+occupy The Cottage. There, too, the dowager countess is always a regular
+visitor; indeed, Nell and she are very seldom apart, for, if the
+countess could tear herself away from Nell, she certainly could not
+leave the baby son and heir, who is as often in her arms as in his
+mother's.
+
+Here, too, come, every year, the Wolfers. In fact, to sum it up, the
+party is composed of Nell's and Drake's dearest and tried friends, and
+they one and all have grown to love Shorne Mills almost as keenly as
+Nell and Drake themselves do. Nell is proud of Anglemere, and the other
+places which her husband has inherited, but there is a certain corner in
+her heart which is reserved for the little fishing place in which she
+first saw, and learned to love, "Drake Vernon."
+
+Watch them as they go down the steep and narrow way to the pier. It is a
+July evening; the sun is still bright, but the shadows are casting a
+purple tint on the hills beyond the moor; a faint breeze ripples the
+opaline bay; the fishing boats are gliding in like "painted ships on a
+painted ocean"; the tinkle of the cow bells mingles with the shrill cry
+of the curlew and the guillemot. The _Seagull_ lies at anchor in the bay
+ready to sail at a moment's notice. But Drake does not signal for the
+dinghy as Nell and he reach the pier, for, though they are going for a
+sail, it is not in the stately yacht.
+
+By the slip lies an old herring boat, with _Annie Laurie_ painted on its
+stern, and Brownie has got the sail up and stands waiting with a smile
+to help his beloved "Miss Nell" into the old boat. Nell lays her hand
+upon his shoulder as of old, and steps in and takes the tiller; Drake
+makes taut the sheet, and the old boat glides away from the slip and
+sails out into the open.
+
+Drake looks up at the wind with a sailor's eye, and glances at Nell. He
+does not speak, but she understands, and she steers the _Annie Laurie_
+for the little piece of smooth beach which leads to the cave under the
+cliff. It is to this point they nearly always make; for was it not here
+that Drake Vernon told Nell Lorton of his love, and drew the confession
+of hers from her lips? To this place they always come alone, for it is
+sacred.
+
+As, on this afternoon, they approach the spot, Drake utters an
+exclamation of surprise.
+
+"Why, Nell, there's another boat there!" he says.
+
+"Not really, Drake?" she says, with a little disappointment in her
+voice.
+
+For the moments they spend in this spot are sweet and precious to her.
+
+"Yes, there is," he says; "and, by George; there are two persons sitting
+on the bowlder--our bowlder!"
+
+Nell looks with keen eyes; then she blushes, and laughs softly.
+
+"Drake, it's Dick and Lettie Angel!" she says, in a whisper, as if they
+could hear her.
+
+But she need not be afraid; the two young people who are seated on the
+spot sacred to Nell and Drake's love, have no ears nor eyes for any but
+themselves. The girl's face is downcast and blushing, and Dick's is
+upturned to hers. He has got hold of her hand; he is pleading as--well,
+as a certain Drake Vernon once pleaded to a certain Nell Lorton.
+
+Nell and Drake exchange glances full of tenderness, full of sympathy.
+
+"Ourselves over again, dearest!" he says, in a low and loving voice.
+"Put her round; we won't disturb them. God bless them, and send them
+happiness like unto ours!"
+
+And "Amen!" whispers Nell, her eyes full of tears.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nell, of Shorne Mills, by Charles Garvice</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Nell, of Shorne Mills</p>
+<p>       or, One Heart's Burden</p>
+<p>Author: Charles Garvice</p>
+<p>Release Date: October 11, 2007  [eBook #22961]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Roger Frank, Brownfox,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS</h1>
+
+<h2>Or, One Heart's Burden</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">By CHARLES GARVICE</span></h3>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Author of</span></h4>
+
+<p class='center'>"Better&nbsp;Than&nbsp;Life," "A&nbsp;Life's&nbsp;Mistake," "Once&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;Life,"
+"'Twas&nbsp;Love's&nbsp;Fault," etc.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>A. L. BURT COMPANY</h3>
+
+<p class='center'>PUBLISHERS&nbsp;::&nbsp;::&nbsp;::&nbsp;NEW YORK<br />1898</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Dick, how many are twenty-seven and eight?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked up, with narrow eyes and puckered brow, from the
+butcher's book, which she was laboriously "checking," at the boy who
+leaned back on the window seat picking out a tune on a banjo.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-nine," he replied lazily but promptly, without ceasing to peck,
+peck at the strings.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded her thanks, and traveled slowly up the column, counting with
+the end of her pencil and jotting down the result with a perplexed face.</p>
+
+<p>They were brother and sister, Nell and Dick Lorton, and they made an
+extremely pretty picture in the sunny room. The boy was fair with the
+fairness of the pure Saxon; the girl was dark&mdash;dark hair with the sheen
+of silk in it, dark, straight brows that looked all the darker for the
+clear gray of the eyes which shone like stars beneath them. But the eyes
+were almost violet at this moment with the intensity of her mental
+effort, and presently, as she raised them, they flashed with a mixture
+of irritation and sweet indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick, if you don't put that banjo down I'll come over and make you.
+It's bad enough at most times; but the 'Old Folks at Home' on one
+string, while I'm trying to check this wretched book, is intolerable,
+and not to be endured. Put it down, Dick, or I'll come over and smash
+both of you!"</p>
+
+<p>He struck a chord, an exasperating chord, and then resumed the more
+exasperating peck, peck.</p>
+
+<p>"'Twas ever thus," he said, addressing the ceiling with sad reproach.
+"Women are born ungrateful, and continue so. Here am I, wasting this
+delightful afternoon in attempting to soothe a sister's savage breast by
+sweet strains of heavenly music, and she&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>With a laugh, she sprang from her seat and went for him. There was a
+short and fierce struggle, during which the banjo was whirled hither and
+thither; then he got her down on the floor, sat upon her, and
+deliberately resumed pecking out the "Old Folks at Home."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me get up, Dick! Let me get up this instant!" she cried indignantly
+and breathlessly. "The man's waiting for the book. Dick, do you hear?
+I'll pinch you&mdash;I'll crumple your collar! I'll burn that beast of a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>banjo directly you've gone out. Dick, I'm sure you're hurting me
+seriously. Di-ck! I've got a pain! Oh, you wait until you've gone out!
+I'll light the fire with that thing! Get up!"</p>
+
+<p>Without a change of countenance, as if he were deaf to her entreaties
+and threats, he tuned up the banjo, and played a breakdown.</p>
+
+<p>"Comfortable, Nell? That's right. Always strive for contentment,
+whatever your lot may be. At present your lot is to provide me with a
+nice, springy seat, and it will so continue to be until you promise&mdash;on
+your honor, mind&mdash;that you will not lay a destructive hand on this
+sweetest of instruments."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let me get up, Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Until I receive that promise, and an abject apology, it is a case of
+<i>j'y suis, j'y reste</i>, my child," he responded blandly.</p>
+
+<p>She panted and struggled for a moment or two, then she gasped:</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I promise!"</p>
+
+<p>"On your word of honor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! Dick, you are breaking my ribs or something."</p>
+
+<p>"Corset, perhaps," he suggested. "And the apology? A verbal one will
+suffice on this occasion, accompanied by the sum of one shilling for the
+purchase of cigarettes."</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't! You never said a word about a shilling!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not&mdash;I hadn't time; but I shall now have time to make it two."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and a servant with a moon-shaped face and prominent
+eyes looked in. She did not seem at all surprised at the state of
+affairs&mdash;did not even smile.</p>
+
+<p>"The butcher's man says shall he wait any longer, miss?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, tell him to wait, Molly," said the boy. "Miss Nell is tired, and
+is lying down for a little while; resting, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I promise! I apologize! You&mdash;you shall have the shilling!" gasped
+the girl, half angrily, half haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>He rose in a leisurely fashion, got back to his window seat, and held
+out his long, shapely hand.</p>
+
+<p>She shook herself, put up one hand to her hair, and took a shilling from
+her pocket with the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Tiresome boy!" she exclaimed. "If I live to be a hundred, I shall never
+know why boys were invented."</p>
+
+<p>"There are lots of other things, simpler things, that you will never
+know, though you live to be a Methuselah, my dear Nell," he said; "one
+of them being that twenty-seven and eight do not make thirty-nine."</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-nine? Why, of course not; thirty-five!" she retorted. "That's
+where I was wrong. Dick, you are a beast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> There's the book, Molly, and
+there's the money&mdash;&mdash;Oh, give me back that shilling, Dick; I want it!
+I've only just got enough. Give it me back at once; you shall have it
+again, I swear&mdash;I mean, I promise."</p>
+
+<p>"Simple child!" he murmured sweetly. "So young, so simple! She really
+thinks I shall give it to her! Such innocence is indeed touching! Excuse
+these tears. It will soon pass!"</p>
+
+<p>He mopped his eyes with his handkerchief, as if overcome by emotion, and
+the exasperated Nell looked at him as if she meant another fight; but
+she resisted the temptation, and, with a shrug of her shoulders, pushed
+the book and money toward the patient and unmoved Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"There you are, Molly, all but the shilling. Tell him to add that to the
+next account."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, miss. And the missis' chocklut; it's just the time?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell glanced at the clock.</p>
+
+<p>"So it is! There'll be a row. It's all your fault, Dick. Why don't you
+go for a sail, or shrimping, or something? A boy's always a nuisance in
+the house. I'll come at once, Molly. There!" she exclaimed, as a woman's
+thin voice was heard calling in a languid and injured tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Molly!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Twas the voice of the sluggard&mdash;&mdash;'" Dick began to quote; but Nell,
+with a hissed "Hush! she'll hear you!" ran out, struggling with her
+laughter. Five minutes later, she went up the stairs with a salver on
+which were a dainty chocolate service and a plate of thin bread and
+butter, and entering the best bedroom of the cottage, carried the salver
+to a faded-looking woman who, in a short dressing jacket of dingy pink,
+sat up in the bed.</p>
+
+<p>She was Mrs. Lorton, the stepmother of the boy and girl. She had been
+pretty once, and had not forgotten the fact&mdash;it is on the cards that she
+thought herself pretty still, though the weak face was thin and hollow,
+the once bright eyes dim and querulous, the lips drawn into a
+dissatisfied curve.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is your chocolate, mamma," said the girl. She hated the word
+"mamma"; but from the first moment of her introduction to Mrs. Lorton,
+she had declined to call her by the sacred name of "mother." "I'm afraid
+I'm late."</p>
+
+<p>"It is ten minutes past the time," said Mrs. Lorton; "but I do not
+complain. I never complain, Eleanor. A Wolfer should at least know how
+to suffer in silence. I hope it is hot&mdash;really hot; yesterday it was
+cold&mdash;quite cold, and it caused me that acute indigestion which, I
+trust, Eleanor, it will never be your lot to experience."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, mamma; but yesterday morning you were asleep when I brought
+it in, and I did not like to wake you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not asleep, Eleanor," said Mrs. Lorton, with an air of long-suffering
+patience&mdash;"no, alas! not asleep. My eyes were closed, I have no doubt;
+but I was merely thinking. I heard you come in&mdash;&mdash;Surely that is not all
+the cream! I have few fancies, Heaven knows; but I have always been
+accustomed to half cream and half chocolate, and an invalid suffers
+acutely from these deprivations, slight and trifling though they may
+appear to one in your robust, I had almost said savage state of health."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't there as much as usual? I will go and see if there is some
+more," said the girl, deftly arranging the tray. "See, it is quite hot
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"But it will be cold before you return, doubtless," sighed Mrs. Lorton,
+with saintly resignation. "And, Eleanor, may I venture to ask you not to
+renew the terrible noise with which you have been filling the house for
+the last half hour. You know how I dislike crushing the exuberance of
+your animal spirits; but such a perfectly barbaric noise tortures my
+poor overstrained nerves."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma. We'll&mdash;I'll be quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. It is a great deal to ask. I am aware that you think me
+exacting. This butter is anything but fresh."</p>
+
+<p>"It was made this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, oh, please do not contradict me, Eleanor! If there is one
+characteristic more plainly developed in me than another it is my
+unerring taste. This butter is not fresh. But do not mind. I am not
+complaining. Do not think that. I merely passed the remark. And if you
+are really going to get me my usual quantity of cream, will you do so
+now? Cold chocolate two mornings in succession would try my digestion
+sadly."</p>
+
+<p>The girl left the room quickly, and as she passed the dining-room door
+she looked in to say hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"Dry up, Dick. Mamma's been complaining of the noise."</p>
+
+<p>"'Eleanor, I never complain,'" he murmured; but he put down the banjo,
+rose and stretched himself, and left the room, pretending to slip as he
+passed Nell in the passage, and flattening her against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>She gave him a noiseless push and went for the remainder of the cream.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton received it with a sigh and a patient "I thank you,
+Eleanor;" and while she sipped the chocolate, and snipped at the bread
+and butter&mdash;she ate the latter as if it were a peculiarly distasteful
+medicine in the solid&mdash;the girl tidied the room. It was the only really
+well-furnished room in the cottage; Nell's little chamber in the roof
+was as plain as Marguerite's in "Faust," and Dick's was Spartan in its
+Character; but a Wolfer&mdash;Mrs. Lorton was a distant, a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> distant
+connection by a remote marriage of the noble family of that name&mdash;cannot
+live without a certain amount of luxury, and, as there was not enough to
+go round, Mrs. Lorton got it all. So, though Nell's little bed was
+devoid of curtains, her furniture of the "six-guinea suite" type and her
+carpet a square of Kidderminster, her stepmother's bed was amply draped,
+possessed its silk eider-down and lace-edged pillows; there was an
+Axminster on the floor, an elaborate dressing table furnished with a
+toilet set, and&mdash;the fashionable lady's indispensable&mdash;a cheval glass.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I will get up in half an hour, if you will be good enough to
+send Molly up to me," said Mrs. Lorton, sinking onto her pillow as if
+exhausted by her struggle with the chocolate.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma," assented the girl. "What will you have for lunch?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lunch!" sighed Mrs. Lorton, with an assumption of weary indifference.
+"It is really of no consequence, Eleanor. I eat so little, especially in
+the middle of the day. Perhaps if you could get me a sweetbread I might
+manage a few morsels. But do not trouble. You know how much I dislike
+causing trouble. A sweetbread nicely browned&mdash;on a small, a very small
+piece of toast; quite dry, please, Eleanor."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mamma, I know," said Eleanor; but she looked out of the window
+rather doubtfully. Sweetbreads were not easily obtained at the only
+butcher's shop in the village; and, when they were, they were dear; but
+she had just paid the long-running bill, and&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go up to Smart's and see about it," she said. "Is there anything
+you want in the village, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton sighed again; she rarely spoke without a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"If you really want the walk and are going, Eleanor, you might ask Mrs.
+Porter if she has got that toilet vinegar for me. She promised to get it
+down from London quite a week ago. It is really too ridiculous! But what
+can one expect in this hole, and living among a set of barbarians? I
+know that I shall never grow accustomed to this life of savagery; my
+memory of the past is too acute, alas! But I must stifle it; I must
+remember that the great trial of my life has been sent for my good, and
+I will never complain. Not one word of discontent shall ever pass my
+lips. My dear Eleanor, you surely are not going to be so mad as to open
+that window! And my neuralgia only just quiet!"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, mamma. The room seemed so hot, and I forgot. I've
+closed it again; see! Let me draw the eider-down up; that's it. I won't
+forget the toilet vinegar."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, Eleanor; and you might get this week's <i>Fashion Gazette</i>.
+It is the only paper I care for; but it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> not unnatural that I should
+like to see it occasionally. One may be cut off from all one's friends
+and relations, may be completely out of the world of rank and
+refinement, but one likes now and then to read of the class to which one
+belongs, but from which one is, alas! forever separated."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get the <i>Fashion Gazette</i> if Mrs. Porter has it, mamma. I won't be
+long, and Molly will hear you if you want her before the time."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton sighed deeply in acknowledgment, and Nell left the room.</p>
+
+<p>She had been bright and girlish enough while romping with her brother,
+but the scene with her stepmother had left its impression on her face;
+the dark-gray eyes were rather sad and weary; there was a slight droop
+at the corners of the sweetly curved lips; but the change lent an
+indescribable charm to the girlish face. Looking at it, as it was then,
+no man but would have longed to draw the slim, graceful figure toward
+him, to close the wistful eyes with a kiss, to caress the soft hair with
+a comforting hand. There was a subtle fascination in the very droop of
+the lips which would have haunted an artist or a poet, and driven the
+ordinary man wild with love.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton had called Shorne Mills a "hole," but as a matter of fact,
+the village stood almost upon the brow of the hill down which ran the
+very steep road to the tiny harbor and fishing place which nestled under
+the red Devon cliffs; and barbaric as the place might be, it was
+beautiful beyond words. No spot in this loveliest of all counties was
+more lovely; and as yet it was, so to speak, undiscovered. With the
+exception of the vicarage there was no other house, worthy the name, in
+the coombe; all the rest were fishermen's cots. The nearest inn and
+shops were on the fringe of the moor behind and beyond the Lorton's
+cottage; the nearest house of any consequence was that of the local
+squire, three miles away. The market town of Shallop was eight miles
+distant, and the only public communication with it was the carrier's
+cart, which went to and fro twice weekly. In short, Shorne Mills was out
+of the world, and will remain so until the Railway Fiend flaps his
+coal-black wings over it and drops, with red-hot feet, upon it to sear
+its beauty and destroy its solitude. It had got its name from a flour
+and timber mill which had once flourished halfway down the coombe or
+valley; but the wheels were now silent, the mills were falling to
+pieces, and the silver stream served no more prosaic purpose than
+supplying the fishing folk with crystal water which was pure as the
+stars it reflected. This stream, as it ran beside the road or meandered
+through the sloping meadows, made soft music, day and night, all through
+the summer, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> swelled itself into a torrent in the winter, and roared
+as it swept over the smooth bowlders to its bridegroom, the sea;
+sometimes it was the only sound in the valley, save always the murmur of
+the ocean, and the shrill weird cry of the curlew as it flew from the
+sea marge to the wooded heights above.</p>
+
+<p>Nell loved the place with a great and exceeding love, with all the love
+of a girl to whom beauty is a continual feast. She knew every inch of
+it; for she had lived in the cottage on the hill since she was a child
+of seven, and she was now nearly twenty-one. She knew every soul in the
+fishing village, and, indeed, for miles around, and not seldom she was
+spoken of as "Miss Nell, of Shorne Mills;" and the simple folk were as
+proud of the title as was Nell herself. They were both fond and proud of
+her. In any cottage and at any time her presence was a welcome one, and
+every woman and child, when in trouble, flew to her for help and comfort
+even before they climbed to the vicarage&mdash;that refuge of the poor and
+sorrowing in all country places.</p>
+
+<p>As she swung to the little gate behind her this morning, she paused and
+looked round at the familiar scene; and its beauty, its grandeur, and
+its solitude struck her strangely, as if she were looking at it for the
+first time.</p>
+
+<p>"One could be so happy if mamma&mdash;and if Dick could find something to
+do!" she thought; and at the thought her eyes grew sadder and the sweet
+lips drooped still more at the corner; but as she went up the hill, the
+fine rare air, the brilliant sunshine acted like an anodyne, and the
+eyes grew brighter, the lips relaxed, so that Smart's&mdash;the
+butcher's&mdash;face broadened into a smile of sympathy as he touched his
+forehead with a huge and greasy finger.</p>
+
+<p>"Sweetbreads! No, no, miss; I've promised the cook up at the
+Hall&mdash;&mdash;There, bless your heart, Miss Nell, don't 'ee look so
+disappointed. I'll send 'em&mdash;yes, in half an hour at most. Dang me if it
+was the top brick off the chimney I reckon you'd get 'ee, for there
+ain't no refusin' 'ee anything!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell thanked him with a smile and a grateful beam from her gray eyes,
+and then, still lighter-hearted, went on to Mrs. Porter's. By great good
+luck not only had the toilet vinegar arrived from London, but a copy of
+the <i>Fashion Gazette</i>; and with these in her hand Nell went homeward.
+But at the bend of the road near the cottage she paused. Mrs. Lorton
+would not want the vinegar or the paper for another hour. Would there be
+time to run down to the jetty and look at the sea? She slipped the paper
+and the bottle in the hedge, and went lightly down the road. It was so
+steep that strangers went cautiously and leaned on their sticks, but
+Nell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> nearly ran and seemed scarcely to touch the ground; for she had
+toddled down that road as a child, and knew every stone in it; knew
+where to leave it for the narrow little path which provided a short cut,
+and where to turn aside for the marvelous view of the tiny harbor that
+looked like a child's toy on the edge of the opal sea.</p>
+
+<p>Women and children came out of the cottages as she went swiftly past,
+and she exchanged greetings with them; but she was in too great a hurry
+to stop, and one child followed after her with bitter complaint.</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a moment or two talking to some of the men mending their
+nets on the jetty, called down to Dick, who was lying&mdash;he was always
+reclining on something&mdash;basking in the stern of his anchored boat; then
+she went, more slowly, up the hill again.</p>
+
+<p>As she neared the cottage, a sound rose from the house and mingled with
+the music of the stream. It was the yelp of staghounds. She stopped and
+listened, and wondered whether the stag would run down the hill, as it
+sometimes did; then she went on. Presently she heard another sound&mdash;the
+tap, tap of a horse's hoofs. Her quick ear distinguished it as different
+from the slow pacing of the horses which drew the village carts, and she
+looked up the road curiously. It was not the doctor's horse; she knew
+the stamp, stamp of his old gray cob. This was a lighter, more nervous
+tread.</p>
+
+<p>Within twenty paces of the cottage she saw the horse and horseman. The
+former was a beautiful creature, almost thoroughbred, as she knew; for
+every woman in the district was a horsewoman by instinct and
+association. The latter was a gentleman in a well-made riding suit of
+cords. He was riding slowly, his whip striking against his leg absently,
+his head bent.</p>
+
+<p>That he was not one of the local gentry Nell saw at the first glance. In
+that first glance also she noted a certain indescribable grace, an air
+of elegance, which, as a rule, was certainly lacking in the local
+gentry. She could not see his face, but there was something strange,
+distinguished in his attitude and the way he carried himself; and,
+almost unconsciously, her pace slackened.</p>
+
+<p>Strangers in Shorne Mills were rare. Nell, being a woman, was curious.
+As she slowly reached the gate, the man came almost alongside. And at
+that moment a rabbit scuttled across the road, right under the horse's
+nose. With the nervousness of the thoroughbred, it shied. The man had it
+in hand in an instant, and touched it with his left spur to keep it away
+from the girl. The horse sprang sideways, set its near foot on a stone,
+and fell, and the next instant the man was lying at Nell's feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>For a moment Nell was too startled to do anything but cry out; then, as
+the man did not move, she knelt beside him, and still calling for Molly,
+almost unconsciously raised his head. He had fallen on his side, but had
+turned over in the instant before losing consciousness; and as Nell
+lifted his head she felt something wet trickle over her hand, and knew
+that it was blood.</p>
+
+<p>She was very much frightened&mdash;with the exception of Dick's boyish falls
+and cuts, it was the first accident at which she had "assisted"&mdash;and she
+had never longed for any one as she longed for Molly. But neither Molly
+nor any one else came, and Nell, in a helpless, dazed kind of fashion,
+wiped the blood from the wound.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly she thought of water, and setting his head down as gently
+as she could, she ran to the stream, saturated her handkerchief, and,
+returning, took his head on her lap again, and bathed his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>While she was doing this she recovered her presence of mind sufficiently
+to look at him with something like the desire to know what he was like;
+and, with all a woman's quickness of perception, saw that he was
+extremely good-looking; that he was rather dark than fair; that though
+he was young&mdash;twenty-nine, thirty, flashed through her mind&mdash;the hair on
+his temples was faintly flecked with gray.</p>
+
+<p>But something more than the masculine beauty of the face struck her,
+struck her vaguely, and that was the air of distinction which she had
+noticed in his bearing as he came down the road, and an expression of
+weariness in the faint lines about the mouth and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She was aware, without knowing why, that he was extremely well dressed;
+she saw that the ungloved hand was long and thin&mdash;the hand of a
+well-bred man&mdash;and that everything about him indicated wealth and the
+gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>All these observations required but a second or two&mdash;a man would only
+have got at them after an hour&mdash;and, almost before they were made, he
+opened his eyes with the usual dazed and puzzled expression which an
+individual wears when he has been knocked out of time and is coming back
+to consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>As his eyes opened, Nell noticed that they were dark&mdash;darker than they
+should have been to match his hair&mdash;and that they were anything but
+commonplace ones. He looked up at her for an instant or two, then
+muttered something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> under his breath&mdash;Nell was almost certain that he
+swore&mdash;and aloud, in the toneless voice of the newly conscious, said:</p>
+
+<p>"I came off, didn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>She neither blushed nor looked shy. Indeed, she was too frightened, too
+absorbed by her desire for his recovery to remember herself, or the fact
+that this strange man's head was lying on her knee.</p>
+
+<p>"I must have been unconscious," he said, almost to himself. "Yes, I've
+struck my head."</p>
+
+<p>Then he got to his feet and stood looking at her; and his face was, if
+anything, whiter than it had been.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very sorry. Permit me to apologize, for I must have frightened you
+awfully. And"&mdash;he looked at her dress, upon which was a large wet patch
+where his head had rested&mdash;"and I've spoiled your dress. In short, I've
+made a miserable nuisance of myself."</p>
+
+<p>Nell passed his apology by.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you hurt?" she asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I think not," he replied. "I can't think how I managed to come off;
+I don't usually make such an ass of myself."</p>
+
+<p>He went for his hat, but as he stooped to pick it up he staggered, and
+Nell ran to him and caught his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You are hurt!" she said. "I&mdash;I was afraid so!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm giddy, that's all, I think," he said; but his lips closed tightly
+after his speech, and they twitched at the corners. "I expect my horse
+is more damaged than I am," he added, and he walked, very slowly, to
+where the animal stood looking from side to side with a startled air.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; knees cut. Poor old chap! It was my fault&mdash;my fau&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, and put his hand to his head as if he were confused.</p>
+
+<p>Nell went and stood close by him, with a vague kind of idea that he was
+going to fall and that she might help him, support him.</p>
+
+<p>"You are in pain?" she asked, her brow wrinkled with her anxiety, her
+eyes darkened with her womanly sympathy and pity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he admitted frankly. "I've knocked my head, and"&mdash;he touched his
+arm&mdash;"and, yes, I'm afraid I've broken my arm."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"&mdash;cried Nell, startled and aghast&mdash;"oh! you must come into the
+house at once&mdash;at once."</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>"Your house?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nell. "Oh, come, please. You may faint again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I shan't."</p>
+
+<p>"But you may&mdash;you may! Take my arm; lean on me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He took her arm, but did not lean on her, and he smiled down at her.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't look it, but I weigh nearly twelve stone, and I should bear you
+down," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm stronger than I look," said Nell. "Please come!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll put the bridle over the gate first," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; I will do it. Lean against the gate while I go."</p>
+
+<p>He rested one hand on the gate. She got the horse&mdash;he came as quietly as
+his master had done&mdash;and hitched the bridle on the post; then she drew
+the man's arm within hers, and led him into the house and into the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down," she said; "lean back. I won't be a moment. Oh, where is
+Molly? But perhaps I'd better not leave you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm all right. I assure you that I've no intention of fainting again,"
+he said; and there was something like a touch of irritation in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>Nell rang the bell and stood looking down at him anxiously. There was
+not a sign of self-consciousness or embarrassment in her face or manner.
+She was still thinking only of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ashamed of myself for giving you so much trouble," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no trouble. Why should you be ashamed? Oh, Molly! don't cry out
+or scream&mdash;it is all right! Be quiet now, Molly! This gentleman has been
+thrown from his horse, and&mdash;&mdash;Oh, bring me some brandy; and, Molly,
+don't tell&mdash;don't frighten mamma."</p>
+
+<p>Molly, with her mouth still wide open, ran out of the room, and Nell's
+eyes returned to the man.</p>
+
+<p>He sat gazing at the carpet for a while, his brow knit with a frown, as
+if he found the whole affair a hideous bore, his injured arm across his
+knee. There was no deprecating smile of the nervous man; he made no more
+apologies, and it seemed to Nell that he had quite forgotten her, and
+was only desirous of getting rid of her and the situation generally. But
+he looked up as Molly came fluttering in with the brandy; and as he took
+the glass from Nell's hand&mdash;for the first time it shook a little&mdash;he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks&mdash;thanks very much. I'm all right now, and I'll hasten to take
+myself off."</p>
+
+<p>He rose as he spoke, then his hand went out to the sofa as if in search
+of support, and with an articulate though audible "Damn!" he sank down
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I'll have to wait for a few minutes," he said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> in a tone of
+annoyance. "I can't think what's the matter with me, but I feel as giddy
+and stupid as an owl. I'll be all right presently. Is the inn near
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nell; "the inn is a long way from here; too far&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not let her finish, but rather impatiently cut in with:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but there must be some place where I can go&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You must not think of moving yet," she said. "I don't know much&mdash;I have
+not seen many accidents&mdash;but I am sure that you have hurt yourself; and
+you say that you have broken your arm?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid so, confound it! I beg your pardon. I'll get to the inn&mdash;I
+have not broken my leg, and can walk well enough&mdash;and see a doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton's step was heard in the passage, and the voice of that lady
+was heard before she appeared in the doorway, demanding, in an injured
+tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Eleanor, what does this mean? Why do you want brandy, and at this time
+of the day? Are you ill? I have always told you that some day you would
+suffer from this continual rushing about&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then she stopped and stared at the two, and her hand went up to her hair
+with the gesture of the weakly vain woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it, Nell? What does it mean?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>The man rose and bowed, and his appearance, his self-possession and
+well-bred bow impressed Mrs. Lorton at once.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," she said, in her sweetest and most ingratiating
+manner, with a suggestion of the simper which used to be fashionable
+when she was a girl. "There has been an accident, I see. Are you very
+much hurt? Eleanor, pray do not stand like a thing of stock or stone;
+pray, do not be so useless and incapable."</p>
+
+<p>Nell blushed and looked round helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Please sit down," went on Mrs. Lorton. "Eleanor, let me beg of you to
+collect your senses. Get that cushion&mdash;sit down. Let me place this at
+your back. Do you feel faint? My smelling salts, Eleanor!"</p>
+
+<p>The man's lips tightened, and the frown darkened the whole of his face.
+Nell knew that he was swearing under his breath and wishing Mrs. Lorton
+and herself at the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" he said, evidently struggling with his irritation and his
+impatience of the whole scene. "I'm not at all faint. I've fallen from
+my horse, and I think I've smashed my arm, that's all."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"All!" echoed Mrs. Lorton, in accents of profound sympathy and anxiety.
+"Oh, dear, dear! Nell, we must send for the doctor. Will you not put
+your feet up on the sofa? It is such a relief to lie at full length."</p>
+
+<p>He rose with a look of determination in his dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very much, madame, but I cannot consent to give you any
+further trouble. I am quite capable of walking to anywhere, and I
+will&mdash;&mdash;" He broke off with an exclamation and sank down again. "I must
+be worse than I thought," he said suddenly, "and I must ask you to put
+up with me for a little while&mdash;half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Lorton crossed the room with the air of an empress, or a St. Teresa
+on the verge of a great mission, and rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot permit you to leave this house until you have recovered&mdash;quite
+recovered," she said, in a stately fashion. "Molly, get the spare room
+ready for this gentleman. Eleanor, you might assist, I think! I will see
+that the sheets are properly aired&mdash;nothing is more important in such a
+case&mdash;and we will send for the doctor while you are retiring."</p>
+
+<p>Molly plunged out, followed by Nell, and Mrs. Lorton seated herself
+opposite the injured man, and, folding her hands, gazed at him as if she
+were solely accountable for his welfare.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very much obliged to you, madame," he said, at last, and by no
+means amiably. "May I ask to whom I am indebted for so much&mdash;kindness?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Lorton," said the dear lady, as if she had picked him up and
+brought him in and given him brandy; "but I am a Wolfer."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her as if he thought she were mad, and Mrs. Lorton hastened
+to explain.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a near relative of Lord Wolfer."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, yes; I beg your pardon," he said, with a touch of relief. "I
+didn't understand for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you know Lord Wolfer?" she asked sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she assented blandly. "He is sufficiently well known, not
+to say famous. And your name&mdash;if I may ask?"</p>
+
+<p>He frowned, and was silent for an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Vernon," he said reluctantly, "Drake Vernon."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! The name seems familiar to me. Of the Northumberland Vernons, I
+suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied, rather shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"No? There are some Vernons in Warwickshire, I remember," she suggested.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm not connected with any of the Vernons," he said with a grim courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton looked rather disappointed, but only for a moment; for,
+foolish as she was, she knew a gentleman when she saw one, and this Mr.
+Vernon, though not one of the Vernons, was evidently a gentleman and a
+man of position. She smiled at him graciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes one scarcely knows with whom one is connected," she said. "If
+you will excuse me, I will go and see if your room is prepared. We have
+only one servant&mdash;now," she sighed plaintively, "and my daughter is
+young and thoughtless."</p>
+
+<p>"She is not the latter, at any rate," he said, but coldly enough. "Your
+daughter displayed extraordinary presence of mind&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My stepdaughter, I ought to explain," broke in Mrs. Lorton, who could
+not endure the praise of any other than herself. "My late husband&mdash;I am
+a widow, Mr. Vernon&mdash;left me his two children as a trust, a sacred
+trust, which I hope I have discharged to the best of my ability. I will
+rejoin you presently."</p>
+
+<p>He rose and bowed, and then leaned back and closed his eyes, and swore
+gently but thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton returned in a few minutes with Molly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will come now? We have sent for the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, thank you!" he said, and he went upstairs with them; but he
+would not permit them to assist him to take off his coat, and sat on the
+edge of the bed waiting with a kind of impatient patience for the
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>By sheer good luck it was just about the time old Doctor Spence made his
+daily appearance in Shorne Mills, and Nell, running up to the crossway,
+caught him as he was ambling along on his old gray cob.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? what is it, my dear? That monkey of a brother got into mischief
+again?" he said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "What? Stranger? Broke
+his arm? Come, come; you're frightened and upset. No need, no need!
+What's a broken arm! If it had been his neck, now!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not frightened, and I'm not upset!" said Nell indignantly, but with
+a smile. "I'm out of breath with running."</p>
+
+<p>"And out of color, too, Nell. No need to run back, my dear. I'll hurry
+up and see what's wrong."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke to the cob, who understood every word and touch of his master,
+and jolted down the steep road, and Nell followed slowly. She was rather
+pale, as he had noticed, but she was not frightened. In all her
+uneventful life nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> so exciting, so disturbing had happened as this
+accident. It was difficult to realize it, to realize that a great strong
+man had been cast helpless at her feet, that she had had his head on her
+lap; she looked down at the patch on her dress and shuddered. Was she
+glad or sorry that she had chanced to be near when he fell? As she asked
+herself the question her conscience smote her. What a question to arise
+in her mind! Of course she should be glad, very glad, to have been able
+to help him. Then the man's face rose before her, and appealed to her by
+its whiteness, by the weary, wistful lines about the lips and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who he is?" she asked herself, conscious that she had never
+seen any one like him, that he was in some way different to any one of
+the men she had hitherto met.</p>
+
+<p>As she walked slowly, thoughtfully down the road, a strange feeling came
+upon her; it was as if she had touched, if only with the finger tips,
+the fringe of the great unknown world.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, breaking away from the lengthy recountal of Mrs. Lorton,
+went upstairs to the spare room, where still sat Mr. Drake Vernon on the
+edge of the bed, very white, but very self-contained.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, doctor?" he said quietly. "I've come a cropper and
+knocked my head and broken some of my bones. If you'll be so good&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Take off your coat. My good sir, why didn't you let them help you to
+undress?" broke in the old man, with the curtness of the country doctor,
+who, as a rule, is no respecter of persons.</p>
+
+<p>"I've given these good people trouble enough already," was the reply.
+"Thanks; no, you don't hurt me&mdash;not more than can be helped. And I'm not
+going to faint. Thanks, thanks."</p>
+
+<p>He got undressed and into bed, and the doctor "went over" him. As he got
+to the injured arm, Mr. Vernon drew his signet ring from his finger and
+slipped it in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather nasty knock on the head; broken arm&mdash;compound fracture,
+unfortunately."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! just patch me up so that I can get away at once, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>The old man shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry, Mr. Vernon; but that is rather too large an order. Frankly, you
+have knocked yourself about rather more seriously than you think. The
+head&mdash;&mdash;And you are not a particularly 'good patient,' I'm afraid. Been
+living rather&mdash;rapidly, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Vernon nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been living all the time," was the grim assent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I thought so. And you pay the usual penalty. Nature is inexorable, and
+never lets a man off with the option of a fine. If one of my fishermen
+had injured himself as you have done, I could let him do what he
+pleased; but you will have to remain here, in this room&mdash;or, at any
+rate, in this house&mdash;for some little time."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" said Vernon. "I am a stranger to these people. I can't
+trespass on their good nature; I've been nuisance enough already&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense," retorted the doctor calmly. "We are not savages in these
+parts. They'd enjoy nursing and taking care of you. The good lady of the
+house is just dying for some little excitement like this. It's a quiet
+place; you couldn't be in a better; and whether you could or couldn't
+doesn't matter, for you've got to stay here for the present, unless you
+want brain fever and the principal part in a funeral."</p>
+
+<p>Drake Vernon set his lips tight, then shrugged his shoulders, and in
+silence watched the doctor's preparations for setting the arm.</p>
+
+<p>It is a painful operation, but during its accomplishment the patient
+gave no sign, either facial or vocal, of the agony endured. The doctor
+softly patted the splintered arm and looked at him keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Been in the service, Mr. Vernon?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Vernon glanced at him sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know that?" he demanded reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way you held your arm," replied the doctor. "Was in the service
+myself, when a young army doctor. Oh, don't be afraid; I am not going to
+ask questions; and&mdash;and, like my tribe, I am as discreet as an owl. Now,
+I'll just give you a sleeping draft, and will look in in the evening, to
+see if it has taken effect; and to-morrow, if you haven't brain fever,
+you will be on the road to recovery. I'm candid, because I want you to
+understand that if you worry yourself&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Make the draft a strong one; I'm accustomed to narcotics," interrupted
+Vernon quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Opium, or chloral, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chloral," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Right. Comfortable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. Wait a moment. I was hunting with the Devon and Somerset
+to-day. I know scarcely any one&mdash;not one of the people, I may say;
+but&mdash;well, I don't want a fuss. Perhaps you won't mind keeping my
+accident, and my presence here to yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said the doctor. "There is no friend&mdash;relative&mdash;you would
+like sent for?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord, no!" responded Mr. Vernon. "I shall have to get away in a
+day or two."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you?" grunted the old doctor to himself, as he went down the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>The day passed slowly. The little house was filled with an air of
+suppressed excitement, which was kept going by Mrs. Lorton, who,
+whenever Nell or Molly moved, appeared from unexpected places, attired
+in a tea gown, and hissed a rebuking and warning "Hush!" which
+penetrated to the remotest corner of the house, and would certainly have
+disturbed the patient but for the double dose of sulphonal which the
+doctor; had administered.</p>
+
+<p>About the time she expected Dick to return, Nell went down the road to
+meet him, fearing that he might enter singing or whistling; and when she
+saw him lounging up the hill, with a string of fish in his hand, she ran
+to him, and, catching his arm, began to tell her story in a whisper, as
+if the injured Mr. Vernon were within hearing.</p>
+
+<p>Dick stared, and emitted a low whistle.</p>
+
+<p>"'Pon my word, you've been a-going of it, Nell! Sounds like a play: 'The
+Mysterious Stranger and the Village Maiden.' Scene one. Enter the
+stranger: 'My horse is weary; no human habitation nigh. Where to find a
+resting place for my tired steed and my aching head! Ah! what is this? A
+simple child of Nature. I will seek direction at her hands.' Horse takes
+fright; mysterious stranger is thrown. Maiden falls on her knees: 'Ah,
+Heaven! 'tis he! 'tis he!'"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, but her face crimsoned.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick, don't be an idiot, if you can help it. I know it is
+difficult&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Spare your blushes, my child," he retorted blandly. "The Mysterious S.
+will turn out to be a commercial traveler with a wife and seven
+children. But, Nell, what does mamma say?"</p>
+
+<p>"She likes it," said Nell, with a smile. "She is happier and more
+interested than I have ever seen her."</p>
+
+<p>Dick struck an attitude and his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Can it be&mdash;oh, can it be that the romance will end another way? Are we
+going to lose our dear mamma? Grateful stranger&mdash;love at first
+sight&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dick, you are the worst kind of imbecile! He is years younger than
+mamma&mdash;young enough to be her son. Now, Dick, dry up, and don't make a
+noise. He is really ill. I know it by the way the old doctor smiles. He
+always smiles and grins when the case is serious. You'll be quiet, Dick,
+dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"This tender solicitude for the sufferer touches me deeply," he
+whimpered, mopping his eyes. "Oh, yes, I'll be quiet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Nell. Much as I
+love excitement, I'm not anxious for a funeral, and a bereaved and
+heartbroken sister. Shall I take my boots off before entering the abode
+of sickness, or shall I walk in on my head?"</p>
+
+<p>The day passed. Dick, driven almost mad by the enforced quietude, and
+the incessant "Hushes!" of Mrs. Lorton, betook himself to his tool shed
+to mend his fishing rod&mdash;and cut his fingers&mdash;and then to bed. Molly
+went to the sick room in the capacity of nurse, and Mrs. Lorton, after
+desiring everybody that she should be called if "a change took place,"
+retired to the rest earned by pleasurable excitement; and Nell stole
+past the spare-room door to her nest under the roof.</p>
+
+<p>As she undressed slowly, she paused now and again to listen. All was
+quiet; the injured man was still sleeping. She went to the open window
+and looked out seaward. Something was stirring within her, something
+that was like the faint motion of the air before a storm. Is it possible
+that we have some premonition of the first change in our lives; the
+change which is to alter the course of every feeling, every action? She
+knew too little of life or the world to ask herself the question; but
+she was conscious of a sensation of unrest, of disquietude. She could
+not free herself from the haunting presence of the handsome face, of the
+dark and weary, wistful eyes. The few sentences he had spoken kept
+repeating themselves in her ear, striking on her brain with soft
+persistence. The very name filled her thoughts. "Drake Vernon, Drake
+Vernon!"</p>
+
+<p>At last, with an impatient movement, with a blush of shame for the way
+in which her mind was dwelling on him, she left the window and fell on
+her knees at the narrow bed to say her prayers.</p>
+
+<p>But his personality intruded even on her devotions, and, half
+unconsciously, she added to her simple formula a supplication for his
+recovery.</p>
+
+<p>Then she got into bed and fell asleep. But in a very little while she
+started awake, seeing the horse shy and fall, feeling the man's head
+upon her lap. She sat up and listened. His room was beneath hers&mdash;the
+cottage was built in the usual thin and unsubstantial fashion&mdash;and every
+sound from the room below rose to hers. She heard him moan; once, twice;
+then his voice, thick and husky, called for water.</p>
+
+<p>She listened. The faint cry rose again and again. She could not endure
+it, and she got out of bed, put on her dressing gown, and slipped down
+the stairs. She could hear the voice more plainly now, and the cry was
+still, "Water! water!"</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door, and, pausing a moment, her face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> crimson, stole
+toward the bed. Molly was in her chair, with her head lolling over the
+back, as if it were a guillotine, her huge mouth wide open, fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Nell stood and looked down at the unconscious man. The dark-brown hair
+was tangled, the white face drawn with pain, the lips dry with fever,
+one hand, clenched, opening and shutting spasmodically, on the
+counterpane.</p>
+
+<p>That divine pity which only a woman can feel filled and overran her
+heart. She poured some water into a glass and set it to his lips. He
+could not drink lying down, and, with difficulty, she raised his head on
+her bosom. He drank long and greedily; then, as she slowly&mdash;dare one
+write "reluctantly"?&mdash;lowered his head to the pillow, he muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, thanks, Luce! That was good!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Luce!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange name&mdash;the name of a woman, of course. Nell wondered
+whether it was his sister&mdash;or sweetheart? Perhaps it was his wife?</p>
+
+<p>She waited for some minutes; then she woke Molly, and returned to her
+own room.</p>
+
+<p>Drake Vernon was unconscious for some days, and Nell often stole in and
+stood beside the bed; sometimes she changed the ice bandages, or gave
+him something to drink. He wandered and talked a great deal, but it was
+incoherent talk, in which the names of the persons he whispered or
+shouted were indistinguishable. On the fourth day he recovered
+consciousness, but was terribly weak, and the doctor would not permit
+Mrs. Lorton to enter the room.</p>
+
+<p>He put his objection very cleverly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to think of you, my dear madame," he said. "I don't want two
+patients on my hands in the same house. Talk him back into delirium!" he
+added to himself.</p>
+
+<p>All these days Mrs. Lorton continued to "hush," Nell went about with a
+grave air of suspense, and Dick&mdash;it is not given to this historian to
+describe the state of mind into which incessant repression drove that
+youth.</p>
+
+<p>On the sixth day, bored to death, and somewhat curious, he strolled into
+the sick room. Drake Vernon, propped up by pillows, was partaking of
+beef tea with every sign of distaste.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you getting on, sir?" asked Dick.</p>
+
+<p>The sick man looked at the boy, and nodded with a faint smile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm better, thanks; nearly well, I devoutly trust."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," commented Dick cheerfully. "Thought I'd just look
+in. Shan't upset you, or disturb you, shall I, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the very least," was the reply. "I'm very glad to see you. Won't
+you sit down? Not there, but some place where I can see you."</p>
+
+<p>Dick sat on the end of the bed and leaned against the rail, with his
+hands in his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to introduce myself, I suppose. I'm what is called in the
+novels 'the son of the house'; I'm Nell's brother, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"So I see, by the likeness."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather rough on Nell, that, isn't it? I'll tell her," said Dick, with a
+spark of mischief in his eye. "Why, she's as black as a coal, and I'm
+fair."</p>
+
+<p>"You are alike, all the same," said the invalid, rather indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Dick&mdash;Dick, as a rule; Richard, when my stepmother is more
+than usually riled with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Permit me to call you by the shorter name," said Mr. Vernon. "I'm
+afraid I've been a terrible nuisance, and must continue to be for some
+days. The doctor tells me that I can't venture to move yet."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," responded Dick cheerfully. "We shall be glad to see
+you about again, of course; but don't worry yourself on our account,
+sir. To tell you the truth, we rather enjoy&mdash;that is, some of us"&mdash;he
+corrected&mdash;"having 'an accident case' in the house. Mamma, for instance,
+hasn't been so happy for a long while."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Lorton must be extremely good-natured and charitable," commented
+Mr. Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>Dick looked rather doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>"Er&mdash;ye-s. You see, it's a little change and excitement, and we don't
+get much of that commodity in Shorne Mills. So we're rather grateful to
+you than otherwise for pitching yourself at our front gate. If you could
+have managed to break both arms and a leg, I verily believe that mamma
+would have wept tears of joy."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I can't say I'm sorry I did not gratify her to that extent,"
+said Mr. Vernon, with a grim smile; but it was a smile, and his dark
+eyes were scanning the boy's handsome face with something approaching
+interest. "Mrs. Lorton is your stepmother? Did I hear her say so, or did
+I dream it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's no dream; it's real enough," said Dick, with intense gravity. "My
+father"&mdash;he seated himself more comfortably&mdash;"was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> Lorton &amp; Lorton, the
+Patent Coffee Roaster, you know&mdash;perhaps you've heard of it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well! a great many other people must have done so; for the roaster
+made a pile of money, and my father was a rich man. Molly, you can take
+that beef tea downstairs and give it to Snaps. He won't eat it, because
+he's a most intelligent dog. Thought I'd get her out of the room, sir.
+Molly's a good girl, but she's got ears and a tongue."</p>
+
+<p>"So have I," said Drake Vernon, with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't mind you. It's only right that you should know something
+about the people in whose house you are staying."</p>
+
+<p>Drake Vernon frowned slightly, for there was the other side of the
+medal: surely, it was only right that the people in whose house he was
+staying should know something about himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Father made a lot of money over a roaster; then my mother died. I was
+quite a kid when it happened; but Nell just remembers her. Then father
+married again; and, being rich, I suppose, wanted a fashionable wife. So
+he married mamma. I dare say that she's told you she's a Wolfer?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"There's not much in it," said Dick, with charming candor. "We've never
+set eyes on any of her swell connections, and I don't think she's ever
+heard from them since the smash."</p>
+
+<p>"What smash?" asked Mr. Vernon, with only faint interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you? Left the part of <i>Hamlet</i> out of the play! Why,
+father added a patent coffeepot to the roaster, and lost all his
+money&mdash;or nearly all. Then he died. And we came here, and&mdash;&mdash;There you
+are, sir; that's the story; and the moral is, 'Let well alone'; or 'Be
+content with your roaster, and touch not the pot.' Sounds like the title
+of a teetotal tract, doesn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you are at school, I suppose? No, you are too old for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. I was trying not to feel offended," said Dick. "Nothing hurts a
+boy of my age like telling him he isn't a man. No; I've left school, and
+I'm supposed to be educated; but it's the thinnest kind of supposition.
+I don't fancy they teach you much at most schools. They didn't teach me
+anything at mine except cricket and football."</p>
+
+<p>"Oxford, Cambridge?" suggested the invalid, leaning on his elbow, and
+looking at the boy absently.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't run to it," said Dick. "Mamma said I must begin the
+world&mdash;sounds as if it were a loaf of bread or an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> orange. I should have
+'begun it' long ago if it were. The difficulty seems to be where to
+begin. I'm supposed to have a taste for engineering&mdash;once made a steam
+engine out of an empty meat tin. It didn't work very well, and it blew
+up and burst the kitchen window; but that's a detail. So I'm waiting,
+like Mr. Micawber, for 'something to turn up' in the engineering line. I
+take in the engineering paper, and answer all the advertisements; but
+nothing comes of it. Quite comfortable? Shall I shake up the pillow,
+sir? I know how to do it, for I've seen Nell do 'em for mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"No; thanks, very much. I'm quite comfortable. If you really are
+desirous of taking any trouble, you might get me a sheet of note paper
+and an envelope."</p>
+
+<p>"To say nothing of a pen, some ink, and blotting paper," said Dick,
+rising leisurely.</p>
+
+<p>He brought them and set them on the bed, and Mr. Drake Vernon wrote a
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sending for some clothes," he explained. "May I trouble you to post
+it? Any time will do."</p>
+
+<p>"Post doesn't go out till five," said Dick. "And we've only one post in
+and out a day. This is the last place Providence thought of, and I don't
+think it would have mattered much if it had been forgotten altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"It's pretty enough, too, what I saw of it," said Mr. Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's pretty enough," assented Dick casually; "but it's precious
+dull."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you find to do?" asked the sick man, with an attempt at
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I ride&mdash;when I can borrow a horse&mdash;and boat and fish&mdash;and fish and
+boat."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a girl's voice, singing in a soft and subdued tone, rose
+from below the window.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Drake Vernon listened for a moment or two, then he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's Nell, caterwauling."</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister has a good voice," remarked Mr. Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; Nell sings very well," assented Dick, with a brother's
+indifferent patronage.</p>
+
+<p>"And what does your sister find to do?" asked Mr. Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she does ditto to me," said Dick. "Fish, boat&mdash;boat, fish; but
+since you've been here, of course&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I understand. I must have been a terrible bore to you&mdash;to you
+all," said Mr. Drake Vernon, gravely and regretfully. "I'm very sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"No man can say more; and there's no need for you to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> say as much, sir,"
+remarked Dick philosophically. "As I said, you have been a boon and a
+blessing to the women&mdash;and I don't mind, now you're getting better and
+can stand a little noise."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, you can make all the row you like," he said earnestly.
+"I'm very much obliged to you for looking in&mdash;come in when you care to."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said Dick. "Oh! about the horse. I've had him turned out. I
+don't think he's hurt much; only the hair cut; and he'll be all right
+again presently."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to hear it. I needn't say that directly he's well enough, you
+can&mdash;&mdash;Will you give me that letter again?" he broke off, as if
+something had occurred to him.</p>
+
+<p>Dick complied, and Drake Vernon opened it, added a line or two, and
+placed it in a fresh envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a message I had to give you, but I've forgotten it," said
+Dick, as he took the letter again. "Oh, ah, yes! It was from my sister.
+She asked me to ask you if you'd care to have some books. She didn't
+quite know whether you ought to read yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should. Please thank your sister," said Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything you fancy? Don't suppose you'll find Nell's books very lively.
+She's rather strong on poetry and the 'Heir of Redclyffe' kind of
+literature. I'll bring you some of my own with them. Mamma, being a
+Wolfer, goes in for the <i>Fashion Gazette</i> and the <i>Court Circular</i>,
+which won't be much in your line, I expect."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," Mr. Vernon admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"So long, then, till I come back. Sure there's nothing else I can do for
+you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>He went downstairs&mdash;availing himself of the invalid's permission to make
+a noise by whistling "Tommy Atkins"&mdash;and Nell looked in at the French
+window, as he swept a row of books from the shelf of the sideboard.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick, what an awful noise!" she said reproachfully, and in the subdued
+voice which had become natural with all of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, Nell; the 'silent period' has now passed. The interesting
+invalid has lifted the ban, which was crushing one of us, at least. He
+thanks you for your offer of literature, and he has recovered
+sufficiently to write a note."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he chucked the letter on the table, and Nell took it up and
+absently read the address.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Sparling, 101 St. James' Place," she read aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a swell address, isn't it?" he asked. "Interesting invalid looks
+rather a swell himself, too. I did him an injustice; there's nothing of
+the commercial traveler about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> him, thank goodness! And he's decidedly
+good-looking, too. But isn't he white and shaky! I wonder who and what
+he is? Now I come to think of it, he was about as communicative as an
+oyster, and left me to do all the palaver. You'll be glad to hear that
+he admired your voice, and that he inquired how you passed your time;
+also, that he was shocked when I told him that you whiled the dragging
+hours away by dancing the cancan, and playing pitch and toss with a
+devoted brother."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, and blushed faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"What books are you taking, Dick? Let me see."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't! I know the kind of thing you'd send&mdash;'The Lessons of
+Sickness; or, Blessings in Disguise,' and the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be an ass, Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm taking some of my own. Nell, you can post this letter. Yes,
+I'll&mdash;I'll trust you with it. You'll be a good girl, and not open it, or
+drop it on the way," he adjured her, as he climbed upstairs with the
+books.</p>
+
+<p>"Here you are, sir. Hope you'll like the selection; there's any amount
+of poetry and goody-goody of Nell's; but I fancy you'll catch onto some
+of mine. Try 'Hawkshead, the Sioux Chief,' to begin with. It's a
+stunner, especially if you skip all the descriptions of scenery. As if
+anybody wanted scenery in a story!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said Mr. Vernon gravely. "I've no doubt I shall enjoy it." But
+he took up one of Nell's books and absently looked at her name written
+on the flyleaf&mdash;"Eleanor Lorton." The first name struck him as stiff and
+ill-suited to the slim and graceful girl whose face he only dimly
+remembered; "Nell" was better.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>He took up one of the books and read a page or two; but the simple story
+could not hold him, and he dropped the volume, and, leaning his head on
+his sound arm, stared listlessly at the old-fashioned wall paper. But he
+did not see the pattern; the panorama of his own life's story was
+passing before him, and it was not at all a pleasing panorama. A life of
+pleasure, of absolute uselessness, of unthinking selfishness. What a
+dreary pilgrimage it seemed to him, as he lay in the little bedroom,
+with the scent of Nell's flowers floating up to him from the garden
+beneath, with the sound of the sea, flinging itself against the cliffs,
+burring like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> giant bumble bee in his ears. If any one had asked him
+whether his life had been worth living, he would have answered with a
+decided negative; and yet he was young, the gods had been exceeding good
+to him in many ways, almost every way, and there was no great sorrow to
+cast its shadow over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Pity I didn't break my neck," he muttered. "No one would have
+cared&mdash;unless it were Luce, and perhaps even she, now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off the reverie with a short laugh that was more bitter than a
+sigh, and turned his face to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Spence, when he paid his visit later in the day, found him thus,
+and eyed him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Arm's getting on all right, Mr. Vernon," he said; "but the rest of you
+isn't improving. I think you'd better get up to-morrow and go
+downstairs. I'd keep you here, of course; but lying in bed isn't a
+bracing operation, especially when you think; and you think, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I can't help it," replied Vernon, rather grimly. "I'm glad you
+have given me permission to get up; though I dare say I should have got
+up without it."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say," commented the old doctor. "Always have your own way, as a
+rule, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Always," assented the patient listlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-s; it's a bad thing for most men; a very bad thing for you, I should
+say. By the way, if you should go downstairs, you must keep quiet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, you don't suppose I intend to dance or sing!" broke in
+Vernon, with a smile, of irritation.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I mean that you must sit still and avoid any exertion. You'll find
+that you are not capable of much in the way of dancing or singing," he
+added, with a short laugh. "Try and amuse yourself, and don't&mdash;worry."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said Mr. Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a pause, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"I must seem an ill-conditioned beast, I'm afraid, doctor; but the fact
+is&mdash;well, I have been worried lately, and this ridiculous accident
+hasn't tended to soothe me."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Life's too short for worry," he said, with the wisdom of age.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you're right; nothing matters!" assented Mr. Vernon. "Well, I'm
+glad I can get up to-morrow. I'll clear out of here as soon as
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't hurry," remarked Doctor Spence. "They're glad enough to
+have you."</p>
+
+<p>Vernon nodded impatiently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So they say&mdash;the boy's been in here this morning&mdash;but that's nonsense,
+of course."</p>
+
+<p>On his way down the steep village street the doctor met Nell coming up,
+with her quick, bright step, and he stopped the gray cob to speak to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Nell," he said, with a smile twinkling in his keen eyes as
+they scanned the beautiful face with the dark tendrils of hair blown
+across her brow, beneath her old sailor hat, the clear gray eyes shining
+like crystal, the red lips parted slightly with the climb. "Just left
+your interesting patient. He'll come down to-morrow. Don't let him fag
+himself; and, see here, Nell, try and amuse him."</p>
+
+<p>The gray eyes opened still wider, then grew thoughtful and doubtful, and
+the doctor laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather difficult, eh?" he said, reading her thoughts. "Well, I should
+say it was somewhat of a large order. But you can play draughts or
+cat's-cradle with him, or read, or play the piano. That's the kind of
+thing he wants. There's something on his mind, and that's worse than
+having a splint on his arm, believe me, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought&mdash;that is, I fancied&mdash;he looked as if he were in trouble," she
+said musingly. "Poor man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know that he wants your pity," remarked the doctor dryly.
+"As a rule, when a man's got something on his mind, he has put it there
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>"That does not make it any the better to have," said Nell absently.</p>
+
+<p>"True, Queen Solomon!" he returned banteringly. "There's not much on
+your mind, I should imagine?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, and her frank eyes laughed, too, as she met the quizzical,
+admiring gaze of the sharp old eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What should there be, Doctor Spence?" she responded.</p>
+
+<p>"What, indeed?" he said. "May it be many a day before the black ox
+treads on your foot, my dear!"</p>
+
+<p>With a nod, he sent the cob on again, and Nell continued her climb.</p>
+
+<p>Something on his mind! She wondered what it was. Had some one he cared
+for died? But if that were so, he would be in mourning. Perhaps he had
+lost his money, as her father had done? Well, anyway, she was sorry for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>It need scarcely be said that Mrs. Lorton did not permit the interesting
+stranger to move from bed to sitting room without a fuss. The most
+elaborate preparations were made by Molly, under her mistress'
+supervision. The sofa was wheeled to the window, a blanket was warmed
+and placed over the sofa, so that the patient might be infolded in it; a
+glass of brandy and water was placed on a small table, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> case he
+should feel faint, and a couple of huge walking sticks were ready for
+the support of the patient&mdash;as if he had broken his leg as well as his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>"No, remember, please, Eleanor, that there must be no noise; absolute
+quiet, Doctor Spence insisted on. He was most emphatic about the
+'absolute.' Pull down that blind, Molly; nothing is so trying to an
+invalid as a glare of sunlight&mdash;and close the window first. There must
+be no draft, for a chill in such a case as this might prove fatal.
+Fatal! I wonder whether it would be better to light a fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is very hot, mamma," ventured Nell, who had viewed the closing of
+the window with dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"It may seem hot to you, who are in robust, not to say vulgar, health;
+but to one in Mr. Vernon's condition&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment he was heard coming down the stairs. He walked firmly
+though slowly, and it was evident to Nell that he was trying to look as
+little like an invalid as possible. He had dressed himself with the
+assistance of Dick, who walked behind with a pillow&mdash;which he made as if
+to throw at Nell, who passed quickly through the hall as they
+descended&mdash;and, though he looked pale and wan, Mr. Drake Vernon held
+himself erect, like a soldier, and began to make light of his accident,
+and succeeded in concealing any sign of the irritation which he felt
+when Mrs. Lorton fluttered forward with the two sticks and the blanket.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you&mdash;thank you very much; but I don't need them. Put it on? No, I
+think I'd better not. I'm quite warm." He looked round the carefully
+closed room&mdash;Dick's complaining "phew!" was almost audible behind him.
+"No, I won't have any brandy, thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure, quite sure, you do not feel faint? I know what it is to
+rise from a sick bed for the first time, Mr. Vernon, and I can enter
+into your feelings perfectly."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all&mdash;not at all; I mean that I'm not at all faint," he said
+hastily; "and I'm quite strong, quite."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see you comfortably rang&eacute;," said Mrs. Lorton, who was persuaded
+that she had hit upon a French word for "arranged." "Then I will get you
+some beef tea. I have made it with my own hands."</p>
+
+<p>"It's to be hoped not!" said Dick devoutly, as she fluttered out.
+"Molly's beef tea is bad enough; but mamma's&mdash;&mdash;What shall I do with the
+pillow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you might swallow it, my dear boy," said Mr. Vernon, with a short
+laugh. "Anything but put it under me. Good heavens! Any one would think
+I was dying of consumption! But it is really very kind."</p>
+
+<p>"All right; I'll take it upstairs again," said Dick cheerfully. But he
+met Nell in the passage. There was the sound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> of a thud, a clear, low
+voice expostulating, and a girl's footstep on the stairs, as Nell,
+smoothing her hair, carried up the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>When she came down Mrs. Lorton met her.</p>
+
+<p>"Get some salt, Eleanor, and take it in to Mr. Vernon. And please say,
+if he should ask for me, that I'm making him some calf's-foot jelly."</p>
+
+<p>Nell took in the salt. Mr. Vernon rose from the sofa on which he had
+seated himself, and bowed with a half-impatient, half-regretful air.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm too ashamed for words," he said. "Why did you trouble? The beef tea
+is all right."</p>
+
+<p>"It's no trouble," said Nell. "Are you comfortable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite&mdash;quite," he replied; but for the life of him he could not help
+glancing at the window.</p>
+
+<p>Nell suppressed a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it rather hot?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you mention it, I&mdash;I think it is, rather," he assented. "I'll open
+the window."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Nell. "I'll do it; you'll hurt your arm."</p>
+
+<p>She opened the window.</p>
+
+<p>"If&mdash;if there was a chair," he said hesitatingly. "I'm not used to a
+sofa&mdash;and&mdash;I'm afraid you'll think me very ungrateful! Let me get the
+chair. Thanks, thanks!" as she swiftly pulled the sofa out of the way
+and put an easy-chair in its place.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, it will be a change to sit up," he said apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded. She quite understood his dislike of the part of interesting
+invalid.</p>
+
+<p>"And there's really nothing the matter with me, don't you know," he said
+earnestly; "nothing but this arm, which doesn't exactly lame me. Won't
+you sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell hesitated a moment, then took a chair at the other side of the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>"You've a splendid view here," he remarked, staring steadily out of the
+window, for he felt rather than saw that the girl was a little shy&mdash;not
+shy, but, rather, that she scarcely knew what to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," she assented, in a voice in which there was certainly no
+shyness. "There is a good view from all the windows; we are so high.
+Won't you have your beef tea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. I'd forgotten it. Don't get up. I'll&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Nell had got up before he could rise. As she brought the tray to him
+he glanced up at her. He had been staring at the bedroom wall paper for
+some days, and perhaps the contrast offered by Nell's fresh, young
+loveliness made it seem all the fresher and more striking. There was
+something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> in the curve of the lips, in the expression of the gray eyes,
+a "sweet sadness," as the poet puts it, which impressed him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very good to be down again," he said. She had not gone back to her
+chair, but leaned in the angle of the bay window, and looked down at the
+village below. "I seem to have been in bed for ages."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I remember feeling like that when I got up after the measles,
+years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Not many years ago," he suggested, with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems a long time ago to me," said Nell. "I remember that for weeks
+and months after I got well I hated the sight and smell of beef tea and
+arrowroot. And Doctor Spence&mdash;your doctor, you know&mdash;gave me a glass of
+ale one day, and stood over me while I drank it. He can be very firm
+when he likes, not to say obstinate."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon listened to the musical voice, and looked at the slim,
+girlish figure and spirituelle face absently; and when there fell a
+silence he showed no disposition to break it. It was difficult to find
+anything to talk about with so young and inexperienced a girl, and it
+was almost with an air of relief that he turned as Mrs. Lorton entered.</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you feel now?" she asked, with bated breath. "Weak and
+faint, I'm afraid. I know how exhausting one feels the first time of
+getting down. Eleanor, I do hope you have not been tiring Mr. Vernon by
+talking too much."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon struggled with a frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Lorton has scarcely said two words," he said. "I assure you, my
+dear madame, that there is absolutely nothing the matter with me, and
+that&mdash;that I could stand a steam phonograph."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad!" simpered Mrs. Lorton. "I have brought this week's
+<i>Society News</i>. I thought it might amuse you if I read some of the
+paragraphs&mdash;Eleanor, I think you might read them. Don't you think
+indolence is one of the greatest sins of the day, Mr. Vernon?" she broke
+off to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>Vernon smiled grimly, and glanced at Nell, who colored under the amused
+expression in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say it is," he said. "Speaking for myself, I can honestly say
+that I never do anything unless I am compelled."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, her short, soft laugh; but Mrs. Lorton was not at all
+discomfited.</p>
+
+<p>"That is all very well for a man, though I am sure you do yourself an
+injustice, Mr. Vernon; but for a young girl! I think you will find
+something interesting on the third page, under the heading of 'Doings of
+the Elite,' Eleanor."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell took the paper&mdash;the journal she especially detested, and Dick never
+failed to mock at&mdash;and glanced at Mr. Vernon; but he looked straight
+before him, down at the jetty below; and, not shyly, but, with a kind of
+resignation, she began:</p>
+
+<p>"'Lord and Lady Bullnoze have gone on a visit to the Countess of
+Crowntires. Her ladyship is staying at the family seat, Cromerspokes,
+which is famous for its old oak and stained glass. It is not generally
+known that Lady Crowntires inherited this princely estate from her aunt,
+the Duchess of Bogshire.'"</p>
+
+<p>"A most beautiful place," commented Mrs. Lorton. "I've seen a photograph
+of it&mdash;a private photograph."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked appealingly and despairingly at Mr. Vernon, but his face was
+perfectly impassive; and, smothering a sigh, she went on:</p>
+
+<p>"'Lord Pygskin will hunt the Clodford hounds next season. His lordship
+has been staying at Blenheim for some weeks, recovering from an attack
+of the gout. It is said that his engagement with the charming and
+popular Miss Bung has been broken off.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! How sad!" murmured Mrs. Lorton. "I am always so sorry to hear
+of these broken engagements of the aristocracy. Miss Bung&mdash;I think it
+said last week&mdash;is the daughter of the great brewer. Poor girl! it will
+be a blow for her!"</p>
+
+<p>Not a smile crossed the impassive face; Nell thought that perhaps he was
+not listening, but she went on mechanically:</p>
+
+<p>"'The marriage of the Earl of Angleford has caused quite a flutter of
+excitement among the elite. His lordship, as our readers are aware, is
+somewhat advanced in years, and had always been regarded as a confirmed
+bachelor&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>At this point Nell became aware that the dark eyes had turned from the
+window to her face, and she paused and looked up. There was a faint dash
+of color on Mr. Vernon's cheeks, and a tightening of the lips. It seemed
+to Nell, judging by his expression, that he had suddenly become
+impatient of the twaddle, and she instantly dropped the paper on her
+lap. But Mrs. Lorton was enjoying herself too much to permit of such an
+interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you stop, Eleanor?" she inquired. "It is most interesting. Pray,
+go on."</p>
+
+<p>Nell again glanced at Mr. Vernon, but his gaze had returned to the
+window, and he shrugged his shoulders slightly, as if he were
+indifferent, as if he could bear it.</p>
+
+<p>----"'A confirmed bachelor,'" resumed Nell, "'and his sudden and
+unexpected marriage must have been a surprise, and a very unpleasant
+surprise to his family; especially to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> nephew, Lord Selbie, who is
+the heir presumptive to the title and estates. We say "presumptive,"
+because in the event of the earl being blessed with a son and heir of
+his own, Lord Selbie will, of course, not inherit the title or the vast
+lands and moneys of the powerful and ancient family.'"</p>
+
+<p>"How disappointed he must be!" said Mrs. Lorton, sympathetically.
+"Really, such a marriage should not be permitted. What do you think, Mr.
+Vernon?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon started slightly, and looked at the weak and foolish face as
+if he scarcely saw it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not!" he said, rather curtly. "It's a free country, and a man may
+marry whom he pleases."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly; that is, an ordinary man&mdash;one of the middle class; but
+not, certainly not, a nobleman of Lord Angleford's rank and position.
+How old did it say he is, Eleanor?"</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't say, mamma," replied Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, I know he is quite old; for I remember reading a paragraph
+about him a few weeks ago. They were describing the ancestral home of
+the Anglefords&mdash;Anglemere, it is called; one of the historic houses,
+like Blenheim and Chatsworth, you know. And this poor Lord Selbie, the
+nephew, will lose the title and everything. Dear me! how interesting! Is
+there anything more about him?'</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; a great deal more," said Nell despairfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Then pray continue&mdash;that is, if Mr. Vernon is not tired; though,
+speaking from experience, there is nothing so soothing as being read
+to."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon did not look as if he found the impertinent paragraphs in the
+<i>Society News</i> particularly soothing, but he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not at all tired. It's very interesting, as you say. Please go on,
+Miss Lorton."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked at him doubtfully, for there was a kind of sarcasm in his
+voice. But she took up the parable.</p>
+
+<p>"'Lord Selbie is, in consequence of this marriage of his uncle, the
+object of profound and general sympathy; for, as the readers must be
+aware, he is a persona grata in society&mdash;&mdash;' What is a persona grata?"
+Nell broke off to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord knows!" replied Mr. Vernon grimly. "I don't suppose the bounder
+who wrote these things does."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton simpered.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Italian, and it means that he is very popular, a general
+favorite."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why don't they say so?" asked Nell, in a patiently disgusted
+fashion. "'Is a persona grata in society. He is strikingly
+handsome&mdash;&mdash;'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon's lips curved with something between a grin and a sneer.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;"'And of the most charming manners.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Who writes this kind of rot?" he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"'Since his first appearance in the circles of the London elite, Lord
+Selbie has been the cynosure of all eyes. To quote Hamlet again, he may
+truthfully be described as the "glass of fashion and the mould of form."
+His lordship is also a good all-round sportsman. He spent two or three
+years traveling in the Rockies and in Africa, and his exploits with the
+big game in both countries are well known. Like most young men of his
+class, Lord Selbie was rather wild at Oxford, and displayed a certain
+amount of diablerie in London during his quite early manhood. He is a
+splendid whip, and his four-in-hand was eclipsed by none other in the
+club. Lord Selbie is also an admirable horseman, and has won several
+cups in regimental races.'</p>
+
+<p>"That is the end of that paragraph," said Nell, stifling a yawn, and
+glancing longingly through the window at the sea dancing in the
+sunlight. "Do you want any more?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any?" asked Mr. Vernon grimly. "If so, we'd better have it,
+perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Mrs. Lorton. "If there is anything I dislike more than
+another, it is incomplete information. Go on Eleanor."</p>
+
+<p>Nell sighed and took up the precious paper again.</p>
+
+<p>"'As is well known'&mdash;they always say that, because it flatters the
+readers, I suppose," she went on parenthetically&mdash;"'Lord Selbie is a
+"Lord" in consequence of his father, Mr. Herbert Selbie, the famous
+diplomatist, having been created a viscount; but, though he bears this
+title, we fancy Lord Selbie cannot be well off. The kind of life he has
+led since his advent in society must have strained his resources to the
+utmost, and we should not be far wrong if we described him as a poor
+man. This marriage of his uncle, the Earl of Angleford, must, therefore,
+be a serious blow to him, and may cause his complete retirement from the
+circles of <i>ton</i> in which he has shone so brilliantly. Lord Selbie, as
+we stated last week, is engaged to the daughter of Lord Turfleigh.'"</p>
+
+<p>Nell dropped the paper and struggled with a portentous yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very much, Miss Lorton," said Mr. Vernon politely, with a
+half smile on his impassive face. "It is, as Mrs. Lorton says, very
+interesting."</p>
+
+<p>Nell stared at him; then, seeing the irony in his eyes and on his lips,
+smiled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I thought for the moment that you meant it," she said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton heard, and sniffed at her.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Eleanor, what do you mean?" she inquired stiffly. "Of course,
+Mr. Vernon is interested. Why should he say so if he were not? I'm
+afraid, Eleanor, that you are of opinion that nothing but fiction has
+any claim on our attention, and that anything real and true is of no
+account. I may be old-fashioned and singular, but I find that these
+small details of the lives of our aristocracy are full of interest, not
+to say edifying. What do you think, Mr. Vernon?"</p>
+
+<p>He had been gazing absently out of the window, but he pulled himself
+together, and came up to the scratch with a jerk.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton smiled triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Eleanor, Mr. Vernon quite agrees with me. I must go and see if
+Molly has put the jelly in the window to cool. Meanwhile, Mr. Vernon may
+like you to continue reading to him."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon rose to open the door for her&mdash;Nell noticed the act of
+courtesy&mdash;then sank down again.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't want any more?" she said, looking at the paper on her knee.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She tossed it onto a chair at the other end of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the most awful nonsense," she said, with a girlish frankness.
+"Why did you tell mamma that it was interesting?"</p>
+
+<p>He met the direct gaze of the clear gray eyes, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;as it happened&mdash;it was," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The clear gray eyes opened wider.</p>
+
+<p>"What! All this gossip about the Earl of Angleford, and his nephew, Lord
+Selbie?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked down, then raised his eyes, narrowed into slits, and fixed
+them above her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy it's true&mdash;in the main," he said, half apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and if it is," she retorted impatiently, "of what interest can it
+be to us? We don't know the Earl of Angleford, and don't care a button
+that he is married, and that his nephew is&mdash;what do you
+say?&mdash;disinherited."</p>
+
+<p>"N-o," he admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," she said triumphantly. "It is like reading the doings
+of people living in the moon."</p>
+
+<p>"The moon is a long ways off," he ventured.</p>
+
+<p>"Not farther from us than the world in which these earls and lords have
+their being," she retorted. "It all seems so&mdash;so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> impertinent to me,
+when I am reading it. Of what interest can the lives of these people be
+to us, to me, Nell Lorton? I never heard of Lord Angleford, and
+Lord&mdash;what is it?&mdash;Lord Selbie, before; did you?"</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at her, then looked fixedly through the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of them&mdash;yes," he said reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, you are better informed than I am," said Nell, laughing
+softly. "There's Dick; he's calling me. Do you mind being left? He will
+make an awful row if I don't go out."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. Go by all means!" he said. "And thank you for&mdash;all the
+trouble you have taken."</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded and hurried out, and Mr. Vernon leaned back and bit at his
+mustache thoughtfully, not to say irritably.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel like a bounder," he muttered. "Why the blazes didn't I give my
+right name? I wonder what they'd say&mdash;how that girl would look&mdash;if I
+told them that I was the Lord Selbie this rag was cackling about? Shall
+I tell them? No. It would be awkward now. I shall be gone in a day or
+two, and they needn't know."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The following morning, the carrier's cart stopped at the cottage, and
+Dick, having helped the carrier to bring in a big portmanteau, burst
+into the sitting room with:</p>
+
+<p>"Your togs have arrived, Mr. Vernon; and the carrier says that there are
+a couple of horses at the station. They're directed 'Drake Vernon,
+Esquire,' so they must be for you!"</p>
+
+<p>Vernon nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," he said. "They were doing nothing in&mdash;where they
+were, and I thought I'd have them sent down here. I suppose I must get
+some one to exercise them?"</p>
+
+<p>Dick's eyes sparkled and his mouth stretched in an expressive grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much difficulty about that," he said. "For instance, I don't mind
+obliging you&mdash;as a favor."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought perhaps you might be so good," he said; and he added
+casually: "Anybody here who could be trusted to bring them from the
+station?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know a most trustworthy person; his name is Richard Lorton, and he
+will go for 'em in a brace of jiffs," said Dick.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon flicked a five-pound note across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"There may be some carriage. By the way, one of them is a lady's nag,
+and I fancy they may have sent a sidesaddle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dick nodded and repeated the grin.</p>
+
+<p>"I can get them put up at Sandy's," he said. "Sandy used to keep some
+stables going for post horses before the coach ran to Hartland, you
+know. I've got your horse there. Oh, they'll be all right. You trust to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said Mr. Vernon. "One moment," as Dick was rushing out to put on
+his well-worn riding suit. "I don't think I'd say anything about&mdash;the
+sidesaddle to Miss Lorton&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>Once again Dick nodded&mdash;a nod so full of comprehension as to be almost
+supernal.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Vernon went upstairs, and, with Molly's assistance, unpacked the
+huge portmanteau, and, when she had got out of the room, examined the
+contents. Strangely enough, the linen was all new and unmarked. Only on
+the silver fittings of the dressing case were a monogram&mdash;in which the
+initial "S" was decipherable&mdash;and a coronet.</p>
+
+<p>"Sparling's an idiot!" Vernon muttered. "Why didn't he buy a new case? I
+shall have to keep this locked."</p>
+
+<p>When he came down again, having changed into a blue serge suit, Nell was
+in the drawing-room, arranging some flowers, and she looked up with a
+smile of recognition at his altered appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Your box has arrived, I see," she said, with the frankness of&mdash;well,
+Shorne Mills. "You must be glad. And where has Dick dashed off to? He
+nearly knocked me down in his hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"To Shallop," he said. "I had a couple of horses sent down."</p>
+
+<p>"But you couldn't ride, with your arm in a sling; and you've a horse
+here already."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't suppose it's fit to ride yet," he said, "and I'm not going to
+carry a sling forever. Besides, they were eating their heads off&mdash;where
+they were."</p>
+
+<p>He said nothing about the sidesaddle.</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Well, I'm sorry Dick's gone this morning, for I wanted him to
+come out in the boat. It's a good day for mackerel." She looked
+wistfully at the sea shining below them. "Of course I could go by
+myself, but I promised Mr. Gadsby that I wouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's Mr. Gadsby?"</p>
+
+<p>"The vicar. I got caught in a squall off the Head one day, and&mdash;I really
+wasn't in the least danger&mdash;but they were all waiting for me at the
+jetty, and they made a fuss&mdash;and so I had to promise that I wouldn't go
+out alone. And old Brownie's out with his nets&mdash;he goes with me
+sometimes. It's a nuisance."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He stood by the window silently for a moment, then he glanced at her
+wistful face, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I should be a poor substitute, in my present condition, for old
+Brownie, or old anybody else; but if you'll allow me to go with you, I
+shall be very grateful. I can manage the tiller, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>Nell's face lit up; she wanted to go very badly; it was a "real"
+mackerel day, and, like the days of other fishing, not to be missed.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you? That's awfully kind of you! Not that I want any help; it
+isn't that, for I can manage the <i>Annie Laurie</i> in half a gale; but
+there's a feeling that, because I'm only a girl, I'm not to be trusted
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite understand," he said. "I'll promise not to interfere, if you'll
+let me come."</p>
+
+<p>"And it may do you good&mdash;it's sure to!" she said eagerly. "There's the
+loveliest of breezes&mdash;you must have some wind for mackerel&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;Can
+you go at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"This very minute. I'm all ready," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," she exclaimed, just as Dick might have done. "I'll be ready
+before you can say Jack Robinson!"</p>
+
+<p>She ran out of the room and was down again in a very few minutes. Vernon
+glanced at her as they left the cottage and descended the steep road.
+She had put on a short skirt of rough serge, with a jersey, which
+accentuated every flowing line of her girlish, graceful figure, and the
+dark hair rippled under a red tam-o'-shanter. He was familiar enough
+with the yachting costumes of fashion, but he thought that he had never
+seen anything so workmanlike and becoming as this get-up which Nell had
+donned so quickly and carelessly. As they walked down the steps which
+led to the jetty, Nell exchanging greetings at every step, an old
+fisherman, crippled with rheumatism, limped beside them, and helped to
+bring the boat to the jetty steps.</p>
+
+<p>Nell eyed the <i>Annie Laurie</i> lovingly, but said apologetically:</p>
+
+<p>"She's a very good boat. Old, of course. She is a herring boat, and
+though she isn't fascinatingly beautiful, she can sail. Dick&mdash;helped by
+Brownie&mdash;decked her over, and Dick picked up a new set of sails last
+year from a man who was selling off his gear. Have you put in the bait
+and the lines, Willy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, aye, Miss Nell; I'm thinkin' you'll be gettin' some mackerel if
+the wind holds. Let me help 'ee wi' the sail."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Nell, "I can manage. Oh, please don't you trouble!" she
+added to Vernon. "If you'll give me the sheet&mdash;that's the rope by your
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>Vernon nodded, and suppressed a smile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She'll go a bit tauter still, I think," he said, as Nell hoisted the
+mainsail.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand?" she said, with a little surprise.</p>
+
+<p>Vernon thought of his crack yacht, but answered casually:</p>
+
+<p>"I've done some yachting&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Yachting!" said Nell. "This isn't yachting. You must feel a kind of
+contempt for our poor old tub."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all; she's a good boat, I can see," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nell took up the oars, but she had to pull only a few strokes, for the
+wind soon filled the sail, and the <i>Annie Laurie</i>, as if piqued by the
+things that had been said of her, sprang forward before the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Nell shipped the oars, looked up at the sail, and glanced at Vernon, who
+had taken his seat in the stern, and got hold of the tiller with an
+accustomed air.</p>
+
+<p>"Make for the Head," she said. "I'll get the lines ready."</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a minute or two while she baited the lines and
+paid them out, and Vernon watched her with a kind of absent-minded
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>She was quite intent on her work, and he felt that, so far as she was
+concerned, he might have been old Brownie, or the rheumatic Willy, or
+her brother Dick; and something in her girlish indifference to his
+presence and personality impressed him; for Drake, Viscount Selbie, was
+not accustomed to be passed over as a nonentity by the women in whose
+company he chanced to be.</p>
+
+<p>"That ought to fetch them," she said, eying the baited line with an air
+of satisfaction. "You might keep her to the wind a little more, Mr.
+Vernon; she can carry all we've got, and more."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, aye!" he responded, in sailor fashion. "You only did her bare
+justice, Miss Lorton," he added. "She's a good boat."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked round at him with a gratified smile.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a dear old thing, really," she said; "and she behaves like an
+angel in a gale. Many's the time Dick and I have sailed her when half
+the other boats were afraid to leave the harbor."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't that rather dangerous, a tempting of Providence?" he said,
+rather gravely, at the thought of the peril incurred by these two
+thoughtless children&mdash;for what else were they?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know," she replied carelessly. "We know every inch of the
+coast and every current, and if it should ever come on too stiff, we
+should make for the open. It would have to be a bad sea to sink the
+<i>Annie Laurie</i>; and if we came to grief&mdash;&mdash;Well, we can die but once,
+you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> know; and, after all, there are meaner ways of slipping off the
+mortal coil than doing it in a hurricane off Windy Head. There's the
+first fish! If Brownie were here, we should 'wet it'; but I haven't any
+whisky to offer you."</p>
+
+<p>Her low but clear laugh rang musical over the billowing water, and she
+nodded at her companion as if he were one of the fishing men or Dick.</p>
+
+<p>Vernon leaned back and gazed in turn at the sea and the sky and the
+slim, girlish form and beautiful face, and half unconsciously his mind
+concentrated itself upon her.</p>
+
+<p>She was not the first young girl he had known, but she was quite unlike
+any young girl he had hitherto met. He could recall none so free and
+frank and utterly unselfconscious.</p>
+
+<p>Most young girls with whom he had become acquainted had bored him by
+their insipidity or disgusted him by their precocity; but from this one
+there emanated a kind of charm which rested while it attracted him. It
+was pleasant to lean back and look at and listen to her; to watch the
+soft tendrils of dark hair stirred by the wind, to see the frank smile
+light up the gray eyes and curve the sweet red lips; to listen to the
+musical voice, the low brief laugh, which was so distinct from the
+ordinary girl's giggle or forced and affected gayety.</p>
+
+<p>The fish were biting, and soon a pile of silver lay wet and glittering
+in the bottom of the boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you got enough?" asked Vernon, with your sportsman's dislike of
+"pot hunting."</p>
+
+<p>"For ourselves? Oh, yes; but some of the old people of the Mills like
+mackerel," replied Nell, "and they'll be waiting on the jetty for the
+<i>Annie Laurie's</i> return. Are you getting tired?" she asked, for the
+first time directing her attention to him. "I quite forgot you were an
+invalid."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on forgetting it, please," he said. "In fact, the invalid business
+is played out. I'm far too hungry to keep up the character."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"So am I."</p>
+
+<p>She raised herself on her elbow and looked toward the shore.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll take her to that cove just opposite us, we'll have some
+lunch. You can eat fish, I hope? It was awfully stupid of me not to
+remember&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I can eat anything," he said quickly. "I was just going to propose that
+we should cast lots, in cannibalistic fashion, to decide who should
+lunch on the other."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed, and pulled in her line.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a beauty for the last. Do you know how to cook mackerel?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No; but I can learn."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then; you'll find a spirit lamp and stove in that locker
+under the tiller. Yes, that's it. And there ought to be some bread and
+butter, and some coffee. Milk, as we don't carry a cow, we shall have to
+do without. We shall be in smooth water presently, and then we can
+lunch."</p>
+
+<p>He sailed the boat into a sheltered cove, and, rather awkwardly, with
+his one hand, extracted the cooking utensils from the locker. Nell
+lowered the sail, dropped the anchor, and came aft.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I shall have to cook," she said. "Dick generally does it,
+but you've only one hand. There's one fish;" as she cut it open
+skillfully. "How many can you eat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two&mdash;three dozen," he said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed, and placed three of the silver mackerel in the frying pan.</p>
+
+<p>"Now don't, please, don't say that you haven't a match!" she said, half
+aghast with dread.</p>
+
+<p>He took his silver match box from his pocket, and was on the point of
+handing it to her. Then he remembered the coronet engraved on it, and
+holding it against his side, managed to strike a light and ignite the
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you have to pretend that you don't mind the smell of cooking
+fish; but it really isn't so bad when one is hungry," she said, as the
+pan began to hiss and the fish to brown.</p>
+
+<p>"There's salt and pepper somewhere," she remarked. "You put them on
+while the fish is cooking; it is half the battle, as Dick says. They're
+in the back of the locker, I think. If you'll move just a little&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He screwed himself into as small a compass as possible, and she dived
+into the locker and got out a couple of tin boxes.</p>
+
+<p>"And here's the bread&mdash;rather stale, I'm afraid&mdash;and some biscuits. The
+coffee's in that tin, and the water in this jar. Do you know how to make
+coffee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!" he said, with mock indignation. "I've made coffee under
+various circumstances and in various climes; in the galley of a Porto
+Rico coaster; in an American ravine, waiting for the game; on a Highland
+moor, when the stags had got scent and the last chance of sport in the
+day was gone like a beautiful dream; in an artist's attic in Florence,
+where the tobacco smoke was too thick to cut with anything less than a
+hatchet; and after a skirmish with the dervishes, when a cup of coffee
+seemed almost as precious as the life one had just managed to save by
+the skin of one's teeth; but I never made it under more pleasant
+circumstances than these."</p>
+
+<p>He looked up and round him as he spoke, with a brighter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> expression on
+his face than she had as yet seen, and Nell regarded him with a sudden
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"How much you have traveled!" she said&mdash;"that mackerel wants turning;
+raise the pan so that the butter can run under the fish; that's it&mdash;and
+how much you must have seen! Italy, Egypt, Porto Rico&mdash;where is that?
+Oh, I remember! How delightful to have seen so much! You must be a very
+fortunate individual!"</p>
+
+<p>She leaned her chin in her brown, shapely hands, and looked at him
+curiously, and with a frank envy in her gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>His face clouded for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Count no man fortunate until he is dead!" he said, adapting the
+aphorism. "Believe me that I'd change places with you at this moment,
+and throw in all my experiences."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"With me? Oh, you can't mean it. It is very flattering, of course; but
+it's absurd. Why"&mdash;she paused and sighed&mdash;"I've never been anywhere, or
+seen anything. I've never been to London even, since I was quite a
+little girl, and&mdash;&mdash;Change places with me!" She laughed again, just a
+little sadly. "Yes, it does sound absurd. For one thing, you wouldn't
+like to be poor; and we are poor, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor and content is rich enough," he remarked sententiously. Then he
+laughed. "I'm as good as a copy book with moral headings this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that is nonsense, like most copy-book headings. And yet&mdash;&mdash;Yes,
+I should be content enough if it were not for Dick. After all, one can
+be happy though one is poor, especially if one lives in a beautiful
+place like Shorne Mills, and has a boat to sail in the summer, and books
+in the winter, and knows all the people round, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And happens to be young and full of the joy of life," he said, with a
+smile. "And it's only on your mind!"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course I know that it's not right that he should be hanging
+about the Mills, doing nothing, and wasting his time. I'm always
+worrying about Dick's future. It's a sin that he should be wasted, for
+Dick is clever. You may not think so&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I do," he said thoughtfully. "But I wouldn't worry. Something
+may turn up&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what he is always saying; but he says it rather bitterly
+sometimes, and&mdash;&mdash;But I ought not to worry you, at any rate. Those fish
+are just done."</p>
+
+<p>"Then my life is just saved," he responded solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"There are two plates; you hold them on the top of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> stove to
+warm&mdash;that's it! And now you fill the kettle&mdash;oh! I see you've thought
+of that. It will boil while we eat the fish."</p>
+
+<p>She helped him to some, and they ate in silence for some minutes. Only
+they who have eaten mackerel within a few minutes of their being caught,
+and eaten them while reclining in a boat, with a blue sky overhead and a
+sapphire sea all around, can know how good mackerel can taste. To
+Vernon, who possessed the appetite of the convalescent, the meal was an
+Olympian feast.</p>
+
+<p>"No more?" he said, as Nell declined. "Pray don't say so, or I shall,
+from sheer decency, have to refuse also; and I could eat another half,
+and will do so if you will take the other. You wouldn't be so heartless
+as to deprive me of a second serve, surely!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed and held out her plate.</p>
+
+<p>"I consent because I do not think the recently starving should eat too
+much at first. Didn't you say that you had been in Egypt fighting? You
+are in the army, then?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded casually, and she looked at him thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we ought not to call you 'Mr.,'" she said. "What are you&mdash;a
+colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed shortly as he picked the fish from the bones.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens! do I look so old? No, not colonel. I'm a captain. But I'm
+not in the army now. I left it&mdash;worse luck!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you leave it?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He looked a little bored&mdash;not so much bored, perhaps, as reluctant.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for a variety of reasons; the most important being the fact that a
+relative of mine wished me to do so."</p>
+
+<p>His face clouded for a moment or two; then he said, with the air of one
+dismissing an unpleasant topic:</p>
+
+<p>"This water's boiling like mad. Now is my time to prove my assertion
+that I am capable of making coffee. I want two jugs, or this jug and the
+tin will do. The coffee? Thanks. I'm afraid I'll have to get you to hold
+the tin. This is the native method: You make it in the tin&mdash;so; then,
+after a moment or two, you pour the liquid&mdash;not the coffee grounds&mdash;into
+the jug, then back, and then back again, and lo! you have caf&eacute; &agrave; la
+Fran&ccedil;ais, or Cairo, or Clapham fashion."</p>
+
+<p>"It's very good," she admitted, when it had cooled sufficiently for her
+to taste it. "And that is how you made it on the battlefield?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely," he said. "There was no jug, only an empty meat can; and the
+water&mdash;well, the water was almost as thick, with mud, before the coffee
+was put in as afterward, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> men would scarcely have had patience
+to wait for the patent process. Poor beggars! Some of them had not had a
+drop past their lips for twenty-four hours&mdash;and been fighting, too."</p>
+
+<p>Nell listened, with her grave gray eyes fixed on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"How sorry you must have been to leave the army!" she said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Does warfare seem so alluring?" he retorted, with a laugh. "But you're
+right; I was sorry to send in my papers, and I've been sorrier since the
+day I did it."</p>
+
+<p>Nell curled herself up in the bottom of the boat like a well-fed and
+contented cat, and Vernon, having washed the plates by the simple
+process of dragging them backward and forward through the water,
+stretched himself and felt in his pockets. He relinquished the search
+with a sigh of resignation, and Nell, hearing it, looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not going to smoke?" she asked. "Dick would have his pipe
+alight long before this; and, of course, I don't mind&mdash;if that is what
+you were waiting for. Why should I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks; but, like an idiot, I've forgotten my pipe. I've got some
+tobacco and cigarette paper."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are all right," she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely," he said carelessly. "This stupid mummy of an arm of mine
+prevents me rolling a cigarette, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"How stupid of me to forget that!" she said. "Give me the tobacco and
+the paper and let me try."</p>
+
+<p>He produced the necessary articles promptly; and showed her how to do
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite so much tobacco"&mdash;she had taken out enough for ten
+cigarettes, and spilled sufficient for another five&mdash;"and&mdash;er&mdash;if you
+could get it more equal along the paper. Like this&mdash;ah, thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>In showing her, his fingers got "mixed" with hers, but Nell seemed too
+absorbed in her novel experiment to notice the fact.</p>
+
+<p>"Like that? Rather like a miniature sausage, isn't it? And it will all
+come undone when I let go of it," she added apprehensively.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll be so good as just to wet the edge with your lips," he said,
+in a matter-of-fact way.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him, and a faint dash of color came into her face.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't like to smoke it afterward," she said coolly.</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her, then smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Try me!" he said succinctly.</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little shrug of the shoulders, moistened the cigarette in the
+usual way, and handed it to him gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try to make the next better," she said. "I suppose you will want
+another?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I shall want more than you will be inclined to make," he
+said, "and I shouldn't like to trespass on your good nature."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's not very hard work making cigarettes," she said. "I'd better
+set about the next at once. How is that?" and she held up the production
+for inspection.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply perfect," he said. "You would amass a fortune out in the East as
+a cigarette maker."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him, beyond him, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could amass a fortune; indeed, I'd be content if I could earn
+my living any way," she said, as if she were communing with herself
+rather than addressing him. "If I could earn some money, and help Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice died away, and she sighed softly.</p>
+
+<p>He regarded her dreamily.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think of anything so&mdash;unnatural," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes, and looked at him with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it unnatural for a woman&mdash;a girl&mdash;to earn her own living?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said emphatically. "Women were made for men to work for, not
+to toil themselves."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, in simple mockery of the sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense! As if we were dolls or something to be wrapped up in
+lavender! Why, half the women in Shorne Mills work! You see them driving
+their donkeys down to the beach for sand&mdash;haven't you seen them with
+bags on each side?&mdash;and doing washing, and making butter and going to
+market. Why, I should have to work if anything happened to mamma. At
+least, she has often said so. She has&mdash;what is it?&mdash;oh, an annuity or
+something of the kind; and if she died, Dick and I would have to 'face
+the world,' as she puts it."</p>
+
+<p>He said nothing, but looked at her through the thin blue cloud of his
+cigarette. She looked so sweet, so girlish, so&mdash;yes, so helpless&mdash;lying
+there in the sunlight, one brown paw supporting her shapely head, the
+other&mdash;after the manner of girls&mdash;dabbling in the water. A pang of
+compassion smote him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a devil of a world," he muttered, almost to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?" she said, with surprise. "I don't. At any rate, I
+don't think so this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Why this afternoon?" he asked, half curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps it's the sunshine, or&mdash;or&mdash;do you think it's
+the mackerel?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"But I feel so happy and free from care. And yet all the old trouble
+remains. There's Dick's future&mdash;and&mdash;oh, all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> the rest. But this
+afternoon everything seems bright and hopeful. I wonder why?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him wistfully, as if he might perhaps explain; but Vernon
+said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you really finished that cigarette? You smoke much less quickly
+than Dick. Well, there's another ready; and when you've finished that, I
+think we ought to be getting back. I want&mdash;let me see&mdash;yes, ten more
+fish, and I can get them when we get farther out."</p>
+
+<p>They set the sail, and the <i>Annie Laurie</i> glided out of the placid
+little cove into the open sea.</p>
+
+<p>As Vernon steered for the Head, behind which Shorne Mills sheltered, he
+sighed unconsciously. He, too, had been happy and free from care that
+morning, and the afternoon seemed full of indescribable peace and
+happiness. He, like Nell, wondered why. A day or two ago&mdash;or was it a
+month, a year?&mdash;he had been depressed and low-spirited, and firmly
+convinced that life was not worth living; but this afternoon&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>What a pretty picture she made in her jersey, that fitted her like a
+skin, with the soft black hair rippling beneath the edge of the
+tam-o'-shanter!</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the pretty picture called out, "Sail ahead, sir!" and Vernon,
+taking his eyes from her, saw a yacht skimming along the sapphire waves,
+almost parallel with the <i>Annie Laurie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a yacht," said Nell; "and a fine one, too."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at it, shading his eyes with his practicable hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who she is?" said Nell. "There's a field glass in the
+locker&mdash;get it. Can you see her name?"</p>
+
+<p>He put the glass to his eyes and adjusted it; and, as he got the focus,
+an exclamation escaped him.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say?" inquired Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, only that she's a fine vessel," he said indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I should like to be on her," said Nell. "Wouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am content with the <i>Annie Laurie</i>," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him incredulously, then laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for the compliment; but you can't seriously prefer this dear
+old tub to that! I wonder whom she belongs to? How fast she travels. I
+should like to have a yacht like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you?" he said, eying her rather strangely. "Perhaps some day&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, and knocked the ash from his cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Were you going to say that perhaps some day I should own one like her?
+What nonsense! It is like the things one reads in books, when the
+benevolent and wise old gentleman tells the boy that perhaps, if he
+works hard, and is honest and persevering, he may own a carriage and a
+pair like that which happens to be passing at the moment."</p>
+
+<p>Vernon laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Life is full of possibilities," he said, with his eyes fixed on the
+yacht, which, after sailing broadside to them for some time, suddenly
+put down the helm and struck out for sea.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought they might be making for Shorne Mills," said Nell, rather
+regretfully. "Yachts put in there sometimes, and I should have liked to
+have seen this one."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you?" he said, as curiously as he had spoken before.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter whether I would or wouldn't; she's gone out into the
+channel now," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>He stifled a sigh which sounded like a sigh of relief, and steered the
+<i>Annie Laurie</i> for home.</p>
+
+<p>Nell swept the fish into an old reed basket which had held many such a
+catch, and held it up to the admiring and anticipatory gaze of a small
+crowd of women and children which had gathered on the jetty steps at the
+approach of the <i>Annie Laurie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As she stepped on shore and distributed the fish, receiving the short
+but expressive Devonshire "Thank 'ee, Miss Nell, thank 'ee," Vernon
+looked at the beautiful girlish face pensively, and thought&mdash;well, who
+can tell what a man thinks at such moments? Perhaps he was thinking of
+the hundred and one useless women of his class who, throughout the whole
+of their butterfly lives, had never won a single breath of gratitude
+from the poor in their midst.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along," she said, turning to him, when she had emptied the basket.
+"I'm afraid we're in for a scolding. I quite forgot till this moment
+that mamma did not know you had gone out."</p>
+
+<p>"What about you?" he said, remembering for the first time that he had
+spent so many hours with this girl alone and unchaperoned.</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she would not be anxious about me. Mamma is used to my going out
+for a ride&mdash;when I can borrow a horse from some one&mdash;or sailing the
+<i>Annie Laurie</i> with old Brownie; but she'll be anxious about you. You're
+an invalid, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much of the invalid about me, saving this arm," he said.</p>
+
+<p>As they climbed the hill, they came upon Dick mounted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> upon a horse the
+like of which Nell had never seen; and she stopped dead short and stared
+at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Nell! Hallo, Mr. Vernon! Just giving him a run, after being shut
+up in that stuffy railway box."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," said Vernon. "Like him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Like him?" responded Dick, with the superlative of approval; "never
+rode a horse to equal him, and the other is as good. And"&mdash;in an
+undertone&mdash;"the sidesaddle has come."</p>
+
+<p>But Nell, whose ears were sharp, heard him.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the sidesaddle for?" she asked, innocently and ungrammatically.</p>
+
+<p>Vernon took the bull by the horns.</p>
+
+<p>"For you, if you will deign to use it, Miss Nell," he said.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time he had addressed her as "Miss Nell," but she did
+not notice it.</p>
+
+<p>"For me?" she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>They were opposite Sandy's stables, and Dick dropped off his horse and
+brought out the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at her, Nell!" he exclaimed, with bated breath. "Perfect, isn't
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked at her with a flush that came and went.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I&mdash;I&mdash;could not!" she breathed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Drake Vernon laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" he said argumentatively. "Fair play's a jewel. You can't
+expect to have all the innings your side, Miss Nell. You've treated
+me&mdash;well, like a prince; and you won't refuse to ride a horse of mine
+that's simply spoiling for want of exercise!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked from him to the horse, and from the horse to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;am so surprised," she faltered. "I&mdash;I will ask mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Vernon, who had learned to know "mamma" by this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Nell left Dick and Vernon standing round the horses in man fashion. Dick
+was all aglow with satisfaction and admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Never saw a better pair than these, Mr. Vernon," he said. "I should
+think this one could jump."</p>
+
+<p>She had just won a military steeplechase, and Vernon nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p>"You must persuade your sister to ride her," he said.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he seated himself on the edge of the steep roadway which
+led to the jetty.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the horses in," he said. "I'll come up in a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>But the minutes ran into hours. He looked out to sea with a meditative
+and retrospective mind. He was going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> over the past which seemed so far
+away, so vague, since he had gone sailing in the <i>Annie Laurie</i> this
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly the past became the present. There was a stir on the jetty
+below him. Voices&mdash;the voice of fashionable people, the voices of
+"society"&mdash;rose in an indistinguishable sound to his ears. He moved
+uneasily, and refilled and lit the pipe that he had borrowed of Dick. He
+heard the footsteps of several persons climbing the steep stairs. One
+seemed familiar to him. He pulled at his pipe, and crossed his legs with
+an air of preparation, of resignation.</p>
+
+<p>The voices came nearer, and presently one said:</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly, for one, decline to go any farther. I think it is too
+absurd to expect one to climb these ridiculous steps. And there is
+nothing to see up there, is there?"</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of the voice, clear and bell-like, yet languid, with the
+languor of the fashionable woman, Mr. Drake Vernon bit his lips and
+colored. He half rose, but sank down again, as if uncertain whether to
+meet her, or to remain where he was; eventually he crossed his legs
+again, rammed down his pipe, and waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you'll come up to the top, Lady Lucille!" remonstrated a man's
+voice, the half-nasal drawl of the man about town&mdash;the ordinary club
+lounger. "There's a view, don't you know&mdash;there really is!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care for views. Not another step, Archie. I'll wait here till
+you come back. You can describe the view&mdash;or, rather, you can't, thank
+Heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she mounted a few steps, and turned into the small square
+which offered a resting place on the steep ascent, and so came full upon
+Mr. Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>He rose and raised his hat, and she looked at him, at first with the
+vagueness of sheer amazement, then with a start of recognition, and with
+her fair face all crimson for one instant, and, the next, pale, she
+said, in a suppressed voice, as if she were afraid of being overheard:</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with a curious smile, as if something in the tone of
+her voice, in her sudden pallor following upon her; blush, were
+significant, and had told himself something.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Luce," he said; "and what brings you here?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The girl who, with changing color, stood gazing at Lord Drake Selbie
+might have stepped out of one of Marcus Stone's pictures. She was as
+fair as a piece of biscuit china. Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> hair was golden, and, strange to
+say in these latter days, naturally so. It was, indeed, like the fleece
+of gold itself under her fashionable yachting hat. Her eyes, widely
+opened, with that curious look of surprise and fear, were hazel&mdash;a deep
+hazel, which men, until they knew her, accepted as an indication of Lady
+Lucille's depth of feeling. She was slightly built, but graceful, with
+the grace of the fashionable modiste.</p>
+
+<p>She was the product of the marriage of Art and Fashion of this
+fin-de-si&egrave;cle age. Other ages have given us wit, beauty allied with
+esprit, dignity of demeanor, and a nobility of principle; this end of
+the nineteenth century has bestowed upon us&mdash;Lady Lucille Turfleigh.</p>
+
+<p>It is in its way a marvelous product. It is very beautiful, with the
+delicate beauty of excessive culture and effete luxury. It has the
+subtle charm of the exotic, of the tall and graceful arum, whose
+spotless whiteness cannot bear a single breath of the keen east wind.</p>
+
+<p>It is charming, bewitching; it looks all purity and spirituality; it
+seems to breathe poetry and a Higher Culture. It goes through life like
+a rose leaf floating upon a placid stream. It is precious to look at,
+pleasant to live with, and it has only one defect&mdash;it has no heart.</p>
+
+<p>We have cast off the old creeds like so many shackles; we are so finely
+educated, so cultivated, that we have learned to do more than laugh at
+sentiment; we regard it with a contemptuous pity.</p>
+
+<p>There is only one thing which we value, and that is Pleasure. Some
+persons labor under the mistaken notion that Money is the universal
+quest; but it is not so. The Golden God is set up in every market place,
+it stands at every street corner; but it is not for himself that the
+crowd worship at the feet of the brazen image, but because he can buy so
+much.</p>
+
+<p>It is Money which nowadays holds the magician's rod. With a wave he can
+give us rank, luxury, power, place, influence, and beauty. This is the
+creed, the religion, which we teach our children, which is continually
+in our hearts if not on our lips; and it is the creed, the religion, in
+which Lady Lucille was reared.</p>
+
+<p>Her history is a public one. It is the story of how many fashionable
+women? Her father, Lord Turfleigh, was an Irish peer. He had inherited a
+historic title, and thousands of acres which he had scarcely seen, but
+which he had helped to incumber. All the Turfleighs from time immemorial
+had been fast and reckless, but this Turfleigh had outpaced them all,
+and had easily romped in first in the race of dissipation. As a young
+man his name had been synonymous with every kind of picturesque
+profligacy. Every pound he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> screw out of the land, or obtain at
+ruinous interest from the Jews, had been spent in what he and his kind
+call pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>He had married for money, had got it, and had spent it, even before his
+patient and long-suffering wife had expiated the mistake of her life in
+the only possible way. She had left Lady Lucille behind, and the girl
+had matriculated and taken honors in her father's school.</p>
+
+<p>To Lady Lucille there was only one thing in life worth having&mdash;money;
+and to obtain this prize she had been carefully nurtured and laboriously
+taught. Long before she left the nursery she had grown to understand
+that her one object and sole ambition must be a wealthy and suitable
+marriage; and to this end every advantage of mind and body had been
+trained and cultivated as one trains a young thoroughbred for a great
+race.</p>
+
+<p>She had been taught to laugh at sentiment, to regard admiration as
+valueless unless it came from a millionaire; to sneer at love unless it
+paced, richly clad and warmly shod, from a palace. She had graduated in
+the School of Fashion, and had passed with high honors. There was no
+more beautiful woman in all England than Lady Lucille; few possessed
+greater charm; men sang her praises; artists fought for the honor of
+hanging her picture in the Academy; the society papers humbly reported
+her doings, her sayings, and her conquests; royalties smiled approvingly
+on this queen of fashion, and not a single soul, Lady Lucille herself
+least of all, realized that this perfection was but the hollow husk and
+shell of beauty without heart or soul; that behind the lovely face,
+within the graceful form, lurked as selfish and ignoble a nature as that
+which stirs the blood of any drab upon the Streets.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!" she said. "Why! I'd no idea! What are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>He motioned her to a seat with a wave of his pipe, and she sank down on
+the stone slab, after a careful glance at it, and eyed him curiously but
+with still a trace of her first embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>She looked a perfect picture, as she sat there, with the steep,
+descending wall, the red Devon cliffs, the blue, glittering sea for her
+background; a picture which might have been presented with a summer
+number of one of the illustrated weeklies; and all as unreal and as
+unlike life as they are. It is true that she wore a yachting costume
+exquisitely made and perfectly fitting; and Drake, as he looked at it,
+acknowledged its claims upon his admiration, but he knew it was all a
+sham, and, half unconsciously, he compared it with the old worn skirt
+and the serviceable jersey worn by Nell, who had gone up the hill&mdash;how
+long ago was it? Nell's face and hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> were brown with the kiss of
+God's sun; Lady Lucille's face was like a piece of delicate S&egrave;vres, and
+her hands were incased in white kid gauntlets. To him, at that moment,
+she looked like an actress playing in a nautical burlesque at the
+Gaiety; and, for the first time since he had known her, he found himself
+looking at her critically, and, notwithstanding her faultless
+attire&mdash;faultless from a fashionable point of view&mdash;with disapproval.</p>
+
+<p>"You are surprised to see me, Luce?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am," she replied. "I'd no idea where you were. I've written
+to you&mdash;twice."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you?" he said. "That was good of you. I've not had your letters;
+but that's my fault, not yours. I told Sparling not to send any letters
+on."</p>
+
+<p>She looked down, as if rather embarrassed, and dug at the interstices of
+the rough stone pavement with her dainty, and altogether unnautical,
+sunshade.</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you doing here?" she asked. "And&mdash;and what's the matter
+with your arm? Isn't that a sling?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's a sling," he said casually. "I'd been hunting with the Devon
+and Somerset; I found London unbearable, and I came down here suddenly.
+I meant to write and tell you; but just then I wasn't in the humor to
+write to any one, even to you. I lost my way in one of the runs, and was
+riding down the top of the hill here, riding carelessly, I'll admit, for
+when the horse shied, I was chucked off. I broke my arm and knocked my
+head. Oh, don't trouble," he added hastily, as if to ward off her
+commiseration. "I am all right now; the arm will soon be in working
+order again."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very sorry," she said, lifting her eyes to his, but only for a
+moment. "You look rather pulled down and seedy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm all right," he said. "And now, as I have explained my presence
+here, perhaps you will explain yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I've come here in the <i>Seagull</i>," she said. "Father's on board. He said
+you'd offered to lend the yacht to him&mdash;you did, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," he said. "The <i>Seagull</i> was quite at your father's service."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, father made a party; Sir Archie Walbrooke, Mrs. Horn-Wallis and
+her husband, Lady Pirbright, and ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded as indifferently as before. He knew the persons she had
+mentioned; members of the smart set in which he had spent his life&mdash;and
+his money; and Lady Lucille continued in somewhat apologetic fashion:</p>
+
+<p>"We went to the Solent first, for the races; then, when they were all
+over, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> so much that
+father&mdash;you know what he is&mdash;suggested that we should sail round the
+Devon coast. It hasn't been a bad time; and Sir Archie has been rather
+amusing, and Mrs. Horn-Wallis has kept things going. Oh, yes; it hasn't
+been so bad."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you've been amused, Luce," he said, his eyes resting upon the
+beautifully fair face with a touch of cynicism.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd no idea you were anywhere here," she said, "or, of course, I would
+have written and asked you to join us; though, I suppose, under the
+circumstances&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated for a moment, then went on with a little embarrassment,
+which in no way detracted from her charm of voice and manner:</p>
+
+<p>"I told father that, after what had happened, it was scarcely in good
+taste to borrow your yacht. But you know what father is. He said that
+though things were altered, your offer of the <i>Seagull</i> stood good; that
+you told him you didn't mean to use her this season, and that it was a
+pity for her to lie idle. And so they persuaded me&mdash;very much against my
+will, I must admit&mdash;to join them, and&mdash;and here I am, as you see."</p>
+
+<p>Drake puffed at his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"I see," he said. "I needn't say that you are quite welcome to the
+yacht, Lucille, or to anything that I have. As you say, things
+are&mdash;altered. How much they are altered and changed, perhaps your
+letters, if I had received them, would have told me. What was it that
+you wrote me? Oh, don't be afraid," he added, with a faint smile, as she
+turned her head away and poked with her sunshade at the crack in the
+pavement. "I am strong; I can bear it. When a man has come a cropper in
+every sense of the word, his nerves are braced for the receipt of
+unwelcome tidings. I beg you won't be uncomfortable. Of course, you have
+heard the news?"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at him sideways, and, despite her training, her lips
+quivered slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she said. "Who hasn't? All the world knows it. Lord
+Angleford's marriage has come upon us like a surprise&mdash;a thunderbolt. No
+one would ever have expected that he would have been so foolish."</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked at her as he never thought that he could have looked at
+her&mdash;calmly, waitingly.</p>
+
+<p>"No one expected him to marry," she went on. "He was quite an old
+man&mdash;well, not old, but getting on. And you and he were always such
+great friends. He&mdash;he always seemed so fond and so proud of you. Why did
+you quarrel with him?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I didn't quarrel with him," said Drake quietly. "As you say, we have
+always been good friends. He has always been good to me, ever since I
+was a boy. Good and liberal. We have never had a cross word until now.
+But you know my uncle&mdash;you know how keenly set he is on politics. He is
+a Conservative of the old school; one of those old Tories whom we call
+blue, and who are nearly extinct. God knows whether they are right or
+wrong; I only know that I can't go with them. He asked me to stand for a
+place in the Tory-Conservative interest. It was an easy place; I should
+have been returned without difficulty. Most men would have done it; but
+I couldn't. I don't go in very much for principle, either political or
+moral; but my uncle's views&mdash;well, I couldn't swallow them. I was
+obliged to decline. He cut up rough; sent me a letter with more bad
+language in it than I've ever read in my life. Then he went and married
+a young girl&mdash;an American."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Lucille heaved a long sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish of you!" she murmured. "As if it mattered."</p>
+
+<p>Drake filled his pipe again, and smiled cynically over the match as he
+lit it.</p>
+
+<p>"That's your view of it?" he said. "I suppose&mdash;yes, I suppose you think
+I've been a fool. I dare say you're right; but, unfortunately for me, I
+couldn't look at it in that way. I stuck to my colors&mdash;that's a
+highfalutin way of putting it&mdash;and I've got to pay the penalty. My
+uncle's married, and, likely enough&mdash;in fact, in all probability&mdash;his
+wife will present the world with a young Lord Angleford."</p>
+
+<p>"She's quite a young woman," murmured Lucille, with the wisdom of her
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," said Drake. "So I am in rather a hole. I always looked
+forward to inheriting Anglemere and the estate and my uncle's money. But
+all that is altered. He may have an heir who will very properly inherit
+all that I thought was to be mine. I wrote and told you of this, though
+it wasn't necessary; but I deemed it right to you to place the whole
+matter before you, Lucille. I've no doubt that the society papers have
+saved me the trouble, and helped you thoroughly to realize that the man
+to whom you were engaged was no longer the heir to the earldom of
+Angleford and Lord Angleford's money, but merely Drake Selbie, a mere
+nobody, and plunged up to his neck in debts and difficulties."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent, and he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Luce, I asked you to marry me because I loved you. You are
+the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I fell in love with you the
+first time I saw you&mdash;at that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> dance of the Horn-Wallises. Do you
+remember? I wanted you to be my wife; I wanted you more than I ever
+wanted anything else in my life. Do you not remember the day I proposed
+to you, there under Taplow Wood, at that picnic where we all got wet and
+miserable? And you said 'Yes'; and my uncle was pleased. But all is
+changed now; I am just Drake Selbie, with very little or no income, and
+a mountain of debts; with no prospects of becoming Lord Angleford and
+owner of the Angleford money and lands. And I want to know how this
+change&mdash;strikes you; what you mean, to do?"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at him sideways.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you haven't got my letters?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm&mdash;I'm sorry," she said. "It isn't my fault. Father&mdash;you know what he
+would say. He may be right. He said that&mdash;that you were ruined; that our
+marriage would be quite impossible; that&mdash;that our engagement must be
+broken off. Really, Drake, it is not my fault. You know how poor we are;
+that&mdash;that a rich marriage is an absolute necessity for me. Father is up
+to his neck in debt, too, and we scarcely seem to have a penny of ready
+money; it's nothing but duns, and duns, and duns, every day in the week;
+why, even now, we've had to bolt from London because I can't pay my
+milliner's bill. It's simply impossible for me to marry a poor man. I
+should only be a drag upon him; and father&mdash;well, father would be a drag
+upon him, too; you know what father is. And&mdash;and so, Drake, I wrote and
+told you that&mdash;that our engagement must be considered broken off and at
+an end."</p>
+
+<p>She paused a moment, and looked from right to left, like some feeble
+animal driven into a corner, and restlessly conscious of Drake Selbie's
+stern regard.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I'm very sorry. You know I'm&mdash;I'm very fond of you. I don't
+think there is any one in the world like you; so&mdash;so handsome and&mdash;and
+altogether nice. But what can I do? I can't run against the wish of my
+father and of all my friends. In fact, I can't afford to marry you,
+Drake."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with a bitter smile on his lips, and a still more
+bitter cynicism in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," he said; "I quite understand. When you said that you
+loved me, loved me with all your heart and soul, you meant that you
+loved Drake Selbie, the heir of Angleford, the prospective owner of
+Anglemere and Lord Angleford's money; and now that my uncle has married,
+and that he may have a child which will rob me of the title and the
+money, you draw back. You do not ask whether I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> enough, you do not
+offer to make any sacrifice. You just&mdash;jilt me!"</p>
+
+<p>"You put it very harshly, Drake," she said, with a frown.</p>
+
+<p>"I put it very truly and correctly," he said. "Can you deny it? You
+cannot! The man who sits here beside you is quite a different man to the
+one to whom you had plighted your troth. He is the same in bone and body
+and muscle and sinew, but he doesn't happen to be Lord Angleford's heir.
+And so you throw him over. No doubt you are right. It is the way of the
+world in which you and I have been bred and trained."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very cruel, Drake," she murmured, touching her eyes with a lace
+handkerchief, too costly and elaborate for anything but ornament.</p>
+
+<p>"I just speak the truth," he said. "I don't blame you. You are bred in
+the same world as myself. We are both products of this modern fin de
+si&egrave;cle. To marry me would be a mistake; you decline to make it. I have
+only to bow to your decision. I accept your refusal. After this present
+moment you and I are friends only; not strangers; men and women in our
+set are never strangers. But I pass out of your life from this moment.
+Go back to the <i>Seagull</i> with Archie and Mrs. Horn-Wallis, and find&mdash;as
+I trust you will&mdash;a better man than I am."</p>
+
+<p>She rose rather pale, but perfectly self-possessed.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am glad you take it so easily, Drake," she said. "You don't blame
+me, do you? I couldn't run against father, could I? You know how poor we
+are. I must make a good marriage, and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And so it is 'good-by,'" he said.</p>
+
+<p>He looked so stern, so self-contained, that her self-possession forsook
+her for a moment, and she stood biting softly at her underlip and
+looking by turns at the ultramarine sea and the stern face of the lover
+whom she was discarding. He held out his hand again.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Luce," he said. "You have taught me a lesson."</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;do you mean?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"That women care only for rank and gold, and that without them a man
+cannot hold you. I shall take it to heart Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him doubtfully, hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You will take the <i>Seagull</i> south?" he said. "Be good enough to ask
+your father to wire me as to her whereabouts. I may need her. But don't
+hurry. I'm only too glad that you are sailing her. Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>She murmured "Good-by," and went down the steps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> slowly; and Drake,
+Viscount Selbie, refilled his pipe. Then he rose quickly and overtook
+her. She stopped and turned, and if he had expected to see signs of
+emotion in her beautiful face, he was doomed to disappointment; indeed,
+the look of apprehension with which she heard his voice had been
+followed by one of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," he said. "I want to ask you not to mention that you have
+seen me here."</p>
+
+<p>She opened her soft hazel eyes with some surprise and a great deal of
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Not say that I have seen you?" she said. "Of course, if you wish it;
+but why?"</p>
+
+<p>"The reason will seem to you inadequate, I am afraid," he said coldly;
+"but the fact is, I am staying here under another name&mdash;my own is being
+bandied about so much, you see," bitterly, "that I am a little tired of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," she said. "Then I am not to tell father. How will he know how
+to address the wire about the yacht?"</p>
+
+<p>"Send it to Sparling," he said. "I am sorry to have stopped you.
+Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>She inclined her head and murmured "Good-by" for the second time, and
+went on again; but a few steps lower she stopped and pondered his
+strange request.</p>
+
+<p>"Curious," she murmured. "I wonder whether there is any other reason?
+One knows what men are; and poor Drake is no better than the rest. Ah,
+well, it does not matter to me&mdash;now. Thank goodness it is over! Though
+one can always count upon Drake; he is too thorough a gentleman to make
+a scene or bully a woman. Heaven knows I am sorry to break with him, and
+I wish that old stupid hadn't made such a fool of himself; for Drake and
+I would have got on very well. But as things are&mdash;&mdash;As father says, it's
+impossible. I wonder whether they are coming back; I am simply dying for
+tea."</p>
+
+<p>Before she got down to the jetty, her fellow voyagers caught her up.
+They were in the best of spirits, and hilarious over the fact that Sir
+Archie had slipped on one of the grassy slopes and stained his white
+flannel suit with green; and Lady Lucille joined in the merriment.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I didn't come, after all," she said. "It was rather boring
+waiting there all alone; but perhaps Sir Archie will kindly fall down
+again for my special benefit," and she laughed with the innocent,
+careless laughter, of a child.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The laugh floated up to Drake as he sat and finished his pipe, waiting
+until the party should get clear away, and his lips tightened grimly.
+Then he sighed and shrugged his shoulders, as he rose and went slowly up
+the hill.</p>
+
+<p>After all, Lucille had only acted as he had expected. As he had said,
+she had engaged herself to Viscount Selbie, the heir to Angleford&mdash;not
+to Viscount Selbie, whose nose had been put out of joint by his uncle's
+marriage. He could not have expected a Lady Lucille Turfleigh to be
+faithful to her troth under such changed circumstances. But her
+desertion made him sore, if not actually unhappy. Indeed, he was rather
+surprised to find that he was more wounded in pride than heart. It is
+rather hurtful to one's vanity and self-esteem to be told by the woman
+whom you thought loved you, that she finds it "impossible" to marry you
+because you have lost your fortune or your once roseate prospects; and
+though Drake was the least conceited of men, he was smarting under the
+realization of his anticipations.</p>
+
+<p>"She never loved me," he said bitterly. "Not one word of regret&mdash;real
+regret. She would have felt and shown more if she had been parting with
+a favorite horse or dog. God! what women this world makes of them! They
+are all alike! There's not one of them can love for love's sake, who
+cares for the man instead of the money. Not one, from the dairymaid to
+the duchess! Thank Heaven! my disillusionment has come before, instead
+of after, marriage. Yes, I've done with them. There is no girl alive, or
+to be born, who can make me feel another pang."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he heard a voice calling him: "Mr. Vernon! Mr. Vernon!" And
+there, in the garden, which stood out on the hill like a little terrace,
+was Nell. She had taken off her hat, and the faint breeze was stirring
+the soft tendrils on her forehead, and her eyes smiled joyously down at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Tea is ready!" she said, her voice full and round, and coming down to
+him like the note of a thrush. "Where have you been? Mamma is quite
+anxious about you, and I have had the greatest difficulty in convincing
+her that there has not been an accident, and that I had not left you at
+the bottom of the bay."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled up at her, but his smile came through the darkness of a cloud,
+and she noticed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Has&mdash;has anything happened?" she asked, as she opened the gate for him;
+and her guileless eyes were raised to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> with a sudden anxiety. "Are
+you ill&mdash;or&mdash;or overtired? Ah, yes! that must be it. I am so sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>He frowned, and replied, almost harshly:</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. I am not in the least tired. How should I be? Why do you think
+so?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shrank a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I thought you looked pale and tired," she said, in a voice so low
+and sweet that he was smitten with shame.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am a bit played out," he said apologetically, and passing his
+hand over his brow as if to erase the lines which the scene with Lady
+Lucille had etched. "Your convalescent invalid is a trying kind of
+animal, Miss Nell, and&mdash;and you must forgive it for snapping."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to forgive," she said quietly. "It was thoughtless of
+me to let you stay out so long, and I deserve the lecture mamma has been
+giving me. Please come in to tea at once, or it will be repeated&mdash;the
+lecture, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>They went into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Lorton sat with due state
+and dignity before her tea table; and, having got him into the
+easy-chair, the good lady began at once:</p>
+
+<p>"So thoughtless of Eleanor to keep you out so long! You must be
+exhausted, I am sure. I know how trying the first days of recovery from
+illness are, and how even a little exertion will produce absolute
+collapse. Now, will you have a little brandy in your tea, Mr. Vernon? A
+teaspoonful will sometimes produce a magical effect," she added, as if
+she were recommending a peculiarly startling firework. "No? You are
+quite sure? And what is this Richard is telling me about two horses? He
+came rushing in just now with some story of horses that he had brought
+from Shallop."</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked up with a casual air.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; they're mine. I was obliged to have them sent down. They were
+spoiling for want of exercise. I must turn them out in some of the
+fields here, or get some one to ride them, unless Dick and Miss Nell
+will be good-natured enough to exercise them."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is one way of putting it, isn't it, mamma? But I tell Mr. Vernon
+that I really must not, ought not, to take advantage of his good nature.
+It's all very well for Dick to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What's all very well for Dick? And don't you take my name in vain quite
+so freely, young party," remarked that individual, entering the room and
+making for the tea table. "Don't you be taken in by all this pretended
+reluctance, Mr. Vernon. It's the old game of Richard III. refusing the
+crown. See English history book. Nell will be on that mare to-morrow
+morning safe enough, won't you, Nellikins?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> And I say, sir, you must get
+your arm right and ride with her. Perhaps she would not be too proud to
+take lessons from a stranger&mdash;from you, I mean&mdash;though she does turn up
+her nose at her brother's kindly meant hints, an operation which, as I
+am perpetually telling her, is quite superfluous, for it's turned up
+quite sufficiently as it is."</p>
+
+<p>Nell glanced at Mrs. Lorton, who smiled with the air of a society lady
+settling a point of etiquette.</p>
+
+<p>"If Mr. Vernon has really been so kind as to offer to lend you a horse,
+it would be ungrateful and churlish to refuse, Eleanor," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Dick. "Though you might say 'Thank you,' Nell.
+But, there; you'll never learn manners, though you may, after some long
+years, learn to ride. Did you see that yacht, sir?" he asked, turning to
+Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"A spanker, wasn't she?" continued Dick. "Now, that's what I call a
+yacht. And hadn't she some swells on board! I met some of them coming up
+the hill. Talk about stylish togs!"</p>
+
+<p>"No one talks of 'stylish togs' but savages in the wilds of London, and
+vulgar boys," remarked Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Dick regarded her wistfully, and raised the last piece of the crust of
+his slice of bread and butter to throw at her, then refrained, with a
+reluctant sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw anything like it out of a fashion plate. You ought to have
+been there, mamma," he put in, parenthetically. "You'd have appreciated
+them, no doubt, whereas I wasn't capable of anything but staring. They
+were swells&mdash;real swells, too; for I spoke to one of the crew who had
+Strolled up from the boat. The yacht's that racer, the <i>Seagull</i>. Do you
+know her, Mr. Vernon?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of her," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"I forget the name of her owner; though the man told me; but he's a
+nobleman of sorts. There were no end of titled and fashionable people on
+board. A Sir&mdash;Sir Archie something; and a Lord and Lady Turfleigh,
+father and daughter&mdash;perhaps you know them?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked at him through half-closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I've heard of them," he said. "May I have another cup of tea, Mrs.
+Lorton? Thanks, very much. The sail this morning has made me ravenous."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so delighted," murmured Mrs. Lorton. "What name did you say,
+Richard? Turfleigh! Surely I have heard or seen that name&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said Drake, "but if Dick has quite finished his
+tea, I think I'll stroll down to the stables and look at the horses."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, right you are! Come on!" exclaimed Dick, with alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton looked after the tall figure as it went out beside the
+boy's.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Vernon must be very well off, Eleanor," she said musingly, and with
+a little, satisfied smile at the corners of her mouth. "Three horses.
+And have you noticed that pearl stud? It is a black one, and must have
+cost a great deal; and there is a certain look, air, about him, which
+you, my dear Eleanor, are not likely to notice or understand, but which,
+to one of my experience of the world, is significant. Did he seem to
+enjoy his sail this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think so," absently replied Nell, who was watching the tall
+figure as it went down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton coughed in a genteel fashion, and her smile grew still more
+self-satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"He could not be in a better place," she said; "could not possibly, and
+I do trust he will not think of leaving us until he is quite restored to
+health. I must really impress upon him how glad we are to have him, and
+how his presence cheers our dull and lonely lives."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Vernon does not strike me as being particularly cheerful," she
+remarked; "at least, not generally," she qualified, as she remembered
+the unwonted brightness which he had displayed in the <i>Annie Laurie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"In-deed! You are quite wrong, Eleanor," said Mrs. Lorton stiffly. "I
+consider Mr. Vernon a most entertaining and brilliant companion; and I,
+for one, should very deeply deplore his departure. I trust, therefore,
+you will do all you can to make his stay pleasant and to induce him to
+prolong it. Three horses; ahem!"&mdash;she coughed behind her mittened
+hand&mdash;"has he&mdash;er&mdash;hinted, given you any idea of his position
+and&mdash;er&mdash;income, Eleanor?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell flushed and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, mamma," she said reluctantly. "Why should he? We are not
+curious&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not!" assented Mrs. Lorton, bridling. "I may have my faults,
+but curiosity is certainly not one of them. I merely thought that he
+might have dropped a word or two about himself, or his people, and
+the&mdash;ahem!&mdash;extent of his fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head again.</p>
+
+<p>"Nary a word&mdash;I mean, not a word!" she corrected herself hastily; "and,
+like yourself, mamma, I am not curious. What does it matter what and who
+he is, or who his people are? He will be gone in a day or two, and we
+shall probably never see him again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She moved away from the window as she made the response, and began to
+sing, and Mrs. Lorton looked after her, and listened to the sweet young
+voice, with a smile on her weakly shrewd face.</p>
+
+<p>"Eleanor has grown a great deal lately," she murmured to herself; "and I
+suppose some men would consider her not altogether bad-looking. I am
+quite certain he is a single man&mdash;he would have mentioned his wife; he
+couldn't have avoided it the first night I was talking to him. Three
+horses&mdash;yes; I suppose Eleanor really is good-looking. No one is more
+opposed than I am to the vulgar practice of matchmaking, which some
+women indulge in, but it really would be a mercy to get the girl
+settled. Yes; he must not think of leaving us until he is quite strong;
+and that won't be for some weeks, for some time, yet."</p>
+
+<p>Drake went down to the stables with Dick and "looked at" the horses,
+every now and then casting a glance through the open door at the
+<i>Seagull</i> as it sailed across the bay.</p>
+
+<p>Did he regret the woman who had jilted him? Did he wish that he were on
+board his yacht with his friends, with the badinage, the scandal of the
+women, the jests and the doubtful stories of the men? He scarcely knew;
+he thought that he was sorrowing for the fair woman who had deserted
+him; but&mdash;he was not sure. From the meadows above there came the tinkle
+of a sheep bell, a lowing of a cow calling to her calf; the scent of the
+tar from a kettle on the beach rose with sharp pungency; the haze of the
+summer evening was blurring the hills which half ringed the sapphire
+sea. There was peace at Shorne Mills&mdash;a peace which fell upon the weary
+man of the world. He forgot his troubles for a moment; his lost
+inheritance, his debts, and difficulties; forgot even Woman and all she
+had cost him.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly, faintly, there came floating down to him the clear, sweet
+voice of Nell. What was it she was singing?</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Though years have passed, I love you yet;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Do you still remember, or do you forget?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>A great wave of bitterness swept over him, and, between his teeth, he
+muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"They are all alike&mdash;with the face and the voice of an angel, and the
+heart of the Man with the Muck-rake. God save me from them from this
+time henceforth!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The weeks glided by, Drake's arm got mended, but he still lingered on at
+Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the beauty, the repose, of the place which
+fascinated and held him. He was so weary of the world, sore with
+disappointment, and shrinking from the pity of his friends who were, as
+he knew, dying to commiserate with him over his altered prospects.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was lovely, the air balmy, and for amusement&mdash;well, there
+was sailing in the <i>Annie Laurie</i>, lounging with a pipe on the jetty,
+listening, and sometimes talking, to the fishermen and sailors, and
+teaching Miss Nell Lorton to ride.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that you need much teaching," he said on the first day they rode
+together&mdash;that was before his arm was quite right, and Mrs. Lorton
+filled the air with her fears and anxieties for his safety. "But you
+have 'picked it up,' as they say, and there are one or two hints I may
+be able to give you which will make you as perfect a horsewoman as one
+would wish to see."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't 'perfect' rather a big word?" said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her face to him, and the glory of its young beauty was
+heightened by the radiance of the smile which was enthroned on her lips
+and shone in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with unconscious admiration and in silence for a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no reason why you shouldn't be perfect," he said. "You've
+everything in your favor&mdash;youth, health, strength, and no end of pluck."</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to curtsy," said Nell, laughing softly. "But one can't curtsy
+on a horse, alas! Please let me off with a bow," and she bent low in the
+saddle, with all a girl's pretty irony. "But don't be sparing of those
+same hints, please. I really want to learn, and I will be very humble
+and meek."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, as if amused by something.</p>
+
+<p>"I can scarcely fancy you either humble or meek, Miss Nell," he said.
+"Hold the reins a little nearer her neck. Like this. See? Then you've
+room to pull her if she stumbles; which, by the way, isn't likely. And
+you might sit a little closer at the canter. Don't trouble; leave the
+pace to the horse."</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I know!" she said. "How just being told a thing helps one! I should
+like to ride as well as you do. You and the horse seem one."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was not embarrassed by the compliment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've ridden all my life," he said, "and under all sorts of
+circumstances, on all sorts of horses, and one gets au fait in time.
+Now, let her have her head and we'll try a gallop. Don't bear too hard
+on her if she pulls&mdash;as she may&mdash;but ride her on the snaffle as much as
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>They had climbed the hill, and were riding along a road on the edge of
+one of the small moors, and after a moment or two of inspection of the
+graceful figure beside him, he motioned with his hand, and they turned
+on to the moor itself.</p>
+
+<p>As they cantered and galloped over the springy turf and heather, Drake
+grew thoughtful and absent-minded.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty of the scene, the azure sky, the clear, thin air, all soothed
+him; but he found himself asking himself why he was still lingering in
+this out-of-the-way spot in North Devon, and why he was content with the
+simple amusement of teaching a young girl to sit her horse and hold her
+reins properly.</p>
+
+<p>Why was he not on board the <i>Seagull</i>, which Lord Turfleigh had left in
+Southampton waters, or in Scotland shooting grouse, with one of the
+innumerable house parties to which he had been invited, and at which he
+would have been a welcome guest, or climbing the Alps with fellow
+members of the Alpine Club?</p>
+
+<p>So they were silent as they rode over this green-and-violet moor, over
+which the curlew flew wailingly, as if complaining of this breach of
+their solitude.</p>
+
+<p>And Nell was thinking, or, rather, musing; for though she was taking
+lessons, she was too good a rider to be absorbed in the management of
+her horse.</p>
+
+<p>Had she not scampered over these same moors on a half-wild Exmoor pony,
+bare-backed, and with a halter for a bridle?</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking of the weeks that had passed since the man who was
+riding beside her had been flung at her feet, and wondering, half
+unconsciously, at the happiness of those weeks. There had scarcely been
+a day in which he and she had not walked or sailed, or sat on the quay
+together. She recalled their first sail in the <i>Annie Laurie</i>; there had
+been many since then; and he had been so kind, so genial a companion,
+that she had begun to feel as if he were an old friend, a kind of second
+Dick.</p>
+
+<p>At times, it was true, he was silent and gloomy, not to say morose; but,
+as a rule, he was kind, with a gentle, protective sort of kindness
+which, believe me, is duly appreciated by even such a simple,
+unsophisticated girl as Nell.</p>
+
+<p>As she rode beside him, she glanced now and again at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> handsome face,
+which was grave and lined with thought, and she wondered, girllike, upon
+what he was musing.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he turned to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you don't need much teaching," he said, with a smile. "You ride
+awfully well, as it is. With a little practice&mdash;you won't forget about
+holding the reins a little farther; from you?&mdash;you will ride like Lady
+Lucille herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Lady Lucille?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He looked just a shade embarrassed for a moment, but only for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's the crack fashionable rider," he said casually.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel very much flattered," said Nell. "And I am very grateful for
+your lesson. I hope you won't discontinue them because I show some
+promise."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with sudden gravity. Now was the time to tell her that
+he was going to leave Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't want many more," he said; "but I hope you will let me ride
+with you while I'm here. I must be going presently."</p>
+
+<p>"Must you?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Girls learn the art of mastering their voices much earlier than the
+opposite sex can, and her voice sounded indifferent enough, or just
+properly regretful.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I must leave Shorne Mills, worse luck."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is so unlucky, why do you go? But why is it so unlucky?" she
+asked; and still her tone sounded indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>"It's bad luck because&mdash;well, because I have been very happy here," he
+said, checking his horse into a walk.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at him as she paced beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been so happy here? Really? That sounds so strange. It is such
+a dull, quiet place."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it's because of that," he said. "God knows, I'm not anxious to
+get back to London&mdash;the world."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him thoughtfully with her clear, girlish eyes; and he met
+the glance, then looked across the moor with something like a frown.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a fascination in the place," he said. "It is so beautiful and
+so quiet; and&mdash;and&mdash;London is so noisy, such a blare. And&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused.</p>
+
+<p>She kept the high-bred mare to a walk.</p>
+
+<p>"But will you not be glad to go?" she asked. "It must be dull here, as I
+said. You must have so many friends who&mdash;who will be glad to see you,
+and whom you will be glad to see."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled cynically.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends!" he said grimly. "Has any one many friends?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> And how many of
+the people I know will, I wonder, be glad to see me? They will find it
+pleasant to pity me."</p>
+
+<p>"Pity you! Why?" she asked, her beautiful eyes turned on him with
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>Drake bit his lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've had a piece of bad luck lately," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sorry!" murmured Nell.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's no more than I had a right to expect. Don't forget what I told
+you about holding your reins&mdash;that's right."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it about money?" she asked timidly. "I always think bad luck means
+that."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I've lost a great deal of money lately," he replied vaguely.
+"And&mdash;and I must leave Shorne Mills."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," she said simply, and without attempting to conceal her
+regret. "I&mdash;we&mdash;have almost grown to think that you belonged here. Will
+you be sorry to go?"</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at her innocent eyes and frowned.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; very much," he replied. "There is a fascination in this place. It
+is so quiet, so beautiful, so remote, so far away from the world which I
+hate!"</p>
+
+<p>"You hate? Why do you hate it?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He bit his lip again.</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is false and hollow," he replied. "No man&mdash;or woman&mdash;thinks
+what he or she says, or says what he or she thinks."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why go back to it?" she asked. "But all the people in London can't
+be&mdash;bad and false," she added, as if she were considering his sweeping
+condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not all," he said. "I've been unfortunate in my acquaintances,
+perhaps, as Voltaire said."</p>
+
+<p>He looked across the moor again absently. Her question, "Then why go
+back to it?" haunted him. It was absurd to imagine that he could remain
+at Shorne Mills. The quiet life had been pleasant, he had felt better in
+health here than he had done for years; but&mdash;well, a man who has spent
+so many years in the midst of the whirl of life is very much like the
+old prisoner of the Bastille who, when he was released by the
+revolutionary mob, implored to be taken back again. One gets used to the
+din and clamor of society as one gets used to the solemn quiet of a
+prison. Besides, he was, or had been, a prominent figure in the
+gallantry show, and he seemed to belong to it.</p>
+
+<p>"One isn't always one's own master," he said, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>Nell turned her eyes to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are not you?" she said, a little shyly. "You seem so&mdash;so free to do
+just what you please."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed rather grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what I should do if I were as free as I seem, Miss Nell?"
+he asked. "I should take one of these farms"&mdash;he nodded to a rural
+homestead, one of the smallest and simplest, which stood on the edge of
+the moor&mdash;"and spend the rest of my life making clotted cream and
+driving cows and pigs to market."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I can scarcely imagine you doing that," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I might buy a trawler, and go fishing in the bay."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be better," she admitted. "But it's very tough weather
+sometimes. I have seen the women waiting on the jetty, and on the
+cliffs, and looking out at the storm, with their faces white with fear
+and anxiety for the men&mdash;their fathers and husbands and sweethearts."</p>
+
+<p>"There wouldn't be any women to watch and grow white for me," he
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but don't you think we should be anxious&mdash;mamma and I?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, but her eyes met his innocently, and there was not a
+sign of coquetry in her smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. In that case, I must abandon the idea of getting my livelihood
+as a fisherman," he said lightly. "I couldn't think of causing Mrs.
+Lorton any further anxiety."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we have another gallop?" she asked, a moment or two afterward.
+"We might ride to that farm there"&mdash;she pointed to a thatched roof just
+visible above a hollow&mdash;"and get a glass of milk. I am quite thirsty."</p>
+
+<p>She made the suggestion blithely, as if neither her own nor his words
+had remained in her mind; and Drake brightened up as they sped over the
+springy turf.</p>
+
+<p>A woman came out of the farm, and greeted them with a cordial welcome in
+the smile which she bestowed on Nell, and the half nod, half curtsy, she
+gave to Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Miss Nell, it be yew sure enough," she said pleasantly. "I was
+a-thinkin' that 'eed just forgot us. Bobby! Bobby! do 'ee come and hold
+the horses. Here be Miss Nell of Shorne Mills."</p>
+
+<p>A barefooted, ruddy-cheeked little man ran out and laughed up at Nell as
+she bent down and stroked his head with her whip. Nell and Drake
+dismounted, and she led the way into the kitchen and living room of the
+farm.</p>
+
+<p>The room was so low that Drake felt he must stoop, and Nell's tall
+figure looked all the taller and slimmer for its propinquity to the
+timbered ceiling. The woman brought a couple of glasses of milk and some
+saffron cakes, and Nell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> drank and ate with a healthy, unashamed
+appetite, and apparently quite forgot Drake, who, seated in the
+background, sipped his milk and watched and listened to her absently.
+She knew this woman and her husband and the children quite intimately;
+asked after the baby's last tooth as she bent over the sleeping mite,
+and was anxious to know how the eldest girl, who was in service in
+London, was getting on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Emma, her says she likes it well enough," replied the woman,
+standing, with the instinctive delicacy of respect, with her firm hand
+resting on the spotlessly white table; "leastways her would if there was
+more air&mdash;it's the want o' air she complains of. Accordin' to she, there
+bean't enough for the hoosts o' people there be. Oh, yes, the family's
+kind enough to her&mdash;not that she has much to do wi' 'em; for she's in
+the nursery&mdash;she's nursemaid, you remembers, Miss Nell&mdash;and the mistress
+is too grand a lady to go there often. It's a great family she's in, you
+know, Miss Nell, a titled family, and there's grand goin's-on a'most
+every day; indeed, it's turnin' day into night they're at most o' the
+time, so says Emma. She made so bold, Emma did, to send her best
+respects to you in her last letter, and to say she hoped if ever you
+came to London she'd have the luck to see you, though it might be from a
+distance."</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I am at all likely to go to London," she said, with a laugh.
+"If I did, I should be sure to go and see Emma."</p>
+
+<p>Emma's mother glanced curiously at Drake; and he understood the
+significance of the glance, but Nell was evidently unconscious of its
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is the gentleman as is staying at the cottage, Miss Nell?" she
+said. "I hope your arm's better, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake made a suitable and satisfactory response, and Nell, having talked
+to the two little girls, who had got as near to her as their shyness
+would permit, rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you so much for the milk and cakes, Mrs. Trimble," she said. "We
+were quite famishing, weren't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite famished," assented Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Trimble beamed.</p>
+
+<p>"You be main welcome, Miss Nell, as 'ee knows full well; I wish 'ee
+could ride out to us every day. And that's a beautiful horse you're on,
+miss, surely!"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" said Nell. "It's Mr. Vernon's; he is kind enough to lend it
+to me."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Trimble glanced significantly again at Drake; but again Nell failed
+to see or understand the quick, intelligent question in the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Speakin' o' Emma, I've got her letter in my pocket, Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Nell; and I'm
+thinkin' I'll give it 'ee; for the address, you know. It's on the top,
+writ clear, and if you should go to London&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell took the precious letter, and put it with marked carefulness in the
+bosom of her habit.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall like to read it, Mrs. Trimble. Emma and I were such good
+friends, weren't we? And I'll be sure to let you have it back."</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the family crowded out to see Miss Nell of Shorne Mills
+drive off, and Drake had to maneuver skillfully to get a coin into
+Bobby's chubby, and somewhat grubby, hand unseen by Nell.</p>
+
+<p>They rode on in silence for a time. The scene had impressed Drake. The
+affection of the whole of them for Nell had been so evident, and the
+sweet simplicity of her nature had displayed itself so ingenuously, that
+he felt&mdash;well, as he had felt once or twice coming out of church.</p>
+
+<p>Then he remembered the woman's significant glance, and his conscience
+smote him. No doubt all Shorne Mills was connecting his name with hers.
+Yes; he must go.</p>
+
+<p>She was singing softly as she rode beside him, and they exchanged
+scarcely half a dozen sentences on the way home; but yet Nell seemed
+happy and content, and as she slipped from her saddle in front of the
+garden gate, she breathed a sigh of keen pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I have enjoyed it so much!" she said, as he looked at her
+inquiringly. "Is there anything more beautiful and lovable than a
+horse?"</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she stroked the mare's satin neck, and the animal turned
+its great eyes upon her with placid affection and gratitude. Drake
+looked from the horse to the girl, but said nothing, and at that moment
+Dick came out to take the horses down to the stables.</p>
+
+<p>"Had a good ride, Nell?" he asked. "Wants a lot of coaching, doesn't
+she, Mr. Vernon? But I assure you I've done my best with her; girls are
+the most stupid creatures in the world; and the last person they'll
+learn anything from is their brother."</p>
+
+<p>Nell managed to tilt his cap over his eyes as she ran in, and Dick
+looked after her longingly, as he exclaimed portentously:</p>
+
+<p>"That's one I owe you, my child."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed back defiantly; but when she had got up to her own room,
+and was taking off the habit, something of the brightness left her face,
+and she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry he is going," she murmured to her reflection in the glass.
+"How we shall miss him; all of us, Dick and mamma! And I shall miss him,
+too. Yes; I am sorry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> It will seem so&mdash;so dull and dreary when he has
+gone. And he does not seem glad to go. But perhaps he only said that to
+please me, and because it was the proper thing to say. Of course,
+I&mdash;we&mdash;could not expect him to stay for the rest of his life in Shorne
+Mills."</p>
+
+<p>She sighed again, and stood, with her habit half unbuttoned, looking
+beyond the glass into the past few happy weeks. Yes, it would seem very
+dull and dreary when he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>But he still lingered on; his arm got well, his step was strong and
+firm, his voice and manner less grave and moody. He rode or sailed with
+her every day, Dick sometimes accompanying them; but he was only
+postponing the hour of his departure, and putting it away from him with
+a half-hesitating hand.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, Dick burst into the sitting room&mdash;they were at tea&mdash;with
+a couple of parcels; one, a small square like a box, the other, a larger
+and heavier one.</p>
+
+<p>"Just come by the carrier," he said; "addressed to 'Drake Vernon,
+Esquire.' The little one is registered. The carrier acted as auxiliary
+postman, and wants a receipt."</p>
+
+<p>Drake signed the paper absently, with a scrawl of the pen which Dick
+brought him, and Dick, glancing at the signature mechanically, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's a rum way of writing 'Vernon'!"</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked up from cutting the string of the small box, and frowned
+slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Give it me back, please," he said, rather sharply. "It isn't fair to
+write so indistinctly."</p>
+
+<p>Dick handed the receipt form back, and Drake ran his pen quickly through
+the "Selbie" which he had scrawled unthinkingly, and wrote Drake Vernon
+in its place.</p>
+
+<p>Dick took the altered paper unsuspectingly to the carrier.</p>
+
+<p>"So kind of you to trouble, Mr. Vernon!" said Mrs. Lorton. "As if it
+mattered how you wrote! My poor father used to say that only the
+illiterate were careful of their handwriting, and that illegible
+caligraphy&mdash;it is caligraphy, is it not?&mdash;was a sign of genius."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must be one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived," said
+Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm another&mdash;if indifferent spelling is also a sign," said Dick
+cheerfully; "and Nell must cap us both, for she can neither write nor
+spell; few girls can," he added calmly. "Tobacco, Mr. Vernon?" nodding
+at the box.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Drake had got its wrapper off and revealed a jewel case. He
+handed it to Mrs. Lorton with the slight awkwardness of a man giving a
+present.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here's a little thing I hope you will accept, Mrs. Lorton," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"For me!" she exclaimed, bridling, and raising her brows with juvenile
+archness. "Are you sure it's for me? Now, shall I guess&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, you don't, mamma," said Dick emphatically. "I'll open it if you
+can't manage it. Oh, I say!" he exclaimed, as Mrs. Lorton opened the
+case, and the sparkle of diamonds was emitted.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton echoed his exclamation, and her face flushed with all a
+woman's delight as she gazed at the diamond bracelet reposing on its bed
+of white plush.</p>
+
+<p>"Really&mdash;&mdash;My dear Mr. Vernon!" she gasped. "How&mdash;how truly magnificent!
+But surely not for me&mdash;for me!"</p>
+
+<p>He was beginning to get, if not uncomfortable, a little bored, with a
+man's hatred of fuss.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid there's not much magnificence about it," he said, rather
+shortly. "I hope you like the pattern, style, or whatever you call it. I
+had to risk it, not being there to choose. And there's a gun in that
+case, Dick."</p>
+
+<p>Dick made an indecent grab for the larger parcel, and, tearing off the
+wrapper, opened the thick leather case and took out a costly gun.</p>
+
+<p>"And a Greener!" he exclaimed. "A Greener! I say, you know, sir&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed excitedly, his face flushed with delight, as he carried the
+gun to the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not perfect, simply perfect, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton, holding
+out her arm with the bracelet on her wrist. "Really, I don't think you
+could have chosen a handsomer one, Mr. Vernon, if you had gone to London
+to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you are pleased with it," he said simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Pleased? It is perfect! Eleanor, haven't you a word to say? No; I
+imagine you are too overwhelmed for words," said Mrs. Lorton, with a
+kind of cackle.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very beautiful, mamma," she said gravely; and her face, as she
+leaned over the thing, was grave also.</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked at her as he rose, and understood the look and the tone of
+her voice, and was glad that he had resisted the almost irresistible
+temptation to order a somewhat similar present for her.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, sir, you must get your gun down, and we must go for some
+rabbits," said Dick eagerly. "And I can get a day or two's shooting over
+the Maltby land as soon as the season opens. I'm sure they'd give it
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"That's tempting, Dick," said Drake; "and it adds another cause to my
+regret that I am leaving to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Leaving to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> gasp. "Surely not!
+You are not thinking, dreaming of going, my dear Mr. Vernon?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's very good of you," he said, picking up his cap and nearing the
+door. "But I couldn't stay forever, you know. I've trespassed on your
+hospitality too much already."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say, you know!" expostulated Dick, in a deeply aggrieved tone. "I
+say, Nell, do you hear that? Mr. Vernon's going!"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Nell knows that I have been 'going' for some days past, only that
+I haven't been able to tear myself away. It's nearly five, Miss Nell,
+and we ordered the boat for half-past four, you know," he added, in a
+matter-of-fact way.</p>
+
+<p>She rose and ran out of the room for her jacket and tam-o'-shanter, and
+they went out, leaving Mrs. Lorton and Dick still gloating over their
+presents.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Nell walked rapidly and talking quickly as they went down to the jetty,
+and it was not until the <i>Annie Laurie</i> was slipping out into the bay
+that she grew silent and thoughtful. She sat in the stern with her arm
+over the tiller, her eyes cast down, her face grave; and Drake, feeling
+uncomfortable, said at last:</p>
+
+<p>"Might one offer a penny for your thoughts, Miss Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up and met the challenge with a sweet seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking of something that you told me the other day&mdash;when we
+were riding," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I've told you so much&mdash;&mdash;" "And so little!" he added mentally.</p>
+
+<p>"You said that you had been unlucky, that you had lost a great deal of
+money lately," she said, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I think I did. It's true unfortunately; but it doesn't much
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it not?" she asked. "Why did you give mamma so costly a present?
+Oh, please don't deny it. I don't know very much about diamonds, but I
+know that that bracelet must have cost a great deal of money."</p>
+
+<p>"Not really," he said, with affected carelessness. "Diamonds are very
+cheap now; they find 'em by the bucketful in the Cape, you know."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with grave reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"You are trying to belittle it," she said; "but, indeed, I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> not
+deceived. And the gun, too! That must have been very expensive. Why&mdash;did
+you spend so much?"</p>
+
+<p>He began to feel irritated.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Miss Nell," he said; "it is true that I have lost some
+money, but I'm not quite a pauper, and, if I were, the least I could do
+would be to share my last crust with&mdash;with your people for their amazing
+goodness to me."</p>
+
+<p>"A diamond bracelet and an expensive gun are not crusts," she said,
+shaking her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dash it all!" he retorted impatiently. "The stupid things only very
+inadequately represent my&mdash;&mdash;Oh, I'm bad at speech making and expressing
+myself. And don't you think you ought to be very grateful to me?"</p>
+
+<p>She frowned slightly in the effort to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Grateful! I have just been telling you that I think you ought not to
+have spent so much. Why should I be grateful?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I didn't buy something for you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She colored, and looked away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I should not have accepted it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that," he blurted out. "If I thought you would have done so&mdash;but
+I knew you wouldn't. And so I've got a grievance to meet yours. After
+all, you might have let me give you some trifle&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Such as a diamond bracelet, worth perhaps a hundred pounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"To remember me by. After all, it's only natural I should want to leave
+something behind me to remind you of me."</p>
+
+<p>"We shan't need such gifts to&mdash;to remind us," she said simply. "I think
+we had better luff."</p>
+
+<p>The sail swung over as she put the helm down; there was silence for a
+moment or two, then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I've offended you, Miss Nell. Perhaps it was beastly bad
+taste. I see it now. But just put yourself in my place&mdash;&mdash;" He slid over
+the thwart in his eagerness, and coiled himself at her feet. "Supposing
+you had broken your confounded arm&mdash;I beg your pardon!&mdash;your arm, and
+had been taken in and tended by good Samaritans, and nursed and treated
+like a prince for weeks, and had been made to feel happier than you've
+been for&mdash;for oh, years, would you like to go away with just a 'Oh,
+thanks; awfully obliged; very kind of you'? Wouldn't you want to make a
+more solid acknowledgment? Come, be fair and just&mdash;if a woman can be
+fair and just!&mdash;and admit that I'm not such a criminal, after all!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked down at him thoughtfully, then turned her eyes seaward again.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want me to say?" she asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well; I see that you won't change your mind about these things, so
+perhaps I'd better be content if you'll say: 'I forgive you.'"</p>
+
+<p>A smile flitted across her face as she looked down at him again, but it
+was rather a sad little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I forgive you!" she said.</p>
+
+<p>He raised his cap, and took her hand, and, before she suspected what he
+was going to do, he put his lips to it.</p>
+
+<p>Her face grew crimson, then pale almost to whiteness. It was the first
+time a man's lips had touched her virgin hand, and&mdash;&mdash;A tremor ran
+through her, her eyes grew misty, as she looked at him with a
+half-pained, half-fearful expression. Then she turned her head away, and
+so quickly that he saw neither the change of color nor the expression in
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel like a miscreant who had received an unexpected pardon," he said
+lightly, and yet with a touch of gravity in his voice, "and, like the
+miscreant, I at once proceed to take advantage of the lenity of my
+judge."</p>
+
+<p>She turned her eyes to him questioningly; there was still a
+half-puzzled, half-timid expression in them.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to be rewarded&mdash;as well as pardoned&mdash;rewarded for my noble
+sacrifice of the desire to bestow a piece of jewelry upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"Rewarded?" she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. After the awful rebuke and scolding you have administered, you
+cannot refuse to accept some token of my&mdash;some acknowledgment of my
+gratitude, Miss Nell. See here&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He felt in his waistcoat pocket, then in those of his coat, and at last
+brought out a well-worn silver pencil case.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to be gracious enough to accept this," he said. "Before you
+refuse with haughty displeasure and lively scorn, be good enough to
+examine it. It is worth, I should say&mdash;shall I say five shillings? That,
+I should imagine, is its utmost value. But, on the other hand, it is a
+useful article, and I display my natural cunning in selecting it&mdash;it's
+the only thing I've got about me that I could offer you, except a match
+box, and, as you don't smoke, you've no use for that&mdash;because you will
+never be able to use it, I hope and trust, without thinking of the
+unworthy donor and the debt of gratitude which no diamond bracelet could
+discharge."</p>
+
+<p>During this long speech, which he had made to conceal his eager desire
+that she should accept, and his fear, that she should not, Nell's color
+had come and gone, but she kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> her eyes fixed on his steadily, as if
+she were afraid to remove them.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to accept it&mdash;or shall I fling it into the sea as a
+votive offering? It would be a pity, for it is useful, a thing of sorts,
+and has been my constant companion for many a year. Yes, or no?"</p>
+
+<p>He held the pencil up, as if he were offering it by auction.</p>
+
+<p>Nell hesitated, then she held out her hand without a word. He dropped
+the battered pencil case into it, and his bantering tone changed
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" he said gravely, earnestly. "I&mdash;I was afraid that you were
+going to refuse, and&mdash;well, that would have hurt me. And that would have
+hurt you; for I know how gentle-hearted you are, Miss Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Her hand closed over the pencil case tightly until the silver grew warm,
+then she slipped the thing into her pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Please observe," he said, after a pause, during which he lit a
+cigarette, "that I am not in need of any token as a reminder. I am not
+likely to forget&mdash;Shorne Mills."</p>
+
+<p>He turned on his elbow and gazed at the jetty and the cottages which
+straggled up from it in the narrow ravine to the heights above, to the
+unique and quaint village upon which the still hot sun was shining as
+the boat danced toward it.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I shan't find it difficult to remember&mdash;or regret."</p>
+
+<p>He stifled a sigh. A sigh rose to her lips also, but she checked it, and
+forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"One does not break one's arm every day, and it is not easy to forget
+that," she said; "and yet, I dare say you will remember Shorne Mills. I
+don't think you will see many prettier places. Isn't it quite lovely
+this evening, with the sun shining on the cliffs and making old
+Brownie's windows glitter&mdash;like&mdash;like the diamonds in mamma's bracelet?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed with a girlish mischievousness, and ran on rapidly, as if
+she must talk, as if a pause were to be averted as a peril.</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard people say that there is only one other place in the world
+like it&mdash;Cintra, in Portugal, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. He was gazing at the picturesque little place, the human
+nests stuck like white stones in the cleft of the cliffs; and something
+more than the beauty of Shorne Mills was stirring, almost oppressing,
+his heart. He had stayed at, and departed from, many a place as
+beautiful in other ways as this, and had left it with some little
+regret, perhaps, but never with the dull, aching feeling such as weighed
+upon him this evening.</p>
+
+<p>"And at night it's lovelier still," went on Nell cheerfully, after a
+snatch of song, just sung under her breath, to show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> how happy and free
+from care she was at that moment. "To sail in on the tide of an autumn
+evening when the lights have been lit, and every cottage looks like a
+lantern; and the blue haze hangs over the village, and the children's
+voices come floating over the water as if through a mist; then, on
+nights like that, the sea is all phosphorescent, and the boat leaves a
+line of silvery light in its wake; and one seems to have all the world
+to oneself&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped suddenly and sighed unconsciously. Was she thinking that,
+when that autumn night came, and Drake Vernon was not with her, she
+would indeed have all the world to herself, and that all the world is
+all the nicer when one has a companion? He lowered his eyes to her face.</p>
+
+<p>"That was a pretty picture," he said, in a low voice. "I shall think of
+that&mdash;wherever I may be in the autumn."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed as the boat ran beside the jetty slip, and she rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you will? Perhaps you will be too much amused, engrossed
+with whatever you are doing. I know I should be, if&mdash;if I were to leave
+Shorne Mills, and go into the big world."</p>
+
+<p>"You do yourself an injustice," he said, rather curtly; and she laughed,
+and flushed a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I deserve that," she said. "Of course, I should not forget Shorne
+Mills; but you&mdash;&mdash;Ah, it is different!"</p>
+
+<p>She sprang out before he could get on shore and offer his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall want her to-morrow morning at eleven, Brownie," she said to the
+old fisherman who was preparing to take the <i>Annie Laurie</i> to her
+moorings.</p>
+
+<p>He touched his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, aye, Miss Nell! And you'll not be wanting me?" he asked, as a
+matter of form, and with a glance at Drake, who stood waiting with his
+hands in his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, please," she said. "I forgot; Mr. Vernon is going away
+to-morrow," she added cheerfully; and she began to sing under her breath
+again as they climbed upward. But Drake did not sing, and his face was
+gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout that evening, Mrs. Lorton contributed to the entertainment of
+her guest by admiring her bracelet and deploring his departure.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am aware that you must be anxious to go," she said, with a
+deep sigh. "It has been dull, I've no doubt, very dull; and I am so
+sorry that the state of my health has prevented me going out and about
+with you. There are so many places of interest in the neighborhood which
+we could have visited; but I am sure you will make allowances for an
+invalid. And we will hope that this is not your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> last visit to Shorne
+Mills. I need not say that we shall be glad, delighted, indeed, at any
+time&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then Drake murmured his acknowledgments; but he made the
+due responses absently. He was left entirely at Mrs. Lorton's mercy that
+evening&mdash;for Nell had suddenly remembered that she ought really to go
+and see old Brownie's mother, a lady whose age was set down at anything
+between a hundred and a hundred and ten, and Dick was in his "workshop"
+cleaning the new and spotless gun.</p>
+
+<p>Nell did not come in till late, was full of Grandmother Brownie's
+sayings and wonderfully maintained faculties, and ran off to bed very
+soon, with a cheerful "Good night, Mr. Vernon. Dick has ordered the trap
+for nine o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>Drake got up early the next morning; there were the horses to be
+arranged for&mdash;he was going to leave two behind, for a time, at any rate,
+in the hope that Dick and Miss Nell might use them; and he had to say
+good-by&mdash;and tip&mdash;sundry persons. He performed the latter operation on
+so liberal a scale that amazement sat upon the bosom of many a man and
+woman in Shorne Mills for months afterward. Molly, indeed, was so
+overcome by the sight and feel of the crisp ten-pound note, and her face
+grew so red and her eyes so prominent, that Drake was seriously afraid
+that she was going to have a fit.</p>
+
+<p>Nell had got up a few minutes after him, and had prepared his farewell
+breakfast; but she was not present, and Mrs. Lorton presided. It was not
+until the arrival of the trap that she came in hurriedly. She had her
+outdoor things on, and explained that she had had to go to the farm to
+order a fowl; and she was full of some story the farmer's wife had told
+her&mdash;a story which had made her laugh, and still seemed to cause her so
+much amusement that Mrs. Lorton felt compelled to remind her that Mr.
+Vernon was going.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes! I suppose it is time. The train starts at ten-forty-five. Have
+you got some lunch for Mr. Vernon, Dick?"</p>
+
+<p>She had packed a neat little packet of sandwiches with her own hands,
+but put the question casually, as if she hoped that somebody had
+considered their departing guest's comfort.</p>
+
+<p>The girl's bright cheerfulness got on Drake's nerves. His farewell to
+Mrs. Lorton lacked grace and finish, and he could only hold out his hand
+to Nell, and say, rather grimly and curtly:</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Miss Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Just that; no more.</p>
+
+<p>Her hand rested in his for a moment. Did it tremble,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> or was it only
+fancy on his part? She said, "Good-by, and I hope you will have a
+pleasant journey," quite calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Dick burst in with:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Vernon, if you've kissed everybody, we'd better be starting,"
+and Drake got into the trap.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton looked after the departing guest, and waved her hand with an
+expression of languid sorrow; then turned to Nell with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I might have known that he would go; but still I must say that it is a
+disappointment&mdash;a great disappointment. These trials are sent for our
+good, and&mdash;&mdash;I do wish you would not keep up that perpetual humming,
+Eleanor. On an occasion like this it is especially trying. And how pale
+you look!" she added, staring unsympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I've&mdash;I've rather a headache," said Nell, turning toward the door. "I
+suppose it was hurrying up to the farm. It is very hot this morning.
+I'll go and take off my hat."</p>
+
+<p>She went upstairs slowly, slipped the bolt in her bedroom door, and,
+taking off her hat, stood looking beyond the glass for a moment or two;
+then she absently drew an old and somewhat battered pencil case from her
+pocket. She gazed at it thoughtfully, until suddenly she could not see
+it for the tears that gathered in her eyes, and presently she began to
+tremble. She slipped to her knees besides the bed, and buried her
+forehead in the hands clasped over Drake's "token of remembrance and
+gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>And as she struggled with the sobs that shook her, she still trembled;
+for there was something in the feeling of utter, overwhelming desolation
+which frightened her&mdash;something she could neither understand nor resist,
+though she had been fighting against it all through the long and weary
+night.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the shame of it! That she should cry because Mr. Drake Vernon had
+left Shorne Mills! The shame of it!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+
+<p>All the way up to town Drake felt very depressed. It is strange that we
+mortals never thoroughly appreciate a thing until we have lost it, or a
+time until it has slipped past us; and Drake only realized, as the
+express rushed along and took him farther and farther away from Shorne
+Mills, how contented, and, yes, nearly happy, he had been there,
+notwithstanding the pain and inconvenience of a broken limb.</p>
+
+<p>As he leaned back and smoked, he thought of the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> village in the
+cleft of the cliffs, of the opaline sea, of the miniature jetty on which
+he had so often sat and basked in the sunlight; but, more than all, he
+thought of The Cottage, of the racketing, warm-hearted Dick, and&mdash;and of
+Nell of Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hard to realize, and not a little painful, that he should
+never again sit in the parlor which now seemed to him so cozy, and
+listen to the girl playing Chopin and Grieg; or ride beside her over the
+yellow and purple moor; or lie coiled up at her feet as she sailed the
+<i>Annie Laurie</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He began to suspect that he had taken a greater interest in her than he
+was aware of; he had grown accustomed to the sweet face, the musical
+voice, the little tricks of manner and expression which went to make up
+a charm which he now felt she certainly possessed. He looked round the
+carriage and sighed as if he missed something, as if something had gone
+out of his life.</p>
+
+<p>They had been awfully good to him; they had in very truth played the
+part of the good Samaritan; and in his mind he compared these simple
+folk, buried in an out-of-the-way fishing village, with some of his
+fashionable friends. Which of them would have nursed him as he had been
+nursed at The Cottage, would have treated him as one of the family,
+would have lavished upon him a regard nearly akin to affection? It was a
+hollow world, he thought, and he wished to Heaven he had been born in
+Shorne Mills, and got his living as a fisherman, putting in his spare
+time by looking after, say, the <i>Annie Laurie</i>!</p>
+
+<p>He had wired to his man, and he found his rooms all ready for him. He
+wondered as he looked round the handsome and tastefully furnished
+sitting room, while Sparling helped him off with his coat, whether he
+should be able to afford to keep them up much longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Any news, Sparling?" he asked. "Hope you've been all right," he added,
+in the pleasant and friendly way with which he always addressed those
+who did service for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my lord," said Sparling, "I've been very well; but I was
+much upset to hear of your lordship's accident, and very sorry you
+wouldn't let me come to you."</p>
+
+<p>The man spoke with genuine sympathy and regret, for he was attached to
+Drake, and was fully convinced that he had the best, the handsomest, and
+the most desirable master in all England.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks; very much," said Drake; "but it was nothing to speak of, and
+there was no reason for dragging you down there. There wasn't any
+accommodation, to tell the truth, and you'd have moped yourself to
+death."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You're looking very well, my lord&mdash;a little thinner, perhaps," said
+Sparling respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>Drake sighed at the na&iuml;ve retort, then sighed unaccountably.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've done some fishing, boating, and riding," he said, "and I'm
+pretty fit&mdash;fitter than I've been for some time. There's an awful pile
+of letters, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord; you told me not to send them on. Will your lordship dine
+at home to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake replied in the affirmative, had a bath, and changed, and sat down
+to one of the daintily prepared dinners which were the envy and despair
+of his bachelor friends. It was really an admirable little dinner; the
+claret was a famous one from the Anglemere cellars, and warmed to a
+nicety; the coffee was perfection; Sparling's ministrations left nothing
+to be desired; and yet Drake sank into his easy-chair after the meal
+with a sigh that was weary and wistful.</p>
+
+<p>There had never been anything more than soup and a plain joint, with a
+pudding to follow, at the dinners at The Cottage; but the simple meal
+had been rendered a pleasant one by Dick's cheerful and boyish nonsense;
+and whenever Drake looked across the table, there had been Nell's sweet
+face opposite him, sometimes grave with a pensive thoughtfulness, at
+others all alight with merriment and innocent, girlish gayety.</p>
+
+<p>His room to-night seemed very dull and lonely. It was strange; he had
+never been bored by his own society before; he had rather liked to dine
+alone, to smoke his cigarette with the evening paper across his knee or
+a book on the table beside him. He tried to read; but the carefully
+edited paper, with its brilliant articles, its catchy little paragraphs,
+and its sparkling gossip, didn't interest him in the least. He dropped
+it, and fell to wondering, to picturing, what they were doing at that
+precise moment at The Cottage. Mrs. Lorton, no doubt, was sitting in her
+high-backed chair reading the <i>Fashion Gazette</i>; Dick was lounging just
+outside the window, smoking a cigarette, mending his rod, and whistling
+the last comic song. And Nell&mdash;what was Nell doing? Perhaps she was
+playing softly one of the pieces he had grown fond of; or leaning half
+out of the window squabbling affectionately with the boy.</p>
+
+<p>Or perhaps they were talking of him&mdash;Drake. Did they miss him? At the
+thought, he was reminded of the absurd song&mdash;"Will They Miss Me When I'm
+Gone?" And, with something like a blush for his sentimental weakness, as
+he mentally termed it, he sprang up and took his letters. They consisted
+mostly of bills and invitations. He chucked the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> first aside and glanced
+at the others; both were distasteful to him. He felt as if he should
+like to cut the world forever.</p>
+
+<p>And yet that wouldn't do. Everybody would say that he was completely
+knocked over by the ruin of his prospects, and that he had run away. He
+couldn't stand that. He had always been accustomed to facing the music,
+however unpleasant it might be; and he would face it now. Besides, it
+would never do to sit there moping, and wishing himself back at Shorne
+Mills; because that was just what he was doing.</p>
+
+<p>He turned over the gilt-edged cards and the scented notes&mdash;there seemed
+to be a great many people in town, notwithstanding the deadness of the
+season&mdash;and he selected one from a certain Lady Northgate. She was an
+old friend of his, and she had written him a pretty little note, asking
+him to a reception for that night. It was just the little note which a
+thorough woman of the world would write to a man whom she liked, and who
+had struck a streak of bad luck. Most of Drake's acquaintances who were
+in town would be there; and it would be a good opportunity of facing the
+situation and accepting more or less sincere sympathy with a good grace.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine night; and he walked to the Northgates' in Grosvenor
+Square; and thought of the evening he and Nell had sailed in to Shorne
+Mills with the lights peeping out through the trees, and the stars
+twinkling in the deep-blue sky. It already seemed years since that
+night, but he saw the girl's face as clearly as if she were walking
+beside him now.</p>
+
+<p>The face vanished as he went up the broad staircase and into the
+brilliantly lighted room; and Shorne Mills seemed farther away, and all
+that had happened there like a dream, as Lady Northgate held out her
+hand and smiled at him.</p>
+
+<p>She was an old friend, and many years his senior; but of course she
+looked young&mdash;no one in society gets old nowadays&mdash;and she greeted him
+with a cheerful badinage, which, however skillfully, suggested sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a good boy to come!" she said. "I scarcely half expected you,
+and Harry offered to bet me ten to one in my favorite gloves that you
+wouldn't; but, somehow, I thought you would turn up. I wrote such a
+pretty note, didn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"You did; you always do," said Drake. "It was quite irresistible."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Northgate, who was the "Harry" alluded to, came up and gave Drake a
+warm grip of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What the deuce are you doing here?" he asked. "Thought you were
+shooting down at Monkwell's place, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> somewhere. Jolly glad Lucy didn't
+take my bet. And where have you been?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the Devon and Somerset," replied Drake, with partial truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish I had!" grumbled Northgate. "Kept at the Office." He was in the
+Cabinet. "There's always some beastly row, or little war, just going on
+when one wants to get at the salmon or the grouse. I declare to goodness
+that I work like a nigger and get nothing but kicks for halfpence! I'd
+chuck politics to-morrow if it weren't for Lucy; and why on earth she
+likes to be shut in town, and sweltering in hot rooms, playing this kind
+of game, I can't imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"But then you haven't a strong imagination, Harry, dear," said his wife
+pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a strong thirst on me," said Northgate, "and a still stronger
+desire to cut this show. Come down to the smoking room and have a cigar
+presently, old chap."</p>
+
+<p>Drake knew that this was equivalent to saying, "I'm sorry for you, old
+man!" and nodded comprehendingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're looking very well, Drake," said Lady Northgate, as her husband,
+struggling with a fearful yawn, sauntered away. "And not at all
+unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>Drake shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the use? Of course, it's a bad business for me; but all the
+yowling in the world wouldn't better it. What can't be cured must be
+endured."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Northgate nodded at him approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you'd take it like this," she said. "You won't go down to Harry
+for a little while?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Drake, with a smile. "I'm going the round; I'm not going
+to shirk it."</p>
+
+<p>He was one of the most popular men in London, and there were many in the
+room who really sympathized with and were sorry for him; and Drake, as
+he exchanged greetings with one and another, felt that the thing hadn't
+been so bad, after all. He made this consoling reflection as he leaned
+against the wall beside a chair in which sat a lady whom he did not
+know, and at whom he had scarcely glanced; and he was roused from his
+reverie by her saying:</p>
+
+<p>"May I venture to trouble you to put this glass down?"</p>
+
+<p>He took the glass and set it on the pedestal of the statuette beside
+him, and, as in duty bound, returned to the lady. She was an extremely
+pretty little woman, with soft brown hair and extremely bright eyes,
+which, notwithstanding their brightness, were not at all hard. He felt,
+rather than knew, that she was perfectly dressed, and he noticed that
+she wore remarkably fine diamonds. They sparkled and glittered in her
+hair, on her bosom, on her wrists, and on her fingers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had never seen her before, and he wondered who she was.</p>
+
+<p>"You have just come up from the country?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>The accent with which she made this rather startling remark betrayed her
+nationality to Drake. The American accent, when it is voiced by a person
+of culture and refinement, is an extremely pretty one; the slight drawl
+is musical, and the emphasis which is given to words not usually made
+emphatic, is attractive.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Drake. "But how did you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your face and hands are so brown," she replied, with a frankness which
+was robbed of all offense by her placidity and unself-consciousness.
+"Nearly all the men one meets here are so colorless. I suppose it is
+because you have so little air and sun in London. At first, one is
+afraid that everybody is ill; but after a time one gets used to it."</p>
+
+<p>Drake was amused and a little interested.</p>
+
+<p>"Have the men in America so much color?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how did you know I was an American?" she inquired, with a
+charming little air of surprise. "I suppose my speech betrayed me? That
+is so annoying. I thought I had almost entirely lost my accent."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know why you should want to lose it," said Drake, honestly
+enough. "It's five hundred times better than our London one!"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't say I wanted to exchange it for that," she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't exchange it for any other, if I may be permitted to say so."</p>
+
+<p>"That's very good of you," she said; "but isn't it rather like asking
+the leopard not to change his spots? And after all, I don't know why we
+shouldn't be as proud of our accent as you are of yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm quite certain I'm not proud of mine," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled up at him over her fan; a small and costly painted affair,
+with diamonds incrusted in the handle.</p>
+
+<p>"You are more modest than most Englishmen," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether to be grateful or not for that," remarked Drake.
+"Are we all so conceited?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think you are all pretty well satisfied with yourselves," she
+replied. "I never knew any nation so firmly convinced that it was the
+pick of creation; and I expect before I am here very long I shall become
+as fully convinced as you are that the world was made by special
+contract for the use and amusement of the English. Mind, I won't say
+that it could have been made for a better people."</p>
+
+<p>"That's rather severe," said Drake. "But don't you forget<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> that you were
+English yourself a few years ago; that, in a sense, you are English
+still."</p>
+
+<p>"That's very nicely said," she remarked; "more especially as I didn't
+quite deserve it. I was wanting to see whether I could make you angry."</p>
+
+<p>Drake stared at her with astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Why on earth should you want to make me angry?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've heard a great deal about you," she replied. "And all the
+people who talked about you told me that you were rather hot-tempered.
+Lady Northgate, for instance, assured me you could be a perfect bear
+when you liked."</p>
+
+<p>Drake smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"That was extremely kind of Lady Northgate."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so long as it wasn't true. I've heard so much about you that I
+was quite anxious to see you. I am speaking to Lord Drake Selbie, am I
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's my name," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"The nephew of Angleford?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him as if waiting to see how he took the mention of his
+uncle's name; but Drake's face could be as impassive as a stone wall
+when he liked.</p>
+
+<p>"You know my uncle?" he asked, in a tone of polite interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said; "very well. I met him when he was in America. His wife
+is a great friend of mine. You know her, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to say I have not had that pleasure," said Drake. "I was
+absent from England when the present Lady Angleford came over, after her
+marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said the lady. "I suppose I ought not to have mentioned her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens! Why not?" asked Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course," she drawled slowly, but musically, "I know that Lord
+Angleford's marriage was a bad thing for you. It wouldn't be my fault if
+I didn't, seeing that everybody in London has been talking about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's not a particularly good thing for me," Drake admitted; "but
+it's no reason why I should dislike any reference to my uncle or his
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't bear her any ill will?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>This was extremely personal, especially coming from a stranger; but the
+lady was an American, with an extremely pretty face and a charming
+manner, and there was so much gentleness, almost deprecatory gentleness
+in her softly bright eyes, that Drake, somehow, could not feel any
+resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the very least in the world, I assure you," he replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> "My uncle
+had a perfect right to marry when he pleased, and whom he pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't think you'd be angry with him," she said, "because everybody
+says you were such friends, and you are so fond of him; but I thought
+you'd be riled with her."</p>
+
+<p>Drake laughed rather grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," he said. "Of course, I should have preferred that my
+uncle should remain single, but I can't be absurd enough to quarrel with
+a lady for marrying him. He is a very charming man, and perhaps she
+couldn't help herself."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it&mdash;she couldn't," said the lady na&iuml;vely. "And have you
+been to see your uncle since you've been back?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," replied Drake. "I only came back to London an hour or two
+ago, but I will look him up to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you would," she said; "because that was such a nice letter you
+wrote, and such a pretty present you sent to Lady Angleford."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she transferred her fan to her left hand and raised her
+right arm, and Drake recognized upon her wrist a bracelet which he had
+sent Lady Angleford as a wedding present. He colored and frowned
+slightly, then he laughed as he met the now timid and quite deprecatory
+gaze of the upturned eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Was this quite fair, Lady Angleford?" he said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know," she said, a little pathetically. "I thought it
+was, but I'm not quite sure now. You see, I wanted to meet you and talk
+to you, and know exactly how you felt toward me without your knowing who
+I was."</p>
+
+<p>Drake went and sat down beside her, and leaned toward her with one arm
+stretched on the back of her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, I was a little afraid of you. When Lord Angleford asked
+me to marry him and I consented, I didn't quite realize how things stood
+between you and him. It was not until I came to Europe&mdash;I mean to
+England&mdash;that I realized that I had, so to speak, come between your
+uncle and you. And that made me feel bad, because everybody I met told
+me that you were such a&mdash;a good fellow, as they call it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One Englishman will become conceited, if you don't take care, Lady
+Angleford," put in Drake, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what everybody says; and I found that you were so much liked and
+so popular; and it was hateful to me that I should cause a quarrel
+between you and Lord Angleford. It has made me very unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"Then don't be unhappy any longer, Lady Angleford," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> said. "There has
+been, and there need be, no quarrel between my uncle and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now you make me happy!" she said; and she turned to him with a
+little flush on her face which made her prettier than ever. "I have been
+quite wretched whenever I thought of you or heard your name. People
+spoke of you as if you had died, or got the measles, with a kind of pity
+in their voices which made me mad and hate myself. You see, as I said, I
+didn't realize what I was doing. I didn't realize that I was coming
+between an hereditary legislator and his descendant and heir."</p>
+
+<p>Drake could not help smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better not call my uncle an hereditary legislator, Lady
+Angleford. I don't think he'd like it."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is, isn't he?" she said. "It is so difficult for an American to
+understand these things. We are supposed to have the peerage by heart;
+but we haven't. It's all a mystery and a tangle to us, even the best of
+us. But I try not to make mistakes. And now I want you to tell me that
+we are friends. That is so, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>She held out her tiny and perfectly gloved hand with a mixture of
+timidity and impulsiveness which touched Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I hope we are, Lady Angleford," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't call me 'aunt,' I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake laughed outright.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I couldn't," he said. "You are far too young for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," she said. "I think I should have liked you to call me
+aunt. But never mind. I must be satisfied with knowing that we are
+friends, and that you bear me no ill will. And now, I think I will go.
+My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a perfect success," said Drake. "And I congratulate you upon it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tell Lord Angleford," she said. "He'll say it was 'so American';
+and I do hate him to say that."</p>
+
+<p>Drake promised that he would not relate the little farce to his uncle,
+and got her cloak and took her down to the Angleford carriage. As he put
+her in and closed the door, she gave him her hand, and smiled at him
+with a little air of triumph and appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"We are friends, aren't we?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The best of friends, Lady Angleford," he replied. "Good night."</p>
+
+<p>He went back to say good night to Lady Northgate.</p>
+
+<p>"You played it rather low down upon me, didn't you?" he remarked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My dear Drake, what could I do?" she exclaimed. "That poor little woman
+was so terribly anxious to gain your good will. She didn't understand in
+the least the harm she was doing you. And what will you do? She is
+immensely rich&mdash;her father was an American millionaire&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake's face hardened. One thing at least he knew he couldn't do: he
+could not bring himself to accept charity from Lady Angleford. Lady
+Northgate understood the frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't kill me before all these people, Drake!" she said. "I dare say
+it's very silly of me, but I can't help plotting for your welfare. You
+see, I am foolish enough to be rather fond of you. There! Go down and
+drink that soda and whisky with Harry. If you won't let your friends
+help you, what will you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I give it up; ask me another. Don't you worry about me, my dear lady; I
+shall jog along somehow."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The next morning, while at breakfast, he received a little note from
+Lady Angleford, asking him to dinner that night. It was a charming
+little note, as pleading and deprecating as her eyes had been when she
+looked at him at the Northgates'.</p>
+
+<p>Drake sent back word that he would be delighted to come, and at eight
+o'clock presented himself at his uncle's house in Park Lane. Lord
+Angleford was, like Northgate, detained in London by official business.
+He was a very fine specimen of the old kind of Tory, and, though well
+advanced in years, still extremely good-looking&mdash;the whole family was
+favored in that way&mdash;and remarkably well preserved. His hair was white,
+but his eyes were bright and his cheeks ruddy, and, when free from the
+gout, he was as active as a young man. Of course, he was hot-tempered;
+all gouty men are; but he was as charming in his way as Lady Angleford,
+and extremely popular in the House of Lords, and out of it.</p>
+
+<p>Though he had fallen in love with a pretty little American, perhaps he
+would not have married her but for the little tiff with Drake; but that
+little tiff had just turned the scale, and, though he had taken the step
+in a moment of pique, he had not regretted it; for he was very fond and
+proud of his wife. But he was also very fond and proud of Drake, and was
+extremely pleased when Lady Angleford had told him that she had met
+Drake, and was going to ask him to dinner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right," he had said. "I shall be very glad to see him&mdash;though
+he's an obstinate young mule. I think you'll like him."</p>
+
+<p>"I do like him very much indeed," she had said. "He is so handsome&mdash;how
+very like he is to you!&mdash;and he's not a bit stand-offish and superior,
+like most Englishmen."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Drake's not a bad sort of fellow," said Lord Angleford, "but he's
+too fond of having his own way."</p>
+
+<p>At this Lady Angleford had smiled; for she knew another member of the
+family who liked his own way.</p>
+
+<p>She was waiting for Drake in the drawing-room, and gave him both her
+hands with a little impulsiveness which touched Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad you have come," she said; "and your uncle is very glad,
+too. You won't&mdash;get to arguing, will you? You English are such dreadful
+people to argue. And I think he has a slight attack of the gout, though
+he was quite angry when I hinted at it this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Drake sincerely hoped his uncle hadn't, for everybody's sake. At that
+moment the earl came into the room, held out his hand, and said, as if
+he had parted with Drake only the night before:</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Drake? Glad to see you. You've met Lady Angleford already?
+Isn't it nearly dinner time?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake took Lady Angleford in. There were no guests besides himself, and
+they had quite a pleasant little dinner. Lady Angleford talked with all
+the vivacity and charm of a cultured American who has seen both sides of
+the world, and kept her eyes open, and Drake began to feel as if he had
+known her for years. The earl was in a singularly good humor and
+listened to, and smiled at, his young wife proudly, and talked to Drake
+as if nothing had happened. It was just like old times; and Drake, as he
+opened the door for Lady Angleford, on her way to the drawing-room,
+smiled down at her, and nodded as she looked up at him questioningly.</p>
+
+<p>Then he went back to his chair, and the butler put the Angleford port in
+its wicker cradle before the earl.</p>
+
+<p>"I oughtn't to touch a drop," he said, "for I've had a twinge or two
+lately; but on this occasion&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He filled his glass, and passed the bottle to Drake&mdash;the butler had left
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"So you met Lady Angleford last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; and I take this, the first opportunity, to congratulate you.
+And Lady Angleford is as charming as she is pretty; and you won't mind
+my saying that I consider you an extremely lucky man."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the earl looked pleased.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," he said; "that's very good of you, Drake&mdash;especially as my
+marriage may make all the difference to you."</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked at his cigarette steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"I've no reason to complain, sir; and I don't," he said. "You might have
+married years ago, and I'm rather surprised you didn't."</p>
+
+<p>The earl grunted.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose I should have done so now, if you hadn't been such a
+stubborn young ass. That put my back up. But though I don't regret what
+I've done&mdash;no, by Jove!&mdash;I don't want you to think I am utterly
+regardless of your future. This port improves, doesn't it? Of course,
+you may be knocked out of the succession now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Most probably so, I should think," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so. And, therefore, it's only right that I should do something for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good, sir," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>The earl colored slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here, Drake; I'm always suspicious of that d&mdash;&mdash;d quiet way of
+yours! I was very glad when Lady Angleford told me that you were coming
+here, and I made up my mind that I would let bygones be bygones and act
+squarely by you. As I said, I'm not a bit sorry that I married; no,
+indeed!&mdash;you've seen Lady Angleford&mdash;but I don't want to leave you in
+the lurch. I don't want you to suffer more than&mdash;than can be helped.
+I've been thinking the matter over, and I'll tell you what I'll do. Have
+some more port."</p>
+
+<p>Unluckily for Drake, the old man filled his own glass before passing the
+bottle. Drake sipped his port and waited, and the earl went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I meant to continue your allowance; but I can see that under
+the circumstances that wouldn't be sufficient. Something might happen to
+me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I sincerely trust nothing will happen to you, sir," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>The earl grunted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not so young as I was; and I might get chucked off my horse,
+or&mdash;or something of that sort; and then you'd be in a hole, I imagine;
+for I suppose you've got through most of your mother's money?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal of it," admitted Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I thought so. Well, look here; I'll tell you what I'll do, Drake.
+As you may know, Lady Angleford has a fortune of her own. Her father was
+a millionaire. That leaves me free to do what I like with my own money.
+Now, I'll settle ten thousand a year on you, Drake&mdash;but on one
+condition."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Drake was considerably startled. After all, ten thousand a year is a
+large sum; and though the earl was immensely rich, Drake had not
+expected him to be so liberal. On ten thousand a year one can manage
+very comfortably, even in England. Drake thought of his debts, of all
+that a settled income would mean to him, and his heart warmed with
+gratitude toward his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"You are more than kind, sir," he said. "Your liberality takes my breath
+away. What was the condition?"</p>
+
+<p>The earl fidgeted a little in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Drake," he said, "I've never worried you about your way of
+life; I know that young men will be young men, and that you've lived in
+a pretty fast set. That was your business and not mine, and as long as
+you kept afloat I didn't choose to interfere. But I think it's time you
+settled down; and I'll settle this money on you on condition that you do
+settle down. You're engaged to a very nice girl&mdash;just you marry and
+settle down, and I'll provide the means, as I say."</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked straight before him. Had this offer been made a month
+before he would have accepted it without a moment's hesitation, for he
+had thought himself in love with Luce, and, more important, he had
+thought that she had cared for him. But now all was changed. He knew
+that if a hundred thousand a year were dependent upon marrying Luce he
+couldn't accept it.</p>
+
+<p>The earl stared at him, and filled another glass with the port, which
+was a poison to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What the devil do you mean? I say that if you'll settle down and
+marry Luce I will provide a suitable income for you. What the blazes are
+you hesitating about? Why&mdash;confound it!&mdash;aren't you satisfied? You don't
+want to be told that I'm not bound to give you a penny!"</p>
+
+<p>The old man's handsome face was growing red, and his eyes were beginning
+to glitter; the port was doing its fell work.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Drake, with a quietude which only made his uncle more
+angry, "and I'm very much obliged to you. I know what ten thousand a
+year means; but I'm afraid I can't fulfill the conditions."</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil do you mean?" demanded the earl.</p>
+
+<p>Drake smoked in silence for a moment or two. Most men would have said at
+once that Lady Lucille Turfleigh had, on his change of prospects, jilted
+him; but Drake had some old-world notions of honor in respect to women,
+and he could not give Lady Luce away.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I can't marry Luce," he said. "Our engagement is broken
+off."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The earl swore a good old Tory oath.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" he said. "One of the nicest
+girls I know, and&mdash;devoted to you. More devoted to you than you deserve.
+And you don't mean to marry her? I suppose you've seen some one else?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake grew hot, but he still clung to his notion of honor.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what it is, Drake," said the earl, bringing down his port
+glass on the table so violently that it snapped off at the stem, "you
+young fellows of the present day haven't any idea of honor. Here's a
+girl, a beautiful girl, and nice in every way, simply devoted to you,
+and you go and throw her over. For some insane fancy, I suppose! Well,
+see here, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d if I'll countenance it. I abide by my condition.
+You make it up with Luce and marry her, and I'll settle this money on
+you, as I've said. If not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake knocked the ash off his cigarette and looked straight before him.
+He could still save himself by telling the truth and sacrificing Lady
+Luce. But that was not his way.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, sir&mdash;&mdash;" he began.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry be d&mdash;&mdash;d!" broke in the earl tempestuously. "Will you, or will
+you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't," said Drake quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The old man rose to his feet, flinging his serviette aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, by Heaven! I've done with you!" he exclaimed. "I made you a fair
+offer. I've only asked you to act like a gentleman, a man of honor. Am I
+to understand that you refuse?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake had also risen slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I must, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the earl, red with anger. "Then there's nothing more
+to be said. You can go your own way. But permit me to tell you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't, sir!" said Drake, rather sadly. "I can't do what you ask.
+God knows I would if I could, but&mdash;it's impossible. For Heaven's sake,
+don't let us quarrel&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Quarrel! I am as cool as a cucumber!" exclaimed the earl, his face the
+color of beetroot. "All I say is"&mdash;here a twinge of the gout checked his
+utterance&mdash;"that you're behaving shamefully&mdash;shamefully! We'd better
+join the ladies&mdash;I mean Lady Angleford&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll get you to excuse me, sir," said Drake. "There is no need
+to upset Lady Angleford. She asked me here with the very best
+intentions, and she would be disappointed if she knew we had&mdash;quarreled.
+There is no need to tell her. I'll clear out. Make my excuse to her."</p>
+
+<p>"As you like," said the earl shortly. "But let me tell you that I think
+you are&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No end of a fool, I've no doubt," said Drake, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> rather weary
+smile. "I dare say I am. But I can't help it. Good night, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The earl muttered something that sounded like "good night," and Drake
+left the house. He ought to have said good night to Lady Angleford, but
+he shirked it. He bore her no animosity; indeed, he liked her very
+much&mdash;so much that he shrank from telling her about this quarrel with
+his uncle; and he knew that if he went to her she would get it out of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He walked home, feeling very miserable and down on his luck. How he
+hated London, and all that belonged to it! Like a whiff of fresh air the
+memory of Shorne Mills wafted across his mind. He let himself in with
+his latchkey, and, taking a sheet of note paper, made some calculations
+upon it. There was still something remaining of his mother's fortune to
+him. If he were not Lord Drake Selbie, but simply Mr. Drake Vernon, he
+could manage to live upon it. The vision of a slim and graceful girl,
+with soft black hair and violet-gray eyes, rose before him. It seemed to
+beckon him, to beckon him away from the hollow, heartless world in which
+he had hitherto lived. He rose and flung open wide the window of his
+sitting room, and the breath of air which came through the London
+streets seemed fragrant with the air which wafted over Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>No pen, however eloquent, can describe the weariness of the hours for
+Nell which had passed since "Mr. Drake Vernon" had left Shorne Mills.
+Something had seemed to have gone out of her life. The sun was shining
+as brightly, there was the same light on the sea, the same incoming and
+outgoing tide; every one was as kind to her as they had been before he
+left, and yet all life seemed a blank. When she was not waiting upon
+mamma she wandered about Shorne Mills, sailed in the <i>Annie Laurie</i>, and
+sometimes rode across the moor. But there was something wanting, and the
+lack of it made happiness impossible. She thought of him all day, and at
+night she tossed in her little bed sleeplessly, recalling the happy
+hours she had spent with him. God knows she tried hard to forget him, to
+be just the same, to feel just the same, as she had been before he had
+been thrown at her feet. But she could not. He had entered into her life
+and become a principal part of it, absorbed it. She found herself
+thinking of him all through the day. She grew thin and pale in an
+incredibly short time. Even Dick himself could not rouse her; and Mrs.
+Lorton read her a severe lecture upon the apathy of indolence.</p>
+
+<p>Life had been so joyous and so all-sufficing a thing for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> her; but now
+nothing seemed to interest her. There was a dull, aching pain in her
+heart which she could not understand, and which she could not get rid
+of. She longed for solitude. She often walked up to the top of the hill,
+to the purple moor over which she had ridden with Drake Vernon; and
+there she would sit, recalling every word she had said, every tone of
+his voice. She tried to forget him, but it was impossible.</p>
+
+<p>One evening she walked up the hill slowly and thoughtfully, and seated
+herself on a mossy bank, and gave herself up to that reverie in which we
+dream dreams which are more of heaven than of earth.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she heard the sound of footsteps. She looked up listlessly and
+with a slight feeling of impatience, seeing that her reverie was
+disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>The footsteps came nearer, a tall figure appeared against the sunset.
+She rose to her feet, trembling and filled with the hope that seemed to
+her too wild for hope.</p>
+
+<p>In another moment he was beside her. She rose, quivering in every nerve.</p>
+
+<p>Was it only a dream, or was it he? He held her hand and looked down at
+her with an expression in his eyes and face which made her tremble, and
+yet which made her heart leap.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell!" he said.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>They stood and looked at each other in silence for a moment; but what a
+silence!</p>
+
+<p>It almost seemed to Nell as if it were not he himself who stood before
+her, but just a vision of her imagination, called up by the intensity of
+her thoughts of him. The color came and went in her face, leaving it, at
+last, pale and startled. And he, too, stood, as incapable of speech as
+any of the shy and bashful young fishermen on the quay; he, the man of
+the world, who had faced so many "situations" with women&mdash;women of the
+world armed with the weapons of experience, and the "higher culture." At
+that moment, intense as it was, the strength of the emotion which swept
+over him and mastered him, amazed him.</p>
+
+<p>He knew, now that he was face to face with her, how he had missed this
+girl, how keen and intolerable had been his longing for her.</p>
+
+<p>He remembered to hold out his hand. Had he done so yet? For the life of
+him, he could not have told. The sight of the sweet face had cast a
+spell over him, and he did not know whether he was standing or sitting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As she put her small hand in his, Nell recovered something of her
+self-possession; but not all, for her heart was beating furiously, her
+bosom heaving, and she was in agony lest he should see the mist of dew
+which seemed to cover her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I startled you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled faintly, and drew her hand away&mdash;for he had held it half
+unconsciously.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you did&mdash;a little," she admitted. "You see, I&mdash;we did not
+expect you. And"&mdash;she laughed the laugh he had heard in his dreams,
+though it had not always been so tremulous, so like the flutelike quaver
+of this laugh&mdash;"and even now I am not quite sure it is you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is I&mdash;believe me," he said. "It is the same bad penny come back."</p>
+
+<p>Then it flashed upon him he must give some reason for his return.
+Incredible as it may seem, he was not prepared with one. He had made up
+his mind to come; he would have gone through fire and water to get back
+to Shorne Mills, but he had quite forgotten that some excuse would be
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not seem to see the necessity.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite well now?" she asked, just glancing up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite," he said; "perfectly well."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did you come? I mean when&mdash;have you been staying near?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came by this morning's train," he said, "and I walked over; my
+luggage follows by the carrier. I enjoyed the walk."</p>
+
+<p>"You must be quite strong again," she said, with a quiet little
+gladness. "Mamma&mdash;and Dick&mdash;will be so glad to see you!"</p>
+
+<p>"They haven't forgotten me?" he asked insanely.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"They have talked of very little else but you, since you have been gone,
+and Dick is like a boy who has lost a schoolfellow."</p>
+
+<p>She said it so frankly that Drake's heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;I've thought&mdash;I've missed you&mdash;Dick," he said, stumbling over the
+sentence. "Shorne Mills is, as you said, not the kind of place one
+forgets in a hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I say that?" she asked. "I don't remember it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but I do," he said. "I remember&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't we better walk on?" she said. "You must be tired, and will be
+glad of some tea&mdash;or something."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to notice for the first time that they had been standing, and
+they walked on.</p>
+
+<p>Her heart was still beating fast&mdash;beating with a new and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> strange
+happiness glowing through her. Only a few minutes ago she had felt so
+weary and wretched; the familiar scene, which she loved so dearly, had
+seemed flat and dreary and full of melancholy, and now&mdash;oh! how lovely
+it was! how good it was to look upon!</p>
+
+<p>Why had everything changed so suddenly? Why was every pulse dancing to
+the subtle music with which the air seemed full?</p>
+
+<p>The question came to her with a kind of dread and fear; and her eyes,
+which shone like stars, grew momentarily troubled and puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>He scarcely dared look at her. The longing to touch her, to take her in
+his arms&mdash;that longing of passionate love which he had never felt
+before&mdash;rose imperiously in his heart; but something restrained him. She
+was so young, so innocent and girlish that a kind of awe fell upon him.
+When, as she walked beside him, the sleeve of her jacket came in contact
+with his arm, a thrill ran through him, and he caught his breath.</p>
+
+<p>But he would hold himself in check; not at this moment, when she was
+startled by his sudden appearance, would he tell her. It was more than
+likely that he would frighten her, and that she would fly from him.</p>
+
+<p>"And is there any news?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up as if she had come from a reverie.</p>
+
+<p>"News! There is never any news at Shorne Mills!" she said, smiling
+brightly. "Nothing ever happens. Dick has shot some rabbits&mdash;and there
+was a good catch of mackerel yesterday, and&mdash;that's all."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes shone up at him, and he looked into their depths. "I wish I'd
+been here," he said. "But perhaps they'll have another big catch."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to stay?"</p>
+
+<p>The question sprang from her lips almost before she knew it, and she bit
+them a moment after the words were spoken; for it seemed to her that he
+must have noticed the eagerness, the anxiety in the query; but Drake
+only thought that she had asked with some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"A&mdash;a little while," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma and Dick will be very pleased," she said, in as matter-of-fact a
+tone as she could.</p>
+
+<p>"I wired to Mrs. Brownie, asking her if she could put me up&mdash;old Brownie
+lets some rooms, he told me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her face fell for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not coming to us&mdash;to The Cottage?" she said cheerily.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I couldn't trespass upon Mrs. Lorton's hospitality," he replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will be comfortable&mdash;&mdash;" She hesitated. "Mrs. Brownie's
+cottage is very small and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm used to roughing it," he cut in; "and perhaps, when I find it
+too small, you will let me come up and see you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In our palatial mansion&mdash;for a change."</p>
+
+<p>She was bright again, and her eyes were sparkling. After all, though he
+would not be under the same roof, he would be near&mdash;would be in Shorne
+Mills.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll go down to Mrs. Brownie's and see if it is all right, and
+then come up for a cup of tea, if I may," he said, as they neared The
+Cottage.</p>
+
+<p>He opened the gate for her; she gave him a little nod, her sweet face
+radiant with the new-born happiness which suffused her whole being, and
+ran in.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma&mdash;guess who has come!" she exclaimed breathlessly, as she entered
+the sitting room where Mrs. Lorton was reclining on the sofa with the
+<i>Fashion Gazette</i> and a bottle of eau de Cologne beside her. "Dick, I
+will give you three guesses&mdash;with a box of cigarettes as a prize," as
+Dick sauntered in with the gun under his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Eleanor, why this excitement?" asked Mrs. Lorton rebukingly.
+"Your face is flushed, and your hat is on one side&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to give up drinking in the daytime, Nell," remarked Dick.
+"No, mamma, the gun will not go off, because it is not loaded. I wish it
+would, because I'm stone-broke and haven't any more cartridges. If I had
+a sister worthy of the name, she would advance me a small sum out of her
+pocket money."</p>
+
+<p>"Guess, guess!" broke in Nell impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>Dick smiled contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Some conceited clown to lecture in the schoolroom?" he said. "We know
+you of old, my dear Nell. Is there to be any tea this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Clown!" retorted Nell scornfully. "Really, I've a good mind not to tell
+you until he&mdash;he comes himself."</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;who? I must ask you to restrain your excitement, Eleanor. My nerves
+are in a very sad condition to-day, and I cannot&mdash;I really cannot bear
+any mental strain."</p>
+
+<p>"It's Mr. Drake Vernon," said Nell, more soberly.</p>
+
+<p>Dick uttered the yell of a rejoicing red Indian; and Mrs. Lorton slid
+into an upright position with incredible rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Vernon! Go on, you're joking, Nell!" cried Dick; "and yet you look
+pleased enough for it to be true! Mr. Vernon! Hurrah! Sorry, mamma, but
+my feelings, which usually are under perfect control&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Is my hair tidy, Eleanor? Take this eau de Cologne<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> away. Where is he?
+Did you think to bring a tea cake for tea? No, of course not; you think
+of nothing, nothing! I sometimes wonder why you have not imitated some
+of the Wolfer tact and readiness."</p>
+
+<p>"I met Mr. Vernon on the moor, away from the village. I will make some
+toast. He is coming up presently. He is going to stay at the
+Brownies'&mdash;this is my best hat. Do be careful!"</p>
+
+<p>For Dick, in his joy, had fallen against her in the passage and nearly
+knocked her hat off; then he seized her by the arm, and, fixing her with
+a gaze of exaggerated keenness, demanded in melodramatic tones, but too
+low for Mrs. Lorton to hear:</p>
+
+<p>"What means this sudden and strange return of the interesting stranger?
+Speak, girl! Attempt not to deceive; subterfuge will not avail ye! Say,
+what means this unexpected appearance? Ah! why that crimson blush which
+stains your nose&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell broke from him&mdash;half ashamedly, for was she, indeed, blushing?&mdash;and
+ran to make the toast, and Dick went to the gate to watch for Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Drake found the Brownies expecting him, and was shown the tiny sitting
+room and bedroom they had hastily prepared; and, his luggage having
+arrived, he had a wash and a change.</p>
+
+<p>And as he dried himself on the lavender-scented towel, he invented an
+excuse for his return. He was filled with a strange gladness; the surge
+of the waves as they beat against the jetty sang a welcome to him; he
+could hear the fishermen calling to each other, as they cleaned their
+boats, or whistling as they sat on the jetty spreading their nets to
+dry; it was more like coming back to his birthplace, or some spot in
+which he had lived for years, than to the little seaside village which
+he had seen for the first time a few weeks ago.</p>
+
+<p>As he went up slowly to The Cottage, every man, woman, and child he met
+touched his hat or curtsied and smiled a welcome to him, and Dick's
+"Hallo, Mr. Vernon! then it is you, and Nell wasn't spoofing us. How are
+you? Come in!" went straight to his heart.</p>
+
+<p>He went in with his hand on the boy's shoulder, and was received by Mrs.
+Lorton with a mixture of stately dignity and simpering pleasure, which,
+however, no longer roused his irritation and impatience.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure you will not be comfortable at the Brownies', Mr.
+Vernon," she said; "and I need not say that we shall be glad if you are
+not. Your room awaits you whenever you feel inclined to return to
+it&mdash;Richard, tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Eleanor that we are ready for the tea. And how did
+you leave London, Mr. Vernon? I am aware that it is not the season; but
+there are always some good families remaining in town," et cetera.</p>
+
+<p>Drake answered with as fair an imitation of interest as he could manage;
+then Nell came in, followed by Molly, with the tea. There was no longer
+any sign of a blush on the girl's face, but the gray eyes were still
+bright, and a smile&mdash;such a tender, joyous, sunny smile&mdash;lurked in
+ambush at the corners of her sweet lips. She did not look at him, and
+was quite busy with the teacups and saucers; but she listened to every
+word he said, as if every word were too precious to miss.</p>
+
+<p>"I was obliged to come down&mdash;the horses, you know," he said, as if that
+fully explained his return; "and, to tell you the truth, my dear Mrs.
+Lorton, I was very glad of the excuse. London is particularly hateful
+just now; though, as you say, there are a good many people there still."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you meet my cousin Wolfer?" asked Mrs. Lorton.</p>
+
+<p>Drake expressed his regret at not having done so.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you would like him," she said, with her head on one side, and
+with a long sigh. "It is years since I have seen him. When last we
+met&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"'He wore a wreath of roses!'" murmured Dick, under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;"And no doubt he would find me much changed; one ages in these
+out-of-the-way places, where the stir and bustle of the great world
+never reaches one."</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma dropping into poetry is too touching!" murmured Dick; then aloud:
+"Nell, my child, if you are going to have a fit you had better leave the
+room. This is the second time you have shot out your long legs and
+kicked me. You had better see Doctor Spence."</p>
+
+<p>The boy's badinage, Nell's half-shy delight, filled Drake with joy; even
+Mrs. Lorton's folly only amused him. He leaned back and drank his tea
+and ate his toast&mdash;he knew that Nell had made it, and every morsel was
+sweet to him&mdash;with a feeling of happiness too deep for words. And yet
+there was anxiety mixed with his happiness. Was the delight only that
+which would arise in the heart of a young girl, a child, at the visit of
+a friend?</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go down and look at the boat?" he asked, after he had
+dutifully listened to some more of Mrs. Lorton's remarks on fashion and
+nobility.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are!" said Dick; "and if you will promise to behave yourself
+like a decent member of society, you shall come too, Nell. You won't
+mind my bringing my little sister, sir?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Drake smiled, but the smile died away as they walked down to the jetty;
+he could have dispensed with the presence of Nell's little brother.</p>
+
+<p>"We might go for a short sail, mightn't we?" he said, as they stood
+looking at the boat. "Pity you didn't bring your gun, Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can fetch it!" said Dick promptly. "I shan't be ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Drake waved to Brownie to bring the <i>Annie Laurie</i> to the steps, and
+helped Nell into the boat; then ran up the sail, and pushed off.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we going to wait for Dick?" said Nell innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we'll just cruise about till he comes," said Drake. "Let me take
+the tiller."</p>
+
+<p>He steered the boat for the bay, and lit his pipe. It was just as if he
+had not left Shorne Mills; and, as he looked around at the multicolored
+cliffs, the sky dyed by the setting sun with vivid hues of crimson and
+yellow, and at Nell's lovely and happy face, he thought of the world in
+which he had moved last night; and its hollowness and falsity, its
+restless pursuit of pleasure, its selfish interests appalled him. He had
+resolved, or only half resolved, perhaps, last night, that he would "cut
+it"&mdash;leave it forever. Why shouldn't he? Why should he go back?</p>
+
+<p>Even before he had met Nell, he had been utterly weary of the old life;
+and, even if he had still hankered after it, it was now not possible for
+him. It was very improbable that he would inherit the title and estates;
+he had quarreled with his uncle; he had learned the bitter truth, that
+the women of his set were incapable of a disinterested love. And he had
+desired to be loved for himself alone. Does not every man desire it?</p>
+
+<p>Why should he not remain as "Drake Vernon," without title or fortune? If
+he won a woman's love, it would be for himself, not for the rank he
+could bestow&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is Dick!" said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Drake awoke from his reverie.</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely worth while going back for him, is it?" he said. "Besides,
+he'll want to shoot something&mdash;and these gulls look so happy and
+contented&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you told him to get his gun!" she said, with surprise. "But it
+doesn't matter. He's going out in Willy's boat, I see. I suppose he
+thinks we shan't turn back for him. Isn't it lovely this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he assented absently.</p>
+
+<p>If&mdash;if Nell, now, for instance, were to&mdash;to promise to be his wife, he
+would be sure that it was for himself she cared! She did not know that
+he was anything other than just Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> Drake Vernon. No carking doubts of
+the truth and purity of her love would ever embitter his happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we going?" she asked, turning on her elbow as he steered for
+the cove where they had lunched the other day.</p>
+
+<p>"I've a fancy to look into that cave," he said. "What a capital place it
+would be for a picnic! Shall we go ashore for a few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>He threw out the anchor, leaped to the shore, and pulled the boat in for
+her. She prepared to jump, as usual, but as she stood, her slight figure
+poised on the gunwale, he took her in his arms and lifted her out.</p>
+
+<p>Her face went crimson for an instant, but she turned aside, and walked
+up the beach, and by the time he had overtaken her the crimson had gone;
+but the grip of his arms had set her tingling, and her heart was beating
+fast; and yet it was so foolish to&mdash;to mind; for had not Brownie and
+Willy, and half the fishermen of Shorne Mills, lifted her out of a boat
+when the sea was rough and the boat unsteady?</p>
+
+<p>"Let us sit down," Drake said.</p>
+
+<p>There was a big bowlder just within the cave, and Nell seated herself on
+it, and he slid down at her side.</p>
+
+<p>"If Dick is angry, you will have to protect me," she said, breaking the
+silence which seemed to oppress her with a sense of dread.</p>
+
+<p>"I will; especially as it was my fault," he said. "I didn't want
+Dick&mdash;for a wonder. I wanted to be&mdash;alone&mdash;with you again. I have wanted
+it every minute since I left you. Do you know why?"</p>
+
+<p>She had grown pale; but she tried to smile, to meet the ardent gaze of
+his eyes; but she could not.</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't&mdash;hadn't we better be going back?" she faltered; "it is growing
+late."</p>
+
+<p>But her voice was so low that she wondered whether she had spoken aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to tell you that I have missed you, how I have longed for you,"
+he went on, not speaking with the fluency for which some of his men
+friends envied him, but brokenly, as if the words were all inadequate to
+express his meaning. "All the way up to London I thought of you&mdash;I could
+not help thinking of you. All the time I was there, whether I was alone
+or in the midst of a mob of people, I thought of you. I could see your
+face, hear your voice. I could not rest day or night. I felt that I must
+come back to you; that there would be no peace or contentment for me
+unless I could see you, hear you, be near you."</p>
+
+<p>She sat, her hands clasped tightly, her eyes downcast and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> hidden by the
+long dark lashes. Every word he was faltering was making the strangest,
+sweetest music in her ears and in her heart. That he should miss
+her&mdash;want to come back to her!&mdash;oh, it could not&mdash;could not be true!</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know why?" he went on, looking up at her with a touch of
+anxiety, of something like fear in his eyes, for her downcast face told
+him nothing; her pallor might only be a sign of fear. "It was because
+I&mdash;love you."</p>
+
+<p>She trembled, and raised her eyes for one instant; but she could not
+meet his&mdash;not yet.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you," he said, his voice deepening, so that it was almost
+hoarse. "I love you."</p>
+
+<p>Just the three words, but how much they mean! Is it any wonder that the
+poet and the novelist are never weary of singing and writing them? and
+that the world will never be weary of hearing and reading them? How much
+hangs upon the three little words! Love: it is the magic word which
+transforms a life. It means a heaven too great for mortals to imagine,
+or a hell too deep to fathom. To Nell the words spoke of a mystery which
+she could not penetrate, but which filled her heart with a joy so great
+as almost to still it forever.</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest, I have frightened you!" he said, as she sat so silent and so
+motionless. "Forgive me! It seems so sudden to you; but I&mdash;I have felt
+it for days past, have known it so long, it seems to me. I have been
+thinking, dwelling on it. Nell, do you&mdash;care for me? Can you love me?"</p>
+
+<p>Her hands unclasped and went with a swift motion to her eyes, and
+covered them. His heart sank with a sudden dread. She was not only
+frightened; she did not care for him&mdash;or was it because she did not
+know? She was so young, so girlish, so innocent!</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me&mdash;forgive me!" he pleaded, and he ventured to touch her arm.
+"I have&mdash;startled you; you did not expect&mdash;it was unfair to bring you
+here. But I can't take it back. I love you with all my heart and soul.
+See, Nell&mdash;you will let me call you that? It's the name I love above all
+others&mdash;the name I think of you by. I&mdash;I won't harass you. You&mdash;you
+shall have time to think. I will go away for&mdash;for a few days&mdash;and you
+shall think over&mdash;&mdash;No, no!" he broke off, springing to his feet and
+bending over her with a sudden passion which swept all before it. "I
+can't go. I can't leave you again, unless&mdash;unless I go forever. I must
+have your answer now&mdash;now! Speak to me, Nell. 'Yes' or 'No'?"</p>
+
+<p>He drew her hands from her face as she rose, and her eyes were lifted
+and met his. Love's sweet surrender shone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> in them; and, with a cry of
+wonder and joy, he caught her to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, Nell!" was all that he could say. "Is it true? You&mdash;you love me,
+Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>She hid her face on his breast, and her hands trembled on his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes," she breathed, almost inaudibly. Then: "Do I?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>He took her face in his hands and turned it up to him, but paused as her
+lips nearly met his.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you? Why, don't you know, dearest?" he asked tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ah! yes, I do," she said, and the tears sprang to her eyes as
+their lips met. "It was because I loved you that I was so sorry when you
+went; that every hour and day was a misery to me, and seemed to hang
+like lead; it was because I loved you that I could not think of anything
+else, and&mdash;and all the world became black and dark, and&mdash;and&mdash;I hated to
+be alive. It was because&mdash;because of that, was it not?"</p>
+
+<p>He answered with the lover's mute language.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and you love me! It seems so wonderful!" she murmured, looking at
+him with her eyes, now deep as violets and dewy with her tears. "So
+wonderful! Why&mdash;why do you?"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed&mdash;the laugh that for the first time in his life had left his
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you no looking-glass in your room, Nell?" he asked. "You beautiful
+angel! But not only because you are the loveliest&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand to his lips, her face crimson; but he kissed it and
+laid it against his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;"You are not only the loveliest woman I know, but the sweetest, Nell,"
+he said. "No man could help loving you."</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish!" she breathed; but, ah! the joy, the innocent pride that
+shone in her eyes! "You must have met, known, hundreds of beautiful
+women. I never thought that I&mdash;that any one could care for me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Because there's not a spark of vanity in my Nell, thank God!" he said.
+"See here, dearest, you speak of other women&mdash;it is because you are
+unlike any other woman I have ever known&mdash;thank God again!&mdash;because you
+are so. Ah, Nell! it's easier to love you than to tell you why. All I
+know is that I'm the happiest man on earth; that I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> deserve&mdash;&mdash;"
+His voice grew grave and his face clouded. "The best of us doesn't
+deserve the love of the worst woman; and I, who have got the sweetest,
+the dearest&mdash;&mdash;Ah, Nell! if you knew how bad a bargain you have made!"</p>
+
+<p>She laid her face against his hand, and her lips touched it with a kiss,
+and she laughed softly, as one laughs for mere joy which pants for
+adequate expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I am satisfied&mdash;ah, yes! I am satisfied!" she whispered. "It is you who
+have made the bad bargain&mdash;an ignorant girl&mdash;just a girl! Why, Dick will
+laugh at you! And mamma will think you are too foolish for words."</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her&mdash;he was sitting on the bowlder now, and she was on
+the sand at his feet, her head resting against him, his arm round her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Lorton knows nothing about me," he said. "I'm afraid, when she
+knows&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His words did not affect her. In a sense, she was scarcely noting them.
+This new happiness, this unspeakable joy, was taking complete possession
+of her. That his lips should have touched hers, that his arm should be
+round her, that her head should be resting against him, his kisses upon
+her hair, was all so wonderful that she could scarcely realize it. Would
+she awake presently and find that she was in her own room, with the
+pillow wet with the tears that had fallen because "Mr. Drake Vernon" had
+left Shorne Mills forever?</p>
+
+<p>"Does she not?" she said easily. "She knows as much about you as I do,
+and I am content. But mamma will be pleased, because she likes you. And
+Dick"&mdash;she laughed, and her eyes glowed with her love for the boy&mdash;"Dick
+will yell, and will tease me out of my life. But he will be glad,
+because he is so very fond of you. What do you do to make everybody like
+you so much, Mr. Vernon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, 'Drake, Drake, Drake'!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake," she murmured, and he stifled the word on her lips with kisses.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm by no means sure that Mrs. Lorton will be pleased," he said, after
+a moment. "See here, Nell&mdash;I never saw such hair as yours. It is dark,
+almost black, and yet it is soft and like silk&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And it is all coming down. Ah, no, you cannot coil it up. Let it be for
+a moment. Do you really like it? Dick says it is like a horse's mane."</p>
+
+<p>"Dick is a rude young scamp to whom I shall have to teach respect for
+his sister. But Mrs. Lorton, dearest&mdash;I'm afraid she won't be pleased. I
+ought to have told you, Nell, that I'm a poor man."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She nestled a little closer, and scooped up the sand with her disengaged
+hand&mdash;the one he was not holding&mdash;and she spoke with an indifference
+which filled Drake to the brim with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "I was not always so poor; but I am one who has had
+losses, as Shakespeare puts it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," she said simply, but still with a kind of indifference.
+"Mamma said you must be rich because you&mdash;well, persons who are poor
+don't keep three horses and give diamond bracelets for presents."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke with the frankness and ingenuousness of a child, and Drake
+stroked her hair as he would that of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's reasonable enough," he said. "But I've lost my money
+lately. See?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, and looked up at him a little more gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? I am sorry. I suppose it must have seemed very hard to you. I have
+never been rich, but I can imagine that one does not like losing his
+money and becoming poor. Poor&mdash;Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then, you don't mind?" he inquired. "You don't shrink from the prospect
+of being a pauper's bride, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I?" she said simply. "We've always been poor&mdash;at least,
+nearly since I can remember; and we have always been happy, Dick and I.
+Now, it would not have been so nice if you had been very rich."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" he asked, lifting a tress of her hair to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>She thought for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't you see? I should have felt that you had been foolish to&mdash;to
+love me&mdash;&mdash;" There was an interlude. Should he ever grow tired of
+kissing her? he asked himself. "And I should have been afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that you would be ashamed of me when you took me into the society
+of fashionable people, and&mdash;&mdash;Oh, I am very glad that you are not rich!
+That sounds unkind, I am afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Nell," he said solemnly, "I have long suspected that you were an angel
+masquerading as a mere woman, but I am now convinced of it."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed, and softly rubbed her cheek against his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"And I have long suspected that you were a rich man and a 'somebody'
+masquerading as a poor one, and I am delighted to hear that I was
+mistaken."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He started at the first words of her retort, but breathed a sigh of
+relief as she concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor or rich, I love you, Nell," he said, with a seriousness which was
+almost solemn, "and I will do my level best to make you happy. When you
+are my wife&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The blood rushed to her face, and her head dropped.</p>
+
+<p>"That will be a long time hence," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" he said quickly, passionately. "I couldn't wait very long,
+Nell. But when you are my wife, I will try to prove to you that poor
+people can be happy. We shall just have enough to set up a house in some
+foreign land."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"And leave mamma and&mdash;Dick? Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>The acquiescence touched him.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't mind, dearest&mdash;you won't mind leaving England?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"How cold and cruel I have become," she said, as if she were communing
+with herself. "But I do not care; I feel as if I could leave any one&mdash;go
+anywhere&mdash;if&mdash;if&mdash;I were with you!"</p>
+
+<p>She moved, so that she knelt beside him, and her small brown hands were
+palm downward on his breast; her eyes shone like stars with the light of
+a perfect love glowing in them; her sweet lips quivered, as, with all a
+young girl's abandonment to her first passion, she breathed:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I care whether you are poor or rich? I love you! Do you
+think I care whether you are handsome or ugly? It is you I love. Do you
+think I care where I go, so that you take me with you? I could not live
+without you. I would rather wander through the world, in rags, and
+starving, cold, and hungry, than&mdash;than marry a king and live in a
+palace! I only want you, you, you! I have wanted you since&mdash;since that
+first day&mdash;do you remember? I&mdash;turn your eyes away, don't look at me; I
+am so ashamed!&mdash;I came down to you that night&mdash;the first night! You were
+calling for water, and I&mdash;I raised you on my arm, and&mdash;and oh! I was so
+happy! I did not know, guess, why; but I know now. I&mdash;I must have loved
+you even then!"</p>
+
+<p>She hid her eyes on his arm, and he kissed her hair reverently.</p>
+
+<p>"And every day I&mdash;I grew to love you more. I was only happy when I was
+with you. I wondered why. But I know now! And you were always so kind
+and gentle with me; so unlike any other man I had met&mdash;the vicar, Doctor
+Spence&mdash;and I used to like to listen to you; and&mdash;and when you touched
+me something ran through me, something filled me with gladness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She paused for breath, her eyes fixed on his face, as if she were not
+seeing him, but the past, and her own self moving and being in that
+past.</p>
+
+<p>"And then you went, and all the happiness, all the gladness, seemed to
+go, and&mdash;bend lower&mdash;I&mdash;I can only whisper it&mdash;the night you went I
+flung myself on the bed and&mdash;and cried."</p>
+
+<p>"My Nell, my dearest!" was all he could say.</p>
+
+<p>"I cried because it seemed to me that my life had come to an end; that
+never, so long as I should live, should I know one moment of happiness
+again. It was as if all the light had gone out of the sky, as if the sun
+had turned cold&mdash;ah! you don't know!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do I not, dearest?"</p>
+
+<p>"And then, when I saw you to-day, all the light and warmth came rushing
+back, and I knew that it was you who were my light, my sun, and that
+without you I was not living, but only a shadow and a mockery of life."</p>
+
+<p>Her hands fell from his breast, her head sank upon his knees, she sobbed
+in the abandonment of her passion.</p>
+
+<p>And the man was awed by it, and almost as white as herself. He gathered
+her in his strong arms and murmured passionate words of love and
+gratitude and devotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, Nell, my Nell! God make me more worthy of your love!" he said
+brokenly, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>She raised her head from his knees and offered him&mdash;of her own free
+will&mdash;her sweet lips, and then clung to him with a half-tearful,
+maidenly shame.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go!" she said.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The light that never was on earth or sky beamed on the <i>Annie Laurie</i> as
+it skimmed toward the jetty.</p>
+
+<p>Nell sat in the stern, and Drake lay at her feet, his arms round her,
+his face upturned to hers.</p>
+
+<p>God knows he was grateful for her love. God also knows how unworthy he
+felt. This love is such a terrible thing. A maiden goes through the ways
+of life, in maiden meditation fancy free, pausing beside the brook to
+pluck the flowers which grow on its bank, and thinking of nothing but
+the simple girlish things which pertain to maidenhood. Then suddenly a
+shadow falls across her path. It is the shadow of the Man, and the love
+which shall raise her to heaven or drag her down to the nethermost hell.
+A glance, a word, and her fate is decided; before her stretch the long
+years of joy or misery.</p>
+
+<p>And, alas! she has no choice! Love is lord of all, of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> lives, of our
+fate, and none can say him nay. No one of us can elect to love a little
+wisely, or unwisely and too well.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no doubt, no misgiving, in Nell's mind that night. She had
+given herself to this man who had fallen at her feet in Shorne Mills,
+and she had given herself fully and unreservedly. His very presence was
+a joy to her. It was a subtle delight to reach out her hand and touch
+him, though with the tips of her fingers. The gates of paradise had
+opened and she had entered in.</p>
+
+<p>How short the hour seemed during which they had sailed toward the jetty!
+She breathed a sigh, which Drake echoed.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me lift you out," he pleaded. "I want to feel you in my arms&mdash;once
+more to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>She surrendered herself, and, for a moment, her head sank on his
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>They walked up the hill almost in silence; but every now and then his
+hand sought hers, and not in vain.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at the starlit sky in a kind of wondering amazement. Was
+it she?&mdash;was it he?&mdash;were they really betrothed? Did he really love her?
+Oh, how wonderful&mdash;wonderful it was! And they said there was no real
+happiness in this world.</p>
+
+<p>She could have laughed with the scorn of her full, complete joy!</p>
+
+<p>They entered The Cottage side by side, and were met by Dick, with
+half-serious indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, upon my word, for a clear case of desertion, I never&mdash;&mdash;Why
+didn't you wait for me? I've got a couple of gulls, and&mdash;&mdash;What's the
+matter with you, Nell? You look as if you'd found a threepenny piece."</p>
+
+<p>"Just in time for supper," simpered Mrs. Lorton.</p>
+
+<p>Drake took Nell's hand and led her into the light of the lamp, which
+illumined the night and perfumed the day.</p>
+
+<p>"I've brought Nell back, Mrs. Lorton," he said, with the shyness of the
+newly engaged man, "and&mdash;and she has promised to be my wife."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Drake's announcement was received with amazed silence for a moment; then
+Dick flung up his piece of bread behind his back, caught it dexterously,
+and burst out with:</p>
+
+<p>"See the conquering hero comes! Hurrah! Nell&mdash;Nell! Don't run away! Wait
+for the congratulations of your devoted brother!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Nell had fled to her room, and, on pretense of chivying her, Dick
+discreetly withdrew, leaving Drake to the inevitable interview with Mrs.
+Lorton.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I don't know what to say," she murmured. "It is so unexpected,
+so quite unlooked for. It is like a bolt out of the green&mdash;&mdash;" She meant
+blue, but had got the colors mixed. "I had no idea that you had any
+serious intentions!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she remembered that she had to play the part of guardian, and
+endeavored to fill the r&ocirc;le with the dignity due to a lady of her
+exalted birth.</p>
+
+<p>"I need not say that I&mdash;er&mdash;congratulate you, Mr. Vernon. Eleanor is
+a&mdash;er&mdash;dear girl; she has been the comfort and consolation of my life,
+and&mdash;er&mdash;the parting with her will be a great&mdash;a very great&mdash;trial.
+Pardon my emotion!" She snuffed into a handkerchief, and wiped her eyes
+with a delicate touch or two. "But I should not dream of standing in the
+way of her happiness. No! If she has made her heart's choice, I shall
+not attempt to dissuade her. And I feel that she has chosen wisely. Of
+course, my dear Mr. Vernon, though we have had the pleasure of your
+presence with us for some time, we do not&mdash;er&mdash;know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake winced slightly. Should he tell her the truth? Should he say, "My
+name's Drake Vernon, right enough, but I happen to be Lord Selbie?"</p>
+
+<p>But he shrank from the avowal, the confession. He knew that it would
+call forth quite a torrent of amazement and self-satisfaction; that he
+would be asked why he had concealed his full name and rank&mdash;and
+to-night, of all nights, he felt unequal to the scene which would most
+certainly follow the confession.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you all&mdash;I can," he said, with a pause before the last
+words which, fortunately for him, Mrs. Lorton was too excited to notice.
+"I'm afraid Nell hasn't made a very wise choice. I'm not worthy of her;
+but that goes without saying; no man alive is. But even in the usual
+acceptation of the term, I'm not what is called a good match."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton looked blank and rather puzzled as she thought of the
+diamond bracelet and the three horses.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;we&mdash;er&mdash;imagined that you were well off," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I've met with reverses lately," said Drake; "and I'm poorer than I was
+a&mdash;er&mdash;little while ago."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton drew herself up a little, and her expression grew less
+complaisant.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" she said interrogatively.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he went on quietly. "I am quite aware that Nell deserves&mdash;&mdash;Perhaps
+I'd better tell you the income we shall have to get along on."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He mentioned the sum which the remnant of his fortune would produce,
+and, though it was much smaller than Mrs. Lorton had expected, it was
+large enough to cause her countenance to relax something of its
+stiffness.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a large income," she said. "And I cannot but remember that
+Eleanor, though she is not a Wolfer by birth, is connected with the
+family; and that, if she were taken up by them, she might&mdash;one never
+knows what may happen under favorable circumstances. A season in London
+with my people&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said, "Nell is worthy of the best, and no doubt if she were
+in London I should stand a poor chance; but it's my luck that she isn't,
+you see. And"&mdash;his voice dropped&mdash;"and I'm conceited enough to believe
+that she cares for me; and I don't suppose my poverty will make any
+difference. Heaven knows, I wish I were rich, for her sake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we must make the best of it," said the good lady. "After all,
+money isn't everything." She spoke as if she were suffering from the
+burden of a million. "True hearts are more than coronets. I must write
+and tell my cousin, Lord Wolfer."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't! I mean, is it necessary&mdash;at any rate, just yet?" said
+Drake. It was just possible that Lord Wolfer might interest himself
+sufficiently to ask questions; he might, indeed, connect "Drake Vernon"
+with the two first names of Viscount Selbie. And Drake&mdash;well, this was
+the first bit of romance in his life, and he clung to it. The idea of
+marrying Nell, of marrying her as plain "Drake Vernon," down on his
+luck, was sweet to him. He could tell her after the wedding, when they
+were too far away to suffer from the fuss which Mrs. Lorton would
+inevitably make over the revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, we shall have to be married very quietly; and I'm thinking of
+spending some time abroad, on the Continent&mdash;Nell will like to see a
+foreign city or two&mdash;and, do you think it's worth while troubling your
+people?"</p>
+
+<p>The "your people" flattered her, and she yielded, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"As you please, Mr. Vernon&mdash;but I suppose I must now call you 'Drake'?"
+she broke off, with a simper; "though, really, it sounds so strange,
+and&mdash;er&mdash;so familiar."</p>
+
+<p>Drake wondered whether he ought to kiss her as he murmured assent.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best to make Nell happy," he said; "and you must make the
+best of a bad bargain, my dear Mrs. Lorton;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> and if you feel like being
+very good to me, you'll help me persuade Nell to an early marriage."</p>
+
+<p>She brightened up at the word marriage, and at the prospect of playing a
+part in the function beloved of all women; and when Nell stole in, with
+pink cheeks and glowing eyes, drew the girl to her and bestowed a
+pecklike kiss upon her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton provided the conversation during that meal, and, while she
+prosed about the various marriages in the Wolfer family, Nell listened
+in dutiful silence, now and again flushing and thrilling as Drake's hand
+touched hers or his eyes sought her face.</p>
+
+<p>And Dick behaved very well. He reserved his chaff for a future occasion,
+and only permitted himself one allusion to the state of affairs by
+taking Nell's hand and murmuring: "Beg pardon, Nell! Thought it was a
+spoon!"</p>
+
+<p>As Drake walked down the hill to the Brownies' cottage his heart
+throbbed with the first pure happiness of his life. Nell's kiss, which
+she had given him at parting at the gate, glowed warm upon his lips. And
+if his happiness was alloyed by the reflection that he was deceiving her
+in the matter of his rank, he thrust it from him.</p>
+
+<p>After all, what did it matter? What would she care? It was he, the man,
+not the viscount, whom she loved. Yes, the gods had been good to him,
+notwithstanding the ruin of his prospects; for was he not loved for
+himself alone?</p>
+
+<p>He smiled, with a sense of the irony of circumstances, when he
+remembered that only a few weeks ago he had congratulated himself that
+he had "done with women!" But at that time he had not fallen in love
+with Nell of Shorne Mills, and won her love; which made all the
+difference!</p>
+
+<p>And Nell? She lay awake in a sleepless dream. Every word he had spoken
+came back to her like the haunting refrain of a beautiful song; the
+expression in his eyes, the touch of his hand&mdash;ah! and more, the kiss of
+his lips&mdash;were with her still. It was her first love. No man before
+Drake had ever spoken of love to her; it was her virgin heart which he
+had won; and when this is the case the man assumes the proportions of a
+god to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>And it seemed so wonderful, so incredible, that he should have fallen in
+love with her, that he should have chosen her; as his queen, as his
+wife. She tried to draw a mental picture of herself, to account for his
+preference for her, and failed to find any reason for it. He had said
+that she was&mdash;beautiful. Oh, no&mdash;no! He must have met a hundred women
+prettier than she was; but he had chosen her. How strange! how
+wonderful! Sleep came to her at last, but it was a sleep broken by
+dreams&mdash;dreams in which Drake&mdash;she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> could think of him as "Drake"&mdash;held
+her in his arms and murmured his love. She could feel his kisses on her
+lips, her hair. Once the dream turned and twisted somewhat, and he and
+she seemed separated&mdash;a vague something came between them, an intangible
+mist or cloud which neither could pass, though they stood with
+outstretched hands and yearning hearts; but this dream passed, and she
+slept the sleep of joy and peaceful happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Happiness! It is given to so few to know happiness that one would like
+to linger over the days which followed their betrothal. For every day
+was an idyl. Drake had resolved to send the horses up to London for
+sale; he had given Sparling notice, six months' wages, and a character
+which would insure him a good place; but he clung to the horses, and
+Nell and Dick and he had some famous rides before the nags went to
+Tattersall's.</p>
+
+<p>And what rides they were! Dick, wise beyond his years, would lag behind
+or canter a long way in front; and Nell and Drake would be left alone to
+whisper together, or clasp hands in silent ecstasy.</p>
+
+<p>And there was the <i>Annie Laurie</i>. To sail before the wind, with the sun
+shining brightly from the blue sky upon the opal sea; to hold his
+beloved in his arms; to feel the warmth of her lips on his; to know that
+in a few short weeks she would be his own, his wife!&mdash;the rapture of it
+made him catch his breath and fall into a rapt silence.</p>
+
+<p>One day, as they were sailing homeward, the <i>Annie Laurie</i> speeding on a
+flowing tide and a favorable breeze, his longing became almost
+insupportable.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Nell," he said, with the timidity of the man whose every
+pulse is throbbing with passion, "why&mdash;why shouldn't we be married at
+once? I mean, what is the use of waiting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Married!"</p>
+
+<p>She drew away from him and caught her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" he asked. "I shan't be any the richer for waiting, and&mdash;and I
+want you very badly."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am here&mdash;you have got me," she said, with all the innocence of a
+child. "Oh, why should we hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>He bit his pipe hard.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said, rather huskily. "But I want you altogether&mdash;for my
+very own. I don't want to have to part with you at the gate of The
+Cottage. You don't understand; but I don't want you to. But, Nell, as we
+are going to be married, we might as well be married now as months
+hence."</p>
+
+<p>Her head sank lower; the <i>Annie Laurie</i> lost the wind, and fell off and
+rolled on the ground swell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you&mdash;want to marry me&mdash;so soon?" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"So soon!" he echoed. "Why, it is months&mdash;weeks&mdash;since we were engaged."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but&mdash;aren't you happy&mdash;content?" she asked. "I&mdash;I am so happy. I
+know that you love me; that is happiness enough."</p>
+
+<p>He drew her to him and kissed her with a reverence which he thought no
+woman would have received from him.</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is not enough, dearest," he said. "You don't understand. I'll
+put the banns up to-morrow&mdash;no; I'll get a special license. I want you
+for my own, all my own, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>When they sailed into the slip by the jetty, Dick was waiting for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hal-lo!" he yelled. "I've been waiting for you for the last two hours.
+I've news for you."</p>
+
+<p>"News?" said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Nell was coiling the sheet in a methodical fashion, and thinking of
+Drake's words.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The Maltbys are going to give a dance, and you and I and Nell are
+asked."</p>
+
+<p>"And who are the Maltbys?" he inquired, with a lack of interest which
+nettled Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"The Maltbys are our salt of the earth," he replied; "they are our
+especial 'local gentry'; and, let me tell you, an invitation from them
+is not to be sneezed at."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't sneeze," said Drake, clasping Nell's hand as he helped her out
+of the boat.</p>
+
+<p>"It's for the fifth," said Dick; "and it's sure to be a good dance;
+better still, it's sure to be a good supper. Now, look here, don't you
+two spoons say you 'don't care about it,' for, I've set my mind upon
+going."</p>
+
+<p>Drake laughed easily.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to go?" he asked of Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you?" she returned.</p>
+
+<p>Loverlike, he thought of a dance with her. She was, her girlish
+innocence, so sparing of her caresses, that the prospect of holding her
+in his arms during a waltz set him aching with longing.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," she said. "Yes, I should think we might go, Dick."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so!" he shouted. "Fancy chucking away the chance of a
+dance!"</p>
+
+<p>"How did they come to ask us?" Nell inquired. "We don't know them very
+well," she explained to Drake. "The Maltbys are quite grand folk
+compared with us; and, though Lady Maltby calls once in a blue moon, and
+sends us cards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> for a garden party now and again, this is the first time
+we have been invited to a dance."</p>
+
+<p>"You have to thank me, young people," said Dick, with exaggerated
+self-satisfaction. "I happened to meet young Maltby&mdash;he's home for a
+spell; fancy he's sent down from Oxford&mdash;and he asked me to go rabbiting
+with him. He's not much of a shot, though he is a baronet's son and
+heir, and I rather think I put him up to a wrinkle or two. Anyway, the
+other day he mentioned that they were going to have a dance&mdash;quite an
+informal affair&mdash;and asked if I'd care to go; and Lady Maltby's just
+sent a note."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Then he suddenly remembered his masquerade, and looked grave and
+thoughtful. Yes, it was just possible that some one there might
+recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are the Maltbys?" he asked. "I never heard of them."</p>
+
+<p>Dick's eyes twinkled.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't truthfully say that that argues you unknown," he said; "for
+they are very quiet people, and only famous in their own straw yard. Old
+Sir William hates London, and he and Lady Maltby seldom leave the
+Grange."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no daughter, only this one son," explained Nell. "They are not
+at all 'grand,' and I think you will like them. Lady Maltby is always
+very kind, and Sir William is a dear old man, who loves to talk about
+his prize cattle."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you happen to know who is staying at the house?" asked Drake.</p>
+
+<p>After all, perhaps, he would run no risk of detection; as he had never
+met the Maltbys, it was highly improbable that they had heard of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's not a large party. I remember some of the names, because young
+Maltby ran over them. He said there weren't enough in the house to make
+up a dance. I shrewdly conjectured that that's one reason why we were
+asked."</p>
+
+<p>"Wise but ungrateful youth!" said Drake. "Let us hear the names."</p>
+
+<p>Dick repeated all that he could remember.</p>
+
+<p>"Know any of them?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Drake, with relief.</p>
+
+<p>"The fifth," mused Nell, thinking of her dress. "It is very short
+notice."</p>
+
+<p>"It's only a scratch affair; but, all the same, I should wear my white
+satin with Brussels lace, and put on my suite of diamonds and rubies, if
+I were you," advised Dick.</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, as she glanced up at Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"I am just wondering whether I have outgrown my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> nun's veiling," she
+said simply. "It's the only dress I have. I'm afraid"&mdash;she
+hesitated&mdash;"I'm afraid you will think it a very poor one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you?" he said significantly. "You never can tell. Perhaps I shall
+admire it."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he asked himself whether he should send up to Bond Street
+for some jewels for her; but he resisted the temptation. Later on, when
+they were married, he would give himself the treat of buying her some of
+the things women loved. Even in the matter of the engagement ring he had
+held himself in check, and only a very simple affair encircled the third
+finger of Nell's left hand.</p>
+
+<p>They found Mrs. Lorton in a flutter of excitement, and she handed Drake
+the note of invitation with the air of an empress conferring a patent of
+nobility.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good people," she said; "though not, of course, the cr&egrave;me de la
+cr&egrave;me. I am included in the invitation, but I shall not accept. The
+scene would but recall others of a more brilliant description in which I
+once moved&mdash;er&mdash;not the least of the glittering throng. No, Eleanor, you
+will not need a chaperon. You have Drake, who, I trust, will enjoy
+himself in what may be novel circumstances," she added, with affable
+patronage.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not need a new dress, Eleanor&mdash;Dick tells me that he must have
+a new suit."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; I am all right!" said Nell cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>She found that the old frock could, with a little alteration, be
+utilized, and for several evenings Drake sat and watched her as she
+lengthened the skirt and bestowed new lace and ribbons upon the thing,
+and, as he smoked, imagined how she would look on the night of the
+dance. He knew that not one of the other women, let them be arrayed in
+all the glory of the Queen of Sheba herself, would outshine his star.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>On the night of the fifth Nell sang softly to herself as she stood
+before the glass putting the last touches to her toilet. She was
+brimming over with happiness, and as she looked at the radiant
+reflection she wondered whether her lover would be satisfied. It is the
+question which every woman who loves asks herself. It is for the man of
+her heart that she lives and has her being; it is that she may find
+favor in his sight that she brushes the hair he has kissed; it is with
+the hope that his eye may be caught, his fancy pleased, that she puts
+the flower at her bosom or winds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> the filmy lace around her neck. And it
+was of Drake&mdash;Drake&mdash;Drake&mdash;she thought and dreamed as she turned from
+the glass and went down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>She had heard the wheels of the fly he had procured from Shallop, and
+she found him in the little hall waiting for her.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up at the lovely vision with startled admiration, for hitherto
+he had only seen her in week-a-day attire; and this slight, graceful
+form, clad in soft white, seemed so pure, so virginal and ethereal,
+that, not for the first time, his joy in her loveliness was tempered
+with awe.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell!" was all he could say, and he stretched out his arms, then let
+them fall. "I should crush you or break you," he said, half seriously.
+"Is that the dress I saw you making up&mdash;that! It looked like&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A rag," she finished for him, her eyes shining down upon him with a
+woman's gratitude for his admiration. "Will it do? Do I look&mdash;passable?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said; "no one could pass you! Nell, my angel&mdash;yes, you are like
+an angel to-night!" he broke off, in lower tones. "You&mdash;you frighten me,
+dearest. I dread to see you spread your wings and fly away from me."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed shyly and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and&mdash;how different you look!" she said; for it was the first time
+she had seen Drake in the costume which we share with the waiter; and
+her pride in him&mdash;in his tall figure and square shoulders&mdash;glowed in her
+eyes. If he had been lame and halt she would have still loved him;
+but&mdash;well, there is no woman who is not proud of her sweetheart's good
+looks. Sometimes she is prouder of them than of her own.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me put this wrap around you," he said; and as he did so she raised
+her head with a blush and an invitation in her eyes, and he kissed her
+on the lips. "See here, dearest," he said, "your first dance! And as
+many as you will give me afterward. Did I ever mention that I was
+jealous? Nell, I inform you of the gruesome fact now; and that I shall
+endure agonies every time I see you dancing with another man."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you will be spared that pain," she said. "I may be a
+wallflower, waiting for you to take pity on me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I should think that very probable," he retorted ironically. "Oh,
+Nell, how I love you, how proud&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dick came out of the dining room at that moment, and at sight of Nell
+fell back against the wall in an assumed swoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it&mdash;can it be&mdash;the simple little fishergirl of Shorne Mills? My
+aunt, Nell, you do look a swell! Got 'em all on,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> Drake, hasn't she?
+Miss Eleanor Lorton as Cinderella! Kiss your brother, Nell!"</p>
+
+<p>He made a pretended rush at her with extended arms, and Nell shrieked
+apprehensively:</p>
+
+<p>"Keep him off, Drake! He'll crush my dress! Dick&mdash;Dick, you dare!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick winked at Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"You are requested not to touch the figure. Drake, have you observed and
+noticed this warning? But so it is in this world! One man may kiss this
+waxwork, while another isn't permitted to lay a finger on it. Now, are
+we going to the Maltbys' dance, or have you decided to remain here and
+spoon? And hasn't any one a word of approval for this figure? Between
+you and me, Drake, I rather fancy myself to-night. I do hope I shan't
+break any young thing's heart, for I'm not&mdash;I really am not&mdash;a marrying
+man. Seen too much of the preliminary business with other people, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>They got into the fly, laughing, and Drake, as they drove along,
+compared this departure for a simple country dance with his past
+experiences. How seldom had he gone to a big London crush without
+wishing that he could stay at home and smoke or read!</p>
+
+<p>"Remember," he whispered to Nell, as they alighted at the Grange, "your
+first dance and as many as you can give me!"</p>
+
+<p>One or two other carriages set down at the same time, and they entered
+the hall, a portion of a small crowd, so that Lady Maltby, a buxom,
+smiling lady of the good old type of the country baronet's wife, had
+only time to murmur a few words; and Drake passed on with Nell on his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>As they went up the room, a dance started, and he drew Nell aside, and
+standing by her, looked round curiously and a trifle apprehensively. But
+there was no person whom he knew, and Sir William, who came up to them,
+had even got Drake's name wrongly.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to see you, Miss Lorton. Dear, dear! how the young ones do grow!
+Glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Verney Blake, and to congratulate
+you. I think I've met a relative of yours&mdash;an uncle, I fancy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake's face grew expressionless in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;"Sir Richard&mdash;or&mdash;was it Sir Joseph&mdash;Blake? He took the first for
+shorthorns in seventy-eight."</p>
+
+<p>Drake drew a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"No relation of mine, Sir William, I regret," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No? Same name, too. Funny! But there are a good many Blakes. So you're
+going to run off with the belle of Shorne Mills, eh? Lucky fellow!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With a chuckle he ambled off to his wife, to be sent to some one else,
+and Drake bent to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" was all he said, and he put his arm round her. The floor was
+good, the band from the garrison town knew its business, and Nell&mdash;&mdash;Was
+he surprised that she should dance so well? Was not every ordinary
+movement of hers graceful? But the fact that she could dance like an
+angel, as he put it to himself, did not make his love for her any the
+less or his pride in her diminish, be certain. He himself had been the
+best dancer in his regiment, and this, his first waltz with the girl he
+adored, sent the blood spinning through his veins.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we in step rather&mdash;nicely?" she whispered, trying to speak
+casually, but failing utterly; for the joy that throbbed in her heart
+made it impossible for her to keep her voice steady. "Oh, Drake, I&mdash;I
+was afraid that I might not be able to dance, it is so long&mdash;ever so
+long&mdash;since&mdash;&mdash;Why, this is my first real ball, and I am dancing with
+you! And how well you waltz! But you have danced so often&mdash;this is not
+your first ball!"</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at her with a pang of uneasiness, but her eyes shone up at
+him innocent of any other meaning than the simplest one, innocent of any
+doubt of him, any question of his past.</p>
+
+<p>"He would be a rank duffer who couldn't dance with you, Nell," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Her hand tightened on his with the faintest pressure, and she closed her
+eyes with a happy sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"If it could only go on forever!" was her thought; and she prayed that
+no other man might want her to dance, for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>She would have liked to sit out the dances she could not have with
+Drake, to sit and watch him. And she would not be jealous. Why should
+she be? Was he not her very own, her sweetheart, the man who loved her?</p>
+
+<p>The waltz came to an end all too soon, and as Drake led her to a seat,
+young Maltby approached her with two young fellows. She was the
+prettiest girl in the room, though she was the simplest dressed, and the
+men were anxious to secure her.</p>
+
+<p>Drake hastily scribbled his initials on several lines of her program,
+then had to resign her to her next partner, and, in discharge of his
+duty, seek a partner for himself.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Maltby introduced him to a daughter of a local squire, a fresh
+young girl, with all a country girl's frankness.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pretty girl that was with whom you were dancing!" she said, as
+they started. "She is really lovely!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And yet they say that women never admire each other," he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that?" she asked, looking up at him with her frank, blue
+eyes. "What nonsense! I love to see a pretty woman; and I quite looked
+forward to coming here to-night, because we are to have a famous London
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Which one?" asked Drake absently; his eyes were following Nell, who
+happened to look across at him at the moment, and who smiled the smile
+which a woman only accords her lover.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't remember her name," said the girl. "But she is very beautiful,
+I am told; though I find it hard to believe that she can be lovelier
+than she is," and she nodded in Nell's direction.</p>
+
+<p>Drake felt very friendly toward the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"She is as good as she is beautiful," he said; then, as the triteness
+and significance of the words struck him, he laughed slightly.</p>
+
+<p>His partner glanced up at him shyly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;I beg your pardon!" she said. "I didn't know. How&mdash;how proud you
+must be!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"And of course you want to be dancing with her now? If I were you I
+should hate to have to dance with any one else. I wish&mdash;you would
+introduce me to her after this waltz!"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure!" said Drake, wondering what on earth the girl's name
+was&mdash;for, of course, he had not caught it.</p>
+
+<p>But the introduction was not made, for her next partner came up
+immediately the dance was finished and bore her off; and Drake leaned
+against the wall and watched Nell.</p>
+
+<p>She was dancing with a subaltern from the garrison town, and was
+evidently enjoying herself. It was a pleasure to him to look at her; and
+it occurred to him that even if the bright little American, with the
+pleasant voice and tender heart, had not stepped in to ruin his
+prospects; if the title and estates were as near to him as they had been
+a few months ago; if he were moving in London society, in his own
+critical and exclusive set, he would not have made any mistake in asking
+Nell to be his wife. She would have justified his choice in any society,
+however high.</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to him that where they were going on the Continent he might,
+perhaps, procure a little amusement for her; there might be a dance or
+two at the hotels at which they would stay; or he might take her to one
+of the big state balls for which there would be no difficulty in
+obtaining an invitation.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, he thought as he watched her&mdash;her lips half parted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> with a smile of
+intense enjoyment, her eyes shining with the light of youth and
+ignorance of care&mdash;she should have a happy time of it or he would know
+the reason why; he would simply devote his life to watching over her, to
+screening her from every worry, to&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Are you staying in the house, Mr. Blake?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Sir William who had toddled up and addressed the reflective
+guest. Sir William never knew exactly how the house party was composed;
+and sometimes a man had been staying at the Grange for a fortnight
+without Sir William comprehending that the man was sleeping beneath his
+roof.</p>
+
+<p>"No? Beg your pardon! I should have liked to show you my Herefords
+to-morrow morning. I think you'd admire 'em; they're the best lot I've
+had, and I ought to do well with them at the show. But perhaps you don't
+take an interest in cattle-breeding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I do," said Drake pleasantly, and with his rather rare
+smile&mdash;he was brimming over with happiness and would have patted a
+rhinoceros that night, and Sir William was anything but a rhinoceros.
+"Every man ought to take an interest in cattle-breeding and
+horse-breeding. I did a little in the latter way myself." He pulled up
+short. "I shall be very glad to come over to-morrow morning, if you'll
+allow me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do, do!" said Sir William genially, and evidently much gratified. "But,
+look here, you'll have to come over early, because I've got to go and
+sit on the bench, and shall have to leave here soon after ten. Why not
+come over to breakfast&mdash;say, nine o'clock?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks!" said Drake; "I shall be very glad to."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Lady Maltby came up to them with a rather anxious
+expression on her pleasant face.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think what has come to the Chesney party, William," she said.
+"I didn't expect them very early, but it's getting rather late now. Do
+you think they've had an accident?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it!" returned Sir William cheerily. "They've had a jolly
+good dinner, and don't feel like moving. Don't blame them, either.
+Suppose we go and have a cigar, Mr. Blake?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake glanced toward Nell, saw that she was surrounded, exchanged a
+smile with her, then went off with Sir William to the smoking room. They
+were in the middle of their cigars, and talking cattle and horses, when
+Drake heard a carriage drive up.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the Chesney people, I dare say," said Sir William,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> and
+continued to dilate on a new rule which he was anxious that the
+Agricultural Society should adopt, and Drake and he discussed it
+exhaustively.</p>
+
+<p>Nell had just finished a dance when she saw Lady Maltby hurry across the
+room to receive four persons, two ladies and two men, who had just
+arrived. It was the belated Chesney party. Their entrance attracted a
+good deal of attention, and Nell herself was startled into interest and
+curiosity by the appearance of one of the new arrivals. She thought that
+she had never imagined&mdash;she had certainly never seen&mdash;so beautiful a
+woman, or one so magnificently dressed.</p>
+
+<p>A professional beauty in all her war paint is somewhat of a rara avis in
+a quiet country house, and this professional beauty was the acknowledged
+queen of her tribe. Her hair shone like gold, and it had been dressed by
+a maid who had acquired her art at the hands of a famous Parisian
+coiffeur; her complexion, of a delicate ivory, was tinted with the blush
+of a rose; her lips were the Cupid-bow lips which Sir Joshua Reynolds
+loved to paint. Naturally graceful, her figure was indebted to her
+modiste for every adventitious aid the art of modern dressmaking can
+bestow. Nell knew too little of dress to fully appreciate the exquisite
+perfection of the <i>toilette de la danse</i>; she could only admire and
+wonder. It was of a soft cream silk, rendered still softer in appearance
+by cobweb lace, in which, as if caught by the filmy strands, as in a
+net, were lustrous pearls. Diamonds glittered in the hair which served
+them as a setting of gold. Her very gloves were unlike those of the
+other women, and seemed to fit the long and slender hands like a fourth
+skin.</p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful!" she said involuntarily, and scarcely aware that she had
+spoken aloud.</p>
+
+<p>The man who was sitting beside her smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Like a picture, is she not?" he said. "In fact, I never see her but I
+am reminded of a Lely or a Lawrence; one of those full-length pictures
+in Hampton Court, you know!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Nell. "I've never been there."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you won't think it a fair comparison when you do see them," he
+said; "for there isn't one of them half as beautiful as Lady Luce."</p>
+
+<p>"What is her name?" asked Nell, who had not caught it.</p>
+
+<p>He did not hear the question, for the music had struck up again, and
+with a bow he went off to his next partner. It was evident to Nell that
+the beauty was not known to Lady Maltby, for Nell saw the other lady
+introducing them. Nell felt half fascinated by the new arrival, and sat
+and watched her, looking at her as intently as one gazes at something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+quite new and strange which has swung suddenly into one's own ken.</p>
+
+<p>Nell was engaged for that dance, but her partner did not turn up. She
+was not sorry, for she wanted to rest; the room was hot, and, though she
+was by no means tired, she was not eager to dance the waltz&mdash;unless it
+were to be danced with Drake. She was sitting not very far from the
+window; some considerate soul had opened it a little, and Nell got up
+and went to it and looked out. It opened onto a wide terrace; the stars
+were shining brightly, the night air came to her softly and wooingly.
+How nice it would be to go out there! Perhaps if she stole out, and
+waited, presently Drake would come into the ballroom, and, missing her,
+would come in search of her, for he would guess that she would be out
+there, and they would have a few minutes by themselves under the starlit
+sky. It was worth trying for.</p>
+
+<p>She went out, without opening the window any wider, and leaning on the
+stone coping, looked up at the sky, and then to where, far away, the few
+lights which were still burning showed her where Shorne Mills nestled
+amid its trees.</p>
+
+<p>As long as life lasted she would never be able to think of Shorne Mills
+without thinking of Drake; she thought of him now, and longed for him;
+and as she heard the window open wider she turned with a little throb of
+expectation. But instead of Drake's tall figure, two ladies came out.
+Nell recognized the beauty by her dress, and saw that the lady who was
+with her was the one who had accompanied her to the ball.</p>
+
+<p>Nell's disappointment was so acute as to embarrass her for a moment,
+and, reluctant, with a girl's shyness, to be found there alone, she
+rather foolishly drew back quietly into the shadow accentuated by the
+contrast of the light streaming from the half-open window. She retreated
+as far as the corner of the terrace, and, finding a seat there, over
+which she had nearly stumbled, she sank into it. Beside her was a marble
+statue of the god Pan. The pedestal almost, if not quite, concealed her;
+and, although she was already ashamed of having taken flight, so to
+speak, she decided to remain where she was until the other two women
+returned to the ballroom, or Drake came out and she could call to him.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce went and leaned upon almost the very spot where Nell had
+leaned; and she looked up at the sky and toward the twinkling lights,
+and yawned.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry you have come, dear?" said Lady Chesney, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> little laugh. "I
+know you so well that that yawn speaks volumes."</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather slow, isn't it?" admitted Lady Luce, with the soft little
+London drawl in her languid voice.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Luce, I told you it would be slow. What did you expect? These
+dear, good people are quite out of the world&mdash;they are antediluvians.
+The best people imaginable, of course, but not of the kind which gives
+the sort of hop you care for. I'm sorry you came; but I did warn you,
+dear, didn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," assented Lady Luce.</p>
+
+<p>"And, really, you seemed so bored&mdash;forgive me, dear; I don't want to be
+offensive&mdash;that I thought that perhaps, after all, this rustic
+entertainment might amuse you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not bored, but I'm very sick and sorry for myself," said Luce. "One
+always is when one has been a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear girl, you did it for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"That always seems to me such a futile, and altogether ineffectual,
+consolation," said Luce; "and people never offer it to you unless you
+have absolutely made a fool of yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"But I think, and everybody thinks with me, that you acted very wisely
+under the circumstances. He could not expect you to marry a poor man.
+Good heavens! fancy Luce and poverty! The combination is not to be
+imagined for a moment! It is not your fault that circumstances are
+altered, and that if you had only waited&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce made a little impatient movement with her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had only waited!" she said, with a mixture of irritation and
+regret. "It was just my luck that I should meet him when I did."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause. It need scarcely be said that Nell was extremely
+uncomfortable. These two were discussing a matter of the most private
+character, and she was playing the unwelcome part of listener. Had she
+been a woman of the world, it would have been easy for her to have
+emerged from her hiding place, and to have swept past them slowly, as if
+she had seen and heard nothing, as if she were quite unconscious of
+their presence. But Nell was not a woman of the world; she was just Nell
+of Shorne Mills, a girl at her first ball, and her first introduction to
+society. She could not move&mdash;could only long for them to become either
+silent or to go away and leave her free to escape.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he was very much cut up?" remarked Lady Chesney.</p>
+
+<p>"That goes without saying," replied Luce. "Of course. He was very fond
+of me; or, why should he have asked me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> to marry him? You wouldn't ask
+the question if you had seen him the day I broke with him. I never saw a
+man so cut up. It made me quite ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the love was not altogether on one side, dear?" said Lady Chesney.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce shrugged her white shoulders in eloquent silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did the dramatic parting take place?" asked Lady Chesney.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said Lady Luce.</p>
+
+<p>"Here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, near here. At a little port&mdash;fishing place, called&mdash;I forget the
+name&mdash;something Mills."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you mean Shorne Mills."</p>
+
+<p>Nell's discomfort increased, and yet a keen interest reluctantly awoke
+in her. It seemed so strange to be listening to what seemed to her a
+life's drama, the scene of which was pitched in Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>"The yacht put in quite unexpectedly," continued Luce. "I didn't want to
+land at all, but Archie worried me into doing so. We climbed a miserable
+kind of steep place. I refused to go any farther. They went on, and I
+turned into a kind of recess to rest&mdash;and found Drake there."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the name did not strike with its full significance upon
+Nell's mind, and the soft voice had continued for a sentence or two
+before she realized that the man of whom this woman was speaking, the
+lover whose loss she was regretting, bore the same name as Drake. She
+had no suspicion that the men were the same; it only seemed strange and
+almost incredible that there should be two Drakes at Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>"I can imagine the scene," said Lady Chesney; "and I can quite
+understand how you feel about it. But, Luce, is it altogether hopeless?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce laughed bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know Drake," she said. There was a pause. "And yet"&mdash;she
+hesitated, and her tone became thoughtful and speculative&mdash;"sometimes I
+think that I could get him back. He is very fond of me; it must have
+nearly broken his heart. Yes; sometimes I feel sure that if I could have
+him to myself for, say, ten minutes, it would all come right."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know where he is?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. There was a row royal between his uncle and him, and he
+disappeared. No one knows where he is. It is just possible that he has
+gone abroad."</p>
+
+<p>"There is danger in that," said Lady Chesney gravely. "One never knows
+what a man may do in a moment of pique. They are strange animals."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You mean that he might be caught on the rebound, and marry some 'dusky
+bride' or ruddy-cheeked dairymaid?" said Lady Luce, with a little laugh
+of scorn. "You don't know Drake. He's the last man to marry beneath him.
+If I were not afraid of seeming egotistical, dear, I would say that he
+has known me too long and loved me too well&mdash;&mdash;But there! don't let us
+talk any more about it. The gods may send him to my side again. If they
+do, I shall avail myself of their gracious favor and get him back; if
+not&mdash;&mdash;" She sighed, and shrugged her shoulders. "Heavens! how I wish I
+had a cigarette!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, you shall have one," said Lady Chesney, with a laugh. "I know
+where the smoking room is. I'll go and get you one, you poor, dear
+soul!"</p>
+
+<p>She went in, and Nell rose from her seat. She could not remain a moment
+longer, even if she had to tell this lady she had overheard their
+conversation, and beg her pardon for having played, most reluctantly,
+the eavesdropper. But as she stood fighting with her nervousness, a man
+came out through the window. Her heart leaped with relief and
+thanksgiving, for it was Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you?" he said, as he saw the figure against the coping.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce turned; the light streamed full upon her face, and he stopped
+dead short and stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Luce!" he exclaimed, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a moment as motionless as one of the statues. Another
+woman would have started, would probably have shrunk back, with a cry of
+amazement or of joy; but she stood for just that instant, motionless and
+silent, and looking at him with her eyes dilating with surprise and
+delight. Then, holding out both hands, she moved toward him, murmuring:</p>
+
+<p>"Drake! Thank God!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Lady Luce came forward to him with both hands extended; and the "Drake,
+thank God!" was perhaps as genuinely a devout an expression as she had
+ever uttered. For it seemed to her that Providence had especially
+intervened in her behalf and sent him to her side. We all of us have an
+idea that Providence is more interested in us than in other persons.</p>
+
+<p>Drake stood and looked at her for an instant with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> same surprise
+which had assailed him when he recognized her; then he took the small,
+exquisitely gloved hands. How could he refuse them? As he had said, the
+members of their set could not be strangers, though two of them had been
+lovers and one had been jilted. They had to meet as friends or
+acquaintances, as individuals of a community, which, living for
+pleasure, could not be bored by quarrels and estrangements.</p>
+
+<p>In the "smart" set a man lives not for himself alone, but for the other
+men with whom he plays and shoots and jokes and drinks; for the women
+with whom he drives and rides and dances. He must sink personal feeling,
+likes and dislikes, or the social ship which he joins as one of the
+crew, the ship which can sail only on smooth and sunlit waves, will
+founder. So Drake took her hands and smiled a greeting at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! To find you here! What are you doing here, Drake?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>She had no right to call him "Drake"; she had lost that right the day
+she had jilted him; but she called him "Drake," and the name left her
+lips softly and meltingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I might ask the same of you, Luce," he replied gravely, and unconscious
+in the stress of the moment that he, too, had used the Christian name.</p>
+
+<p>But, alas! Nell had heard it! She had, half mechanically, shrunk behind
+the pedestal; she shrank still farther behind it as Drake spoke, and she
+put up her hand on the cold marble as if for support. For she was
+trembling in every limb, and a sensation as of approaching death was
+creeping over her. The terrace and the two figures grew misty and
+indistinct, the music of the band sounded like a blurred discord in her
+ears, and the blood rushed through her veins like fire one moment and
+like ice the next.</p>
+
+<p>She would have rushed out of her hiding place and into the house, but
+she could not move. Was she going to die? or was this awful, sickening
+weakness only a warning that she was going to faint? She pressed her
+forehead against the marble, and the icy coldness of the unsympathetic
+stone revived her. She found that she could hear every word, though the
+two had moved to the stone rail.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite a shock!" said Lady Luce. She put her handkerchief to her
+lips, her eyes, and then looked up at him with the smile, the confession
+of weakness, which is one of woman's most irresistible weapons.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am staying at the Chesneys'&mdash;you know the Chesneys? No? There is a
+small party&mdash;some of us came over to-night to this dance&mdash;they are old
+friends of the Maltbys. Drake, I can scarcely believe it is you!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He stood beside her patiently, and yet impatiently. He was thinking of
+Nell even at that moment; wondering where she was, how soon he could get
+away from Lady Luce and find Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"You are staying here?" she asked, meaning at the Maltbys'.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, thinking it well to leave her misconception uncorrected.</p>
+
+<p>"How strange! Drake, it&mdash;it is like Fate!" she murmured; and, indeed,
+she felt that it was.</p>
+
+<p>"Like Fate?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;that&mdash;that we should meet here, in this out-of-the way place, so
+soon. Oh, Drake, if you knew how glad I am!"</p>
+
+<p>She put out her hand and touched his arm with the timid touch, the
+suggestion of a caress, which women can convey so significantly.</p>
+
+<p>Drake glanced toward the open window apprehensively. Nell&mdash;any
+one&mdash;might come out any moment, and&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we walk to the end of the terrace?" he said. "You will catch
+cold&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he looked down at her. There was only a man's inquiry, and
+consideration for a woman's bare shoulders, in the look; but to Nell,
+whose eyes were fixed upon him with an agonized intentness, it seemed
+that the look was eloquent of tenderness and passion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," assented Lady Luce quickly. "Some one may come, and&mdash;and&mdash;we
+have so much to say, haven't we, Drake?"</p>
+
+<p>He drew her arm within his mechanically, as he would have drawn it if he
+had been leading her to a dance, or in to dinner, and they moved beyond
+Nell's hearing.</p>
+
+<p>Drake bit his lip, and glanced sideways toward the house. What could she
+have to say to him? and what did this sudden tenderness, this humility,
+of hers mean?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly it occurred to him that she had seen his uncle, and heard of
+the old man's offer. Ten thousand a year was not a large income for one
+in Lady Lucille Turfleigh's position; but&mdash;well, she might have been
+tempted by it. His face hardened with an expression of cold cynicism
+which Nell had never seen.</p>
+
+<p>"What have we to say, Luce?" he asked. "I thought you and I had
+exhausted all topics of absorbing interest when we parted the other
+day."</p>
+
+<p>She winced, and looked up at him reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how cruel of you, Drake!" she murmured, "As if I hadn't suffered
+enough!"</p>
+
+<p>"Suffered!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He smiled down at her, with something as nearly approaching a sneer as
+Drake Selbie could bring himself to bestow upon a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Drake, did you think I was quite heartless? that&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;did what I
+did without suffering? Ah, no, you couldn't think that; you know me too
+well."</p>
+
+<p>Her audacity brought a smile to his lips, and he found it difficult to
+restrain a laugh of amusement. It was because he had learned to know her
+so well that he himself had not suffered a pang at their broken
+engagement&mdash;at least, no pang since he had learned to know and love
+Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Where was she? How could he get away from this woman, whose face was
+upturned to him with passionate pleading on it?</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen my uncle lately?" he asked grimly, but with a kind of
+suddenness.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied, and the lie came "like truth"&mdash;so like truth that
+Drake felt ashamed of his suspicion of her motive.</p>
+
+<p>She had not, then, heard of his uncle's offer? Then&mdash;then why was she
+moved at sight of him? Why were her eyes moist with unshed tears, the
+pressure of her hand on his arm tremulous and beseeching?</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said; "I&mdash;I have been scarcely anywhere. I have&mdash;not been
+well. I came down here to the Chesneys' to bury myself&mdash;just to bury
+myself. I have been so wretched, so miserable, Drake."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," he said gravely. "But why?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you&mdash;know? Ah, Drake, can't you guess? Don't&mdash;don't look at me
+like that and smile. It is not like you to be so&mdash;so hard."</p>
+
+<p>"We men are hard or soft as you women make us, Luce," he said quietly.
+"Remember that I have been through the mill. I was not hard or
+cruel&mdash;once."</p>
+
+<p>It was an unwise thing to say. Never, if you have done with a woman, or
+she has done with you, talk sentiment, says Rousseau. It was unwise, for
+it let Luce in.</p>
+
+<p>"I know! Yes, it was all my fault. Drake, do you think I don't know
+that? Do you think that I don't tell myself so every hour of the day,
+every hour at night, when I lay awake thinking of&mdash;of the past?"</p>
+
+<p>"The past is buried, Luce," he said, with a short laugh. "Don't let us
+dig it up again. After all, you acted wisely&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I acted like a fool!" she broke in; and she meant it. "If I had
+only listened to the cry of my own heart&mdash;if I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> only refused to obey
+father, and&mdash;and stuck to you! But, Drake, though you think me
+heartless, and&mdash;and sneer&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean to sneer, Luce," he said. "Forgive me if I did so
+unintentionally. I quite understood your difficulty, and, as I told you
+the day we parted, I&mdash;well, I made allowances for you. You did what most
+women of our set would have done."</p>
+
+<p>"Would they? But perhaps they really are heartless, while I&mdash;&mdash;Drake,
+you can't tell what I have suffered; how&mdash;how terribly I have missed
+you! I&mdash;yes, I will tell you the truth. Do you know, Drake, that I had
+made a vow that whenever we met, whether it was soon, or not for years,
+I would tell you all. Yes&mdash;though, like a man, you should despise me for
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not likely to despise you for it, Luce," he said. As he spoke, Lady
+Chesney came out onto the terrace. She looked up and down, saw the two
+figures standing together, and, with a smile, returned to the house.</p>
+
+<p>"No; you are too generous for that, Drake; even if I&mdash;I confess that I
+have not spent one happy&mdash;oh, the word is a mockery!&mdash;that I have been
+wretched since the hour I&mdash;I left you."</p>
+
+<p>His face grew grave, almost stern.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," he said simply. "Candidly, I didn't think&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I know! You thought that I only cared for you because&mdash;&mdash;You told
+me that I was heartless and mercenary, you remember, Drake. But, ah; it
+wasn't true! Yes, I've been brought up at a bad school. I've been taught
+that it's a sacred duty for every girl, as poor as I am, to make a good
+match; and I thought&mdash;see how frank I am!&mdash;that I could part from you,
+oh, not easily, but without breaking my heart. But I&mdash;I was mistaken! I
+miss you so dreadfully! There is not another man in the world I can care
+for, or even dream of caring for."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" he said sternly.</p>
+
+<p>There was always something impressive about Drake, a touch of the
+manliness which is somewhat rare nowadays, the manliness which women are
+so quick to acknowledge and bow to; and Lady Luce shrank a little; but
+her hand tightened on his arm, and her brown, velvety eyes dimmed with
+genuine tears&mdash;for she was more than anxious, and more than half in love
+with him&mdash;looked up at him penitently, imploringly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Drake&mdash;you believe me?" she whispered. "Don't&mdash;don't punish me too
+badly! See, I am at your feet&mdash;a woman&mdash;Drake"&mdash;her voice sank to a
+whisper, became almost inaudible, and her head drooped forward until it
+nearly rested on his breast. "Drake&mdash;forgive&mdash;me and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice broke suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>He was moved to something like pity. Is there any man alive who can
+resist the prayer, the touch of a beautiful woman, especially if she is
+the woman he has once loved? If such a man there be, his name is not
+Drake Selbie.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" he said again, but in a gentler voice. "God knows, I loved you,
+Luce&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She uttered a faint cry. It was no louder than the sough of the night
+breeze.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake&mdash;Drake! ah, Drake!" she breathed, her face lifted to his, her
+other hand touching his breast. "Say it again! It's the sweetest music
+I've heard since&mdash;since&mdash;&mdash;Say it again, Drake. I won't ask for any
+more&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" he said hoarsely. The caress of her hand made him miserable; it
+had no power to thrill him now. "I want to tell you, Luce&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no," she said quickly, eagerly. "Don't scold me to-night. I am so
+happy now. It is as if I had come back to life. Say it once more, Drake.
+Just 'I forgive you'!"</p>
+
+<p>"I forgive you; but, listen, Luce," he added quickly.</p>
+
+<p>She slid her white arm round his neck, and drew his head down and kissed
+him. The next moment, before he could say a word, she drew away from him
+quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Go in&mdash;I will come presently," she said. "There is some one&mdash;there is a
+door."</p>
+
+<p>Confused, almost hating her for the kiss she had stolen&mdash;with Nell
+flashing on his mind&mdash;he turned and entered the house by the door to
+which she had pointed.</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a moment, then she went toward Lady Chesney. Her face was
+pale, but there was a smile on her lips, a glow of triumph in her brown
+eyes, as she paused in the light from the open window.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Chesney looked at her, then laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, you look transformed. Was that&mdash;but of course it was! Well?
+But one need not ask any questions. Your face tells its own tale."</p>
+
+<p>Luce laughed, and touched her lips with her handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was Drake," she said. "What luck! what luck! And they say there
+is no Providence!"</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and it is all right?" asked Lady Chesney, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes! Didn't I tell you that if I could have him to myself for ten
+minutes&mdash;&mdash;And we have been longer, haven't we? You see, he was fond of
+me, and&mdash;&mdash;Oh! have you brought a cigarette? I am simply dying for one
+now!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lady Chesney held one out to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is. But hadn't you better go in? They will miss you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce shrugged her shoulders as she struck a match from the gold box
+Drake had given her.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter what these people think?" she retorted. "Nothing
+matters now. I have got Drake back, and&mdash;&mdash;All the same, we will get out
+of sight of the window, lest we shock these simple folk. Yes, I am a
+lucky young woman."</p>
+
+<p>They passed along the terrace, and Nell, as if released from a spell,
+fell into the seat and covered her face with her hands.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Presently she let them fall slowly and looked vacantly with her brows
+drawn&mdash;as if waiting for the return of some sharp pain&mdash;in the direction
+of Shorne Mills. The lights had gone out; so also had died the light of
+her young life.</p>
+
+<p>She tried to realize what this was that had happened to her; but it was
+so difficult&mdash;so difficult! Only a little while ago she had been happy
+in the possession of Drake's love. He had been hers&mdash;was her sweetheart,
+her very own; he was to have been her husband; she was to have been his
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>And now&mdash;what had happened? Was she dead&mdash;had she done some evil thing
+which had turned his love for her to hate and driven him from her?</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the numbed sensation, the feeling of stupor passed, and the
+truth, as she thought of it, came upon her with a rush and made her
+press her hand to her heart as if a knife had stabbed it.</p>
+
+<p>Drake loved her no longer. He had never loved her. The woman he had
+loved was the most beautiful of God's creatures, and Drake had only
+turned to her&mdash;Nell&mdash;in a moment of pique. And this woman with the
+perfect face, and soft, lingering voice; this woman whose every movement
+was grace itself, who carried herself like an empress&mdash;an empress in the
+first flush of her beauty and power&mdash;had changed her mind and called him
+back to her. And he had gone.</p>
+
+<p>The fact caused such intense misery as to leave no room for resentment.
+At that moment there was not one spark of anger, one drop of bitterness
+in Nell's emotion; only misery so acute, so agonizing, as to be like a
+physical pain.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to her so natural, so reasonable, that he should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> desert her
+when this siren with the melting eyes, the caressing laugh, should
+beckon him; for who could have resisted her? Not any man who had once
+loved her.</p>
+
+<p>Nell's head moved slowly from side to side, like that of an animal
+stricken to death. Her throat had grown tight, her eyes were hot and
+burning, the sound, as of the plash of waves, sang in her ears; but she
+could not cry. It seemed to her that she would never be able to cry
+again. She looked vaguely at the other women as they walked at the far
+end of the terrace, and she shivered as if with bodily fear. There was
+something terrible, Circe-like, to her in the face, the movements, the
+very voice of this woman who had taken Drake from her.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the two exquisitely dressed figures passed into the house, and
+Nell rose, steadying herself by the pedestal. As she did so, she looked
+up. A streak of light shot right across the statue, and the cruel face
+with its leering eyes seemed to smile down upon her mockingly,
+jeeringly, and she actually shrank, as if she dreaded to hear the satyr
+lips shoot some evil gibe at her.</p>
+
+<p>And all the while the music, a waltz of Waldteufel's, soft and ravishing
+and seductive, floated out to her, and mocked her with the memory of the
+happiness that had been hers but an hour&mdash;half an hour ago. She
+staggered to the edge of the terrace and leaned her head on her hands,
+and, closing her eyes, tried hard to persuade herself that it was only a
+dream; just a dream, from which she should wake shuddering at the unreal
+misery one moment, then laughing at its unreality the next.</p>
+
+<p>But it was true. The dream had been the happiness of the last few weeks,
+and this was the awakening.</p>
+
+<p>Before her mental vision passed, like a panorama, the days which the
+gods had given her&mdash;that they might punish her all the more cruelly for
+daring to be so happy.</p>
+
+<p>Yes; how often had she asked herself what right she, Nell of Shorne
+Mills, had to so much joy? What had she done to deserve it?</p>
+
+<p>She remembered now how, sometimes, she had been terrified by the
+intensity of her joy. That day Drake had told her that he loved her; the
+morning he had taken her in his arms and kissed her; the night he had
+looked down into her eyes and sworn that no man in all the world loved
+any woman as he loved her. She had not deserved it, had no right to it,
+and God had punished her for her presumption in daring to be so happy.</p>
+
+<p>But now what was she to do?</p>
+
+<p>She asked the question with a kind of despair.</p>
+
+<p>It never for one moment occurred to her that she should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> accuse Drake of
+his faithlessness, much less that she should upbraid him. Indeed, what
+would be the use? Could she&mdash;she, an ignorant, half-taught girl, just
+Nell of Shorne Mills&mdash;contend against such a woman as this Lady Luce?</p>
+
+<p>Luce! Luce! She remembered&mdash;for the first time that night, strangely
+enough&mdash;how he had murmured the name in his delirium. She had forgotten
+that, she had not thought of it, and had not asked who the woman was
+whose visage haunted him in his fever.</p>
+
+<p>If she had only done so! He would have told her&mdash;yes, for Drake was
+honest; he would have told her&mdash;and she would not have allowed herself
+to fall in love with him. Even as it was, she had fought against it; but
+her struggle had been of no avail. She had loved him almost from the
+first moment.</p>
+
+<p>And now she had lost him forever!</p>
+
+<p>"Drake, Drake, Drake!" her heart called to him, though her lips were
+mute.</p>
+
+<p>What should she do?</p>
+
+<p>No; she would not upbraid him. There should be no "scene." She knew
+instinctively how much he would loathe a scene. She would just tell
+him&mdash;what? That&mdash;that&mdash;it had all been a mistake; that&mdash;she did not love
+him, and&mdash;and ask him to give her back her freedom.</p>
+
+<p>That was all. Not one word of Lady Luce would she say. He would go&mdash;go
+without a word; she knew that.</p>
+
+<p>And now she must go back to the ballroom, and try and look and behave as
+if nothing had happened.</p>
+
+<p>Was she very white? she wondered dully. She felt as if she had died, and
+was buried out of reach of any pain, beyond all possibility of further
+joy. Her life was indeed at an end. That kiss of Drake's&mdash;to her it had
+appeared as if indeed it had been his, and not Luce's only, stolen from
+him unawares&mdash;that kiss had killed her.</p>
+
+<p>Let Ibsen be a great poet and dramatist, or a literary fraud, there are
+one or two things which he says which strike men with the force of a
+revelation; and when he speaks of the love-life which is given to every
+man and woman, and calls him and her a murderer who kills it, he speaks
+truly, and as one inspired.</p>
+
+<p>Nell's love-life lay dead at her feet, and Drake, though all
+unconsciously, had slain it.</p>
+
+<p>She wiped her lips, though they were dry and parched, and with trembling
+hands smoothed her hair&mdash;the lips and the hair Drake had kissed so
+often, with such rapture&mdash;and slowly, fighting for strength and
+self-possession, passed into the ballroom.</p>
+
+<p>The brilliant light, the music, the dancers, acted upon her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+overstrained nerves as a dash of cold water upon a swooning man. For the
+first time since the blow had fallen pride awoke in her. She had lost
+Drake forever; but she would make no moan; other women before her had
+lost their lovers and their husbands by death, and they had to bear
+their bereavements; she must learn to bear hers.</p>
+
+<p>A young fellow hurried up to her with a mingled expression of relief and
+complaint.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Lorton; this is ours!" he said. "I have been looking for you
+everywhere, everywhere, on my honor, and I was nearly distracted!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell moistened her lips and forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been out on the terrace; it&mdash;it was hot."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;you didn't feel faint? You look rather pale now!" he said
+apprehensively. "Would you rather not dance?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; I would rather dance!" she replied, with a kind of feverish
+impatience. "I&mdash;I think I am cold." She shivered a little. "I shall be
+all the better for a dance!"</p>
+
+<p>She went round like one moving in a dream; her eyes looking straight
+before her in a fixed gaze, her lips curved with a forced smile. After a
+moment or two she grew warmer; the blood began to circulate, a hectic
+flush started out on her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Any one seeing her would have thought she was enjoying herself
+amazingly; would not have suspected that her heart was racked by agony;
+that the music was beating upon her brain, inflicting pain with every
+stroke; that she longed, with an aching longing, to be in the dark, in
+her own room, alone with her unspeakable misery.</p>
+
+<p>One talks glibly enough of women's sufferings; but not one of us ever
+comes near gauging them, for the gods who have denied them some things
+have granted to the least of them the great power of enduring in
+silence, of smiling while they suffer, of murmuring commonplaces while
+the iron is cutting deeper and deeper into their souls. The nobler the
+woman the greater this power of hers; and there was much that was noble
+in poor Nell. And as she danced, those who looked at her were full of
+admiration or envy. She was so young; her loveliness was so untainted by
+the world; the delicate droop of the pure lips was so childlike, while
+it hinted of the deeper nature of the woman, that many who regarded her
+and then glanced at the professional beauty, mentally accorded Nell the
+palm.</p>
+
+<p>And among them was Drake. He had gone straight to the smoking room, had
+lit a cigarette, and, pacing up and down, had, with stern lips and
+frowning brows, revolved the problem which fate had set him.</p>
+
+<p>He swore under his breath, after the manner of men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> as he went over the
+scene with Luce. What devil of ill chance had sent her down there? And
+why&mdash;why had she changed her mind? Was it really true that she&mdash;cared
+for, him still? He could scarcely believe it; and yet the caress of her
+hand, the look in her eyes, the&mdash;the&mdash;kiss&mdash;&mdash;He flung the cigarette
+away&mdash;for he had bitten it in two&mdash;and fumed mentally. And what did she
+mean, think? Was it possible that she thought he could go back to her?</p>
+
+<p>He laughed grimly, in mockery of the idea. Why, even if there had been
+no Nell, he could not have gone back to Luce. And there was Nell! Yes,
+thank God! there was Nell, his dear, sweet, beautiful Nell! His girl
+love, the girl who was like a pure star shining in God's heaven compared
+with a flame from&mdash;yes, from the nethermost pit. Love! He, who now knew
+what love meant, laughed scornfully at the idea in connection with Lady
+Luce. Passion it might be&mdash;but love! And she had left him with a kiss,
+as if she were convinced that she had recovered him! Oh, it was
+damnable, damnable!</p>
+
+<p>Why&mdash;why, she might even behave in the ballroom as if&mdash;as if she had a
+right to claim him! She might even tell the Chesneys that&mdash;that&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He strode out of the smoking room in time to see the Chesney party
+taking their departure. As Lady Luce shook hands with the hostess and
+murmured her thanks for "a delightful evening"&mdash;and for once they were
+genuine and no idle formula&mdash;he saw her glance round the room as if in
+search of some one; but he drew back out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when they had gone, he re&euml;ntered the ballroom and his eyes sought
+Nell. She met them, and he smiled, but rather anxiously, with a feeling
+of disquietude; for there was&mdash;&mdash;Was there something strange in the
+expression of her face? But as she smiled back&mdash;can one imagine what
+that smile cost Nell?&mdash;he drew a breath of relief, found a partner, and
+joined in the dance.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the party had reached the after-supper stage, and the
+waltzes had grown faster. A set of lancers had been danced with so much
+spirit and enjoyment that it had been encored. Some of the men were
+talking and laughing just a little loudly, and the women's faces were
+flushed with the one glass of champagne which is generally all they
+permit themselves, the spell of the music, and the excitement of rapid
+and rhythmical movement. Couples found their way into the anterooms and
+recesses, or sat very close together in corners of the great, broad
+staircase.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the men had boldly deserted the ballroom and retreated to the
+smoking room, where they could play whist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and drink and smoke: "Must
+wait for my womenfolk, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Dick, at this, his first dance, was enjoying himself amazingly. He had
+gone steadily through the program, and as steadily through most of the
+dishes at supper, and he was now flirting, with all a boy's ardor, with
+a plump little girl, the niece of Lady Maltby.</p>
+
+<p>She was "just out," and Dick had danced three dances in succession with
+her before she remembered that she was committing a breach of etiquette.</p>
+
+<p>"Dance again with you? Oh, I couldn't!" she said, when Dick, with inward
+tremors but an outward boldness, begged for the fourth. "I mustn't&mdash;I
+really mustn't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" demanded Dick innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"If you weren't such a boy you wouldn't ask," she retorted severely, but
+with a smile lurking in her bright young eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I bet I'm as old as you are," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you? I don't think you are. You look as if you'd just come from
+school. I'm&mdash;&mdash;No, I won't tell you. It was just a trick to learn my
+age. But if you must know why I won't dance again with you, it is
+because no lady ought to dance three times in succession with a man."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm only a boy, which makes all the difference, don't you see?"
+said Dick na&iuml;vely. "Nobody cares what a boy does, you know. Come along."</p>
+
+<p>She pretended to eye him severely.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I won't 'come along.' And I think it's very rude of you not to take
+an answer."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," he said cheerfully. "Then will you come and have some
+supper?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it isn't half an hour ago since we had some."</p>
+
+<p>"Then come and see me eat some more," he suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; but I am never very fond of seeing animals fed, even at the
+Zoo!"</p>
+
+<p>"That was rather good," he said, with a grin. "My sister, Nell couldn't
+have put that one in more neatly."</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister Nell? That's the girl over there, dancing with Captain
+White? How pretty she is!"</p>
+
+<p>"Think so? Yes, she is, now you mention it. We are considered very much
+alike."</p>
+
+<p>The girlish laughter, which he had been waiting for, rang out, and,
+taking advantage of it, Dick coaxed her into a corner on the stairs,
+where they could flirt to their hearts' content.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether you'd be offended if I told you that you were the
+jolliest&mdash;I mean nicest&mdash;girl I've met?" said the young vagabond, with
+an assumption of innocence and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> humility which robbed the remark of any
+offense&mdash;at any rate, for his hearer, whose eyes sparkled.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. And I wonder whether you'd mind if I told you that I think
+you are the rudest and most&mdash;most audacious boy I ever met?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the least in the world, because it's no news&mdash;I mean that I'm&mdash;what
+was it&mdash;the rudest and most audacious? I have a sister, you know, and
+she deals in candor, candor in solid blocks. But what a mission my
+condition opens up before you, Miss Angel!"</p>
+
+<p>"A mission?" she asked reluctantly, young enough to know that she was
+going to be caught somehow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, with demure gravity. "The mission of my reformation. If
+you think me so bad to-night, I don't know, I really don't, what you
+would have thought of me yesterday, before I had had the advantage of
+your elevating society. Now, Miss Angel, here is a chance for you&mdash;the
+great chance of your life! Continue your elevating influence. Your
+cousin has asked me to a rabbit shoot to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll shoot somebody. They really ought not to allow boys to carry
+guns&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's rude now?" he asked, with a grin. "I was going to say, when you
+interrupted me, that if you came out with the luncheon party, I should
+have the opportunity of a lesson in&mdash;in deportment and manners. See?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't think of coming," she declared promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you will," he said teasingly, and with an air of conviction.
+"Women always do what they wouldn't think of doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Really!" she retorted, with mock indignation. "There is only one thing
+I can do, and it is my duty. I shall tell your sister&mdash;&mdash;Oh, look!" she
+broke off suddenly, and with something like dismay in her voice, as she
+pointed downward.</p>
+
+<p>Dick leaned over, and saw Nell, sitting on an old oak bench just below
+them. She was leaning back; her eyes were closed, and her face white.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go to her; she is not well. I am so sorry! Go to her at once!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick ran down the stairs, and the girl followed a step or two, then
+stood watching them timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Nell! What's the matter?" asked Dick.</p>
+
+<p>She opened her eyes and rose instantly, struggling with all a woman's
+courage beating in her heart to renew the fight, to play her part to the
+end of that never&mdash;never-ending night.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, nothing. I am just a little tired, I think."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At this moment Drake came up.</p>
+
+<p>"This is my dance, Nell," he said. His face, his voice were grave, for
+his soul was still disquieted within him. "I have been looking for
+you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped suddenly and put out his hand, for her face had grown white
+again. She had raised her eyes to his for a moment with the look of a
+dumb animal in pain; but she lowered them instantly and bent aside to
+take up her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"I am tired," she said, forcing a smile. "The heat&mdash;could we not go
+home? I&mdash;I mean, Dick and I&mdash;there is no need for you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; at once; this instant!" he said. "Wait while I get you some
+water&mdash;wait&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He went off quickly, and Nell turned to Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you order the fly, Dick?" she said, in a tone that was quite new
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>It was, though the boy did not know it, the voice of the woman who has
+just parted with her girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't wait, please. I shall be all right."</p>
+
+<p>Dick left her, and Miss Angel came down to her timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything I can do&mdash;I know what it is. You feel faint&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"God grant you may never know what it is," she thought, looking up at
+the girl's face, and feeling years and years older than she.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it is," she said. "But I shall be all right the moment I get
+into the air."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Angel whipped off her shawl, which Dick had insisted upon her
+wearing.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me&mdash;you can wait just outside the hall. I know what it is;
+you want to get outside at once&mdash;at once!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell went out with her, and as she felt the cool, fresh air, she drew a
+breath of relief; then she turned to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"I am all right now; you must not wait. I have your wrap&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dick came up with the fly, and Drake appeared with her cloak and a glass
+of wine. He had got his hat and coat as he came along. She drank some of
+the wine, and turned to hold out her hand to the girl and wish her good
+night and thank her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite, quite right now!" Drake heard her say; and his fears&mdash;for
+to a man a woman's fainting fit is a terrible thing&mdash;were somewhat
+dispelled.</p>
+
+<p>They got into the fly, and it drove off. Nell, instead of sinking into
+the corner, sat bolt upright and forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"What a jolly evening!" said Dick, with a deep sigh. "Don't wonder you
+girls are so fond of parties."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, with a brightness which deceived both of them, "it has
+been very jolly. What a pretty girl that is with whom you were sitting
+out, Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>"I always thought you had great taste," he said approvingly. "She was
+the nicest girl there&mdash;as I ventured to tell her."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed&mdash;surely the hollowness of the laugh must strike them, she
+thought&mdash;but neither of the two noticed its insincerity, and Dick
+rattled on, suspecting nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Drake sat almost silent. To be near her, to have her so close to him,
+was all the sweeter after the hateful scene with Luce. Heaven! how
+different was this love of his to that other woman from whom he had
+escaped! It was a terrible word, but it was the only fitting one to his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>He would tell Nell in the morning. Yes, he would tell Nell who he was,
+and&mdash;and&mdash;of his engagement to Luce. It would be an unpleasant, hateful
+story, but he would tell it. There had been too much concealment, too
+much deceit; he had been a fool to yield to the temptation to hide his
+identity; he would make a clean breast of it to-morrow. Once he
+stretched out his hand in the direction of hers, but Nell, though her
+eyes were not turned in his direction, saw the movement, and quickly
+removed her hand beyond his reach.</p>
+
+<p>The fly drew up at The Cottage, and Dick jumped out and opened the door
+with his key, and purposely went straight into the house. As Drake
+helped Nell out, she drew her hand away to gather up her dress, and went
+quickly into the little hall, and he followed her.</p>
+
+<p>Her heart beat fast and painfully. She felt as if she could not lift her
+eyes; as if she were the guilty one. Would he&mdash;would he attempt to kiss
+her? Oh, surely, surely not! He could not be so false. She held out her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sleepy," she said. "Good night!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her as he held her hand, and at that moment the kiss which
+Luce had taken burned like fire upon his lips. He shrank from touching
+the pure lips of the girl he loved while the other woman's kiss still
+lingered on his consciousness. It would be desecration.</p>
+
+<p>"You are all right now&mdash;not faint?" he said; and there was a troubled
+expression in his face and voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nell thought she could read his mind, and knew the reason of his
+hesitation. A few hours ago he would have lost no time in catching her
+to his heart. But now&mdash;he loved her, no longer.</p>
+
+<p>Her face went white, though she strove to keep the color in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, oh, yes!" she said. "I am only tired and&mdash;sleepy."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I won't keep you," he said gravely. "Good night."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had turned; but even as he turned, the longing in his heart grew too
+fierce for restraint. He swung round suddenly and caught her to him, drew
+her head upon his breast, and kissed her with passionate love&mdash;and
+remorse.</p>
+
+<p>Nell strove for strength to repulse him, to free herself from his arms;
+but the strength would not come. For a moment she lay motionless, her
+lips upturned to his, her eyes seeking his, with an expression in them
+which haunted Drake for many a long year afterward.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell," he said hoarsely, "I&mdash;I have something to tell you to-morrow.
+I&mdash;I have to ask your forgiveness. I would tell you to-night, but&mdash;I
+haven't courage. To-morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>The words broke the spell. The flush of a hot, unbearable shame burned
+in her veins and shone redly in her face. With an effort, she drew
+herself from his arms and blindly escaped into the sitting room.</p>
+
+<p>Drake raised his head and looked after her, biting his lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not tell her to-night?" he asked himself. There was no guardian
+angel to whisper, "The man who hesitates is lost!" and thinking, "Not
+to-night; she is too tired&mdash;to-morrow!" he left the house.</p>
+
+<p>Nell stood in the center of the room, her face white, her hands shaking;
+and Dick, as he peeled off what remained of his gloves, surveyed her
+critically.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were you, young person, I'd have a stiff glass of grog before I
+tumbled into my little bed. Look here, if you like to go up now, I'll
+have a smoke, and bring you some up presently. You look&mdash;well, you look
+as if you were going to have the measles, my child."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed discordantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I?" she said, pushing the hair from her forehead with both hands,
+and staring before her vacantly. "Perhaps I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Measles&mdash;or influenza," he said, with a pursing of the lips. "Get up to
+bed, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going," she said.</p>
+
+<p>She came round the table, and, leaning both hands on his shoulders, bent
+her lovely head and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick, you&mdash;you care for me still?" she asked, in a strained voice.</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her, as, brother like, he wiped the kiss from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Care for you? What&mdash;&mdash;Look here, Nell, you're behaving like a
+second-class idiot. And your lips are like fire. I'm dashed if I don't
+think you are going to have something."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and shook her head, and went upstairs. How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> long the few
+stairs seemed! Or was it that her legs seemed to have become like lead?</p>
+
+<p>As she passed Mrs. Lorton's room, that lady's voice called to her. Nell
+opened the door, leaning against it.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton. "What a noise you made coming
+in! Really, I think you might have shown some consideration. You know
+how lightly I sleep. I've the news for you." There was a touch of
+self-satisfaction in her voice. "A letter has come. Here it is. You had
+better read it and think over it."</p>
+
+<p>Nell crossed the room unsteadily in the dim flicker of the night light,
+and took the letter held out to her&mdash;took it mechanically&mdash;wished Mrs.
+Lorton good night, and went to her own room.</p>
+
+<p>Before she had got there she had forgotten the letter, and it fell from
+her hand as she dropped on her knees beside the bed, her arms flung wide
+over the white counterpane, her whole frame shaking.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake, Drake, Drake!" rose from her quivering lips. "Oh, God! pity
+me&mdash;pity me! I cannot bear it&mdash;I cannot bear it!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Nell woke with that sickening sense of loss which all of us have
+experienced&mdash;that is, all of us who have gone to bed with sorrow lying
+heavily upon our hearts. The autumnal sun was pouring in through the
+windows, the birds were singing; some of them waiting on the tree
+outside for the crumbs which Nell had been in the habit, ever since she
+was a child, of throwing to them. Even in her misery of last night she
+had not forgotten the birds; in the misery of her awakening she
+remembered them, and went unsteadily to the lattice window.</p>
+
+<p>The keen air, as it blew upon her face, brought the full consciousness
+of the sorrow that had befallen her.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday morning she was the happiest girl in all the world; this
+morning she was the most wretched.</p>
+
+<p>She put her hands to her face, as if some one had struck her, and she
+called all her woman's courage to meet and combat her trouble. The
+bright world seemed pressing down upon her heavily, the shrill notes of
+the birds clamoring their gratitude as they greedily fought for the
+crumbs, pierced through her head. She swayed to and fro, as if she were
+about to fall; for, in the young, mental anguish produces an absolute
+physical pain, and her head as well as her heart was aching.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She would have liked to have thrown herself upon the bed, but Dick would
+be clamoring for his breakfast presently, and Mrs. Lorton would want her
+chocolate. Life is a big wheel, and one has to push it round, though its
+edges are set with spikes of steel, and our hands are torn in the effort
+to keep it moving.</p>
+
+<p>As she dressed herself with trembling hands, she kept saying to
+herself&mdash;her lips quivering with the unspoken words:</p>
+
+<p>"I have lost Drake&mdash;I have lost Drake; I have got to bear it!"</p>
+
+<p>He would be here presently&mdash;or, perhaps, he would not come. Perhaps he
+would write to her. And yet, no; that would not be like him; he was no
+coward; he would come and tell her the truth, would ask her to forgive
+him.</p>
+
+<p>And what should she say? Yes; she would forgive him; she would make no
+"scene" with him; she would not utter one word of reproach, but just
+tell him that he was free. She would even smile, if she could; would
+assure him that she was not going to break her heart because the woman
+he had loved before he had met her&mdash;Nell&mdash;had won him back. After all,
+he was not to blame. How could any man resist such a woman as Lady Luce?
+She&mdash;Nell&mdash;was just an interlude in his life's story; he had thought
+himself in love with her; and, perhaps, if this beautiful creature,
+before whom all hearts seemed to go down, had not desired to lure him
+back, he would have remained faithful to the "little girl" whom he had
+chanced to meet at that "out-of-the-way place in Devonshire, don't you
+know." Nell could almost hear Lady Luce referring to the episode in
+these terms, if ever it should come to her ears.</p>
+
+<p>No; there should be no scene. She would give him both her hands, would
+say "good-by" quite calmly, and would then take her broken heart to the
+solitude of her own room, and try to begin to repair it.</p>
+
+<p>Dick shouted for his breakfast, and she went downstairs. He was busy
+reading a letter, and his face was full of eagerness, his eyes sparkling
+with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Nell, what a good chap Drake is!" he exclaimed. "He never said a
+word to me about it; but he's been worrying Bardsley &amp; Bardsley for
+weeks past, and they've written to say that they think they can take me
+on. Just think of it! Bardsley &amp; Bardsley! The biggest firm in the
+engineering line! Drake must have a great deal of influence; and I don't
+know how on earth he managed it. I didn't know he knew any one connected
+with the profession. It's a most splendid chance, you know!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell went round beside him, and laid her hand upon his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad, Dick," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Something in her voice must have struck him, for he looked up at her
+quickly, and with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's the matter, Nell?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," she said. "I have a headache."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so. 'After the opera is over,' you know. That's the penalty one
+pays for one's first dance. And you were queer last night, too, weren't
+you? Why didn't you lie in bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind me," said Nell. "Tell me about this letter. When are you
+going, Dick?"</p>
+
+<p>A fresh pang smote her. Was she going to lose the boy as well?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they don't say," he replied. "They're going to let me know. They
+may send me abroad; you can't tell. What a good chap Drake is, and what
+a lot we owe him? Upon my word, Nell, you're a lucky girl to have got
+hold of such a fellow for your young man."</p>
+
+<p>Nell turned away with a sickening pain about her heart. No; she would
+not tell the boy at this moment. She wouldn't spoil his happiness with
+the wet blanket of her own misery. She must even, when she came to tell
+him, make light of the broken engagement, take the blame upon herself,
+and prevent any rupture of the friendship between Drake and Dick.</p>
+
+<p>He was almost too excited to eat any breakfast; certainly too excited to
+notice Nell's untouched cup and plate.</p>
+
+<p>"I must see Drake about this at once," he said. "I think I'll go down
+and meet him. He's sure to be coming up here, isn't he?" he added, with
+a bantering smile; and Nell actually tried to smile back at him.</p>
+
+<p>As she took the chocolate up to Mrs. Lorton, she tried to put her own
+trouble out of her head, and to think only of Dick's good fortune. How
+she had longed for some such chance as this to come to the boy, and now
+it had come. But who had sent it? Drake! Well, all the more reason that
+she should forgive him, and utter no word of reproach or bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>"You are ten minutes late, Eleanor!" said Mrs. Lorton peevishly. "And,
+good heavens! what a sight you look! If one late night has this effect
+upon you, what would half a dozen have? I am quite sure that I never
+looked half as haggard and colorless as you do, even when I'd been
+through a whole season." For a moment the good lady was quite convinced
+that she had been a fashionable belle. "I should advise you to keep out
+of Drake's sight for an hour or two;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> at any rate, until you have got
+some color in your face, and your eyes have ceased to look like boiled
+gooseberries."</p>
+
+<p>The mention of Drake brought the color to Nell's face quickly enough,
+but for an instant only. It was white again, as she resolved to tell
+Mrs. Lorton that the engagement was broken off.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter, mamma," she said; and she tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton stared at her over the chocolate.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't matter?" she echoed. "You think he's so madly in love with you
+that it doesn't matter how you look, I suppose? Don't lay that
+flattering unction to your soul, Eleanor. I've known many an engagement
+broken off in consequence of the man coming suddenly upon the girl when
+she had a bad cold and had got a red nose and eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I've had a bad cold without knowing it, mamma, and Drake must
+have come upon me when my nose and eyes were appallingly red, for our
+engagement&mdash;is&mdash;broken&mdash;off."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton nearly dropped the cup of chocolate, and stared and gasped
+like a fish out of water.</p>
+
+<p>"Broken off!" she exclaimed. "Take this cup away! Give me the sal
+volatile. Open the window! No, don't open the window! What are you
+talking about? Are you out of your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell took the cup, got the sal volatile, and soothed the flustered woman
+in a mechanical fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush, mamma!" she said. "I don't want Dick to know yet."</p>
+
+<p>"But why&mdash;how&mdash;&mdash;What have you been doing?" demanded Mrs. Lorton; and
+Nell could have laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing very bad, mamma," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"But you must have," insisted Mrs. Lorton. "Of course it's your fault."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it absolutely necessary that there should be any fault?" said Nell
+wearily. "But let us say that it is my fault. Perhaps it is!" She
+laughed unconsciously, and with a touch of bitterness. "What does it
+matter whose fault it is? The reason isn't of any consequence at all;
+the fact is the only important thing, and it is a fact that our
+engagement is broken. It was broken last night, and I tell you at once,
+mamma; and I want to beg you not to ask me any questions. Drake&mdash;Mr.
+Vernon&mdash;will no doubt go away to-day, and we shan't see him any more."
+She went to the window to arrange the blind, and Mrs. Lorton didn't see
+the twitching of the white lips which spoke so calmly. "And I want to
+forget him; I want you, too, to try and forget him, and not to remind me
+of him by a single word. It was very foolish,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> my thinking that he cared
+for me&mdash;&mdash;Oh, I can't say another word&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped suddenly, her hands writhing together.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton stared at the counterpane with a half-sly, half-speculative
+expression in her faded eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"After all," she said meditatively, "it was not such a particularly good
+match. One knows nothing about him or his people, and&mdash;and I suppose
+you've not felt quite satisfied. Yes, perhaps you might do better. You
+may have some chances now. You've read the letter, and made up your
+mind, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"The letter?" echoed Nell stupidly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton stared at her angrily, and with a flush of resentment on her
+peevish face.</p>
+
+<p>"The letter I gave you last night, of course," she said. "Do you mean to
+tell me that you haven't read it? The most important letter I have ever
+received! At least, it is of the greatest importance to you. It is from
+my cousin, Lord Wolfer. What have you done with it, Eleanor?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell put her hand to her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I must have left it in my room," she said. "I will go and fetch it."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton snorted.</p>
+
+<p>"Such gross carelessness and indifference is really shameful!" she flung
+after Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Nell found the letter beside the bed, and returned with it to Mrs.
+Lorton's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's all crumpled up, as if you had been playing shuttlecock with
+it!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton indignantly. "It is absolutely disrespectful
+of you, not to say ungrateful. Read it, if you please, and slowly; I
+could not bear to have my cousin's letter gabbled over. I, at least,
+know what is due to a Wolfer."</p>
+
+<p>It was a moment or two before Nell's burning eyes could accomplish the
+task of deciphering the lines of handwriting which seemed to have been
+formed by a paralytic spider that had fallen into the ink and scrambled
+spasmodically across the paper. There was no need to tell her to read
+slowly, and she stumbled over every other word of the letter, which ran
+thus:</p>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sophia</span>: You will doubtless be surprised at hearing from me,
+and, indeed, I should not have written, for, as you are aware, my time
+is fully occupied with public affairs, and I rarely write private
+letters; but I have promised Lady Wolfer to communicate with you
+directly, as, for obvious reasons, which you will presently see, she
+does not desire my secretary to know of the proposal which I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> about
+to make you; as, in the event of your declining the proposition, there
+would be no need for the fact of its having been made to become the
+common knowledge of my household and the servants' hall. As you are
+doubtless aware, by reading the public prints, Lady Wolfer takes a great
+interest and a prominent part in the movement which is being made toward
+the amelioration of the position of woman; indeed, I may say, with
+pardonable pride, that she is one of the great leaders in this social
+revolution, which, we trust, will place woman upon the throne from which
+man has hitherto thrust her.</p>
+
+<p>"This being so, Lady Wolfer's time is, as you will readily understand,
+much absorbed; so completely, indeed, that she is unable to pay any
+attention to those smaller and meaner; household cares to which women
+less highly gifted very properly devote so much of their time. Having no
+daughter of our own, it occurred to us that it might, perhaps, be a
+beneficial arrangement for your stepdaughter, Miss Lorton, if she would
+come to us and render Lady Wolfer such assistance as is afforded by the
+ordinary housekeeper. You will say: Why not engage a duly qualified
+person for the post? I reply: We have done so, and do not find the
+ordinary person, though apparently duly qualified, satisfactory. Lady
+Wolfer is of an extremely sensitive and delicate organization, and it is
+absolutely necessary that the person with whom she would be brought in
+daily contact should be young and docile.</p>
+
+<p>"I have referred to the photograph of Miss Lorton which you were good
+enough to send me some months ago, and you will be pleased to hear that
+Lady Wolfer approves of the young lady's personal appearance. I take it
+for granted&mdash;you, her guardian, being a Wolfer&mdash;that she has been
+properly trained; and if she should be willing to come to us on what is
+termed a month's trial, we shall be very pleased to receive her. She may
+come at any moment, and without any notice beyond a mere telegram. I
+will not speak of the advantages accruing from such a position as that
+which she would hold, for I am quite sure you will be duly sensible of
+them, and will point them out to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust that you are in good health, and with best wishes for your
+prosperity and happiness,</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">"I remain, dear Sophia, yours very truly,</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 25em;">"<span class="smcap">Wolfer</span>.</span></p>
+
+<p>"P. S.&mdash;I omitted to say that I should be pleased to pay Miss Lorton an
+honorarium of fifty guineas per annum."</p>
+
+<p>At another time Nell would have found it difficult to refrain from
+laughing at the stilted phraseology of the letter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> at the pomposity
+with which the proposal was made, and the meanness which strove to hide
+itself in a postscript; but a Punch and Judy show would have seemed a
+funereal performance at that moment, and she stared as blankly at the
+letter when she had finished it as if she had been reading some language
+which had no meaning for her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton emitted a cough of self-satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"It is extremely kind and thoughtful of my Cousin Wolfer," she said;
+"and I must say that I think you are an extremely fortunate girl,
+Eleanor, to have had such an offer made you. Of course, if you had been
+still engaged to Mr. Vernon, you would have been obliged to have sent a
+refusal to Lord Wolfer; but, as it is, I presume you will not hesitate
+for a moment, but will jump at such an opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked before her blankly, and remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a chance such as few girls of your position ever meet with;
+for, of course, when my cousin speaks of a housekeeper, he does not wish
+us to infer that you would be expected to take the position of a menial.
+No; he will not forget that though you are not my daughter, I married
+your father, and that you are, therefore, connected with the family. Of
+course, you will go into society, you will meet the elite and the cr&egrave;me
+de la cr&egrave;me, and will, therefore, enjoy advantages similar to those
+which I enjoyed, but which I, alas! threw away. Really, when one comes
+to consider it, this breach of your engagement with this Mr. Vernon is
+quite providential, as it removes the only obstacle to your accepting my
+cousin's noble offer."</p>
+
+<p>Nell woke with a start when the stream of self-complacent comment had
+ceased, and realized that she was being asked to decide. What should she
+do? To leave Shorne Mills, to go into the world among strangers, to
+enter a big house as a poor relation&mdash;she shrank from the prospect for a
+moment, then she nerved herself to face it. After all, she could never
+be happy at Shorne Mills again. Every tree, every rock, every human
+being would remind her of Drake, of the lover she had lost. With Dick
+gone, there would be nothing for her to do, nothing to distract her mind
+from the perpetual brooding over the few past weeks of happiness, and
+the long, gray life before her. With these people there would be sure to
+be some work for her, something that would save her from spending every
+hour in futile regret and hopeless longing.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Eleanor?" demanded Mrs. Lorton impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"I have made up my mind; I will go," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton flushed eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will," she said. "It would be wicked and ungrateful to
+neglect such a chance. When will you go? Fortunately, you have some new
+clothes, and you will get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> what else you want in London. There are one
+or two things I should like you to get for me. You could pick them up at
+some of the sales; they are all on now, and things are sold ridiculously
+cheap. And, Eleanor, be sure and send me a full description of Lady
+Wolfer's dresses. You might snip off a pattern, perhaps. And I shall
+want to hear all about the people who go to the house, and the dinner
+parties and entertainments. I should say that it is not at all unlikely
+that Lady Wolfer may ask me to go and stay there. Of course, she will be
+curious to know what I am like&mdash;have I mentioned that we have never
+met?&mdash;and you will tell her that I&mdash;I&mdash;have been accustomed to the
+society in which she moves; and you might say that you are sure the
+change will do me good. Write often, and be sure and tell me about the
+dresses."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall leave you all alone, mamma," said Eleanor. "Are you sure
+you won't be lonely?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lorton drew a long sigh, and assumed the air of a martyr.</p>
+
+<p>"You know me too well to think that I should allow my selfish comfort to
+stand in the way of your advancement, Eleanor. Of course, I shall miss
+you. But do not think of that. Let us think only of your welfare. I
+shall have Molly, and must be content."</p>
+
+<p>Nell checked a sigh at the evident affectation of the profession. It was
+not in Mrs. Lorton to miss any human being so long as her own small
+comforts were assured.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think I will go at once&mdash;to-night," said Nell. "Why should I
+not? They want me&mdash;some one&mdash;at once, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," assented Mrs. Lorton eagerly. "I should go at once. You
+will write immediately, and tell me what the house is like, and the
+dresses."</p>
+
+<p>Nell went downstairs, feeling rather confused and bewildered by the
+sudden change in her life. She was to have been Drake's wife; she was
+now to be&mdash;what was it, companion, housekeeper?&mdash;to Lady Wolfer!</p>
+
+<p>Dick met her at the bottom of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't find Drake," he said, of course, with an injured air. "They say
+he left the cottage early this morning&mdash;they thought he was coming up
+here, as usual; but he hasn't been, has he?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"See, Dick, I've some news for you," she said. "I am going to London."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him the letter to read, and he read it, with a running
+commentary of indignant and scoffing exclamations.</p>
+
+<p>"Of all the pompous, stuck-up letters, it's the worst I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> ever imagined!
+And you say you're going? Oh, but look here! What will Drake say?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he will object," she said, almost inaudibly.</p>
+
+<p>Dick stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, young party, what is up between you two? Is there anything
+wrong? Oh, dash it! don't look as if I'd said there was a ghost behind
+you! What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Drake&mdash;Drake and I are not going to be married," she said, trying to
+smile, but breaking down in the attempt. "We&mdash;we have agreed&mdash;to&mdash;to
+part!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick uttered a low whistle, and gazed at her, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"All off!" he said. "Phew! Why&mdash;when&mdash;how?"</p>
+
+<p>She began to collect some of her small belongings&mdash;a tiny workbasket,
+some books, and such like, and answered as she moved to and fro,
+studiously keeping her face turned away from him:</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you; don't ask me, Dick. Don't&mdash;don't ask him. It&mdash;it is
+all right. It is all for the best, as mamma would say; and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;" She
+went behind him and laid her hand on his shoulder, her favorite attitude
+when she was serious or pleading. "And mind, Dick, it is to make no
+difference between you&mdash;and Drake. It&mdash;is&mdash;yes, it is all my fault. I&mdash;I
+was foolish and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She could bear no more; and, with a quick movement of her hand to her
+throat, hastened from the room.</p>
+
+<p>Dick looked after her ruefully for a moment or two, then his face
+cleared, and he winked to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"What an ass I am to be upset by a lovers' quarrel. Of course, it's all
+in the game. The other business would pall after a time if there wasn't
+a little of this kind of thing chucked in for a change. I wonder whether
+that jolly girl, Miss Angel, will come down to the lunch? Now, there's a
+girl no chap could have even a lovers' quarrel with. Poor old Drake! Bet
+I shall find 'em billing and cooing as usual when I come back," And Dick
+grinned as he marched off with his gun.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Drake rode over to the Grange for breakfast, according to his promise.
+He was glad of the ride, glad of an hour or two in which he could think
+over the dramatic events of the preceding night, and, so to speak, clear
+his brain of the unpleasant glamour which Lady Luce's words and behavior
+had produced.</p>
+
+<p>Not for a moment did he swerve from his allegiance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> Nell; never for a
+moment did the splendor of Luce's beauty, the trick of her soft voice,
+her passionate caress, eclipse the starlike purity of Nell's nature and
+personality. If it were possible, he loved Nell better and more
+devotedly, longed for her more ardently, since his meeting with Luce,
+than he had done before.</p>
+
+<p>All the way to the Grange he rehearsed what he would say to Nell when he
+rode back to The Cottage. He would tell her everything; would beg her to
+forgive him for his deception, his concealment of his full name and
+title, and&mdash;yes, he would admit that he had once loved, or thought that
+he had loved, Lady Luce; but that now&mdash;&mdash;Well, there was only one woman
+in the world for him, and that was Nell.</p>
+
+<p>He found Sir William standing on the lawn, dressed in riding cords of
+the good old kind, loose in fit and yellow in color, and surrounded by
+dogs of divers shapes and various breeds. He was as ruddy-cheeked and
+bright-eyed as if he had been to bed last night at ten o'clock, and he
+scanned the well-set-up Drake as he rode up, with a nod of approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Up to time, Mr. Vernon&mdash;got your name right at last, eh? None the worse
+for the hop last night, I suppose? Don't look any, anyway. That's a good
+nag you're riding. Bred him yourself, eh? Gad! It's the best way, if
+it's the dearest."</p>
+
+<p>He called for a groom to take the horse, and bade Drake come in to
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find nobody down, and we shall have it all to ourselves. That's
+the worst of women: keep 'em up half an hour later than usual, or upset
+their nerves with a bit of a row or anything of that kind, and, by
+George! they've got to lie abed the next morning! Now, help yourself to
+anything you see&mdash;have anything else cooked if you don't fancy what's
+here. I always toy with half a pound of steak, just to lay a foundation;
+been my breakfast, man and boy, for longer than I can remember."</p>
+
+<p>Drake ate his breakfast and listened to the genial old man&mdash;not very
+attentively, it is to be feared, for he was thinking of Nell most of the
+time&mdash;and when the baronet had demolished his steak, they went to the
+farm, followed by the motley collection of dogs which had waited outside
+with more or less patience for the reappearance of their master, and
+welcomed him with a series of yappings and barkings which might have
+been heard a mile off.</p>
+
+<p>The farm was a good one, and Drake gradually got interested in the
+really splendid cattle which Sir William exhibited with the enthusiasm
+of a breeder. The morning slipped away, but though Drake glanced at his
+watch significantly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> now and again, Sir William would not let him go;
+and at last he said:</p>
+
+<p>"What's your hurry, Vernon? Why not ride to Shallop with me? You could
+look around the town while I'm on the bench&mdash;unless you care to step
+into court and see how we administer justice&mdash;hah! hah! it's only a few
+'drunk and disorderlies' or a case of assault that we get nowadays; or
+perhaps a petty larceny&mdash;anyway, you will ride into the town with me,
+and we will have a bit of lunch together at the Crown and Scepter. No, I
+won't take any refusal! To tell you the truth, I want to have a chat
+with you about that last bull I showed you."</p>
+
+<p>Drake, thinking that it would be quicker to consent&mdash;that is to say, to
+ride into Shallop and cut across the country to Shorne Mills, yielded;
+the horses were brought round, and after Sir William had disposed of a
+tankard of ale, by way of a good, old-fashioned stirrup cup, the two men
+started.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William talked and joked as they rode along, and Drake pretended to
+listen, while in reality he continued his rehearsal of all he would say
+to Nell when presently he should be by her side, with his arms round her
+and her head on his breast.</p>
+
+<p>It was market day at Shallop, and the usual crowd of pigs and sheep and
+cattle, with their attendant drovers and farmers, blocked the streets.
+Sir William pulled up occasionally, throwing a word to one and another,
+but the two men reached the Town Hall at last, and Drake was just on the
+point of remarking that he would be off, when he saw Sir William grow
+very red in the face and very bulgy about the eyes, while at the same
+time his big hand went in a helpless kind of fashion to his
+old-fashioned neck stock.</p>
+
+<p>Drake could not imagine what was the matter, and was still in the first
+throes of amazement when Sir William suddenly swayed to and fro in the
+saddle, and then fell across his horse's neck to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Drake was off his horse in a moment, and had raised the old man's head
+as quickly. A crowd collected almost as rapidly as if the place had been
+London, and cries of "Dear, dear! it's Sir William! it's a fit! Fetch a
+doctor!" rose from all sides.</p>
+
+<p>A doctor presently pushed his way through the gaping mob of farmers and
+tradesmen, and knelt beside Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Apoplexy," he said, pursing his lips and shaking his head. "Always
+thought it would happen. Let us get him to the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>Between them they carried the stricken man to the Crown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> and Scepter, at
+which&mdash;irony of fate!&mdash;Sir William would have lunched, and got him to
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>"I've warned him once or twice," said the doctor, with a shrug of the
+shoulders. "But what's the use! You tell a man to cut tobacco and
+spirits, or they will kill him, or to refrain from rump steak and old
+ale for breakfast, and he obeys you&mdash;until the next time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is he going to die?" asked Drake sadly, for he had taken a fancy to the
+old man.</p>
+
+<p>"No-o; I don't think so. Not this time. We shall have to keep him quiet.
+Lady Maltby ought to know&mdash;ought to be here. And we mustn't frighten
+her. Would you mind riding over for her&mdash;bringing her, I mean? She'll
+want some one with her who can keep a cool head, and I fancy you can do
+that, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Drake at once; "of course I'll go."</p>
+
+<p>So it happened that, instead of riding to Shorne Mills and seeing Nell,
+and telling her the truth, the whole truth, which would have turned her
+misery to happiness, he was going as fast as his horse could carry him
+back to the Grange.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the first time he had broken bad news&mdash;he had seen men fall
+in the hunting field, and on the race course, and had had more than once
+to carry the tidings to the bereaved&mdash;and he fulfilled his sad task with
+all the tact of which he was capable. So well, indeed, that even if he
+had intended permitting Lady Maltby to proceed to Shallop without him,
+she would not have let him go. The poor woman clung to him, as women in
+their hour of need always cling to the strong man near them.</p>
+
+<p>They found Sir William coming back to consciousness&mdash;a condition which,
+though fortunate for him, was unfortunate for Drake; for the sick man
+seemed to cling to him and to rely upon him just as Lady Maltby had
+done. He implored Drake not to leave him, and Drake sat on one side of
+the bed, with the frightened wife on the other, until Sir William fell
+into a more or less refreshing slumber.</p>
+
+<p>It was just four when he mounted his horse and rode to Shorne Mills. The
+performance of a good deed always brings a certain amount of
+satisfaction with it, and, as he rode along, Drake felt more at ease
+than he had done since the scene with Lady Luce. Indeed, last night
+seemed very far away, and the incident on the terrace of very little
+consequence. Death, or the warning of death, is so solemn a thing that
+other matters dwarf beside it. But his resolution to tell Nell
+everything had not weakened, and he urged his rather tired horse along
+the steep and switchbacky road.</p>
+
+<p>At a place called Short's Cross he caught sight of the Shorne Mills
+carrier on his way to the station. But Drake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> did not guess that Nell
+was sitting under the tilt cover, that by just turning his horse and
+riding hard for a minute or two he could be beside her. He glanced at
+the cart, thought of the day he had first seen it, and of all that had
+happened since, and, gently touching his horse with his whip, rode on.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was sinking as he crossed the moor, and the cliffs were dyed a
+fiery red as he came in sight of them and The Cottage on the brow of the
+hill. His heart beat fast during the few minutes spent in reaching the
+garden gate. What would she say? Would she be much startled when she
+learned that he was "Lord Selbie"? Would she understand that he had
+never really loved Luce; that it was she&mdash;Nell&mdash;whom he wanted for his
+wife, had wanted almost from the first day of his seeing her?</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of the horse's hoofs Dick came out of The Cottage, and down
+to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" he exclaimed. "Why, where on earth have you been?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake explained as he got off the horse.</p>
+
+<p>"I breakfasted at the Grange. I don't think I mentioned it last night,
+did I? Then I rode into Shallop with Sir William, and he had a fit of
+some sort&mdash;apoplexy, I fancy&mdash;and I had to come back and fetch Lady
+Maltby. Then the poor old chap came to, and&mdash;well, he felt like wanting
+company, and I couldn't leave him until he fell asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old chap! I haven't heard a word of it," said Dick. "I say, come
+in! Mamma will be delighted to hear news of that kind&mdash;no, no; I don't
+mean&mdash;you know what I mean. Something exciting like that is like a
+bottle of champagne to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take the horse in; he's had rather a hard day of it," said Drake.
+"I've bucketed him up hill and down dale; obliged to, you know."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he looked beyond Dick and toward the open door of The
+Cottage wistfully. Why didn't Nell come out? As a rule, it was she who
+first heard the sound of his footsteps or his horse's.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it. Oh, I say, Drake, how awfully kind of you
+to&mdash;to&mdash;&mdash;Bardsley &amp; Bardsley, you know! Upon my word, I don't know how
+to thank you! I don't, indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Drake. "Hope it's what you want, Dick. If it
+isn't, we must find something else. Anyway, you can try it."</p>
+
+<p>"What I want! Rather! I should think so! As I told Nell&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Nell, by the way?" cut in Drake, with all a lover's
+impatience.</p>
+
+<p>Dick looked rather taken aback.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;ah&mdash;that is&mdash;I say, you know, what's this shindy between you and
+Nell?" he said, with a somewhat uneasy grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Shindy? What do you mean?" demanded Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Dick began to look uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about it," he said hesitatingly, "only what she
+told me. She was awfully upset this morning; red-eyed and white about
+the gills, and all I could understand was that it was 'all over' between
+you." He grinned again, but more uncomfortably. "Of course, I knew it
+was only a lovers' tiff&mdash;'make it up and kiss again,' don't you know."</p>
+
+<p>His voice and the grin died away under the change in Drake's expressive
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, anyway?" he demanded. "Is there a real quarrel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you are talking about," said Drake, speaking as a man
+speaks when a cold fear is beginning to creep about his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know myself," said Dick desperately. "Oh, I've got a
+letter for you somewhere&mdash;perhaps that will explain. Now, what did I do
+with it? Oh, I know! Wait a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>He ran into the house, and Drake waited, mechanically stroking his
+horse's sweating neck.</p>
+
+<p>Dick came out and held out a letter.</p>
+
+<p>"She gave me this for you."</p>
+
+<p>Drake opened the letter, and read:</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Drake</span>: I may call you so for the last time. I am writing to tell
+you that our engagement must come to an end. I have found that I have,
+that we both have, made a mistake. You, who are so quick to understand,
+will know, even as you read this, that I have discovered all that you
+have kept secret from me, and that, now I know it all, it is impossible,
+quite impossible, that I should&mdash;&mdash;" Here a line was hastily scratched
+through. "I want you to believe that I don't blame you in the least; it
+is quite impossible that I could care for you any longer, or that I
+could consent to remain your promised wife; indeed, I am sorry, very,
+very sorry, that we should have met. If I had known all that I know now,
+I would rather have died than have let you speak a word of love to me.</p>
+
+<p>"So it is 'good-by' forever. Please do not make it harder for me by
+writing to me or attempting to see me&mdash;but I know that you have cared,
+perhaps still care enough for me not to do so. Nothing would induce me
+to renew our engagement, though I shall always think kindly of you, and
+wish you well. I return the ring you gave me. You will let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> me keep the
+silver pencil as a souvenir of one who will always remain as, but can
+never be more than, a friend.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">"Yours,</span><span style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="smcap">Eleanor Lorton</span>."</span></p>
+
+<p>Men take the blows of Fate in various fashions. Drake's way was to take
+his punishment with as little fuss as possible. His face went very
+white, and his nostrils contracted, just as they would have done if he
+had come an ugly cropper over a piece of timber.</p>
+
+<p>"Where&mdash;where is Nell?" he asked, in so changed and strained a voice
+that Dick started, and gaped at him, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"She's&mdash;&mdash;Didn't I tell you? Didn't she tell you? She's gone&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone!" repeated Drake dully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; she's gone to London, to some relations of ours&mdash;that is, mamma's,
+you know!"</p>
+
+<p>Drake didn't know where she had gone, but he thought he understood why
+she had gone. She meant to abide by her resolution to break with him.
+Her love had changed to distrust, perhaps&mdash;God knew!&mdash;to actual dislike.</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the horse and mechanically arranged the bridle.</p>
+
+<p>"It&mdash;it doesn't matter," he said. "I'll take the horse down. Oh, by the
+way, Dick, I may have to go to London to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"What, you, too!" said Dick. "I say, there's nothing serious the matter,
+is there? It's only a lovers' tiff, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not," said Drake, as calmly as he could. "See here, Dick, we
+won't talk about it; I can't. Your&mdash;your sister has broken our
+engagement&mdash;&mdash;Hold on! there's no use discussing it. She's quite right.
+Do you hear? She's quite right," he repeated, with a sudden fierceness.
+"Everything she says is right. I&mdash;I admit it. I am to blame."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's what she said!" exclaimed the mystified and somewhat
+exasperated Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"What she has said is true&mdash;too true," continued Drake; "and there's no
+more to be said. When you write&mdash;if you see her, tell her that&mdash;that&mdash;I
+obey her&mdash;it's the least I can do&mdash;and that I won't&mdash;won't worry her.
+Her word, her wish, is law to me. And&mdash;and you may say I deserve it all.
+You may say, too, that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, and slowly, with the heaviness of a man become suddenly
+tired, got on his horse.</p>
+
+<p>"No; say nothing, excepting that I obey her, and that I won't worry her.
+Good-by, Dick."</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand, and Dick, with an anxious face and bewildered
+eyes, clung to it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here, I say, Drake; this is awful! You don't mean to say it's 'good-by'!
+I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it is," said Drake, pulling himself together, and forcing a
+smile. "I'm sorry to leave you, Dick; you and I have been good friends;
+but&mdash;well, the best of friends must part. I shall have gone to-night. I
+can catch the train. Look up Bardsley &amp; Bardsley."</p>
+
+<p>With a nod&mdash;the nod which we give nowadays when we are saying farewell
+with a broken heart&mdash;he turned the horse down the hill and rode away.</p>
+
+<p>He tossed his things into a portmanteau, got the one available trap to
+carry them to the station, and caught the night mail. At Salisbury he
+changed for Southampton, and reached that flourishing port the next
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>The sailing master of the <i>Seagull</i> happened to be on board when the
+owner of that well-known yacht was rowed alongside, and he hastened to
+the side and touched his hat as Drake climbed the ladder.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you wire, my lord?" he asked. "I haven't had anything."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I came rather unexpectedly," said Drake quietly. "Is everything
+ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite, my lord, or nearly so. I think we could sail, say, in half a
+dozen hours."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"If my cabin is ready, I'll go below and change," he said. "We'll sail
+as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, my lord. Where are we bound for?" asked Mr. Murphy, in as
+casual a manner as he could manage; for, though he was used to short
+notice, this, to quote his expression to the mate later on, "took the
+cake."</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked absently at the sky line.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the Mediterranean, I suppose," he said listlessly. He stood for a
+moment with his hand upon the rail of the saloon steps, and Mr. Murphy
+ventured to inquire:</p>
+
+<p>"Quite well, I hope, my lord?" for there was a pallor on his lordship's
+face which caused the worthy skipper a vague uneasiness. He had seen his
+master under various and peculiar circumstances, but had never seen him
+look quite like this.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly well and fit, thanks, captain," said Drake. "Will you have a
+cigar? Wind will just suit us, will it not?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>About the same time Nell's cab arrived at Wolfer House, Egerton Square.
+There were several other cabs and carriages standing in a line opposite
+the house, and Nell's cab had to wait some little time before it could
+set her down;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> but at last she was able to alight, and a footman
+escorted her and her box into a large and rather gloomy hall. He seemed
+somewhat surprised by her box, and eyed her doubtfully as she inquired
+for Lady Wolfer.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Wolfer? Yes, miss. Her ladyship is in the dining room. The meeting
+is now on. Perhaps you had better walk in."</p>
+
+<p>Sharing the man's hesitation, Nell followed him to the door. As he
+opened it, the sound of a woman's voice, thin, yet insistent and
+rasping, came out to meet her. She saw that the room was crowded. Nearly
+all who were present were women&mdash;women of various ages, but all with
+some peculiarity of manner or dress which struck Nell at the very first
+moment. But there were some men present&mdash;men with fat and rather flabby
+faces, men small and feeble in appearance, men long-haired and
+smooth-shaven.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the room, behind a small table, stood a woman, still
+young, dressed in a tailor-made suit of masculine pattern and cut. Her
+hair was pretty in color and texture, but it was cut almost close, and
+just touched the collar of her covert coat. She wore a bowler hat, her
+gloves were on the table in front of her&mdash;thick, dogskin gloves, like a
+man's. She held a roll of paper in her hand, which was bare of rings,
+though feminine enough in size and shape. A pince-nez was balanced on
+her nose, and her chin&mdash;really a pretty chin&mdash;was held high in an
+aggressive manner.</p>
+
+<p>Nell had an idea that this was Lady Wolfer, and she edged as close to
+the wall as she could, and watched and listened to the speaker with a
+natural curiosity and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"To conclude," the orator was saying, with a wave of the roll of paper
+and a jerk of the chin, "to conclude, we are banded together to wage a
+war against our old tyrant&mdash;a war of equity and right. Oh, my sisters,
+do not let us falter, do not let us return the sword to the scabbard
+until we have cleaved our way to that goal toward which the eyes of
+suffering womanhood have been drawn since the gospel of equal rights for
+both sexes sounded its first evangel!"</p>
+
+<p>It was evidently the close, the peroration, of the speech; there was a
+burst of applause, much clapping of hands, and immediately afterward a
+kind of stampede to some tables, behind which a couple of footmen were
+preparing to dispense light refreshments.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, much mystified, and rather shy and frightened, remained where she
+was; and she was just upon the point of inquiring for Lady Wolfer, when
+the recent speaker came down the room, talking with one and another of
+the presumably less hungry mob, and catching sight of Nell's slight and
+rather shrinking figure, advanced toward her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This is a new disciple, I suppose," she said, smiling through her
+eyeglasses.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I wish to see Lady Wolfer," said Nell, trying not to blush.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Lady Wolfer," said the youngish lady with the short hair and
+mannish suit; and she spoke in a gentler voice than Nell would have been
+inclined to credit her with.</p>
+
+<p>"I am&mdash;I am Nell Lorton."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer looked puzzled for a moment; then she laughed and held out
+her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Really? Why, how young and&mdash;&mdash;" She was going to say "pretty," but
+stopped in time. "Did you wire? But of course you did. I must have
+forgotten. I have such a mass of correspondence!" She laughed again. "I
+thought you were a new disciple! Come with me!"</p>
+
+<p>And, with what struck Nell as scant courtesy, her ladyship left the
+other ladies, took her by the hand, and led her out of the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer led Nell to her ladyship's own room. It was as unlike a
+boudoir as it well could be; for the furniture was of the simplest kind,
+and in place of the elegant trifles with which the fair sex usually
+delight to surround themselves, the tables, the couch, and even the
+chairs were littered with solid-looking volumes, blue books, pamphlets,
+and sheets of manuscript paper.</p>
+
+<p>There was a piano, it is true; but its top was loaded with handbills and
+posters announcing meetings, and the dust lay thick on its lid. The
+writing table was better suited to an office than a lady's "own room,"
+and it was strewn with the prevailing litter.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer cleared a chair by sweeping the books from it, and gently
+pushed Nell into it.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, you sit down for a moment while I ring for a maid to take you to
+your room. Heaven only knows where it is, or in what condition you will
+find it! You see, I quite forgot you were coming. Candid, isn't it? But
+I'm always candid, and I begin at once with you. By the way, oughtn't
+you to have come earlier&mdash;or later?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell explained that she had had her breakfast at the station, and spent
+an hour in the waiting room, so as not to present herself too early.</p>
+
+<p>"How thoughtful of you!" said Lady Wolfer. "You don't look&mdash;you look so
+young and&mdash;girlish."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm not very old," remarked Nell, with a smile. "Perhaps I'm not old
+enough to fill the position."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't throw a doubt upon your staying!" said
+her ladyship quickly. "I'm so tired of old, or what I call old, people,
+and I am sure you will do beautifully. For, though you are so young, you
+look as if you could manage; and that is what I can't do&mdash;I mean manage
+a house. I can talk&mdash;I can talk the hind leg off a donkey, as Archie
+says"&mdash;she stopped, looking slightly embarrassed for a moment, and Nell
+supposed that her ladyship alluded to Lord Wolfer&mdash;"but when it comes to
+details, fortunately there is always somebody else."</p>
+
+<p>While she had been speaking, Lady Wolfer had taken off her hat and
+jacket, and flung them onto the book-and-paper-strewn couch.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm just come in from a breakfast meeting to attend this one at home,"
+she explained. "And I've got to go out again directly to a
+committee&mdash;the Employment of Women Bureau. Have you ever heard of it?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No? I'm half inclined to envy you. No, I'm not! If it weren't for my
+work, I should go out of my mind."</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand to her head, and for an instant a wearied, melancholy
+expression flitted across her face, as if some hidden trouble had reared
+its head and grinned at her.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and a maid appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Burden, this is Miss Lorton," said Lady Wolfer. "Is her room ready?"</p>
+
+<p>Burden looked exceedingly doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>"I expected it! Please have it got ready at once; and send some wine and
+biscuits, please."</p>
+
+<p>A footman brought them, and Lady Wolfer poured some wine out for Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you must! Heaven knows when we shall have lunch; they'll very
+likely consider that scramble downstairs as sufficient. But you'll see
+to all that for the future, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must tell me, Lady Wolfer&mdash;&mdash;" began Nell, but her ladyship, with a
+grimace, stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear girl, I can't tell you anything, excepting that Lord Wolfer
+takes his breakfast early&mdash;not later than nine&mdash;is seldom in to lunch,
+and still less frequently at home to dinner; but when he does dine here,
+he dines at eight. The cook, who is, I believe, rather a decent sort of
+man, knows what Lord Wolfer likes, and you can't go very far wrong, I
+fancy, if you have a joint of roast beef or a leg of mutton on the menu;
+the rest doesn't matter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell began to feel daunted. There was just a little too much carte blanche
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>"And as to the other servants, why, there's an old person named
+Hubbard&mdash;Old Mother Hubbard, I call her&mdash;who is supposed to look after
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Nell could not help smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite see where I come in," she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't you?" she replied, as if she had been explaining most fully.
+"You are the figurehead, the goddess of the machine. You will see that
+all goes right, and give Lord Wolfer his breakfast, and preside at the
+dinner when I'm out on the stump&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"On the what?" asked the mystified Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Out speaking at meetings or serving on committees," said Lady Wolfer.
+"And you will arrange about the dinner parties and&mdash;and all that kind of
+thing, you know&mdash;the stupid things that I'm expected to do, but which I
+really haven't any time for. Do you quite see now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will do all I can," Nell said, and she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer glanced at her rather curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"How pretty you look when you laugh&mdash;quite different. You struck me as
+looking rather sad and sobered when I first saw you; but when you
+laugh&mdash;&mdash;I should advise you not to laugh when you first see Lord
+Wolfer, or he'll think you too absurdly young and girlish for the post.
+Do take your hat and jacket off! It will be some time before your room
+is ready. Let me help you."</p>
+
+<p>Nell got her outdoor things off quickly, and Lady Wolfer looked at her
+still more approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You really are quite a child, my dear!" she said, and for some reason
+or other she sighed. "Why didn't Wolfer tell me about you before, I
+wonder? I wish he had; I should like to have had you come and stay with
+us. But he is so reserved&mdash;&mdash;" she sighed again. "But never mind; you
+are here now. And how tired you must be! You are looking a little pale
+now. Why don't you drink that wine? When you are rested&mdash;quite
+rested&mdash;to-night, after dinner, perhaps&mdash;let me see, am I going
+anywhere?"</p>
+
+<p>She consulted a large engagement slate of white porcelain which stood
+erect on the crowded table.</p>
+
+<p>"Hem! yes, I have to speak at the Sisters of State Society. Never mind;
+to-morrow, after lunch&mdash;if I'm at home. Yes, I can see that we shall be
+great friends, and that is what I wanted. The others&mdash;I mean your
+predecessors&mdash;were such terrible old frumps, without any idea above
+cutlets and clean sheets, that they only bored and worried me; but you
+will be quite different&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I shan't be able to rise to the cutlet and clean sheets,"
+suggested Nell diffidently; but her ladyship laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you will!" she declared. "I am an excellent judge of
+character&mdash;it's one of my qualifications for the work I'm engaged
+in&mdash;and I can see that you are an admirable manager. I suppose you ran
+the house at home?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"'Home' meant quite a small cottage," she said. "This is a mansion."</p>
+
+<p>"Same thing," commented Lady Wolfer encouragingly. "It's all a question
+of system. I haven't any; you have; therefore you'll succeed where I
+fail. You've got that quiet, mousy little way which indicates strength
+of character&mdash;&mdash;What beautiful hair you have, by the way."</p>
+
+<p>Nell blushed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's no prettier than yours. Why do you wear it so short, Lady Wolfer?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer laughed&mdash;just a little wearily, so it struck Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Oh, I don't know. All we advanced women get our hair cut. I
+imagine we have a right to do so, and that by going cropped we assert
+that right."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Nell. "But isn't it&mdash;a pity?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer looked at her curiously, with an expression which Nell did
+not understand at that early period of their acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"Does it matter?" she said. "We women have been dolls too long&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But there are short-haired dolls," said Nell, with her native
+shrewdness.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer did not seem offended.</p>
+
+<p>"That was rather smart," she remarked. "Take care, or we shall have you
+on a public platform before long, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope not! I mean&mdash;I beg your pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Lady Wolfer, with no abatement of her good humor.
+"There's no danger&mdash;fortunately, for you. No, my dear; I can see that
+yours is a very different m&eacute;tier. Your r&ocirc;le is the 'angel of the
+house'&mdash;to be loved and loving." She turned to the desk as she spoke,
+and did not see the flush that rose for an instant to poor Nell's pale
+face. "You will always be the woman in chains&mdash;the slave of man. I hope
+the chain will be of roses, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>She stifled a sigh as she finished the pretty little sentence; and Nell,
+watching her, saw the expression of unrest and melancholy on her
+ladyship's face again. Nell wondered what was the matter, and was still
+wondering when there came a knock at the door.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come in!" said Lady Wolfer; and a gentleman entered. He was young and
+good-looking, his tall figure clad in the regulation frock coat, in the
+buttonhole of which was a delicate orchid. The hat which he carried in his
+lavender-gloved hands shone as if it had just left the manufacturer's
+hands, and his small feet were clad in the brightest of patent-leather
+boots.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon!" he began, in the slow drawl which fashion had of late
+ordained. "Didn't know you weren't alone. Sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of his voice a faint flush rose to Lady Wolfer's rather
+pretty face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said, nodding familiarly. "I thought it was
+Burden."</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to take you to the meetin'," said the beautifully dressed
+gentleman, clipping off his "g" in the manner approved by the smart set.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. This is Sir Archie Walbrooke," said Lady Wolfer, introducing
+him; "and this is my cousin&mdash;we are cousins, you know, my dear&mdash;Miss
+Lorton."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie bowed, and stared meditatively at Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Goin' to the meetin', too?" he asked. "Hope so, I'm sure. Great fun,
+these meetin's."</p>
+
+<p>"No; oh, no," explained Lady Wolfer. "Miss Lorton has come to set us all
+straight, and keep us so, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust I'm included; want it," said Sir Archie&mdash;"want it badly."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're incorrigible&mdash;incorrigibly stupid, I mean," retorted Lady
+Wolfer. "She has come to take care of us&mdash;Wolfer and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Run the show&mdash;I see," he said gravely. "If it isn't a rude question, I
+should like to ask: 'Who's goin' to take care of Miss Norton?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Lorton, Lorton," corrected Lady Wolfer. "And it is a rude question, to
+which you won't get an answer. Go downstairs and smoke a cigarette. I'll
+be ready presently."</p>
+
+<p>"All right&mdash;delighted; but time's up, you know," he said; and, with a
+bow to Nell, sauntered out.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer sat down at the desk, and wrote rapidly for a moment; then
+she said casually&mdash;a little too casually, it would have struck a woman
+of the world:</p>
+
+<p>"That is a great friend of mine&mdash;and Lord Wolfer's," she added quickly.
+"He is an awfully nice man, and&mdash;and very useful. He is a kind of tame
+cat here, runs in and out as he likes, and plays escort when I'm
+slumming or attending meetings. I hope you'll like him. He's not such a
+fool as he looks, and though he does clip his 'Gees'&mdash;sounds like a
+pun,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> doesn't it?&mdash;and cuts his sentences short, he&mdash;he is very
+good-natured and obliging."</p>
+
+<p>"He seems so," said Nell, a little puzzled to understand why Lady Wolfer
+did not take her maid or one of her lady friends to her meetings,
+instead of being taken by Sir Archie Walbrooke.</p>
+
+<p>Burden knocked at the door at this moment, and announced that Miss
+Lorton's room was ready.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Lady Wolfer, as if relieved. "Be sure that Miss Lorton
+has everything she wants. And, oh, Burden, please understand that all
+Miss Lorton's orders are to be obeyed&mdash;I mean, obeyed without hesitation
+or question. She is absolutely in command here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lady," responded Burden respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>Nell followed her to a corridor on the next floor, and into a large and
+handsomely furnished room with which the bedchamber communicated. Her
+box had been unpacked, and its modest contents arranged in a wardrobe
+and drawers. The rooms looked as if they had been got ready hurriedly,
+but they were handsome and richly furnished, and Burden apologized for
+their lack of homeliness.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get some flowers, miss," she said. "There's a big box of them
+comes up from the country place every morning. And if you think it's
+cold, I'll light a fire&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no," said Nell, as brightly as she could.</p>
+
+<p>"And can I help you change, miss? I'm your maid, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head, still smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all very nice," she said, "and I shall only be a few minutes. I
+should like to go over the house," she asked, rather timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you ring that bell, miss, I will come at once; and I will tell Mrs.
+Hubbard that you want to go round with her," said Burden.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, after the ardently desired "wash and change," sat down by the
+window and looked onto the grimy London square, whose trees and grass
+were burned brown, and tried to convince herself that she really was
+Nell of Shorne Mills; that she really was housekeeper to Lady Wolfer;
+that this really was life, and not a fantastic dream. But it was
+difficult to do so. Back her mind would travel to Shorne Mills and
+to&mdash;to Drake.</p>
+
+<p>What had he done and said when he had got her letter? Ah, well, he would
+understand; yes, he would understand, and would take it as final. He
+would go away, to Lady Luce. They would be married. She would not think.</p>
+
+<p>Providence had sent her work&mdash;work to divert her mind and save her from
+despair, and she would not look back,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> would not dwell upon the past.
+But how her tender, loving heart ached and throbbed with the memory of
+those happy weeks, with the never-to-be-forgotten kisses of the man who
+had won her heart, whose face and voice haunted her every moment of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>She sprang to her feet and rang the bell, and Burden came in and led her
+along the broad corridors and across the main hall. A middle-aged woman
+in a stiff, black dress stood waiting for her, and gave her a stately
+bow.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Mrs. Hubbard, miss," she began, rather searchingly; but Nell's
+sweet face and smile melted her at once. "I shall be pleased to take you
+hover, miss," she commenced, a little less grumpily. "It's a big 'ouse,
+and not a heasy one to manage; but per'aps, your ladyship&mdash;I beg your
+pardon, miss&mdash;per'aps you have been used to a big 'ouse?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed," said Nell, whose native shrewdness told her that this was
+a woman who had to be conciliated. "I have never lived in anything
+bigger than a cottage, and I shall need all your help, Mrs. Hubbard. You
+will have to be very patient with me."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hubbard had been prepared to fight, or, at any rate, to display a
+haughty stand-offishness; but she went down before the sweet face and
+girlish voice, and, if the truth must be told, by a certain something in
+Nell's eyes, which shone there when the <i>Annie Laurie</i> was beating
+before a contrary wind; a directness of gaze which indicated a spirit,
+not easily quelled, lurking behind the dark-gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hubbard instantly realized that this beautiful girl, young as she
+was, was compounded of different material to the "old frumps" who had
+preceded her, and whom Mrs. Hubbard had easily vanquished, and the old
+lady changed her tactics with rather startling promptitude.</p>
+
+<p>She conducted Nell over the large place; the footmen and maidservants
+stood up, questionably at first, but respectfully in the end, and Nell
+tried to grasp the extent of the responsibility which she had
+undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it all rests with you, Mrs. Hubbard," she said, as she sat in the
+housekeeper's room, Mrs. Hubbard standing respectfully&mdash;respectfully!&mdash;in
+front of her. "I am too young and inexperienced to run so large a place
+without your help; but I think&mdash;I only think&mdash;I can do it, if you stand by
+me. Will you do so? Yes, I think you will."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up with the smile which had made slaves of all Shorne Mills
+in her gray eyes, and Mrs. Hubbard was utterly vanquished.</p>
+
+<p>"If you come to me every morning after breakfast, we can talk matters
+over," said Nell, "and can decide between us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> what is to be done, and
+what not to be done; but you must never forget, please, that I know so
+little about anything."</p>
+
+<p>And Mrs. Hubbard went back to the servants' hall with her mouth and her
+eyes set firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, mind," she said, with an imperial dignity to the curious and
+expectant servants, "there's to be no more goings-on from this time
+forth. No more coming in by the area gate after eleven, and no more
+parties in the servants' 'all when 'is lordship and ladyship is dining
+out! An' I'll 'ave the bells answered the first time, an' no waitin'
+till they're rung twice or three times, mind! An' if you want to see the
+policeman, Mary Jane, you can slip out for five minutes; he don't come
+into the house, you understan'!"</p>
+
+<p>Little dreaming of the domestic reformation she had brought about, Nell
+went back to her room, and resumed her endeavor to persuade herself that
+she was not moving in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a gong sounded, and, guessing that it rang for lunch, she went
+down to the smaller dining room, in which Mrs. Hubbard had told her that
+meal was usually served.</p>
+
+<p>The butler and footman were in attendance, but, though covers were laid
+for three, there was no one present but herself.</p>
+
+<p>She looked round the richly decorated and handsomely furnished room, and
+felt rather lonely and helpless, but it occurred to her that either Lord
+or Lady Wolfer might come in, and that it was her place to be there; so
+she sat at the head of the table&mdash;where the butler had drawn back her
+chair for her&mdash;and began her lunch.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, she was feeling hungry&mdash;for she had eaten nothing since
+her very early breakfast, excepting the biscuit in Lady Wolfer's room;
+and she was in the middle of her soup when the footman went in a
+leisurely manner to the door and opened it, and a gentleman entered.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Nell, from Mrs. Lorton's talk of him, and his letter, had imagined
+Lord Wolfer as, if not an old man, one well past middle age; she was,
+therefore, rather startled when she saw that the gentleman who went
+straight to the bottom of the table, thus proving himself to be Lord
+Wolfer, was anything but old; indeed, still young, as age is reckoned
+nowadays. He was tall and thin, and very grave in manner and expression;
+and Nell, as with a blush she rose and eyed him, noticed, even in that
+first moment, that&mdash;strangely enough&mdash;his rather handsome face wore the
+half-sad, half-wistful expression which she had seen cross Lady Wolfer's
+pretty countenance.</p>
+
+<p>He had not noticed her until he had gained his chair, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> he started
+slightly, as if aroused from a reverie, and came toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;er&mdash;Miss Lorton?" he said, with an intense gravity in his
+voice and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nell. "And you are&mdash;Lord Wolfer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your cousin&mdash;I am afraid very much removed," he responded. "When did
+you arrive? I hope you had a pleasant journey?" he replied and asked as
+he sank into his seat.</p>
+
+<p>Nell made a suitable response.</p>
+
+<p>"You will take some soup? Oh, you have some. Yes; it was a long journey.
+Have you seen my wife&mdash;Lady Wolfer? Yes? I'm glad she was in. She is
+very seldom at home." He did not sigh, by any means; but his voice had a
+chilled and melancholy note in it. "And Sophia&mdash;Mrs. Lorton&mdash;is, I hope,
+well? It is very kind of you to put in an appearance so soon. I'm afraid
+you ought to be in bed and resting."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed softly, and he looked as if the laugh had startled him, and
+surveyed her through his eyeglasses with a more lengthened and critical
+scrutiny than he had hitherto ventured on. The fresh, young loveliness
+of her face, the light that shone in her dark-gray eyes, seemed to
+impress him, and he was almost guilty of a common stare; but he
+remembered himself in time, and bent over his plate.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not at all tired, Lord Wolfer," said Nell. "I am not used to
+traveling&mdash;this is the first long journey I have made&mdash;but I am
+accustomed to riding"&mdash;she winced inwardly as she thought of the rides
+with Drake&mdash;"and&mdash;and&mdash;sailing and yachting."</p>
+
+<p>The earl nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Put the&mdash;the cutlets, or whatever they are, on the table, and you may
+go," he said to the butler; and when the servants had left the room he
+said to Nell:</p>
+
+<p>"I seldom lunch at home, and I like to do so alone."</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled. Grave as he looked, she did not feel at all afraid of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean that," he said, with an answering smile. "I meant
+without the servants. And so you have come to our assistance, Miss
+Lorton?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether that is the way to put it," said Nell, with her
+usual frankness. "I'm afraid that I shall be of very little use; but I
+am going to try."</p>
+
+<p>His lordship nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And I think you will succeed&mdash;let me hand you a cutlet. Our great
+trouble has been&mdash;may I trouble you for the salt? Perhaps you would
+prefer to have the servants in the room?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, no!" replied Nell, quickly, as, reaching to her fullest extent,
+she pushed the salt. "It is much nicer without them&mdash;I mean that I am
+not used to so many servants."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He inclined his head.</p>
+
+<p>"As you please," he said courteously. "Our great trouble has been that
+my wife's public duties have prevented her from taking any share in
+domestic matters. She is&mdash;er&mdash;I presume she is not coming in to lunch?"
+he asked, with a quick glance at Nell, and an instant return to his
+plate.</p>
+
+<p>"N-o; I think not," replied Nell. "Lady Wolfer has gone to a
+meeting&mdash;I'm sorry to say I forget what it is. Some&mdash;some Sisters&mdash;no, I
+can't remember. It is very stupid of me," she wound up penitently.</p>
+
+<p>"It is of no consequence. Lady Wolfer is greatly in request; there is no
+movement of the advanced kind with which she is not connected," said his
+lordship; and though he spoke in a tone of pride, he wound up with a
+stifled sigh which reminded Nell of the sigh which she had heard Lady
+Wolfer breathe. "She is&mdash;er&mdash;an admirable speaker," he continued, "quite
+admirable. Did she go alone?"</p>
+
+<p>The question came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and apparently so
+irrelevantly, that Nell was almost startled.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied. "A gentleman went with her."</p>
+
+<p>The earl laid down his knife and fork suddenly, then picked them up
+again, and made a great fuss with the remains of his cutlet.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Did you&mdash;er&mdash;did you hear who it was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nell, "but I can't remember his name. It has quite gone for
+the moment;" and she knit her brows.</p>
+
+<p>The earl stared straight at the &eacute;pergne.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it&mdash;Sir Archie Walbrooke?" he said, in a dry, expressionless voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, as one laughs at the sudden return of a treacherous
+memory.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, yes! That was the name," she said brightly. "How stupid of
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>But Lord Wolfer did not laugh. He bent still lower over the cutlet, and
+worried the bone a minute or two in silence; then he consulted his
+watch, and rose.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg you will excuse me," he said. "I have an appointment&mdash;a
+meeting&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He mumbled himself out of the room, and Nell sat and gazed at the door
+which had closed behind him.</p>
+
+<p>She was too innocent, too ignorant of the world, to have even the
+faintest idea of the trouble which lowered over the house which she had
+entered; but a vague dread of something intangible took possession of
+her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>If Nell wanted work that would prevent her dwelling upon her heart's
+loss, she had certainly found it at Egerton House. Before a week had
+passed she had slipped into her position of presiding genius; and,
+marvelous to relate, seeing how young and inexperienced she was, she
+filled it very well.</p>
+
+<p>At first she was considerably worried by the condition of domestic
+affairs. Meals were prepared for persons who might or might not be
+present to eat them. Sometimes she would sit down alone to a lunch
+sufficient for half a dozen persons; at others, Lady Wolfer would come
+down at the last moment and say:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nell, dear"&mdash;it had very quickly come to "Nell"&mdash;"ever so many
+women are coming to lunch&mdash;nine or ten, I forget which. I ought to have
+told you, oughtn't I? And I really meant to, but somehow it slipped out
+of my head. And they are mostly people with good appetites. Is there
+anything in the house? But, there! I know you will manage somehow, won't
+you, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>And Nell would summon the long-suffering Mrs. Hubbard, and additions
+would hastily be made to the small menu, and Nell would come in looking
+as cool and composed as if the guests had run no risk of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner hour, as Lady Wolfer had said, was eight, but it was often
+nine or half-past before she and Lord Wolfer put in an appearance; and
+more than once during the week the earl had been accompanied by persons
+whom he had brought from the House or some meeting, and expected to have
+them provided for.</p>
+
+<p>The cook never knew how many guests to expect; the coachman never knew
+when the horses and carriages would be wanted; the footmen were called
+upon to leave their proper duties and wait upon a mob of "advanced
+women" collected for a meeting&mdash;and a scramble feed&mdash;in the dining room,
+when perhaps a proper lunch should have been in preparation for an
+ordinary party.</p>
+
+<p>There was no rest, no cessation of the stir and turmoil in the great
+house, and amid it all Nell moved like a kind of good fairy, contriving
+to just keep the whole thing from smashing up in chaotic confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Presently everybody began to rely upon her, and came to her for
+assistance; and the earl himself was uneasy and dissatisfied if she were
+not at the head of the breakfast table, at which he and she very often
+made a duet. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> seemed to see Lady Wolfer very seldom, and gradually
+got into the habit of communicating with her through Nell. It would be:</p>
+
+<p>"May I trouble you so far, Miss Lorton, as to ask Lady Wolfer if she
+intends going to the Wrexhold reception to-night?" Or: "Lady Wolfer
+wishes for a check for these bills. May I ask you to give it to her?
+Thank you very much. I am afraid I am giving you a great deal of
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes Nell would say: "Lady Wolfer is in her room. Shall I tell her
+you are here?" and he would make haste to reply:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; not at all necessary. She may be very much engaged. Besides, I
+am just going out."</p>
+
+<p>Grave and reserved, not to say grim, though he was, Nell got to like
+him. His pomposity was on the surface, and his stiffness and hauteur
+were but the mannerisms with which some men are cursed. At the end of
+the week he startled her by alluding to the salary which he had offered
+her in his letter.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you thought it a very small sum, Miss Lorton," he said. "I
+myself considered it inadequate; but I asked a friend what he paid in a
+similar case, and I was, quite wrongly, I see, guided by him."</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite enough," said Nell, blushing. "I think it would have been
+fairer if you had not paid me anything&mdash;at any rate, to start with."</p>
+
+<p>"We will, if you please, increase it to one hundred pounds," he said,
+ignoring her protest. "I beg you will not refuse; in fact, I shall
+regard your acceptance as a favor."</p>
+
+<p>He rose to leave the room before Nell could reply, and Lady Wolfer,
+entering with her usual rapidity, nearly ran against him. He begged her
+pardon with extreme courtesy, and was passing out, when she stopped him
+with a:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm glad I've seen you. Will the twenty-fourth do for the dinner
+party? Are you engaged for that night? I'm not, I think."</p>
+
+<p>The earl's grave eyes rested on her pretty, piquant face as she
+consulted her ivory tablets, but his gaze was lowered instantly as she
+looked up at him again.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said. "Is it a large party?"</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid so. I'm going over the list with Nell, here. Oh, for
+goodness' sake, don't run away, dear!" she broke off, as Nell, thinking
+herself rather de trop, moved toward an opposite door; and Nell, of
+course, remained.</p>
+
+<p>"She's the most awful girl to get hold of!" said her ladyship. "If ever
+you want to speak to her, to have a nice, quiet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> chat with her, she has
+always got to go and 'see to something.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I can understand that Miss Lorton's time must be much occupied," said
+the earl, with a courteous little inclination of the head to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know; but she might occupy it with me sometimes," remarked her
+ladyship.</p>
+
+<p>"I can give you just five minutes," said Nell, laughing. "This is just
+my busiest hour."</p>
+
+<p>The earl waited for a minute, waited as if under compulsion and to see
+if Lady Wolfer had anything more to say to him, then passed out. On his
+way across the hall he met Sir Archie Walbrooke.</p>
+
+<p>"Mornin', Wolfer," said the young man, in his slow, self-possessed way.
+"Lady Wolfer at home? Got to see her about&mdash;'pon my honor, forget what
+it was now!"</p>
+
+<p>The earl smiled gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"You will find her in the library, Walbrooke," he said, and went on his
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie was shown into the room where Lady Wolfer and Nell were
+conferring over the dinner party, and Lady Wolfer looked up with an
+easy:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's you, is it? What brings you here? Oh, never mind, if you can't
+remember; I dare say I shall presently. Meanwhile, you can help us make
+out this list."</p>
+
+<p>"Always glad to make myself useful," he drawled, seating himself on the
+settee beside Lady Wolfer, and taking hold of one side of the piece of
+paper which she held.</p>
+
+<p>They were soon so deeply engaged that Nell, eager to get to Mrs.
+Hubbard, left them for a while.</p>
+
+<p>When she came in again, the list was lying on the floor, Lady Wolfer was
+leaning forward, with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her pretty
+face lined and eloquent of some deep emotion, and Sir Archie was talking
+in a low, and, for him, eager tone.</p>
+
+<p>As Nell entered, Lady Wolfer rose quickly, and Sir Archie, fumbling at
+his eyeglass, looked for the moment somewhat disconcerted.</p>
+
+<p>"If we're goin' to this place, hadn't we better go?" he said, with his
+usual drawl; and Lady Wolfer, murmuring an assent, left the room. Nell,
+following her to her room to ask a question about the dinner party, was
+surprised and rather alarmed at finding her pale and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what is the matter?" Nell asked. "Are you ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, no! It is nothing," Lady Wolfer replied hastily. "Where is my
+hat? No, don't ring for my maid. Help me&mdash;you help me&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She let her hand rest for a moment on Nell's arm, and looked into her
+grave eyes wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you&mdash;were you ever in trouble, Nell?" she asked. "I mean a great
+trouble, which threatened to overshadow your life&mdash;not a death; that is
+hard enough to fight, but&mdash;how foolishly I am talking! And how white you
+have gone! Why, child, you can't know anything of such trouble as I
+mean! What is it?" she broke off, as the maid knocked at the door and
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>"The pha&euml;ton is ready, my lady; and Sir Archie says are you going to
+drive, or is he? because, if so, he will change his gloves, so as not to
+keep your ladyship waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care&mdash;oh, he can drive," said Lady Wolfer. She spoke as if the
+message, acting as a kind of reminder, had helped her to recover her
+usual half-careless, half-defiant mood. "About this dinner, Nell; will
+you ask Lord Wolfer if there is any one he would like asked, and add
+them to the list? Where did I leave it? Oh, it's in the library."</p>
+
+<p>Nell went down for it, and, as she opened the door, Sir Archie came
+forward with an eager and anxious expression on his handsome face&mdash;an
+expression which changed to one of slight embarrassment as he saw that
+it was Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"The list? Ah, yes; here it is. I'm afraid it's not fully made out; but
+there's plenty of time. Is Lady Wolfer nearly ready?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell went away with a vague feeling of uneasiness. Had Lady Wolfer been
+telling Sir Archie of her "trouble"? If so, why did she not tell her
+husband? But perhaps she had.</p>
+
+<p>Nell had no time to dwell upon Lady Wolfer's incoherent speech, for the
+coming dinner party provided her with plenty to think about. She had
+hoped that she herself would not be expected to be present, but when on
+the following evening she expressed this hope, Lady Wolfer had laughed
+at her.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," she said, "don't expect that you are going to be let
+off. Of course, you don't want to be present; neither do I, nor any of
+the guests. Everybody hates and loathes dinner parties; but so they do
+the influenza and taxes; but most of us have to have the influenza and
+pay the taxes, all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"But I haven't a dress," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Then get one made. Send to Cerise and tell her that I say she is to
+build you one immediately. Anyway, dress or no dress, you will have to
+be present. Why, I shouldn't be at all surprised if my husband refused
+to eat his dinner if you were not."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"And I know that Lord Wolfer would not notice my presence or my
+absence," she said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer looked at her rather curiously, certainly not jealously, but
+gravely and wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Nell, don't you know that he thinks very highly of you, and
+that he considers you a marvel of wisdom and cleverness?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should be a marvel of conceit and vanity if I were foolish enough to
+believe that you meant some of the pretty things you say to me,"
+remarked Nell. "And have I got the complete list of all the guests? I
+asked Lord Wolfer, and he said that he should like Lord and Lady
+Angleford invited."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. You will find their address in the <i>Court Guide</i>. But I think
+he has the gout, and Lady Angleford never goes anywhere without him.
+Did&mdash;did my husband say anything more about the party&mdash;or&mdash;anything?" she
+asked, bending over the proofs of a speech she was correcting.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nell. "Only that he left everything to you, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said her ladyship. "He is, as usual, utterly indifferent
+about everything concerning me. Don't look so scared, my child," she
+added, with a bitter little laugh. "That is the usual attitude of the
+husband, especially when he is a public man, and needs a figure to sit
+at the head of his table and ride in his carriages instead of a wife!
+There! you are going to run away, I see. And you look as if I had talked
+high treason. My dear Nell, when you know as much of the world as you
+know of your prayer book&mdash;&mdash;Bah! why should I open those innocent eyes
+of yours? Run away&mdash;and play, I was going to say; but I'm afraid you
+don't get much play. Archie was saying only yesterday that we were
+working you too hard, and that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Nell flushed rather resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I am much obliged to Sir Archie's expression of sympathy," she began.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! You sound like it!" said Lady Wolfer, laughing. "My dear, why
+don't you get angry oftener? It suits you. Your face just wants that
+dash of color; and I'd no idea your eyes were so violety! You can give
+me a kiss if you like&mdash;mind the ink! Ah, Nell, some day some man will go
+mad over that same face and eyes of yours. Well, don't marry a
+politician, or a man who thinks it undignified to care for his wife!
+There, do go!"</p>
+
+<p>As Nell went away, puzzled by Lady Wolfer's words and manner, her
+ladyship let her head fall upon her hand, and, sighing deeply, gazed at
+the "proof" as if she had forgotten it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell did not send for Madame Cerise, but purchased a skirt of black lace,
+and set to work to make up the bodice. She was engaged on this one evening
+two nights before the dinner, when Burden came in with:</p>
+
+<p>"A gentleman to see you, miss. He's in the library. It's Mr. Lorton,
+your brother, I think&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell was on the stairs before the maid had finished, and running into
+the library, had got Dick in her arms&mdash;and his brand-new hat on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick! Oh, Dick! Is it really you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but there won't be much left of me if you continue garroting me;
+and would you mind my picking up my hat? It is the only one I've got,
+and we don't grow 'em at Shorne Mills! Why, Nell, how&mdash;yes, how thin
+you've got! And, I say, what a swagger house! I'd always looked upon
+mamma's swell relations as a kind of 'Mrs. Harrises,' until now."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, as he endeavored to smooth the roughened silk of his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma&mdash;tell me; she is all right, Dick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I've got no end of messages. She's had your letters, all of
+'em; and she hopes that you are taking advantage of your splendid
+position. Is it a splendid position, Nell? They seemed to think me of
+some consequence when I mentioned, dissembling my pride in the
+connection, that I was your brother."</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; it is all right, and I am quite&mdash;happy. And Shorne Mills,
+Dick, are they all well?"</p>
+
+<p>"And kicking. I've got a hundred messages which you can sum up in 'love
+from all.' And, Nell, I've only time to say how are you, for I'm going
+to catch the Irish mail. Fact! Bardsley &amp; Bardsley are sending me to
+some engineering work there. How's that for high? Ah, would you!"
+gingerly whisking his hat behind him. "Keep off; and, Nell, how's
+Drake?"</p>
+
+<p>The abrupt question sent the blood rushing through Nell's face, and then
+as suddenly from it, leaving it stone white.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake&mdash;Mr. Vernon?" she said, almost inaudibly. "I&mdash;I do not know. I&mdash;I
+have not seen&mdash;heard."</p>
+
+<p>"No? That's rum! I should have thought that tiff was over by this time.
+Can't make it out! What have you been doing, Miss Lorton?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell bravely tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you have seen him? You never wrote and told me, Dick! You&mdash;you
+gave him my note?"</p>
+
+<p>Dick nodded rather gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;" She could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I gave it him, and he said&mdash;&mdash;Well, he looked broken up over
+it; quite broken up. He said&mdash;let me see; I didn't pay very much
+attention because I thought he'd write to you and see you. They
+generally wind up that way, after a quarrel, don't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter. No, I have not seen or heard," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he said: 'Tell her that it's quite true.' Dashed if I know what
+he meant! And that he wouldn't worry you, but would obey you and not
+write or see you. I think that was all."</p>
+
+<p>It was enough. If the faintest spark of hope had been left to glow in
+Nell's bosom, Drake's message extinguished it.</p>
+
+<p>Her head dropped for a moment, then she looked up bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"It was what I expected, Dick. It&mdash;was like him. No, no; don't speak;
+don't say any more about it. And you'll stay, Dick? Lady Wolfer will be
+glad to see you. They are all so kind to me, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad to hear that," said Dick; "because if they hadn't been I
+should have insisted upon your going home. But I suppose they really are
+kind, and don't starve you, though you are so thin."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the London air, or want of air," said Nell. "And mamma, does
+she"&mdash;she faltered wistfully&mdash;"miss me?"</p>
+
+<p>"We all miss you&mdash;especially the butcher and the baker," replied Dick
+diplomatically. "And now I'm off. And, Nell&mdash;oh, do mind my hat!&mdash;if you
+know Drake's address, I should like to write to him."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Strange," said Dick. "I wrote to the address in London to which I
+posted the letters when he was ill, and it came back 'Not known.' I&mdash;I
+think he must have gone abroad. Well, there, I won't say any more;
+but&mdash;'he was werry good to me,' as poor Joe says in the novel, you know,
+Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, it was well for Nell that she had no time to dwell upon her heart's
+loss; and yet she found some minutes for that "Sorrow's crown of
+sorrow," the remembrance of happier days, as she leaned over her black
+lace bodice that night when the great house was silent, and the quiet
+room was filled with visions of Shorne Mills&mdash;visions in which Drake,
+the lover who had left her for Lady Luce, was the principal figure.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the big dinner party, she, having had the last
+consultation with Mrs. Hubbard and the butler, went downstairs. The vast
+drawing-room was empty, and she was standing by the fire and looking at
+the clock rather anxiously&mdash;for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> it was quite on the cards that Lady
+Wolfer would be late, and that some of the guests would arrive before
+the hostess was ready to receive them&mdash;when the door opened and her
+ladyship entered. She was handsomely dressed, and wore the family
+diamonds, and Nell, who had not before seen her so richly attired and
+bejeweled, was about to express her admiration, when Lady Wolfer stopped
+short and surveyed the slim figure of her "housekeeper companion" with
+widely opened eyes and a smile of surprise and friendly approval.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, how&mdash;how&mdash;&mdash;Ahem! no, it's no use; I must speak my mind!
+My dear Nell, if I were as vain as some women, and, like most, had a
+strong objection to being cut out in my own house by my own cousin, I
+should send you to bed! Where did you get that dress, and who made it?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed and blushed.</p>
+
+<p>"I bought it in Regent Street&mdash;half of it&mdash;and made the rest; and please
+don't pretend that you like it."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't," said Lady Wolfer succinctly. "My dear, you are too pretty for
+anything, and the dress is charming! Oh, mine! Mine is commonplace
+compared beside it, and smacks the modiste and the Louvre; while
+yours&mdash;&mdash;Archie is right; you have more taste than Cerise herself&mdash;&mdash;"
+She broke off as the earl entered. "Don't you admire Nell's dress?" she
+said, but with her eyes fixed on one of her bracelets, which appeared to
+have come unfastened.</p>
+
+<p>The earl looked at Nell&mdash;blushing furiously now&mdash;with grave attention.</p>
+
+<p>"I always admire Miss Lorton's dresses," he said, with a little bow.
+Then his eyes wandered to the white arm and the open bracelet, and he
+made a step toward his wife; then he hesitated, and, before he could
+make up his mind to fasten it, she had snapped to the clasp.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell her she will cause a sensation to-night," she said, moving away.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at his wife gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes," he said absently. "Is it not time some of them arrived?"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the footman announced Lady Angleford.</p>
+
+<p>She came forward, her train sweeping behind her, a pleasant smile on her
+mignonne face.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I the first, Lady Wolfer? That is the punishment for American
+punctuality!"</p>
+
+<p>"So good of you!" murmured Lady Wolfer. "And where is Lord Angleford?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, but he has the gout!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer expressed her regret.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And Lord Selbie?" she asked. "Shall we see him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ask him?" asked Lady Angleford, her brow wrinkling eagerly. "Is
+he in England? Have you heard that he has returned?"</p>
+
+<p>Another woman would have been embarrassed, but Lady Wolfer was too
+accustomed to getting into scrapes of this kind not to find a way out of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that like me? Nell, dear&mdash;this is my cousin and our guardian
+angel, Miss Lorton&mdash;Lady Angleford! Did we ask Lord Selbie?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"N-o," she said; "his name was not on the list, I think."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford, who had been looking at her with interest, went up to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't have been any use," she said. "He is abroad&mdash;somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>She stifled a sigh as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is no need for us to feel overwhelmed with guilt, Nell,"
+said Lady Wolfer. "Come and warm yourself, my dear. Oh, that gout! No
+wonder you won't join the 'Advance Movement!' You've quite enough to try
+you. Nell, come and tell Lady Angleford how hard I work."</p>
+
+<p>Nell came forward to join in the conversation; but all the time they
+were talking she was wondering where she had heard Lord Selbie's name!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Lord Selbie?&mdash;Lord Selbie? Nell worried her memory in vain. She had read
+extracts from the <i>Fashion Gazette</i> so often, the aristocratic names had
+passed out of her mind almost before she had pronounced them, and it was
+not surprising that she should fail to recall this Lord Selbie's.</p>
+
+<p>She had not much time or opportunity for reflection, for the other
+guests were arriving, and the party was almost complete. As she stood a
+little apart, she noticed the dresses, and smiled as she felt how
+incapable she would be of describing their magnificence to mamma. It was
+her first big dinner party, and she was amused and interested in
+watching the brilliant groups, and in listening to the small talk.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer's clear voice could be heard distinctly; but though she
+talked and laughed with apparent ease and freedom, Nell fancied that her
+ladyship was not quite at her ease, that there was something forced in
+her gayety, and that her laugh now and again rang false. Nell saw, too,
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Lady Wolfer's glance wandered from time to time to the door, as if
+she were waiting for some one.</p>
+
+<p>The earl came up to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we all here? It is late," he said, in his grave way, and glancing
+at the clock.</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked around and counted.</p>
+
+<p>"One more," she said, in as low a tone. As she spoke, the door opened,
+and Sir Archie Walbrooke entered.</p>
+
+<p>Nell heard Lady Wolfer hesitate in the middle of a sentence, and saw her
+turn away, with her back to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie came across the room in his usual deliberate fashion, as
+self-possessed and impassive as if he were quite ignorant that he had
+kept a roomful of people waiting.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer gave him her hand without breaking off her conversation with
+the prime minister, who was chatting and laughing with the carelessness
+of a boy, and as if he had never even heard of a ministerial crisis.</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid I'm late," said Sir Archie, in slow and even tones. "Cab horse
+fell down&mdash;nearly always does when I'm behind one. Strange."</p>
+
+<p>"I will hand your excuse to the cook," said Lady Wolfer. "I hope he will
+believe it. None of us do, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>The butler announced dinner, and the party coupled and filed in, the
+earl taking a dowager duchess, a good-natured lady with an obvious wig
+and cheeks which blushed&mdash;with rouge&mdash;like unto those of a dairymaid.
+Nell fell to the lot of an undersecretary for the colonies, who was so
+great a favorite of the prime minister's that no one dreamed of asking
+the great man without sending an invitation to his friend, who was
+generally known as "Sir Charles." Like most clever men, he was
+simplicity itself, and he watched Nell through his pince-nez as she
+surveyed the brilliant line of guests round the long, oblong table, with
+an interest in her interest.</p>
+
+<p>"How well Lady Wolfer is looking to-night," he said, staring at the
+hostess at the head of the table. Her eyes were bright, a faint flush on
+her cheeks, and her soft hair, which her maid had arranged as
+advantageously as short hair can be dressed, shone in the subdued light
+of the shaded candles. "One is so accustomed to seeing her in&mdash;well,"
+and he smiled, "strictly business garb, that full war paint strikes one
+with the revelation of her prettiness."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; isn't she pretty?" said Nell eagerly. "But I always think she is;
+though, of course, I like her best in evening dress."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled at the promptitude of her ingenious admiration.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If I had my way, your sex should always wear one of two costumes: a
+riding habit or dinner dress."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be rather inconvenient," said Nell. "Imagine walking out on
+a wet day in a habit or a ball frock!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said. "But I don't think you ought to walk out on a wet
+day."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to live in Turkey," said Nell, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That is rather neat," he said approvingly; "but pray, don't repeat my
+speech to Lady Wolfer; she would think me exceedingly frivolous, and I
+spend my time in the endeavor to convince her of my gravity and
+discretion."</p>
+
+<p>"Are all politicians supposed to be grave?" asked Nell, glancing at the
+prime minister, who had just related an anecdote in his own inimitable
+manner, and was laughing as heartily as if he had not a care in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles followed her eyes and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Judging by Mr. Gresham, one would answer with an emphatic negative," he
+said. "But he is an exception to the rule. He is only grave when he is
+in the House&mdash;and not always then. I have known him crack a joke&mdash;and
+laugh at it&mdash;at the very moment the fate of his ministry swung in the
+balance. Some men are born boys, and remain so all their lives, and
+some&mdash;&mdash;" He stopped and involuntarily looked at his host, who sat at
+the end of the table, his tall, thin figure bolt upright, his face with
+a kind of courteous gravity. He had heard the anecdote and paid it the
+tribute of a smile, but the smile had passed quickly, and his
+countenance had resumed its wonted seriousness in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I always regard Lord Wolfer as a model of what a statesman should
+seem," said Sir Charles. "I mean that he, more than any man I know,
+comes up to the popular idea of a great statesman&mdash;that is, in manner
+and bearing."</p>
+
+<p>Nell remained silent. It was not befitting that she should discuss her
+host and employer; and she wondered whether the clever undersecretary
+beside her knew who she was and the position she held in the house. She
+did not know enough of the world to be aware that nowadays one discusses
+one's friends&mdash;even at their own tables&mdash;with a freedom which would have
+shocked an earlier generation.</p>
+
+<p>"I often think," he continued, "that Lord Wolfer would have served the
+moralists as an instance of the vanity of human wishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" Nell could not help asking.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of it!" he said, with a slight laugh. "He is the bearer of an old
+and honored title, he is passing rich, he is a cabinet minister, he is
+married to an extremely clever and charming lady&mdash;we agreed that she is
+pretty, too, didn't we?&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> He paused a moment. "Should you say
+that Lord Wolfer is a happy man?"</p>
+
+<p>As he put this significant question, which explained his remark about
+the vanity of human wishes, Nell looked at the earl. He was apparently
+listening to the duchess by his side; but his eyes, under their
+straight, dark brows, were fixed upon his wife, who, leaning forward
+slightly, was listening with downcast eyes and a smile to Sir Archie, a
+few chairs from her.</p>
+
+<p>Nell flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"N-o, I don't know," she said, rather confusedly. "Lord Wolfer has so
+much on his mind&mdash;politics, and&mdash;&mdash;He is nearly always at work; he is
+often in his study writing until early morning."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles looked at her quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"You know them very well. You are staying here?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I live here," said Nell simply. "I am what Sir Archie Walbrooke calls
+'general utility.' Lady Wolfer has so much to do, and I help her keep
+house, or try and persuade myself that I do."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles was too much a man of the world to be discomfited; but he
+laughed a little ruefully as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"That serves me right for discussing people with a lady with whom I
+haven't the honor and pleasure of an acquaintance. It reminds me of that
+very old story of the man at the evening party, which you no doubt
+remember."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I've heard so few stories, old or new," said Nell, smiling. "Please
+tell it me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will if you'll tell me your name in exchange; mine is Fletcher, but I
+am usually called Sir Charles because Mr. Gresham honors me with his
+close friendship. 'Charles, his friend,' as they used to put it in the
+old play books, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I see; and my name is Lorton, Eleanor Lorton, commonly called Nell
+Lorton&mdash;because I have a brother. And the story?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's too old; but, old as it is, I had forgotten to take its moral
+to heart. A man was leaning against the wall, yawning, at an evening
+party. He was fearfully bored, for he knew scarcely any one there, and
+had been brought at the last moment by a friend. As he was making up his
+mind to cut it, another man came and leaned against the wall beside him
+and yawned, also. Said the first: 'Awful slow, isn't it?' 'Yes,' replied
+Number Two, 'frightful crush and beastly hot.' 'Dreadful. I could stand
+it a little longer if that woman at the piano would leave off squalling.
+Come round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> to my club, and let us get a drink and a smoke.' 'Nothing
+would give me more pleasure! Wish I could!' replied Number Two. 'But you
+see, unfortunately for me, this is my house, and the lady at the piano
+is my wife.'"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a good story," she said. "The first man must have felt very
+foolish."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," assented Sir Charles; "I know exactly how he felt. I hope you
+forgive me, Miss Lorton? Can I make amends in any way for my stupidity?"</p>
+
+<p>"You might tell me who some of the people are," said Nell. "I only know
+them by name&mdash;and scarcely as much as that. I have not been here very
+long, and this is my first dinner party."</p>
+
+<p>"How I envy you!" he said, with a sigh. "Dear me! I seem fated to put my
+foot into it to-night! But you know what I mean, or you would if you
+dined out as often as I&mdash;and Mr. Gresham do. Whom would you like me to
+tell you about? I think I know everybody here. One moment! Mr. Gresham
+is going to tell the story of his losing himself in London; it was in
+one of the new streets, for the making of which he had been a strong
+advocate."</p>
+
+<p>They waited until the story was told, and the prime minister had enjoyed
+the laughter, and then Nell said:</p>
+
+<p>"That little lady with the diamond tiara and the three big rubies on her
+neck is Lady Angleford&mdash;I know her name because I was introduced to her
+before dinner. I like the look of her so much; and she has so pleasant a
+voice and smile. Please tell me something about her."</p>
+
+<p>"An easy task," said Sir Charles. "She is Lord Angleford's young
+wife&mdash;an American heiress. I like her very much. In fact, though I have
+not known her very long, I am honored with her friendship. And yet I
+ought not to like her," he added, almost to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Nell opened her eyes upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles was silent for a moment; then he said, as if he were
+weighing his words, and choosing suitable ones for his auditor:</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Angleford has a nephew who is a great, a very great friend of
+mine&mdash;Lord Selbie. He was Lord Angleford's heir; but&mdash;well, his uncle's
+marriage may make all the difference to him."</p>
+
+<p>Nell knit her brows and made another call on her memory.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" she exclaimed, in a tone of triumph, which rather surprised
+Sir Charles. "I remember reading about it. Lord Selbie! Yes&mdash;oh, yes; I
+recollect."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice grew sad and absent, as she recalled the afternoon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> when Mrs.
+Lorton had insisted upon her reading the stupid society paper to Drake.
+How long ago it seemed! How unreal!</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say," said Sir Charles. "It's one of those things which the
+world chatters about, and the newspapers paragraph. Poor Selbie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Was he a very great friend of yours?" asked Nell, rather mechanically,
+her eyes wandering from one face to another.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, very great," replied the undersecretary, with a warmth which one
+does not look for in a professional politician. "We were at Eton
+together, and we saw a great deal of each other afterward, though he
+went into the army, and I, for my sins, fell into politics. He is one of
+the best of fellows, an Admirable Crichton, at once the envy and the
+despair of his companions. There is scarcely anything that Selbie
+doesn't do, and he does all things well&mdash;the best shot, the best rider,
+the best fencer, the best dancer of his set, and the best-hearted. Poor
+old chap!"</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that he had, in his enthusiasm, almost forgotten his
+auditor.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he now?" asked Nell. "I heard Lady Angleford say that he is
+abroad."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. No one knows where he is. He has disappeared. It sounds a strong
+word, but it is the only one that will meet the case. And perhaps it was
+the best thing he could do. When a man's prospects are blighted, and his
+ladylove has jilted him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell turned quickly. She had tried to remember the whole of the
+paragraph she had read to Drake, but she could not.</p>
+
+<p>"What was the name of the lady who&mdash;who jilted him?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Charles was about to reply, and if he had spoken, Nell would have
+learned Drake's identity; but at that moment there came a lull in the
+conversation, and before it had recommenced, the prime minister leaned
+forward and asked a question of his friend. The answer led to a general
+discussion, and at its close Lady Wolfer smiled and raised her eyebrows
+at the duchess, received a responsive nod, and the ladies rose.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie was the gentleman nearest the door, and he opened it for
+them. As Lady Wolfer was passing through, a flower fell from the bosom
+of her dress. He picked it up and held it out to her, with a bow and a
+smile; but she had turned to say something to the lady behind her, and
+he drew his hand back and concealed the flower in it.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, who chanced to be looking at him, was, perhaps, the only one who
+saw the action, and she thought little of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> He could scarcely
+interrupt Lady Wolfer by a too-insistent restoration of the blossom.</p>
+
+<p>With the flower in his hand, Sir Archie went back to the table. The
+other men had closed up near the earl, but Sir Archie retained his seat.
+He allowed the butler to fill his glass and raised it to his lips with
+his right hand; then, after a moment or two, he took the flower from his
+left and fixed it in the buttonhole of his coat.</p>
+
+<p>It was a daring thing to do; but he had been&mdash;well, not too sparing of
+the wine, and his usually pale and impassive face was flushed, and
+indicative of a kind of suppressed excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he thought that no one would recognize the flower, and probably
+no one did&mdash;no one, that is, but the earl. His eyes, as they glanced
+down the row of men, saw the blossom in its conspicuous place in Sir
+Archie's coat, and the earl's face went white, and his thin lips
+twitched.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any wine, Walbrooke?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The butler had left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie started, as if his thoughts had been wandering.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? Oh&mdash;ah! thanks!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>He took the decanter from the man next him, and filled his glass. The
+earl's eyes rested grimly upon the flower for a moment, then, as if with
+an effort, he turned to Mr. Gresham and got into talk with him. No man
+in the whole world was more ready to talk than the prime minister. The
+other men joined in the conversation, which was anything but
+political&mdash;all but Sir Archie. He sat silent and preoccupied, filling
+his glass whenever the decanter was near him, and drinking in a
+mechanical way, as if he were scarcely conscious of what he was doing.
+Now and then he glanced at the flower in his coat, deeming the glance
+unnoticed; but the earl saw it, and every time he detected the downward
+droop of the eyes, his own grew sterner and more troubled.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in the drawing-room, the ladies were sipping their coffee and
+conversing in the perfunctory fashion which prevails while they are
+awaiting the arrival of the gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer, who had, up to the present, borne her part in the
+entertainment extremely well, suddenly appeared to have lost all
+interest and all desire to continue it. She seated herself beside the
+fire and next the easy-chair into which the duchess had sunk, and gazed
+dreamily over the screen which she held in her hand. Some of the ladies
+gathered in little groups, others turned to the books and albums, one or
+two yawned almost openly. A kind of blight seemed falling upon them.
+Nell, who was unused to the phenomena of dinner parties, looked round,
+aghast. Were they all going to sleep? Suddenly she realized that it was
+at just such a moment as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> this that she was supposed to come in. She
+went up to Lady Wolfer and bent down to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't somebody play or sing?" she asked. "They all seem as if they were
+going to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them!" retorted Lady Wolfer, almost loudly enough for those near to
+hear. "I don't care. Ask some one to sing, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>Nell went up to a young girl who stood, half yawning, before a picture
+of Burne-Jones'.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you play or sing?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked at her with languid good humor.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd sing; but I can't. I have no parlor tricks," she said. "Besides,
+what's the use? Nobody wants it," and she smiled with appalling candor.</p>
+
+<p>Nell turned from her in despair, and met Lady Angleford's eyes bent upon
+her with smiling and friendly interest. Nell went up to her appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I want some one to sing or play&mdash;or do something, Lady Angleford," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford laughed, the comprehensive, American laugh which conveys
+so much.</p>
+
+<p>"And they won't? I know. It isn't worth while till the gentlemen come
+in," she said. "I know that&mdash;now. It used to puzzle me at first; but I
+know now. You English are so&mdash;funny! In America a girl is quite content
+to sing to her lady friends; but here&mdash;well, only men count as audience.
+They will all wake up when the men appear. I have learned that. Or
+perhaps you will play or sing?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer was near enough to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Nell, sing," she said, with a forced smile.</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked round shyly, then went to the piano.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the sweetest girl I've seen in England," said Lady Angleford to
+her neighbor, who happened to be the dowager duchess. Her grace put up
+her eyeglasses, with their long holder, and surveyed the slim, girlish
+figure on its way to the grand piano.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? She's awfully pretty. And very young, too. A connection of the
+Wolfers', isn't she? Rather sad face."</p>
+
+<p>"A face with a history," said Lady Angleford, more to herself than the
+duchess. "Do you know anything about her, duchess?"</p>
+
+<p>Her grace shrugged her fat shoulders sleepily.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all. She's here as a kind of lady companion, or something of
+the sort. Yes, she's pretty, decidedly. Are you going on to the
+Meridues' reception?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell sat down and played her prelude rather nervously; then she sang one
+of the songs which she had sung in The Cottage at Shorne Mills&mdash;one of
+the songs to which Drake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> had never seemed tired of listening. There was
+a lull in the lifeless, perfunctory conversation, and one or two of the
+sleepy women murmured: "Thank you! Thank you very much!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo! Sing us something else, Nell!" said Lady Wolfer.</p>
+
+<p>Nell was in the middle of the second song when the men filed in. Some of
+them came straight into the room and sought the women they wanted,
+others hung about the doors, and, hiding their yawns, glanced quite
+openly at their watches.</p>
+
+<p>The earl made his way to his wife where she was sitting by the fire, her
+eyes fixed on the flames, which she could just see over the top of her
+hand screen.</p>
+
+<p>"I have to go on to the Meridues' when these have gone," he said. "Are
+you coming, Ada?"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at him. His eyes were fixed on the bosom of her dress, on
+the spot where the white blossom had shone conspicuously, but shone no
+longer; and there was a wistful, yearning expression on his grave face.</p>
+
+<p>She did not raise her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I may be tired. Perhaps I may follow you."</p>
+
+<p>He bowed, almost as he would have bowed to a stranger; then, as he was
+turning away, he said casually, but with a faint tremor in his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You have lost your flower!"</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes and looked at him coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"My flower? Ah, yes. My maid must have put it in insecurely."</p>
+
+<p>The earl said nothing, but his grave eyes slowly left her face and
+wandered to Sir Archie and the flower in his buttonhole.</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait for you until twelve," he said, with cold courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer rose and went toward Lady Angleford.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you'd join us, my dear," she said. "Why, the woman movement
+sprang from America. You ought to sympathize with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I'm English now," said Lady Angleford, "and, being a convert,
+I'm more English than the English. What a charming specimen of your
+country you have in Miss Lorton! I don't want to rob you of her, but do
+you think you could spare her to come to us at Anglemere? We are going
+there almost directly."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer replied absently:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly; ask her. It will not matter to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Not matter!" said Lady Angleford. "Why, I should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> have thought you would
+have suffered pangs at the mere thought of parting with her. She is an
+angel! Did you hear her sing just now? I don't know much about your
+English larks, but I was comparing her with them&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer fanned herself vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask her, by all means," she said. "Oh, yes; of course I shall miss
+her."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, Sir Archie came toward her. A faint flush rose to her
+face. Her eyes fell upon the white flower in his buttonhole.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;how&mdash;&mdash;Is that my flower?" she said, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied. "It is yours. You dropped it, and I picked it up. Has
+any one a better right to it?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him half defiantly, half pleadingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right to it," she said, in a low voice, which she tried in
+vain to keep steady. "You&mdash;you are attracting attention&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at the women near her, some of whom were eying the pair with
+sideway looks of curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I am desperate," he said; "I can bear it no longer. I told you the
+other day that I had come to the end of my power of endurance. You&mdash;you
+are cold&mdash;and cruel. I want your decision; I must have it. I cannot
+bear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" she said warningly, the screen in her hand shaking. "I will
+speak to you later&mdash;after&mdash;after some of them have gone. No; not
+to-night. Do not remain here any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"As you please," he said, with a sullen resentment; and he crossed the
+room to Nell, and began to talk to her. As a rule, he talked very
+little; but the wine had loosened his tongue, and he launched out into a
+cynical and amusing diatribe against society and all its follies.</p>
+
+<p>Nell listened with surprise at first; then she began to feel amused, and
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>He drew a chair near her and bent toward her, lowering his voice and
+speaking in an impressive tone quite unusual with him. To the casual
+observer it might well have seemed that they were carrying on a
+desperate flirtation; but every now and then he paused absently, and
+presently he rose almost abruptly and went into an anteroom.</p>
+
+<p>An antique table with writing materials stood in a recess. He wrote
+something rapidly on a half sheet of note paper, and placing it inside a
+book, laid the volume on the pedestal of a S&egrave;vres vase standing near the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>When he left Nell, Lady Wolfer crossed over to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Archie has been amusing you, dear?" she said, casually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> enough; but
+the smile which accompanied the remark did not harmonize with the
+unsmiling and anxious eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing. "He has been talking the most utter
+nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;he is very strange to-night," said Lady Wolfer, biting her lip
+softly. Not to innocent Nell could she even hint that Sir Archie had
+taken more wine than was good for him. "He has been talking utter
+nonsense to me. Did you notice the flower in his coat?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nell, with some surprise. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer laughed unnaturally.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. Yes! Nell, I want you to get that flower from him. It&mdash;is a
+bet."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;get it from him?" said Nell, opening her gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer flushed for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"It is only a piece of folly," she said. "But&mdash;but I want you to get it.
+Ask him for it&mdash;he cannot refuse. Oh, I can't explain! I will, perhaps;
+but get it!"</p>
+
+<p>She moved away as Sir Archie reappeared in the doorway. He came straight
+up to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll be off," he said. "Some of the others have gone already."</p>
+
+<p>He went toward Lady Wolfer as if to say "Good night," but, with the
+skill which every woman can display on occasion, Lady Wolfer turned from
+him as if she did not see him, and joined in the conversation which was
+being carried on by the duchess and Lady Angleford.</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to say good night, Lady Wolfer," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She met his gaze for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night," she said, in the conventional tone. He bowed over her
+hand, looked at her with an intense and questioning gaze for an instant,
+then left her and came back to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've forgotten!" he exclaimed, half turning as if to rejoin the
+group he had left; then he hesitated, and added: "Will you be so kind as
+to give Lady Wolfer a message for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly," said Nell, rather absently; for she was wondering how
+she could ask for the flower, on which her eyes were unconsciously
+fixed.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks! You are always so kind. Will you tell her, please, that the
+book she wants is on the S&egrave;vres pedestal, just behind the vase. She will
+want it to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't forget," she said. "Are you going to take that poor flower into
+the cold, Sir Archie?"</p>
+
+<p>She blushed as she asked the question; but he was too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> absorbed in the
+fatal game of passion to notice her embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"The flower?" he said unthinkingly. "It is nearly faded already; too
+poor an offering to make you, Miss Lorton; but if you will accept
+it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He had expected her to refuse laughingly, but she replied simply:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; yes, I should like to have it," and in his surprise he took
+it from his coat, and, with a bow, handed it to her, wished her good
+night, and left her. At the door he paused and looked in the direction
+of Lady Wolfer, met her eyes for an instant, then went out.</p>
+
+<p>Nell was about to place the flower on the table, but, quite
+unthinkingly, stuck it in the bosom of her dress. As she was crossing
+the room to some people who were taking their departure, the earl came
+up to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to the library presently, and may not see Lady Wolfer before
+I leave. Will you please tell her that I hope she will not go out
+to-night? I think she is looking tired&mdash;and&mdash;and overstrained. Do you
+not think so?"</p>
+
+<p>His tone was so full of anxiety, there was so sad and strained an
+expression in his grave face, as he looked toward his young wife, who
+was talking rather loudly and laughing in a way women will when there is
+anything but laughter in their hearts, that Nell's sympathy went out to
+him. It was as if suddenly she understood how much he cared for the
+woman who was wife to him in little more than the name.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! I will tell her," she said. "I am sure she will not go if you
+do not wish it."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled bitterly, and, for once dropping the cold reserve which
+usually masked him, said, with sad bitterness:</p>
+
+<p>"You think she considers my wishes so closely?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked up at him, half frightened by the intensity of his
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;yes!" she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled as bitterly as he had spoken; then his manner changed
+suddenly, and his eyes became fixed on the flower in her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get that flower? Who&mdash;&mdash;" he asked, almost sternly.</p>
+
+<p>Nell's face flamed; then, ashamed of the uncalled-for blush, she
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Archie Walbrooke gave it me," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The earl looked at her with surprise, which gradually changed to a keen
+scrutiny, under which Nell felt her blush rising again. But she said
+nothing, and, after a moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> during which he seemed to be considering
+deeply, he passed on, his hands clasped behind his tall figure, his head
+bent.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the last guest had gone, Lady Wolfer went to her own
+apartments. Nell stood in the center of the vast and now empty room, and
+looked round her absently, and with that sense of some pending calamity
+which we call presentiment.</p>
+
+<p>Innocent of the world and its intrigues, as she was, she could not fail
+to have seen that neither the earl nor the countess was happy; and that
+the endless work and excitement in which they endeavored to absorb
+themselves only left them dissatisfied and wretched.</p>
+
+<p>She liked them both; indeed, she had grown very fond of Lady Wolfer, and
+her heart ached for the woman who had striven to hide her unhappiness
+behind the mask of a forced gayety and recklessness. For a moment, a
+single moment, as she caught sight of the flower, a vague suspicion of
+the danger which threatened the countess arose in Nell's mind; but she
+put the suspicion from her with a shudder, for it was too dreadful to be
+entertained.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes she went to Lady Wolfer's room after she had retired, and,
+remembering the earl's message, she went now upstairs and knocked at the
+countess' door.</p>
+
+<p>A low voice bade her come in, and Nell entered and found Lady Wolfer
+sitting on a low chair before the fire. She was alone, and the figure
+crouching before the blaze, as if she were cold, aroused Nell's pity.
+She crossed the room and bent over her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ill, dear, or only tired?" she asked gently.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer started and looked up at her, and Nell saw that her face was
+white and drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you?" she said. "I thought it was Wardell"&mdash;Wardell was her maid.
+"Yes, I am tired."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Wolfer has asked me to beg you not to go out to-night. He saw that
+you looked tired," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer gazed in the fire, and her lips curled sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"He is very considerate," she said. "Extraordinarily so! One would think
+he cared whether I was tired or not, wouldn't one, eh, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say that, and so bitterly?" Nell said, in a low voice. "Of
+course he cares. He is always kind and thoughtful."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer rose abruptly and, with a short, hard laugh, began to pace
+up and down the room.</p>
+
+<p>"He does not care in the least!" she said, in a harsh, strained voice.
+"Why did you come in to-night? I wish you hadn't! I&mdash;I wanted to be
+alone. No, do not go! Stay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> now you are here," for Nell had moved to
+the door. She went back and laid her hand on the unhappy woman's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you tell me what is the matter?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer stopped and sank into the chair again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm almost tempted to!" she said, with a reckless laugh. "It might be
+useful to you&mdash;as a 'frightful example,' as the temperance people say.
+Oh, don't you know? You are young and innocent, Nell, but&mdash;but you
+cannot fail to have seen how wretched I am! Nell, you are not only young
+and innocent, but beautiful. You have all your life before you&mdash;you,
+too, will have to choose your fate&mdash;for we do choose it! Don't wreck
+your life as I have wrecked mine; don't, don't marry a man who does not
+love you&mdash;as I did!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said Nell, startled and shocked. "You are wrong, quite wrong!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer laughed bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"I've said too much; I may as well tell you all," she said, with a shrug
+of her white shoulders. "It was a marriage of convenience. We&mdash;my
+people&mdash;were poor, and it was a great match for me. There was no talk of
+love&mdash;love!" She laughed again, and the laugh made Nell wince. "It was
+just a bargain. Such bargains are made every day in this vile marriage
+market of ours. I was as innocent as you, Nell. The glitter of the
+thing&mdash;the title, the big house, the position&mdash;dazzled me. I thought I
+should be more contented and satisfied. Other girls have done the same
+thing, and they seemed happy enough. But I suppose I am different. I
+wearied of the whole thing&mdash;the title, the big house, the diamonds,
+everything&mdash;before the first month. I wanted something else; I scarcely
+knew what&mdash;&mdash;Ah, yes, I did! I did! I wanted love&mdash;the thing they all
+laugh and sneer at! I had sold myself for gold and place and power, and
+when I had gotten them they all turned to Dead Sea fruit, dust and
+ashes, on my lips!"</p>
+
+<p>She gripped her hands tightly, and bent lower over the fire, and Nell
+sank on her knees beside her, pale herself, and incapable of speech.</p>
+
+<p>"For a time I tried to bear it, to live the weary, dragging life; then,
+when I was nearly mad&mdash;I tried to find relief in the world outside my
+own home. I was supposed to be clever&mdash;clever! I could write and talk. I
+took up this woman's rights business!" She laughed again. "All the time
+they were lauding me to the skies and flattering and fooling me, I knew
+how stupid the whole thing was. But it seemed the only chance for me,
+the only way of forgetting myself and&mdash;and my slavery. At any rate, it
+served as an excuse for getting out of the house, for not inflicting my
+presence upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> the man who had bought me, and who regarded me simply as
+the figurehead for his table, the person to receive his guests and play
+the necessary part in his public life."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! You're wrong, wrong!" said Nell earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer seemed scarcely to have heard her.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to have known that it would not help me long. It has come to an
+end. I am going to end it. I cannot bear this life any longer&mdash;I cannot,
+I cannot! I will not! I have only one life&mdash;that I know of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hush, hush!" Nell implored. "You are all wrong! I know it, I am
+sure of it! You think he does not care for you. He does, he does! If you
+had seen his face to-night&mdash;had heard his voice!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer looked at her with a half-startled glance; then she shook
+her head and smiled bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not wrong," she said. "I know what love is&mdash;at last! It
+beckons me&mdash;I have resisted&mdash;God knows I have struggled with and fought
+against it&mdash;have kept it from me with both hands&mdash;but my strength has
+failed me at last, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell caught her arm and clung to it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what do you mean?" she asked, in vague terror.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer started, and slowly unclasped Nell's hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I have said too much," she said, panting and moistening her parched
+lips. "I did not mean to tell you&mdash;no, I will not say another word. I
+don't know why I am so unnerved, why I take it so much to heart I
+think&mdash;Nell, I am fond of you; you know it?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell made a gesture of assent, and touched the countess' clasped hands
+lovingly, tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I think it is your presence here that&mdash;that has made me
+hesitate&mdash;has made me realize the gravity of what I am going to do. I&mdash;I
+never look at you, hear you speak, but I am reminded that I was once,
+and not so long ago, as innocent as you. But I can hesitate no longer. I
+have to decide, and I have decided!"</p>
+
+<p>She rose and stood with her hands before her face for the moment; then
+she let them fall with a sigh, and forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Go now, dear!" she said. "I&mdash;I wish I had not spoken so freely; but
+that tender, loving heart of yours is hard to resist."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it you have decided to do?" Nell asked, scarcely above her
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>A deep red rose slowly to the countess' face, then slowly faded, leaving
+it pale and wan, and set with determination.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you, Nell," she said. "You&mdash;you will know soon enough.
+And when you know, I want you&mdash;I want<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> you to think not too badly of me,
+to remember how much I have suffered, how hard and cruel my life has
+been&mdash;how I have hungered and thirsted for one word, one look of love;
+that I have struggled and striven against my fate, and have yielded only
+when I could endure no longer. Oh, go now, dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me stay with you to-night! I can sleep on this couch&mdash;on this
+chair&mdash;beside you, if you like," pleaded Nell, confused and frightened,
+but aching with pity and sympathy. "I know that it is all wrong, that
+you are mistaken. If I could only convince you! If I could only tell you
+what I saw in Lord Wolfer's eyes as he looked at you to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>The countess shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is you who are mistaken," she said, "and it is too late. No, you
+shall not stay. I have done wrong to say so much. Try&mdash;try and forget
+it. But yet&mdash;no, don't forget it, Nell. Remember me and my wretchedness,
+and let it be a warning to you, if ever you are tempted to marry a man
+who does not love you, whom you do not love. Ah, but you must go, Nell!
+I am worn out!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell went to her and put her arm round her neck, and drew her face down
+that she might kiss her, but the countess gently put Nell's arm from
+her, and drew back from the proffered kiss.</p>
+
+<p>"No; you shall not kiss me!" she said, in a low voice. "You will be glad
+that you did not&mdash;presently! Stay&mdash;give me that flower!" she said,
+holding out her hand, but looking away.</p>
+
+<p>Nell started, and drew the flower from her bosom as if it had been
+something poisonous, and flung it in the fire.</p>
+
+<p>The countess shrugged her shoulders with an air of indifference, and
+turned to watch the flower withering and consuming in the fire, and
+Nell, with something like a sob, left her.</p>
+
+<p>What should she do? She understood that her friend stood on the verge of
+a precipice; but how could she&mdash;Nell&mdash;with all her desire to save her,
+drag her back?</p>
+
+<p>As she was going to her room she heard a step in the hall, and, looking
+over the balustrade, saw the earl pass from the library to the
+drawing-room. For an instant she was half resolved to go down to him,
+to&mdash;what? How could she tell him? She dared not!</p>
+
+<p>Lord Wolfer wandered into the drawing-room and stood before the fire,
+looking into it moodily, as he leaned against the great mantelpiece of
+carved marble.</p>
+
+<p>He was thinking of the flower which he had seen first in his wife's
+possession, then in Sir Archie's, and lastly in Nell's; and of her blush
+and confusion when he had asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> her how she came by it. He knew Sir
+Archie, knew him better and more of his life than Sir Archie suspected.
+The man was a perfect type of the modern lover; incapable of a fixed
+passion, as fickle as the wind. Could it be that he had transferred,
+what he would have called his "devotion," from the countess to Nell? It
+seemed at first sight too improbable; but Wolfer knew his world and the
+ethics of the smart set of which Sir Archie Walbrooke was a conspicuous
+member too well to scout the idea as impossible. The fact that Sir
+Archie had spent the last three months flirting with one woman would be
+no hindrance to his transferring his attentions to a younger and
+prettier one.</p>
+
+<p>The harassed man turned away with a weary sigh, wandered purposelessly
+into the anteroom, and, in a mechanical fashion, fingered the various
+articles on the writing table. His eye fell on the book on the pedestal,
+and he took up the volume absently, intending to restore it to its place
+in the bookcase. On his way he opened the book, and a half sheet of note
+paper fell from it and fluttered to his feet. He picked it up, read what
+was written on it, and stood for a moment motionless, his eyes fixed on
+the carpet, his lips writhing.</p>
+
+<p>How long he stood there he did not know, but presently he was aroused by
+the sound of footsteps. He listened. Some one&mdash;the rustling of a
+dress&mdash;was approaching the room. He slipped the note into the book and
+replaced the volume on the pedestal, and quickly stepped behind the
+porti&egrave;re curtains.</p>
+
+<p>He expected his wife. Should he come forward and confront her? His stern
+face grew red with shame&mdash;for her, for himself. Then, with a sudden leap
+of the heart, with a sensation of relief which was absolutely painful in
+its intensity, he saw Nell enter the room and go straight to the
+pedestal. Her face was pale and troubled, and she looked round with what
+seemed to him a guilty expression in the gray eyes. Then she opened the
+book as he had done, but, as if she expected to find something, took out
+the note, and after a moment of hesitation read it. He saw her face
+flush hotly, then grow white, and her hand go out to the pedestal as if
+for support. For a moment she stood as motionless as he had done, then
+she thrust the note into her pocket, dropped the book from her hand&mdash;it
+fell on the floor unregarded by her&mdash;and slowly left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Wolfer passed his hand over his brow with a bewildered air, then, as if
+obeying an irresistible impulse, he followed her up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Quietly but slowly. He knew that she had not seen him, did not know that
+he was following her, and he waited at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> the end of the corridor,
+watching her with a heart throbbing with an agony of anxiety. Was she
+going to carry the note to his wife? But she did not even hesitate at
+the door of Lady Wolfer's room, but went straight to her own, and he
+heard the key turn as she locked it.</p>
+
+<p>The sweat was standing in great drops upon his forehead, and he put up a
+trembling hand and wiped them away as he looked toward his wife's door.
+Should he go in and question her? Should he ask her straightly whether
+the note was intended for her or Nell? It seemed too horrible to suspect
+the girl who had seemed innocence and purity itself, and yet had he not
+seen her go straight for the book, as if she had known that it was there
+waiting for her?</p>
+
+<p>Like a man in a dream he went down to the library, and, locking the
+door, flung himself into a chair, and buried his face in his hands. What
+was he to think?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Nell stood in the middle of the room with the note which she had found
+in the book in her hand. She had read it half mechanically and
+unsuspectingly, as one reads a scrap of paper found in a volume, or in
+some unexpected place; and, trembling a little, she went to the electric
+light and read the note again. It ran thus&mdash;and with every word Nell's
+face grew pale:</p>
+
+<p>"I can wait no longer. You cannot say I have been impatient&mdash;that I
+haven't endured the suspense as well as a man could. If you love me, if
+you are really willing to trust yourself to me, come away with me
+to-morrow. God knows I will try and make you happy, and that you can
+never be under this roof with a man who doesn't care for you. I will
+come for you at seven to-morrow morning&mdash;we can cross by the morning
+boat. Don't trouble about luggage; everything we want we can get on the
+other side. For Heaven's sake, don't hesitate! Be ready and waiting for
+me as the clock strikes. Don't hesitate! The happiness of both our lives
+lies in your hands.<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="smcap">Archie</span>."</span></p>
+
+<p>Nell sank into a chair and stared at the wall, trying to think; but for
+a moment or two the horror and shame of the thing overwhelmed her. She
+had read of such incidents as these, for now and again one of the new
+school of novels reached The Cottage; but there is a lot of difference
+between reading, say, of a murder, and watching the committal of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> one.
+She was almost as much ashamed and shocked as if the note had been
+intended for herself.</p>
+
+<p>She was not ashamed of having read it&mdash;though the mere touch of the
+paper was hateful to her&mdash;for she felt that Providence had ordained it
+that she should stand between Lady Wolfer and the ruin to which Sir
+Archie was beckoning her.</p>
+
+<p>But what should she do? Should she take the letter to Lady Wolfer and
+implore her to send Sir Archie a refusal? This was, of course, Nell's
+first impulse, but she dared not follow it; dared not run the risk of
+letting Lady Wolfer see the note. The unhappy woman's face haunted Nell,
+and her reckless words, and her tone of desperation, still rang in
+Nell's ears. No; she dared not let Lady Wolfer know that this man would
+be waiting for her. Few women in the position of the countess could
+resist such a note as this, such an appeal from the man who, she
+thought, loved her. But if she did not take the note to the countess,
+what was she to do?</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie would be, then, in the library at seven o'clock; he would ask
+for the countess; she would go to him, and&mdash;Nell shuddered, and walked
+up and down. If there were any one to whom she could go for advice! But
+there was no one. At all costs, the truth must be kept from the earl;
+his wife must be saved.</p>
+
+<p>It was a terrible position for a young and inexperienced girl; but,
+despite her youth and inexperience, the note could scarcely have fallen
+into better hands than Nell's; for she possessed courage, and was not
+afraid for herself. Most girls, keenly though they might desire to save
+their friend, would have destroyed the note and left the rest to
+Providence; but Nell's spirit had been trained in the bracing air of
+Shorne Mills, and her views tempered by many a tussle with tide and wind
+in the <i>Annie Laurie</i>; and the pluck which lay dormant in the slight
+figure rose now to the struggle for her friend's safety. She had grown
+to love the woman who had confided her heart's sorrow to her that night,
+and she meant to save her. But how? Sir Archie would be there at seven,
+and Lady Wolfer must be kept in ignorance of his presence; and he must
+be sent away convinced of the hopelessness of his passion.</p>
+
+<p>Nell walked up and down, unconscious of weariness, ignorant that in his
+own room the earl was listening to her footsteps, and putting his own
+construction upon her agitation. Now and again she thought of Drake and
+her own love affair. Were all men alike? Were there no good men in the
+world? Were they all selfish and unscrupulous in the quest of their own
+interest and amusements? Love! The word sounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> like a mockery, a
+delusion, a snare. Drake had loved, or thought he loved her, until Lady
+Luce had beckoned him back to her; and this other man, Sir Archie&mdash;how
+long would he continue to love the unhappy woman if she yielded to him?</p>
+
+<p>The silver clock on the mantelshelf struck five, and Nell, worn out at
+last, and still apparently far away from any solution of the problem
+which she had set herself, flung herself on the bed. She had scarcely
+closed her eyes before a way of helping Lady Wolfer presented itself to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Her face crimsoned, and she winced and closed her eyes with a slight
+shudder; but though she shrank from the ordeal, she resolved to make it.
+Lady Wolfer had been kind to her, had won her love, and, more than all
+else, had confided in her, and she&mdash;Nell&mdash;would save her at any cost.</p>
+
+<p>A little before seven she rose, and changed her dinner dress for a plain
+traveling one, and, putting on her hat and jacket, went down to the
+library slowly and almost stealthily. A maidservant was sweeping the
+hall, and she looked up at Nell, clad in her outdoor things, with some
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect Sir Archie Walbrooke at seven o'clock," said Nell. "I am in
+the library, please."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke quite calmly and casually, buttoning her glove in a leisurely
+fashion as she passed on her way; and the maid responded unsuspiciously,
+for the coming and going at Wolfer House were always somewhat erratic.</p>
+
+<p>Nell went into the library, and, closing the door, turned up the
+electric light a little&mdash;for the maids had not yet been to the room, and
+the shutters were still closed. The morning was a wet and chilly one,
+and Nell shuddered slightly as she sat and watched the second hand of
+the clock, which at one moment seemed to move slowly and at the next
+appeared to fly. She had not decided upon the words she would use; she
+would be guided by those which Sir Archie might speak; but she was
+resolved to fight as long as possible, to hide every tremor which, at
+these moments of waiting and suspense, quivered through her.</p>
+
+<p>Then she heard his voice, his slow step&mdash;no quicker than usual this
+morning&mdash;crossing the hall; the door opened, and he was in the room.
+Nell rose, and stood with her back to the light; and, closing the door,
+he came toward her with a faint cry of satisfaction and relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Ada!" he said. "You have come&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell raised her veil, but, before she had done so, he had seen that she
+was not the countess; and he stopped short and stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Lorton!" he exclaimed, under his breath, so taken aback that the
+shock of his disappointment was revealed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> his face and voice. "I&mdash;I
+thought&mdash;expected&mdash;to see Lady Wolfer. Is&mdash;is she up? Does she know that
+I am here? You have a message for me?"</p>
+
+<p>He tried to speak casually, and forced a smile, as if the appointment
+was quite an ordinary one; but Nell saw that the hand that held his hat
+shook, and that his color, which had risen as he entered the room and
+greeted her, had slowly left his face, and her courage rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have a message for you, Sir Archie," she said, keeping her voice
+as steady as she could, and saying to herself: "It is to save her&mdash;save
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" he said, with suppressed eagerness and anxiety. "What is it? I&mdash;I
+am rather pressed for time." He glanced at his watch. "Won't she see me?
+If you would go up and ask her. I shan't detain her more than a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"No; she cannot see you," said Nell. "I am to ask you to go&mdash;where you
+are going&mdash;without seeing her."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her steadily, gnawing his lip softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't understand," he said, still trying to smile. "She&mdash;told you
+that I am going&mdash;abroad?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell inclined her head gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? But didn't she tell you that&mdash;that I must see her before I go?
+That&mdash;that it is important?"</p>
+
+<p>"She cannot see you," said Nell, her heart beating fast. "She wishes you
+to go, and&mdash;and to remain abroad&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His face crimsoned, then went pale.</p>
+
+<p>"You know&mdash;she has told you why&mdash;why I have come this morning?" he said,
+in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," assented Nell, the shame, for him, dyeing her face.</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her for a moment in silence; then he said, half defiantly,
+half sullenly:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then. If you know why I am here, you must know that I cannot
+take such a message, that I cannot go&mdash;without her. For Heaven's sake,
+Miss Lorton, go and fetch her! There is no time to lose. Her&mdash;my
+happiness is at stake. I beg your pardon; I'm afraid I'm brusque;
+but&mdash;&mdash;For Heaven's sake, bring her! If I could see her, speak to her
+for a moment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," she said. "It would be of no use. Lady Wolfer would not go
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>He came nearer to her and lowered his voice, almost speaking through his
+teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Miss Lorton, you&mdash;you have no right to be in this
+business&mdash;to interfere with it. You&mdash;you are too young to
+understand&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell crimsoned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, almost inaudibly. "I understand. I&mdash;I have seen your
+letter." Her calm, almost her courage, broke down, and, clasping her
+hands, she pleaded to him. "Oh, yes, I do understand! Sir Archie, go; do,
+do go! It is cruel of you to stay. If&mdash;if you really love her, you will go
+and never come back."</p>
+
+<p>His face went white and his eyes flashed.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't understand, although you think you do. You say that I am
+cruel. I should be cruel if I did what she asks me, what you wish me to
+do, to leave her in this house, to the old life of misery. I love her; I
+want to take her away with me from the man who doesn't care an atom for
+her, whom she does not love."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't true!" said Nell, with a sudden burst of indignation, and with
+a sudden insight as inexplicable as it was sudden. "He loves her, and
+she, though she does not know it, cares for him. They would have
+discovered the truth if you had not come between them and made them hard
+and cold to each other. Yes, you are cruel, cruel and wicked! But&mdash;but
+perhaps it has not been all your fault&mdash;and&mdash;I'm sorry if&mdash;if I have
+spoken too harshly."</p>
+
+<p>He scarcely seemed to have heard her concluding words, but repeated to
+himself: "She cares for him. She cares for Wolfer&mdash;her husband!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes!" said Nell eagerly, anxiously. "I know it; I have seen her
+when she was most unhappy. I have heard the truth in her voice&mdash;I
+remember little things&mdash;the way she has behaved to him, spoken to him,
+when she was off her guard. Yes, it is true she cares for him as much as
+he cares for her; but they have hidden it from each other&mdash;and you&mdash;you
+have made it harder for them to show their love! But you know the truth
+now, and&mdash;and you will go, will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>In her anxiety she laid her hand on his arm imploringly, and looked up
+at him with eyes moist with tears.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, his brows knit, his lips set closely.</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven, if I thought you were right!" broke from him; then his tone
+changed, and his eyes grew hard with resentment. "No; you are wrong,
+quite wrong! And it is you who have come between us, and will rob us of
+our happiness! I&mdash;I&mdash;beg your pardon!" he faltered, for this slave of
+passion was, after all, a gentleman. "I beg your pardon! If you knew
+what I am suffering, what she must be suffering at this moment! Miss
+Lorton, you are her friend&mdash;you have no reason to bear me any ill
+will&mdash;I honor you for&mdash;for your motives in all this&mdash;but I implore you
+to stand aside. If you will go and bring her, I will wait here, and you
+shall hear from her own lips that you are wrong in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> supposing that any
+affection exists between her and him. I will wait here. Go, I beg of
+you! There is no time to lose!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not!" said Nell, her slight figure erect, her eyes more eloquent
+than the tone of her resolution to save her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will ring and ask her to come," he said, and he went toward the
+bell.</p>
+
+<p>Nell sprang in front of it.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, in a low voice. "It is I who will ring, and it is the
+earl who shall come."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie stood, his hand outstretched to push her aside. Men of his
+class and character dislike a scene. He was not physically afraid of
+Lord Wolfer, but&mdash;a scene and a scandal which would leave Lady Wolfer at
+Wolfer House, while he was turned out, was a contretemps to be avoided,
+if possible.</p>
+
+<p>"You must be mad!" he said, between his teeth. "Worse; you are laboring
+under a hideous mistake. She loves me, and you know it&mdash;she has never
+cared for Lord Wolfer. Please stand aside."</p>
+
+<p>He put out his hand to gently remove her from before the bell, and at
+his touch the strain which Nell was undergoing became too tense for
+endurance. The color left her face and left it deathly white. With a
+faint moan she put her hand to her throat as if she were choking, and
+swayed to and fro as if she were giddy.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie caught her just in time.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, don't faint!" he exclaimed, in a horrified whisper.</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of his voice, at his touch, Nell recovered her full
+consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go! Don't touch me!" she breathed, with a shudder; but, before
+she could free herself from his hold, the door opened, and the earl
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>With an oath, Sir Archie turned and glared at him, and Nell sank against
+the mantelshelf, and leaned there, faint and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>The two men stood quite still and looked at each other. In these days we
+have taught ourselves to take the most critical moments of our lives
+quietly. There is no loud declamation, no melodramatic denunciation, no
+springing at each other's throats, or flashing of swords. We carry our
+wrongs to the law courts, and an aged gentleman in an ermine tippet, and
+a more or less grimy wig, avenges us&mdash;with costs and damages.</p>
+
+<p>The earl was pale enough, and his eyes wore a stern expression as they
+rested upon his "friend"; but yet there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> was something in his face which
+seemed to indicate relief; and, presently, after a moment which seemed
+an age to Nell, his gaze left the other man's face and fixed itself on
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you going out with Sir Archie Walbrooke, Miss Lorton?" he asked
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie started slightly, and would have spoken, but Nell looked at
+him quickly, a look which smote him to silence. She, too, remained
+silent, her hands clasped, her eyes fixed on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Is my inference a correct one?" said the earl, still more coldly. "I
+find you here&mdash;at this unusual hour&mdash;and dressed for traveling. And he
+is here&mdash;by appointment, I presume? Ah, do not deny it! It is too
+obvious."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie opened his lips, but once more Nell looked at him, and once
+more her eyes commanded, rather than asked, his silence. He suppressed
+an oath, and stood with clenched hands, waiting in helpless
+irresolution. What was this girl going to do? Was she&mdash;was it possible
+that she was going to screen Lady Wolfer at the cost of her own
+reputation! The man was not altogether bad, and the remnant of honor
+which still glowed in his breast rose against the idea of such a
+sacrifice. And yet&mdash;it was for the woman he loved!</p>
+
+<p>The perspiration broke out on his pale face, and he looked from the
+stern eyes of the earl to Nell's downcast ones.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't stand this!" broke from his lips. "Look here, Wolfer!"</p>
+
+<p>The earl raised his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to say to you. I decline to hear you," he said grimly.
+"I am addressing Miss Lorton. I have asked her a question; but it is not
+necessary to inflict the pain of an answer. I am aware that I have no
+legal right to interfere in Miss Lorton's movements, but she is under my
+roof, she is a connection"&mdash;his voice grew a shade less stern&mdash;"I am,
+indeed, almost in the position of her guardian. Therefore, I deem it my
+duty to acquaint her with the character of the man with whom she
+proposes to&mdash;elope."</p>
+
+<p>Nell raised her head, the crimson staining her whole face; and it seemed
+to Sir Archie as if her endurance had broken down; but she checked the
+indignant denial which had sprung to her lips, and, closing her lips
+tightly, sank back into her former attitude&mdash;an attitude which convinced
+Lord Wolfer of her guilt.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you aware that this gentleman, who has honored you by an invitation
+to fly with him, is already a married man, Miss Lorton?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell made no sign, but Sir Archie started and ground his teeth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He has carefully concealed the fact; but&mdash;well, I happen to know it, and
+I think he will not venture to deny it."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, but Sir Archie remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you ignorant of it?" asked the earl.</p>
+
+<p>Nell opened her lips, and they formed the word "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I expected as much," said the earl. "And now that you know the truth,
+are you still desirous of accompanying him?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell, with her eyes fixed on the ground, shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie swore under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't stand this!" he said desperately. "Look here, Wolfer, you are
+making a damnable mistake. Miss Lorton&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The earl turned to him, but looked above his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me," he said, "I have no desire to hear any explanation of your
+conduct&mdash;it would be impossible for you to defend it. But, having
+received Miss Lorton's reply to my question, I have the right to ask you
+to quit my house&mdash;and I do so!"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie went up to Nell and looked at her straight in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you&mdash;do you wish me to remain silent?" he said hoarsely. "Think
+before you speak! Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked up instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" she replied, in a low voice. "If you will go&mdash;forever!"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie gazed at her as if he had suddenly become unconscious of the
+earl's presence.</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" he breathed. "You&mdash;you are treatin' me better than I deserve.
+Yes, I am goin'," he said, turning fiercely to the earl, who had made a
+slight movement of impatience. "But I want to say this. I want"&mdash;he
+moistened his lips, as if speech were difficult&mdash;"to tell you&mdash;and&mdash;and
+her&mdash;that&mdash;that what has taken place will never be spoken of by me while
+I live. I am goin'&mdash;abroad. I shall not return for some time."</p>
+
+<p>The earl made a gesture of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"Your movements can be of no interest to me," he said, "and I trust that
+they may be of as little importance to this unhappy girl, now that she
+knows the character of the man whom she was about to trust."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie laughed&mdash;a laugh that sounded hideously grotesque at such a
+moment; then he took up his hat and gloves; but he laid them down again.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you give me a minute&mdash;three&mdash;with Miss Lorton, alone?" he asked,
+biting his lip.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The earl hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Nell searchingly; then, as
+if satisfied, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will do so, on condition that you leave this house at the
+expiration of that time. I will rejoin you when he has gone."</p>
+
+<p>As he left the room, Sir Archie turned to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what you have done?" he asked hoarsely, and almost
+inaudibly. "Do you know what this means: that you have sacrificed
+yourself for&mdash;for her?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell had sunk into a chair, and she looked up at him, and then away from
+him; but in that momentary glance he had read the light of an inflexible
+resolution, an undaunted courage in the gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," she said. "He&mdash;he thinks, will always think, that it was
+I&mdash;&mdash;" She broke off with an irrepressible shudder.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Archie's hand went to his mustache to cover the quiver of his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! it's the noblest thing! But&mdash;have you counted the cost&mdash;the
+consequences?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said. "But it does not matter. I&mdash;I am nobody&mdash;only a girl,
+with no husband, no one who loves, cares for me; while she&mdash;&mdash;Yes, I
+know what I have done; but I am not sorry&mdash;I don't regret. I have your
+promise?" she looked up at his strained face solemnly. "You will keep
+it?&mdash;you will not break your word? You will go away and&mdash;and leave her?"</p>
+
+<p>His hands clenched behind him, and he was silent for a moment; then he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, by Heaven! I will! The sacrifice shall not be all on your side.
+Tell her&mdash;no, tell her nothin', or you will have to tell her all. Tell
+her nothin'. Miss Lorton&mdash;&mdash;" His voice broke, and he hesitated. Nell
+waited, and he found his voice again. "When I hear that there are no
+good women, no noble ones, I&mdash;I shall think of what you have done this
+mornin'. Good-by. I&mdash;I can't ask you to shake hands. My God! I'm not fit
+for you to touch! I see that now. Good-by!"</p>
+
+<p>He went out of the room with drooping head, but he raised it as he
+passed the earl, and the two men nodded&mdash;for the benefit of the footman
+who opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>Nell hid her face in her hands and waited, and presently the earl
+re&euml;ntered the library.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Lord Wolfer stood, with his hand resting upon the table, in silence for
+a moment or two, regarding Nell, no longer sternly, but with an
+expression of pity which was novel in him. Nell sat with her head
+resting in her hands, her eyes downcast. She was still pale, but her
+lips were set firmly, as if she were prepared for rebuke and reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be afraid," he said, at last. "I have not returned to&mdash;to blame
+you. You are too young to understand the peril&mdash;perhaps, too, the
+sin&mdash;of the step which you meditated taking. I am a man of the world,
+and I can appreciate the temptation to which you have been subjected.
+Sir Archie&mdash;well, all the world knows that such men are difficult to
+resist, and&mdash;and your inexperience betrayed you. I know the arts by
+which he gained your affections and hoped to mislead you."</p>
+
+<p>It was almost more than she could bear; but Nell set her teeth hard and
+held her breath; for she felt it well-nigh impossible to resist the
+aching longing to utter the cry of the unjustly accused. "I am
+innocent&mdash;innocent!" But she remembered the unhappy woman whom she had
+saved, and suffered in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"That you bitterly regret your&mdash;your weakness I am convinced," said Lord
+Wolfer; "and I am quite satisfied with your promise that you will not
+see him&mdash;I wish I could add, not think of him&mdash;again. He is a dangerous
+man, Miss Lorton"&mdash;he paused and paced to the window, and his lips
+twitched&mdash;"such men are a peril to every woman upon whom they&mdash;they
+chance to set their fickle fancy. At one time&mdash;yes, I owe it to you to
+be candid&mdash;at one time I feared"&mdash;he stopped again, and drummed upon the
+windowsill with his forefinger&mdash;"I feared he was paying Lady Wolfer too
+much attention. Even now I am not sure that my fears were groundless. He
+came to the house frequently, and was at my wife's side perpetually,
+before you came."</p>
+
+<p>Nell held her breath. Had her sacrifice been in vain? Had he got an
+inkling of the truth? But he went on sternly and in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"If there were any reason for my suspicions, it is evident that he
+transferred his affections to you. It is a terrible thing to say,
+but&mdash;but I feel as if&mdash;as if&mdash;your presence here had averted a dreadful
+catastrophe from us. Yes; that letter might have been meant for my wife,
+and I might have found her here instead of you. Do not think it
+heartless of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> me if I say that, deeply as I sympathize with you and
+grieve for your&mdash;your trouble, I am relieved&mdash;relieved of an awful
+apprehension on&mdash;on Lady Wolfer's account. I have suffered a great deal
+during the past few months."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nell, forgetting her own misery in sympathy for him.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have noticed it?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell inclined her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have lived in the house&mdash;I have seen&mdash;&mdash;" she faltered.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded once or twice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I suppose that you could not help seeing that there has been a&mdash;a
+gulf between us; that we are not as other, happier, husbands and wives."</p>
+
+<p>He sighed, and passed his hand across his brow wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"But we are not the only couple who, living in the same house, are
+asunder. I am not the only man who has to endure, secretly and with a
+smiling face, the fact that his wife does not care for him."</p>
+
+<p>Nell raised her head, and the color came to her pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong&mdash;wrong!" she said, in a low voice, but eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Wrong? I beg your pardon?" he said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all a terrible mistake," said Nell. "She does care for you. Oh,
+yes, yes! It is you who have been blind; it is your fault. It is hers,
+too; but you are the man, and it is your place to speak&mdash;to tell her
+that you love her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He reddened as he turned to her with a curious eagerness and surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you," he said, with a shake in his voice. "Do you
+mean me to infer that&mdash;that I have been under a delusion in thinking
+that my wife&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell rose and stretched out her hands with a gesture of infinite
+weariness.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how blind you are!" she said, almost impatiently. "You think that
+she does not care for you, and she thinks that of you, and you are both
+in love with each other."</p>
+
+<p>His face glowed, and a strange brightness&mdash;the glow of hope&mdash;shone in
+his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care!" he said huskily. "You&mdash;you use words lightly, perhaps
+unthinkingly&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, with a kind of weary irritation.</p>
+
+<p>"I am telling you the truth; I am trying to open your eyes," she said.
+"She loves you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why do you think so? Have you ever heard her address a word to me
+that had a note of tenderness in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever addressed such a word to her?" retorted Nell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He started, and gazed at her confusedly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have always treated her as if she were a mere acquaintance, some
+one who was of no consequence to you. Oh, yes, you have been polite,
+kind, in a way, but not in a way a woman wants. I am only a girl,
+but&mdash;but"&mdash;she thought again of Drake, of her own love story, and her
+lips trembled&mdash;"but I have seen enough of the world to know that there
+is nothing which will hurt and harden a woman more than the 'kindness'
+with which you have treated her. I think&mdash;I don't know, but I think if I
+cared for a man, I would rather that he should beat me than treat me as
+if I were just a mere acquaintance whom he was bound to treat politely.
+And did you think that it was she who was to show her heart? No; a woman
+would rather die than do that. It is the man who must speak, who must
+tell her, ask her for her love. And you haven't, have you, Lord Wolfer?"</p>
+
+<p>He put his hand to his brow and bit his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"God forgive me!" he murmured. Then he looked at her steadily. "Yes, you
+have opened my eyes! Heaven grant that I may see this thing as you see
+it! Heaven grant it! My dear"&mdash;his voice shook with his
+gratitude&mdash;"where&mdash;where did you learn this wisdom, this knowledge of
+the human heart?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell drew a long breath painfully, and her gray eyes grew dark.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't wisdom," she said wearily. "Any schoolgirl knows as much,
+would see what I have seen&mdash;though a man might not. You have been too
+busy, too taken up with politics&mdash;politics!&mdash;and she&mdash;she has tried to
+forget her troubles in lecturing, and meetings and committees. And all
+the while her heart was aching with longing, with longing for just one
+word from you."</p>
+
+<p>The earl turned his head aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! if you doubt it still, go to her!" said Nell. "Go and ask her!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," he said, raising his head, his eyes glowing. "I will go."</p>
+
+<p>He moved to the door, then stopped and came back to her; he had
+forgotten her, forgotten the tragic scene in which he had just taken
+part.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon! Forgive me! It was ungrateful of me to forget your
+trouble, my dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell made a gesture of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter," she said dully. "I&mdash;I will go."</p>
+
+<p>"Go?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I will go&mdash;leave the house at once. I could not stay."</p>
+
+<p>She looked round as if the walls were closing in on her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wolfer knit his brows perplexedly.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I do not like the idea of your going. Where will you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Home," she said; and the word struck across her heart and almost sent
+the tears to her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He went to the window and came back again.</p>
+
+<p>"If&mdash;if you think it best," he said doubtfully. "I know that&mdash;that it
+must be painful to you to remain here, that the associations of this
+house&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes," said Nell, almost impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"I need not say&mdash;indeed, I know that I need not&mdash;that no word of&mdash;of
+what has occurred this morning will ever pass my lips," he said in a low
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked up swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Promise me, promise me on your honor that you will not tell Lady
+Wolfer!" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I promise," said the earl solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>Nell glanced at the clock and mechanically took up her gloves, which she
+had torn from her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go straight to the station."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not wish to see Ada?" he said, speaking of his wife by her
+Christian name, for the first time in Nell's hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, quietly but firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it is best," he murmured. "I will order a carriage for you&mdash;you
+will have something to eat?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; I will not! The carriage, please! Tell&mdash;tell Lady Wolfer that I
+had to go home suddenly. Tell her anything&mdash;but the truth."</p>
+
+<p>He inclined his head; then he went to the bureau and took out some
+notes.</p>
+
+<p>"You will let me give you these?" he asked, very humbly and anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked at the money with a dull indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"What is owing to me, please. No more," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"If I gave you that, it would leave me beggared," he said gravely.
+"Please give me your purse."</p>
+
+<p>He folded some notes and put them in her purse, and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You will let me go to the station?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Nell. "I would rather go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not afraid?" he ventured, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nell was puzzled for a minute; then she understood that he meant afraid
+of Sir Archie. It was the last straw, and she broke down under it; but,
+instead of bursting into tears, she laughed&mdash;so wild, so eerie a laugh,
+that Wolfer was alarmed. But the laugh ceased suddenly, and she lowered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+her veil. He held out his hand again, and held hers in a warm and
+grateful grasp.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, my dear!" he said. "If you are right, I&mdash;I shall owe my
+life's happiness to you!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell went up to her room and told Burden to pack a small hand bag. "I am
+going away for a few days," she said; and though she endeavored to speak
+easily, the maid looked at her anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Not bad news, miss, I hope?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No; oh, no!" replied Nell.</p>
+
+<p>The earl was waiting for her in the hall, and put her into the brougham;
+and he stood and looked after the carriage with conflicting emotions.</p>
+
+<p>Then he went upstairs, and, after pausing for a moment or two, knocked
+at his wife's door.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He heard her cross the room, and presently she opened the door. She was
+in her dressing robe, and she looked at him as if she were trying to
+keep her surprise from revealing itself in her face.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come in?" he said, his color coming and going. "I&mdash;I want to
+speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door wide, and he entered and closed it after him.</p>
+
+<p>She moved to the dressing table, and took up a toilet bottle in an
+aimless fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to tell you that I have to go abroad," he said. He had
+thought out what he would say, but his voice sounded strange and forced,
+and, by reason of his agitation, graver even than usual.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, with polite interest. "When do you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-day&mdash;at once," he said. "Can you be ready in time for us to catch
+the afternoon mail?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head and looked at him. The sun had come out, and shone
+through the muslin curtains upon her pretty face and soft brown hair.</p>
+
+<p>"I!" she said, surprised and startled. "I! Do you want me to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He stood, his eyes fixed on hers, his brows knit in suspense and
+anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He came a little nearer, but did not stretch out his hands, though he
+longed to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;I want you," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him, and something in his eyes, something new, strange,
+and perplexing, made her heart beat fast, and caused the blood to rush
+to her face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;want&mdash;me?" she said, in a low voice, which quavered. Its tremor drew
+him to her, and he held out his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I have wanted you&mdash;I have always wanted you. Ada, forgive me! Come
+to me!"</p>
+
+<p>She half yielded, then she shrank back, her face white, her eyes full of
+remorse and something like fear.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you don't know!" she panted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know all&mdash;enough!" he said. "It was my fault as much&mdash;more than
+yours. Forgive me, Ada! Let us forget the past; let us begin our lives
+from to-day&mdash;this hour! No, don't speak! It is not necessary to say a
+word. Don't let us look back, but forward&mdash;forward! Ada, I love you! I
+have loved you all along, but I was a fool and blind; but my eyes are
+opened, and&mdash;&mdash;Do you care for me? Or is it too late?"</p>
+
+<p>She closed her eyes, and seemed as if about to fall, but he caught her
+in his arms, and, with a sob, she hid her face on his breast, weeping
+passionately.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Nell sank into a corner of the luxurious carriage, and stared vacantly
+before her. The reaction had set in, and she felt bewildered and
+confused. She was leaving Wolfer House "under a cloud." For all her life
+one person, at least&mdash;Lord Wolfer&mdash;would deem her guilty of misconduct.
+She shuddered and closed her eyes. How should she account to mamma for
+her sudden return? Then she tried to console herself, to ease her aching
+heart with the thought of the meeting, the reconciliation of the husband
+and wife. She had not sacrificed herself in vain, not in vain!</p>
+
+<p>What did it matter that the earl deemed her guilty? As she had said, she
+was nobody, a girl for whom no one cared. She was going back to Shorne
+Mills. Well, thank God for that! In six hours she would be home. Home!
+Her heart ached at the word, ached with the longing for rest and peace.</p>
+
+<p>She found that a train did not start until three, and she walked up and
+down the station for some time, trying to forget her unhappiness in the
+bustle and confusion which, even at the end of this nineteenth century,
+make traveling a burden and a trial.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she began to feel faint rather than hungry, and she went into
+the refreshment room and asked for a glass of milk. While she was
+drinking it a gentleman came in. She saw that it was Lord Wolfer, and
+set down the glass and waited. The man seemed totally changed. The
+sternness had disappeared from his face, and his eyes were bright with
+his newly found happiness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why have you come?" she asked dully.</p>
+
+<p>"I had to," he said. "I&mdash;I wanted to tell you&mdash;you were right&mdash;yes, you
+were right! I was blind. We were both blind! We are going abroad
+to-day&mdash;together. She has asked for you&mdash;almost directly&mdash;almost as if
+she&mdash;she suspected that you had brought us together! I told her that you
+had been sent for by Sophia. I wish you were not going; I wish you were
+coming with us!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head wearily; and he nodded. He seemed years younger; and
+his old stiffness had disappeared from his manner, the grave solemnity
+from his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"That is my train," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her wistfully, as if he longed to take her back with him,
+but Nell walked resolutely down the platform, and he put her into a
+first-class compartment. Then he got some papers and magazines, and laid
+them on the seat beside her. It was evident that he did not know how
+sufficiently to express his gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Your going is the only alloy to my&mdash;our happiness!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled drearily.</p>
+
+<p>"You will soon forget me," she could not help saying.</p>
+
+<p>"Never! Don't think that!" he said. "Have you wired to say that you are
+coming?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The guard made his last inspection of the carriages, and Wolfer held her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," he said. "And&mdash;and thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>The words were conventional enough, but Nell understood, and was
+comforted.</p>
+
+<p>As the train left the station, the boys from the book stall came along
+with the early edition of the evening papers.</p>
+
+<p>"Paper, miss?" asked one, standing on the step. "Evening paper? Sudden
+death of the Hearl of Hangleford!"</p>
+
+<p>But Nell had no desire for an evening paper, and, shaking her head, sank
+back with a sigh.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Beaumont Buildings is scarcely the place one would choose in which to
+spend a summer's day; for, though they reach unto the heavens, they are,
+like most of their kind, somewhat stuffy, the dust of the great city in
+all their nooks and corners, and the noise of the crowded life
+penetrates even to the topmost flat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The agent, a man of fine imagination and unlimited descriptive powers,
+states that Beaumont Buildings is "situated in a fashionable locality";
+but though Fashion may dwell close at hand, and its carriages sometimes
+roll luxuriously through the street in which the Buildings tower, the
+street is a grimy and rather squalid one, in which most of the houses are
+shops&mdash;shops of the cheap and useful kind which cater for the poor.</p>
+
+<p>There is always a noise and a blare in Beaumont Street. The butcher not
+only displays his joints and "block ornaments" outside his shop, but
+proclaims their excellence in stentorian tones; and the grocer and
+fruiterer and fishmonger compete with the costermongers, who stand
+yelling beside their barrows from early morn to late and gaslit night.</p>
+
+<p>The smells of Beaumont Street are innumerable, and like unto the sea
+shells for variety; and the scent of oranges, the pungent odor of fried
+fish, from the shop down the side street, and that vague smell familiar
+to all who dwell in the heart of London, rise and enter the open
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>On the pavement and in the roadway, among the cabs and tradesmen's
+carts, the children play and yell and screech; and at night the song of
+the intoxicated as he rolls homeward, or is conveyed to the nearest cell
+by the guardian of the peace he is breaking, flits across the dreams of
+those in the Buildings who are so unfortunate as to sleep lightly; and
+they are many.</p>
+
+<p>And yet in a small room of a small flat on the fourth floor of this
+Babel of noise and unrest sat Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen months had passed since she made her sacrifice and left Wolfer
+House. The black dress in which she looked so slight, and against which
+the ivory pallor of her face was accentuated, was worn as mourning for
+Mrs. Lorton; for that estimable lady had genteelly faded away, and Nell
+and Dick were alone in this transitory world.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was pouring through the open window, and Nell had dragged her
+chair into the angle of the wall just out of the reach of the hot beams,
+but still near the window, in the hope of catching something of the
+smoke-laden air which away out in the country must be blowing so fresh
+and sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>As she bent over the coat which she was mending for Dick, she was
+thinking of one place over which that same air was at that moment
+wafting the scent of the sea and the flowers&mdash;Shorne Mills; and, as she
+raised her eyes and glanced at the triangular patch of sky which was
+framed by the roofs of the opposite houses, she could see the picture
+she loved quite distinctly, and almost hear&mdash;notwithstanding the
+intermezzo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> banged out by the piano organ in the street below&mdash;the songs
+and whistling of the fishermen, and the flap of the sails against the
+masts. Let the noise in and outside the Buildings be as great as it
+might, she could always lose herself in memories of Shorne Mills; and if
+sorrow's crown of sorrow be the remembering of happier days, such
+remembrance is not without its consolation.</p>
+
+<p>When Dick and she had come to the Buildings, two months ago, Nell felt
+as if she should never get used to the crowded place and its
+multitudinous discomforts; but time had rendered life, even amid such
+surroundings, tolerable; and there were moments in which some phase of
+the human comedy always being played around her brought the smile to her
+pale face.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she glanced at the tiny clock on the mantelshelf, and, laying
+the coat aside, put the kettle on the fire, and got ready for tea; for
+Dick would soon be home from the great engineering works on the other
+side of the water, and he liked his tea "to meet him on the stairs."</p>
+
+<p>As she was cutting the bread for the toast there came a knock at the
+door, and in answer to her "Come in!" the door was opened halfway, and a
+head appeared around it.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss Lorton. Lorton not in? I thought I heard his
+step," said a man's voice, but one almost as soft as a woman's.</p>
+
+<p>Nell scarcely looked up from her task; the tenants of Beaumont Buildings
+are sociable, and their visits to one another were not limited to the
+fashionable hours. For instance, the borrowing and returning of a
+saucepan or a sewing machine, or some lump sugar, went on all day, and
+sometimes late into the night; and the borrower or lender often granted
+or accepted a loan without stopping the occupation which he or she
+happened to be engaged in at the entrance of the other party.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. It is scarcely his time, Mr. Falconer. Is it anything I can
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>The young man came in slowly and with a certain timidity, and stood by
+the mantelshelf, looking down at her as she knelt and toasted the bread.
+He was very thin&mdash;painfully so&mdash;and very pale. There were shadows round
+his large, dark eyes&mdash;the eyes of a man who dreams&mdash;and his black hair,
+worn rather long, swept away from a forehead as white as a woman's, but
+with two deep lines between the eyes which told the story of pain
+suffered patiently and in silence.</p>
+
+<p>His hands were long and thin&mdash;the hands of a musician&mdash;and the one on
+which his chin rested as he leaned against the mantelshelf trembled
+slightly. He had been practicing for three hours. He wore an old, a very
+old black velvet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> jacket, and trousers bulgy at the knees and frayed at
+the edges; but both were well brushed, and his shirt and collar were
+scrupulously clean, though, like the trousers, they; showed signs of
+wear.</p>
+
+<p>He occupied a room just above the Lortons' flat, and the sound of his
+piano and violin had entered so fully into Nell's daily life that she
+was sometimes conscious of a feeling of uneasiness when it ceased, and
+often caught herself waiting for it to begin again.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it anything I can do?" she asked again, as he remained silent and
+lost in watching her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" he said. "I wanted him to help me lift the piano to another
+part of the room. The sun comes right on to it now, and it's hot. I
+tried by myself, but&mdash;&mdash;" He stopped, as if he were ashamed of his
+weakness. "You've no idea how heavy a piano can make itself, especially
+on a hot day."</p>
+
+<p>"He will be in directly, and delighted to help you. Meanwhile, help me
+make the toast, and stop to tea with us."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help you with the toast," he said. "But I've had my tea, thanks."</p>
+
+<p>It was a falsehood, for he had run out of tea two days before; but he
+was proud as well as poor, which is a mistake.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, you can pretend to drink another cup," said Nell lightly; for
+she knew that the truth was not in his statement.</p>
+
+<p>He stuck a slice of bread on a toasting fork, but did not kneel down
+before the fire for a moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>"Your room faces the same way as mine," he said. "But it always seems
+cooler." His dark eyes wandered round meditatively. Small as the room
+was, it had that air of neatness which indicates the presence of a lady.
+The tea cloth was white, the few ornaments and pictures&mdash;brought from
+The Cottage&mdash;the small bookcase and wicker-work basket gave a touch of
+refinement, which was wholly wanting in his own sparsely furnished and
+always untidy den. "Coming in here is like&mdash;like coming into another
+world. I feel sometimes as if I should like to suggest that you should
+charge sixpence for admission. It would be worth that sum to most of the
+people in the Buildings, as a lesson in the use and beauty of soap and
+water and a duster."</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is wonderful that they keep their rooms as clean as they do,
+seeing that every time one opens the windows the blacks pour in&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like Zulus into a zareba&mdash;if that's what they call it. Yes; no denizen
+of the Buildings would feel strange in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> Africa, for, whatever the
+weather may be, the blacks are always with us. Should you say that this
+is done on this side?"</p>
+
+<p>He held up the slice on the toasting fork for her inspection.</p>
+
+<p>"Beautifully! Turn it, please."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope to Heaven I shan't drop it! There you are! I knew I should."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can keep that one for yourself," said Nell, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>He listened to the laugh, with his head a little on one side.</p>
+
+<p>"I like to hear that," he said, almost to himself, "though, sometimes, I
+wonder how you can do it&mdash;you, who must always be longing for the fresh
+air&mdash;for the country."</p>
+
+<p>Nell winced.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the use of longing for that which one cannot have?" she said
+lightly, but checking a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her quickly, strangely, and a faint dash of color rose to
+his pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"That's true philosophy, at any rate," he said, in a low voice; "but,
+all the same, one can't help longing sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he stole a glance at the beautiful face; and, in looking,
+forgot the toast, which promptly showed its resentment of his neglect by
+"catching," and filling the apartment with the smell of scorched bread.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that's burning," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm sure of it," he said penitently. "If ever you are in doubt as
+to the statement that man is a useless animal, set me to some simple
+task, Miss Lorton, and I'll prove it beyond question. Never mind, it's
+my slice, and charcoal is extremely wholesome."</p>
+
+<p>"There's another; and do be careful! And how are you getting on?"</p>
+
+<p>He jerked his head toward the sitting room above, where the piano was.</p>
+
+<p>"The cantata? Slowly, slowly," he said thoughtfully. "Sometimes it goes,
+like a two-year-old; at others it drags and creeps along, and more often
+it stops altogether. You haven't heard it lately; perhaps that's the
+reason I'm sticking. I notice that I always get on better and faster
+after you&mdash;and Lorton&mdash;have been up to mark progress. Perhaps you'll
+come up this evening? It's cruel to ask you, I know, for you must hate
+the sound of my piano and fiddle, just as much as I hate the sound of
+Mrs. Jones spanking Tommy, or the whizzing of the sewing machine of that
+poor girl in the next room. And you must hear them, too&mdash;you, who have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>
+been so used to the quiet of the country, the music of the sea, and the
+humming of bees! Yes, it is harder for you, Miss Lorton, than for any of
+the rest of us; and I often stop in the middle of the cantata and think
+how you must suffer."</p>
+
+<p>"Then don't think of it again," said Nell cheerfully, "for, indeed,
+there is no cause to pity me. At first&mdash;&mdash;" She stopped, and her brows
+knit with the memory of the first few weeks of Beaumont Buildings.
+"Well, at first it was rather&mdash;trying; but after a while one gets
+used&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Used to the infernal&mdash;I beg your pardon&mdash;the incessant bangings on a
+piano, and the wailings of Tommy Jones. But you wouldn't complain even
+if you still suffered as keenly as you did when you first came. I know.
+Sometimes I feel that I would give ten years of my life if I could hear
+you say 'Good-by, Mr. Falconer; we are going!' though God knows
+I&mdash;we&mdash;should all miss you badly enough."</p>
+
+<p>There came a knock at the door&mdash;a soft, dull knock, followed by a rattle
+of the handle&mdash;and a mite of a boy stood in the opening, inhaling the
+scent of the tea and toast, and gazing wide-eyed at the two occupants of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, mother ses will 'oo lend her free lumps o' sugar, Miss 'Orton;
+'cos she've run out."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will! And come in, Tommy!" said Nell. "There you are!"</p>
+
+<p>She wrapped half the contents of the sugar basin in a piece of paper and
+gave it him; then, seeing his eyes fixed wistfully on the pile of
+buttered toast, she took a couple of slices, arranged them in sandwich
+fashion, butter side inward, and put them into his chubby and grimy
+fist. "There you are. And, Tommy, you'll be a good boy, and won't eat
+any of the sugar, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I'll be dood, Miss 'Orton. I'll promise I'll be dood."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there's one lump all to yourself!" she said, sticking it into the
+other fist. "Open the door for him, Mr. Falconer; and don't watch him up
+the stairs; he'll keep his promise," she added, in a low voice, as she
+searched for a comparatively clean spot on Tommy's face on which to kiss
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on&mdash;you lucky young beggar!" said Falconer, under his breath, and
+eying Tommy enviously.</p>
+
+<p>"If you've any pity to waste, spend it on the children," said Nell, with
+a sigh. "Oh, what would I give to be a fairy, just for one day, and
+whisk them off to the seaside, into the open fields, anywhere out of
+Beaumont Buildings. Sometimes, when I see the women drive by in their
+carriages, with a lap dog on their knees or stuck up beside them, it
+makes me feel wicked! I want to stick my head out of the window<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> and
+call put: 'Come up here and fetch some of the children for a drive; I'll
+take care of the dog while you're gone!' Dick's late!" she broke off;
+"we'd better begin. Help me wheel the table down to the window."</p>
+
+<p>He attempted to do it by himself, but the color rose to his face and his
+breath came fast, and Nell insisted on bearing a hand.</p>
+
+<p>"That's better!" she said cheerfully, and ignoring the signs of his
+weakness. "You can reach the toast&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stood by the window, looking down absently and regaining his breath
+which the effort, slight as it was, had tried.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a brougham stopped at the door," he said. "Doctor, I suppose.
+No, it's a lady&mdash;a fashionable lady. Perhaps she's come to take one of
+the children for a drive?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked out and uttered an exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I know her," she said, with some agitation. "I'm afraid she's coming
+here&mdash;to see me!"</p>
+
+<p>He moved to the door at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but stay! Why do you run away?" she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at his seedy coat with a grave shyness.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll come back if you're mistaken," he said. "Your swell visitor would
+be rather astonished at my appearance; and I'm afraid there isn't time
+to get my frock coat out of pawn."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go!" begged Nell; but he shook his head and left her; and as she
+heard his step going slowly up the stone stairs, she glanced at the tea,
+and thought pitifully of the meal he was losing; then she stood by the
+table and waited, trying to steady the beating of her heart, to assure
+herself that she had been mistaken; but presently some one knocked, and,
+opening the door, she saw Lady Wolfer standing before her.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer drew the slight figure to her and kissed her again and
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"You wicked girl!" she said, gazing at her with tender reproach. "Aren't
+you going to let me come in? Why do you stand and look at me with those
+grave eyes of yours, as if you were sorry to see me? Oh, my dear, my
+dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, come in," said Nell, with something like the sigh of resignation.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer still held her by the arm, and turned her face to the light.
+There had been a dash of color in it a moment ago, but it had faded, and
+Lady Wolfer's eyes filled with tears as she noticed the thinness and
+pallor of the face.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, Nell! it is wicked of you! I only knew it last night, when we
+came back. I thought you were at Shorne<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> Mills still! You wrote from
+there&mdash;you said nothing about coming to London."</p>
+
+<p>"That was more than two months ago," said Nell, with a grave smile.
+"And&mdash;and I said nothing because I knew that you&mdash;that Lord
+Wolfer&mdash;would want to&mdash;to help us. And there was no need&mdash;is none."</p>
+
+<p>"No need!" Lady Wolfer looked round the room, listened for a moment to
+the strains of the piano mingling with the squeals of the children in
+the house, the yells of those playing in the street, and scented the
+various odors floating in at the window. "No need! Oh, Nell! isn't it
+wicked to be so stubborn and so proud? And we knew nothing! We thought
+that you had enough&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So we have," said Nell. "They have been very good to Dick at the works,
+and he is earning wages, and there&mdash;there was some money left&mdash;a
+little&mdash;but enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Only enough to permit you to live here! In this prison! Nell, you must
+let me take you away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head, smiling still, but with that "stubborn" expression
+in her eyes which the other woman remembered.</p>
+
+<p>"And leave Dick!" she said. "No, no! Don't say another word! Call us
+proud and stiff-necked, if you like&mdash;we're not, really&mdash;but neither Dick
+nor I could take anything from any one while we have enough of our own.
+If we could&mdash;if ever we 'run short,' and are in danger of starvation,
+then&mdash;&mdash;But that won't happen. You don't know how clever Dick is, and
+how much they think of him at the works! He'll be in directly, with his
+hands and face all smutty, and famishing for his tea&mdash;&mdash;" She laughed as
+she fetched another cup. "And you've come just in time. Sit down and
+leave off staring at me so reproachfully, and tell me all the news."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Lady Wolfer. "You tell me; yes, tell me all about it, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled as she poured out the tea&mdash;the smile which bravely checks
+the sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"There is not much to tell," she said. "When I got home&mdash;to Shorne
+Mills"&mdash;should she never be able to speak the words without a pang?&mdash;"I
+found mamma unwell, very unwell. She was quite changed&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That is why she sent for you, of course," said Lady Wolfer. "Nell, why
+did you go without seeing me, without saying good-by?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had to leave at once," said Nell timidly, and fighting with her
+rising color.</p>
+
+<p>"That day! I shall never forget it," said Lady Wolfer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> softly, and
+looking straight before her. "Yes, I have something to tell you, dear.
+But go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma was ill; but I was not frightened&mdash;not at first. She was always
+an invalid, you know, and I thought that she would get better. But she
+did not; she got weaker every day, and&mdash;&mdash;" The tears came to her eyes,
+and she turned away to the fire for a moment. "Molly and I nursed her.
+Molly was our servant, and like a friend indeed, and the parting with
+her&mdash;&mdash;She did not suffer much, and she was so patient, so changed. She
+was like a child at last; she could not bear me to leave her. I used to
+think that she&mdash;she was not very fond of me; but&mdash;but all that was
+changed before she died, and she grew to like me as much as she liked
+Dick. He had always been her favorite. To the last she did not think she
+was going to die, and&mdash;and&mdash;the evening before she went we"&mdash;she
+laughed, the laugh so near akin to tears&mdash;"we cut out a paper pattern
+for a new dress for her&mdash;one of your patterns."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Nell!" murmured Lady Wolfer.</p>
+
+<p>"Then she died; and the Bardsleys offered Dick a situation&mdash;it was very
+kind and unusual, Dick says, and he cannot quite understand it even
+now&mdash;and, of course, we had to come to London&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, and Lady Wolfer looked round and out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>"No; we had to live in London, to be near the works, you know. We are
+very comfortable and happy."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Nell!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but don't pity us," said Nell, smiling. "You don't know how jolly
+we are, and how full of amusement our life is. We even go to the theater
+sometimes, and sometimes Dick brings a friend home to tea; and there are
+friends here in the Buildings&mdash;one has just left me. And Dick is going
+to be a great man, and rich and famous. Oh, there is not a doubt about
+it. Though Beaumont Buildings are pretty large, we have several castles
+in the air quite as big. And now tell me&mdash;about yourself," she broke off
+suddenly, and with a touch of embarrassment. "You are looking very well;
+yes, and younger; and your hair is long; and what a swell you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Am I?" said Lady Wolfer, in a low voice, and smiling softly. "I am
+glad. Nell, while you have been in such trouble&mdash;my poor, dear Nell!&mdash;I
+have been so happy. How can I tell you? I feel so ashamed." Her face
+grew crimson, and she looked down as if smitten with shame; then she
+raised her eyes. "It began&mdash;my happiness, I mean&mdash;the day you left us.
+Do you remember the night before, and&mdash;and the wild, wicked words I
+spoke to you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded slightly, and bent over the tea things.</p>
+
+<p>"I was mad that night&mdash;reckless and desperate. I&mdash;I thought that my
+husband didn't care for me."</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you said I was wrong&mdash;that it was all a mistake. How did you know,
+dear? But I did not believe you; and I&mdash;I thought&mdash;God forgive me!&mdash;that
+I owed it to the man who did love me&mdash;that other. Nell, I cannot bear to
+speak his name now&mdash;now that all is altered! I thought that I was bound
+to go away with him! He had asked me&mdash;implored me more than once. I knew
+that he would ask me again, and soon, and&mdash;and I should have yielded!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Nell, going round to her, and putting her arms round her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ah, yes, I should!" said Lady Wolfer. "I had made up my mind. I
+was reckless and desperate. That very morning I had decided to go,
+whenever he asked me; and that very morning, quite early, while I was
+dressing, my husband came to me, and&mdash;Nell, you were right, though even
+now I cannot guess how you knew."</p>
+
+<p>"Spectators see more of the game, dear," said Nell softly.</p>
+
+<p>"And in a moment everything was changed; and I knew the truth&mdash;that he
+loved me&mdash;had loved me from the first. We had both been blind. But I was
+the worst; for I, being a woman, ought to have seen that his coldness
+was only the screen which his pride erected between his heart and the
+woman whom he thought had only married him for position. We went away
+together that day&mdash;our real honeymoon. Forgive me, Nell, if&mdash;if I almost
+forgot you! Happiness makes us selfish, dear! But I did not forget you
+for long. And he&mdash;Nell, why does he always speak of you as if he owed
+you something&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off, looking at Nell with a puzzled air.</p>
+
+<p>Nell smiled enigmatically, but said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, dear, he bade me bring you back with me."</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not? But you will come and stay with us; you will bring your
+brother? Make your home with us while we are in town, at any rate, dear.
+Ah, don't be stubborn, Nell! Somehow, I feel as if&mdash;as if I owed my new
+happiness to you&mdash;that's strange, isn't it? But it is so. And you will
+come?"</p>
+
+<p>But Nell was wise in her generation, and remained firm.</p>
+
+<p>"I must stay with Dick," she said. "We are all and all to each other.
+But you shall come and see me sometimes, if you will promise to be good,
+and not try and persuade me into leaving that sphere in which the Fates
+have placed me."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"You little mule! You always had your own way while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> you were at Wolfer
+House, and I see you haven't changed. But I give you fair warning, Nell,
+that one day I shall take you at your weakest, and bear you away from
+this&mdash;this awful place! It is not fitting that you should be here! Dear,
+don't forget that you are a relation of mine!"</p>
+
+<p>"A poor relation," said Nell, laughing softly. "And, like all poor
+relations, to be kept at a proper distance. Go now, dear; that coachman
+of yours is getting anxious about his horses."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer pleaded hard, but Nell remained firm.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship was welcome to visit at Beaumont Buildings as often as she
+chose, but Beaumont Buildings would keep itself to itself; and, at last,
+her brougham drove away.</p>
+
+<p>It had scarcely turned the corner before Falconer knocked at the
+Lortons' door.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, quite gone," said Nell cheerfully, but thoughtfully. "Come and
+have your tea; and I'll have another cup."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down at the table. Tea is a serious meal at Beaumont Buildings,
+and is eaten at the table, not in chairs scattered over the room. But
+Falconer set his cup down at the first sip and pushed his plate away.</p>
+
+<p>"I know the sequel of this comedy," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Nell, staring at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Enter swell friend. 'Found at last! Ah, leave this abode of poverty and
+squalor. Come with me!' and the heroine goeth."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish you are, Mr. Falconer! The heroine&mdash;if you mean me&mdash;does
+not 'goeth,' but remains where she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean it?" he asked, the color rising to his pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, with a cheerful nod.</p>
+
+<p>"Then pass the toast," he said. "I breathe again, and tea is possible.
+But she wanted you to go? Don't deny it!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell's pale face flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. She wanted me to go; but I would not. I am going to remain at
+Beaumont Buildings," said Nell resolutely.</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, the door opened, and Dick entered quickly. His face and
+hands were smudgy, but his eyes were bright in their rings of smoke and
+smut.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Nell; hallo, Falconer!" he cried. "Eaten all the tea? Hope not,
+for I'm famishing. Nell, I've got some news for you&mdash;wait till I've
+cleaned myself."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't!" said Falconer, catching him by the arm. "What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not much. Only there's a chance of our leaving these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> beastly
+Buildings. I've got to go down to a place in the country to manage some
+water works, and install the electric light."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer's face fell for a moment, then he smiled cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Congratulations, old fellow!" he said. "When do you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, in about a fortnight. That's what kept me late. Think of it! The
+country, Nellakins! Jump for joy, but don't upset the tea things!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is it, Dick?" she asked, as he went to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"At a place called Anglemere. One of the ancestral halls, don't you
+know. 'Historic Castles of England' kind of place."</p>
+
+<p>"Anglemere?" said Nell, wrinkling her brows. "I seem to remember it."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Dick, having "cleaned" and "stoked" himself with tea and toast,
+vouchsafed for further information:</p>
+
+<p>"Anglemere's in Hampshire. It's a tremendous place, so a fellow at the
+works says, who's seen it; one of the show places, you know; 'a
+venerable pile,' with a collection of pictures, and a famous library,
+and all that. Lord Angleford&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember!" Nell broke in, "I met Lady Angleford at Wolfer House; a
+little woman, and very pretty. She was exceedingly kind to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Sensible as well as pretty," murmured Falconer. He had drawn his chair
+to the window, and was gazing down at the crowded street rather absently
+and sadly. In a fortnight the girl who had brightened his life, who had
+transformed Beaumont Buildings into an earthly paradise for him, would
+be gone!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Dick. "That would have been the late earl's wife. The present
+one isn't married. He's a young chap&mdash;lucky bargee! The late earl died
+about eighteen months ago, suddenly. I heard old Bardsley talking about
+it while I was in the office with him. He's been away traveling&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who&mdash;old Bardsley?" asked Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"No, brainless one," said Dick; "the young earl, Lord Angleford. Rather
+a curious sort of customer, I should fancy, for nobody seems to know
+where he has been, or where he is. Left England suddenly&mdash;kind of
+disappearance. They couldn't find him in time for the funeral, and he's
+away still; but he's sent orders that this place&mdash;the beggar's got<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+three or four others in England and elsewhere, I believe&mdash;should be put
+in fighting trim&mdash;water supply, new stables, electric light&mdash;the whole
+bag of tricks. And I&mdash;I who speak to you&mdash;am going to be a kind of clerk
+of the works. No need to go on your knees to me, Falconer; just simply
+bow respectfully. You will find no alteration in me. I shall be as
+pleasant and affable as ever. No pride in me."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you&mdash;thank you," said Falconer, with exaggerated meekness.
+"But&mdash;pardon the curiosity of an humble friend&mdash;I don't quite see where
+Miss Lorton comes in."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's this way," said Dick, reaching for his pipe&mdash;for your
+engineer, more even than other men, must have his smoke immediately
+after he has stoked: "the place is empty&mdash;nobody but caretakers and a
+few servants&mdash;and the agent has offered me the use of one of the lodges.
+There is no accommodation at the inn, I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Falconer.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so, perspicacious one. It happens to be a tiny-sized lodge, with
+two or three bedrooms. My idea is that Nell and I could take possession
+of the lodge, hire a slavey from the village, and have a good time of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pleasure and business combined," said Falconer. "And it will be nice,
+when the Buildings are as hot as&mdash;as a baker's oven, to think of Miss
+Lorton strolling through the woods&mdash;there must be woods, of course&mdash;or
+sitting with a book beside the stream&mdash;for equally, of course, there is
+a stream."</p>
+
+<p>"Get your fiddle and play us a 'Te Deum' for the occasion," said Dick
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>When Falconer had left the room, Nell told Dick of Lady Wolfer's visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" he said, by no means delightedly. "And wants you to go and live
+with her; or offered to make us an allowance, I suppose? At any rate, I
+won't have anything of that kind, Nell," he added, with fraternal
+despotism.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be afraid. I shall not go&mdash;there are reasons&mdash;&mdash;" She
+turned away to hide the sudden blush. "And I am as proud as you, Dick. I
+should like to ask Mr. Falconer to come down to us at this place. He has
+not been looking well lately."</p>
+
+<p>Dick shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, poor beggar! I'm afraid he's in a bad way. Do you hear him cough at
+night? It's worse than he pretends."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said Nell warningly, as the musician re&euml;ntered, his violin held
+lovingly under his arm.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the small room was filled with the strains of jubilant music&mdash;a "Te
+Deum" of thanksgiving and rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>"That's for you," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly the tune changed to a sad yet delicious melody whose
+sweetness thrilled through Nell, and made her think of Shorne Mills&mdash;and
+Drake; and as he played on she turned her face away from him and to the
+open window through which the wailing of the music floated, causing more
+than one of the passers-by in the street beneath to pause and look up with
+wistful eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is for me," said Falconer; "for me&mdash;and the rest of us&mdash;whom
+you will leave behind. Good night." And with an abrupt nod he left the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule he played, in his own room, late into the night; but to-night
+the piano and violin were silent, and he sat by the window looking at
+the stars, in each of which he saw the beautiful face of the girl in the
+room below.</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't even guess it," he murmured. "She will never know that I&mdash;I
+love her. And that's all right; for though she wouldn't laugh at the
+love of a pauper with one leg in the grave, she'd pity me, and I
+couldn't stand that. She'd pity me and make herself unhappy over my&mdash;my
+folly; and she's unhappy enough as it is. I wonder what it is? As I
+watch her eyes, with that sad, wistful look in them, I feel that I would
+give the world to know, and another world on top of it to be able to
+help her. Sometimes I fancy that the look is a reflection of that in my
+own eyes, and that would mean that she loved some one as I love her. Is
+that the meaning? Is there some one of whom she is always thinking as I
+think of her? The look was in her eyes while I was playing to-night; I
+saw it as I have seen it so often."</p>
+
+<p>He sighed, and hid his face in his long, thin hands.</p>
+
+<p>"They paint love as a chubby, laughing child," he mused bitterly. "They
+should draw him as a cruel, heartless monster, with a scourge instead of
+a toy dart in his hands. If I wrote a love song, it should be the wail
+of a breaking heart. Only two months! It seems as if I had known her for
+years. Was that look always in her eyes? Will it always remain there?
+Oh, God! if I could change it, if I could be the means&mdash;&mdash;Yes; I'd ask
+for nothing more, nothing better, but just to see her happy. They might
+carry my coffin down the stairs as soon as they pleased afterward."</p>
+
+<p>He stretched out his hand for his violin, but drew his hand back.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-night. They are talking over the brother's slice of luck, and I
+won't break in upon their joy. Good night, my love&mdash;who never will be
+mine."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Every evening Dick came home with fresh items of information about the
+work to be done at Anglemere, and Nell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> began to catch something of the
+excitement of his anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes Falconer came down to listen, and he tried to hide the pain
+the prospect of their departure cost him, as now and again he joined in
+the discussion of their plans; but more often he sat gazing out of the
+window, and stealing glances at the beautiful face as it bent over some
+needlework for Dick or herself&mdash;more often for Dick.</p>
+
+<p>But one night&mdash;it was the night before they were to start&mdash;he almost
+betrayed himself.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow you will have escaped the piano and violin, Tommy's squeals
+and the yowling of the cats, the manifold charms of Beaumont Buildings,
+and the picturesque cabbages of the costers' barrows, Miss Lorton. I
+wonder whether you will ever come back?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course," said Nell, smiling. "Dick is not going to spend the
+remainder of his life at Anglemere. Oh, yes; we shall be back almost
+before you have missed us, Mr. Falconer."</p>
+
+<p>"Think so?" he said, smiling, too, but with a strange look in his eyes,
+and a tremulous quiver of the thin and too-red lips. "Then you will have
+to be back in a very few minutes after the cab has left the door. No;
+somehow I fancy that Beaumont Buildings is seeing the last of you. Tommy
+must share my dread, for he howled with more than his accustomed
+vehemence when he said 'Good-by' just now."</p>
+
+<p>"That was because you said I ought not to kiss him, because he was so
+dirty," said Nell. "Poor little Tommy! Yes, I think he'll miss me!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not improbable," he said, in his ironical way. "I wish I were
+seven years old, with a smudgy face and a perpetual sniff. Who knows!
+You might have some pity to spare for me."</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed with the unconscious heartlessness of the woman who does
+not suspect that the man she is laughing at loves her better than life
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope you will miss us, too," she said. "But you will be freer to
+get on with your work. I'm afraid Dick&mdash;and I, too!&mdash;have often
+interrupted you and interfered with your composing. You must set at the
+cantata while we are away, and have it finished for us to hear when we
+come back. And, Mr. Falconer, you will take care of yourself, won't you?
+You are so careless, you know&mdash;about going out in the rain and at night
+without an umbrella or overcoat. I heard you coughing last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you?" he said. "I hope I didn't keep you awake! I kept my head
+under the bedclothes as much as I could!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> Yes, I'll take care, though I
+don't think it matters very much."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked up at him, startled and rather shocked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say that?" she said reproachfully. "Do you think that
+Dick&mdash;and I&mdash;wouldn't be sorry if you were ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, smiling gravely, "you would be sorry. So you would be if
+Tommy got the measles, or the black cat opposite were to slip off the
+tiles and break its neck, or Giles came home sober enough one night to
+kill his wife. There! I've hurt you! I didn't mean to! It's sheer
+cussedness on my part, and I'm an ill-conditioned cur to say a word."
+Then suddenly the smile vanished, and his misery showed itself in his
+dark eyes. "Ah! can't you see what your going means to me&mdash;can't you
+see?" He caught his emotion by the throat and checked it. "That&mdash;that I
+shall miss you&mdash;and Dick; that I shan't have any one to come to with my
+cantata and my cough. There's Dick calling, and good-by. I&mdash;I shall be
+out at a music lesson when you start to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>He held her hand for a moment or two, half raised it slowly, but, with a
+wistful smile and a tightening of his lips, let it fall.</p>
+
+<p>He was not out when they drove away next morning, but his door was
+closed, and he watched them from behind the ragged curtains drawn
+closely over the grimy window. Then, when the cab had rattled away, he
+went out on the landing and found Tommy seated on the stairs, bewailing
+his desertion, with his two chubby, sooty fists kneading his swollen
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Come inside, Tommy," he said. "Let us mingle our tears together. You
+ungrateful young sweep, how dare you cry! She kissed you!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell, of the tender heart, had grown somewhat fond of Beaumont
+Buildings, and she sighed rather wistfully as she looked back at it, and
+thought of the humble friends who would, she knew, miss her; but her
+spirits rose as the train left the tops of the houses and carried Dick
+and her into the fresh air of the great Hampshire downs.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems years, ages, since I saw the country!" she exclaimed. "Dick,
+do you see those sheep? They are white! Think of it! Think of the grimy
+ones in the parks! Couldn't we have a Society for Washing the Poor
+London Sheep, Dick? And look at that farmhouse! Oh, Dick, it isn't
+Devonshire and&mdash;and Shorne Mills, but it is the country at last!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right; keep your hair on, young woman," said Dick, looking out of
+the window in a patronizing fashion. "This is all very well; but wait
+until you get to Anglemere. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> you can shout and carry on if you
+like. Old Bardsley&mdash;nice old chap when he steps off his perch&mdash;says it
+is one of the most delightful 'seats' in England; as if it were a kind
+of armchair! Lucky beggar, this young lord! Nell, I've a kind of feeling
+that I ought to have been the heldest son of an hearl, but that I was
+changed in the cradle, don't you know. I should advise you not to stick
+your head too far out of the window, or one of these tunnels will knock
+it off. A brainless sister I can bear with, but one without any head at
+all would be rather too much."</p>
+
+<p>He was pretty jubilant himself, though, boylike, he tried to play the
+cynic; and when the ramshackle fly drove through the picturesque
+village, and they came in sight of a huge palace of a house which
+gleamed redly through the trees of an English park, and the flyman,
+pointing with his whip, informed them that it was Anglemere, Dick
+emitted a whistle of surprise and admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, that is something like! What signifies the Maltbys' and the
+other places we know, after that?"</p>
+
+<p>But Nell's eyes, after a glance at the great house, were fixed upon the
+lodge at which the fly had stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Dick, how pretty!" she exclaimed, her beautiful face radiant with
+delight as she gazed at the ivy-covered little house with its latticed
+windows and Gothic porch.</p>
+
+<p>A young girl&mdash;the village slavey Dick had engaged&mdash;stood under the porch
+to welcome them, and demurely conducted Nell over the lodge.</p>
+
+<p>They scrambled through a hasty meal, and Dick invited Nell&mdash;with a touch
+of importance and dignity which made her smile, to "come up and see the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>They walked up a magnificent avenue, and stood for a moment or two
+looking upon one of the finest specimens of Gothic domestic architecture
+in England.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine, isn't it?" said Dick, with bated breath. "Like a picture in a
+Christmas number, eh, Nell? See the carving along the front, and the
+terrace? And there's the peacock, there, perched behind that stone lion.
+Fancy such a place as this belonging to you, your very own. Yes, Lord
+Angleford's a lucky chap!"</p>
+
+<p>They went up the stone steps to the terrace steps, up which Queen Bess
+had ascended with stately stride, and, crossing the terrace, into the
+hall.</p>
+
+<p>The staircase, broad enough for a coach and four, had sheets of brown
+holland hanging from it, and the pictures, statuary, cabinets, and
+figures in armor were swathed in protecting covers; but enough was
+visible of the magnificence, the antiquity of the grand old hall to
+impress Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Some men were at work, whitewashing and decorating,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> and they stopped
+their splashing to permit Nell and Dick to go upstairs; and one or two
+of them touched their hats respectfully to the pretty young lady and her
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>The corridors were wide and newly decorated, and lined with priceless
+pictures which Nell longed to linger over; but Dick led her on from one
+room to another; from suites in which the antique furniture had been
+suffered to remain to others furnished with modern luxury.</p>
+
+<p>As they went downstairs again they were met by a dignified old lady who
+introduced herself as the housekeeper; and who, upon being informed that
+Dick was "the gentleman from Bardsley &amp; Bardsley," graciously conducted
+them over the state apartments. Most of us know Anglemere, either from
+having visited it, or from the innumerable photographs of it, but Nell
+had not seen any pictorial representation of it, and its glories broke
+upon her with all the force of freshness. In silent wonder she followed
+the stately dame as she led them from one magnificent room to another,
+remarking with a pleasant kind of condescension:</p>
+
+<p>"This is the great drawing-room. Designed by Onigo Jones. Pictures by
+Watteau. Queen Elizabeth sat in that chair near the antique mantelpiece
+of lapis-lazuli; this chair is never moved. This, the adjoining room, is
+the ballroom. Pictures by Bouchier; notice the painted ceiling, the
+finest in Europe, and costing over twenty thousand pounds. The next room
+is the royal antechamber, so called because James II. used it for
+writing letters while visiting Anglemere. We now pass into the banquet
+hall. Carved oak by Grinling Gibbings. You will remark the lifesized
+figures along the dado. It was here that Charles I., the Martyr, dined
+with his consort, Henrietta. That buffet, large as it is, will not hold
+the service of gold plate. That painted window's said to be the oldest
+of any, not ecclesiastic, in Europe. It is priceless. The pictures round
+the room are by Van Dyck and Carlo Dolci. The one over the mantelpiece
+is a portrait of the seventh Earl of Angleford."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked up at it. She was half confused by the splendors of the
+place and her efforts to follow the descriptions and explanations of the
+stately housekeeper; but as she raised her eyes to the portrait she was
+conscious of a sensation of surprise. For in some vague way the portrait
+reminded her of Drake. The pictured Angleford wore a ruff, and was
+habited in satin and armor, but the face&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come on! What are you staring at?" said Dick, impatiently; and she
+followed the cicerone into another room, and listened to the monotonous
+voice repeating the well-learned lesson.</p>
+
+<p>"We have here the library, the famous Angleford library.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> There are
+twenty thousand volumes, many of them unique. They are often consulted
+by savants&mdash;with the permission of the earl. Many of them are priceless.
+That portrait is Lord Bacon," et cetera, et cetera.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," whispered Nell, in Dick's ear. "The greatness of the house
+of Angleford is getting on my nerves! I&mdash;I can't help thinking of
+Beaumont Buildings! It is too great a contrast!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up!" retorted Dick, who was intensely interested.</p>
+
+<p>Nell went through the remainder of the inspection with a vague feeling
+of dissatisfaction. What right had any one man to such luxury, to such
+splendor, while others were born to penury and suffering?</p>
+
+<p>While she was asking herself this question, the housekeeper had led them
+to the picture gallery, the gallery which artists came from all corners
+of the world to visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Portraits of the earls of Angleford," she said, waving a black-clad,
+condescending arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the portrait of the present Earl of Angleford here?" asked Dick,
+with not unnatural interest.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. The present earl is not here. You see, it was not thought that
+he would be the earl. That is the late earl. Would you like to see the
+stables? If so, I will call the head coachman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But they had seen enough for one day, and, almost in silence, walked
+back to the lodge.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether Lord Angleford knows, realizes, how big a man he is?"
+said Dick, as he smoked his last pipe that night in the sitting room of
+the lodge. "We've seen the house, but we haven't seen the park or the
+estates or the farms, which extend for miles around. Fancy owning all
+this, and a title, a name, which every boy and girl learns about when
+they read their English history!"</p>
+
+<p>"I decline to fancy to realize anything more," said Nell, with a laugh.
+"That old woman's voice rings in my ears, and I feel as if I were
+intoxicated with, overwhelmed by, the grandeur of the Anglefords. I am
+going to bed now, Dick. To bed in a house in the country, with the scent
+of the flowers stealing in at the windows! Oh, think of it! and think
+of&mdash;Beaumont Buildings! Dick, would it be possible to obtain the post of
+lodgekeeper to Anglemere House? I envy the meanest laborer on the
+estate. Next to being the earl himself, I think I would like to be
+keeper of one of the lodges, or&mdash;or chief of the laundry!"</p>
+
+<p>She went up to her room&mdash;a room in which the ceiling was "covered" to
+the shape of the thatched roof.</p>
+
+<p>She was brushing the long tresses of soft, fluffy black hair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> which
+Drake had loved to kiss, when she heard the sound of a horse trotting up
+the avenue.</p>
+
+<p>She went to the window, and, screened by the curtain, looked out. A full
+moon was shining and flooding the avenue With light.</p>
+
+<p>She waited, looking out absently. The sound came nearer, and suddenly
+the horseman came in sight. Holding the muslin curtain for a screen, she
+still waited and watched for him. Then, with a faint cry&mdash;a cry almost
+of terror&mdash;she shrank back.</p>
+
+<p>For the man who was riding up the avenue to Anglemere was strangely like
+Drake!</p>
+
+<p>He had passed in an instant; his head was bowed, his face only for a
+moment in the moonlight, and yet&mdash;and yet! Was she dreaming&mdash;was fancy
+only trifling with her&mdash;or was it indeed and in truth Drake himself?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Nell lay awake for hours, dwelling on the appearance of the horseman who
+had ridden by in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to her that it was impossible that she, of all persons in the
+world, could be mistaken; and yet how could Drake be here, and why
+should he be riding up the avenue of Anglemere at this time of night?</p>
+
+<p>The sight of him, if it was he, aroused all the love in her heart, which
+needed little, indeed, to arouse it. She had tried to forget him during
+the vicissitudes of the last two years, but she knew that he was still
+enshrined in her heart, that while life lasted she must love him and
+long for him. She endeavored, by thinking of him as betrothed&mdash;perhaps
+married&mdash;to Lady Luce, as belonging to her, to oust her love for him as
+a sin, as shameful as it was futile; but there was scarcely an hour of
+the day in which her thoughts did not turn to him, and at night she
+awoke from some dream, in which he was the central figure, with an
+aching heart.</p>
+
+<p>Life is but a hollow mockery to the woman, or the man, whose unrequited
+love fills the hours with an unsatisfied longing.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke in the morning, the likeness to Drake of the man she had
+seen had grown vaguer to her mind, and she persuaded herself that it was
+a likeness only; but her restless night had made her pale and
+preoccupied; but Dick, when he came in to breakfast, was too engrossed
+and excited to notice it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've just been up to the house," he said, as he flung his cap on the sofa
+and lifted the cover from the savory dish of ham and eggs. "By George! we
+shall have to slip into it and look alive! The contractors have had a
+letter from Lady Angleford. It seems the earl's in England, and wants the
+place as soon as possible. The foreman has sent to London for more hands.
+I've wired the Bardsleys, telling them we've got to hurry up. It's always
+the way with these swells; when they want anything, they want it all in a
+minute. Something like ham and eggs! Rather different to the measly rasher
+and the antediluvian eggs from the grocer's opposite. But you don't seem
+to be very keen?" he added, as Nell pushed her plate away and absently
+took a slice of toast. "Miss the good old London air, Nell, or the
+appetizing smells of Beaumont Buildings?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a little headache; only a tiny one," said Nell,
+apologetically. "I shall go for a long walk after breakfast, and you
+will see that I shall be all right by lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk of lunch to me!" he said. "I shan't have time for it. I
+shall take a hunk of bread and butter in my pocket, and nibble at it for
+a few minutes during the workman's dinner hour; you bet the noble
+British workman won't cut short his precious meal, bless him!"</p>
+
+<p>He was off again as soon as he had swallowed his breakfast, with his
+pipe in his mouth, and a roll of plans and drawings in his hand; and
+Nell, after gazing from the window at the avenue up which the horseman
+had ridden, put on her things and went down to the village, marketing.</p>
+
+<p>It was a picturesque one, and showed every sign of the sleepy prosperity
+which distinguishes a self-respecting English village lucky enough to
+lie outside the gates of such a place as Anglemere.</p>
+
+<p>It was like old Shorne Mills times to Nell, and her spirits rose as she
+walked along with her basket on her arm.</p>
+
+<p>The butcher touched his forehead and smiled with respectful admiration
+as she entered the tiny and scrupulously clean shop.</p>
+
+<p>"You be the young lady from the lodge, miss?" he said, with a pleasant
+kind of welcome. "I heard as you'd come with the electric gentleman. Ah!
+there's going to be grand changes at the Hall, I'm told. Well, miss,
+it's time. Not that I've got aught to say against the old earl, for he
+was a good landlord and a kind-hearted gentleman. But, you see, he
+wasn't here very much&mdash;just a month or two in the shooting season, and
+perhaps at Christmas; but we're hoping, here at Anglemere, that the new
+earl will come oftener. It will be a great thing for us, of course,
+miss. But there! you can't expect him to stay for long, he's got so
+many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> places; and I'm told that some of 'em are finer and grander even
+than the Hall, though it's hard to believe. A piece of steak, miss?
+Certainly; and it's the best I've got you shall have. And about Sunday,
+miss? What 'u'd you say to a leg of mutton&mdash;a small leg, seem' that
+there's only two of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That will do," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, miss. Perhaps you'd like to see it? It's in the meadow there&mdash;the
+sheep near the hedge."</p>
+
+<p>The butcher grew radiant at the sweet, low-toned laugh with which Nell
+received this practical suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I shouldn't be able to judge it through that thick fleece,"
+she said. "But I am more than willing to trust you, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, miss," he said, as he cut the steak with critical care. "I'm
+told that Lord Angleford's in England, and is coming to the Hall sooner
+than was expected. And that's good news for all of us. Fine gentleman,
+the earl, miss! A regular credit to the country that bred him. I've
+knowed him since he was a boy, for, of course, he used to stay here in
+his holidays, and durin' the shootin' and Christmas. A great favorite of
+his uncle's, the old earl, miss, and no wonder, for there wasn't a more
+promising young gentleman among the aristocracy. Always so pleasant and
+frank spoken, and not a bit of side about him. It 'u'd be, 'Hallo,
+Wicks'&mdash;which was me, miss&mdash;'how are you? And how's the brindle pup?'
+And he'd take his hat off to the missus just as if she was one of his
+grand lady friends."</p>
+
+<p>Nell moved toward the open door, but Mr. Wicks followed her as if loath
+to let her go.</p>
+
+<p>"Rare cut up we was, miss, when we heard that him and the old earl had
+quarreled and the old gentleman had gone and got married, which was just
+like the Anglefords&mdash;always so hotheaded and flyaway. Yes, it was a
+cruel blow to Lord Selbie, or so it seemed; but it all turned out right,
+seeing that there wasn't a heir born to cut him out. Not that any of us
+had a word to say about the lady the old earl married. As nice and as
+pretty&mdash;begging her pardon&mdash;a little lady, though a foreigner, as ever
+you met. Yes, it's all right, and our young gentleman as we was all so
+fond of is coming into his own, as the saying is. Yes, miss, it shall be
+sent up at once, certainly. And good day to you, miss!"</p>
+
+<p>Wherever she went, Nell found the people rejoicing at the coming advent
+of the new lord, who was anything but new to most of them, who, like
+Wicks, knew and were attached to him. Before she had finished her
+shopping, Nell found herself quite interested in the new master of
+Anglemere, and wondered whether she should see him and what he would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
+like. By the time she had got back to the lodge, her headache had gone,
+and she was singing to herself as she arranged some flowers she had
+picked on her way through the woods.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon, she went for a long walk; but, long as it was, it did
+not by any means take her out of the domains of the Earl of Angleford,
+which stretched away for miles round the great house. She saw farms
+dotted here and there on the hillsides, and looking prosperous with
+their cattle and sheep feeding in the fields, and the corn waving like a
+green sea on the slopes of the hills. There were large plantations, in
+which she disturbed the game; and parklike spaces, in which colts
+frisked beside the brood mares, for which Anglemere was famous all the
+world over.</p>
+
+<p>Everything spoke in an eloquent and emphatic way of wealth, and Nell
+sighed and grew rather pensive, now and again, as she thought of the
+denizens of Beaumont Buildings, and the grinding poverty in which their
+lives were spent. But that was like Nell&mdash;tender-hearted Nell of Shorne
+Mills.</p>
+
+<p>Dick came home to dinner, tired, and approved of the steak, which, he
+declared, beat even the ham and eggs.</p>
+
+<p>"We're getting on first-rate," he said, in answer to Nell's inquiry;
+"and I'm afraid we shan't make a very long stay here. I'd hoped that
+this job would spin out for&mdash;oh, ever so long; but it will have to be
+pushed through in a few weeks. They're waking up at the house like mad.
+Money makes the mare go! And there's no end to the money this young lord
+has got. But, from all I hear, he's a decent sort&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't you begin to sing his praises, Dick," she said. "I've
+heard a general chorus of laudations all the morning, and I think I am
+just a wee bit tired of my Lord of Angleford! Though I'm very grateful
+to him for this change! I wish we could turn lodgekeepers, Dick! Fancy
+living here always!"</p>
+
+<p>They were seated in the porch&mdash;Dick smoking away furiously&mdash;and she
+gazed wistfully at the greensward, and the trunks of the great elms
+glowing like copper in the rays of the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>"And, oh, Dick!" she cried, "if only Mr. Falconer could be here! How he
+would enjoy it! He's always talking of the country, and how much good it
+would do him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor beggar&mdash;yes!" said Dick, with a nod of sympathy. "I say, Nell, why
+shouldn't we ask him to pay us a visit?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell grew radiant at the suggestion; then looked doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>"But may we?" she asked. "This isn't our lodge, Dick; though I have
+begun to feel as if it were."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Dick emphatically. "The agent placed it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> absolutely at
+our disposal. A nice state of things if we couldn't ask a friend! Have
+Britons&mdash;especially engineers&mdash;become slaves? I pause for a reply. No?
+Good! Then I'll write him a line that will fetch him down&mdash;with his
+fiddle! What a pity we haven't got a piano!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we could put it in the sitting room, and look at it through the
+window; for there certainly wouldn't be room inside for it and us
+together!"</p>
+
+<p>Dick wrote the next day, and Falconer walked up and down his bare and
+narrow room, with the letter in his hand, his thin face flushing and
+then paling with longing and doubt. To be in the country, in the same
+house with her! And yet&mdash;would it not be wiser to refuse? His love grew
+large enough when it was only fed on memory; it would grow beyond
+restraint in such close companionship. Better to refuse and remain where
+he was than to go near her, and so increase the store of agony which the
+final parting would bring him. And so, after the manner of weak man, he
+sat down and wrote a line, accepting.</p>
+
+<p>Dick stole half an hour to go with Nell to meet him at the station, and
+Dick's hearty greeting and Nell's smile brought the blood to his face
+and made the thin hand he gave them tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is, we couldn't get on without the violin&mdash;brought it? That's
+all right. Because if you hadn't, you'd be sent back for it, young man.
+Pretty country, isn't it? All belongs to our young swell. I say 'our,'
+because we feel as if we'd got a kind of share in him, as if he belonged
+to us. You'll hear nothing but 'Lord Angleford,' 'the earl,' all day
+long here; and you'll speedily come to our conviction, that the earth,
+or this particular corner of it, with all that it contains, man, woman,
+and child, birds, beasts, and fishes, was made for his lordship's
+special behoof. Nice little place&mdash;kind of fishing box, isn't it?" he
+said, nodding to the vast pile as it came in sight. "That's where I
+spend my laborious days, putting on water for his lordship to drink and
+wash with, and setting up electric light for his lordship to shave
+himself by, though I suppose his lordship's valet does that. And what
+price the lodge? For this is our residence pro tem."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer was almost speechless with delight and happiness; his dark eyes
+glowed with a steady light, which grew brighter and deeper whenever they
+rested on Nell's beautiful face.</p>
+
+<p>His obvious happiness reflected itself on her mood, and it was a merry
+trio which sat down to the simple dinner, that, simple as it was, seemed
+luxurious to the fare which he had left behind at Beaumont Buildings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After dinner he got out his violin and played for them.</p>
+
+<p>Dick sprawled on the sofa, and Nell leaned back in her cozy chair with
+some useful and necessary darning, and&mdash;with unconscious
+cruelty&mdash;thought of Drake and Shorne Mills, as the exquisite strains
+filled the tiny room.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the workmen, as they tramped by from their overtime, paused to
+listen, and nodded to each other approvingly, and carried the news to
+the village that "a swell musician fellow" was on a visit at the lodge;
+and the next day, when Nell walked through the village, with Falconer by
+her side, carrying her basket, the good folk eyed his pale face and long
+hair with awed curiosity and interest, and then, when the couple had
+passed, exchanged winks and significant smiles, none of which Nell saw,
+or, if she had seen, would, in her unconsciousness, have understood. For
+it never occurs to the woman whose whole being is absorbed in love for
+one man, that any other man may be in love with her. So Nell was
+placidly happy in the musician's happiness, and never guessed that the
+music he played for her delight was but the expression of the longing of
+his heart, and that when she was not looking, his dark eyes dwelt upon
+her with a sad and wistful tenderness, which was all the more tender
+because of its hopelessness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Now, while all Anglemere talked of its lord and master, it had no
+suspicion that he was near at hand.</p>
+
+<p>Two days before Nell and Dick had arrived at the lodge, the <i>Seagull</i>
+sailed, with all the grace and ease of its namesake, into Southampton
+water, with my Lord of Angleford on board.</p>
+
+<p>Drake leaned against the rail and looked with grave face and preoccupied
+air at his native land. Two years had passed since he had last seen it,
+and they had scored their log upon his face. It was handsome still, but
+the temples were flecked with gray, and there were certain lines on the
+forehead and about the mouth which are graven by other hands than
+Time's.</p>
+
+<p>It was the face of one who lived in the past, and could find no pleasure
+in the present; and the expression in his eyes was that of the man to
+whom the gods have given everything but the one thing his heart desired.</p>
+
+<p>As he leaned against the side, with his hands in his pockets, his yacht
+cap tilted over his eyes, he pondered on the vanity of human wishes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here he was, the Earl of Anglemere, owner of an historic title, the
+master of all the Angleford estates and wealth. Almost every man who
+heard his name envied him&mdash;some doubtless hated him&mdash;because of his
+wealth and rank. And yet he would have given it all if by so doing he
+could have been the "Drake Vernon" who had been loved by a certain Nell
+Lorton; and as he looked at the blue water, rippling in the sunlight
+round the stately yacht, his thoughts went back sadly to the <i>Annie
+Laurie</i> and its girl owner, and he sighed heavily.</p>
+
+<p>He had intended to be absent from England for some years&mdash;perhaps
+forever, and even when the cable informing him of his uncle's death and
+his own succession to the title had reached him, he had clung to his
+resolution of remaining abroad, for when the news got to him his uncle
+had been long buried, and there seemed to him no need of his return. It
+was easier to forget, or to persuade himself that he forgot, Nell, while
+he was sailing from port to port, or shooting big game in the wild and
+desolate places of the earth, than it would be in England. If Nell had
+still been pledged to him, how differently he would have received this
+gift which the gods had bestowed on him! To have been able to go to her
+and say: "Nell, you will be the Countess of Angleford; take my hand, and
+let me show you the inheritance you will share with me!" That would have
+been a happiness which would have doubled and trebled the value of his
+title and estates. But now! Nell was no longer his; he had lost her,
+and, having lost her, all the good things which had fallen to him were
+of as little value as a Rubens to the blind, or a nocturne of Chopin to
+the deaf.</p>
+
+<p>When the lawyers worried him he sent curt and evasive replies, telling
+them in so many words to do the best they could without him, and when
+Lady Angleford wrote, begging him to return and take up his duties, he
+answered with condolences on her loss, and vague assurances that he
+would be back&mdash;some time. Then she wrote again; the kind of letter a
+clever woman can write; the letter which, for all its gentleness, stings
+and irritates:</p>
+
+<p>"Much as you may dislike it, much as it may interfere with your love of
+wandering, the fact remains that you are the Earl of Angleford, my dear
+Drake. And the Earl of Angleford has higher duties than ordinary men.
+The lawyers want you, the estate want you, the people&mdash;do you think they
+do not want you? And, most of all, I think, I want you. Do you remember
+our first meeting? It was thought that I had come between you and yours;
+but the fact that I have not done so, the consolation I find in the
+thought, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> made of no avail by your absence. You are too good a fellow
+to inflict pain upon a lonely and sorrow-stricken woman, Drake. Come
+back and take your place among your peers and your people. Sometimes I
+think there must be some reason, some mysterious cause, for your
+prolonged absence, your reluctance to take up the duties and
+responsibilities of the position which has fallen to you; but if there
+should be, I beg of you to forget it, to set it aside. You are, you
+cannot help being, the Earl of Angleford. Come and play your part like a
+man."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was the kind of letter which few men, certainly not Drake, could
+resist. Wondering bitterly whether she guessed at the reason, the cause
+of his reluctance to return to England, to take up the purple and ermine
+which had fallen from her husband's shoulders, he wrote a short note
+saying that he would "come back." In a second letter he asked her to get
+Angleford ready for him, not dreaming that she would take his request as
+a carte blanche, and turn the old place inside out and make it fit, as
+she considered fitness, for its new lord and master.</p>
+
+<p>As the <i>Seagull</i> glided to her moorings, his expression grew harder and
+sterner. He was a man of the world, and he knew what would be expected
+of him. An earl, the owner of an historic title and vast estates, has a
+paramount duty&mdash;that of providing an heir to his title and lands.</p>
+
+<p>Now that he had come back, he would be expected, would be hustled and
+goaded into marrying. Marrying! He swore under his breath, and began to
+pace up and down restlessly, so that Mr. Murphy, the yacht's master,
+thinking that his lordship was in a hurry to land, bustled the crew a
+bit. But when the dingy was lowered and the man-o'-warlike sailors were
+in their places, their lord and master lingered, for he was loath to
+leave the <i>Seagull</i>. How many nights had he paced her deck, thinking of
+Nell, calling up the vision of the clear, oval face, the soft, dark
+hair, the eyes that had grown violet-hued as they turned lovingly to
+him. That vision had sailed with him through many a stormy and sunlit
+sea, and he was loath to part with it. On shore, there he would have to
+plunge into his "duties," would have to sign leases, and read deeds, and
+listen to stewards and agents. There would be little time to think, to
+dream of Nell.</p>
+
+<p>The dinghy took him ashore, and he put up at the large and crowded
+hotel, and spent the evening wishing that he was on the <i>Seagull</i>. The
+next day it occurred to him that he was within a ride of Anglemere, and
+he procured a horse and rode out to it. He had very little desire to see
+the chief of his "places," and when he had ridden up to the terrace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> he
+turned his horse down a side road and regained his hotel, little
+thinking that he had passed the window of Nell's room, that her eyes had
+rested upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the old place had awakened memories which saddened him. He
+had played on that terrace, on the lawn beneath, when a boy. Even as a
+boy he had learned to regard Anglemere as his future home; and he had
+been, in a childish way, proud of the fact. It was his now&mdash;and what
+little pride and pleasure could be found in its possession! If
+Nell&mdash;&mdash;With something like an oath he dragged himself up the grandiose
+stairs of the hotel, and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning the mate of the yacht brought him a letter from Lady
+Angleford. It said that she had heard that he had arrived at
+Southampton, and that she hoped he would go on to Anglemere and see and
+approve of the alterations and improvements she was attempting, and that
+he would "go into residence" in three weeks' time, as she had asked a
+housewarming party to welcome him.</p>
+
+<p>Drake stared at the letter moodily, and wished himself among the big
+game in Africa, or salmon fishing in Norway; but he felt that Lady
+Angleford was trying to do her duty by him, and knew that he ought to
+follow suit.</p>
+
+<p>He gravitated between the hotel and his yacht for a few days, his face
+growing sterner and more moody each day, then he rode out to Anglemere
+again.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely afternoon, and, if he had not been haunted by the vision
+of Nell, Drake would have reveled in the blue sky, the soft breeze, the
+singing of the birds, and the scent of the flowers; but all these
+recalled Nell and Shorne Mills, and only made the aching of his heart
+more acute.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered, as he rode along the well-kept roads, whether she was still
+at Shorne Mills; whether she had forgotten him, whether she was married.
+At the last thought, the blood rushed to his head, and he jerked the
+reins so that the good horse broke into a gallop which carried Drake to
+the southern lodge, where&mdash;if he could but have known it!&mdash;dwelt Nell
+herself!</p>
+
+<p>The gates were open, and he rode through; but as he passed the lodge,
+the sound of a violin played by a master hand smote upon his ear. He
+pulled the horse into a walk, and approached the house in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>Workmen were all over the place, and he stared about him like a
+stranger; and they eyed him with half-indifferent, half-curious
+scrutiny. He got off his horse and walked up the stone steps of the
+terrace into the hall. Here the foreman of the firm of decorators
+approached him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to see any one, sir?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Drake diplomatically. He was reluctant to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> announce himself.
+"You are making some alterations?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather, sir," assented the foreman, with a self-satisfied smile. "We're
+just turning the old place inside out. For the new lord, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that he ought to have said: "I am the new lord&mdash;I am Lord
+Angleford." But he shrank from it. The whole thing, the transformation
+of the old place, though he knew it was necessary, was distasteful to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" and he nodded toward a cluster of small globes in the
+center of the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that! That's the electric light," said the man. "There's going to
+be electric lights all over the house. Wait a minute, and I'll turn some
+of it on; though perhaps I'd better not, for the gentleman who manages
+it is away to-day. He's gone to Southampton to see after some things
+which ought to have come this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't trouble," said Drake absently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps I'd better not," said the man. "He mightn't like it. He's
+the gent that lives in the lodge."</p>
+
+<p>"In the lodge!" said Drake. "The south lodge?"</p>
+
+<p>The man nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"He plays the violin?" said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>The man grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! That's his friend. He's a musician&mdash;the gentleman his sister is
+engaged to."</p>
+
+<p>Drake got on his horse and rode away, leaving the park by the east
+lodge.</p>
+
+<p>The three weeks slipped away, and the day for the great gathering at
+Anglemere was near at hand. By dint of working day and night, the
+contractors had succeeded in getting the house finished in time; and
+Lady Angleford, who had come down, with an army of servants, at the
+week's end, expressed her approval and her astonishment that so much
+should have been effected in so short a time.</p>
+
+<p>The lord and master was not to arrive until the evening of the
+twenty-first, the date of the ball, and most of the house party had
+reached Anglemere before him. He had pleaded urgent business as an
+excuse for not putting in an appearance earlier; but, beyond seeing his
+lawyers and listening to their complaints at his absence, he had done
+very little business, and had been cruising in the Solent to while away
+the interval.</p>
+
+<p>The villagers wanted to "receive" him at the station, and talked of a
+"welcome" arch; but no one could find out at what hour to expect him;
+and Lady Angleford, who, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> native quickness, had learned a great
+deal of his character in her short acquaintance with him, and was quite
+aware that he disliked fuss of any kind, had discouraged the idea.</p>
+
+<p>The dogcart was sent to the station to meet the six-o'clock train, on
+chance, and he arrived by it, and was driven home, cheered by a few
+groups of the villagers who had hung about in the hope of seeing him.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford met him in the hall, and they went at once to the
+library.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you how glad I am that you have come, Drake&mdash;I suppose I
+may call you Drake?" she said, holding out her hand again to him.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall call me by any name that pleases you," he said, smiling at
+her, and speaking very gently, for she was still in mourning, and looked
+very fragile and petite.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. And yet I am not a little nervous. I don't know how you'll
+quite take the alterations I have made, whether you will think I have
+been too presumptuous. I shall watch your face with an anxious eye when
+I take you over the place presently."</p>
+
+<p>"My only feeling is one of intense gratitude," he said; "and I can't
+express my thanks and surprise that you should have taken so much
+trouble. I had an idea that the place was all right, that what was good
+enough for my uncle&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She winced slightly, but smiled bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Drake; he was an old man, and came here but seldom; you are young,
+and, I hope, will spend a great deal of time here. After all, it is your
+real English home."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, but not very assentingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," he said, rather moodily. "I am rather a restless mortal,
+and find it difficult to settle in any one place."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been well?" she asked, as she saw his face plainly, for he had
+turned to the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; quite," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him rather doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You are thinner, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Older," he said, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not going to say that; but I was going to say that you looked as
+if you had not been sparing yourself lately."</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I had rather a rough time of it in Africa&mdash;and a touch of fever. It
+always leaves its mark, you know."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded as if she accepted the explanation; but she was not
+satisfied. A touch of fever does not leave behind the expression of
+weariness which brooded in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are not too tired, will you come round with me?" she said.
+"There's an opportunity now, for all the people are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> out riding or
+driving, and we shall be more free than we shall be when they come
+bustling in."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," he said, opening the door for her. "I suppose you have
+filled the house? Is it a large party?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it is," she said, apologetically; "but the house is not
+quite full, for some of the people who are coming to the dance to-morrow
+will have to stay the night. By the way, I asked you if there was any
+one to whom you would like me to send a card, but you did not reply."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I? I humbly beg your pardon, countess! No, there was no one."</p>
+
+<p>He looked round the hall admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have done wonders!" he said; "and in such a short time! I rode over
+here from the hotel the other day, and imagined they would take at least
+a month to finish. And is that the old drawing-room? Can it be possible!
+It is charming! Ah, you have left the dining room untouched&mdash;that's
+right."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There is not an inch of it that has not been touched; but with reverent
+hands, I hope. It is upstairs that we have done most. The bedrooms, you
+will admit, wanted thorough renovating."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," he said, as he walked beside her. "It's all perfect. It must
+have cost a great deal of money."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; but it does not matter, you know."</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at her questioningly.</p>
+
+<p>"It really does not," she said. "Have you any idea how rich you are,
+Drake?"</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ashamed to say that I don't quite know how I stand. The lawyers
+jawed about it the other day, and I did fully manage to understand that
+my uncle had left me everything. Was that fair, countess?" he added
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied simply. "He wanted to leave me all he could; but I
+would not let him. You know that I have enough, and much more than
+enough, of my own. So why should he leave me any more?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake took her hand, and kissed it gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been very good to me," he said, in a low voice. "Better than I
+have any right to expect, or deserve."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. "And there is no need of gratitude. I wanted to
+atone&mdash;&mdash;No, that's not the right word. I wanted to make up to you for
+the trouble I had, all unconsciously, caused between you and him.
+And&mdash;there was another reason, Drake. Don't get conceited; but I took a
+fancy to my nephew the first time I saw him." She laughed softly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> "And
+just at present I have no other object in life than the attempt to make
+him happy."</p>
+
+<p>Drake suppressed a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Happy? Oh, Nell, Nell! How vain and foolish all this splendor, now he
+had lost her!</p>
+
+<p>"So you turned my rambling old place into a palace? Well, it was a
+substantial attempt, and if I am not happy, I shall be the most mulish
+and ungrateful of men. The place is perfect; it lacks nothing, I should
+say," he added, as they descended to the hall again.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a mistress," thought Lady Angleford; but she was too wise to say
+so.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't told me who is here," he said, as he watched her pour out
+the tea which had been laid in a windowed recess from which was an
+exquisite view of the lawns and the park beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a host of your friends," she said. "Do you like sugar, Drake? Fancy
+an aunt having to ask her nephew that! I shall get used to all your fads
+and fancies presently. There are the Northgates, and the Beeches, and
+old Lord Balfreed"&mdash;she ran through the list, and he listened absently
+until she came to&mdash;"and the Turfleighs."</p>
+
+<p>"The Turfleighs?" he said, with something that was almost a frown; and,
+seeing it, the countess noticed how stern his face had become.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Lady Luce and her father will arrive to-morrow, just in time for
+the dance. They are staying at a place near here&mdash;the Wolfers'. You
+remember them? They are coming with her, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a gathering of the clans," he said, as brightly as he could. "It
+is a long time since Anglemere had such a beau f&ecirc;te. Who is that?" he
+broke off to inquire. "One of the guests?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford looked out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so near-sighted&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A tall, thin man, with long hair," he said. "He has just gone round the
+corner toward the lodge."</p>
+
+<p>"That must be the man who is staying at the south lodge," she said. "His
+name is Falconer, and he is a musician."</p>
+
+<p>"A musician staying at the south lodge?" said Drake, with surprise. "Ah,
+yes! I remember hearing the violin, as I passed the other day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lady Angleford. "The young fellow the engineers sent down is
+staying at the lodge with his sister and their friend, this Mr.
+Falconer. They were to have gone yesterday, when the work was completed;
+but I thought they had better stay a few days, until after the dance, at
+any rate, in case anything should go wrong with the electric light. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+is such a nuisance if they happen to pop out all of a sudden; and they
+generally do when there is something on. You don't mind their being
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I? It was a good idea to keep him. I suppose there is to be
+a resident engineer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I suppose so. It would not be a bad idea to keep this young
+fellow, for I'm told that he has done the work very well. I've not seen
+him or his sister. I hear that she is an extremely pretty girl, and very
+ladylike, and I meant calling at the lodge and asking if they were
+comfortable; but I have been so busy."</p>
+
+<p>"I can quite understand that," he said. "I only hope you will not have
+tired yourself out for to-morrow night."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not easily tired; and I'm tough, though I'm small," she retorted,
+with her pretty twang. "By the way, speaking of to-morrow night. I
+wonder whether this Mr. Falconer would come up and play&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated, and looked at him doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>Drake smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You think he may be some swell musician?" he said. "Too swell to play
+for money? It's likely."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it wasn't that; I was thinking that I could scarcely ask him
+without asking the girl. He's engaged to her, I'm told."</p>
+
+<p>"That's one of those problems which a man is quite unqualified to
+solve," he said indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll ask them, and chance it. Oh, here are some of the carriages.
+Would you like to run away, or will you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But he went to the front to meet and greet his guests.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of hours later, while the trio at the lodge were at supper, the
+servant brought in two notes.</p>
+
+<p>"One for me, and one for you, Mr. Falconer. And from the house! Do you
+see the coronet on the envelope? I wonder what it is? Perhaps a polite
+intimation that we are to clear out!" said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Or an equally polite request that we will keep off the grass," said
+Dick. "Do you know how to find out what's in that envelope, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, holding it up to the light.</p>
+
+<p>"By opening it, my brainless one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Falconer, you are nearer him than I am; will you oblige me by
+kicking him? Oh, Dick! It's an invitation to the dance to-morrow&mdash;for
+you and me."</p>
+
+<p>"And for me," said Falconer. "And will I be so very kind as to bring my
+violin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very kind of 'em," said Dick. "I should like it very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> much," as he
+lifted his tankard, "but there won't be any dancing for me to-morrow
+night, unless I indulge in a hornpipe in the engine room. I'm going to
+stick there on guard right away from the beginning to the end of the
+hop. I should never forgive myself if anything went wrong with those
+blessed lights. But you and Falconer can go and foot it to your heart's
+content."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite impossible," said Nell emphatically. "I haven't a dress. So that
+settles me. Besides, Mrs. Hawksley, the housekeeper, has been kind
+enough to ask me to go into the gallery and look on, and I accepted
+gratefully."</p>
+
+<p>"Among the servants?" said Dick, rather dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" said Nell, stoutly. "I don't in the least mind. I shall enjoy
+looking down&mdash;for the first time in my life&mdash;upon Mr. Falconer."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer smiled and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't a dress suit, and I can't dance, Miss Lorton; and if I had
+and could, I shouldn't go without you. But I'd like to go and play. I
+owe these people a heavy debt for permitting me, through you, to spend
+the happiest days of my life&mdash;yes, I'll go and play. They won't mind my
+old velvet jacket, I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite the correct thing, my boy," said Dick. "You look no end of a
+musical swell in it; a Paderewski and Sarasati rolled into one. And to
+tell you the truth, I'm relieved to think you're disposed of; for I was
+afraid you'd offer to keep me company in the engine room; and the last
+time you were there you very nearly got mixed up with the engines and
+turned into sausage meat."</p>
+
+<p>Nell was looking at her envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Angleford addresses me as Miss 'Norton,'" she said, with a smile.
+"I wonder if she would know me if she saw me. Very likely not."</p>
+
+<p>"The right honorable the earl arrived this afternoon, I'm told," said
+Dick. "'I very nearly missed missing him,' as the Irishman said. He'd
+gone into the house just before I came out. There's to be a fine kick-up
+to-morrow night. Not sure that I shan't come up to the gallery for a
+minute or two, after all; only the conviction that the beastly lights
+will know that I am gone and all go out, will prevent me."</p>
+
+<p>On the following evening Dick and Falconer went up to the house before
+Nell, Dick wanting to be present at the lighting up, and Falconer being
+desirous of ascertaining exactly where he "came in" with his violin; and
+Nell, having donned her best dress, went round to the housekeeper's
+room. She had found Mrs. Hawksley "partaking" of a cup of tea, in which
+Nell was easily induced to join, and Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> Hawksley chatted in the
+stately way which thinly hid a wealth of motherly kindness.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad you have come, Miss Lorton; for it will be a grand sight,
+the like of which you have probably not seen, and may not see again."</p>
+
+<p>And Nell nodded, suppressing a smile as she thought of her short sojourn
+in the world of fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the dresses, the maids tell me, are magnificent; and the
+jewels! But, there; none of them can be finer than the Angleford
+diamonds. I do hope the countess will wear them, though it's doubtful,
+seeing that her ladyship's still in mourning. You say you've seen the
+countess, Miss Lorton? A sweet-looking lady. It's quite touching to see
+her ladyship and his lordship together, she so young, and his aunt, too!
+You haven't seen the earl yet, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; tell me what he is like, Mrs. Hawksley," said Nell, knowing how
+delighted the old lady would be to comply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Lorton, though I suppose I shouldn't, seeing he kind of
+belongs to us, I must say that his lordship will be the handsomest and
+finest gentleman in the room to-night, let who will be coming. Not but
+what he's changed. It gave me quite a turn&mdash;as the maids say," she
+picked herself up apologetically&mdash;"when he came right into this very
+room, with his hand stretched out, and his 'Well, Mrs. Hawksley, and how
+are you, after this long time?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Because he was so friendly?" asked Nell innocently.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady drew herself up.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Lorton. The Anglefords were always friendly to their old
+servants, because they know that we shouldn't take advantage of it and
+forget our proper places. No, but because he was so changed. He used to
+be so bright and&mdash;and boyish, as one may say, with all respect; but now
+he's as grave as grave can be&mdash;almost stern-looking, so to speak&mdash;and
+there's gray hairs at his temples, and he's a way of looking beyond you
+in a sad sort of fashion. His lordship's had some trouble, I know. I
+said so to his man, but he wouldn't say anything. He hasn't been with
+the earl for some time, and mightn't know&mdash;&mdash;There's the music; and,
+hark; I can hear them moving into the ballroom. We'd better be going up
+to the gallery; and I do hope you will enjoy yourself, Miss Lorton."</p>
+
+<p>Nell followed the old lady into the small gallery, where some chairs had
+been placed for the servants, behind the musicians. She saw Falconer in
+front, his whole soul absorbed in his business; but he turned his eyes
+as she entered, and smiled for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you see?" asked Mrs. Hawksley. "Go a little nearer to the front.
+Make room for Miss Lorton, please."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see very well," she said, also in a whisper, for she did not want
+to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>She craned forward and looked down on the brilliant, glittering crowd.
+The lights of which Dick was so proud dazzled her for a moment or two;
+but presently her eyes became accustomed to them, and she recognized
+Lady Angleford, the Wolfers, and others. Lady Angleford was in black
+satin and lace, and, at Drake's request, had put on the family diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Mrs. Hawksley," said Nell. "They are magnificent. What a
+lovely scene!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you are pleased, Miss Lorton," responded the old lady, as if
+she had got up the whole show for Nell's sole benefit. "I am looking for
+the earl, to point him out to you; but I don't see him. He must be under
+the gallery at this moment. Ah! yes; here he comes. Now, quick! lean
+forward. There! that tall gentleman with the fair lady on his arm. Lean
+forward a little more, and you will see him quite plainly. The lady's in
+a kind of pale mauve silk&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell leaned forward with all a girl's eager curiosity; then she uttered
+a faint cry, and drew back. The couple Mrs. Hawksley had pointed out
+were Drake and Lady Luce. Drake!</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter? Did any one squeeze you? Did you see his lordship?"
+asked Mrs. Hawksley.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nell, trying to keep her voice steady. "I&mdash;I saw that
+gentleman with the lady in mauve; but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hawksley stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is the earl. That is Lord Angleford with Lady Luce Turfleigh
+on his arm."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Nell sat still&mdash;very, very still. The vast room seemed to rise and sway
+before her like a ship in a heavy sea; the lights danced in a mad whirl;
+the music roared a chaos of sound in her ears, and a deathly feeling
+crept over her.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not faint&mdash;I will not faint!" she said to herself, clenching her
+teeth hard, and gripping her dress with her cold hands. "It is a
+mistake&mdash;a mistake. It is not Drake. I thought I saw him the other
+night; it is thinking, always thinking of him, that makes me fancy any
+one like him must be he! Yes; it is a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> them and found
+that the room had ceased rocking, and the lights were still, she leaned
+forward, calling all her courage to her aid, and looked again.</p>
+
+<p>A waltz was in progress, and the rich dresses, the flashing jewels
+whirled like the colored pieces of a kaleidoscope, and for a moment or
+two she could not distinguish the members of the glittering crowd; but
+presently she saw the tall figure again. He was dancing with Lady Luce;
+they came down toward the gallery end of the room, floating with the
+exquisite grace of a couple whose steps are in perfect harmony, and Nell
+saw that she had made no mistake&mdash;that it was Drake indeed.</p>
+
+<p>She drew a long breath, and sank back; Mrs. Hawksley leaned toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel faint, Miss Lorton? It's very hot up here. Would you like
+to go down&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Nell quickly, almost anxiously. She did not want to go.
+It was agony to see him dancing with this beautiful woman, whose hair
+shone like gold, whose grace of form and movement were conspicuous even
+among so many graceful and beautiful women; but a kind of fascination
+made Nell feel as if she could not go, as if she must drain her cup of
+misery to the dregs. "No, no; I am not faint&mdash;not now. It is hot, but I
+am&mdash;all right."</p>
+
+<p>She gazed with set face and panic-stricken eyes at the couple, as they
+floated down the room again. It was Drake, but&mdash;how changed! He looked
+many years older&mdash;and his face was stern and grave&mdash;sterner and graver
+and sadder even than when she had first seen it that day the horse had
+flung him at her feet. It had grown brighter and happier while he had
+stayed at Shorne Mills&mdash;it had been transformed, indeed, for the few
+short weeks he had been her lover; but the look of content, of joy in
+life which it wore in her remembrance, had gone again. Had he been ill?
+she wondered. Where had he been; what had he been doing?</p>
+
+<p>But it did not matter, could not matter to her. He was back in England,
+and dancing with the woman he loved&mdash;with the beautiful Lady Luce, whom
+he had kissed on the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you think of his lordship?" Mrs. Hawksley asked, as if the
+Right Honorable the Earl of Angleford were her special property. "I
+wasn't far wrong, was I, Miss Lorton, when I said that he would be the
+finest, handsomest man in the room?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nell, scarcely knowing what she answered. "That is&mdash;&mdash;" She
+put her hand to her lips. Even now she had not realized that her Drake
+and the earl were one and the same man. "Oh, yes; he is handsome,
+and&mdash;&mdash;" she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> finished, as the old lady eyed her half indignantly. "But
+I&mdash;I have made a mistake. I mean&mdash;&mdash;What was Lord Angleford called
+before he succeeded to the title?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hawksley looked at her rather curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Lord Selbie, of course," she said. "He ought, being one of the
+Anglefords, to have been Lord Vernon, Drake Vernon; but his father was a
+famous statesman, a governor of New South Wales and they made him a
+viscount. Do you understand?" she asked, proud of her own knowledge of
+these intricacies of the earl's names and titles.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Nell looked confused. But it did not matter. She had learned
+enough. Drake Vernon, who had made her love him, and had asked her to be
+his wife, had been Lord Selbie. Why had he concealed his rank? Why had
+he deceived her? He had seemed so honest and true, that she would have
+trusted him with her life as freely as she had given him her love; and
+all the while&mdash;&mdash;Oh, why had he done it? Was it worth while to
+masquerade as a mere nobody, to pretend that he was poor? Had he, even
+from the very first, not intended to marry her? Was he only&mdash;amusing
+himself?</p>
+
+<p>Her face was dyed, with the shame of the thought, for a moment, then the
+hot flush went and left her pale and wan.</p>
+
+<p>Drake was the Earl of Angleford, and she&mdash;she the girl whose heart he
+had broken, was in his house, looking on at him among his guests! The
+thought was almost unendurable, and she slowly rose from her chair; then
+she sat down again, for she was trembling and quite incapable of leaving
+the gallery.</p>
+
+<p>How long she sat in this state she did not know. The ball went on. She
+saw Drake&mdash;no, the earl&mdash;would she never realize it?&mdash;dancing
+frequently. Sometimes he joined the group of dowagers and chaperons on
+the dais at the other end of the room, or leaned against the wall and
+talked with the nondancing men; and wherever he went she saw that he was
+received with that subtle empressement with which the children of Vanity
+Fair indicate their respect for high rank and wealth.</p>
+
+<p>"You can see how high his lordship stands not only in the county, but
+everywhere," said Mrs. Hawksley proudly. "They treat him almost as if he
+were a prince of the blood; and he is the principal gentleman here,
+though there's some high and mighty ones down there, Miss Lorton, I
+assure you. That's the Duchess of Cleavemere in that big chair on the
+dais; and that's her eldest daughter&mdash;she'll be as big as the duchess,
+mark my words&mdash;seated beside her; and that's the Marquis of Downfield,
+that tall gentleman with the white hair. He's a great man, but he can't
+hold a candle, in appearance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> to our earl; and he's a poor man compared
+with his lordship. And that's Lord Turfleigh, that old gentleman with
+the very black hair and mustache; dyed, of course, my dear. The 'wicked
+Lord Turfleigh' they call him&mdash;and no wonder. He's the father of Lady
+Luce. Ah! his lordship's going to dance with her again! Look how pleased
+her father looks. See, he's nodding and smiling at her; I'll be bound I
+know what he's thinking of! And I shouldn't be surprised if it came off.
+Lord Selbie and she used to be engaged, but it was broken off when his
+lordship's uncle married. The Turfleighs are too poor to risk a marriage
+without money. But his lordship's the earl now, and, of course&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell understood. It was because the woman he loved had jilted him that
+Drake had hidden himself from the world at Shorne Mills. That was why he
+had looked so sad and cast down the day she had first seen him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity your brother doesn't come up," said Mrs. Hawksley, who was
+standing behind Nell, and could not see the white, strained face. "He'd
+enjoy the sight, I'm sure. I'm half inclined to send a word to him."</p>
+
+<p>Nell caught her arm. Dick must not come up here and recognize Drake,
+must not see her white face and trembling lips. If possible, she must
+leave Anglemere in the morning; must induce Dick to go before he could
+learn that Drake and Lord Angleford were one and the same.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother would not come," she said. "Please do not send for him.
+He&mdash;the lights&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hawksley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"As you think best, my dear," she said. "But it's a pity. Here's the
+interval now. What is going on in the orchestra?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked toward the band, which had ceased playing; but Falconer was
+softly tuning his violin. About half the dancers had left the room, and
+those that remained were pacing up and down, talking and laughing, or
+seated in couples in the alcoves and recesses.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer finished tuning, glanced toward Nell&mdash;the gallery was too dimly
+lit for him to see the pallor of her face&mdash;then began to play a solo.</p>
+
+<p>Coming after the dance music, the sonata he had chosen was like a breath
+of pure, heather-scented air floating in upon the gas-laden atmosphere
+of the heated room; and at the first strains of the delicious melody the
+people below stopped talking, and turned their eyes up to the front of
+the gallery, where the tall, thin form in its worn velvet jacket stood,
+for that moment, at least, the supreme figure.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, as she listened, felt as if a cool, pitying hand had fallen upon
+her aching heart; as if a voice of thrilling sweetness were whispering
+tender consolation. Never loud, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> with an insistent force which held
+the listeners in thrall, sometimes so low that it was but a murmur, the
+exquisite music stole over the senses of all, awakening tender memories,
+reviving scattered hopes, softening, for the short space it held its
+sway, world-hardened hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The tears gathered in Nell's eyes, bringing her infinite relief; but she
+could see through her tears that the great hall was filling with the
+hasty return of those who had been within hearing of the music, and when
+it ceased there rose a burst of applause, led by the earl himself.</p>
+
+<p>"How very beautiful!" exclaimed the duchess, who was on his arm. "The
+man must be a genius. Where did you find him, Lord Angleford?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake did not reply for a moment, as if he had not heard her. The music
+had moved him more deeply, perhaps, than it had moved any other. His
+face was set, his brows knit, and his head drooped as if weighed down by
+some memory. He had been so occupied by his duties as host that he had
+forgotten the past for that hour or two, at any rate; but at the first
+strains of the music Nell came back to him. It was the swell of the tide
+against the <i>Annie Laurie</i>; it was Nell's voice itself which he heard
+through the melody of the famous sonata. He listened with an aching
+longing for those past weeks of pure and perfect love, with a loathing
+for the empty, desolate present. "Nell! Nell!" his heart seemed to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he said. "I did not find him. He is here by
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>"He must be a very great musician," said the duchess enthusiastically.
+"What is his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Falconer," replied Drake. "He's staying at one of the lodges."</p>
+
+<p>"He played superbly. Do you think I could persuade him to come on to the
+court for the ninth? I wish you'd ask him. But surely he is going to
+play again?" she added eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"I will ask him," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, do, Drake," murmured Lady Luce, who had re&euml;ntered the room and
+glided near him. The divine music had not touched her in the least;
+indeed, she had thought the solo rather out of place at a dance&mdash;quite
+too sad and depressing; but as she seconded the duchess' request, her
+blue eyes seemed dim with tears, and her lips tremulous. "It was so very
+beautiful! I am half crying!" and the perfectly shaped lips pouted
+piteously.</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded, led the duchess to a chair, and went slowly up the room
+toward the gallery stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, who had been watching him in a dull, vacant way,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> lost him for a
+moment or two; then she heard his voice near her, and saw him dimly
+standing in the gallery doorway.</p>
+
+<p>She stifled a cry, and shrank back behind Mrs. Hawksley, so that the
+stout form of the old lady completely hid her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Falconer?" she heard the deep voice say gravely.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer bowed, his violin under his arm, his pale, thin face perfectly
+composed. His music was still ringing in his ears, vibrating in his
+soul, too great to be stirred by the applause which had again broken
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to thank you for the sonata, Mr. Falconer, and to ask you
+to be so kind as to play again," said Drake, in the simple, impassive
+manner of the Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be very pleased, my lord," said Falconer quietly; and he placed
+his violin in position.</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked absently round the gallery. It was only dimly lit by the
+candles in the music stands, and the servants had respectfully drawn
+back, so that Nell was still hidden; but she trembled with the fear that
+those in front of her might move, and that he might see her; for she
+knew how keen those eyes of his could be.</p>
+
+<p>Drake felt that the dim light was a pleasant contrast to the brilliance
+of the room below, and he lingered, leaning against the wall, his arms
+folded, his head drooped. He was so near Nell that she could almost have
+touched him&mdash;so near that she almost dreaded that he must hear the wild
+throbbings of her heart. Once, as the violin wailed out a passionate,
+despairing, yet exquisitely sweet passage of the Raff cavatina Falconer
+was playing, she heard Drake sigh.</p>
+
+<p>The cavatina came to an end, the last notes&mdash;those wonderful
+notes!&mdash;floating lingeringly like a human voice, and yet more exquisite
+than any human voice. Falconer lowered his violin, the applause broke
+out again as vehemently and enthusiastically as if the crowd below were
+at an ordinary concert, and Drake made his way to the player. As he did
+so, he stumbled over a violin case, the servants with a little cry&mdash;for
+the stumble of an Earl of Angleford is a matter of importance&mdash;moved
+apart, and Drake, putting out his hand as he recovered himself, touched
+Mrs. Hawksley's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he said. "Ah! is it you, Mrs. Hawksley? You are so
+pleasantly dark up here."</p>
+
+<p>His eyes wandered from her face to that of the girl who had been
+shrinking behind her, and he paused, as if smitten by some sudden
+thought or memory. But Nell rose quickly and hid herself in the group,
+and Drake went on to Falconer.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you again," he said. "I have never heard the cavatina&mdash;it was it,
+wasn't it?&mdash;better played. I am the bearer of a message from the Duchess
+of Cleavemere, Mr. Falconer. If you are not engaged, the duchess would
+be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> very glad if you could play for her at Cleavemere Court on the ninth
+of next month. I ask you at once and so unceremoniously, because her
+grace is anxious to know. The ninth."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"May I consider, my lord?" he began hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly," said Drake, in the frank, pleasant fashion which Nell
+knew so well. "Will you send me word? Thanks. That is a fine violin you
+have."</p>
+
+<p>"It was my father's," said Falconer simply, and unconsciously pressing
+the instrument closer to him, as if it were a living thing, a
+well-beloved child.</p>
+
+<p>He had often sold, pawned his belongings for bread, and as often had
+forgotten his cold and hunger because his precious violin had remained
+in his possession; that he had never pawned.</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded, as if he understood; then he looked round.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't there some supper going, Mrs. Hawksley?" he said pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady curtsied in stately fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's high time Mr. Falconer&mdash;and the rest of us&mdash;were at it," he
+said; and, with a smile and a nod, he left the gallery.</p>
+
+<p>He would have taken Falconer with him to the supper in the banquet room
+below, but he knew that, though none of the men or women there would
+have remarked, or cared about, the old velvet jacket, the musician would
+be conscious of it, and be embarrassed by it.</p>
+
+<p>While Drake had been absent, Lady Luce had stood, apparently listening
+with profound attention and sympathy, but the movement of her fan almost
+gave her away, for it grew rapid now and again, and when Lord Turfleigh
+came up beside her, his hawklike eyes glancing sharply, like those of a
+bird of prey, from their fat rims, she shot an angry and unfilial glance
+at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Drake?" he asked, lowering his thick voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Up there in that gallery somewhere; gone to pay compliments to that
+fiddler fellow who is playing now."</p>
+
+<p>"Gad!" said his lordship, with a stare of contempt at the rapt audience.
+"What the devil does he want with the 'Dead March in Saul,' or whatever
+it is, in the middle of a dance. Always thought he was mad! Has he
+spoken, said anything?"</p>
+
+<p>He lowered his voice still more, and eyed her eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head slightly by way of answer, and the coarse face
+reddened.</p>
+
+<p>"Curse me, if I can understand it&mdash;or you," he said, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> hand tugging
+at his dyed mustache. "You told me, God knows how long ago, that he was
+'on' again; then he bolts&mdash;disappears."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want all these people to hear you?" she asked, her eyes hidden
+by her slowly moving fan.</p>
+
+<p>Her father had been several times to the refreshment buffet, and had
+"lowered"&mdash;as he would have put it&mdash;the best part of a bottle of
+champagne, and was a little off the guard which he usually maintained so
+carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"They can't hear. I'm not shouting. And you always evade me. You're not
+behaving well, Luce. Dash it all! I've reason to be anxious! This match
+means a good deal to me in the present state of our finances!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" she whispered warningly. "I can't explain now. I don't
+understand it myself; but I've seen enough to know that I should only
+lose him altogether if I tried to force him. You know him, or ought to
+do so! Did you ever get anything from Drake by driving him? He had no
+opportunity of speaking, of explaining."</p>
+
+<p>"By gad! I don't understand it!" he muttered. "Either you're engaged to
+him or you're not. You led me to believe that the match was on
+again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The fan closed with a snap, and her blue eyes flashed at him with bitter
+scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't you better leave me to play the game?" she asked. "Or perhaps
+you think you can play it better than I can? If so&mdash;&mdash;The man has
+stopped; Drake will be down again. I don't want him to see us talking.
+Go&mdash;and get some more champagne."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Turfleigh swore behind the hand that still fumbled at his mustache,
+and walked away with the jerky, jaunty gait of the old man who still
+affects youth, and Lady Luce composed her lovely face into a look of
+emotional ecstacy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful, Drake!" she said. "Do you know that I have been very
+nearly crying? And yet it was so sweet, so&mdash;so soothing! Who is he? And
+what are we going to do now?" she asked, without waiting for an answer
+to her first question, about which she was more than indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked round for the duchess.</p>
+
+<p>"I must take the duchess in to supper," he said apologetically. "I will
+find some one for you&mdash;or perhaps you will wait until I will come for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait, of course," she said, with a tender emphasis on the "of
+course."</p>
+
+<p>Those who had been listening followed Drake and the duchess to the
+supper room, talking of the wonderful violin playing as they went; and
+Lady Luce seated herself in a recess and waited. Several men came to her
+and offered to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> take her to supper, but she made some excuse for
+refusing, and presently Drake returned.</p>
+
+<p>She rose and took his arm, and glanced up at him, not for the first time
+that evening, curiously. The easy-going, indolent Drake of old seemed to
+have disappeared, and left in his place this grave and almost
+stern-mannered man. She had always been just a little afraid of him,
+with the fear which is always felt by the false and shifty in the
+presence of the true and strong; and to-night she was painfully
+conscious of that vague and wholesome dread.</p>
+
+<p>He found a place for her at a small table, and a footman brought them
+things to eat and drink; but though she affected a blythe and joyous
+mood, tapping her satin-clad foot to the music which had begun again,
+she was too excited, too anxious, to enjoy the costly delicacies before
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"I have so much to tell you, Drake!" she said, in a low voice, after one
+or two remarks about the ball and its success. "It seems years, ages,
+since I saw you! Why&mdash;why did you go away for so long, Drake? And why
+did you not write to me?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with his grave eyes, and her own fell.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote to no one; I was never much of a hand at letter writing," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"But to me, Drake!" she whispered, with a pout. "I wanted to hear from
+you so badly! Just a line that would have given me an excuse for writing
+to you and telling you&mdash;explaining&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not smile. He was not the man to remind a woman of her falseness,
+but something in his eyes made her falter and lower her own.</p>
+
+<p>"I went away because I was tired of England," he said. "I came back
+because&mdash;well, because I was obliged."</p>
+
+<p>"But you won't go away again?" she said, with genuine dismay in her
+voice and face. "I&mdash;I feel as if, as if it were my fault; as if&mdash;ah,
+Drake, have you not really forgiven me?"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes filled with tears, as genuine as her dismay&mdash;for think of the
+greatness of the prize for which she was playing&mdash;and Drake's heart was
+touched with a pity which was not wholly free from contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"There shall be no such word as forgiveness between us, Luce," he said
+gravely. She caught at this, though it was but a straw, and her hand,
+from which she had taken her glove, stole over to his, and her eyes
+sought his appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>But before he could take her hand&mdash;if he had intended doing so&mdash;Lady
+Angleford came up to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake, they want you to lead the cotillon," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He rose, but stood beside Luce.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Directly Lady Luce has finished her supper, countess. Please don't
+hurry."</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Luce sprang up at once.</p>
+
+<p>"I have finished long ago; I was not hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, then," he said, and he offered her his arm, "Will you dance it
+with me?"</p>
+
+<p>Her heart leaped.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It will not be for the first time&mdash;Drake!" and as she entered the
+room with him, her heart thrilled with hope, and her blue eyes sparkled
+with a triumph which none could fail to notice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Certainly not poor Nell, who still remained in her dim corner in the
+gallery. Mrs. Hawksley had begged her to come down to the supper which
+had been laid for her and her brother and Falconer; but Nell, who felt
+that it would be impossible to make even a pretense of eating or
+drinking, had begged them to excuse her; and when they had gone and the
+gallery was empty, she leaned her head against the wall and closed her
+eyes; for she was well-nigh exhausted by the conflicting emotions which
+racked her. She longed to go, to leave the place, to escape from the
+risk of Drake's presence; but she could not leave the house alone, and
+to go from the gallery and absent herself for the rest of the evening
+might attract notice and comment.</p>
+
+<p>Was it possible that Drake had been near her, so near as to almost have
+touched her? She trembled&mdash;and thrilled&mdash;at the thought; then crimsoned
+with shame for the sinful thrill of joy and happiness which his nearness
+had caused her.</p>
+
+<p>What was he to her now? Nothing, nothing! She had yielded him up to the
+beautiful woman he had loved before he saw her, Nell; and it was
+shameful and unwomanly that she should feel a joy in his proximity.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer came up before the rest of the orchestra, and brought a glass
+of wine and a biscuit for her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you have a headache, the lights and the music&mdash;they are so
+near; and it is hot up here. Will you drink some of this, Miss Lorton?"</p>
+
+<p>His voice was low and tender, though he strove to give it a conventional
+touch and merely friendly tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, yes," said Nell gratefully. "How good of you to think of me!
+How magnificently you played! I can't tell you how happy your success
+has made me! And such a success! I was as proud as if it were I who was
+playing; and I was prouder still when I saw how quietly you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> took it.
+Ah, you felt that it was just your due. I suppose genius always takes
+the crowd's applause calmly."</p>
+
+<p>His face flushed, and his dark eyes glowed.</p>
+
+<p>"There is some applause I, at any rate&mdash;who am no genius,
+however&mdash;cannot take calmly," he said. "I would rather have those words
+of approval from you than the shouting and clapping of a multitude. Yes,
+it made me happy; but I am happier now than words can express."</p>
+
+<p>If Nell had looked up into the eyes bent on hers, she must have read his
+secret in them; but the band had begun to play, and at that moment Drake
+was leading Lady Luce to her place for the cotillon, and Nell's eyes
+were drawn, riveted to the fair face, the blue eyes shining
+triumphantly; and she forgot not only Falconer's presence, but his
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>As he saw that she did not heed him, the color died out from his face,
+and the light from his eyes, and, with a sigh, he left her and went back
+to his place in the orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>The dance proceeded through all its graceful and intricate evolutions,
+and even to the spectators in the gallery it was evident that Lady Luce
+had stepped into the position of the belle of the ball. The excitement
+of hope and fear, the gratification of vanity which sprang from her
+consciousness that she was occupying the most prominent place as the
+earl's partner, had given to her face the touch of warmth it needed to
+make its beauty well-nigh perfect. Her lips were parted with a smile,
+the blue eyes&mdash;ordinarily a trifle cold&mdash;were glowing, and the diamonds
+sparkled fiercely on her heaving bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Nell could not remove her eyes from her, but sat like a bird held by the
+fascination of the serpent. She was blind to all else but those two&mdash;the
+man she loved, the woman to whom she had surrendered him.</p>
+
+<p>The time passed unheeded by her, and Falconer's voice sounded miles away
+as he bent over her.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick has sent up to say that we can go," he said. "There's no fear of
+the lights now; indeed, the ball is nearly over. This is the last
+dance."</p>
+
+<p>Nell rose stiffly and wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am glad," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You are tired, very tired," he said. "Will you let me give you my arm?"</p>
+
+<p>He felt her hand tremble as she put it on his arm, and he looked down at
+her anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had taken you out of this before," he said remorsefully. "I
+have spoken to you&mdash;asked you&mdash;once or twice; but&mdash;but you did not seem
+to hear me. It is my fault. I ought to have insisted upon your going."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Nell. "It is nothing. I am a little tired, and&mdash;&mdash;Is it
+late?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "Most of the people are leaving. It has been a great
+success. Is this the way?"</p>
+
+<p>They had gone down the stairs leading to the lower hall, but here
+Falconer hesitated doubtfully. This second hall led into the larger one,
+through which the guests were passing.</p>
+
+<p>Nell caught a glimpse of them, and shrank back.</p>
+
+<p>"Not there," she said warningly. "There must be a door&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here it is!" he said; and he led her through an opening between
+porti&egrave;re curtains. They found themselves in a small conservatory, and
+Falconer again stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very stupid!" he said apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"There may be an opening to the terrace," said Nell nervously; "once we
+are outside&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are, out in the open air."</p>
+
+<p>Nell drew a long breath, and pushed the hair from her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"We must go down these steps, and then to the right. I remember&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>They crossed the terrace, when two or three persons came out through a
+window behind them. They were talking, and Nell heard a voice which made
+her wince, and her hand grip Falconer's arm convulsively; for the voice
+was Drake's.</p>
+
+<p>"They have a fine night to go home in," he was saying. "Not much of a
+moon, but better than none."</p>
+
+<p>Nell stopped and looked despairingly at the patch of light which the
+window threw right across their path to the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Come quickly," said Falconer, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; we shall be seen!" she implored, in an agitated whisper.</p>
+
+<p>But Falconer deemed it best to go on, and did so.</p>
+
+<p>As they moved, Drake saw them, but indistinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, once more!" he called out, in the tone of a host speeding
+parting guests.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer raised his soft felt hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, my lord," he responded. At the same moment they stepped
+into the stream of light. Drake had been on the point of turning away,
+but as he recognized Falconer's voice and figure, he stopped and took a
+step toward them. Then, as suddenly, he stopped again, gazing after them
+as a man who gazes at a vision of the fancy.</p>
+
+<p>"Who&mdash;who is that?" he demanded, almost fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce was just behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"That was the man who played the violin," she said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> "Didn't you
+recognize him? How romantic he looks! Quite the idea of a musician."</p>
+
+<p>Drake put his hand to his brow and stood still, looking after the two
+figures, now disappearing in the darkness, made more intense by the
+contrasting streaks of light from the windows.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! How like!" he muttered, taking a step or two forward
+unconsciously.</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Luce's voice aroused him from the half stupor into which he had
+fallen, and he turned back to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I must be mad or dreaming!" he muttered. "What folly! And yet how
+like&mdash;how like!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is the matter, Drake?" asked Lady Luce, laying her hand on
+his arm, and looking up at him anxiously. "You are quite pale. You
+look"&mdash;she laughed&mdash;"as if you had seen a ghost!"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled grimly. She had described his feelings exactly. In the
+resemblance of the girl, whoever she was, on the violinist's arm, he had
+in very truth seen the ghost of Nell of Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>Nell hurried Falconer along, but presently was forced to stop to regain
+her breath. Her heart was beating so wildly that she had to fight
+against the sensation of suffocation which threatened to overcome her.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us wait a minute," said Falconer gently. "You are nervous,
+overtired. We will wait here."</p>
+
+<p>But Nell had got her breath again by this time.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" she said, almost vehemently. "Let us go. I know the way&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dick will be waiting for us at the door of the east wing," he said. "If
+you can find that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know," she said quickly. "That is it on our left. But&mdash;but I do not
+want to see any one."</p>
+
+<p>"All the guests are leaving by the front of the house; we are not likely
+to meet any one."</p>
+
+<p>He was somewhat surprised at her agitation, and her evident desire to
+leave the place unseen; for Nell was usually so perfectly self-possessed
+and free from nervousness or gaucherie.</p>
+
+<p>She drew him to the side park under the shadow of the wing, in which few
+of the windows were lighted, and as they waited she gradually recovered
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"There is Dick," said Falconer presently. "He is waiting for us by that
+window."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked in the direction he indicated.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that Dick?" she said, peering at the figure. "It is so dark I can
+scarcely see. I don't think it is Dick. If it is, why is he looking in
+at the window?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He may be talking to some one inside," said Falconer. "I'll call him.
+Dick!"</p>
+
+<p>As he called, the figure half turned, then swung round away from them,
+and with lowered head moved quickly away from the window, and passed
+into the darkness of the shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>"How strange!" said Falconer; and he felt puzzled. Why should Dick start
+at the sound of his name, and make off into the darkness?</p>
+
+<p>Falconer bit his lip. It was just possible that Dick, who was young, and
+also particularly good-looking, was carrying on a flirtation with some
+one in the house. If so, the explanation of his sudden flight was
+natural enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did he run away? Where has he gone?" said Nell. "You were wrong. It
+was not Dick."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely," assented Falconer. "It was so dark&mdash;&mdash;Yes, I was wrong,
+for there he stands by the door," he broke off, as, coming round the
+corner, they saw Dick, who was engaged in lighting his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo! here you are, at last," he said, cheerfully. "Couldn't tear
+yourselves away from the festive scene? By George! if you'd spent the
+night in an engine room, you'd be glad enough to cut it."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Dick!" said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I haven't had such a bad time," he said. "They brought me a ripping
+supper, and a special dish with the chef's compliments. I don't know
+where the chef's going when he leaves this terrestrial sphere; but,
+wherever it is, it's good enough for me. Well, Nellikins, enjoyed
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Very much," she replied. "It&mdash;it was a great success."</p>
+
+<p>"So I hear," said Dick. "But you seem to have taken the cake to-night,
+old man. They told me that you created a perfect furore, whatever that
+is. Anyway, Mrs. Hawksley and the rest came down with the most exciting
+account of your triumph. Seriously, Falconer, I congratulate you. I
+won't say that I prophesied your success long ago, because that's a
+cheap kind of thing to say; but I always did believe you'd hit the
+bull's-eye the first time you got a chance; and you've done it."</p>
+
+<p>"I think they were pleased," said Falconer.</p>
+
+<p>"His lordship and the rest of the swells ought to be very much obliged,"
+remarked Dick. "You've given &eacute;clat to his dance. Observe the French
+again? There is no extra charge."</p>
+
+<p>"His lordship was extremely kind," said Falconer, "and his thanks more
+than repaid me for my poor efforts. I don't wonder at his popularity.
+I've always heard that the higher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> the rank the simpler the manners; and
+Lord Angleford is an instance of it. My acquaintance with the nobility
+is extremely limited&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ditto here," said Dick. "Though the young lady on your arm has lived in
+marble halls, and hobnobbed with belted earls and lords of high degree.
+But I'm glad to hear that this one is affable."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Affable is the wrong word; it means condescension, doesn't it? And Lord
+Angleford was anything but condescending. He might have known me for
+years, if one judged by the tone of his voice and manner; and, as I
+said, I'm more than repaid."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm glad to hear he made a favorable impression on you," Dick
+said. "I haven't had the pleasure of making his acquaintance yet; but I
+shall probably see him before I go. But your success doesn't end here,
+Falconer. I'm told that you are going to play at Cleavemere Court. By
+George! if you knock them there as you did here&mdash;which, of course, you
+will do&mdash;your fortune's made. The duchess has no end of influence, and
+you'll be paragraphed in the papers, and get engagements at the houses
+of other swells, and before we know where we are, we shall see 'Se&ntilde;or
+Falconer's Recitals at St. James' Hall,' advertised on the front page of
+the <i>Times</i>. And serve you right, old man, for if ever a man deserved
+good luck, it is you. Eh, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you see his lordship, our all-puissant earl, my child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, beginning to tremble&mdash;but, indeed, she had been
+trembling all through the conversation. How should she be able to get
+away from the house&mdash;the place which belonged to Drake? "Yes, I saw him.
+Dick, did a man&mdash;a man with a slight figure something like yours&mdash;pass
+you just before we came up?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure? He must have passed by you."</p>
+
+<p>"A figure like mine, did you say? Yes; I'm quite sure he didn't. I have
+too keen an eye for grace of form to let such a figure pass unnoticed."</p>
+
+<p>"It may have been a servant or one of the guests," Falconer said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, draw it mild!" remonstrated Dick. "Do I look like a flunkey or a
+groom? What is it you think you have seen?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man was standing looking in at one of the windows of the inner side
+of the wing," said Nell. "We thought it was you; but, when Mr. Falconer
+called, the man, whoever he was, turned and walked into the shrubbery."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A 'particular friend' of one of the maids, I dare say," remarked Dick
+easily. "And I've no doubt you have broken up a very enjoyable spooning.
+Now, would you like&mdash;&mdash;Now what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>For Nell had stopped short, and had seized his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" she exclaimed, in a whisper. "There he is again&mdash;that is the
+man!"</p>
+
+<p>They had come to the lodge by this time, and Nell was gazing rather
+nervously toward the big gates.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" asked Dick. "I can see no one. Nell, you have had too much
+champagne. You'll be seeing snakes presently if you don't mind. Where is
+he?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed, but a little shakily.</p>
+
+<p>"He has gone, of course. He went quickly through the gate."</p>
+
+<p>"And why shouldn't he?" said Dick, with a yawn. "Oh, Falconer! when I
+think of the cool tankard into which I shall presently plunge my
+beak&mdash;&mdash;What's come to you, Nell? It isn't like you to 'get the
+nerves.'"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The man whom Nell and Falconer had mistaken for Dick passed through the
+lodge gates, and, turning to the right, walked quickly, but not
+hurriedly, beside the high park fencing, and presently came up with a
+dogcart which was being walked slowly along the road.</p>
+
+<p>The cart was a very shabby one, but the horse was a very good one, and
+looked as if it could stretch itself if it were required to do so. In
+the cart was a young man in clerical attire. He looked like a curate,
+and his voice had the regulation drawl as he leaned down and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Ted?"</p>
+
+<p>The man addressed as Ted shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl was right," he said, with an air of disappointment. "She's got
+'em all on."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's no use trying it to-night," said the curate. "Perhaps a
+little later? It must be darkish for some time."</p>
+
+<p>Ted shook his head again.</p>
+
+<p>"No use! Too risky. It will be hours before they all go to bed and the
+house is quiet; the servants always keep it up after a big affair like
+this; some of 'em won't go to bed at all, perhaps. Besides, I was
+spotted just now."</p>
+
+<p>The Parson, as he was called by the burgling fraternity, of which he and
+Ted were distinguished members, swore under his breath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How was that?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I was looking in at one of the windows of the servants' quarters,
+getting a word or two with the girl, when a couple of the swells came
+along. They saw me, and mistook me for some one by the name of Dick, and
+called to me. I walked off as quickly as I could, and I swear they
+didn't see my face, neither then nor just now, when, as luck would have
+it, they caught sight of me going out of the gates. They went into the
+lodge with the young fellow they'd mistaken me for."</p>
+
+<p>The Parson swore again.</p>
+
+<p>"What's to be done? Did you see the things?"</p>
+
+<p>Ted nodded emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! They're the best swag I've ever seen. There's a fortune in them;
+and, if we had any luck, we might get a few more in addition."</p>
+
+<p>"They'll be in the bank to-morrow," said the Parson gloomily. "These
+swells know how to take care of their jewelry, especially when they're
+family diamonds like these. We've lost our chance for the present, Ted.
+Jump up."</p>
+
+<p>But Ted shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. The girl promised to meet me if she could, and I reckon she'll
+try to." He smiled and smoothed his mustache. "You drive on slowly and
+wait for me at the turn of the road. I'll come to you, say, in a quarter
+of an hour."</p>
+
+<p>The dogcart went on, and Ted followed until he came to a small gate in
+the park fencing, and, opening this, he stood just inside it. His hand
+went to his pocket for his pipe, but, with the smoker's sigh, he dropped
+it back again, for he could not risk striking a match.</p>
+
+<p>After he had been waiting there for a few minutes he heard footsteps and
+the rustle of a skirt among the undergrowth, and presently a woman stole
+out from the darkness, and, running up to the man, clutched his arm,
+panting and trembling with fear and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when Lord and Lady Wolfer had started for the Continent, on the day
+of what may be called their reconciliation, Burden, her maid, had
+refused to go. She was a bad sailor, and hated what she called "foreign
+parts"; and she begged her mistress to leave her behind. Lady Wolfer,
+full of sympathy in her newly found happiness, had not only let the girl
+off, but had made her a handsome present, and given her an excellent
+written character.</p>
+
+<p>Burden took a holiday, and went home to her people, who kept what is
+called a "sporting public" in the east of London.</p>
+
+<p>Sport, like charity, is made to cover a lot of sins; and Burden, while
+assisting in the bar of the pub, made the acquaintance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> of several
+persons who were desirable neither in the matter of morals nor manners.</p>
+
+<p>One of these was a good-looking young fellow who went by the name of
+Ted. He was supposed to be a watchmaker and jeweler by trade&mdash;a working
+jeweler&mdash;but he spent most of his time at the public which Burden now
+adorned, and though he certainly did not carry on his trade there,
+always appeared to have as much money as leisure.</p>
+
+<p>Cupid, who seems to be indifferent to his surroundings, hovered about
+the smoky and beery regions of the Blue Pig, and very soon worked
+mischief between Burden and Ted.</p>
+
+<p>He was pleasant spoken as well as good-looking, and had a free-and-easy
+way, was always ready with an order for the play or one of the music
+halls, and&mdash;in short, Burden fell in love with him. But when he asked
+her to marry him, Burden, who was a respectable girl, and, as Lady
+Wolfer's maid, had held a good position for one of her class, began to
+make inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>She did not go on with them, but she learned enough to rouse her
+suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>The jewelry business evidently served as a blind for less honest
+pursuits. She took alarm, and, like a sensible girl, fled the paternal
+pub and sought a fresh situation.</p>
+
+<p>As chance&mdash;there is no such thing, of course&mdash;would have it, Lady Luce
+was changing maids at this time.</p>
+
+<p>Burden, armed with her most excellent and fully deserved "character,"
+applied for and obtained the situation.</p>
+
+<p>She ought to have been thankful for her escape, and happy and contented
+in a service which, though very different from that of Lady Wolfer's,
+was good enough. But Burden had lost her heart; and when one has lost
+one's heart, happiness is impossible.</p>
+
+<p>She longed for a sight, just a sight, of her good-looking Ted; and one
+day, while the Turfleighs were stopping at Brighton, her heart's desire
+was gratified.</p>
+
+<p>She saw her handsome Ted on the pier. He was, if anything, handsomer
+than ever, was beautifully dressed&mdash;quite the gentleman, in fact, and
+though Burden had fully intended to just bow and pass on, she stopped
+and talked to him. Cupid slipped round her the chains from which she had
+so nearly freed herself, and&mdash;&mdash;The woman who goes back to a man is
+indeed completely lost.</p>
+
+<p>They met every day; but alas, alas! Ted no longer spoke of marriage; and
+his influence over the woman who loved him unwisely and too well, grew
+in proportion to her devotion and helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>She soon learned that the man to whom she had given herself was a
+criminal, one of a skillful gang of burglars. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> it was too late to
+draw back; too late even to refuse to help him.</p>
+
+<p>It was Burden who clung to the man in hiding behind the park gate.</p>
+
+<p>"What made you hurry so, old girl?" he said soothingly, and putting his
+arm round her. "What's your fear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ted, Ted!" she gasped. "It's so dark&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"All the better," he said coolly. "Less chance of any one seeing you."</p>
+
+<p>"But some one saw you as you were standing by the window. It was Miss
+Lorton&mdash;they called out&mdash;they may have suspicions."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you worry," he said. "They only thought it was some one after one
+of the girls. And it was the truth, wasn't it? What a frightened little
+thing it is! You'd be scared by your own shadow!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am! I am, Ted!" said the unhappy girl. "I start at the slightest
+noise; and I'm so&mdash;so nervous, that I expect Lady Lucille to send me
+away every day."</p>
+
+<p>The man frowned.</p>
+
+<p>"She mustn't do that," he said, half angrily. "I can't have that; it
+would be precious awkward just now! That would spoil all our plans."</p>
+
+<p>"I know! I know!" she moaned. "Oh, if you'd only give it up! Give it up
+this time, only this one time to please me, Ted, dear."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd do anything to please you, but I'm not alone in this plant, you
+know; there's others; and I can't go back on my pals; so you mustn't go
+back on me."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in the tone which the man who has the woman in his power can
+use so effectually; then his voice grew softer, and he stroked her cheek
+gently.</p>
+
+<p>"And think of what this means if we pull this off, Fan! No more dodging
+and hiding, no more risks of chokee and a 'life' for me, and no more
+slaving and lady's-maiding for you! We'll be off together to some
+foreign clime, as the poet calls it; and, with plenty of the ready, I
+fancy you'll cut a dash as Mrs. Ted."</p>
+
+<p>It was the one bait which he knew would be irresistible. She caught her
+breath, and, pressing closer to him, looked up into his eyes eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean it, Ted? You won't deceive me again? You'll keep your word?"</p>
+
+<p>"Honor bright!" he responded. "Why shouldn't I? You know I'm fond of
+you. I'd have married you months ago if I'd struck a piece of luck like
+this; but what was the use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> of marrying when I had to&mdash;work, and there
+was the chance of my being collared any day of the week? No! But I
+promise you that if we pull this off, I am going to settle down; I shall
+be glad enough to do it. We'll have a little cottage, or a flat on the
+Continong, eh, Fan? Is the countess going to send the diamonds back to
+the bank to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>He put the question abruptly, but in a low and impressive voice.</p>
+
+<p>Burden shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied reluctantly. "I&mdash;I asked her maid; they were talking
+about them just before I came out. Everybody was talking about them at
+the ball, and her ladyship's maid gives herself airs on account of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Gases about them? Very natural. And she says?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's a dinner party the night after next, and the countess thought
+it wasn't worth while sending them to the bank for one day. She's going
+to keep them in the safe in her room."</p>
+
+<p>Ted's eyes glistened, and he nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Who keeps the key of the safe, Fan?" he asked; and though they were far
+from any chance of listeners, his voice dropped to a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"The countess," replied Burden, still reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I must have that key, Fan. Yes, yes! Remember what we are playing for,
+you and me! You get that key and put it in the corner of the windowsill
+where I was standing to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" she panted. His arm loosened, and he looked down at her
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that you won't? Very well, then. But look here, my girl, we
+mean having these diamonds, with or without your help. You can't prevent
+us, for I don't suppose you'd be low enough to split and send me to
+penal servitude&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ted! Ted!" she wailed, and put her arms round him.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled to himself over her bowed head.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the best time? While they're at dinner?"</p>
+
+<p>She made a sign in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she whispered, setting her teeth, as if every word were dragged
+from her. "No; the maid will be in the room putting the countess' things
+away; afterward&mdash;while they are in the drawing-room."</p>
+
+<p>He bent and kissed her, his eyes shining eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"There! You've got more sense than I have, by a long chalk! I should
+never have thought of the maid being in the room. Clever Fan! Now,
+you'll put the key on the sill&mdash;when? Say ten o'clock. And you'll see,
+Fan, that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> little window on the back staircase isn't locked, and
+keep at watch for us?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" she panted. "I will not! I cannot! I&mdash;I should faint! Don't
+ask me, Ted; don't&mdash;don't, dear! I shall say 'I'm ill'&mdash;and I shall
+be&mdash;and go to bed!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not you!" he said, cheerfully and confidentially. "You'll just hang
+about the landing and keep watch for us; and if there's any one there to
+spoil our game, you'll go to the window and say, just loud enough for us
+to hear: 'What a fine night!'"</p>
+
+<p>She hid her face on his breast, struggling with her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is there to be afraid of!" he said. "If all's clear we shall
+have the things in a jiffy, and if it isn't we shall take our hook as
+quietly as we came, and no one will be the wiser. Should you like
+Boulogne, Fan, or should you like Brussels? We could be married directly
+we got on the other side. Boulogne's not half a bad place, and you'd
+look rather a swell at the Casino."</p>
+
+<p>It was the irresistible argument again. She raised her head.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you will go quietly; there will be no&mdash;no violence, Ted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it likely?"</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;there was in that case at Berkeley Square, Ted!" and she
+shuddered again.</p>
+
+<p>His face darkened.</p>
+
+<p>"That was an accident. The gentleman was an obstinate old fool. But
+there's no fear of anything of that kind in this affair. I tell you we
+shall not be in the house more than five minutes, and if we're seen it
+won't matter. I'm in decent togs, and my pal is the model of a curate.
+Any one seeing us would think we were visitors in the house. You shall
+have a regular wedding dress, Fan. White satin and lace&mdash;real lace, mind
+you! Come, give us a kiss to say that it's done with, Fan!"</p>
+
+<p>He took her face in his hands and kissed her, and with a choking sob she
+clung to him for a moment as if she could not tear herself away. But,
+having got what he wanted, the man was anxious to be off.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten o'clock, mind, Fan! And a sharp lookout. There, let me put your
+shawl round your head. I'll wait here till I hear you're out of the
+wood."</p>
+
+<p>But he remained only a moment or two after she had left him, and, with
+quick, light steps, he joined his confederate.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right," he said, as he got into the dogcart. "I've found out
+what I wanted. And I've managed with the girl. Had a devil of a job,
+though! That's the worst of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> women! You've always got to play the
+sentimental with them; nothing short of making love or offering to marry
+'em is any use. It's a pity this kind of thing can't be worked without a
+petticoat. There's always trouble and bother when they come in.
+To-morrow night, Parson, ten o'clock, you and I are men or mice; but
+it's going to be men," he added, between his teeth. "Did you bring my
+barker as well as your own?"</p>
+
+<p>The Parson touched the side pocket of his overcoat, and nodded
+significantly.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The day following a big dance is always a slack one, and the house party
+at Anglemere came down late for breakfast, the last stragglers
+endeavoring to screen their yawns behind their hands, and receiving the
+usual "plans for the day" with marked coolness.</p>
+
+<p>Drake, though he had slept but little, did his duty manfully, and
+proposed sundry rides and drives; but the majority of the party seemed
+to prefer a lounge in the drawing-room, or a quiet saunter in the
+garden; but eventually a drag started for some picturesque ruins, and
+some of the more energetic rode or drove to a flower show in the
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>It is an understood thing nowadays that your host, having provided for
+your amusement, is not necessarily compelled to join in your pursuits;
+in short, that his house shall not only be Liberty Hall for his guests,
+but for himself, and Drake, having dispatched the various parties,
+started a quiet game in the billiard room, and seen that the
+drawing-room windows were open and shaded, took his hat and stick and
+went out for a walk.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce had not yet put in an appearance. She remained in bed or in
+her room on such occasions, and only sallied forth in time for luncheon,
+thereby presenting a fresh complexion and bright eyes with which to
+confound her less prudent sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Drake had been thinking of her as well as of Nell. He knew that he would
+have to marry. The present heir to the title and estates was anything
+but a desirable young man, and it behooved Drake to keep him out of the
+succession if possible.</p>
+
+<p>Drake, with all his freedom from pride and side, was fully sensible of
+the altitude of his position, and he knew the world looked to him for an
+heir to Angleford.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, he would have to marry, and as he had lost Nell, why,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> not marry
+Luce? He had an idea that she cared for him, as much as she cared for
+any other than herself, and he knew that she would fill the place as
+well as, if not better than, another.</p>
+
+<p>Their names had been coupled together. Society expected the match. Why
+should he not ask her to renew the engagement, and ask her at once? The
+house would be comparatively empty, for most of the guests would not
+return until dinner time, and he would have the opportunity of making
+his proposal.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped dead short, half resolved to obey the impulse; then, after
+the manner of men, he walked on again, and away from Anglemere, and,
+instead of returning to the house in time for lunch, found himself at
+one of the outlying farms.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say that he was accorded a hearty welcome. They did
+not fuss over him; the Anglemere tenants were prosperous and
+self-respecting; and though they regarded their lord and master as a
+kind of sovereign, and felt greatly honored by his presence under their
+roof, there was nothing servile in their attentions.</p>
+
+<p>Drake sat down to the midday meal with a ruddy-cheeked child on each
+side of him, and chatted with the farmer and his wife, the farmer eating
+his well-earned dinner with his usual appetite, the latter waiting on
+them with assiduity and perfect composure. Now and again Drake made a
+joke for the sake of the children, who laughed up at him with round eyes
+and open mouths; he discussed the breeding and price of poultry, the
+rival merits of the new churns and "separators" with the dame, and the
+prospects of the coming harvest with the good man. For a wonder the
+farmer did not grumble. The Anglefords were good landlords; there was no
+rack-renting, no ejections, and a farm falling vacant from natural
+causes was always eagerly tendered for.</p>
+
+<p>After the meal, which Drake enjoyed exceedingly, he and the farmer sat
+at the open window with their pipes and a glass of whisky and water, and
+continued their conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm hearing that your lordship thinks of coming to Anglemere and living
+among us," said the farmer. "And I hope it's true, with all my heart.
+The land needs a master's presence&mdash;not that I've anything to complain
+of. Wood, the steward, has acted like a gentleman by me, and I hear no
+complaints of him among the neighbors. But all the same, it ain't like
+having the earl himself over us. It makes one's heart ache to see that
+great place shut up and empty most o' the year. Seems as if there ought
+to be some one living there pretty nigh always, and as if there ought to
+be little children running about the terrace an' the lawns. Begging your
+lordship's pardon, if I'm too free."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, Styles," said Drake. "I know what you mean."</p>
+
+<p>The farmer nodded, and stopped his pipe with his fat little finger.</p>
+
+<p>"I make so bold because I remember your lordship a wee chap so high." He
+put his hand about eighteen inches from the floor, as usual. "And a
+rare, hot-spirited youngster you was! Many's the time you've made me
+lift you into the cart, and you'd allus insist upon driving, though the
+reins were most too thick for your hands. Well, my lord, what we feels
+is that we'd like to live long enough to see another little chap&mdash;a
+future lordship&mdash;a-running about the place."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded gravely and took a drink. Even this simple fellow was aware
+of Drake's duty to the title and estates.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you may some day, Styles," he said, smiling, and checking the
+sigh.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer nodded twice, with pleasure and satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to hear it, my lord; and I hope the wedding's to be soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Soon or late, I hope you will come and dance at the wedding ball,
+Styles," Drake responded, with a laugh, as he got up to go.</p>
+
+<p>But the laugh was not a particularly happy one, and he walked toward
+home in anything but a cheerful mood; for it is hard to be compelled to
+have to marry one woman while you are in love with another.</p>
+
+<p>He entered the park by the small gate behind which Ted and Burden had
+stood on the preceding night, and was treading his way through the wood
+when he saw two figures&mdash;those of a man and a girl&mdash;walking in the
+garden behind the south lodge. He glanced at them absently for a moment,
+then he stopped, and, leaning heavily on his stick, caught his breath.</p>
+
+<p>The man was Falconer, and the girl was&mdash;Nell!</p>
+
+<p>They were pacing up and down the path slowly, she with her eyes
+downcast, some flowers in her hands, he with his face turned toward her,
+a rapt look in his eyes, his hands, folded behind his back, twitching
+nervously. They turned full face to Drake as he stood watching them, and
+he saw her distinctly. It seemed marvelous to him that he had not fully
+recognized her last night, that he had not guessed that the young
+engineer was Dick. The blood rushed to his face, then left it pale, and
+he stood, unseen by them, gnawing at his mustache.</p>
+
+<p>In all his musings on the past, all his thoughts and dreams of her, the
+possibility of her being engaged or married had never occurred to him.
+He had always pictured her as still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> "Nell of Shorne Mills," living at
+The Cottage as she had done when she and he were lovers.</p>
+
+<p>And it was she&mdash;she, Nell!&mdash;to whom this musician was engaged! A wave of
+bitterness swept over him, and in the agony of his jealousy he could
+have laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>He had been sighing for her, longing for her, feeding his soul on his
+memory of her, all these months, while she had not only forgotten him,
+but had learned to love another man!</p>
+
+<p>He stood and stared at them, as if he saw them through a mist, too
+overwhelmed to move; but presently he saw Nell look up with tears in her
+eyes, and hold out her hand slowly, timidly.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer took it and put his lips to it. The sight broke the spell that
+held Drake, and, with a muttered oath, he turned and walked away quickly
+through the wood toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>The first dinner bell was ringing as he entered the hall. Most of the
+guests had gone up to dress, but one or two still lingered in the hall,
+and among them Lady Angleford and Lady Luce. The former came to meet him
+as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, where have you been, Drake?" she said, with the little maternal
+manner with which she always addressed him.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce was lounging in a chair, playing with a grayhound, and she
+looked up at him with a smile, then lowered her eyes, as if she were
+afraid their welcome should be too marked.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been for a walk," he said. His face was flushed, his eyes
+bright&mdash;too bright&mdash;with suppressed emotion. "I've been lunching at the
+Styles' farm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a long way! Aren't you tired? Will you have some tea? I'll get
+some made in a moment or two. Do!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; thanks!" he said, as he pitched his cap on the stand. "It's too
+late."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he went up to Lady Luce and looked down at her, his face
+still flushed, his eyes still unnaturally bright.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you been doing with yourself, Luce?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at him for a moment, then lowered her eyes and drew the
+dog's sleek head close to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," she said, with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
+"Nothing, I think. It has been an awfully long day."</p>
+
+<p>"Luce has been bored to death, and&mdash;for once&mdash;has admitted it," said
+Lady Angleford, laughing. "Her yawns and sighs have been too awful for
+words."</p>
+
+<p>He stood and looked down at her. She was perfectly dressed, and looked
+like a girl in the light frock, with its plain blouse and neat sailor
+knot. At any rate, if he married<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> her he would have a beautiful wife;
+and that was something. That she loved him, was still more.</p>
+
+<p>Now that he knew Nell had forgotten him, there was no reason why he
+should hesitate.</p>
+
+<p>He bent lower, and his hand fell on the dog's head and touched hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Luce!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, saw that the words she had been longing for were
+trembling on his lips, and her face grew pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Luce, I want to speak to you," he said, in a low voice. Lady Angleford
+had gone to a table to collect her work; there was no one within
+hearing. "I want to ask you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Before he could finish the all-important sentence, Wolfer and one or two
+other men who had been riding came in at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Bell gone?" exclaimed Wolfer. "Afraid we are late. Had a capital ride,
+Angleford! What a lovely country it is! Is my wife in yet?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake bit his lip; for, having made up his mind to the plunge, he
+disliked being pulled up on the brink.</p>
+
+<p>"After dinner," he whispered, bending still lower, and he went upstairs
+with the other men. Lord Turfleigh, who was with them, paused at the
+landing, murmured an excuse, and toddled heavily down again. Lady Luce
+had picked up her book and risen, and she lifted her head and looked at
+her father with an unmistakable expression on her face.</p>
+
+<p>He raised his heavy eyebrows and stretched his mouth in a grin of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" he said, in a thick whisper. "Really?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, and flashed a smile of exultant triumph round the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He had nearly spoken when you came in! My luck, of course! Another
+minute! But he will speak to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear gyurl!" he murmured. "You make your poor old father a proud and
+happy man. My own gyurl!"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at Lady Angleford warningly, and going up to her, took her
+arm and murmured sweetly:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go upstairs together, dear."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford looked at her with a meaning smile.</p>
+
+<p>"How changed you have suddenly become, Luce!" she said. "Where are all
+your yawns gone? One would think you had heard news!"</p>
+
+<p>Luce turned her face with a radiant smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I have," she said, in a low voice. "I&mdash;I will tell
+you&mdash;to-morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>They parted at the door of Lady Angleford's room, Lady Luce's being
+farther down the corridor. Next to Lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> Angleford's was the suite which
+had been prepared for Drake, and he came out of the room which adjoined
+the one she used as a dressing room as she was going into it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry if my absence to-day was inconvenient, countess," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least! Everybody was disposed of; indeed, I was so free that
+Lady Wolfer and I went for a long drive. How changed she is! I don't
+know a happier woman! And she has given up all that woman's rights
+business."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded, with, it must be admitted, little interest.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," he said, as casually as he could, "what is the name of the
+young engineer and his sister who are staying at the lodge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lorton," replied the countess. "So stupid of me! I thought it was
+Norton, and I addressed the invitation so; but Mrs. Hawksley tells me
+that it is Lorton. The brother comes from Bardsley &amp; Bardsley."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded. He needed no confirmation of the fact of Nell's presence.</p>
+
+<p>"And she's engaged to this Mr. Falconer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," replied the countess. "There can be no doubt of it. Mrs.
+Harksley says that his attentions to her last night&mdash;at the ball, I
+mean&mdash;were quite touching. They walked home together arm in arm. I
+really must call on her. They say she is extremely pretty."</p>
+
+<p>"No need to call, I think," he said. "I mean," he went on, as the
+countess looked surprised, "that&mdash;that they will be gone directly."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I thought he might be going to remain as resident engineer."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not," said Drake, almost harshly. "From all I hear, he's
+too young."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford nodded, and went into her room, where her maid was
+awaiting her.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you wear your diamonds, my lady?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>The countess nodded absently, and took the key of the safe from her
+purse; but when the maid placed the square case which held the marvelous
+jewels on the dressing table, Lady Angleford changed her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," she said; "not to-night. It is only a house party. Put them
+back, please."</p>
+
+<p>The maid replaced the case in the safe, but she could not turn the key.</p>
+
+<p>"You must be quick. I am afraid I'm late," said the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't turn the key, my lady," said the woman.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford rose and tried to turn it, but the key remained
+obstinately immovable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Knock at the earl's door and ask him if he will be kind enough to come to
+me," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The maid did so, and Drake came in.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't lock the safe, Drake," said the countess. "I am so sorry to
+trouble you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's no trouble," he responded. "Literally none," he added, with a
+short laugh. "You hadn't quite closed the door. See?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were stupid. How like a woman!" she said penitently.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care of the key," he said. "The diamonds had better be sent to the
+bank the day after to-morrow, unless you want to wear them again soon."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. "They make such a fuss about them; and&mdash;well, they are
+rather too much of a blaze for such a little woman as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" he said. "Here's the key."</p>
+
+<p>He laid it on the dressing table, and she was about to take it up to
+replace it in her purse, and put the purse in one of the small drawers
+of the dressing table, when there came a knock at the door, and Burden
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I beg your ladyship's pardon," she faltered, drawing back.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to borrow some eau de Cologne for my lady," said Burden. "I
+thought your ladyship had gone down, or I wouldn't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Give her the eau de Cologne," said the countess to her maid. "Please
+ask Lady Luce to keep it. I shall not want it."</p>
+
+<p>Burden took the bottle and went out. On the other side of the door she
+paused a moment and caught her breath. Chance, or the devil himself, was
+working on Ted's behalf, for she had happened to enter the room at the
+very moment the countess had put the key in the purse, and the purse in
+the drawer. And all day Burden had been wondering how she should get
+that key.</p>
+
+<p>She went on after a moment or two, and Lady Luce looked up from her
+chair in front of the dressing table, as Burden entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been?" she asked sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I went to borrow some eau de Cologne, my lady," replied Burden.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, please be quick; you know we are late. I will wear&mdash;&mdash;" she
+paused a moment. She wanted to look her best that night. The beauty
+which had caught Drake in the past, the beauty which was to ensnare him
+again, and win for her the Angleford coronet, must lack no advantage
+dress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> could lend it. "The silver gray and the pearls, please," she
+said, after a moment or two of consideration. "Why, what is the matter
+with you?" she asked sharply, as she saw the reflection of Burden's face
+in the glass. "Are you ill, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>Burden tried to force the color to her face and keep her hands steady.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am not very well, my lady," she faltered. "I&mdash;I have had bad
+news."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad news! What news?" asked Lady Luce coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;mother is very ill, my lady," replied Burden, on the spur of the
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce moved impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a singular thing that persons of your class are always in some
+trouble or other; you are either ill yourselves, or some of your
+relations are dying. I am very sorry and all that, Burden, but I hope
+you were not thinking of asking me to let you go home, because I really
+could not just now."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my lady; perhaps a little later&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll see," said Lady Luce irritably. "I don't suppose you could
+do any good if you were to go home; I suppose there's some one to look
+after your mother; and, after all, she may not be so bad as you think.
+Servants always look at the worst side of things, and meet troubles
+halfway."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lady," said Burden.</p>
+
+<p>"And do, for goodness' sake, try and look more cheerful, my good girl!
+It's like having a ghost behind me. Besides, if you are worrying
+yourself about your mother you can't dress me properly; and I want you
+to be very careful to-night&mdash;of all nights!"</p>
+
+<p>She leaned back and smiled at her face in the glass, and thought no more
+of the maid's pale and anxious one. Had she been not so entirely
+heartless, had she even only affected a little interest and expressed
+some sympathy, the unhappy girl might have broken down and confessed her
+share in the meditated crime; but Lady Luce was incapable of pretending
+sympathy with a servant. In her eyes servants were of quite a different
+order of creation to that of her own class; hewers of wood and drawers
+of water, of no account beyond that which they gained from their value
+to their masters or mistresses. To consider the feelings of the servants
+who waited upon her would have seemed absurd to Lady Luce, almost,
+indeed, a kind of bad form.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner bell had rung before she was dressed, and she hurried down to
+find herself the last to arrive in the drawing-room. She sought Drake's
+face as she entered. It still wore the expression of suppressed
+excitement which she had noticed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> when he came in from his walk, and he
+smiled with a kind of reluctant admiration as he noticed the magnificent
+dress, and the way in which it set off her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner his altered mood was so marked that several persons who were
+near him noticed it. He, who had been so quiet and grave, almost stern
+in his manner and speech, to-night talked much and rapidly, and laughed
+freely.</p>
+
+<p>The flush on his face deepened, and his eyes flashed so brightly that
+Wolfer, who was sitting near him, could not help noticing how often
+Drake permitted the butler to fill his glass, and wondered whether
+anything had happened, and whether he were drinking too much.</p>
+
+<p>But Drake's gayety was infectious enough, and the dinner was a much
+livelier one than any that had preceded it.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce was, perhaps, the most quiet and least talkative; but she sat
+and listened to Drake's stories and badinage, with a smile in her eyes
+and her lips slightly apart.</p>
+
+<p>In a few hours he would speak the word which would make her the future
+Countess of Angleford!</p>
+
+<p>The ladies lingered at the table rather longer than usual, for Drake's
+stories had suggested others to the other men, and his high spirits had
+awakened those of the persons near him. But Lady Angleford rose at last,
+and the ladies filed off to the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>The men closed up their ranks, and Drake sent the wine round briskly.
+There was no dance to cut short the pleasant "after-the-ladies-have-gone"
+time; and they sat long over their wine, so that it was nearly ten
+o'clock when Drake, with his hand on the decanter near him, said:</p>
+
+<p>"No more, anybody? Sure? Turfleigh, you will, surely!"</p>
+
+<p>But the old man knew that he had had enough. He, too, was excited, and
+under a strain, and he rose rather unsteadily and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks. Er&mdash;er&mdash;I fancy we've rather punished that claret of yours
+to-night, my dear boy."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a sad heart that never rejoices!" Drake retorted, with a laugh
+which sounded so reckless that Wolfer glanced at him with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd better have a cigarette in the smoking room before we go into the
+drawing-room," said Drake, and he led the way.</p>
+
+<p>As they went, talking and laughing, together across the hall, a
+white-faced woman leaned over the balustrade above, and watched them.</p>
+
+<p>The other servants were in the servants' hall, enjoying themselves; the
+gentlemen were in the smoking room, and the ladies in the drawing-room.
+She was alone in the upper part of the house, which was so quiet and
+still that the sound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> of a clock, in one of the rooms, striking ten was
+like that of a church bell in her ears.</p>
+
+<p>She started and pressed her hand to her heart, then stole to the window
+on the back staircase, and, keeping behind the curtain, listened. Her
+heart beat so loudly as to almost deafen her, but she heard a slight
+noise outside, and something fell with a soft tap against the window
+sill. It was the top of the ladder falling into its place.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Burden had switched off some of the electric lights in the
+corridor&mdash;was, indeed, prepared to switch the remainder if any one
+happened to come up&mdash;and she could just see a face through the window.
+The sight of it almost made her scream, for the face was partially
+covered by a crape mask, through which the eyes gleamed fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>Burden clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle the cry of terror, and,
+absolutely incapable of remaining on the spot, fled to her own room and
+locked herself in.</p>
+
+<p>Ted raised the window noiselessly and stepped into the corridor. He had
+a plan of the house, drawn from Burden's description, and he made
+straight for the countess' room. The Parson stood at the bottom of the
+ladder on guard. And each man carried a revolver loaded in all six
+barrels.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes before the burglar had so neatly effected his entrance,
+the men left the smoking room for the drawing-room&mdash;all excepting Lord
+Turfleigh, who had taken a soda and brandy with his cigar, and deemed it
+prudent to indulge in a little nap before joining the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Drake was a little less excited than he had been, but he was still
+resolved to ask Luce to be his wife, and he meant to take her into the
+conservatory, or one of the rooms where they could be alone for a few
+minutes. But when he entered the drawing-room she was playing. He went
+up to the piano, and, bending over it as if to look at the music,
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go into the conservatory presently?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, and without raising her eyes, but with a sudden flush. Drake
+went across the room to where Lady Angleford and Lady Wolfer were
+seated, talking, and the first word he heard was Nell's name.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is the same," Lady Wolfer was saying eagerly. "Her brother
+was at the engineers, Bardsley &amp; Bardsley! And Nell has been near us all
+this time, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> this house, and I didn't know it! If I had, I would
+have gone to her at once. She's the dearest and sweetest girl in all the
+world, and I owe her&mdash;&mdash;" She stopped and sighed, but not sadly. "She
+left us quite suddenly to go to her stepmother, who was a cousin of my
+husband's; and I have only seen her once since. They&mdash;she and her
+brother&mdash;were living in one of these large mansions&mdash;a dreadfully
+crowded and noisy place; but, though they were poor, she seemed quite
+happy and contented. I begged her to come and live with me, but she
+would not leave her brother&mdash;though for that matter we should have been
+delighted to have him also, especially if he is anything like her. Oh,
+yes, the dearest girl! And you don't know how much I owe her! Some day I
+may be tempted to tell you." She sighed again, and was silent for a
+moment, as she recalled the scene in her bedroom on the night of the
+dinner party, the night before Nell had left Wolfer House so suddenly.
+"I must go and see her to-morrow morning. They say she is engaged to the
+young man, the violinist."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would
+account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an
+extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your
+dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of
+her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me."</p>
+
+<p>Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set
+sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he
+listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to
+a man who certainly was not worthy of her.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford looked up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake," she said.
+"She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a
+time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young
+to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom
+one knows."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see," he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with
+some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him
+and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"How changed he is!" she said, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?" asked Lady Wolfer.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was silent for a moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>"He seems as if he were unhappy about something," she said; "as if
+something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into
+the title, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was
+bright and cheerful; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> now&mdash;&mdash;I noticed the change the moment he came
+into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for
+anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now
+one would think he possessed all that a man could desire."</p>
+
+<p>"The vanity of human wishes, my dear!" said Lady Wolfer. "Something may
+have happened while he was abroad," she suggested in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean a love affair? I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was
+about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the
+last man in the world to marry for the sake of "convenience."</p>
+
+<p>Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the
+piano; but she was playing a long piece&mdash;an interminable one, as it
+seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not
+finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling
+had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there
+was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his
+dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down,
+and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were
+fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as
+his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.</p>
+
+<p>It was a peculiar sound, like the soft bang which is made by the closing
+of a safe door. For a moment Drake paid no heed to it; then suddenly its
+significance struck upon him. Lady Angleford was in the drawing-room.
+Who could be at the safe?</p>
+
+<p>He stepped outside the door, and waited for a second or two, then he
+opened the door softly, and saw a man rising from his knees in front of
+the safe. The man turned at the moment and stood with the case of
+diamonds in his hand&mdash;two other cases bulged from his side pockets&mdash;his
+eyes gleaming through his mask.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in fiction the hero who is placed in this position always cries
+aloud for help, and instantly springs at the burglar; but in real life
+the element of surprise has to be taken into account; and Drake was too
+amazed at the moment to fling himself upon the thief. Besides, it is
+your weak and timid man who immediately cries for help. Drake was
+neither weak nor timid, and it would not occur to him to shriek for
+assistance. So the two men stood motionless as statues, and glanced at
+each other while you could count twenty. Then the burglar whipped a
+revolver from his pocket and presented it.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand out of my way!" he said gruffly, and disguising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> his voice, for
+he knew how easily a voice can become a means of identification. "Better
+stand out of my way, or, by God! I'll fire!"</p>
+
+<p>Drake laughed, the short laugh of a strong man ridiculing the proposal
+that he shall probably stand aside and permit a thief to pass with his
+booty.</p>
+
+<p>"Put down that thing," he said. "You know you can't fire; too much
+noise. Put it down&mdash;and the cases. No? Very well!"</p>
+
+<p>He sprang aside with one movement, and with the next went for the man.</p>
+
+<p>Ted was really a skillful craftsman, and had taken the precaution to
+fasten a string across the room, from the bed to the grate.</p>
+
+<p>Drake's foot caught in it, and he went sprawling on his face.</p>
+
+<p>Ted sprang over him, and gained the corridor. With a dexterity beyond
+all praise, he switched off the remaining lights and then pushed up the
+window and dropped, rather than climbed, down the ladder.</p>
+
+<p>Drake was on his feet in a moment and out in the corridor in the next.
+He had heard the window pushed up, and knew the point at which the man
+had made his escape.</p>
+
+<p>Even then he did not give the alarm, and he did not turn up the lights,
+for he could see into the night better without them. He leaned out of
+the window and peered into darkness, and distinguished two forms gliding
+toward the shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long drop, but he intended taking it. He swung one leg over the
+sill as some one came up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>It was Sparling.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are all the lights out?" he exclaimed. "Who's there?" for there was
+light enough from the hall for him to see Drake dimly.</p>
+
+<p>"All right; it's I," said Drake quietly. "Turn up the lights. There are
+burglars. Don't shout; you'll frighten the ladies. Get the bicycle lamp
+from my room&mdash;quick!"</p>
+
+<p>Sparling tore into the room, and came dashing out with the lamp, and,
+with trembling hands, lit it.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop it down to me when I call," said Drake. "I'll risk its going out.
+Then get some of the men and search the grounds. And&mdash;mind!&mdash;no
+frightening the ladies!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he lowered himself, dropped, and called up. He caught the lamp,
+which was still alight, and covering the glass with his hand, ran in the
+direction the men had taken; and as he ran he buttoned his dress coat
+over the big patch of white made by his wide shirt front.</p>
+
+<p>He had stalked big game often enough to be aware that his only chance of
+tracking the thieves lay in his following them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> quietly and unseen, and
+he ran on tiptoe, and keeping as much as possible among the shrubs as he
+went, his ears and eyes strained attentively, he endeavored to put
+himself in their place.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he muttered, "they'll make for the road, where there'll be a trap
+waiting for them&mdash;or bicycles; but which part of the road?"</p>
+
+<p>The park fence was high, but easily climbable by an experienced burglar,
+and they might make for it at any point; presumably the nearest.</p>
+
+<p>By this time he was cool enough, but extremely angry; and he blamed
+himself for falling so easily into the string trap. What he ought to
+have done&mdash;&mdash;At this point in his futile reflections he stopped and
+listened, not for the first time, and he fancied he heard a rustling
+among the trees in front of him. He ran on as softly as possible, and
+presently saw a figure&mdash;one only&mdash;going swiftly in the direction of the
+lodge.</p>
+
+<p>Drake understood in a moment; one man had gone to bring the vehicle near
+the gates, and this other man was waiting for it.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this instant Drake had given no thought to the fact that he was
+pursuing two men, desperate, and, no doubt, armed, while he had no kind
+of weapon upon him. But now he smiled with a grim satisfaction as he saw
+that he had only one man to deal with.</p>
+
+<p>Their separation was a point in his favor.</p>
+
+<p>Steadily he followed on the man's track, and in a moment or two he saw
+the glimmer of the light from the lodge window; and as he saw it, he
+heard the roll of wheels approaching the gates.</p>
+
+<p>The burglar, unacquainted with the topography of the road, was breaking
+his way through the undergrowth; and Drake, seeing that there was a
+chance of cutting him off by striking into one of the paths, turned into
+it.</p>
+
+<p>He had to run for all he was worth now, and as he sped along he was
+reminded of his old college days, when he sprinted for the mile
+race&mdash;and won it. He reached a corner where the narrow path joined the
+wider one leading to the gate, and here he stopped, listening intently,
+and still covering the light of the lamp with his hand. Suddenly he
+heard footsteps near the lodge, and with a thrill of excitement more
+keen than any other chase had given him, he ran toward them.</p>
+
+<p>As he did so, he caught sight of a woman's dress, and a faint cry of
+alarm and surprise arose. Was there a woman in the business?</p>
+
+<p>Before he could answer the mental question he saw a figure&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> figure
+he had been pursuing&mdash;dash from the woods on the right and make for the
+path he had just left. Drake swung round sharply and tore after him. The
+man looked over his shoulder, swore threateningly, and snatched
+something from his pocket. In drawing the revolver, however, he dropped
+something, and Drake saw, with immense satisfaction, that it was the
+diamond case.</p>
+
+<p>"Give in, my man!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Ted laughed, caught up the case, and rushed on in the direction of the
+gate. But at that moment the tall figure of Falconer ran from the lodge.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer stood for a moment, then he took in the situation, and dashing
+to the gate, flung it close. Ted heard the clang of the gate, and ran
+back toward Drake, with revolver raised.</p>
+
+<p>Death stared Drake in the face; but it is at such moments that men of
+his temperament are coolest. He sprang aside as he had done in Lady
+Angleford's room. The revolver "pinged," there was a flash of light, but
+the bullet sped past him, and Drake flung himself upon his man.</p>
+
+<p>Ted was as slippery as an eel, and striking Drake across the head with
+the revolver, he ran into the woods, with Drake after him; but the man
+knew there was no escape for him in that direction, and after a moment
+or two he turned and faced Drake again.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep off, you fool, or I'll shoot you!" he growled hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"Give in," said Drake again. "The game's up!"</p>
+
+<p>Ted laughed shortly, and aimed the revolver again; but as his finger
+pressed the trigger, a cry rose from behind him, his arm was struck
+aside, and once more the bullet whizzed past its mark, and Drake was
+saved.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the figure of a woman struggling with the burglar, saw the man
+raise his hand to strike her from him, saw her fall to the ground, and
+knew, by some instinct, that it was Nell.</p>
+
+<p>In that instant the capture of the man was of no moment to him. With a
+cry, he flung himself on his knees beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, Nell!" he panted. "Is it you?"</p>
+
+<p>She remained quite motionless under his words, his touch, and he raised
+her head and tried to see her face.</p>
+
+<p>The lamp he had dropped some moments before.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a great shudder ran through her. She sighed, and opened her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!" she murmured; "Drake! Is he&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He thought she referred to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind him," he said eagerly. "Are you hurt? Tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand to her head, and struggled to her feet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> swaying to and
+fro as if only half conscious, then her hands went out to him, and she
+uttered a cry of terror and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;he shot you!" she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" he responded quickly. "There is no harm done, if the brute has
+not hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head and leaned against the tree, trembling and panting.</p>
+
+<p>"I was in the garden. I&mdash;heard you and the man running, and&mdash;and&mdash;I&mdash;ran
+across the path&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In time to save my life," he said gravely. "But I'd rather have died
+than you should come to harm."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he heard the noise of a struggle behind him. He had
+absolutely ceased to care what became of the man whom he had been
+pursuing so relentlessly for a few minutes before; but the noise, the
+hoarse cries, which now broke upon them had recalled him to a sense of
+the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"They are struggling at the gate&mdash;I must leave you," he said hurriedly.
+And he ran down the path.</p>
+
+<p>As he approached the gate, he saw Falconer and the burglar struggling
+together. Falconer was losing ground every moment, and as Drake was
+nearly upon them, Ted got his opponent under him; but Falconer still
+clung to him, and Ted could not get free from him. As he shot a glance
+at Drake he ground his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go, you fool!" he hissed. "Let me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He got one arm free, the glimmer of steel flashed in the dim light as he
+struck downward, and Falconer with a sharp groan loosed his hold.</p>
+
+<p>Ted was clear of him in an instant and sprang for the gate; but as he
+opened it Drake was upon him. Ted was spent with his struggle with
+Falconer; he had dropped his revolver; Drake had seized the arm which
+held the knife&mdash;seized it in a grip like that of a vise.</p>
+
+<p>"Parson! Quick!" cried Ted. The dogcart drove up to the gate, and the
+Parson was about to spring to the aid of his mate, when another figure
+came running up. It was Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what on earth's the matter?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of his voice, the Parson, counting his foes with a quick
+eye, leaped into the cart and drove away at a gallop. Ted cursed at the
+sound of the retreating cart and struck out wildly, but Drake had pinned
+him against the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Knock that knife out of his hand!" he said sharply, and Dick did so. In
+another moment the burglar was on his back in the road with Drake's knee
+on his chest.</p>
+
+<p>"That will do!" he panted. "I give in! It's a fair cap! But if that
+white-livered hound had stood by me, I'd have beaten the lot of you! As
+it is, I've given as good as I've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> got, I fancy!" and he nodded
+tauntingly as he glanced to where Dick knelt beside Falconer.</p>
+
+<p>Drake tore off the mask, and Ted shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You can take your knee off my chest, my lord," he said; "you're a tidy
+weight. Oh, I'm not going to try to escape. I know when I'm done. But it
+was a near thing."</p>
+
+<p>Sparling and a couple of grooms with lanterns came running toward them,
+and Drake rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Look to him," he said quietly. "He is not armed."</p>
+
+<p>Ted took the cases from his pockets and flung them down as the men
+surrounded him; then he drew out a cigarette case, and, with a cockney
+drawl, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Can one of you oblige me with a light?"</p>
+
+<p>Sparling knocked the cigarette out of his hand, and one of the grooms
+growled:</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I give him one over the head, for his cheek, Mr. Sparling?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that's about all you flunkeys can do; hit a man when he's down,"
+said Ted. "But you needn't trouble. Here comes the peelers."</p>
+
+<p>His quick ears had caught the heavy footsteps of the policeman, who came
+running up, and, before he was asked to do so, he held out his hands for
+the handcuffs.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the cove dead?" he asked curtly; but no one answered him; indeed, no
+answer was possible, for Falconer lay like one dead, and Drake, who
+supported his head, could perceive no movement of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"One of you take a cart and go for the doctor," he said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, Nell came toward them. The climax had been reached so
+quickly that Falconer had been wounded and the burglar caught before she
+could find strength to follow Drake; for the reaction which had followed
+upon her discovery of the fact that he was unhurt had made her weaker
+than the man's blow had done.</p>
+
+<p>But now, as she saw the circle of men bending and kneeling round a
+prostrate figure, her terror rose again and she hurried forward. Pushing
+one of the men aside, she looked down, and with a cry fell on her knees
+beside the unconscious man and gazed with horror-stricken eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"He is dead! He is dead! He has killed him!" she moaned.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence, while Drake looked at her with set face
+and gloomy eyes; for at the anguish in her voice a pang of jealousy shot
+through him, of envy; for how willingly he would have changed places
+with the injured man!</p>
+
+<p>He rose, lantern in hand, and went round to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He is not dead," he said, almost inaudibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank God!" she breathed.</p>
+
+<p>"But he is badly hurt, I am afraid," said Drake gravely. Then he turned
+to the men. "We will carry him to the lodge. Gently!"</p>
+
+<p>They lifted the wounded man and bore him along slowly. As they did so,
+Nell walked by his side, and half unconsciously took his hand and held
+it fast clasped in her trembling one. Even at that moment he saw her
+actions, and his heart ached. Yes, to have Nell hold his hand thus, to
+have her sweet eyes resting on him so tenderly, so anxiously, he would
+have willingly been in Falconer's place.</p>
+
+<p>They carried Falconer up to his room, and Drake, with the skill he had
+acquired in many a knife-and-gun-shot accident, staunched the wound.
+Falconer had been stabbed in the chest, and the blood was flowing, but
+slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Drake was so absorbed in the task that he had forgotten Dick's presence
+until, looking up, he caught Dick's eye fixed on him with sheer wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!" he said, in a whisper. "You here?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it's a strange meeting, Dick, isn't it? But we have been near each
+other&mdash;though we didn't know it&mdash;for some days past. You are 'the young
+engineer,' and I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders, and Dick leaped at the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Lord Angleford?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'll explain presently. Just now all we can think of is this poor
+fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor chap!" said Dick sadly. "If I'd only come up a minute or two
+sooner&mdash;I'd gone down to the village for some 'bacca. Who'd have thought
+he was such a plucky one. For he's not strong, Drake, you see."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said; "but it is not always the strongest who are the bravest.
+Who is that?" for there came a knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Dick went and opened it. Nell stood there, white to the lips, but calm
+and composed. He answered the question in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Nell! Don't be frightened. He'll pull through; won't he,
+Drake?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned her eyes upon him, and he met their appeal steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She stole into the room, and, with her hands clasped, looked down at
+Falconer in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," repeated Drake emphatically. "There are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> not so many brave
+men that the world can afford to lose one."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes to his face quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "he was unarmed and knew that it was a struggle for
+life, that the man was desperate and would stick at nothing. It was the
+pluckiest thing I have ever seen." Then he remembered how she had sprung
+forward to strike up the burglar's arm, and he added, under his breath,
+"almost the pluckiest."</p>
+
+<p>The crimson dyed her face for a moment, and her eyes dropped under his
+regard; but she said nothing, and presently she stole out again.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed an age to the two men before the doctor arrived, though the
+time was really short; it seemed another age while he made his
+examination. He met Drake's questioning gaze with the grave evasion
+which comes so naturally to the smallest of country practitioners.</p>
+
+<p>"A nasty wound, my lord!" he said. "But I've known men recover from a
+worse one. Unfortunately, he is not a strong man. This poor fellow has
+known the meaning of privation." He touched the thin arm, and pointed to
+the wasted face. "They tell their own story! Now, if it were you, my
+lord&mdash;&mdash;" he smiled significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Would to God it had been!" said Drake. The village nurse, whom the
+doctor had instructed to follow him, entered and moved with professional
+calm to the bedside, and the doctor gave her some instructions.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll send you some help, nurse," he said.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, Nell came to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, very quietly; "there is no need; I will help."</p>
+
+<p>Almost as if he had heard her, Falconer's lips quivered, and he murmured
+something. Nell glided to the bed, and kneeling beside him, took his
+hand. His eyes opened, with the vacant stare of unconsciousness for a
+moment, then they recognized her, and he spoke her name.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she whispered, in response. "It is I. You are here at the lodge.
+Here is Dick, and"&mdash;her voice fell before Drake's steady regard&mdash;"you
+are with friends, and safe."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled, but his eyes did not leave her face.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said. "I&mdash;I am more than content."</p>
+
+<p>Drake could bear it no longer. Dick followed him out of the room, and
+they went downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"I will wire for Sir William, the surgeon," said Drake, very quietly.
+"He will come down by the first train. Everything shall be done.
+Tell&mdash;tell your sister&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dick nodded gravely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He's one of the best fellows in the world; he's worth saving, Drake&mdash;&mdash;"
+he said. "I beg your pardon," he broke off. "I&mdash;I suppose I ought to call
+you 'my lord' now. I can scarcely realize yet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake flushed almost angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"For Heaven's sake, no!" he exclaimed. "There need be no difference
+between you and me, Dick, whatever there may be between&mdash;&mdash;I'll come
+across in the morning to inquire, and I'll tell you all that has
+happened. Dick, you'll have to forgive me for hiding my right name down
+there at Shorne Mills. It was a folly; but one gets punished for one's
+follies," he added, as he held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Still confused by the discovery that his old friend "Drake Vernon" was
+Lord Angleford, Dick could only let him go in silence, and Drake passed
+out.</p>
+
+<p>As he did so, he looked up at the window of the sick room. A shadow
+passed the blind, and as he recognized it he sighed heavily. Yes;
+notwithstanding his wound and his peril, the penniless musician was the
+lucky man, and he, my Lord of Angleford, the most unfortunate and
+unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly he made his way toward the house, and as he went the face and the
+voice of the woman he loved haunted him. For a moment she had rested in
+his arms, and he could still feel her head on his breast, still hear the
+"Drake, Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>She had not forgotten him, then; she still remembered him with some
+kindness, though she loved Falconer? Well, he should be grateful for
+that. It would be good to think of all through the weary years that lay
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>How beautiful she was! With what an exquisite tenderness her eyes had
+dwelt upon the wounded man! He started, and almost groaned, as he
+remembered that not so long ago those eyes had beamed love and
+tenderness upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nell, Nell!" broke from him unconsciously. "Oh, my dear, lost love!
+how shall I live without you, now that I have seen you, held you in my
+arms again?"</p>
+
+<p>The great house loomed before him; the hall door was open; figures were
+standing and flitting in the light that streamed on the terrace; and
+with a pang he awoke to the responsibilities of his position, to the
+remembrance of his interview with Luce. There she stood on the top of
+the steps, a shawl thrown round her head, her face eager and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake! Is it you?" she exclaimed; and she came down the steps to meet
+him, her hand outstretched.</p>
+
+<p>The others crowded round, all talking at once. He shook her hand, held
+it a moment, then let it drop.</p>
+
+<p>"He is all right, I hope," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"He!" she murmured. "It is you&mdash;you, Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>He frowned slightly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I?" he said, with self-contempt. "I have got off scot-free. Where is
+the countess?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce looked at him keenly, and with a half-reproachful air.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;have been very frightened, Drake," she said.</p>
+
+<p>For the life of him he could not even affect a tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>"On my account? There was not the least need."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford came forward hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake! You are not hurt! Thank God!" And her hands clasped his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You have got your jewels?" he said, in the curt tone with which a man
+tries to fend off a fuss. "Are they all there?"</p>
+
+<p>She made an impatient movement.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes&mdash;oh, yes! As if they mattered! Tell me how that poor man is.
+How brave of him!"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He will pull round, I hope. We shall know more in the morning.
+Hadn't you ladies better go to bed? Wolfer, I have wanted a drink once
+or twice in my life, but never, I think, quite so keenly as now."</p>
+
+<p>The men gathered round him as he stopped at the foot of the stairs to
+wish the women good night. Luce came last, and as she held out her hand,
+looked at him appealingly. Was he going to let her go without the word
+she had been expecting&mdash;the word he had promised? He understood the
+appeal in her eyes, but he could not respond. Not to-night, with Nell's
+face and voice haunting him, could he ask Lady Luce to be his wife.
+To-morrow&mdash;yes, to-morrow!</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at him as he held her hand, but as she went up the stairs the
+smile vanished, and, if it is ever possible for so beautiful a woman to
+become suddenly plain, then Lady Luce's face achieved that
+transformation.</p>
+
+<p>Gnawing at her underlip, she entered her room, flung herself into a
+chair, and beat a tattoo with her foot. The door opened softly, and
+Burden stole in. She was very pale, there were dark marks under her
+eyes, and she trembled so violently that the brushes rattled together as
+she took them from the table.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce looked up at her angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with you?" she demanded. "You look more like a ghost
+than a human being, or as if you'd been drinking."</p>
+
+<p>Burden winced under the insult, and stole behind her mistress' chair;
+but Lady Luce faced round after her.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not fit to do my hair, or anything else!" she said. "What is the
+matter now? Your mother or one of your other relations, I suppose. You
+always have some excuse or other for your whims and fancies."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am rather upset, my lady!" Burden responded, almost inaudibly.
+"The&mdash;the robbery&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What does it concern you?" said Lady Luce sharply. "It is no affair of
+yours; your business is to wait upon me, and if you can't or won't do it
+properly&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The brush fell from Burden's uncertain hand, and Lady Luce sprang to her
+feet in a passion.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go away! Get out of my sight!" she said contemptuously. "Go down to
+the kitchen and tremble and shake with the other maids. I can't put up
+with you to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm&mdash;I'm very sorry, my lady. I'm upset&mdash;everybody's upset."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go&mdash;go!" broke in Lady Luce impatiently. "If you are not better
+to-morrow, you'd better go for good!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden stood for a moment uncertainly; then, with a stifled sob, left
+the room, and went down the corridor toward the servants' apartments;
+but halfway she stopped, hesitated, then descended the back stairs and
+stole softly along one of the passages. A door from the smoking room
+opened on to this passage, and against this she leaned and listened.</p>
+
+<p>Sparling and the grooms who had joined in the pursuit of the burglars
+had come back full of the chase and its results, and there was an
+excited and dramatic recital going on in the servants' hall at that
+moment; but she dared not go there, though she was in an agony of
+anxiety to know the whole truth and the fate of her lover. Her face, her
+overwrought condition, would have betrayed her; so, at the least, would
+have caused surprise and aroused suspicion. She could not face the
+servants' hall, but she knew that the gentlemen would be discussing the
+affair in the smoking room, and that if she could listen unseen she
+should hear what had happened to Ted. It was Ted, and nothing, no one
+else she cared about.</p>
+
+<p>All the men were in the smoking room, and all were plying Drake with
+questions. Drake, knowing that he would have to go through it, was
+giving as concise an account of it as was possible. He was wearied to
+death, not only of the burglary, but of the emotions he had experienced,
+and his voice was low and his manner that of a man talking against his
+will; but Burden heard every word, for, at its lowest, Drake's voice was
+singularly clear.</p>
+
+<p>She listened, motionless as a statue, till he came to the point where
+the burglar had turned and faced him. Then she moved and had hard work
+to stifle a moan.</p>
+
+<p>"That was a near thing, Angleford!" said Lord Turfleigh, over the edge
+of his glass; "a deuced near thing! If I'd been you, I should have cried
+a go, and let the fellow off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> Dash it all! a man in your position has
+no right to risk his life, even for such diamonds as the Angleford."</p>
+
+<p>Drake laughed shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't think of the diamonds," he said quietly. "It was a match
+between me and the man. He missed me and bolted to cover. I followed,
+and he slipped behind a tree and aimed; but he missed&mdash;fortunately for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Missed you?" said Lord Wolfer, who had been listening attentively and
+in silence. "How was that? You must have been very near?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake was silent for a moment; then, as if reluctantly, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"There were several persons engaged in the game. One of them was a young
+lady who is staying at the lodge&mdash;the south lodge. She happened to be
+out, strolling in the garden, and heard the rumpus. And she"&mdash;he lit a
+fresh cigarette&mdash;"she sprang on him and struck his arm up!"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" exclaimed one of the men. "Dash it all! Angleford, if this isn't
+the most dramatic, sensational affair I've ever heard of."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" came in Drake's grave, restrained tones. "Yes, that saved my
+life."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence, an impressive silence, then he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"And did for the man. If he had disposed of me, he could have shot poor
+Mr. Falconer at the gate and got off. As it was&mdash;&mdash;" He stopped and
+seemed to consider. "Well, it left me free to collar him at the gate,
+but not, unfortunately, until he had wounded Falconer."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor devil!" muttered Lord Turfleigh. "Hard lines on him, eh,
+Angleford?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Drake gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, as I understand it," said Lord Wolfer, "your life, the salvation
+of the countess' jewels, and the capture of the burglar are due to this
+lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," assented Drake quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is she? What is her name?" asked several men, in a breath.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, during which Burden listened breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Her name is Lorton," said Drake, very quietly. "She is staying at the
+south lodge."</p>
+
+<p>Burden started and bit her lip. Lorton? Where had she heard&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" exclaimed Lord Wolfer. "You don't mean that Miss Lorton
+who was with us?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"The same," he said gravely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Burden's lips twitched, and her hands gripped the edge of the door frame.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a moment, then one of the men asked:</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you think the fellow will get, Angleford?"</p>
+
+<p>"It all depends," replied Drake, after a pause. "If this fellow Falconer
+should die&mdash;&mdash;Well, it will be murder. If not&mdash;and God grant he may
+not!&mdash;it will be burglary simply, and it will mean penal servitude for
+so many years."</p>
+
+<p>"And serve him right, whichever way it goes!" cried one of the men.
+"Anyway, this young lady, this Miss Lorton, is a brick! Here's her
+health!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden waited for no more. She was white still, but she was trembling no
+longer. Her eyes were glowing savagely, and her lips were strained
+tightly. Her sweetheart was captured; he would either be hanged or
+sentenced to penal servitude; and Miss Lorton was the person with whom
+she had to reckon!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Before morning Falconer became delirious. He did not rave nor shout, but
+he talked incessantly, with his eyes wide open and fixed vacantly, and
+his long hand plucking at the bedclothes. Nell stole in from her room,
+though she had promised to rest and leave the night duty to the village
+nurse, and, sitting beside him, held his hand.</p>
+
+<p>At the touch of her cool fingers he became quiet for a moment or two,
+and something like a smile crossed his pain-lined face; but presently he
+began again. Sometimes he was back at the Buildings, and he hummed a bar
+or two of music while his fingers played on the counterpane as if it
+were a piano. Once or twice he murmured her name in a tone which brought
+the color to Nell's face and made her heart ache. But it did not need
+the whisper of her name to tell her Falconer's secret. She knew that he
+loved her, for he had told her so at the moment when Drake had seen them
+walking together in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>And as she sat and held his hand, she tried to force her mind from
+dwelling on Drake, and to remember the devotion of the stricken man
+beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Though he had confessed his love, he had asked for nothing in return. He
+had said that he knew that his passion was hopeless, but that he could
+not help loving her, that he must continue to do so while life lasted.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never speak of it again," he had said. "You need not be afraid.
+I don't know why I told you now; it slipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> out before I knew&mdash;&mdash;No,
+don't be afraid. All I ask is that you should still look upon me as a
+friend, that you will still let me be near you as often as is possible.
+It is too much to ask? If so, I will go away&mdash;somewhere, and cease to
+trouble you with the sight of me!"</p>
+
+<p>And Nell, with tears in her eyes&mdash;as Drake had seen&mdash;had given him her
+hand in silence, for a moment or two, and then, almost inaudibly, had
+answered:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry&mdash;sorry! Oh, why did you tell me? No, no; forgive me! But you
+must not go. I&mdash;I could not afford to lose your&mdash;friendship!"</p>
+
+<p>"That you shall not do!" he had said, very quietly, and with a brave
+smile. "Please remember that I said I knew there was no hope for me. How
+could there be? How could it be possible for you&mdash;you!&mdash;to care for me?
+But a weed may dare to love the sun, Miss Lorton, though it is only a
+weed and not a stately flower. I ought not to have told you; but that
+little success of mine, and the prospect it has opened out, must have
+turned my head. But you have forgiven me, have you not? and you will try
+and forget that I was mad enough to show you my heart?"</p>
+
+<p>He had not waited for her to respond, but had left her at once, and, so
+that she should not think him quite heartbroken, had hummed an air as he
+went.</p>
+
+<p>And now that he lay here 'twixt life and death, Nell's heart ached for
+him, and she longed, with a longing beyond all words, that she could
+have returned the love he bore her.</p>
+
+<p>But alas, alas! she had no love to give. Drake had stolen it long ago,
+there at Shorne Mills; and though he had flung it from him, it could not
+come back to her.</p>
+
+<p>Even as she sat, with Falconer's hand in hers, she could not keep her
+mind from dwelling on Drake, though the failure of her attempt to do so
+covered her with shame. She had been in his arms again, had heard his
+voice, and the glamour of his presence and his touch were upon her.</p>
+
+<p>His face hovered before her in the dim light of the sick room, and
+filled her with the aching longing of unsatisfied love.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, why could she not forget him? Why could she not bring herself to
+accept, to return, the love of the man who loved her with all his heart
+and soul? He was all that was good, he was a genius, and a brave man to
+boot! Surely any woman might be proud to possess him for a husband,
+might learn to love him!</p>
+
+<p>She turned and looked at him as he lay, his head tossing restlessly on
+the pillow, his lips moving deliriously; but though her whole being was
+stirred with pity for him, pity is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> not love, though it may be nearly
+akin, and one cannot force love as one forces a hothouse plant.</p>
+
+<p>After a while he became weaker, and the rambling, incoherent talk
+ceased; but she was still holding his hand when Dick and the doctor came
+in again. She sought the latter's face eagerly, but he merely smiled
+encouragingly.</p>
+
+<p>"He has had a better night than I expected," he said, "and the
+temperature is not exceedingly high. You had better get some rest, Miss
+Lorton; you have been sitting up, I see."</p>
+
+<p>Dick drew Nell out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake&mdash;confound it! Lord Angleford, I mean!&mdash;has sent for Sir William.
+Is&mdash;is he going to die, do you think. Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head, her eyes filling.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; I hope not. You&mdash;you have seen Dra&mdash;Lord Angleford,
+Dick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just now. He came to inquire. Nell, I can't understand it, though he
+has tried to explain why he hid his real name; and&mdash;and&mdash;Nell&mdash;he didn't
+tell me why you and he broke it off."</p>
+
+<p>She flushed for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"There was no need," she said. "It does not matter."</p>
+
+<p>Dick sighed and shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I suppose it doesn't; but it's a mysterious affair. I hear he is
+going to marry that fair woman, Lady Luce."</p>
+
+<p>Nell inclined her head, her lips set tightly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity we can't get away from here," he said gloomily. "It's jolly
+awkward. Though Drake was more than friendly with me last night and just
+now. He's awfully changed."</p>
+
+<p>They were standing by the window of the sitting room, and Nell was
+looking out with eyes that saw nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Changed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he looks years older, and he's stern and grave as if&mdash;&mdash;Well, he
+doesn't look the same man, and it strikes me that he's anything but
+happy, though he is the Earl of Angleford, and going to marry one of the
+most beautiful woman in England."</p>
+
+<p>Nell stood with compressed lips and eyes fixed on vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>"He got a nasty blow last night," said Dick, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>Her manner changed in a moment, and her eyes flew round to him.</p>
+
+<p>"He was hurt?" she said, with a catch in her breath.</p>
+
+<p>Dick nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that ruffian struck him with the revolver or something.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> And I
+say, Nell, I haven't heard your share in this affair yet. Drake told me
+that the fellow struck you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he?" she said indifferently. "I&mdash;I don't remember. Was Lord
+Angleford badly hurt? Tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; I think not; not badly," replied Dick. "There's a bruise on his
+temple; but what's that to the damage poor Falconer suffered? Drake says
+that it was the pluckiest thing he's seen. Oh, Lord! what a sickening
+business it is! Thank goodness, they've got the fellow. It will be a
+lifer for him, that's one consolation."</p>
+
+<p>Nell shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"And they've got the jewels back, that's another," said Dick, more
+cheerily. "Though I'd rather the fellow had got off with them than poor
+Falconer should have been hurt. What beastly bad luck, just after he'd
+struck oil and got a start! Drake says that Falconer will be a
+celebrity, if he lives; and you may depend Drake will do his best to
+make his words good. There'll be a 'Falconer boom,' mark my words. I
+never saw any one so concerned about a man as Drake is about him. He was
+here outside talking with the doctor before it was light. The whole of
+the remainder of the big house is to be placed at our disposal. In
+short, if it had been Drake himself who was stabbed, there couldn't be
+more concern shown. Here's the breakfast, and for the first time in my
+life, I don't want it. Why the deuce can't the swells look after their
+blessed diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell gave him his coffee, and then stole up to her own room and flung
+herself on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>Drake was hurt. It might have been Drake instead of Falconer lying
+between life and death. Her heart throbbed with thankfulness; but the
+next moment she hid her face in her hands for very shame. She tried to
+sleep, but she could not, and it was almost a relief when the servant
+knocked and said that two ladies from the Hall were downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"But I was not to disturb you if you was asleep, miss," she added, with
+na&iuml;vet&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>Nell bathed her face and smoothed her hair quickly, and went down; and,
+as she entered the sitting room, was taken into Lady Wolfer's embrace.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, dear Nell!" she cried, in the subdued tones due to the sick
+room above. "Why, it's like a fairy story! Why didn't I or some of us
+know you were here, till last night? You remember Lady Angleford, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>The countess came forward and held out her hand with her friendly and
+gentle smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Come to the light and let me look at you," Lady Wolfer went on, drawing
+Nell to the window; "though it's scarcely fair, after all you have gone
+through. Nell, who would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> have thought that we were entertaining a
+heroine unawares? We knew you were an angel, of course; but a heroine&mdash;a
+heroine of romance! You dear, brave girl!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell colored painfully.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole place, the whole county, by this time, to say nothing of
+London and every other place where a telegraph wire runs, is full of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am sorry!" said poor Nell, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the penalty one pays for heroism, Miss Lorton," she said; "and
+you must forgive me for being grateful to you for saving Lord
+Angleford's life."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I didn't&mdash;indeed I didn't!" exclaimed Nell, in distress.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but indeed you did!" retorted Lady Wolfer. "Lord Angleford says so,
+and he ought to know. He says that but for you the wretch would have
+shot him&mdash;he was quite close."</p>
+
+<p>Nell's face was white again now, and the countess came to her aid.</p>
+
+<p>"We are forgetting one of the objects of our visit," she said. "You know
+how anxious we are about Mr. Falconer, Miss Lorton. I hope he is in no
+danger, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>She took Nell's hand as she spoke, and pressed it, and Nell colored
+again under the sympathy in the countess' eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"When I heard that he had been injured, I wished with all my heart that
+the man had got clear off with the miserable diamonds&mdash;I was going to
+say 'my' miserable diamonds, but they are only mine for a time. But I am
+sure Lord Angleford joins me in that wish. All the diamonds in the world
+are not worth rescuing at such a price as Mr. Falconer&mdash;and you&mdash;have
+paid. I hope you can tell us he is better. We are all terribly anxious
+about him."</p>
+
+<p>Now, even in the stress and strain of the moment, Nell noticed a certain
+significance in the countess' tone, a personal sympathy with herself,
+conveyed plainly by the "and you," and it puzzled her. But she put the
+faint wonder aside.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," she said simply. "He is very ill&mdash;he was badly stabbed.
+He has been delirious most of the night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Nell!" murmured Lady Wolfer, pressing her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope the nurse you have in to help you is a good one," said the
+countess, as if she took it for granted that Nell was also nursing him.
+"If not, we will send to London for one; indeed, Sir William may bring
+one with him. I don't know what Lord Angleford telegraphed."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we could do something for you, Nell," whispered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> Lady Wolfer.
+"Only last night, before the burglary, we were arranging that we would
+come down here and carry you&mdash;by main force, if necessary&mdash;up to the
+Hall. And now&mdash;&mdash;But, dear, you must not lose heart! He may not be badly
+hurt; and the surgeons do such wonderful things now. Perhaps, when Sir
+William comes, he may tell you that there is no danger whatever, and
+that you will have him well again before very long."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes dwelt on Nell's with tender pity and womanly sympathy; and
+Nell, still puzzled, could only remain silent. As if she could not say
+enough, Lady Wolfer drew her to the window, and continued, in a lower
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"I meant to congratulate you, Nell, and I do. I&mdash;we all admired him so
+much the other night, little guessing the truth; and now that he has
+proved himself as brave as he is clever, one can understand your losing
+your heart to him. All the same, dear, I think he is a very&mdash;very lucky
+man."</p>
+
+<p>The red stained Nell's face, and then left it pale again. She opened her
+lips to deny that she and Falconer were engaged, but at that moment a
+dogcart drove through the gate and stopped at the lodge.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is Drake!" said the countess. "He has been to Angleford to see the
+police."</p>
+
+<p>Nell drew away from the window quickly, and the countess went out as
+Drake got down from the cart.</p>
+
+<p>"How is he?" Nell heard him ask. Though she had moved from the window,
+she could see him. He looked haggard and tired, and she saw the bruise
+on his temple. Her heart beat fast, and she turned away and leaned her
+arm on the mantelshelf. "And&mdash;and Miss Lorton?" he inquired, after the
+countess had replied to his first question.</p>
+
+<p>She lowered her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"She looks very ill, but she is bearing up wonderfully. It is a terrible
+strain for her, poor girl."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her that Sir William will be down by the midday train. And tell
+her not to give up hope. I saw the wound, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! She may hear," whispered the countess.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced toward the window, and the color rose to his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she there?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Would you like to see her?"</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated for a moment, his eyes fixed on the ground; then he said,
+rather stiffly:</p>
+
+<p>"No; she might think it an intrusion"&mdash;the countess stared at him. "No;
+I won't trouble her. But please tell her that everything shall be done
+for&mdash;him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The countess accompanied him to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been to the police?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded almost indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the man is well known. We were flattered by the attentions of a
+celebrated cracksman. I've seen the detective in charge of the case, and
+given him all the particulars. He says that the men were assisted by
+some one inside the house&mdash;one of the servants, he suggests."</p>
+
+<p>The countess looked startled.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not, Drake! Who could it be?"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders with the same indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't tell. It doesn't matter. I've sent the things to the bank, and
+the other people will look after their jewels pretty closely after this.
+I wouldn't worry myself, countess."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are worrying, Drake!" she said shrewdly, as she looked at his
+haggard face. "About this poor Mr. Falconer, of course!"</p>
+
+<p>He started slightly, but he was too honest to assent.</p>
+
+<p>"Partly; but there is no need for you to follow my example. I'll go on
+now."</p>
+
+<p>He got up and drove off, but slowly, and he put the horse to a walk as
+he neared the house.</p>
+
+<p>He had not seen Luce that morning, for he had been out, inquiring at the
+lodge at six, and had gone straight on to Anglebridge, where he had
+breakfasted.</p>
+
+<p>In his heart he had been glad of the excuse for his absence, for the few
+hours of reprieve. But he would have to see her now, would have to ask
+her to be his wife&mdash;while his heart ached with love for Nell!</p>
+
+<p>As he drove up to the door, one of the Angleford carriages came round
+from the stables. He glanced at it absently, and entered the hall
+slowly, draggingly, and was amazed to find Lord Turfleigh, in overcoat
+and hat, standing beside a pile of luggage.</p>
+
+<p>"By George! just in time, Drake!" he exclaimed, his thick voice
+quavering with suppressed excitement, his hands shaking as he tugged at
+his gloves. "Just had bad news&mdash;deuced bad news!"</p>
+
+<p>But though he described the intelligence as bad, there was a note of
+satisfaction in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry. What is it?" asked Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Buckleigh&mdash;Buckleigh and his boy gone down in that infernal yacht of
+his!" said Lord Turfleigh hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>He turned aside as he spoke to take a brandy and soda which the footman
+had brought.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis of Buckleigh was Lord Turfleigh's elder brother, and, if the
+news were true, Lord Turfleigh was now the marquis, and a rich man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Drake understand the note of satisfaction in the whisky-shaken voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Just time to catch the train!" said the new marquis. "Where the devil
+is Luce? I always said Buckleigh would drown himself&mdash;&mdash;Where is Luce?
+She thinks I'll go without her; but I won't!" He swore.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Lady Luce came down the stairs. She was coming down
+slowly, reluctantly, her fair face set sullenly; but at sight of Drake
+her expression changed, and she ran down to him. There might yet be time
+for the one word.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!" she cried, in a low voice, "I am going&mdash;&mdash;You have heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," her father broke in testily. "I've told him. Get in. It will
+be a near thing as it is. Come on, I tell you!" and he shambled down the
+steps to the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>She held Drake's hand and looked into his eyes appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You see! I must go!" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"But you will come back?" he said, as gravely. "Come back as soon as you
+can."</p>
+
+<p>Her face lit up, and she breathed softly. She was now the daughter of a
+rich man, but she wanted Drake, none the less.</p>
+
+<p>"The Fates are against me, Drake," she whispered; "but I will come
+back."</p>
+
+<p>"Where the devil is that confounded maid of yours, Luce?" Turfleigh
+called to her.</p>
+
+<p>Burden came down the stairs. Her veil was drawn over the upper part of
+her face, but the lower part was white to the lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm half inclined to leave her behind," said Lady Luce irritably. "Pray
+be quick, Burden!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden got up on the box seat without a word.</p>
+
+<p>Drake put Lady Luce in, held her hand for a moment, then the carriage
+started, and he was standing alone, staring after it half stupidly.</p>
+
+<p>He was still free!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Two days later, Nell sat beside Falconer. He was asleep, but every now
+and then he moved suddenly, and his brows knit as if he were suffering.</p>
+
+<p>The great surgeon&mdash;who, by the way, was small and short of stature&mdash;had
+come down, made his examination, said a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> few cheerful words to the
+patient, gone up to the Hall to dinner&mdash;at which he had talked fluently
+of everything but the case&mdash;and returned to London with a big check from
+Drake. But though he did not appear to have accomplished anything beyond
+a general expression of approval of everything the local man had done,
+all persons concerned felt encouraged and more hopeful by his visit; and
+when Falconer showed signs of improvement it was duly placed to Sir
+William's credit. There is much magic in a great name.</p>
+
+<p>But the improvement was very slight, and Nell, as she watched the
+wounded man, often felt a pang of dread shoot through her. Sometimes she
+was assailed by the idea that Falconer was not particularly anxious to
+live. When he was awake he would lie quite still, save when a spasm of
+pain visited him, with his dark eyes fixed dreamily upon the window;
+though when she spoke to him he invariably turned them to her with a
+world of gratitude, a wealth of devotion in them.</p>
+
+<p>And for the last two days the pity in Nell's tender heart had grown so
+intense that it had become own brother to love itself. When a woman
+knows that she can make a good man happy by just whispering "I love
+you," she is sorely tempted to utter the three little pregnant words,
+especially when she herself knows what it is to long for love.</p>
+
+<p>She could make this man who worshiped her happy, and&mdash;and was it not
+possible in doing so she might find, if not happiness, contentment for
+herself?</p>
+
+<p>A hundred times during the last two days she had asked herself this
+question, until she had grown to desire that the answer might be in the
+affirmative. Perhaps if she were betrothed to Falconer she would learn
+to forget Drake, for whose voice and footstep she was always waiting.</p>
+
+<p>On this afternoon, as she sat at her post, she was dwelling on the
+problem, which had become almost unendurable at last, and she sighed
+wearily.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer awoke, as if he had heard her, and turned his eyes upon her
+with the slow yet intense regard of the very weak.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you there still?" he asked, in a low voice. "I thought you promised
+me that, if I went to sleep, you would go out, into the garden, at
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't exactly a promise. Besides, I don't think you have been
+really asleep; and if you have it is not for long enough," she said,
+smiling, and "hedging" in truly feminine fashion. "Are you feeling
+better&mdash;not in so much pain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," he replied. "I'm in no pain." He told the falsehood as
+admirably as he managed his face when he was awake, but it gave him away
+when he was asleep. "I shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> be quite well presently. I wish to Heaven
+they would let me be removed to the hospital!"</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds rather ungrateful," said Nell, with mock indignation.
+"Don't you think we are taking enough care of you?"</p>
+
+<p>He sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"When I lie here and think of all the trouble I've given, I sometimes
+wish that that fellow's knife had found the right place. Though I
+suppose they'd have hanged him if it had."</p>
+
+<p>Nell shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the only reason you regret he did not kill you?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to speak the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing else is ever worth speaking," she remarked, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, yes. I am not so enamored of life as to cling to it very
+keenly," he said, stifling a sigh. "I don't mean because I have had a
+rough time of it&mdash;the majority of the sons of men find the way paved
+with flints&mdash;but because&mdash;&mdash;What an ungrateful brute I must seem to you.
+Forgive me; I'm still rather weak."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very weak, then; and I talk like a hysterical girl. But, seriously, if
+any man were given his choice, I think he'd prefer to cross the river at
+once to facing the gray and dreary days that lie before him."</p>
+
+<p>"But the days that lie before you are brilliant; crimson with fame and
+fortune, instead of gray and dreary," she said. "Have you forgotten your
+success at&mdash;at the ball? that you were to play at the duchess'?
+Everybody says that you will become famous, that a great future lies
+before you, Mr. Falconer."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they?" he said, gazing at the window dreamily. "No, I have not
+forgotten. I wonder whether they are right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I feel, they are right," she said quietly. "Very soon we shall
+all be bragging of your acquaintance&mdash;I, for one, at any rate. I shall
+never lose an opportunity of talking of 'my friend, Mr. Falconer, the
+great musician, you know.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, looking at her with a faint smile. "I think you will be
+pleased. And I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"If the prophecy comes true, I shall spend my time looking back at the
+old days, and sighing for the Buildings, for that sunny room of yours,
+with the tea kettle singing on the hob, and&mdash;&mdash;Has Dick come back from
+Angleford?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And the man? Has he been committed for trial?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied. "But I don't want to speak of that&mdash;it isn't good
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>He was silent a moment; then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, I've got a kind of sneaking pity for the man. He wanted
+the diamonds badly&mdash;he needed them more than the countess did. What
+would it have mattered to her if he had got off with them? And he risked
+his liberty and his life for them. A man can't do more than that for the
+thing he wants."</p>
+
+<p>Nell tried to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never listened to a more immoral sentiment," she said. "I think
+you had better go to sleep again. But I understand," she added, as if
+she were compelled to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"And I fancy the reflection that he made a good fight for it&mdash;and it was
+a good one; he was a plucky fellow!&mdash;must console him for his failure.
+After all, one can only try."</p>
+
+<p>"Try to steal other people's jewels," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Try for what seems the best&mdash;what one wants," he said dreamily. "I
+wonder whether he would have been satisfied if he had got off with, say,
+a small box of trinkets?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should imagine he would consider himself very lucky," said Nell, her
+eyes downcast.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?" asked Falconer quietly. "Somehow, I fancy you're
+wrong. He would have hankered after those diamonds for the rest of his
+life, and no amount of small trinkets would have consoled him for having
+missed them. Though I dare say, being a plucky fellow, he would have
+made the best of it."</p>
+
+<p>Nell began to tremble. The parable was plain to her. The man beside her
+had failed to win the woman he loved, and would try to make the best of
+the poor trinkets of fame and success. Her lips quivered, and her eyes
+drooped lower.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps&mdash;perhaps he would have tried for the diamonds again," she said,
+almost inaudibly.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with a sudden light in his eyes, a sudden flush on his
+white face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do&mdash;do you think so? Do you think it would have been any use?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell rose, and brought some milk and water for him.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't know," she said. "I&mdash;I think, if he felt that he wanted them
+so badly, he would have tried again; and that&mdash;that&mdash;he might&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He raised himself on his elbow and looked at her fixedly, his breath
+coming fast, his eyes searching hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he said. "You think that if he came to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> countess and whined
+for the things, she would have given them to him out of sheer pity! Is
+that it?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"One can't imagine his being such a cur, such a fool, as to do it!" he
+said, sinking back. "And yet that is what I am! See how weak and
+cowardly I am, Nell! I promised that I would never again trouble you
+with my love; that I would be content to be your friend&mdash;your friend
+only; and yet a few days' sickness, and I am crawling at your feet and
+begging you to take compassion on me! And you'd do it!&mdash;yes, I know what
+you meant when you said that the man would try for the diamonds
+again!&mdash;out of womanly pity you would! Oh, shame on me for a cur to take
+advantage of my weakness!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush!" she said brokenly. "I meant what I said; I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;" She
+tried to smile. "I am a woman, and&mdash;and may change my mind!"</p>
+
+<p>"But not your heart!" he said. He raised himself on his elbow again.
+"For God's sake, don't tempt me! I&mdash;I am not strong enough to resist. I
+want my diamonds so badly, you see, that I would stoop to stealing them.
+Nell, don't tempt me!"</p>
+
+<p>He sank back, and put his hand over his eyes as if to shut out the
+beautiful face of the girl he loved.</p>
+
+<p>Nell sank into a chair, and sat silent for a moment; then she said, in a
+low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"I want to tell you the truth."</p>
+
+<p>He took his hand away from his eyes, and fixed them on her downcast
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," he said. "Tell me everything; why&mdash;why you have aroused a
+hope&mdash;the dearest hope of my life&mdash;&mdash;But no; it never was a hope, only a
+hopeless longing. Ah! if you knew what such love meant, you would
+forgive me for my weakness, for my cowardice. To long day and night! If
+you knew!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I do!" she whispered, in so low a voice that it was wonderful
+he should have heard her. But he did hear, and he turned to her quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"You! And I&mdash;I never guessed it! Oh, forgive me! forgive me! Then indeed
+there never was any hope for me. I understand! How blind I have been!
+Who&mdash;&mdash;No; I've no right to ask. Now I understand the look in your eyes
+which has often haunted and puzzled me. Oh, what a blind, blundering
+fool I have been all this time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" she said, still so low that he could only just hear the broken
+murmur. "I&mdash;I am glad you did not know. I&mdash;I would not have told you
+now, if&mdash;if it were not all past and done with!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nell!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is all past and done with," she repeated. "And&mdash;and I want to
+forget it. I want you&mdash;to help me! Oh! must I speak more plainly? Won't
+you understand? If you will be content to take me&mdash;knowing what I have
+told you&mdash;if you will be content to wait until I&mdash;I have quite
+forgotten! and I shall soon, very soon&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stretched out his hand to her, an eager cry on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Content!" he said. "You ask me if I shall be content!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, as she put out her hand to meet his, he saw her face. It was white
+to the lips, and there was a look in her eyes more full of agony than
+his own had worn at his worst times. He let his hand fall on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it all past?" he asked doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>She was about to speak the word "Yes," when a voice came from below
+through the open window. It was Drake talking to Dick. The blood flew to
+her face, her brows came together, and she shrank as if some one had
+struck her.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer, with his eyes fixed upon her, heard the voice, saw the change
+on her face. The light died out of his eyes, and slowly, very slowly, he
+drew his hand back.</p>
+
+<p>Nell stood looking before her, her lips set tightly, her eyes downcast.
+It was a terrible moment, in which she appeared under a spell so deep as
+to cause her to forget the presence of the man beside her. And, as he
+watched her, the life seemed to die out of his face as well as his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and Dick came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake's come to inquire after the patient," he said. "How are we,
+Falconer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better," said Falconer, with a smile; "much better. Couldn't you
+persuade Miss Lorton to take down the report, Dick?"</p>
+
+<p>Dick nodded commandingly at Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you go, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated a moment; then she raised her head and glanced at Falconer
+reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will go," she said, almost defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>Drake leaned against the rails in the sunlight, softly striking his
+riding whip against his leg. His horse's bridle was hitched over the
+gate, and as he waited for Dick he thought of the time when the bridle
+had been hitched over another gate.</p>
+
+<p>He heard a step lighter than Dick's on the stairs behind him, and slowly
+turned his head. The sun was streaming through the doorway, so that the
+slim, graceful figure and lovely face were set as in an aureole. A
+thrill ran through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> him, the color rose to his bronzed face, and he
+stood motionless and speechless for a moment; then he raised his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"How is Mr. Falconer?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>He had not seen her since the night of the burglary, the night he had
+held her in his arms, and the blunt question sounded like a mockery set
+against the aching longing of his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"He is better," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes rested on him calmly, and she spoke quite steadily, so that he
+did not guess that her heart was beating wildly, and that she had to
+clench the hand beside her in her effort to maintain her composure.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," he said simply. "It has been an anxious time&mdash;must be so
+still&mdash;for you, I am afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He stood looking at her, and then away from her, and then at her again,
+as if his eyes must return to her against his will.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am glad to see you. I wanted to tell you&mdash;to thank you for what
+you did for me the other night. You know that I owe you my life?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head and forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that rather an&mdash;exaggeration, Lord Angleford?"</p>
+
+<p>He bit his lip at the "Lord Angleford." And yet how else could she
+address him?</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said; "it is the simple truth. The man would have shot me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am glad," she said quietly, as if there were no more to be said.</p>
+
+<p>He bit his lip again.</p>
+
+<p>"You are looking pale and thin."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she said. "I am quite well."</p>
+
+<p>Why did he not go? Every moment it became more difficult for her to
+maintain her forced calm. If he would only go! But he stood, his eyes
+now downcast, now seeking hers, his brows knit, as if he found it awful
+to remain, and yet impossible to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell Mr. Falconer that directly he is able to go out I will
+send a carriage for him&mdash;a pony pha&euml;ton, or something of that sort?" he
+said, at last.</p>
+
+<p>Nell inclined her head.</p>
+
+<p>"We will leave here as soon as he can be moved," she said.</p>
+
+<p>His frown deepened.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" he asked sharply. "Why should you?"</p>
+
+<p>The blood began to mount to her face, and, gnawing at his mustache, he
+turned away. But as he did so Dick came down the stairs, two at a time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Hi, Drake!" he called out. "Don't go. Falconer would like to see you!"</p>
+
+<p>Drake hesitated just for a second&mdash;then&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be very glad," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nell moved aside to let him pass, and went into the sitting room, and he
+followed Dick upstairs. She went to the window, and stood looking out
+for a moment or two, then she caught up her hat and left the house, for
+she knew that she could not see him again&mdash;ah! not just yet.</p>
+
+<p>Drake went up the stairs slowly, trying to brace himself to go through
+the ordeal like a man&mdash;and a gentleman. He was going to congratulate Mr.
+Falconer on his good fortune in winning the woman he himself loved. It
+was a hard, a bitterly hard thing to have to do, but it had to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's Lord Angleford, old man," said Dick, introducing him. "I don't
+know whether visitors are permitted yet, but you can lay the blame on
+me; and you needn't palaver long, Drake."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take care not to tire Mr. Falconer," said Drake, as he went to
+the bedside and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer took it in his thin one, and looked up at the handsome face
+with an expression which somewhat puzzled Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to hear you're better," he said. "I suppose I ought not to
+refer to the subject, but I can't help saying, Falconer, how much we&mdash;I
+mean Lady Angleford&mdash;and all of us&mdash;are indebted to you. But for you the
+fellow would have got off, and her diamonds would have been lost."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer noticed the friendly "Falconer," and though his heart was
+aching, he could not help admiring the man who stood beside him with all
+the grace of health and high birth in his bearing; and he sighed
+involuntarily as he drew a contrast between himself and "my lord the
+earl."</p>
+
+<p>"All the same," Drake went on, "the countess would rather have lost her
+diamonds than you should be hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship is very kind," said Falconer. His eyes, unnaturally
+bright, were fixed on Drake's face, his voice was low but steady. "I am
+glad I was of some little use in saving them. The man has been committed
+for trial, I hear?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "I wish he had dropped the jewel cases and got off. It
+would have saved a lot of bother. But don't be afraid that you will be
+wanted as a witness," he added quickly. "I and one or two of the men who
+were present when he was captured will be sufficient. There will be no
+need to worry you&mdash;or Miss Lorton."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will be able to get out soon," said Drake. "I told Miss
+Lorton that I would send a carriage for you&mdash;something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> bulky and
+comfortable. Perhaps you'll let me drive you?"</p>
+
+<p>Falconer nodded again, and Drake began to feel vaguely uncomfortable
+under his fixed gaze and taciturnity; and being uncomfortable, he
+blundered on to the subject that tortured him.</p>
+
+<p>"But Miss Lorton can drive you well enough; she is a perfect whip.
+And&mdash;and now I am mentioning her, I will take the opportunity of
+congratulating you upon your engagement, Falconer."</p>
+
+<p>Falconer's lips twitched, but his eyes did not leave Drake's face, which
+had suddenly become stern and grim.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew Miss Lorton before she came here, Lord Angleford?" said
+Falconer.</p>
+
+<p>Drake colored, and set his lips tightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, trying to speak casually. "We met&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, overwhelmed by a thousand memories. His eyes fell, but
+Falconer's did not waver.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is as an old friend of hers that you congratulate me, Lord
+Angleford?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, an old friend," said Drake, his throat dry and hot. "I wish you
+every happiness, my dear fellow; and I think you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Falconer raised himself on his elbow.</p>
+
+<p>"You are laboring under a mistake, Lord Angleford," he said, very
+quietly. "You think that Miss Lorton&mdash;is betrothed to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded. His face had grown pale; there was an eager light in his
+eyes. Falconer dropped back with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong," he said. "Who told you?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake was silent a moment. The blood was rushing through his veins.</p>
+
+<p>"Who told me? I heard&mdash;everybody said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into the chair and leaned forward, his face stern and set.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer smiled as grimly as Drake could have done.</p>
+
+<p>"What everybody says is rarely true, my lord. We are not betrothed."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't&mdash;&mdash;" exclaimed Drake.</p>
+
+<p>A worm will turn if trodden on too heavily. Falconer turned. His face
+grew hot, his dark eyes flashed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord, I love her!" he said, and the lowness of his voice only
+intensified its emphasis. "I love her so well&mdash;so madly, if you
+like&mdash;that I choose to set conventionality at defiance, and speak the
+truth. I love her, but I can never win her, because there is one who
+comes between her and me. Wait!"&mdash;for Drake had risen, and was gazing
+down at the wan face with flashing eyes. "I do not know who he is.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> She
+has never uttered a word to guide me; but I can guess. Wait a moment
+longer, my lord! Whoever he may be, he is not worthy of her; but she
+cares for him, and that is enough for me, and should be enough for him.
+If I were that man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, for his breath had failed him. Drake leaned over him as if
+he would drag the conclusion of the sentence from him.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were that man, I'd strive to win her as I'd strive for heaven! Ah,
+it would be heaven!" His lips twitched, and he turned his face away for
+a moment. "I would count everything else as of no account. I would
+thrust all obstacles aside, would go through fire and water to reach
+her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake caught him by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care!" he said hoarsely. "You bid me hope! Dare I do so?"</p>
+
+<p>Falconer looked at him fixedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to her and see. Wait, my lord. I love her as dearly&mdash;more dearly,
+perhaps, God knows!&mdash;than you do. She would be mine at a word."</p>
+
+<p>Drake stood motionless, his face white and set.</p>
+
+<p>"But that word will never be spoken by me. So I prove my love. Prove
+yours, my lord, and go to her!"</p>
+
+<p>Drake tried to speak, but could not. His hand closed over Falconer's for
+a moment, then he hurried from the room and went down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Dick was lounging in the porch with a cigarette, and he stared at
+Drake's hurried appearance, at his white, set face.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Nell? Where is your sister?" Drake demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven only knows! She went out when you came in. She's in the wood, I
+should think."</p>
+
+<p>Drake strode down the path and into the wood. His brain was on fire. She
+was free&mdash;they were both free! There was heaven in the thought!</p>
+
+<p>Nell was seated at the foot of one of the big elms, and heard his quick,
+firm steps. She looked up, and would have risen and flown, but he was
+upon her before she could move&mdash;was upon her, and in some strange,
+never-to-be-explained way had got her hand in his.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell&mdash;Nell!" was all he could say, as he knelt beside her and looked
+into her eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>At the passionate "Nell! Nell!" at the grasp of his hand, the blood
+rushed to Nell's face, and her breath came painfully. She was startled
+and not a little alarmed. Why was he kneeling at her feet, why did he
+call upon her name with the appeal of love, the note of entreaty, in his
+voice? He was no longer Drake Vernon, but the Earl of Angleford, the
+promised husband of Lady Lucille.</p>
+
+<p>The color left her face, and she drew her hand from his and shrank away
+from him, so that she almost leaned against the tree.</p>
+
+<p>He half rose and looked at her penitently, and with something like shame
+for his vehemence. Indeed, he had rushed from the lodge in search of
+her, remembering nothing, thinking of nothing, but the fact that they
+were both free. But now he realized how suddenly he had come upon her,
+how great a shock his passionate words, his excited manner, must have
+been to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me!" he said, still on one knee; "forgive me! I have frightened
+you. I forgot."</p>
+
+<p>Nell tried to still the throbbing of her heart, to regain composure; but
+she could not speak. He rose and stood before her, his eyes fixed on
+her, eloquent with love and admiration. She had never seemed more
+beautiful to him than at this moment. Her face was thinner and paler
+than it had been in the happy days at Shorne Mills, but it had grown in
+beauty, in that spiritual loveliness which replaces in the woman that
+which the girl loses. The gray eyes were pure violet now, and fuller and
+deeper, as they mirrored the soul which had expanded in the bracing
+atmosphere of sorrow and trial.</p>
+
+<p>He had fallen in love with an innocent, unsophisticated girl; he was
+still more passionately in love with her now that, a girl still in
+years, she had developed into glorious, divine womanhood. His eyes
+scanned her face hungrily, yet reverently, as he thought: Was it
+possible that he had once kissed those beautiful lips, had once heard
+them murmur "I love you?" And was it possible that he might again hear
+those magic words? His soul thirsted for them. It seemed to him that if
+he were to lose her now, if she were to send him away, life would not be
+worth having, that nothing remained for him in the future but misery and
+despair. To few men is it given to love as he loved the girl before him,
+and in that moment he suffered an agony of suspense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> which might well
+have caused the recording angel to blot out the follies of his past
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But he must not frighten her, he must not drive her away from him by
+revealing the intensity of his passion.</p>
+
+<p>So his voice was calm, and so low that it was little more than a
+whisper, as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have come in search of you; I have something to say that I hope, I
+pray, you will hear. Won't you sit down again?" and he motioned to the
+place where she had been seated.</p>
+
+<p>But Nell shook her head and remained standing, her hands clasped loosely
+before her, her eyes downcast.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Lord Angleford?" she said, in a voice as low as his. "I&mdash;I
+want to go back to the lodge."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a few minutes," he said imploringly. "I will not keep you long. I
+have just left the lodge. He&mdash;Mr. Falconer&mdash;is all right; he will not
+mind&mdash;will not miss you for a few minutes. And I must speak to you. All
+my happiness, my future, depends on it&mdash;upon you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, let me go!" she said, almost inaudibly; for at every word he spoke
+her heart went out to him, and she was tempted to forget that he was no
+longer her lover, but the betrothed of Lady Lucille. Whatever he said,
+she must not forget that!</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is I who will go, when I have spoken, and if you tell me," he
+said gravely. "When you sent me away last time I went&mdash;I obeyed you. I
+promise to do so now if you send me away again. Nell&mdash;ah! I must call
+you so. It is the name I think of you by, the name that is engraven on
+my heart! Nell, I want to ask you if there is no hope of my recovering
+my lost happiness. Do you remember when I told you that I loved you,
+there at Shorne Mills? I told you I was not worthy of you. Even then I
+was deceiving you."</p>
+
+<p>She drew nearer to the tree, and put her hand against it for support.</p>
+
+<p>"I was masquerading as Drake Vernon. I concealed my real name and rank;
+but I had no base motive in doing so. I was sick of the world, and weary
+of it and myself, and I longed to escape the maddening notoriety which
+harassed me. And then, when I thought&mdash;ah, no! I won't say thought, for;
+I know that then, then, Nell, you loved me!"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips quivered, but she kept the tears back bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it seemed so precious a thing to know that you should have loved
+me for myself alone, that you were not going to marry me for my rank and
+position, as many another girl would have done, that I was tempted to
+play the farce to the end. It was folly, but the gods punish folly more
+surely and quickly than they punish crime. The night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> that you
+discovered I had deceived you, I had resolved to tell you the truth and
+beg your forgiveness. But it was too late. Most of our good resolutions
+come too late, Nell. You had learned that I had deceived you; you had
+learned that I was not worthy to win and hold the love of a pure and
+innocent girl, and you sent me away."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes and glanced at him, half bewildered. Was it possible
+that he thought that was her only reason for breaking the engagement?</p>
+
+<p>"You were right, Nell. I think you would be right if you sent me away
+now; but I am daring to hope that you won't do so. It is but the
+shadow&mdash;the glimmer of a hope, and yet I cling to it, for it means so
+much to me&mdash;so much!"</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a moment, then he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"I left Shorne Mills that day, and I sailed in the <i>Seagull</i>, determined
+that I would accept your sentence, that I would never harass or worry
+you, that, if it were possible, you should never be troubled by the
+sight of me. But, Nell, though I left you, I carried your image with me
+in my heart. I tried to forget you, but I could not. I have never ceased
+to love you; not for a single day have you been absent from my mind, not
+for a single day have I ceased to long for you!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him again, wonder and indignation dividing her emotion.
+There was truth in his accents, in his eyes. Had he forgotten Lady
+Lucille?</p>
+
+<p>"There was no more wretched and unhappy man on God's earth than I was at
+that time," he went on. "Nell, if you had been called upon to find a
+punishment heavy enough for the deceit which I practiced, I do not think
+you could have hit upon a heavier one. For I could not be rid of my love
+for you. I could not forget your sweet face; your dear voice haunted me
+wherever I went, and I moved like a man under a curse, the curse of
+weariness and despair."</p>
+
+<p>His voice almost broke, and he put his hand to his forehead as if he
+still felt the weight of the weary months.</p>
+
+<p>"Then came the news of my uncle's sudden death; but when I had got over
+my grief for him&mdash;he had been good to me, and I was fond of him!&mdash;even
+then I could find no pleasure in the inheritance which had fallen to me.
+Of what use was the title and the rest of it, if all my happiness was
+set upon the girl I had lost forever? I came home to do my duty, in a
+dull, dogged fashion, came home with the conviction that I should not be
+able to rest in England, that I should have to take to wandering again.
+I loved you still, Nell, but I hoped&mdash;see, now, I tell you the
+truth!&mdash;that I might at least get some peace, might learn to deaden my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>
+heart. And then, as the Fates would have it, I find you here, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a moment and caught his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Hear that you were going to marry another man."</p>
+
+<p>Nell started slightly, and the color rose to her face. She had forgotten
+Falconer!</p>
+
+<p>"That was the last drop in my cup of misery. Somehow, I had always
+thought of you as the little girl of Shorne Mills, as&mdash;as&mdash;free. I had
+not reflected that it was inevitable that some other man should admire
+and love you. You see, you&mdash;you still, in some strange way, seemed to
+belong to me, though I knew I had lost you!"</p>
+
+<p>No words he could have uttered could have touched her more sharply and
+deeply than this simple avowal. She turned her head aside so that he
+might not see the quivering of her lips, the tenderness which sprang
+into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"That was the hardest blow of all that Fate had dealt me, Nell. It
+almost drove me mad to know that you once loved me, and yet that you
+were to be the wife of another man! It made me mad and desperate for a
+time, then I had to face it, as I had faced my loss of you. But,
+Nell&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused again, and ventured to draw a little nearer to her; but as she
+still shrank from him, and leaned against the tree, he stopped short and
+did not venture to take her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I have just left Mr. Falconer, I have heard from his own lips that
+there is no engagement, that&mdash;&mdash;Oh, Nell! It was the knowledge that you
+were still free that sent me to you just now, that made me cry out to
+you as I did! I love you, Nell, more dearly, more truly, if that be
+possible, than I did! Won't you forgive me the folly which made you send
+me away from you? Won't you let me try and win back your love?"</p>
+
+<p>There was silence, broken only by the rustle of the leaves in the summer
+breeze, by the note of a linnet singing in the branches above their
+heads.</p>
+
+<p>"See, dear, I plead as a man pleads for his life! And on your answer
+hangs all that makes life worth living. Forgive me, Nell, and give me
+back your love! I have been punished enough, rest assured of that.
+Forgive me that past folly and deceit, Nell! I'll teach you to forget in
+time. Dearest, you loved me, did you not? You loved me until that night
+of the ball&mdash;at the Maltbys'&mdash;when you discovered who I was!"</p>
+
+<p>Back it all came to her, and she turned her face to him with grief and
+reproach in her violet eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I was on the terrace," she said, almost inaudibly. "It is you who
+forget. It was not because you kept your right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> name and rank from me. I
+was on the terrace. I saw you and&mdash;and Lady Luce!"</p>
+
+<p>He started, and his hand fell to his side. He could not speak for a
+moment, the shock was so great, and in silence he recalled, saw as in a
+flash of lightning, all the incidents of that night.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you were there? You saw&mdash;heard?" he said, half mechanically.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said.</p>
+
+<p>She was calm, unnaturally calm now, and her voice was grave and sad
+rather than reproachful.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw and heard everything. I saw her and Lady Chesney before you came
+out. I heard Lady Luce telling her friend that you and she were engaged,
+that you had parted, but that she still cared for you, and that you
+would come back to her; and when you came out of the house on the
+terrace, I saw her&mdash;and you&mdash;&mdash;Oh, why do you make me tell you? It is
+hateful, shameful!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned her face away, as if she could not bear his gaze fixed on her
+with amazement, and yet with some other emotion qualifying it.</p>
+
+<p>"You saw Lady Luce come to meet me, heard her speak to me, saw her kiss
+me?" he said, almost to himself; and even at that moment she was
+conscious of the fact that there was no shame in his voice, none in his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She made a motion with her hand as if imploring him to say no more, to
+leave her; but he caught at her hand and held it, though she strove to
+release it from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! and that was the reason? Why, oh, Nell! Nell! why did you not
+tell me what you had seen? Why did you say no word of it in your letter?
+If you had done so&mdash;if you had only done so!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it not true? Were you not engaged to her?" she asked, almost
+inaudibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied quickly. "I kept that from you; but it was true. You
+read of the engagement in that paragraph in the stupid paper, you
+remember? I ought to have told you, and I thought that it was because I
+had not, as well as because I had concealed my rank, that you broke with
+me. But, Nell, my engagement with her was broken off by herself; when
+there was a chance of my losing the title and the estates, she jilted
+me. I was free when I asked you to be my wife. You believe that? Great
+heavens! you do not think me so bad, so base&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, with a sigh. "No; but you went back to her. Oh, I do not
+blame you! She is very beautiful; she was a fitting wife&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He uttered an exclamation&mdash;it was very like an oath&mdash;and caught her hand
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," he said, almost fiercely. "You are wrong&mdash;wrong!"</p>
+
+<p>She sighed again.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you&mdash;and her," she said, as if that were conclusive.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," he said. "You saw her come toward me and greet me as
+if&mdash;Heaven! I can scarcely bear to speak of it, to recall it!&mdash;as if she
+were betrothed to me. You saw her kiss me. But, Nell&mdash;ah! my dearest,
+listen to me, believe me!"&mdash;for she turned away from him in the
+bitterness of her agony, the remembrance of the agony she had suffered
+that night on the terrace. "You must believe me! The kiss was hers, not
+mine. I would rather have died than my lips should have touched her that
+night."</p>
+
+<p>Nell's heart began to throb, and something&mdash;a vague hope&mdash;the touch of a
+joy too great and deep for words&mdash;began to steal over her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a fool, and weak, but, as Heaven is my witness, I had no thought
+for her that night. All my heart, my love, were yours! The very sight of
+her, her presence, was painful to me! Even as she came toward me, I was
+thinking of you, was in search of you. And her kiss! If the lips had
+been those of one of the statues on the terrace, it could not have moved
+me less. Nell, be merciful to me! What could I do? I am a man, she is a
+woman. Could I thrust her from me? I longed to do so; I would have told
+her I loved her no longer, that my love was given to another, to you,
+Nell; but there was no time. She left me before I could scarcely utter a
+word. And then I went in search of you&mdash;and the rest you know. Think,
+Nell! When you sent me away, did I go to her? No; I left England with my
+disappointment and my misery. Ah, Nell, if you had only told me that you
+had beheld the scene on the balcony! Go back to her&mdash;and leave you!"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed with mingled bitterness and desperation. The strain was
+growing too tense for mere words.</p>
+
+<p>At such moments as this, the man, if there is aught of manliness in him,
+has need of more than words.</p>
+
+<p>"Think, dearest!" he said hoarsely. "Compare yourself with poor Luce!
+You say she is 'beautiful.' Do you never look in the glass? Dearest, you
+are, in all men's sight, ten times more lovely! The pure and flawless
+gem against the falsely glittering paste! Oh, Nell, if my heart was not
+so heavy, I could laugh, laugh! And you thought I had left you for her,
+gone back to her! And so you sent me away to exile and misery!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His voice grew almost stern.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell! It is you who ought to plead for forgiveness! Yes! You have
+sinned against me!"</p>
+
+<p>She started and looked at him, open-eyed in her amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you also have sinned, Nell! You ought to have spoken to me,
+brought your accusation. I could have explained it all; we should have
+been married&mdash;and happy! And I should have been spared all these months
+of unhappiness, this awful hell upon earth!"</p>
+
+<p>He had struck the right note at last. Convince a woman that she has been
+cruel to you, and, if she loves you, the divine attribute of pity will
+awaken in her, and bring her, who a moment before was as inflexible as
+adamant, to your feet.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, panting for breath, looked at him; questioningly at first, then,
+by short degrees, pleadingly, almost penitently.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!" she breathed piteously.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang forward and caught her in his arms, and pressed a torrent of
+kisses upon her lips, her hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell! My love, my dearest! Oh, have I got you back again? Have I? Tell
+me you believe me, Nell! Tell me that I may hope; that you will love me
+again!"</p>
+
+<p>She fought hard to resist him; but when a man holds the woman he loves,
+and who loves him, in his arms, the woman fights in vain. Every sense in
+her plays traitor, and fights on the man's side.</p>
+
+<p>Nell put her hands on his broad chest, and tried to hold him off; but he
+would not be denied.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, I love you!" he cried hoarsely. "I want you. Let the past go.
+Don't hold me at arm's length, dearest! I love you! Nell, you will take
+me back?"</p>
+
+<p>She still struggled and protested against the flood of happiness which
+overwhelmed her.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but she?" she said, meaning Luce. "Since you have been
+here&mdash;&mdash;They say&mdash;&mdash;Ah, Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed as he pressed her to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let them say!" he retorted. "Nell, I'll tell you the whole truth. If
+you had been engaged to poor Falconer, I should have married Luce&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she breathed, with a shudder she could not repress.</p>
+
+<p>"But you are not. And I am still free! And you are free! Nell, lift your
+head! Give me one kiss&mdash;only one&mdash;and I will be satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>Her head still drooped for a moment, then she raised it and kissed him
+on the lips.</p>
+
+<p>The summer breeze made music in the leaves, the linnet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> sang his heart
+out above their heads, the soft air breathed an atmosphere of love, and
+these two mortals were, after months of misery, happy beyond the power
+of words to express.</p>
+
+<p>And as they sat, hand in hand, talking of the past, and picturing the
+future, neither of them naturally enough gave a thought to Lady Luce.</p>
+
+<p>And yet he had asked her to come back to Anglemere; and without doubt
+she would come.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was an enchanted world to these two. For some time they sat side by
+side, or, rather, Drake sat at Nell's feet, her hand sometimes resting,
+lightly as a dove's wing, with a caress in its touch, upon his head.
+There were long spells of silence, for such joy as theirs is shy of
+words; but now and again they talked.</p>
+
+<p>They had so much to tell each other, and each was greedy of even the
+smallest detail. Drake wanted to hear of all that had happened to her
+since the terrible parting on the night of the Maltbys' ball&mdash;how long
+ago it seemed to them as they sat there in the sunshine that flickered
+through the leaves and touched Nell's hair with flashes of light.</p>
+
+<p>And Nell told him everything&mdash;everything excepting the episode of Lady
+Wolfer and Sir Archie&mdash;that was not hers to tell, but Lady Wolfer's
+secret, and Nell meant to carry it to the grave with her; not even to
+this dearly loved lover of hers could she breathe a word of that crisis
+in Ada Wolfer's life. And yet, if she had been free to tell him about it
+then and there, how much better it would have been for them both, how
+much difference it would have made in their lives!</p>
+
+<p>"And was there no one, no other man whom you saw, who could teach you to
+forget me, Nell?" he asked, half fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>Nell blushed and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely there was some one among all you knew who was not quite blind,
+who was sensible enough to fall in love with the loveliest and the
+sweetest girl in all London?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell's blush grew warmer as she remembered some of the men who had paid
+court to her, who would have been her suitors if she had not kept them
+at arm's length.</p>
+
+<p>"There was no one," she said simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Falconer?" he said, in a low voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The color slowly ebbed from her face, and her eyes grew rather sad as she
+reflected that her happiness had been purchased at the cost of his pain
+and self-sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, in a whisper, for she could not hide the truth from
+him; her heart was bare to his gaze. "If&mdash;if you had not come, if he had
+chosen to accept me, I should have married him. But you came at the very
+moment, Drake; and at the sound of your voice&mdash;&mdash;He saw my face, and
+read the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Falconer," he said, very gravely. "He is a better man than I am,
+than I shall ever be, even under the influence of your love, and the
+happiness it will bring me. I owe him a big debt, Nell; and though I
+can't hope to pay it, I must do what I can to make his life more
+smooth."</p>
+
+<p>"He is very proud," she said, a little proudly herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know; but he must let me help him in his career. I can do
+something in that direction, and I will. But for him! Ah, Nell, I don't
+like to think of it; I don't like to contemplate what might have
+happened if I had lost you altogether. Yes; I owe him a debt no man
+could hope to repay. I wish it had been I who had lived at Beaumont
+Buildings and played the violin to you, instead of him. All that time I
+was sailing in the <i>Seagull</i>, or wandering about Asia, wondering whether
+there was anything on earth, or in the waters under the earth, that
+could bring me a moment's pleasure, a moment of forgetfulness."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and&mdash;you thought of me all that time? There was no one else?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was no one else," he said, as simply as she had answered his
+question. "Though sometimes&mdash;&mdash;Do you want me to tell you the whole
+truth, dearest?"</p>
+
+<p>"The whole truth," she responded, looking down at him with trustful
+eyes, and yet with a little anxious line on her brow. For what woman
+would not have been apprehensive? She had cast him off, and he had been
+wandering about the world, free to love again, to choose a wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sometimes I tried to efface your image from my mind, to forget
+Nell of Shorne Mills, in the surest and quickest way. I went to some
+dinners and receptions; I joined in a picnic or two, and an occasional
+riding party. Once I sailed in a man's yacht which had three of the
+local belles on board, and I tried to fall in love with one of them&mdash;any
+of them&mdash;but it was of no use. Now and again I endeavored to persuade
+myself that I was falling in love. There was one, a girl who was
+something like you; she had dark hair, and eyes that had a look of yours
+in them; and when she was silent I used to look at her and try&mdash;&mdash;But
+when she spoke, her voice was unlike yours, and her very unlikeness
+recalled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> yours; and I saw you, even as I looked at her, as you stood on
+the steps at the quay, or sat in the stern of the <i>Annie Laurie</i>, and my
+heart grew sick with longing for you, and I'd get up and leave the girl
+so suddenly that she used to stare after me with mingled surprise and
+indignation. What charm do you exert, what black magic, Nell, that a
+big, strong, hulking fellow like me cannot get free from the spell you
+throw over him? Tell me, dearest."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes rested on him lovingly, and there was that in the half-parted
+lips which compelled him to rise on his elbow and kiss them.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you could have married Lady Luce," she said, not reproachfully,
+but very gravely. "Did you not think of her, Drake?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied gravely. "I gave no thought to her until I came home
+and saw her. And it was not for love of her that I should have married
+her, Nell, but in sheer desperation. You see, it did not matter to me
+whom I married if I could not have you."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet&mdash;ah, how hard love is!&mdash;she cares for you, Drake! I have seen
+her&mdash;I saw her on the terrace, I saw her at the ball here."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed half bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Nell, don't let that idea worry you. There is nothing in it; it
+is quite a mistaken one. Luce is a charming woman, the most finished
+product of this fin de si&egrave;cle life&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She is very beautiful," Nell said, just even to her rival.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll grant it, though compared to a certain violet-eyed girl I
+know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell put her hand over his lips; and he kissed it, and went on gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is not given to Luce to love any one but herself. She and her
+kind worship the Golden Image which we set up at every street corner.
+Rank, wealth, the notoriety that is paragraphed in the society papers,
+those are what Luce worships, and marries for. By the accident of birth
+I represent most of these things, and so&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"And now chance has helped me again, for her father has inherited the
+Marquisate of Buckleigh, and he will be rich. It is likely enough that
+she would have jilted me again."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were not engaged to her?" said Nell, drawing her hand from his
+head, where it had rested lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said. "But I should have been, and she knows it. The whole
+truth, dearest! No, I am free, thank God! Free to win back my old
+love."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nell drew a sigh of relief, and her hand stole back to him.</p>
+
+<p>"She will let me go calmly and easily enough. There are at least two
+marriageable dukes in the market, and Luce&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Drake, I do not like to hear you speak so harshly&mdash;even of her."</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, Nell. You are right," he said penitently. "But I can't
+forget that by her play acting on the terrace that night she nearly
+robbed me of you forever, and caused both of us months of misery. I
+can't forget that."</p>
+
+<p>"But you must!" said Nell gently. "After all, it may not have been
+acting."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed again, and drew her down to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Nell, not even after the experience you had at Wolfe House, do you
+understand the fashionable woman, the professional beauty. It was all
+'theater' on Luce's part, believe me! She would have made a magnificent
+actress. But do not let us talk about her any more. Tell me again how
+you used to live in Beaumont Buildings. Nell, we'll go there after we
+are married&mdash;we'll go and see the rooms in which you lived. I want to
+feel that I know every bit of your life since we parted."</p>
+
+<p>At the "after we are married," spoken with all the confidence of the
+man, Nell's face grew crimson.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, dearest, you will come up to the Hall?" he said, after a
+pause, and as if he were stating an indisputable proposition. "By
+George! how delighted the countess will be to hear of our reconciliation
+and engagement! She knows nothing of our love and our parting. I told no
+one; my heart was too sore; but I think I shall tell her now, and she
+will be simply delighted. You'll like her, Nell; she's such a dear,
+tender-hearted little woman. I don't wonder at my uncle falling in love
+with her. Poor old fellow! She has been wonderfully good to me. You'll
+come up to the Hall, and be treated like a princess."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Drake," she said. "I must not. I must stay with&mdash;him; he needs me
+still."</p>
+
+<p>He was silent a moment, then he kissed her hand assentingly.</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be as you will, my queen!" he said quietly. "Ah, Nell, I shall
+make a bad husband; for I foresee that I shall spoil you by letting you
+have your own way too much. I wanted you at the Hall, wanted you near
+me. But I see&mdash;I see you are right, as always. But, Nell, there must be
+no delay about our marriage. Directly Falconer is well enough to&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She drew her hand away, but he recovered it and held it against his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be no other chance of a slip between the cup and the lip,"
+he said, almost solemnly. "I want you too badly to be able to wait.
+Besides, do you forget that we have been engaged two years? Two years! A
+lifetime!"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a "Coo-ee!" sounded through the wood&mdash;an impatient and
+half indignant "Coo-ee!"</p>
+
+<p>It was Dick, and he approached them, yelling:</p>
+
+<p>"Nell! Nell! Where on earth are you, Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>They had barely time to move before he was upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Nell, where on earth have you been? I'm starving&mdash;&mdash;Hallo!" he
+broke off, staring first at Nell's red and downcast face, and then at
+Drake's smiling and quite obviously joyous one. "What&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake took Nell's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"We quite forgot you, Dick, and everybody and everything else. But
+you'll forgive us when you hear that Nell and I have&mdash;have&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Made it up again!" finished Dick, with a grin that ran from ear to ear.
+"By George, you don't say so! Well, I said it was only a tiff; now,
+didn't I, Nell? But it was a pretty long one. Eighteen months or
+thereabouts, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the two lovers looked sad, then Drake smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Just eighteen months too long, Dick," he said. "But you might wish us
+joy."</p>
+
+<p>"I do, I do&mdash;or I would, if I wasn't starving!" retorted Dick. "While
+you have been spooning under the spreading chestnut tree, I've been
+wrestling with the electric dynamos; and the sight of even bread and
+cheese would melt me to tears. But I am glad, old man," he said, in a
+grave tone&mdash;"glad for both your sakes; for any one could see with
+three-quarters of an eye, to be exact, that you were both miserable
+without each other. Oh, save me from the madness of love!"</p>
+
+<p>"There was a very pretty girl by the name of Angel at the Maltbys'
+dance," put in Drake musingly; "a very pretty girl, indeed, who sat out
+most of the dances, if I remember rightly, with a young friend of mine."</p>
+
+<p>Dick's face grew a healthy, brick-dust red, and he glanced shyly from
+one to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Well hit, Drake, old man!" he said. "Yes; there was one, and I've seen
+her in London once or twice&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Dick, and you never told me!" said Nell reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't tell you everything, little girl," he remarked severely; "and I
+won't tell you any more now unless you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> come on and give me something to
+eat. See here, now; I'll walk in front, and promise not to look
+round&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell, blushing painfully, looked at Drake appealingly, and he seized
+Dick by the arm and marched him off in the direction of the lodge, Nell
+following more slowly.</p>
+
+<p>As they entered, the nurse came down from Falconer's room, and Nell
+inquired after him anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"He is much better, miss," said the nurse; "and he asked me to say that
+he should be glad if you and his lordship would go up to him."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded, and he followed Nell up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer was sitting up, leaning back against a pile of pillows; and he
+greeted them with a smile&mdash;the half-sad, half-patiently cynical smile of
+the old days in Beaumont Buildings&mdash;the smile which served as a mask to
+hide the tenderness of a noble nature.</p>
+
+<p>Nell came into the room shyly, with the sadness of the self-reproach
+which was born of the knowledge that her happiness had been gained at
+the cost of this man who loved her with a love as great as Drake's; but
+Drake came up to the bed boldly, and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"We have come&mdash;to thank you, Falconer," he said, in the tone with which
+one man acknowledges his debt to another. "No, not to thank you, for
+that's impossible. Some things are beyond thanks, and this that you have
+done is one of them. You have brought happiness where there was nothing
+but misery and despair. Some day I will tell you the story of our
+separation; but that must wait. Now I can only try and express my
+gratitude&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stammered and broke down; for with Falconer's eloquent eyes upon him,
+he realized the extent of the man's self-sacrifice, and it seemed to him
+that any attempt to express his own gratitude was worse than absolute
+silence. Can you thank a man for the gift of your life?</p>
+
+<p>Falconer looked from one to the other, the half-sad smile lighting up
+his wan face.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said simply. And indeed he knew how he should feel if he
+were in the place of this lucky man, this favored of the gods. "I know.
+There is no need to say anything. You are happy?"</p>
+
+<p>His eyes rested on Nell. She slipped to her knees beside the bed and
+took his hand; but she could not speak; the tears filled her eyes, and
+she gazed up at him through a mist.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! what can I say?" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled down at her with infinite tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>"You have said enough," he said simply, "and I am answered. Do you think
+it is nothing to me, your happiness?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> It is everything&mdash;life itself!"
+His dark eyes glowed. "There is no moment since I knew you that I would
+not have laid down this wretched life of mine, if by so doing I could
+have made you happy at a much less cost."</p>
+
+<p>He turned his eyes to Drake with sudden energy.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't pity me, Lord Angleford. There is no need."</p>
+
+<p>Drake took his other hand and pressed it.</p>
+
+<p>"You must get well soon, or her&mdash;our&mdash;happiness will be marred,
+Falconer," he said warmly.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall get well," he said. "I am better already. We artists are never
+beyond consolation. Art is a jealous mistress, and will brook no rival."</p>
+
+<p>"And you worship a mistress who will make you famous," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"We are content, though she should deny us so much as that," he said.
+"Art is its own reward."</p>
+
+<p>Nell rose from her knees and stole from the room. When she had gone,
+Falconer raised his head and looked long and seriously at Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Be good to her, my lord," he said, very gravely. "You have won a great
+prize, a ruby without a blemish; value it, cherish it."</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said simply.</p>
+
+<p>Nell stole into the room again. She was carrying Falconer's violin
+carefully, tenderly. She put it in his hands, held out eagerly to
+receive it, and he placed it in position, turned it swiftly, and began
+to play, his eyes fixed on hers gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>Nell and Drake withdrew to the window, their heads reverently bent.</p>
+
+<p>He played slowly, softly at first, a sad and yet exquisitely sweet
+melody; then the strain grew louder, though not the less sweet, and the
+tiny room was throbbing with music which expressed a joy which only
+music could voice.</p>
+
+<p>Drake's hand stole toward Nell's, and grasped it firmly. Her head
+drooped and the tears rose to her eyes, and soon began to trickle down
+her cheeks. The exquisite music seemed to reach her soul and raise it to
+the seventh heaven, in even which there are tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake!" she murmured. "Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nell, my dearest!" he responded, in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly the music ceased. Falconer slowly dropped the violin on
+the bed and fell back, his eyes closed, his face as calm as that of a
+child falling to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Go now," whispered Nell; and Drake stole from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> room, leaving Nell
+kneeling beside the musician, who had apparently fallen asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Drake went down the stairs like a man in a dream, the strange, weird
+music still ringing in his ears, and walked up to the Hall.</p>
+
+<p>The countess met him as he entered, and he took her hand and led her
+into the library without a word.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what is it, Drake?" she asked anxiously, for she knew that
+something had happened.</p>
+
+<p>He placed her in one of the big easy-chairs, and stood before her, the
+light of happiness on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I've something to tell you, countess," he said. "I am going to be
+married."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad, Drake. I have expected it for some time past. What a
+pity it is that she should have had to go!"</p>
+
+<p>"She! Who?" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>For the moment he had forgotten Lady Luce.</p>
+
+<p>The countess stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" she said, with surprise. "Why, who else should it be but Luce?"</p>
+
+<p>His brows came together, and he made an impatient movement.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" he said. "It is Nell&mdash;I mean Miss Lorton."</p>
+
+<p>She rose with amazement depicted on her countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Lorton! At the lodge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said impatiently. "We were engaged nearly two years ago. There
+was a&mdash;a&mdash;misunderstanding&mdash;but it is all cleared up. I want your
+congratulations, countess."</p>
+
+<p>She was an American, and therefore quick to seize a point.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have them, Drake. That sweet, beautiful girl! I am glad!
+But&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he asked impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"But Luce!" she stammered. "We all thought that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong," he said, almost hoarsely. "It is Miss Lorton. Go to her
+at the lodge, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He said no more, but went to the writing table.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Angleford, all in amaze, left the room.</p>
+
+<p>He took up a pen and scribbled over a sheet of note-paper, then tore it
+up. He filled several other sheets, which he destroyed, but at last he
+wrote a few words which satisfied him.</p>
+
+<p>Then he remembered that he did not know Luce's address; and, for want of
+a better, he addressed the letter, announcing his engagement to Miss
+Lorton, to Lord Turfleigh's club in London; and, like a man, was
+satisfied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Was it any wonder that Nell should lie awake that night asking herself
+if this sudden joy and happiness that had come to her was real&mdash;that
+Drake loved her still&mdash;had never ceased to love her&mdash;and was hers again?</p>
+
+<p>Perfect happiness in this vale of tears is so rare that we may be
+pardoned for viewing it with a certain amount of incredulity, and with a
+doubt of its stability and lasting qualities. But Drake's kisses were
+still warm on her lips, and his passionate avowal of love still rang in
+her ears.</p>
+
+<p>And next morning, almost before she had finished breakfast, down came
+the countess to set the seal, so to speak, upon the marvelous fact that
+Nell of Shorne Mills was to be the wife of the Earl of Angleford.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, blushing, rose from the table to receive her, and the countess
+took and held her hand, looking into the downcast face with the tender
+sympathy of the woman, who knows all that love means, for the girl who
+has only yet learned the first letters of its marvelous alphabet.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, you must forgive me for coming so early. Mr. Lorton, if you do
+not go on with your breakfast, I will run away again. I am so glad to
+meet you. Now, pray, pray, sit down again."</p>
+
+<p>But Dick, who knew that the countess wished to have Nell alone, declared
+that he had finished, and took himself off. Then the countess drew Nell
+to her and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I am come to try and tell you how glad I am! Last night Drake
+and I sat up late talking of you. He has told me all your story. It is a
+romance&mdash;a perfect romance! And none the less charming because, unlike
+most romances in life, it has turned out happily. And we are all so
+pleased, so delighted&mdash;I mean up at the Hall; and I am sure the people
+on the estate will be as pleased, for I know that you have become a
+general favorite, even though you have been here so short a time. Lady
+Wolfer begged me to let her come with me this morning, but I would not
+yield. I wanted you all to myself. Not that I shall have you for long, I
+suppose, for Drake will be sure to be here presently."</p>
+
+<p>Nell's blush grew still deeper. She was touched by the great lady's
+kindness, and the tears were very near her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you all so glad?" she faltered, gratefully and wonderingly. "I
+know that there is a great difference between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> us. I am&mdash;well, I am a
+nobody, and Drake is stooping very low to marry me. You must all feel
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said the countess, with a smile, "no man stoops who marries a
+good and innocent girl. It's the other way about&mdash;at least, that's my
+feeling; but then I'm an American, you know; and we look at things
+differently on the other side. But, Nell, we are glad because you have
+made Drake happy. None of us could fail to see that he has been wretched
+and miserable, but that now he has completely changed. If you had seen
+the difference in him last night! But I suppose you did," she put in
+na&iuml;vely. "He seemed to have become years younger; his very voice was
+changed, and rang with the old ring. And you have worked this miracle!
+That is why we are all so delighted and grateful to you."</p>
+
+<p>The tears were standing in Nell's eyes, though she laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet&mdash;and yet he ought to have married some one of his own rank."
+The color rushed to her face. "I did not know who he was when&mdash;when I
+was first engaged to him at home, at Shorne Mills."</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;I know. He has told me the whole story. It was very foolish of
+him&mdash;foolish and romantic. But, dear, don't you see that it proves the
+reality, the disinterestedness of your love for him? And as for the
+difference of rank&mdash;well, it does not matter in the least. Drake's rank
+is so high that he may marry whom he pleases; and he is so rich that
+money does not come into the question."</p>
+
+<p>"It is King Cophetua and the beggar maid," murmured Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"If you like; but there is not much of the beggar maid about you, dear,"
+retorted the countess, holding Nell at arm's length and scanning the
+refined and lovely face, the slim and graceful form in its plain morning
+frock. "No, my dear; there is nothing wrong about the affair, excepting
+the extraordinary misunderstanding which parted you for a time, and
+brought you so much unhappiness. But all that is past now, and you and
+he must learn to forget it. And now, my dear, I want you to come up with
+me to the Hall."</p>
+
+<p>But Nell shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't do that, countess," she said. "I can't leave Mr. Falconer. He
+is much better and stronger this morning; the nurse says that he slept
+all night, for the first time; but he still needs me&mdash;and&mdash;I owe him so
+much!" she added in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>The countess looked at her keenly for a moment; then she nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Drake told me that I should find you harder to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> move than you
+look. And I am not sure that you are not right," she said. "When you
+come to stay at the Hall it will be as mistress." Nell's face crimsoned
+again. "But, my dear girl, we can't pass over the great event as if it
+were of no consequence. Drake's engagement, under any circumstances,
+would be of the deepest interest to all of us, to the whole country; but
+his engagement to you will create a profound sensation, and we must
+demonstrate our satisfaction in some way. I'm afraid you will have to
+face a big dinner party."</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked rather frightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she breathed. "Is&mdash;is it necessary? Can't we just go on as if&mdash;as
+if nothing had happened?"</p>
+
+<p>The countess laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"That's exactly what Drake said when I spoke to him about it last night.
+It is nice to find you so completely of one mind. But I'm afraid it
+wouldn't do. You see, my dear, the people will want to see you, to be
+introduced to you; and if we pursue the usual course there will be much
+less talk and curiosity than if we let things slide. Yes, you will have
+to run the gauntlet; but I don't think you need be apprehensive of the
+result," and she looked at her with affectionate approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Nell resignedly. "You know what is best, and I will do
+anything you and Drake wish."</p>
+
+<p>"What a dutiful child!" exclaimed the countess, banteringly. "And though
+you won't come and stay at the Hall, you will come up and see us very
+often, to lunch and tea and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"When Mr. Falconer can spare me," said Nell quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And about him, dear. We talked of him last night, and his future.
+That will be Drake's special care. He, too, owes him a big debt, and he
+feels it. Mr. Falconer is a genius, and the world must be made to know
+it before very long. And your brother, dear; you will let him come up to
+the Hall?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are thinking of everything," she said. "Even of Dick. Oh, yes,
+he'll come. Dick isn't a bit shy; but he thinks more of his electric
+machines than anything else on earth just at present."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said the countess, laughing. "But we must try and lure him
+from them now and again. I am sure we shall all like him, for he is
+wonderfully like you. Now, about the dinner, dear. Shall we say this day
+week?"</p>
+
+<p>"So soon!" said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it mustn't be later, for this wretched trial is coming on; the
+assizes are quite close, you know; and Drake will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> have to be there as
+witness. My dear, I'm glad they did not get off with the diamonds! You
+little thought that night, when you saved Drake's life, and prevented
+the man getting away, that you were fighting for your own jewels."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine!" said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>The countess laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, you dear goose! Are they not the Angleford diamonds, and will
+they not soon be yours?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell blushed and looked a little aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I haven't realized it all yet," she said. "Ah! I wish Drake
+were&mdash;just Drake Vernon! I am afraid when I think&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The countess smiled and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no need to be afraid, my dear," she said shrewdly. "You will
+wear the Angleford coronet very well and very gracefully, if I am not
+mistaken, because you set so little store by it. And now here comes
+Drake! It is good of him to give me so long with you. Give me a kiss
+before he comes&mdash;he won't begrudge me that surely! Ah, you happy girl!"</p>
+
+<p>Drake drove up in a dogcart.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't get down; the mare won't stand"&mdash;he hadn't brought a groom, for
+excellent reasons. "Please tell Nell to get her things on as quickly as
+she can!" he said to the countess as she came out.</p>
+
+<p>Nell looked doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go upstairs first," she said. But Falconer was asleep, and when
+she came down she had her outdoor things on.</p>
+
+<p>Drake bent down and held out his hand to help her up.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't be long?" she asked, and she looked up at him shyly, for,
+after their long separation, he seemed almost strange to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as long as you like," he said, understanding the reason for her
+question, and glancing at the window of Falconer's room. "Dick tells me
+that he is better this morning. I couldn't say how glad I am, dearest
+Nell," he whispered, as the mare sprang at the collar and they whirled
+through the gates and down the road. "Is it you really who are sitting
+beside me, or am I dreaming?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell's hand stole nearer to his arm until it touched it softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have asked myself that all night, Drake," she said, almost inaudibly.
+"It is so much more like a dream than a reality. Are we going through
+the village?" she asked, suddenly and shyly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "We are. Nell, I want to show my treasure to the good
+folk who have known me since I was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> boy. Perhaps the news has reached
+the village by this time&mdash;for the servants at the Hall know it, and I
+want them to see how happy you have made me!"</p>
+
+<p>There could be no doubt of the news having got to the village, for as
+the dogcart sped through it the people came to the doors of the shops
+and cottages, all alive with curiosity and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Drake nodded to the curtseys and greetings, and looked so radiantly
+happy that one woman, feeling that touch of nature which makes all men
+kin, called out to them:</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, my lord, and send you both happiness!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's worth having, Nell," he said, very quietly; but Nell didn't
+speak, and the tears were in her eyes. "A few days ago I should have
+laughed or sneered at that benediction," he said gravely. "What a change
+has come over my life in a few short hours! There is no magic like that
+of love, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>They were silent for some time after they had left the village behind
+them, but presently Drake began to call her attention to the various
+points of interest in the view; the prosperous farms, and thickly wooded
+preserves; and Nell began, half unconsciously, to realize the extent of
+the vast estate&mdash;the one of many&mdash;of which the man she was going to
+marry was lord and master.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to take you to a farm which has been held by the same family
+for several generations," he said. "I think you will like Styles and his
+wife; and you won't mind if they are outspoken, dearest? I was here to
+lunch only the other day, and Styles read me a lecture on my duties as
+lord of Angleford. One of the heads was that I ought to choose a wife
+without loss of time. I want to show him that I have taken his sermon to
+heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he may not approve of your choice," said Nell.</p>
+
+<p>Drake laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if he doesn't, he won't hesitate to say so," he said.</p>
+
+<p>They pulled up at the farm, and Styles came down to the gate to welcome
+them, calling to a lad to hold the mare.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we will come in for a minute or two, Styles, if Mrs. Styles will
+have us," said Drake.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Styles, in the doorway, wiping her hands freshly washed from the
+flour of a pudding, smiled a welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Come right in, my lord," she said. "You know you be welcome well
+enough." She looked at Nell, who was blushing a little. "And all the
+more welcome for the company you bring."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, my lord; sit ye down, miss&mdash;or is it 'my lady'?" said Styles,
+perfectly at ease in his unaffected pleasure at seeing them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This is Miss Lorton, the young lady who is rash enough to promise to be
+my wife, Mrs. Styles," said Drake. "I drove over to introduce her to you,
+and to show that I took your good advice to heart."</p>
+
+<p>The farmer and his wife surveyed Nell for a moment, then slowly averted
+their eyes out of regard for her blushes.</p>
+
+<p>"I make so bold to tell your lordship that you never did a wiser thing
+in your life," said Styles quietly, and with a certain dignity; "and if
+the young lady be as good as she is pretty&mdash;and if I'm anything of a
+judge, I bet she be!&mdash;there's some sense in wishing your lordship and
+her a long life and every happiness."</p>
+
+<p>Drake held out his hand, and laughed like a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, Styles," he said. "It was worth driving out for. And I'm happy
+enough, in all conscience, for the present."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of Miss Lorton, and I've heard naught but good of her," said
+Mrs. Styles, eying Nell, who had got one of the children on her knee;
+"and to us as lives on the estate, miss, it's a matter of importance who
+his lordship marries. It may just mean the difference between good times
+or bad. Us don't want his lordship to marry a fine London lady as 'u'd
+never be contented to live among us. And there be many such."</p>
+
+<p>Nell fought against her shyness; indeed, she remembered the simple folk
+of Shorne Mills, who talked as freely and frankly as this honest couple,
+and plucked up courage.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a fine London lady, at any rate, Mrs. Styles," she said, with a
+smile. "I have lived for nearly all my life in a country village, much
+farther away from London than you are; and I know very little of London
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say, miss!" exclaimed Mrs. Styles, much gratified.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing softly. "And I could finish making this
+apple pudding, if you'd let me, and boil it after I'd make it."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Styles gazed at her in speechless admiration, and Drake laughed
+with keen enjoyment of her surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; Miss Lorton is an excellent cook and housekeeper, Mrs. Styles;
+so I hope you are satisfied?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I be, and more, my lord," responded Mrs. Styles. "But, Lor'! your
+lordship do surprise me, for she looks no more than a schoolgirl&mdash;begging
+her pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's wise for her years!" said Drake. "Yes, I'll have a glass of
+your home-brewed, Styles."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Styles brought some milk and scones for Nell, and the two women
+withdrew to the settle and talked like old friends, while Drake, his
+eyes and attention straying to his beloved, discussed the burglary at
+the Hall with Styles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> As Mrs. Styles' topic of conversation was
+Drake&mdash;Drake as a lad and a young man&mdash;Nell was in no hurry to go; but
+suddenly she remembered Falconer&mdash;he might be wanting her&mdash;and she got
+up and went to Drake, who, his beloved brier in his mouth, leaned back
+in an easy-chair and talked to the farmer as if time were of no
+consequence. He sprang up as she approached him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good-by, Styles. I said you should dance at my wedding, and so
+you shall," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my lord," he responded. "I'll do my best, but I thought your
+lordship was only joking. Here's a very good health to you, my lord, and
+your future lady."</p>
+
+<p>"And God bless ye both," said Mrs. Styles, in the background.</p>
+
+<p>They drove away in grand style, the mare insisting on putting on frills
+and standing on her hind legs; and Drake, when the mare had settled down
+to her swinging trot, stole his hand round Nell's waist, and pressed her
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know why I took you there this morning, Nell?" he said, in a low
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head shyly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you. The sudden good fortune has seemed so unreal to me that
+I haven't been able to realize it, to grasp it. It wasn't enough for the
+countess to know and congratulate us&mdash;it wasn't enough, somehow. I
+wanted some of the people on the estate to see you, and, so to speak,
+set their seal on our engagement and approaching marriage. Do you
+understand, dearest? I'm not making it very plain, I'm afraid."</p>
+
+<p>But Nell understood, and her heart was brimming over with love for him.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been accepted this morning into the&mdash;family, as it were," he
+said. "And now I feel as if it were impossible that I should lose you
+again. Styles will go down to the inn to-night and talk about our visit,
+and give a detailed account of the 'new ladyship,' and everybody on the
+estate will know of my good fortune. It is almost as if"&mdash;he paused, and
+the color rose to his face&mdash;"as if we were married, Nell. I feel that
+nothing can separate us now."</p>
+
+<p>She said not a word, but she pressed a little closer to him, and he bent
+and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mind my taking you to the Styles', dearest?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, no!" she replied. "I would rather have gone there than to any
+of the big houses&mdash;I mean the county people, Drake. I like to think I am
+not the sort of person they dreaded. What was it? 'A fine London lady.'
+Perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> it would be better for you if I were; but for them&mdash;well,
+perhaps for them it will be better that I am only one of themselves,
+able to understand and sympathize with them. Drake, you will not forget
+that I am only a nobody, that I am only Nell of Shorne Mills."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled to himself, for he knew that this girl whom he had won was, by
+virtue of her beauty and refinement, qualified to fill the highest place
+in that vague sphere which went by the name of "society."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you worry, dearest," he said. "You have won the heart of the
+Styles family; and that is no mean conquest. That farm on the right is
+the Woodlands, and that just in front is the Broadlands. You will learn
+all the names in time, and I want you to know them; I want you to feel
+that you have a part and lot in them. Nell, do you think you will ever
+be as fond of this place as you are of Shorne Mills?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said; "because&mdash;it is yours, Drake."</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"But you shan't lose Shorne Mills," he said resolutely. "I mean to buy
+some land there, and build a house, just on the brow of the hill&mdash;you
+know, Nell; that meadow above The Cottage?&mdash;and we'll go there every
+summer, and we'll sail the <i>Annie Laurie</i>."</p>
+
+<p>So they talked, with intervals of silence filled with his caresses,
+until they reached the lodge. And as they came up to it, they heard the
+strains of a violin.</p>
+
+<p>Nell awoke with a start.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I had almost forgotten!" she said remorsefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" Drake whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, in the act of pushing the dust cloak from her, listened.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer was playing the "Gloria in Excelsis."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how happy I have been!" she murmured, half guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>"And how happy you will be, Heaven grant it, dearest!" Drake murmured,
+as he released her hand and she got down.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up
+and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotamia' seven times!"</p>
+
+<p>It was the night of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as Dick put
+it, she was to be "on view" as the fianc&eacute;e of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> my lord of Angleford, and
+Nell had come down to the little sitting room dressed and ready to
+start.</p>
+
+<p>Dick and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered
+sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his
+violin with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tease her, Dick," said Falconer, with the gentle, protective air
+of an elder brother. "She does not look a bit nervous."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am!" said Nell, laughing a little tremulously; "I am&mdash;just a
+little bit!"</p>
+
+<p>"And no wonder!" said Falconer promptly. "It is rather an ordeal she has
+to go through; to know that everybody is regarding you critically. But
+she has nothing to be afraid of."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, there I differ with you," said Dick argumentatively. "If I were in
+Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth
+did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah,
+would you?" as Nell, laughing and blushing, caught up the sofa cushion.
+"You throw it and rumple my best hair, if you dare."</p>
+
+<p>Nell put the cushion down reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a mean shame; you know I can't fight now."</p>
+
+<p>"Though you have your war paint on," said Falconer, looking at her with
+a half-sad, half-proud admiration and affection.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not much of a war paint," said Nell, but contentedly enough. "It's
+the dress I made for a party at Wolfer House&mdash;Dick, you know that the
+Wolfers have had to go? Lord Wolfer's brother was ill. I am so sorry!
+She would have made me feel less nervous, and rather braver. Yes, I'm
+sorry! It's an old dress, and I'm afraid Drake's jewels must feel quite
+ashamed of it," and she glanced at the pearls which he had given her a
+day or two ago, and which gleamed softly on her white, girlish neck and
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"You hear her complaining, Falconer!" said Dick, with mock sternness and
+reproval. "You'd find it hard to believe that I offered to remain at
+home and pop my dress suit, that she might buy herself fitting raiment
+for this show. Oh, worse than a serpent's tooth, it is to have an
+ungrateful sister!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was a new dress," remarked Falconer, still eying it and
+the wearer intently.</p>
+
+<p>Nell shook her head, coloring a little, as she said:</p>
+
+<p>"No; I wanted to wear this one. I didn't want to appear in a grand frock
+as if I were a fashionable lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine feathers do not always make a fine lady," observed Dick,
+addressing the ceiling. "No one would mistake you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> for anything
+but&mdash;what you are, a simple ch-e-ild of Nachure."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tease her, Dick," remonstrated Falconer; but Nell laughed with
+enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind in the least, Mr. Falconer. It's quite true, too; my plain
+frock is more suitable than anything Worth could turn out."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Falconer, I'm sorry to see you so easily imposed on. Don't you
+see that she's as vain as a peacock, and that she's only playing at the
+humble and meek? Besides, I expect that idiot Drake&mdash;who slipped out
+just as we came down&mdash;he'll be late for dinner if he doesn't mind!&mdash;has
+been telling her that she looks rather pretty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nell blushed, for Drake had indeed told her that she looked more than
+pretty.</p>
+
+<p>"And, of course, she believes him. She'd believe him if he told her that
+the moon was made of green cheese. Put that cushion down, my child, or
+it will be worse for you. And I hope you will behave yourself properly
+to-night. Remember that the brother who has brought you up with such
+anxious care will be present, to say nothing of the friend to whose
+culture and refined example you owe so much. Don't forget that it is bad
+manners to put your knife in your mouth, or to laugh too loudly.
+Remember we shall be watching you closely and anxiously."</p>
+
+<p>"It is time we started," said Falconer. "Let me put that shawl more
+closely round you, Miss Lorton. It's a fine night, but one cannot be too
+careful."</p>
+
+<p>It was so fine that they had decided to walk the short distance to the
+Hall; and they set out, Falconer with his precious violin in its case
+under his arm, and Dick smoking a cigarette. They were all rather silent
+as they approached the great house, and Dick, looking up at it, said
+with a gravity unusual with him:</p>
+
+<p>"It's hard to realize that you are going to be the mistress of this huge
+place, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>Nell made no response; but she, too, looked up at the house with the
+same thought.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, it was hard to realize. But the next moment Drake came out to
+meet them, and took her upon his arm, with a whispered word of loving
+greeting for her, and a warm welcome to the two men.</p>
+
+<p>"I needn't say how glad I am to see you, Falconer," he said, "or how
+delighted the countess and the rest of them will be. You must be
+prepared for a little hero worship, I'm afraid, for the countess has
+been diligent in spreading the story of your pluck."</p>
+
+<p>As he lovingly took off Nell's shawl, he whispered:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Dearest, how sweet and beautiful you look! If you knew how proud I
+am&mdash;how proud and happy!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he led them into the drawing-room. A number of guests had already
+arrived, and as the countess came forward and kissed Nell, they looked
+at her with a keen curiosity, though it was politely veiled.</p>
+
+<p>Nell was a little pale as the countess introduced her to one after
+another of the county people; but Drake stood near her; and everybody,
+prepossessed by her youth, and the girlish dignity and modesty which
+characterized her, was very kind and pleasant; and soon the threatened
+fit of shyness passed off, and she felt at her ease.</p>
+
+<p>The room, large as it was, got rather crowded. Guests were still
+arriving. Some of the women were magnificently dressed in honor of the
+occasion, but Nell's simple frock distinguished her, as the plain
+evening dress of the American ambassador is said to distinguish him
+among the rich uniforms and glittering orders of the queen's levee; and
+the women recognized and approved her good taste in appearing so simply
+dressed.</p>
+
+<p>"She is sweetly pretty," murmured the local duchess to Lady Northgate.
+"I don't wonder at Lord Angleford's losing his heart. Half the men in
+the room would fall in love with her if she were free. And I like that
+quiet, reticent manner of hers; not a bit shy, but dignified and yet
+girlish. Yes, Lord Angleford is to be congratulated."</p>
+
+<p>"So he would be if she were not half so pretty," said Lady Northgate;
+"for he is evidently too happy for words. See how he looks at her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that bright-looking young fellow?" asked the duchess, putting up
+her pince-nez at Dick.</p>
+
+<p>"That is her brother. Isn't he like her? They are devoted to each other;
+and that is Mr. Falconer, the great violinist. Of course, you've heard
+the story&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, yes," said the duchess. "And I want to congratulate him. I
+wish you'd bring the boy to me, dear."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Northgate went after him, but at that moment a young lady with
+laughing eyes came into the room, and Dick started and actually blushed.</p>
+
+<p>Drake, who was standing near him, laughed at his confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"An old friend of yours, I think, Dick, eh? Miss Angel. She's stopping
+in the house; came to-day. If you're good, you shall take her in to
+dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be what she is by name, if I may!" said Dick, eagerly. "I'll go
+and tell her so," and he made his way through the crowd to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Afraid you've forgotten me, Miss Angel," he said. "Hop at the Maltbys',
+you know!"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes danced more merrily, but she surveyed him demurely for a
+moment, as if trying to recall him, then she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; the gentleman who was so very&mdash;very cool; I was going to say
+impudent; pretty Miss Lorton's brother."</p>
+
+<p>"You might have said Miss Lorton's pretty brother!" retorted Dick
+reproachfully. "But you'll have time to say it later on, for I'm going
+to take you in to dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"'Going to have the honor' of taking me in to dinner, you mean!" she
+said, with mock hauteur.</p>
+
+<p>"No; 'pleasure' is the word," said the unabashed Dick. "I say, how
+delighted I am to see you here&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Because I know so very few of this mob."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see. I'll recall my thanks, please."</p>
+
+<p>Dick grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were rather too previous with your gratitude. But isn't
+it jolly being here together!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that a question or an assertion? Because, if it's the former, I beg
+leave to announce that I see no reason for any great delight on my
+part."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come now! You think! You can resume the lesson on manners you
+commenced at the Maltbys'. I want it badly; for I have been among a
+rough set lately. I'm a British workingman, you know&mdash;engineer. Come
+into this corner, and I'll tell you all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I want to hear," she retorted. "But, oh, well, I'll
+come after I've spoken to your sister. How lovely she looks to-night! If
+I were a man, I should envy Lord Angleford."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you? So should I if he were going to marry another young lady I
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, who is that?" she asked, with admirably feigned innocence and
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you can't see her just now. No looking-glass near," he had the
+audacity to add, but under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner hour struck, the carriages were setting down the last
+arrivals, and Lady Angleford was looking round and smilingly awaiting
+the butler's "Dinner is served, my lady!" when a footman came up to her
+and said something in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>The countess went out of the room, and found her maid in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The woman whispered a few words that caused Lady Angleford to turn pale
+and stand gazing before her as if she had suddenly seen a ghost.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Very well," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The maid hurried upstairs, but the countess stood for quite half a
+minute, still pale, and gazing into vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>Then she went back to the drawing-room, and, with a mechanical smile,
+passed among the guests until she reached Drake, who was talking to the
+duke and Lord Northgate.</p>
+
+<p>"You want me, countess?" he said, feeling her eyes fixed on him, and he
+followed her to a clear space.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake," she said, lifting her eyes to his face pitifully, "Drake,
+something dreadful has happened&mdash;something dreadful. I don't like to
+tell you, but I must. She is here!"</p>
+
+<p>She whispered the announcement as if it were indeed something dreadful.</p>
+
+<p>Drake looked at her in a mystified fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"She! Who?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Luce!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not start, but his brows came together, and his face grew stern,
+for the first time since his reconciliation to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Luce!" he echoed. "Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but she is!" she murmured, in despair. "She arrived a quarter of an
+hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"But I wrote, telling her," he muttered helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>The countess made a despairing gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Then she did not get your letter. She sent a telegram this morning,
+saying that she was able, unexpectedly, to come, but I have not had it.
+And if I had received it, there would not have been time to prevent her
+coming." She glanced at the slim, girlish figure of Nell, where it
+stood, the center of a group, and almost groaned. "What shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>At such times a man is indeed helpless, and Drake stood overwhelmed and
+idealess.</p>
+
+<p>"She says that we are not to wait&mdash;that she will come down when she is
+dressed. She&mdash;she&mdash;&mdash;Oh, Drake! she does not know, and she will think
+that&mdash;that you still&mdash;that she&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. But I am thinking of Nell," he said grimly. "Luce must be told.
+She&mdash;yes, she must go away again. She will, when she knows the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but who is to tell her?" said the poor countess, aghast at the
+prospect before her.</p>
+
+<p>Drake shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Not you, countess. I will tell her."</p>
+
+<p>"You, Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I," he said, biting his lips. "She found little difficulty in
+telling me, there at Shorne Mills&mdash;&mdash;No, no; I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> ought not to have said
+that. But I am anxious to spare Nell, and my anxiety makes me hard. Wait
+a moment."</p>
+
+<p>He went to the window, and, putting aside the curtains, looked out at
+the night, seeing nothing; then he came back.</p>
+
+<p>"Put the dinner back for a quarter of an hour, and send word to her and
+ask her to go into your boudoir. I will wait her there."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there no other way, Drake?" she asked, pitying him from the bottom
+of her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"There is none," he said frankly. "It is my fault. I ought to have found
+out her address; but it is no use reproaching oneself. Send to her,
+countess!"</p>
+
+<p>She left the room, and Drake went back to the duke, talked for a moment
+or two, then went up to the countess' room and waited. He had to face an
+ordeal more severe than any other that had hitherto fallen to his not
+uneventful life; but faced it had to be; and he would have gone through
+fire and water to save Nell a moment's pain. Besides, Luce was to be
+considered, though, it must be confessed, he felt little pity for her.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the door opened; but it was Burden who entered. She was
+looking pale and emaciated, as if she were either very ill, or
+recovering from illness, and Drake, even at that moment of strain and
+stress, noticed her pitiable appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Burden?" he said. "I am afraid you have not been well."</p>
+
+<p>Burden curtsied, and looked up at him with hollow eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my lord," she faltered. "My lady sent me to tell your
+lordship that she will be here in a minute or two."</p>
+
+<p>She left the room, and Drake leaned against the mantelshelf with his
+hands in his pockets, his head sunk on his breast; and in a minute or
+two the door opened again, and Luce glided toward him with outstretched
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake! How sweet of you to send for me&mdash;to wait!" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He took one of her hands and held it, and the coldness of his touch, the
+expression of his face, startled her.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake! What is the matter?" she asked. "Are&mdash;are you not glad to see
+me? Why do you look at me so strangely? I came the moment I could get
+away. There has been so much to do; and father"&mdash;she paused a moment and
+shrugged her shoulders&mdash;"has been very bad. The excitement and
+fuss&mdash;&mdash;You know the condition he would be in, under the circumstances.
+I told Burden to wire this morning to say I was coming, but she forgot
+to do so. She seems half demented,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> and I am going to get rid of her.
+What is the matter, Drake?"</p>
+
+<p>She had moved nearer to him, expecting him to take her in his arms and
+kiss her; but his coldness, his silence, was telling upon her, and the
+question broke from her impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you had my letter?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Your letter? No. Did you write? I am sorry! What did you write?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote"&mdash;he hesitated a moment, but what was the good of trying to
+"break" the news? "I wrote to tell you of my engagement&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She started and stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Your engagement! Your&mdash;&mdash;Drake! What do you mean? Your engagement!
+To&mdash;to whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Luce," he said gravely, tenderly, and he went to lead her to
+a chair; but she shook her hand free and stood, still staring at him
+blankly, her face growing paler.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote and told you all about it. I am engaged to Miss Lorton. You do
+not know her; but she is the young lady I met at Shorne Mills, the place
+in Devonshire&mdash;&mdash;I was engaged to her then, but it was broken off, and
+we were separated for a time; but we met again&mdash;&mdash;I am sorry, very
+sorry, that you did not get my letter."</p>
+
+<p>Her face was perfectly white by this time, her lips set tightly. He
+feared she was going to faint; but, with a great effort she fought
+against the deadly weakness which assailed her.</p>
+
+<p>"So that was what you wrote!" she breathed, every word leaving her lips
+as if it caused her pain to utter. "You&mdash;you&mdash;have deceived me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Luce," he said quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! When I left here you&mdash;&mdash;Is it not true that you intended
+asking me to be your wife, to renew our engagement? Answer!"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at him, her teeth showing between her parted lips.</p>
+
+<p>He inclined his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is true; but I had not met&mdash;I had not heard&mdash;&mdash;Oh, what is the
+use of all this recrimination, Luce? I am engaged to the girl I love."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her hand as if to strike him. He caught it gently, and as
+gently released it.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go," she panted. "I will go at once. Be good enough to order my
+carriage&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand to her head as if she did not know what she was saying;
+and Drake's heart ached with pity for her&mdash;at that moment, at any rate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't think too hardly of me, Luce," he said, in a low voice. "And you
+have not lost much, remember."</p>
+
+<p>She clasped her hands and swayed to and fro for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I see! It is your revenge. I once jilted you, and now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, don't say&mdash;don't think&mdash;&mdash;No man could be so base, so
+vile!" he said sternly.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is your revenge; I see it. Yes, you have scored. I will go&mdash;at once.
+Open the door, please!"</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing else to be done. He opened the door for her, and she
+swept past him. Outside, she paused for a moment, as if she did not know
+where she was, or in which direction her room lay; then she went
+slowly&mdash;almost staggered&mdash;down the corridor, and, bursting into her
+room, fell into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>So sudden was her entrance, so tragic her collapse, that the nervous
+Burden uttered a faint shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my lady! what is the matter?" she cried, her hand against her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes gleaming from her
+white face, in silence for a moment; then she laughed, the laugh which
+borders on hysteria.</p>
+
+<p>"Congratulate me, Burden!" she said bitterly; "congratulate me! Lord
+Angleford is engaged!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"To&mdash;to your ladyship?" she said, but doubtfully. "I do congratulate
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"You fool!" cried Luce savagely. "He is engaged to another woman. He has
+jilted me! Oh, I think I shall go mad! Jilted me! Yes, it is that, and
+no less. Oh, my head! my head!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden hurried to her with the eau de Cologne, but Lady Luce pushed it
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep out of my sight! I can't bear the sight of any human being!
+Engaged! 'I am engaged to Miss Lorton!'"&mdash;she mimicked Drake's voice in
+bitter mockery.</p>
+
+<p>Burden started, and let the eau de Cologne bottle fall with a soft thud
+to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what name did your ladyship say?" she gasped, her face as white
+as her mistress's, her eyes starting.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce glared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"You fool! Are you deaf? Lorton! Lorton!" she almost snarled at the
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>Burden stooped to pick up the bottle, but staggered and clutched a
+chair, and Lady Luce watched her with half-distraught gaze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with you? Why do you behave like a lunatic?" she
+demanded. "Do you know this girl? Answer!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden moistened her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it the young lady&mdash;who helped catch Ted&mdash;I mean the burglar, my
+lady?" she asked hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so. Yes. Well? Speak out&mdash;don't keep me waiting. I'm in no
+humor to be trifled with. You know her&mdash;something about her?"</p>
+
+<p>Burden tried to control her shaking voice.</p>
+
+<p>"If&mdash;if it is the same young lady who was at Lady Wolfer's&mdash;&mdash;I was her
+maid, you remember&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember, you fool! Quick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;then I know something. She's very pretty&mdash;and young, with dark
+hair&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce sprang to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"You idiot! You drive me mad. I've not seen her. But if it be the
+same&mdash;&mdash;Well&mdash;well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;then Lord Angleford is to be pitied. He has been
+deceived&mdash;deceived cruelly," said Burden, in gasps.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce caught her by the shoulders and glared into her quailing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me, Burden: pull yourself together. Tell me what you
+know&mdash;tell me this instant! Well? Sit there in that chair. Now!" She
+pressed the shoulders she still held with the gesture of an Arab slave
+driver. "Now, quick! Who is she? What do you know against her?"</p>
+
+<p>In faltering accents, and yet with a kind of savage pleasure, Burden
+spoke for some minutes; and as Lady Luce listened, the pallor of her
+face gave place to a flush of fierce, malicious joy.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure? You say you saw, you listened? Are you sure?" she
+said&mdash;hissed, rather&mdash;at the end of Burden's story.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am quite sure," she responded. "I&mdash;I could swear to it. I was just
+outside the library."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce paced up and down with the gait of a tigress.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could only be sure," she panted; "if I could only be sure! But you
+may be mistaken. Wait!" Her hand fell upon Burden's shoulder again. "Go
+downstairs, look at the people, and tell me if you see her there.
+Quick!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden, wincing under the savage pressure of her hand, rose, and stole
+from the room.</p>
+
+<p>In less than five minutes she was back.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" demanded Lady Luce, as Burden closed the door and leaned against
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"It&mdash;it is the same. I saw her," she said suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce sank into a chair, and was silent and motionless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> for a
+moment; then she sprang up and laughed&mdash;a hideous laugh for such perfect
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Get out my pale mauve silk. Dress me, quick! I am not going to leave
+the house. I am going downstairs to make Miss Lorton's acquaintance!
+Quick!"</p>
+
+<p>Burden got out the exquisite dress. The flush which had risen to her
+mistress' face was reflected in her own. This Miss Lorton had helped to
+capture her beloved, her "martyred" Ted, and he was going to be avenged!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>After Luce had swept from the room, Drake remained for a minute or two
+thinking the thoughts that a man must think under such circumstances;
+then he went slowly down to the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was watching and waiting for him, and she looked up at his
+grave countenance anxiously as he came toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all right," he said, in his quiet way; "she is going at once."</p>
+
+<p>His composure, the Angleford impassiveness which always came to their
+aid in moments of danger and difficulty, impressed her; she drew a
+breath of relief, and signed to the butler, who was hovering about
+awaiting her signal. "Dinner is served, my lady," he announced solemnly;
+and Drake gave the duchess his arm, and the company went into the dining
+room in pairs "like the animals into Noah's Ark," as Dick whispered to
+Miss Angel, who, to his great delight, he was taking in.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large party, and a brilliant one. The great room in the glory
+of its new adornment was worthy of the house and its guests. If the
+truth must be told, Nell was at first a little nervous, though it was
+not her first experience, as we know, of an aristocratic dinner party.
+She was seated on the left of Drake, and on pretense of moving one of
+her glasses, he succeeded in touching her hand, and, as he did so, he
+looked at her as a man looks who sees joy before him and an abiding
+happiness; then he turned and talked to the duchess, for he knew that
+Nell would like to be left alone for a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible for any party, however large and aristocratic, over
+which the countess presided, to be dull, and very soon they were all
+talking, and some of them laughing, for there were two young persons
+present, at any rate, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> were by no means overawed by the splendor of
+the appointments or the rank of the guests. Dick would have found it
+possible to be merry at a Quakers' meeting, and Miss Angel, though she
+tried to preserve a demure, not to say repressive, mood, very soon
+yielded to Dick's light-hearted influence; and not only she, but those
+near them, were kept by him in ripples of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>It was just what Drake wanted, and he looked down the table toward Dick
+with approval and gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick hasn't changed a bit&mdash;thank Heaven!" he said to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"Your brother's the most charming boy I've met for a very long time,"
+remarked the duchess. "Of course, he will come with you and the rest to
+me on the ninth. I am so glad to see Mr. Falconer here, and I hope he
+will be well enough to join us!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell glanced at Falconer with a sisterly regard, and Drake said:</p>
+
+<p>"We'll bring him, if we have to pack him in cotton wool!"</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was, inevitably, a lengthy one; but it was never for a moment
+dull, and the countess almost forgot Lady Luce as she realized the
+success of her party. She felt as a captain of a vessel feels when he
+has left behind him the perilous rocks on which he had nearly struck.
+Drake, too, almost forgot the ordeal through which he had just passed.
+How could he do otherwise when his darling was within reach of his hand,
+under his roof, at his table? The ladies remained some time after the
+appearance of the dessert, but the countess rose at last, and led the
+way to the drawing-room. There, of course, Nell was made much of. Some
+of the younger women drew their chairs near her, and showed as plainly
+as they could&mdash;and how plainly women can show things when they
+like!&mdash;that they were eager to welcome her into the county's social
+circle; and it required no effort on their part, for Nell's charm, which
+Drake had found so potent, was irresistible. There was some playing and
+singing, and the countess wanted Nell to do one or the other; but she
+shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Falconer will want me to play his accompaniments presently," she
+said. Not even in this full tide of her happiness did she forget him.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the men were having a very pleasant time in the dining room.
+Drake, like all the Anglefords, was a capital host. Anglemere was famous
+for its claret and its port, as we know, and Dick and the other young
+men waxed merry; and the duke voiced the general sentiment when, leaning
+back in his chair and sipping his claret, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"The gods might be envious of you, Angleford. If I were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> asked to spot a
+happy man, I should pitch upon you. I congratulate you upon your
+engagement. She's one of the prettiest and most charming girls I've ever
+met. That sounds rather banal, but I mean it. I hope you'll let us see a
+great deal of her, for Mary"&mdash;Mary was the duchess&mdash;"has, I can see,
+taken a great fancy to her. And I'm very glad to hear that you intend to
+make this your home; at least, so I hear from Styles, who appears to be
+in your confidence."</p>
+
+<p>And he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>And Drake laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, Styles and I are old friends," he said. "We mean to live here
+a great deal. I shall keep up the Home farm; they've offered me the
+mastership of the hounds, and I think I shall take it. Nell's a capital
+horsewoman. In fact, we shall lead a country life most of the time, and
+see as much as we can of our people."</p>
+
+<p>"You're right," said the duke emphatically. "It's the best of all lives.
+If we all lived on our estates and looked after our people, we should
+hear very little of socialism, and such like troubles. It's the
+absenteeism which is answerable for most of the mischief."</p>
+
+<p>They discussed county affairs, "horses, hounds, and the land," for some
+minutes; then Drake, who was anxious to go to Nell, asked the men if
+they would have any more wine, and, receiving a negative, rose, and made
+for the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Angel was singing; Dick of course, was turning over her music.
+There was a little hushed buzz of conversation which is not too loud to
+permit the song to penetrate, and which indicates that things are going
+well. Drake went to Nell and leaned over the tall back of her chair
+without a word. When the song was finished, the countess went up to
+Falconer and asked him to play. A footman brought the precious violin,
+and Nell went to the piano and struck up the piece which they had
+chosen. Conversation ceased, and every one prepared to listen with eager
+anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>Falconer may have played as well in his life, but he certainly never
+played better. One could have heard a pin drop during the softer notes
+of the exquisite music, so intense and almost breathless was the silence
+of the rapt audience. When the last note had died away, the countess
+went up to him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is useless trying to thank you, Mr. Falconer," she said, "but if you
+will play again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Falconer. He turned to Nell. "What shall I play next?"
+he asked, as if the choice must naturally rest with her.</p>
+
+<p>She turned over the music and set up a Chopin, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> had placed the
+violin in position, when the door opened, and Lady Luce swept slowly in.
+She was superbly dressed, her neck and arms and hair were all a-glitter
+with diamonds. Though she was rather pale, her face was perfectly
+serene, and she smiled sweetly as she crossed the room.</p>
+
+<p>Her entrance caused a surprise; the countess happened to be standing
+with her back to the door, and did not see her come in; but she felt the
+sudden silence and turned to ascertain the cause. For a moment she was
+rooted to the spot, and the color left her face. It says much for her
+aplomb that she did not cry out. Her confusion lasted only for a moment,
+then she went toward Lady Luce with outstretched hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry to be so late," said Luce, in her sweetest tones, "but my
+maid, who is a perfect tyrant, refused to dress me until I had
+rested&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your dinner?" almost gasped the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"I had some sent up to my room," said Lady Luce sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>She looked round. Drake stood by the piano, his face sternly set. Why
+had she remained? What was she going to do? He glanced at Nell, and saw
+that she had gone white, and that her eyes were fixed on Lady Luce. What
+should he do?</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively, he went to meet Luce, who was advancing with a placid
+smile, and the ease of a woman who is at peace with all the world, and
+sure of her welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Lord Angleford?" she said, as if this were their first
+meeting for some time. "I am so glad that I was able to get here
+to-night, though I wish that I could have arrived earlier. But I am
+interrupting the music! Please don't let me!"</p>
+
+<p>She moved away from him with perfect grace, and, greeting one and
+another, went and seated herself in a chair beside the duchess&mdash;and
+opposite Nell at the piano. There was a little buzz of conversation
+round her, then she herself raised her fan as a sign for silence, and
+Falconer began to play again.</p>
+
+<p>It was well for Nell that she knew every note of the nocturne by heart,
+for the page of music swam before her eyes, and she could not see a
+note. She felt Lady Luce's gaze, rather than saw it, and her heart
+throbbed painfully for a while; but presently the influence of the music
+stole over her and helped her&mdash;if only Falconer could have known
+it!&mdash;and she said to herself: "What can it matter to me if she is here?
+I know that Drake loves me, and me alone; that she is nothing to him and
+I am everything. It is she who should feel confused and embarrassed, not
+I. And yet how calm, how serene she is! Can she have forgotten that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>
+night on the terrace? Can she have forgotten all that has happened? Yes,
+it is she whose heart should be beating as mine is now."</p>
+
+<p>When the nocturne came to an end, and the applause which greeted it
+broke out, Lady Luce, still clapping her hands, rose and went toward
+Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you please introduce me to Miss Lorton?" she said. "I am all
+anxiety to know her."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at him so placidly that even Drake, who knew her better than
+did any other man, was completely deceived.</p>
+
+<p>"She means to forget the past," he said to himself. "She is behaving
+better than I had any reason to expect."</p>
+
+<p>He drew a breath of relief, and his stern face relaxed somewhat as he
+nodded slightly and went toward Nell, who had risen from the piano and
+stood near Falconer. She looked at Drake and Lady Luce as calmly as she
+could, and Drake made the introduction in as ordinary a tone as he could
+manage. Lady Luce held out her hand with a sweet smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad to meet you, Miss Lorton," she said. "I have heard so much
+about you; and I dare say you have heard something about me, for Lord
+Angleford and I are very old friends. How charmingly you played that
+difficult accompaniment! Shall we go and sit down somewhere together and
+have a chat?"</p>
+
+<p>What could Nell say or do? Both she and Drake were helpless. Nell stood
+with downcast eyes, the color coming and going in her face, and Drake
+looked from one to the other, half relieved, half in doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go and sit on that ottoman," said Lady Luce, indicating one in
+the center of a group of ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Nell, as she followed, glanced at Drake as if she were asking, "Must I
+go?" He made a slight gesture in the affirmative, returning her glance
+with one of tender love and trust.</p>
+
+<p>The countess stood at a little distance, watching them, though
+apparently absorbed in conversation, and no one would have guessed the
+condition of her mind as she saw the two women seated side by side.
+Presently she went up to Drake.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it mean?" she asked. "Why has she not gone? Why is she so&mdash;so
+friendly with Nell?"</p>
+
+<p>Drake shrugged his shoulders with a kind of smiling despair.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you," he replied. "I think she is going to behave
+sensibly. At any rate, there is no need for anxiety. I have told Nell
+everything. She will trust me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but I wish she had gone," said the countess, in a low voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Drake smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. But she hasn't."</p>
+
+<p>"She is too serene and contented," murmured the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Drake shrugged his shoulders again.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said significantly. "But what does it matter? She can do no
+harm. Nell knows everything."</p>
+
+<p>"I like the way you say that," said the countess. "But don't leave her."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded as if he understood, and gradually made his way toward the
+group among which Luce and Nell were sitting. As he approached, Lady
+Luce looked up with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been telling Miss Lorton that if there is one thing I adore upon
+earth, it is a romantic engagement, and that I quite envy her, and you,
+too, Lord Angleford! A glamour of romance will surround you for the rest
+of your lives. As I have often said to Archie, life without sentiment
+would not be worth having. By the way, Miss Lorton, you know Sir Archie
+Walbrooke?"</p>
+
+<p>Nell had scarcely been listening, for she had been wondering whether she
+could now rise and leave Lady Luce; but at the name of Sir Archie
+Walbrooke, she turned with a sudden start, and the color rose to her
+face. Lady Luce looked at her sweetly; then, as if she had suddenly
+remembered something, exclaimed, in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon! I quite forgot. How stupid of me!" Then she
+laughed softly and looked from Nell to Drake. "But of course you've told
+Lord Angleford? It is always the best way."</p>
+
+<p>The color slowly left Nell's face; a look of pain, of doubt, even of
+dread, came into her eyes. Drake glanced from one woman to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it Nell must have told me, Lady Luce?" he asked easily.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce hesitated, seemed as if in doubt for a moment, and smiled in
+an embarrassed fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you told him?" she asked Nell, in a low, but perfectly audible
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>Nell rose, then sank down again. She saw in an instant the trap which
+Lady Luce had set for her; and it seemed to her a trap from which she
+could not escape. It was evident that Lady Luce had become informed of
+the scene that had taken place between Sir Archie, Lord Wolfer, and Nell
+in the library at Wolfer House, and that Lady Luce intended to denounce
+her in the drawing-room before Drake and the large party gathered
+together in her honor.</p>
+
+<p>For one single instant there rose in her heart a keen regret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> that she
+had not told Drake; but it was only for an instant; for Nell's nature
+was a noble one, and she knew that at no time and under no circumstances
+whatever could she have sacrificed her friend, even to save her life's
+happiness&mdash;and Drake's.</p>
+
+<p>That chilly morning in the dim library she had taken her friend's folly
+and sin upon her own shoulders, scarcely counting, scarcely seeing the
+cost, certainly not foreseeing this terrible price which she would have
+to pay for it. And now&mdash;now that the terrible moment had come when
+Drake&mdash;she cared little for any other&mdash;would hear her accused of that
+which a pure woman counts the worst of crimes, she would not be able to
+rise, and, with uplifted head, exclaim: "I am innocent!"</p>
+
+<p>She felt crushed, overwhelmed, but she could not remain silent; she had
+to speak; the eyes of those who were near were fixed upon her waitingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not told him," she said at last, in a low but clear voice.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce bit her lip softly, as if very much confused.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry I spoke!" she said, in an apologetic whisper. "It was
+very foolish of me&mdash;I am always blurting out awkward things&mdash;it is the
+impulsive Celtic temperament! Pray forgive me, Miss Lorton, and try and
+forget my stupid blunder."</p>
+
+<p>There was an intense silence. Nell looked straight before her, as one
+looks who hears the knell of the bell which signals the hour of her
+execution. Drake stood with his hands clasped behind him, his face
+perfectly calm, his eyes resting on Nell with infinite love and trust.
+The others glanced from one to the other with doubtful and
+half-suspicious looks. It seemed as if no one could start a
+conversation; the air was heavy with suspense and suspicion. The
+countess was quick and clever. She saw that for Nell's sake the matter
+must not be allowed to rest where it was; she knew that Lady Luce would
+have effected her purpose and cast a shadow of scandal over Nell's
+future life if not another word was spoken. Convinced that Nell was
+innocent of even the slightest indiscretion, she felt that it would be
+wiser to force Lady Luce's hand.</p>
+
+<p>So she came forward with a smile of tolerant contempt on her pretty,
+shrewd face, and said slowly, and with her musical drawl:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but, Lady Luce, we cannot let you off so easily. What is this
+interesting story in which Miss Lorton and Sir Archie Walbrooke are
+concerned?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce rose with well-feigned embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, Lady Angleford," she said. "I have blundered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> and have asked
+forgiveness; I have not another word to say."</p>
+
+<p>She was crossing the room in front of Drake, and he saw her lip curl
+with a faint sneer. He laid his hand upon her arm gently but firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"We will hear the story, if you please, Lady Luce," he said.</p>
+
+<p>She bit her lip, as if she were driven into a corner, and did not know
+what to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Not here, at any rate!" she said, in a low voice, and looking round at
+the silent group.</p>
+
+<p>Some of them rose and moved away; but Drake held up his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do not lose an amusing story!" he said, with a smile eloquent of
+contempt. "Now, Lady Luce, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>She looked from him to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to do?" she asked, as if in great distress. "Miss Lorton, you
+see my predicament; please come to my aid, and help me to escape. Tell
+Lord Angleford that you do not wish me to say any more."</p>
+
+<p>Still looking straight before her, Nell responded, almost inaudibly:</p>
+
+<p>"Speak! Yes&mdash;tell them!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce still seemed reluctant; at last she said, with an embarrassed
+laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"After all, it may amount to nothing, and you'll be very much
+disappointed. Indeed, it is very likely not true."</p>
+
+<p>Her reluctance was not altogether feigned, for it needed even her
+audacity and assurance to make such an accusation as she was about to
+bring against the future Countess of Angleford, and under her future
+roof; but she braced herself to a supreme effort, and, though she was
+really as white as Nell, she looked round boldly, as if confident of the
+truth of the thing she was going to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody knows what Sir Archie is," she began. "He's the worst flirt
+and the most dangerous man in England. Everybody has heard stories of
+his delinquencies; some of them are true, but many of them, I dare say,
+are false, and I've not the least doubt that Miss Lorton will tell us
+that the story that she was about to elope with him from Wolfer House
+one morning, but that she was stopped by Lord Wolfer, is an absurd
+fable. The story goes that she did not know, until Lord Wolfer told her
+at the very moment that she and Sir Archie were leaving the house, that
+Sir Archie was a married man. Now that's the whole affair, and I really
+think Miss Lorton will be grateful to me for giving her an opportunity
+of rising in true dramatic fashion and exclaiming: 'It is not true!'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She nodded at Nell and laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>There were many who echoed her laugh, for, indeed, the story did sound
+like an absurd fable. All eyes were turned on Nell, and all waited for
+her to bring about with a denial the satisfactory d&eacute;nouement. Drake did
+not laugh, for his heart was burning with fury against the audacity, the
+shameless insolence, of Lady Luce; but he smiled in a grim fashion as
+his eyes still rested on Nell's face.</p>
+
+<p>A moment passed. Why did she not rise? Why did she not, at any rate,
+speak? Four words would be enough: "It is not true!"</p>
+
+<p>But she remained motionless and silent. A kind of consternation began to
+creep over those who were watching, Drake went up to her and laid his
+hand on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray relieve Lady Luce's anxiety, Nell, and tell her that she has
+amused us with a canard too ridiculous to be anything but false," he
+said tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him, her brows drawn, her eyes pitiful in their agony
+of appeal, her lips quivering.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true!" she said, in a voice which, though low, was perfectly
+audible.</p>
+
+<p>There was an intense silence. No one moved; every eye was fixed on her
+in breathless excitement. They asked themselves if it were possible they
+had heard aright. Drake's hand pressed more heavily on Nell's shoulder;
+she could hear his breath coming heavily, could feel him shake. A faint
+cry escaped Lady Angleford's parted lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Nell!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>Nell rose and looked at her with the same agony of appeal in her eyes,
+but with her face firmly set, as if she were buoyed up by an inflexible
+resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"What Lady Luce has said is true," she said. "I will go&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Drake was by her side in an instant. He took her cold hand and drew it
+within his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" he said. "You will not go&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Lady Luce, and there was no need to finish the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled, and fanned herself slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Miss Lorton can explain it all," she said. "I am very sorry
+to have been the cause, the innocent cause, of such an unpleasant scene.
+But really you forced me to speak; and we all know that though Miss
+Lorton has admitted her&mdash;what shall I call it?&mdash;little escapade, there
+must be some satisfactory explanation. No one will believe for a moment
+that she really intended to elope with Sir Archie."</p>
+
+<p>While she had been speaking, some of the guests had edged toward the
+door. At such moments the kindest thing one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> can do is to remove oneself
+as quickly as possible. When a sudden death happens in a ballroom, the
+dancing ceases, the music stops, the revelers vanish. Something worse
+than death had happened in this drawing-room. The happiness of more than
+one life had been blasted as by a stroke of lightning.</p>
+
+<p>There was a general movement toward the door. A group of old
+friends&mdash;county neighbors, real friends of Drake and the
+countess&mdash;gathered round the little group. Falconer and Dick pushed
+their way through them none too ceremoniously.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take my sister home, Lord Angleford," said Dick hotly; while
+Falconer took her hand, his face white, his eyes flashing.</p>
+
+<p>Nell would have drawn away from Drake and turned to them; but he put his
+arm round her waist and held her by sheer force.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg that no one will go," he said; and his voice, though not loud,
+rang like a bell. Everybody stopped. "I think every one has heard Lady
+Lucille's accusation against my future wife," he said. "For reasons
+which concern herself and me only, my future wife"&mdash;he laid an emphasis
+on the words&mdash;"has seen fit not to deny this accusation. I am quite
+content that it should be so. If we have any friends here let&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Before he could finish his appeal, the door opened, and Lord and Lady
+Wolfer entered the room. They were in traveling dress, and Lady Wolfer
+looked pale and in trouble, while Wolfer's face was grave and stern.</p>
+
+<p>"If any friend, whether it be man or woman, deems an explanation due to
+them, I will ask Miss Lorton if she can give it to them," continued
+Drake. "If she should not think fit to do so&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wolfer, until now unnoticed except by a very few, came through the
+circle which at once had formed round the principal actors in this
+social tragedy. She went straight up to Nell, and took her hand and drew
+her into her embrace, as if to shelter and succor her. With a faint cry,
+Nell's head fell on Lady Wolfer's bosom. Lady Wolfer looked round, not
+defiantly, but with the air of one facing death bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain," she said. "It was not she who was going to elope with
+Sir Archie Walbrooke. It was I!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; you must not!" panted Nell.</p>
+
+<p>The living circle drew closer, and listened and stared in breathless
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"It was I!" said Lady Wolfer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You!" exclaimed Lady Luce. "Then Burden&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Burden lied," said Lady Wolfer. "I want to tell every one; it is due to
+this saint, this dear girl, who sacrificed herself to me. I only heard
+this morning from my husband that he had found a note which Sir Archie
+had sent me, asking me to leave England with him. He placed this note on
+a pedestal in my drawing-room. Both my husband and Nell saw it, not
+knowing that the other had seen it. It never reached me; but this dear
+girl kept the appointment which Sir Archie had made for the library the
+next morning. She wanted to save me. I know, almost as if I had been
+there, how she pleaded with him, how she strove for my honor. While they
+were there my husband came upon them. The letter was not addressed to
+me, and he leaned to the conclusion that it was intended for Nell. She
+permitted him to make the hideous mistake, and, to save me, she left the
+house with her reputation ruined&mdash;in his eyes, at least. Until this
+morning he has never breathed a word of this to a soul. I am confident
+that Sir Archie Walbrooke, who went away full of remorse and penitence,
+has also kept silent. It was reserved for a woman to strike the blow
+aimed at the honor and happiness of an innocent and helpless girl&mdash;a
+girl so noble that she is ready to lay down her life's happiness and
+honor rather than betray the friend she loves. Judge between these two,
+between us three, if you will."</p>
+
+<p>It was not a moment for cheering, but sudden exclamations burst from the
+men, most of the women were in tears, and Nell was sobbing as she lay on
+her friend's bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce alone remained smiling. Her face was white, her breath came in
+quick, labored gasps.</p>
+
+<p>"What a charming romance!" she exclaimed, with a forced sneer. "So
+completely satisfactory!"</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of her voice, the countess' spirit rose in true Anglo-Saxon
+fashion. She checked her sobs, wiped her eyes with a morsel of lace she
+called a handkerchief, and, sweeping in a stately manner to the door,
+said, with the extreme of patrician hauteur:</p>
+
+<p>"A carriage for Lady Lucille Turfleigh, please!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Luce shrugged her shoulders, turned, and slowly moved toward the
+door; and, as she went, the crowd made way for her, and left her a clear
+passage, as if she had suddenly become infectious.</p>
+
+<p>Nell did not see her go, did not hear the mingled expressions of
+indignation and congratulation which buzzed round her.</p>
+
+<p>All she heard was Drake's "Nell! Nell! My dearest! my own!" as he put
+his arms round her and drew her head to his breast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Those persons who are fortunate enough to receive invitations to the
+summer and shooting parties, which Lord and Lady Angleford give at
+Anglemere, have very good reason to congratulate themselves; but those who
+are still more fortunate to receive a letter from Nell, asking them to
+spend a fortnight at the picturesque and "cottagy" house which Drake has
+built at a certain out-of-the-way spot in Devonshire called Shorne Mills,
+go about pluming themselves as if they had drawn one of the prizes in
+life's lottery. For only very intimate and dear friends are asked to
+Shorne Mills.</p>
+
+<p>The house is not large. With the exception of the grooms, there are no
+menservants; there is no state, and very little formality; life there is
+mostly spent in the open air, in that delicious mixture of sea and
+moorland air in which everyday worries and anxieties do not seem able to
+exist.</p>
+
+<p>At The Cottage no one finds time hanging heavily on his or her hands; no
+one is bored. It is a small Liberty Hall. There are horses to ride;
+there are tramps to be taken across the heather-scented hills; there are
+yachting and fishing in the bay, and there is always light-hearted
+laughter round and about the house&mdash;especially when her ladyship's
+brother, Mr. Dick Lorton, is present; and he and the famous musician,
+Mr. Falconer, always come down together, and remain while the family
+occupy The Cottage. There, too, the dowager countess is always a regular
+visitor; indeed, Nell and she are very seldom apart, for, if the
+countess could tear herself away from Nell, she certainly could not
+leave the baby son and heir, who is as often in her arms as in his
+mother's.</p>
+
+<p>Here, too, come, every year, the Wolfers. In fact, to sum it up, the
+party is composed of Nell's and Drake's dearest and tried friends, and
+they one and all have grown to love Shorne Mills almost as keenly as
+Nell and Drake themselves do. Nell is proud of Anglemere, and the other
+places which her husband has inherited, but there is a certain corner in
+her heart which is reserved for the little fishing place in which she
+first saw, and learned to love, "Drake Vernon."</p>
+
+<p>Watch them as they go down the steep and narrow way to the pier. It is a
+July evening; the sun is still bright, but the shadows are casting a
+purple tint on the hills beyond the moor; a faint breeze ripples the
+opaline bay; the fishing boats are gliding in like "painted ships on a
+painted ocean"; the tinkle of the cow bells mingles with the shrill cry
+of the curlew and the guillemot. The <i>Seagull</i> lies at anchor in the bay
+ready to sail at a moment's notice. But Drake does not signal for the
+dinghy as Nell and he reach the pier, for, though they are going for a
+sail, it is not in the stately yacht.</p>
+
+<p>By the slip lies an old herring boat, with <i>Annie Laurie</i> painted on its
+stern, and Brownie has got the sail up and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> stands waiting with a smile
+to help his beloved "Miss Nell" into the old boat. Nell lays her hand
+upon his shoulder as of old, and steps in and takes the tiller; Drake
+makes taut the sheet, and the old boat glides away from the slip and
+sails out into the open.</p>
+
+<p>Drake looks up at the wind with a sailor's eye, and glances at Nell. He
+does not speak, but she understands, and she steers the <i>Annie Laurie</i>
+for the little piece of smooth beach which leads to the cave under the
+cliff. It is to this point they nearly always make; for was it not here
+that Drake Vernon told Nell Lorton of his love, and drew the confession
+of hers from her lips? To this place they always come alone, for it is
+sacred.</p>
+
+<p>As, on this afternoon, they approach the spot, Drake utters an
+exclamation of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Nell, there's another boat there!" he says.</p>
+
+<p>"Not really, Drake?" she says, with a little disappointment in her
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>For the moments they spend in this spot are sweet and precious to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is," he says; "and, by George; there are two persons sitting
+on the bowlder&mdash;our bowlder!"</p>
+
+<p>Nell looks with keen eyes; then she blushes, and laughs softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Drake, it's Dick and Lettie Angel!" she says, in a whisper, as if they
+could hear her.</p>
+
+<p>But she need not be afraid; the two young people who are seated on the
+spot sacred to Nell and Drake's love, have no ears nor eyes for any but
+themselves. The girl's face is downcast and blushing, and Dick's is
+upturned to hers. He has got hold of her hand; he is pleading as&mdash;well,
+as a certain Drake Vernon once pleaded to a certain Nell Lorton.</p>
+
+<p>Nell and Drake exchange glances full of tenderness, full of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ourselves over again, dearest!" he says, in a low and loving voice.
+"Put her round; we won't disturb them. God bless them, and send them
+happiness like unto ours!"</p>
+
+<p>And "Amen!" whispers Nell, her eyes full of tears.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nell, of Shorne Mills, by Charles Garvice
+
+
+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: Nell, of Shorne Mills
+       or, One Heart's Burden
+
+
+Author: Charles Garvice
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2007  [eBook #22961]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank, Brownfox, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS
+
+Or, One Heart's Burden
+
+by CHARLES GARVICE
+
+Author of
+"Better Than Life," "A Life's Mistake," "Once in a Life,"
+"'Twas Love's Fault," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A. L. Burt Company
+Publishers  ::  ::  ::  New York
+1898
+
+
+
+NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"Dick, how many are twenty-seven and eight?"
+
+The girl looked up, with narrow eyes and puckered brow, from the
+butcher's book, which she was laboriously "checking," at the boy who
+leaned back on the window seat picking out a tune on a banjo.
+
+"Thirty-nine," he replied lazily but promptly, without ceasing to peck,
+peck at the strings.
+
+She nodded her thanks, and traveled slowly up the column, counting with
+the end of her pencil and jotting down the result with a perplexed face.
+
+They were brother and sister, Nell and Dick Lorton, and they made an
+extremely pretty picture in the sunny room. The boy was fair with the
+fairness of the pure Saxon; the girl was dark--dark hair with the sheen
+of silk in it, dark, straight brows that looked all the darker for the
+clear gray of the eyes which shone like stars beneath them. But the eyes
+were almost violet at this moment with the intensity of her mental
+effort, and presently, as she raised them, they flashed with a mixture
+of irritation and sweet indignation.
+
+"Dick, if you don't put that banjo down I'll come over and make you.
+It's bad enough at most times; but the 'Old Folks at Home' on one
+string, while I'm trying to check this wretched book, is intolerable,
+and not to be endured. Put it down, Dick, or I'll come over and smash
+both of you!"
+
+He struck a chord, an exasperating chord, and then resumed the more
+exasperating peck, peck.
+
+"'Twas ever thus," he said, addressing the ceiling with sad reproach.
+"Women are born ungrateful, and continue so. Here am I, wasting this
+delightful afternoon in attempting to soothe a sister's savage breast by
+sweet strains of heavenly music, and she----"
+
+With a laugh, she sprang from her seat and went for him. There was a
+short and fierce struggle, during which the banjo was whirled hither and
+thither; then he got her down on the floor, sat upon her, and
+deliberately resumed pecking out the "Old Folks at Home."
+
+"Let me get up, Dick! Let me get up this instant!" she cried indignantly
+and breathlessly. "The man's waiting for the book. Dick, do you hear?
+I'll pinch you--I'll crumple your collar! I'll burn that beast of a
+banjo directly you've gone out. Dick, I'm sure you're hurting me
+seriously. Di-ck! I've got a pain! Oh, you wait until you've gone out!
+I'll light the fire with that thing! Get up!"
+
+Without a change of countenance, as if he were deaf to her entreaties
+and threats, he tuned up the banjo, and played a breakdown.
+
+"Comfortable, Nell? That's right. Always strive for contentment,
+whatever your lot may be. At present your lot is to provide me with a
+nice, springy seat, and it will so continue to be until you promise--on
+your honor, mind--that you will not lay a destructive hand on this
+sweetest of instruments."
+
+"Oh, let me get up, Dick!"
+
+"Until I receive that promise, and an abject apology, it is a case of
+_j'y suis, j'y reste_, my child," he responded blandly.
+
+She panted and struggled for a moment or two, then she gasped:
+
+"I--I promise!"
+
+"On your word of honor?"
+
+"Yes, yes! Dick, you are breaking my ribs or something."
+
+"Corset, perhaps," he suggested. "And the apology? A verbal one will
+suffice on this occasion, accompanied by the sum of one shilling for the
+purchase of cigarettes."
+
+"I shan't! You never said a word about a shilling!"
+
+"I did not--I hadn't time; but I shall now have time to make it two."
+
+The door opened, and a servant with a moon-shaped face and prominent
+eyes looked in. She did not seem at all surprised at the state of
+affairs--did not even smile.
+
+"The butcher's man says shall he wait any longer, miss?"
+
+"Yes, tell him to wait, Molly," said the boy. "Miss Nell is tired, and
+is lying down for a little while; resting, you know."
+
+"I--I promise! I apologize! You--you shall have the shilling!" gasped
+the girl, half angrily, half haughtily.
+
+He rose in a leisurely fashion, got back to his window seat, and held
+out his long, shapely hand.
+
+She shook herself, put up one hand to her hair, and took a shilling from
+her pocket with the other.
+
+"Tiresome boy!" she exclaimed. "If I live to be a hundred, I shall never
+know why boys were invented."
+
+"There are lots of other things, simpler things, that you will never
+know, though you live to be a Methuselah, my dear Nell," he said; "one
+of them being that twenty-seven and eight do not make thirty-nine."
+
+"Thirty-nine? Why, of course not; thirty-five!" she retorted. "That's
+where I was wrong. Dick, you are a beast. There's the book, Molly, and
+there's the money----Oh, give me back that shilling, Dick; I want it!
+I've only just got enough. Give it me back at once; you shall have it
+again, I swear--I mean, I promise."
+
+"Simple child!" he murmured sweetly. "So young, so simple! She really
+thinks I shall give it to her! Such innocence is indeed touching! Excuse
+these tears. It will soon pass!"
+
+He mopped his eyes with his handkerchief, as if overcome by emotion, and
+the exasperated Nell looked at him as if she meant another fight; but
+she resisted the temptation, and, with a shrug of her shoulders, pushed
+the book and money toward the patient and unmoved Molly.
+
+"There you are, Molly, all but the shilling. Tell him to add that to the
+next account."
+
+"Yes, miss. And the missis' chocklut; it's just the time?"
+
+Nell glanced at the clock.
+
+"So it is! There'll be a row. It's all your fault, Dick. Why don't you
+go for a sail, or shrimping, or something? A boy's always a nuisance in
+the house. I'll come at once, Molly. There!" she exclaimed, as a woman's
+thin voice was heard calling in a languid and injured tone:
+
+"Molly!"
+
+"''Twas the voice of the sluggard----'" Dick began to quote; but Nell,
+with a hissed "Hush! she'll hear you!" ran out, struggling with her
+laughter. Five minutes later, she went up the stairs with a salver on
+which were a dainty chocolate service and a plate of thin bread and
+butter, and entering the best bedroom of the cottage, carried the salver
+to a faded-looking woman who, in a short dressing jacket of dingy pink,
+sat up in the bed.
+
+She was Mrs. Lorton, the stepmother of the boy and girl. She had been
+pretty once, and had not forgotten the fact--it is on the cards that she
+thought herself pretty still, though the weak face was thin and hollow,
+the once bright eyes dim and querulous, the lips drawn into a
+dissatisfied curve.
+
+"Here is your chocolate, mamma," said the girl. She hated the word
+"mamma"; but from the first moment of her introduction to Mrs. Lorton,
+she had declined to call her by the sacred name of "mother." "I'm afraid
+I'm late."
+
+"It is ten minutes past the time," said Mrs. Lorton; "but I do not
+complain. I never complain, Eleanor. A Wolfer should at least know how
+to suffer in silence. I hope it is hot--really hot; yesterday it was
+cold--quite cold, and it caused me that acute indigestion which, I
+trust, Eleanor, it will never be your lot to experience."
+
+"I'm sorry, mamma; but yesterday morning you were asleep when I brought
+it in, and I did not like to wake you."
+
+"Not asleep, Eleanor," said Mrs. Lorton, with an air of long-suffering
+patience--"no, alas! not asleep. My eyes were closed, I have no doubt;
+but I was merely thinking. I heard you come in----Surely that is not all
+the cream! I have few fancies, Heaven knows; but I have always been
+accustomed to half cream and half chocolate, and an invalid suffers
+acutely from these deprivations, slight and trifling though they may
+appear to one in your robust, I had almost said savage state of health."
+
+"Isn't there as much as usual? I will go and see if there is some
+more," said the girl, deftly arranging the tray. "See, it is quite hot
+this morning."
+
+"But it will be cold before you return, doubtless," sighed Mrs. Lorton,
+with saintly resignation. "And, Eleanor, may I venture to ask you not to
+renew the terrible noise with which you have been filling the house for
+the last half hour. You know how I dislike crushing the exuberance of
+your animal spirits; but such a perfectly barbaric noise tortures my
+poor overstrained nerves."
+
+"Yes, mamma. We'll--I'll be quiet."
+
+"Thank you. It is a great deal to ask. I am aware that you think me
+exacting. This butter is anything but fresh."
+
+"It was made this morning."
+
+"Please, oh, please do not contradict me, Eleanor! If there is one
+characteristic more plainly developed in me than another it is my
+unerring taste. This butter is not fresh. But do not mind. I am not
+complaining. Do not think that. I merely passed the remark. And if you
+are really going to get me my usual quantity of cream, will you do so
+now? Cold chocolate two mornings in succession would try my digestion
+sadly."
+
+The girl left the room quickly, and as she passed the dining-room door
+she looked in to say hurriedly:
+
+"Dry up, Dick. Mamma's been complaining of the noise."
+
+"'Eleanor, I never complain,'" he murmured; but he put down the banjo,
+rose and stretched himself, and left the room, pretending to slip as he
+passed Nell in the passage, and flattening her against the wall.
+
+She gave him a noiseless push and went for the remainder of the cream.
+
+Mrs. Lorton received it with a sigh and a patient "I thank you,
+Eleanor;" and while she sipped the chocolate, and snipped at the bread
+and butter--she ate the latter as if it were a peculiarly distasteful
+medicine in the solid--the girl tidied the room. It was the only really
+well-furnished room in the cottage; Nell's little chamber in the roof
+was as plain as Marguerite's in "Faust," and Dick's was Spartan in its
+Character; but a Wolfer--Mrs. Lorton was a distant, a very distant
+connection by a remote marriage of the noble family of that name--cannot
+live without a certain amount of luxury, and, as there was not enough to
+go round, Mrs. Lorton got it all. So, though Nell's little bed was
+devoid of curtains, her furniture of the "six-guinea suite" type and her
+carpet a square of Kidderminster, her stepmother's bed was amply draped,
+possessed its silk eider-down and lace-edged pillows; there was an
+Axminster on the floor, an elaborate dressing table furnished with a
+toilet set, and--the fashionable lady's indispensable--a cheval glass.
+
+"I think I will get up in half an hour, if you will be good enough to
+send Molly up to me," said Mrs. Lorton, sinking onto her pillow as if
+exhausted by her struggle with the chocolate.
+
+"Yes, mamma," assented the girl. "What will you have for lunch?"
+
+"Lunch!" sighed Mrs. Lorton, with an assumption of weary indifference.
+"It is really of no consequence, Eleanor. I eat so little, especially in
+the middle of the day. Perhaps if you could get me a sweetbread I might
+manage a few morsels. But do not trouble. You know how much I dislike
+causing trouble. A sweetbread nicely browned--on a small, a very small
+piece of toast; quite dry, please, Eleanor."
+
+"Yes, mamma, I know," said Eleanor; but she looked out of the window
+rather doubtfully. Sweetbreads were not easily obtained at the only
+butcher's shop in the village; and, when they were, they were dear; but
+she had just paid the long-running bill, and----
+
+"I'll go up to Smart's and see about it," she said. "Is there anything
+you want in the village, mamma?"
+
+Mrs. Lorton sighed again; she rarely spoke without a sigh.
+
+"If you really want the walk and are going, Eleanor, you might ask Mrs.
+Porter if she has got that toilet vinegar for me. She promised to get it
+down from London quite a week ago. It is really too ridiculous! But what
+can one expect in this hole, and living among a set of barbarians? I
+know that I shall never grow accustomed to this life of savagery; my
+memory of the past is too acute, alas! But I must stifle it; I must
+remember that the great trial of my life has been sent for my good, and
+I will never complain. Not one word of discontent shall ever pass my
+lips. My dear Eleanor, you surely are not going to be so mad as to open
+that window! And my neuralgia only just quiet!"
+
+"I beg your pardon, mamma. The room seemed so hot, and I forgot. I've
+closed it again; see! Let me draw the eider-down up; that's it. I won't
+forget the toilet vinegar."
+
+"I thank you, Eleanor; and you might get this week's _Fashion Gazette_.
+It is the only paper I care for; but it is not unnatural that I should
+like to see it occasionally. One may be cut off from all one's friends
+and relations, may be completely out of the world of rank and
+refinement, but one likes now and then to read of the class to which one
+belongs, but from which one is, alas! forever separated."
+
+"I'll get the _Fashion Gazette_ if Mrs. Porter has it, mamma. I won't be
+long, and Molly will hear you if you want her before the time."
+
+Mrs. Lorton sighed deeply in acknowledgment, and Nell left the room.
+
+She had been bright and girlish enough while romping with her brother,
+but the scene with her stepmother had left its impression on her face;
+the dark-gray eyes were rather sad and weary; there was a slight droop
+at the corners of the sweetly curved lips; but the change lent an
+indescribable charm to the girlish face. Looking at it, as it was then,
+no man but would have longed to draw the slim, graceful figure toward
+him, to close the wistful eyes with a kiss, to caress the soft hair with
+a comforting hand. There was a subtle fascination in the very droop of
+the lips which would have haunted an artist or a poet, and driven the
+ordinary man wild with love.
+
+Mrs. Lorton had called Shorne Mills a "hole," but as a matter of fact,
+the village stood almost upon the brow of the hill down which ran the
+very steep road to the tiny harbor and fishing place which nestled under
+the red Devon cliffs; and barbaric as the place might be, it was
+beautiful beyond words. No spot in this loveliest of all counties was
+more lovely; and as yet it was, so to speak, undiscovered. With the
+exception of the vicarage there was no other house, worthy the name, in
+the coombe; all the rest were fishermen's cots. The nearest inn and
+shops were on the fringe of the moor behind and beyond the Lorton's
+cottage; the nearest house of any consequence was that of the local
+squire, three miles away. The market town of Shallop was eight miles
+distant, and the only public communication with it was the carrier's
+cart, which went to and fro twice weekly. In short, Shorne Mills was out
+of the world, and will remain so until the Railway Fiend flaps his
+coal-black wings over it and drops, with red-hot feet, upon it to sear
+its beauty and destroy its solitude. It had got its name from a flour
+and timber mill which had once flourished halfway down the coombe or
+valley; but the wheels were now silent, the mills were falling to
+pieces, and the silver stream served no more prosaic purpose than
+supplying the fishing folk with crystal water which was pure as the
+stars it reflected. This stream, as it ran beside the road or meandered
+through the sloping meadows, made soft music, day and night, all through
+the summer, but swelled itself into a torrent in the winter, and roared
+as it swept over the smooth bowlders to its bridegroom, the sea;
+sometimes it was the only sound in the valley, save always the murmur of
+the ocean, and the shrill weird cry of the curlew as it flew from the
+sea marge to the wooded heights above.
+
+Nell loved the place with a great and exceeding love, with all the love
+of a girl to whom beauty is a continual feast. She knew every inch of
+it; for she had lived in the cottage on the hill since she was a child
+of seven, and she was now nearly twenty-one. She knew every soul in the
+fishing village, and, indeed, for miles around, and not seldom she was
+spoken of as "Miss Nell, of Shorne Mills;" and the simple folk were as
+proud of the title as was Nell herself. They were both fond and proud of
+her. In any cottage and at any time her presence was a welcome one, and
+every woman and child, when in trouble, flew to her for help and comfort
+even before they climbed to the vicarage--that refuge of the poor and
+sorrowing in all country places.
+
+As she swung to the little gate behind her this morning, she paused and
+looked round at the familiar scene; and its beauty, its grandeur, and
+its solitude struck her strangely, as if she were looking at it for the
+first time.
+
+"One could be so happy if mamma--and if Dick could find something to
+do!" she thought; and at the thought her eyes grew sadder and the sweet
+lips drooped still more at the corner; but as she went up the hill, the
+fine rare air, the brilliant sunshine acted like an anodyne, and the
+eyes grew brighter, the lips relaxed, so that Smart's--the
+butcher's--face broadened into a smile of sympathy as he touched his
+forehead with a huge and greasy finger.
+
+"Sweetbreads! No, no, miss; I've promised the cook up at the
+Hall----There, bless your heart, Miss Nell, don't 'ee look so
+disappointed. I'll send 'em--yes, in half an hour at most. Dang me if it
+was the top brick off the chimney I reckon you'd get 'ee, for there
+ain't no refusin' 'ee anything!"
+
+Nell thanked him with a smile and a grateful beam from her gray eyes,
+and then, still lighter-hearted, went on to Mrs. Porter's. By great good
+luck not only had the toilet vinegar arrived from London, but a copy of
+the _Fashion Gazette_; and with these in her hand Nell went homeward.
+But at the bend of the road near the cottage she paused. Mrs. Lorton
+would not want the vinegar or the paper for another hour. Would there be
+time to run down to the jetty and look at the sea? She slipped the paper
+and the bottle in the hedge, and went lightly down the road. It was so
+steep that strangers went cautiously and leaned on their sticks, but
+Nell nearly ran and seemed scarcely to touch the ground; for she had
+toddled down that road as a child, and knew every stone in it; knew
+where to leave it for the narrow little path which provided a short cut,
+and where to turn aside for the marvelous view of the tiny harbor that
+looked like a child's toy on the edge of the opal sea.
+
+Women and children came out of the cottages as she went swiftly past,
+and she exchanged greetings with them; but she was in too great a hurry
+to stop, and one child followed after her with bitter complaint.
+
+She stood for a moment or two talking to some of the men mending their
+nets on the jetty, called down to Dick, who was lying--he was always
+reclining on something--basking in the stern of his anchored boat; then
+she went, more slowly, up the hill again.
+
+As she neared the cottage, a sound rose from the house and mingled with
+the music of the stream. It was the yelp of staghounds. She stopped and
+listened, and wondered whether the stag would run down the hill, as it
+sometimes did; then she went on. Presently she heard another sound--the
+tap, tap of a horse's hoofs. Her quick ear distinguished it as different
+from the slow pacing of the horses which drew the village carts, and she
+looked up the road curiously. It was not the doctor's horse; she knew
+the stamp, stamp of his old gray cob. This was a lighter, more nervous
+tread.
+
+Within twenty paces of the cottage she saw the horse and horseman. The
+former was a beautiful creature, almost thoroughbred, as she knew; for
+every woman in the district was a horsewoman by instinct and
+association. The latter was a gentleman in a well-made riding suit of
+cords. He was riding slowly, his whip striking against his leg absently,
+his head bent.
+
+That he was not one of the local gentry Nell saw at the first glance. In
+that first glance also she noted a certain indescribable grace, an air
+of elegance, which, as a rule, was certainly lacking in the local
+gentry. She could not see his face, but there was something strange,
+distinguished in his attitude and the way he carried himself; and,
+almost unconsciously, her pace slackened.
+
+Strangers in Shorne Mills were rare. Nell, being a woman, was curious.
+As she slowly reached the gate, the man came almost alongside. And at
+that moment a rabbit scuttled across the road, right under the horse's
+nose. With the nervousness of the thoroughbred, it shied. The man had it
+in hand in an instant, and touched it with his left spur to keep it away
+from the girl. The horse sprang sideways, set its near foot on a stone,
+and fell, and the next instant the man was lying at Nell's feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+For a moment Nell was too startled to do anything but cry out; then, as
+the man did not move, she knelt beside him, and still calling for Molly,
+almost unconsciously raised his head. He had fallen on his side, but had
+turned over in the instant before losing consciousness; and as Nell
+lifted his head she felt something wet trickle over her hand, and knew
+that it was blood.
+
+She was very much frightened--with the exception of Dick's boyish falls
+and cuts, it was the first accident at which she had "assisted"--and she
+had never longed for any one as she longed for Molly. But neither Molly
+nor any one else came, and Nell, in a helpless, dazed kind of fashion,
+wiped the blood from the wound.
+
+Then suddenly she thought of water, and setting his head down as gently
+as she could, she ran to the stream, saturated her handkerchief, and,
+returning, took his head on her lap again, and bathed his forehead.
+
+While she was doing this she recovered her presence of mind sufficiently
+to look at him with something like the desire to know what he was like;
+and, with all a woman's quickness of perception, saw that he was
+extremely good-looking; that he was rather dark than fair; that though
+he was young--twenty-nine, thirty, flashed through her mind--the hair on
+his temples was faintly flecked with gray.
+
+But something more than the masculine beauty of the face struck her,
+struck her vaguely, and that was the air of distinction which she had
+noticed in his bearing as he came down the road, and an expression of
+weariness in the faint lines about the mouth and eyes.
+
+She was aware, without knowing why, that he was extremely well dressed;
+she saw that the ungloved hand was long and thin--the hand of a
+well-bred man--and that everything about him indicated wealth and the
+gentleman.
+
+All these observations required but a second or two--a man would only
+have got at them after an hour--and, almost before they were made, he
+opened his eyes with the usual dazed and puzzled expression which an
+individual wears when he has been knocked out of time and is coming back
+to consciousness.
+
+As his eyes opened, Nell noticed that they were dark--darker than they
+should have been to match his hair--and that they were anything but
+commonplace ones. He looked up at her for an instant or two, then
+muttered something under his breath--Nell was almost certain that he
+swore--and aloud, in the toneless voice of the newly conscious, said:
+
+"I came off, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes," said Nell.
+
+She neither blushed nor looked shy. Indeed, she was too frightened, too
+absorbed by her desire for his recovery to remember herself, or the fact
+that this strange man's head was lying on her knee.
+
+"I must have been unconscious," he said, almost to himself. "Yes, I've
+struck my head."
+
+Then he got to his feet and stood looking at her; and his face was, if
+anything, whiter than it had been.
+
+"I'm very sorry. Permit me to apologize, for I must have frightened you
+awfully. And"--he looked at her dress, upon which was a large wet patch
+where his head had rested--"and I've spoiled your dress. In short, I've
+made a miserable nuisance of myself."
+
+Nell passed his apology by.
+
+"Are you hurt?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"No; I think not," he replied. "I can't think how I managed to come off;
+I don't usually make such an ass of myself."
+
+He went for his hat, but as he stooped to pick it up he staggered, and
+Nell ran to him and caught his arm.
+
+"You are hurt!" she said. "I--I was afraid so!"
+
+"I'm giddy, that's all, I think," he said; but his lips closed tightly
+after his speech, and they twitched at the corners. "I expect my horse
+is more damaged than I am," he added, and he walked, very slowly, to
+where the animal stood looking from side to side with a startled air.
+
+"Yes; knees cut. Poor old chap! It was my fault--my fau----"
+
+He stopped, and put his hand to his head as if he were confused.
+
+Nell went and stood close by him, with a vague kind of idea that he was
+going to fall and that she might help him, support him.
+
+"You are in pain?" she asked, her brow wrinkled with her anxiety, her
+eyes darkened with her womanly sympathy and pity.
+
+"Yes," he admitted frankly. "I've knocked my head, and"--he touched his
+arm--"and, yes, I'm afraid I've broken my arm."
+
+"Oh!"--cried Nell, startled and aghast--"oh! you must come into the
+house at once--at once."
+
+He glanced at the cottage.
+
+"Your house?"
+
+"Yes," said Nell. "Oh, come, please. You may faint again----"
+
+"Oh, no, I shan't."
+
+"But you may--you may! Take my arm; lean on me----"
+
+He took her arm, but did not lean on her, and he smiled down at her.
+
+"I don't look it, but I weigh nearly twelve stone, and I should bear you
+down," he said.
+
+"I'm stronger than I look," said Nell. "Please come!"
+
+"I'll put the bridle over the gate first," he said.
+
+"No, no; I will do it. Lean against the gate while I go."
+
+He rested one hand on the gate. She got the horse--he came as quietly as
+his master had done--and hitched the bridle on the post; then she drew
+the man's arm within hers, and led him into the house and into the
+drawing-room.
+
+"Sit down," she said; "lean back. I won't be a moment. Oh, where is
+Molly? But perhaps I'd better not leave you."
+
+"I'm all right. I assure you that I've no intention of fainting again,"
+he said; and there was something like a touch of irritation in his tone.
+
+Nell rang the bell and stood looking down at him anxiously. There was
+not a sign of self-consciousness or embarrassment in her face or manner.
+She was still thinking only of him.
+
+"I'm ashamed of myself for giving you so much trouble," he said.
+
+"It is no trouble. Why should you be ashamed? Oh, Molly! don't cry out
+or scream--it is all right! Be quiet now, Molly! This gentleman has been
+thrown from his horse, and----Oh, bring me some brandy; and, Molly,
+don't tell--don't frighten mamma."
+
+Molly, with her mouth still wide open, ran out of the room, and Nell's
+eyes returned to the man.
+
+He sat gazing at the carpet for a while, his brow knit with a frown, as
+if he found the whole affair a hideous bore, his injured arm across his
+knee. There was no deprecating smile of the nervous man; he made no more
+apologies, and it seemed to Nell that he had quite forgotten her, and
+was only desirous of getting rid of her and the situation generally. But
+he looked up as Molly came fluttering in with the brandy; and as he took
+the glass from Nell's hand--for the first time it shook a little--he
+said:
+
+"Thanks--thanks very much. I'm all right now, and I'll hasten to take
+myself off."
+
+He rose as he spoke, then his hand went out to the sofa as if in search
+of support, and with an articulate though audible "Damn!" he sank down
+again.
+
+"I'm afraid I'll have to wait for a few minutes," he said, in a tone of
+annoyance. "I can't think what's the matter with me, but I feel as giddy
+and stupid as an owl. I'll be all right presently. Is the inn near
+here?"
+
+"No," said Nell; "the inn is a long way from here; too far----"
+
+He did not let her finish, but rather impatiently cut in with:
+
+"Oh, but there must be some place where I can go----"
+
+"You must not think of moving yet," she said. "I don't know much--I have
+not seen many accidents--but I am sure that you have hurt yourself; and
+you say that you have broken your arm?"
+
+"I'm afraid so, confound it! I beg your pardon. I'll get to the inn--I
+have not broken my leg, and can walk well enough--and see a doctor."
+
+Mrs. Lorton's step was heard in the passage, and the voice of that lady
+was heard before she appeared in the doorway, demanding, in an injured
+tone:
+
+"Eleanor, what does this mean? Why do you want brandy, and at this time
+of the day? Are you ill? I have always told you that some day you would
+suffer from this continual rushing about----"
+
+Then she stopped and stared at the two, and her hand went up to her hair
+with the gesture of the weakly vain woman.
+
+"Who is it, Nell? What does it mean?" she demanded.
+
+The man rose and bowed, and his appearance, his self-possession and
+well-bred bow impressed Mrs. Lorton at once.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said, in her sweetest and most ingratiating
+manner, with a suggestion of the simper which used to be fashionable
+when she was a girl. "There has been an accident, I see. Are you very
+much hurt? Eleanor, pray do not stand like a thing of stock or stone;
+pray, do not be so useless and incapable."
+
+Nell blushed and looked round helplessly.
+
+"Please sit down," went on Mrs. Lorton. "Eleanor, let me beg of you to
+collect your senses. Get that cushion--sit down. Let me place this at
+your back. Do you feel faint? My smelling salts, Eleanor!"
+
+The man's lips tightened, and the frown darkened the whole of his face.
+Nell knew that he was swearing under his breath and wishing Mrs. Lorton
+and herself at the bottom of the sea.
+
+"No, no!" he said, evidently struggling with his irritation and his
+impatience of the whole scene. "I'm not at all faint. I've fallen from
+my horse, and I think I've smashed my arm, that's all."
+
+"All!" echoed Mrs. Lorton, in accents of profound sympathy and anxiety.
+"Oh, dear, dear! Nell, we must send for the doctor. Will you not put
+your feet up on the sofa? It is such a relief to lie at full length."
+
+He rose with a look of determination in his dark eyes.
+
+"Thank you very much, madame, but I cannot consent to give you any
+further trouble. I am quite capable of walking to anywhere, and I
+will----" He broke off with an exclamation and sank down again. "I must
+be worse than I thought," he said suddenly, "and I must ask you to put
+up with me for a little while--half an hour."
+
+Mrs Lorton crossed the room with the air of an empress, or a St. Teresa
+on the verge of a great mission, and rang the bell.
+
+"I cannot permit you to leave this house until you have recovered--quite
+recovered," she said, in a stately fashion. "Molly, get the spare room
+ready for this gentleman. Eleanor, you might assist, I think! I will see
+that the sheets are properly aired--nothing is more important in such a
+case--and we will send for the doctor while you are retiring."
+
+Molly plunged out, followed by Nell, and Mrs. Lorton seated herself
+opposite the injured man, and, folding her hands, gazed at him as if she
+were solely accountable for his welfare.
+
+"I'm very much obliged to you, madame," he said, at last, and by no
+means amiably. "May I ask to whom I am indebted for so much--kindness?"
+
+"My name is Lorton," said the dear lady, as if she had picked him up and
+brought him in and given him brandy; "but I am a Wolfer."
+
+He looked at her as if he thought she were mad, and Mrs. Lorton hastened
+to explain.
+
+"I am a near relative of Lord Wolfer."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes; I beg your pardon," he said, with a touch of relief. "I
+didn't understand for a moment."
+
+"Perhaps you know Lord Wolfer?" she asked sweetly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I've heard of him."
+
+"Of course," she assented blandly. "He is sufficiently well known, not
+to say famous. And your name--if I may ask?"
+
+He frowned, and was silent for an instant.
+
+"Vernon," he said reluctantly, "Drake Vernon."
+
+"Indeed! The name seems familiar to me. Of the Northumberland Vernons, I
+suppose?"
+
+"No," he replied, rather shortly.
+
+"No? There are some Vernons in Warwickshire, I remember," she suggested.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'm not connected with any of the Vernons," he said with a grim courtesy.
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked rather disappointed, but only for a moment; for,
+foolish as she was, she knew a gentleman when she saw one, and this Mr.
+Vernon, though not one of the Vernons, was evidently a gentleman and a
+man of position. She smiled at him graciously.
+
+"Sometimes one scarcely knows with whom one is connected," she said. "If
+you will excuse me, I will go and see if your room is prepared. We have
+only one servant--now," she sighed plaintively, "and my daughter is
+young and thoughtless."
+
+"She is not the latter, at any rate," he said, but coldly enough. "Your
+daughter displayed extraordinary presence of mind----"
+
+"My stepdaughter, I ought to explain," broke in Mrs. Lorton, who could
+not endure the praise of any other than herself. "My late husband--I am
+a widow, Mr. Vernon--left me his two children as a trust, a sacred
+trust, which I hope I have discharged to the best of my ability. I will
+rejoin you presently."
+
+He rose and bowed, and then leaned back and closed his eyes, and swore
+gently but thoroughly.
+
+Mrs. Lorton returned in a few minutes with Molly.
+
+"If you will come now? We have sent for the doctor."
+
+"Thank you, thank you!" he said, and he went upstairs with them; but he
+would not permit them to assist him to take off his coat, and sat on the
+edge of the bed waiting with a kind of impatient patience for the
+doctor.
+
+By sheer good luck it was just about the time old Doctor Spence made his
+daily appearance in Shorne Mills, and Nell, running up to the crossway,
+caught him as he was ambling along on his old gray cob.
+
+"Eh? what is it, my dear? That monkey of a brother got into mischief
+again?" he said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "What? Stranger? Broke
+his arm? Come, come; you're frightened and upset. No need, no need!
+What's a broken arm! If it had been his neck, now!"
+
+"I'm not frightened, and I'm not upset!" said Nell indignantly, but with
+a smile. "I'm out of breath with running."
+
+"And out of color, too, Nell. No need to run back, my dear. I'll hurry
+up and see what's wrong."
+
+He spoke to the cob, who understood every word and touch of his master,
+and jolted down the steep road, and Nell followed slowly. She was rather
+pale, as he had noticed, but she was not frightened. In all her
+uneventful life nothing so exciting, so disturbing had happened as this
+accident. It was difficult to realize it, to realize that a great strong
+man had been cast helpless at her feet, that she had had his head on her
+lap; she looked down at the patch on her dress and shuddered. Was she
+glad or sorry that she had chanced to be near when he fell? As she asked
+herself the question her conscience smote her. What a question to arise
+in her mind! Of course she should be glad, very glad, to have been able
+to help him. Then the man's face rose before her, and appealed to her by
+its whiteness, by the weary, wistful lines about the lips and eyes.
+
+"I wonder who he is?" she asked herself, conscious that she had never
+seen any one like him, that he was in some way different to any one of
+the men she had hitherto met.
+
+As she walked slowly, thoughtfully down the road, a strange feeling came
+upon her; it was as if she had touched, if only with the finger tips,
+the fringe of the great unknown world.
+
+The doctor, breaking away from the lengthy recountal of Mrs. Lorton,
+went upstairs to the spare room, where still sat Mr. Drake Vernon on the
+edge of the bed, very white, but very self-contained.
+
+"How do you do, doctor?" he said quietly. "I've come a cropper and
+knocked my head and broken some of my bones. If you'll be so good----"
+
+"Take off your coat. My good sir, why didn't you let them help you to
+undress?" broke in the old man, with the curtness of the country doctor,
+who, as a rule, is no respecter of persons.
+
+"I've given these good people trouble enough already," was the reply.
+"Thanks; no, you don't hurt me--not more than can be helped. And I'm not
+going to faint. Thanks, thanks."
+
+He got undressed and into bed, and the doctor "went over" him. As he got
+to the injured arm, Mr. Vernon drew his signet ring from his finger and
+slipped it in his pocket.
+
+"Rather nasty knock on the head; broken arm--compound fracture,
+unfortunately."
+
+"Oh! just patch me up so that I can get away at once, will you?"
+
+The old man shook his head.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Vernon; but that is rather too large an order. Frankly, you
+have knocked yourself about rather more seriously than you think. The
+head----And you are not a particularly 'good patient,' I'm afraid. Been
+living rather--rapidly, eh?"
+
+Vernon nodded.
+
+"I've been living all the time," was the grim assent.
+
+"I thought so. And you pay the usual penalty. Nature is inexorable, and
+never lets a man off with the option of a fine. If one of my fishermen
+had injured himself as you have done, I could let him do what he
+pleased; but you will have to remain here, in this room--or, at any
+rate, in this house--for some little time."
+
+"Impossible!" said Vernon. "I am a stranger to these people. I can't
+trespass on their good nature; I've been nuisance enough already----"
+
+"Oh, nonsense," retorted the doctor calmly. "We are not savages in these
+parts. They'd enjoy nursing and taking care of you. The good lady of the
+house is just dying for some little excitement like this. It's a quiet
+place; you couldn't be in a better; and whether you could or couldn't
+doesn't matter, for you've got to stay here for the present, unless you
+want brain fever and the principal part in a funeral."
+
+Drake Vernon set his lips tight, then shrugged his shoulders, and in
+silence watched the doctor's preparations for setting the arm.
+
+It is a painful operation, but during its accomplishment the patient
+gave no sign, either facial or vocal, of the agony endured. The doctor
+softly patted the splintered arm and looked at him keenly.
+
+"Been in the service, Mr. Vernon?" he said.
+
+Vernon glanced at him sharply.
+
+"How did you know that?" he demanded reluctantly.
+
+"By the way you held your arm," replied the doctor. "Was in the service
+myself, when a young army doctor. Oh, don't be afraid; I am not going to
+ask questions; and--and, like my tribe, I am as discreet as an owl. Now,
+I'll just give you a sleeping draft, and will look in in the evening, to
+see if it has taken effect; and to-morrow, if you haven't brain fever,
+you will be on the road to recovery. I'm candid, because I want you to
+understand that if you worry yourself----"
+
+"Make the draft a strong one; I'm accustomed to narcotics," interrupted
+Vernon quietly.
+
+"Opium, or chloral, or what?"
+
+"Chloral," was the reply.
+
+"Right. Comfortable?"
+
+"Oh, yes. Wait a moment. I was hunting with the Devon and Somerset
+to-day. I know scarcely any one--not one of the people, I may say;
+but--well, I don't want a fuss. Perhaps you won't mind keeping my
+accident, and my presence here to yourself?"
+
+"Certainly," said the doctor. "There is no friend--relative--you would
+like sent for?"
+
+"Good Lord, no!" responded Mr. Vernon. "I shall have to get away in a
+day or two."
+
+"Will you?" grunted the old doctor to himself, as he went down the
+stairs.
+
+The day passed slowly. The little house was filled with an air of
+suppressed excitement, which was kept going by Mrs. Lorton, who,
+whenever Nell or Molly moved, appeared from unexpected places, attired
+in a tea gown, and hissed a rebuking and warning "Hush!" which
+penetrated to the remotest corner of the house, and would certainly have
+disturbed the patient but for the double dose of sulphonal which the
+doctor; had administered.
+
+About the time she expected Dick to return, Nell went down the road to
+meet him, fearing that he might enter singing or whistling; and when she
+saw him lounging up the hill, with a string of fish in his hand, she ran
+to him, and, catching his arm, began to tell her story in a whisper, as
+if the injured Mr. Vernon were within hearing.
+
+Dick stared, and emitted a low whistle.
+
+"'Pon my word, you've been a-going of it, Nell! Sounds like a play: 'The
+Mysterious Stranger and the Village Maiden.' Scene one. Enter the
+stranger: 'My horse is weary; no human habitation nigh. Where to find a
+resting place for my tired steed and my aching head! Ah! what is this? A
+simple child of Nature. I will seek direction at her hands.' Horse takes
+fright; mysterious stranger is thrown. Maiden falls on her knees: 'Ah,
+Heaven! 'tis he! 'tis he!'"
+
+Nell laughed, but her face crimsoned.
+
+"Dick, don't be an idiot, if you can help it. I know it is
+difficult----"
+
+"Spare your blushes, my child," he retorted blandly. "The Mysterious S.
+will turn out to be a commercial traveler with a wife and seven
+children. But, Nell, what does mamma say?"
+
+"She likes it," said Nell, with a smile. "She is happier and more
+interested than I have ever seen her."
+
+Dick struck an attitude and his forehead.
+
+"Can it be--oh, can it be that the romance will end another way? Are we
+going to lose our dear mamma? Grateful stranger--love at first
+sight----"
+
+"Dick, you are the worst kind of imbecile! He is years younger than
+mamma--young enough to be her son. Now, Dick, dry up, and don't make a
+noise. He is really ill. I know it by the way the old doctor smiles. He
+always smiles and grins when the case is serious. You'll be quiet, Dick,
+dear?"
+
+"This tender solicitude for the sufferer touches me deeply," he
+whimpered, mopping his eyes. "Oh, yes, I'll be quiet, Nell. Much as I
+love excitement, I'm not anxious for a funeral, and a bereaved and
+heartbroken sister. Shall I take my boots off before entering the abode
+of sickness, or shall I walk in on my head?"
+
+The day passed. Dick, driven almost mad by the enforced quietude, and
+the incessant "Hushes!" of Mrs. Lorton, betook himself to his tool shed
+to mend his fishing rod--and cut his fingers--and then to bed. Molly
+went to the sick room in the capacity of nurse, and Mrs. Lorton, after
+desiring everybody that she should be called if "a change took place,"
+retired to the rest earned by pleasurable excitement; and Nell stole
+past the spare-room door to her nest under the roof.
+
+As she undressed slowly, she paused now and again to listen. All was
+quiet; the injured man was still sleeping. She went to the open window
+and looked out seaward. Something was stirring within her, something
+that was like the faint motion of the air before a storm. Is it possible
+that we have some premonition of the first change in our lives; the
+change which is to alter the course of every feeling, every action? She
+knew too little of life or the world to ask herself the question; but
+she was conscious of a sensation of unrest, of disquietude. She could
+not free herself from the haunting presence of the handsome face, of the
+dark and weary, wistful eyes. The few sentences he had spoken kept
+repeating themselves in her ear, striking on her brain with soft
+persistence. The very name filled her thoughts. "Drake Vernon, Drake
+Vernon!"
+
+At last, with an impatient movement, with a blush of shame for the way
+in which her mind was dwelling on him, she left the window and fell on
+her knees at the narrow bed to say her prayers.
+
+But his personality intruded even on her devotions, and, half
+unconsciously, she added to her simple formula a supplication for his
+recovery.
+
+Then she got into bed and fell asleep. But in a very little while she
+started awake, seeing the horse shy and fall, feeling the man's head
+upon her lap. She sat up and listened. His room was beneath hers--the
+cottage was built in the usual thin and unsubstantial fashion--and every
+sound from the room below rose to hers. She heard him moan; once, twice;
+then his voice, thick and husky, called for water.
+
+She listened. The faint cry rose again and again. She could not endure
+it, and she got out of bed, put on her dressing gown, and slipped down
+the stairs. She could hear the voice more plainly now, and the cry was
+still, "Water! water!"
+
+She opened the door, and, pausing a moment, her face crimson, stole
+toward the bed. Molly was in her chair, with her head lolling over the
+back, as if it were a guillotine, her huge mouth wide open, fast asleep.
+
+Nell stood and looked down at the unconscious man. The dark-brown hair
+was tangled, the white face drawn with pain, the lips dry with fever,
+one hand, clenched, opening and shutting spasmodically, on the
+counterpane.
+
+That divine pity which only a woman can feel filled and overran her
+heart. She poured some water into a glass and set it to his lips. He
+could not drink lying down, and, with difficulty, she raised his head on
+her bosom. He drank long and greedily; then, as she slowly--dare one
+write "reluctantly"?--lowered his head to the pillow, he muttered:
+
+"Thanks, thanks, Luce! That was good!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+"Luce!"
+
+It was a strange name--the name of a woman, of course. Nell wondered
+whether it was his sister--or sweetheart? Perhaps it was his wife?
+
+She waited for some minutes; then she woke Molly, and returned to her
+own room.
+
+Drake Vernon was unconscious for some days, and Nell often stole in and
+stood beside the bed; sometimes she changed the ice bandages, or gave
+him something to drink. He wandered and talked a great deal, but it was
+incoherent talk, in which the names of the persons he whispered or
+shouted were indistinguishable. On the fourth day he recovered
+consciousness, but was terribly weak, and the doctor would not permit
+Mrs. Lorton to enter the room.
+
+He put his objection very cleverly.
+
+"I have to think of you, my dear madame," he said. "I don't want two
+patients on my hands in the same house. Talk him back into delirium!" he
+added to himself.
+
+All these days Mrs. Lorton continued to "hush," Nell went about with a
+grave air of suspense, and Dick--it is not given to this historian to
+describe the state of mind into which incessant repression drove that
+youth.
+
+On the sixth day, bored to death, and somewhat curious, he strolled into
+the sick room. Drake Vernon, propped up by pillows, was partaking of
+beef tea with every sign of distaste.
+
+"How are you getting on, sir?" asked Dick.
+
+The sick man looked at the boy, and nodded with a faint smile.
+
+"I'm better, thanks; nearly well, I devoutly trust."
+
+"That's all right," commented Dick cheerfully. "Thought I'd just look
+in. Shan't upset you, or disturb you, shall I, sir?"
+
+"Not in the very least," was the reply. "I'm very glad to see you. Won't
+you sit down? Not there, but some place where I can see you."
+
+Dick sat on the end of the bed and leaned against the rail, with his
+hands in his pockets.
+
+"I ought to introduce myself, I suppose. I'm what is called in the
+novels 'the son of the house'; I'm Nell's brother, you know."
+
+Mr. Vernon nodded.
+
+"So I see, by the likeness."
+
+"Rather rough on Nell, that, isn't it? I'll tell her," said Dick, with a
+spark of mischief in his eye. "Why, she's as black as a coal, and I'm
+fair."
+
+"You are alike, all the same," said the invalid, rather indifferently.
+
+"My name is Dick--Dick, as a rule; Richard, when my stepmother is more
+than usually riled with me."
+
+"Permit me to call you by the shorter name," said Mr. Vernon. "I'm
+afraid I've been a terrible nuisance, and must continue to be for some
+days. The doctor tells me that I can't venture to move yet."
+
+"That's all right," responded Dick cheerfully. "We shall be glad to see
+you about again, of course; but don't worry yourself on our account,
+sir. To tell you the truth, we rather enjoy--that is, some of us"--he
+corrected--"having 'an accident case' in the house. Mamma, for instance,
+hasn't been so happy for a long while."
+
+"Mrs. Lorton must be extremely good-natured and charitable," commented
+Mr. Vernon.
+
+Dick looked rather doubtful.
+
+"Er--ye-s. You see, it's a little change and excitement, and we don't
+get much of that commodity in Shorne Mills. So we're rather grateful to
+you than otherwise for pitching yourself at our front gate. If you could
+have managed to break both arms and a leg, I verily believe that mamma
+would have wept tears of joy."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't say I'm sorry I did not gratify her to that extent,"
+said Mr. Vernon, with a grim smile; but it was a smile, and his dark
+eyes were scanning the boy's handsome face with something approaching
+interest. "Mrs. Lorton is your stepmother? Did I hear her say so, or did
+I dream it?"
+
+"It's no dream; it's real enough," said Dick, with intense gravity. "My
+father"--he seated himself more comfortably--"was Lorton & Lorton, the
+Patent Coffee Roaster, you know--perhaps you've heard of it?"
+
+Mr. Vernon shook his head.
+
+"Ah, well! a great many other people must have done so; for the roaster
+made a pile of money, and my father was a rich man. Molly, you can take
+that beef tea downstairs and give it to Snaps. He won't eat it, because
+he's a most intelligent dog. Thought I'd get her out of the room, sir.
+Molly's a good girl, but she's got ears and a tongue."
+
+"So have I," said Drake Vernon, with a faint smile.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind you. It's only right that you should know something
+about the people in whose house you are staying."
+
+Drake Vernon frowned slightly, for there was the other side of the
+medal: surely, it was only right that the people in whose house he was
+staying should know something about himself.
+
+"Father made a lot of money over a roaster; then my mother died. I was
+quite a kid when it happened; but Nell just remembers her. Then father
+married again; and, being rich, I suppose, wanted a fashionable wife. So
+he married mamma. I dare say that she's told you she's a Wolfer?"
+
+Mr. Vernon nodded.
+
+"There's not much in it," said Dick, with charming candor. "We've never
+set eyes on any of her swell connections, and I don't think she's ever
+heard from them since the smash."
+
+"What smash?" asked Mr. Vernon, with only faint interest.
+
+"Didn't I tell you? Left the part of _Hamlet_ out of the play! Why,
+father added a patent coffeepot to the roaster, and lost all his
+money--or nearly all. Then he died. And we came here, and----There you
+are, sir; that's the story; and the moral is, 'Let well alone'; or 'Be
+content with your roaster, and touch not the pot.' Sounds like the title
+of a teetotal tract, doesn't it?"
+
+"And you are at school, I suppose? No, you are too old for that."
+
+"Thanks. I was trying not to feel offended," said Dick. "Nothing hurts a
+boy of my age like telling him he isn't a man. No; I've left school, and
+I'm supposed to be educated; but it's the thinnest kind of supposition.
+I don't fancy they teach you much at most schools. They didn't teach me
+anything at mine except cricket and football."
+
+"Oxford, Cambridge?" suggested the invalid, leaning on his elbow, and
+looking at the boy absently.
+
+"Wouldn't run to it," said Dick. "Mamma said I must begin the
+world--sounds as if it were a loaf of bread or an orange. I should have
+'begun it' long ago if it were. The difficulty seems to be where to
+begin. I'm supposed to have a taste for engineering--once made a steam
+engine out of an empty meat tin. It didn't work very well, and it blew
+up and burst the kitchen window; but that's a detail. So I'm waiting,
+like Mr. Micawber, for 'something to turn up' in the engineering line. I
+take in the engineering paper, and answer all the advertisements; but
+nothing comes of it. Quite comfortable? Shall I shake up the pillow,
+sir? I know how to do it, for I've seen Nell do 'em for mamma."
+
+"No; thanks, very much. I'm quite comfortable. If you really are
+desirous of taking any trouble, you might get me a sheet of note paper
+and an envelope."
+
+"To say nothing of a pen, some ink, and blotting paper," said Dick,
+rising leisurely.
+
+He brought them and set them on the bed, and Mr. Drake Vernon wrote a
+letter.
+
+"I'm sending for some clothes," he explained. "May I trouble you to post
+it? Any time will do."
+
+"Post doesn't go out till five," said Dick. "And we've only one post in
+and out a day. This is the last place Providence thought of, and I don't
+think it would have mattered much if it had been forgotten altogether."
+
+"It's pretty enough, too, what I saw of it," said Mr. Vernon.
+
+"Oh, it's pretty enough," assented Dick casually; "but it's precious
+dull."
+
+"What do you find to do?" asked the sick man, with an attempt at
+interest.
+
+"Oh, I ride--when I can borrow a horse--and boat and fish--and fish and
+boat."
+
+At that moment a girl's voice, singing in a soft and subdued tone, rose
+from below the window.
+
+Mr. Drake Vernon listened for a moment or two, then he asked:
+
+"Who is that?"
+
+"That's Nell, caterwauling."
+
+"Your sister has a good voice," remarked Mr. Vernon.
+
+"Oh, yes; Nell sings very well," assented Dick, with a brother's
+indifferent patronage.
+
+"And what does your sister find to do?" asked Mr. Vernon.
+
+"Oh, she does ditto to me," said Dick. "Fish, boat--boat, fish; but
+since you've been here, of course----"
+
+He stopped awkwardly.
+
+"Yes, I understand. I must have been a terrible bore to you--to you
+all," said Mr. Drake Vernon, gravely and regretfully. "I'm very sorry."
+
+"No man can say more; and there's no need for you to say as much, sir,"
+remarked Dick philosophically. "As I said, you have been a boon and a
+blessing to the women--and I don't mind, now you're getting better and
+can stand a little noise."
+
+Mr. Vernon smiled.
+
+"My dear fellow, you can make all the row you like," he said earnestly.
+"I'm very much obliged to you for looking in--come in when you care to."
+
+"Thanks," said Dick. "Oh! about the horse. I've had him turned out. I
+don't think he's hurt much; only the hair cut; and he'll be all right
+again presently."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it. I needn't say that directly he's well enough, you
+can----Will you give me that letter again?" he broke off, as if
+something had occurred to him.
+
+Dick complied, and Drake Vernon opened it, added a line or two, and
+placed it in a fresh envelope.
+
+"There was a message I had to give you, but I've forgotten it," said
+Dick, as he took the letter again. "Oh, ah, yes! It was from my sister.
+She asked me to ask you if you'd care to have some books. She didn't
+quite know whether you ought to read yet?"
+
+"I should. Please thank your sister," said Vernon.
+
+"Anything you fancy? Don't suppose you'll find Nell's books very lively.
+She's rather strong on poetry and the 'Heir of Redclyffe' kind of
+literature. I'll bring you some of my own with them. Mamma, being a
+Wolfer, goes in for the _Fashion Gazette_ and the _Court Circular_,
+which won't be much in your line, I expect."
+
+"Not in the least," Mr. Vernon admitted.
+
+"So long, then, till I come back. Sure there's nothing else I can do for
+you, sir?"
+
+He went downstairs--availing himself of the invalid's permission to make
+a noise by whistling "Tommy Atkins"--and Nell looked in at the French
+window, as he swept a row of books from the shelf of the sideboard.
+
+"Dick, what an awful noise!" she said reproachfully, and in the subdued
+voice which had become natural with all of them.
+
+"Shut up, Nell; the 'silent period' has now passed. The interesting
+invalid has lifted the ban, which was crushing one of us, at least. He
+thanks you for your offer of literature, and he has recovered
+sufficiently to write a note."
+
+As he spoke he chucked the letter on the table, and Nell took it up and
+absently read the address.
+
+"Mr. Sparling, 101 St. James' Place," she read aloud.
+
+"Rather a swell address, isn't it?" he asked. "Interesting invalid looks
+rather a swell himself, too. I did him an injustice; there's nothing of
+the commercial traveler about him, thank goodness! And he's decidedly
+good-looking, too. But isn't he white and shaky! I wonder who and what
+he is? Now I come to think of it, he was about as communicative as an
+oyster, and left me to do all the palaver. You'll be glad to hear that
+he admired your voice, and that he inquired how you passed your time;
+also, that he was shocked when I told him that you whiled the dragging
+hours away by dancing the cancan, and playing pitch and toss with a
+devoted brother."
+
+Nell laughed, and blushed faintly.
+
+"What books are you taking, Dick? Let me see."
+
+"No, you don't! I know the kind of thing you'd send--'The Lessons of
+Sickness; or, Blessings in Disguise,' and the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"
+
+"Don't be an ass, Dick!"
+
+"I'm taking some of my own. Nell, you can post this letter. Yes,
+I'll--I'll trust you with it. You'll be a good girl, and not open it, or
+drop it on the way," he adjured her, as he climbed upstairs with the
+books.
+
+"Here you are, sir. Hope you'll like the selection; there's any amount
+of poetry and goody-goody of Nell's; but I fancy you'll catch onto some
+of mine. Try 'Hawkshead, the Sioux Chief,' to begin with. It's a
+stunner, especially if you skip all the descriptions of scenery. As if
+anybody wanted scenery in a story!"
+
+"Thanks," said Mr. Vernon gravely. "I've no doubt I shall enjoy it." But
+he took up one of Nell's books and absently looked at her name written
+on the flyleaf--"Eleanor Lorton." The first name struck him as stiff and
+ill-suited to the slim and graceful girl whose face he only dimly
+remembered; "Nell" was better.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+He took up one of the books and read a page or two; but the simple story
+could not hold him, and he dropped the volume, and, leaning his head on
+his sound arm, stared listlessly at the old-fashioned wall paper. But he
+did not see the pattern; the panorama of his own life's story was
+passing before him, and it was not at all a pleasing panorama. A life of
+pleasure, of absolute uselessness, of unthinking selfishness. What a
+dreary pilgrimage it seemed to him, as he lay in the little bedroom,
+with the scent of Nell's flowers floating up to him from the garden
+beneath, with the sound of the sea, flinging itself against the cliffs,
+burring like a giant bumble bee in his ears. If any one had asked him
+whether his life had been worth living, he would have answered with a
+decided negative; and yet he was young, the gods had been exceeding good
+to him in many ways, almost every way, and there was no great sorrow to
+cast its shadow over him.
+
+"Pity I didn't break my neck," he muttered. "No one would have
+cared--unless it were Luce, and perhaps even she, now----"
+
+He broke off the reverie with a short laugh that was more bitter than a
+sigh, and turned his face to the wall.
+
+Doctor Spence, when he paid his visit later in the day, found him thus,
+and eyed him curiously.
+
+"Arm's getting on all right, Mr. Vernon," he said; "but the rest of you
+isn't improving. I think you'd better get up to-morrow and go
+downstairs. I'd keep you here, of course; but lying in bed isn't a
+bracing operation, especially when you think; and you think, don't you?"
+
+"When I can't help it," replied Vernon, rather grimly. "I'm glad you
+have given me permission to get up; though I dare say I should have got
+up without it."
+
+"I dare say," commented the old doctor. "Always have your own way, as a
+rule, don't you?"
+
+"Always," assented the patient listlessly.
+
+"Ye-s; it's a bad thing for most men; a very bad thing for you, I should
+say. By the way, if you should go downstairs, you must keep quiet----"
+
+"Good heavens, you don't suppose I intend to dance or sing!" broke in
+Vernon, with a smile, of irritation.
+
+"No; I mean that you must sit still and avoid any exertion. You'll find
+that you are not capable of much in the way of dancing or singing," he
+added, with a short laugh. "Try and amuse yourself, and don't--worry."
+
+"Thanks," said Mr. Vernon.
+
+Then, after a pause, he added:
+
+"I must seem an ill-conditioned beast, I'm afraid, doctor; but the fact
+is--well, I have been worried lately, and this ridiculous accident
+hasn't tended to soothe me."
+
+The doctor nodded.
+
+"Life's too short for worry," he said, with the wisdom of age.
+
+"No, you're right; nothing matters!" assented Mr. Vernon. "Well, I'm
+glad I can get up to-morrow. I'll clear out of here as soon as
+possible."
+
+"I shouldn't hurry," remarked Doctor Spence. "They're glad enough to
+have you."
+
+Vernon nodded impatiently.
+
+"So they say--the boy's been in here this morning--but that's nonsense,
+of course."
+
+On his way down the steep village street the doctor met Nell coming up,
+with her quick, bright step, and he stopped the gray cob to speak to
+her.
+
+"Well, Miss Nell," he said, with a smile twinkling in his keen eyes as
+they scanned the beautiful face with the dark tendrils of hair blown
+across her brow, beneath her old sailor hat, the clear gray eyes shining
+like crystal, the red lips parted slightly with the climb. "Just left
+your interesting patient. He'll come down to-morrow. Don't let him fag
+himself; and, see here, Nell, try and amuse him."
+
+The gray eyes opened still wider, then grew thoughtful and doubtful, and
+the doctor laughed.
+
+"Rather difficult, eh?" he said, reading her thoughts. "Well, I should
+say it was somewhat of a large order. But you can play draughts or
+cat's-cradle with him, or read, or play the piano. That's the kind of
+thing he wants. There's something on his mind, and that's worse than
+having a splint on his arm, believe me, Nell."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"I thought--that is, I fancied--he looked as if he were in trouble," she
+said musingly. "Poor man!"
+
+"Oh, I don't know that he wants your pity," remarked the doctor dryly.
+"As a rule, when a man's got something on his mind, he has put it there
+himself."
+
+"That does not make it any the better to have," said Nell absently.
+
+"True, Queen Solomon!" he returned banteringly. "There's not much on
+your mind, I should imagine?"
+
+Nell laughed, and her frank eyes laughed, too, as she met the quizzical,
+admiring gaze of the sharp old eyes.
+
+"What should there be, Doctor Spence?" she responded.
+
+"What, indeed?" he said. "May it be many a day before the black ox
+treads on your foot, my dear!"
+
+With a nod, he sent the cob on again, and Nell continued her climb.
+
+Something on his mind! She wondered what it was. Had some one he cared
+for died? But if that were so, he would be in mourning. Perhaps he had
+lost his money, as her father had done? Well, anyway, she was sorry for
+him.
+
+It need scarcely be said that Mrs. Lorton did not permit the interesting
+stranger to move from bed to sitting room without a fuss. The most
+elaborate preparations were made by Molly, under her mistress'
+supervision. The sofa was wheeled to the window, a blanket was warmed
+and placed over the sofa, so that the patient might be infolded in it; a
+glass of brandy and water was placed on a small table, in case he
+should feel faint, and a couple of huge walking sticks were ready for
+the support of the patient--as if he had broken his leg as well as his
+arm.
+
+"No, remember, please, Eleanor, that there must be no noise; absolute
+quiet, Doctor Spence insisted on. He was most emphatic about the
+'absolute.' Pull down that blind, Molly; nothing is so trying to an
+invalid as a glare of sunlight--and close the window first. There must
+be no draft, for a chill in such a case as this might prove fatal.
+Fatal! I wonder whether it would be better to light a fire?"
+
+"It is very hot, mamma," ventured Nell, who had viewed the closing of
+the window with dismay.
+
+"It may seem hot to you, who are in robust, not to say vulgar, health;
+but to one in Mr. Vernon's condition----"
+
+At this moment he was heard coming down the stairs. He walked firmly
+though slowly, and it was evident to Nell that he was trying to look as
+little like an invalid as possible. He had dressed himself with the
+assistance of Dick, who walked behind with a pillow--which he made as if
+to throw at Nell, who passed quickly through the hall as they
+descended--and, though he looked pale and wan, Mr. Drake Vernon held
+himself erect, like a soldier, and began to make light of his accident,
+and succeeded in concealing any sign of the irritation which he felt
+when Mrs. Lorton fluttered forward with the two sticks and the blanket.
+
+"Thank you--thank you very much; but I don't need them. Put it on? No, I
+think I'd better not. I'm quite warm." He looked round the carefully
+closed room--Dick's complaining "phew!" was almost audible behind him.
+"No, I won't have any brandy, thanks."
+
+"Are you sure, quite sure, you do not feel faint? I know what it is to
+rise from a sick bed for the first time, Mr. Vernon, and I can enter
+into your feelings perfectly."
+
+"Not at all--not at all; I mean that I'm not at all faint," he said
+hastily; "and I'm quite strong, quite."
+
+"Let me see you comfortably range," said Mrs. Lorton, who was persuaded
+that she had hit upon a French word for "arranged." "Then I will get you
+some beef tea. I have made it with my own hands."
+
+"It's to be hoped not!" said Dick devoutly, as she fluttered out.
+"Molly's beef tea is bad enough; but mamma's----What shall I do with the
+pillow?"
+
+"Well, you might swallow it, my dear boy," said Mr. Vernon, with a short
+laugh. "Anything but put it under me. Good heavens! Any one would think
+I was dying of consumption! But it is really very kind."
+
+"All right; I'll take it upstairs again," said Dick cheerfully. But he
+met Nell in the passage. There was the sound of a thud, a clear, low
+voice expostulating, and a girl's footstep on the stairs, as Nell,
+smoothing her hair, carried up the pillow.
+
+When she came down Mrs. Lorton met her.
+
+"Get some salt, Eleanor, and take it in to Mr. Vernon. And please say,
+if he should ask for me, that I'm making him some calf's-foot jelly."
+
+Nell took in the salt. Mr. Vernon rose from the sofa on which he had
+seated himself, and bowed with a half-impatient, half-regretful air.
+
+"I'm too ashamed for words," he said. "Why did you trouble? The beef tea
+is all right."
+
+"It's no trouble," said Nell. "Are you comfortable?"
+
+"Quite--quite," he replied; but for the life of him he could not help
+glancing at the window.
+
+Nell suppressed a smile.
+
+"Isn't it rather hot?" she said.
+
+"Now you mention it, I--I think it is, rather," he assented. "I'll open
+the window."
+
+"No, no," said Nell. "I'll do it; you'll hurt your arm."
+
+She opened the window.
+
+"If--if there was a chair," he said hesitatingly. "I'm not used to a
+sofa--and--I'm afraid you'll think me very ungrateful! Let me get the
+chair. Thanks, thanks!" as she swiftly pulled the sofa out of the way
+and put an easy-chair in its place.
+
+"You see, it will be a change to sit up," he said apologetically.
+
+Nell nodded. She quite understood his dislike of the part of interesting
+invalid.
+
+"And there's really nothing the matter with me, don't you know," he said
+earnestly; "nothing but this arm, which doesn't exactly lame me. Won't
+you sit down?"
+
+Nell hesitated a moment, then took a chair at the other side of the
+window.
+
+"You've a splendid view here," he remarked, staring steadily out of the
+window, for he felt rather than saw that the girl was a little shy--not
+shy, but, rather, that she scarcely knew what to say.
+
+"Oh, yes," she assented, in a voice in which there was certainly no
+shyness. "There is a good view from all the windows; we are so high.
+Won't you have your beef tea?"
+
+"Certainly. I'd forgotten it. Don't get up. I'll----"
+
+But Nell had got up before he could rise. As she brought the tray to him
+he glanced up at her. He had been staring at the bedroom wall paper for
+some days, and perhaps the contrast offered by Nell's fresh, young
+loveliness made it seem all the fresher and more striking. There was
+something in the curve of the lips, in the expression of the gray eyes,
+a "sweet sadness," as the poet puts it, which impressed him.
+
+"It's very good to be down again," he said. She had not gone back to her
+chair, but leaned in the angle of the bay window, and looked down at the
+village below. "I seem to have been in bed for ages."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I know. I remember feeling like that when I got up after the measles,
+years ago."
+
+"Not many years ago," he suggested, with a faint smile.
+
+"It seems a long time ago to me," said Nell. "I remember that for weeks
+and months after I got well I hated the sight and smell of beef tea and
+arrowroot. And Doctor Spence--your doctor, you know--gave me a glass of
+ale one day, and stood over me while I drank it. He can be very firm
+when he likes, not to say obstinate."
+
+Mr. Vernon listened to the musical voice, and looked at the slim,
+girlish figure and spirituelle face absently; and when there fell a
+silence he showed no disposition to break it. It was difficult to find
+anything to talk about with so young and inexperienced a girl, and it
+was almost with an air of relief that he turned as Mrs. Lorton entered.
+
+"And how do you feel now?" she asked, with bated breath. "Weak and
+faint, I'm afraid. I know how exhausting one feels the first time of
+getting down. Eleanor, I do hope you have not been tiring Mr. Vernon by
+talking too much."
+
+Mr. Vernon struggled with a frown.
+
+"Miss Lorton has scarcely said two words," he said. "I assure you, my
+dear madame, that there is absolutely nothing the matter with me, and
+that--that I could stand a steam phonograph."
+
+"I am so glad!" simpered Mrs. Lorton. "I have brought this week's
+_Society News_. I thought it might amuse you if I read some of the
+paragraphs--Eleanor, I think you might read them. Don't you think
+indolence is one of the greatest sins of the day, Mr. Vernon?" she broke
+off to inquire.
+
+Vernon smiled grimly, and glanced at Nell, who colored under the amused
+expression in his eyes.
+
+"I dare say it is," he said. "Speaking for myself, I can honestly say
+that I never do anything unless I am compelled."
+
+Nell laughed, her short, soft laugh; but Mrs. Lorton was not at all
+discomfited.
+
+"That is all very well for a man, though I am sure you do yourself an
+injustice, Mr. Vernon; but for a young girl! I think you will find
+something interesting on the third page, under the heading of 'Doings of
+the Elite,' Eleanor."
+
+Nell took the paper--the journal she especially detested, and Dick never
+failed to mock at--and glanced at Mr. Vernon; but he looked straight
+before him, down at the jetty below; and, not shyly, but, with a kind of
+resignation, she began:
+
+"'Lord and Lady Bullnoze have gone on a visit to the Countess of
+Crowntires. Her ladyship is staying at the family seat, Cromerspokes,
+which is famous for its old oak and stained glass. It is not generally
+known that Lady Crowntires inherited this princely estate from her aunt,
+the Duchess of Bogshire.'"
+
+"A most beautiful place," commented Mrs. Lorton. "I've seen a photograph
+of it--a private photograph."
+
+Nell looked appealingly and despairingly at Mr. Vernon, but his face was
+perfectly impassive; and, smothering a sigh, she went on:
+
+"'Lord Pygskin will hunt the Clodford hounds next season. His lordship
+has been staying at Blenheim for some weeks, recovering from an attack
+of the gout. It is said that his engagement with the charming and
+popular Miss Bung has been broken off.'"
+
+"Dear me! How sad!" murmured Mrs. Lorton. "I am always so sorry to hear
+of these broken engagements of the aristocracy. Miss Bung--I think it
+said last week--is the daughter of the great brewer. Poor girl! it will
+be a blow for her!"
+
+Not a smile crossed the impassive face; Nell thought that perhaps he was
+not listening, but she went on mechanically:
+
+"'The marriage of the Earl of Angleford has caused quite a flutter of
+excitement among the elite. His lordship, as our readers are aware, is
+somewhat advanced in years, and had always been regarded as a confirmed
+bachelor----'"
+
+At this point Nell became aware that the dark eyes had turned from the
+window to her face, and she paused and looked up. There was a faint dash
+of color on Mr. Vernon's cheeks, and a tightening of the lips. It seemed
+to Nell, judging by his expression, that he had suddenly become
+impatient of the twaddle, and she instantly dropped the paper on her
+lap. But Mrs. Lorton was enjoying herself too much to permit of such an
+interruption.
+
+"Why do you stop, Eleanor?" she inquired. "It is most interesting. Pray,
+go on."
+
+Nell again glanced at Mr. Vernon, but his gaze had returned to the
+window, and he shrugged his shoulders slightly, as if he were
+indifferent, as if he could bear it.
+
+----"'A confirmed bachelor,'" resumed Nell, "'and his sudden and
+unexpected marriage must have been a surprise, and a very unpleasant
+surprise to his family; especially to his nephew, Lord Selbie, who is
+the heir presumptive to the title and estates. We say "presumptive,"
+because in the event of the earl being blessed with a son and heir of
+his own, Lord Selbie will, of course, not inherit the title or the vast
+lands and moneys of the powerful and ancient family.'"
+
+"How disappointed he must be!" said Mrs. Lorton, sympathetically.
+"Really, such a marriage should not be permitted. What do you think, Mr.
+Vernon?"
+
+Mr. Vernon started slightly, and looked at the weak and foolish face as
+if he scarcely saw it.
+
+"Why not!" he said, rather curtly. "It's a free country, and a man may
+marry whom he pleases."
+
+"Yes, certainly; that is, an ordinary man--one of the middle class; but
+not, certainly not, a nobleman of Lord Angleford's rank and position.
+How old did it say he is, Eleanor?"
+
+"It doesn't say, mamma," replied Nell.
+
+"Ah, well, I know he is quite old; for I remember reading a paragraph
+about him a few weeks ago. They were describing the ancestral home of
+the Anglefords--Anglemere, it is called; one of the historic houses,
+like Blenheim and Chatsworth, you know. And this poor Lord Selbie, the
+nephew, will lose the title and everything. Dear me! how interesting! Is
+there anything more about him?'
+
+"Oh, yes; a great deal more," said Nell despairfully.
+
+"Then pray continue--that is, if Mr. Vernon is not tired; though,
+speaking from experience, there is nothing so soothing as being read
+to."
+
+Mr. Vernon did not look as if he found the impertinent paragraphs in the
+_Society News_ particularly soothing, but he said:
+
+"I'm not at all tired. It's very interesting, as you say. Please go on,
+Miss Lorton."
+
+Nell looked at him doubtfully, for there was a kind of sarcasm in his
+voice. But she took up the parable.
+
+"'Lord Selbie is, in consequence of this marriage of his uncle, the
+object of profound and general sympathy; for, as the readers must be
+aware, he is a persona grata in society----' What is a persona grata?"
+Nell broke off to inquire.
+
+"Lord knows!" replied Mr. Vernon grimly. "I don't suppose the bounder
+who wrote these things does."
+
+Mrs. Lorton simpered.
+
+"It's Italian, and it means that he is very popular, a general
+favorite."
+
+"Then why don't they say so?" asked Nell, in a patiently disgusted
+fashion. "'Is a persona grata in society. He is strikingly
+handsome----'"
+
+Mr. Vernon's lips curved with something between a grin and a sneer.
+
+--"'And of the most charming manners.'"
+
+"Who writes this kind of rot?" he muttered.
+
+"'Since his first appearance in the circles of the London elite, Lord
+Selbie has been the cynosure of all eyes. To quote Hamlet again, he may
+truthfully be described as the "glass of fashion and the mould of form."
+His lordship is also a good all-round sportsman. He spent two or three
+years traveling in the Rockies and in Africa, and his exploits with the
+big game in both countries are well known. Like most young men of his
+class, Lord Selbie was rather wild at Oxford, and displayed a certain
+amount of diablerie in London during his quite early manhood. He is a
+splendid whip, and his four-in-hand was eclipsed by none other in the
+club. Lord Selbie is also an admirable horseman, and has won several
+cups in regimental races.'
+
+"That is the end of that paragraph," said Nell, stifling a yawn, and
+glancing longingly through the window at the sea dancing in the
+sunlight. "Do you want any more?"
+
+"Is there any?" asked Mr. Vernon grimly. "If so, we'd better have it,
+perhaps."
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Lorton. "If there is anything I dislike more than
+another, it is incomplete information. Go on Eleanor."
+
+Nell sighed and took up the precious paper again.
+
+"'As is well known'--they always say that, because it flatters the
+readers, I suppose," she went on parenthetically--"'Lord Selbie is a
+"Lord" in consequence of his father, Mr. Herbert Selbie, the famous
+diplomatist, having been created a viscount; but, though he bears this
+title, we fancy Lord Selbie cannot be well off. The kind of life he has
+led since his advent in society must have strained his resources to the
+utmost, and we should not be far wrong if we described him as a poor
+man. This marriage of his uncle, the Earl of Angleford, must, therefore,
+be a serious blow to him, and may cause his complete retirement from the
+circles of _ton_ in which he has shone so brilliantly. Lord Selbie, as
+we stated last week, is engaged to the daughter of Lord Turfleigh.'"
+
+Nell dropped the paper and struggled with a portentous yawn.
+
+"Thank you very much, Miss Lorton," said Mr. Vernon politely, with a
+half smile on his impassive face. "It is, as Mrs. Lorton says, very
+interesting."
+
+Nell stared at him; then, seeing the irony in his eyes and on his lips,
+smiled.
+
+"I thought for the moment that you meant it," she said quietly.
+
+Mrs. Lorton heard, and sniffed at her.
+
+"My dear Eleanor, what do you mean?" she inquired stiffly. "Of course,
+Mr. Vernon is interested. Why should he say so if he were not? I'm
+afraid, Eleanor, that you are of opinion that nothing but fiction has
+any claim on our attention, and that anything real and true is of no
+account. I may be old-fashioned and singular, but I find that these
+small details of the lives of our aristocracy are full of interest, not
+to say edifying. What do you think, Mr. Vernon?"
+
+He had been gazing absently out of the window, but he pulled himself
+together, and came up to the scratch with a jerk.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," he said.
+
+Mrs. Lorton smiled triumphantly.
+
+"You see, Eleanor, Mr. Vernon quite agrees with me. I must go and see if
+Molly has put the jelly in the window to cool. Meanwhile, Mr. Vernon may
+like you to continue reading to him."
+
+Mr. Vernon rose to open the door for her--Nell noticed the act of
+courtesy--then sank down again.
+
+"You don't want any more?" she said, looking at the paper on her knee.
+
+"No, thanks," he said.
+
+She tossed it onto a chair at the other end of the room.
+
+"It is the most awful nonsense," she said, with a girlish frankness.
+"Why did you tell mamma that it was interesting?"
+
+He met the direct gaze of the clear gray eyes, and smiled.
+
+"Well--as it happened--it was," he said.
+
+The clear gray eyes opened wider.
+
+"What! All this gossip about the Earl of Angleford, and his nephew, Lord
+Selbie?"
+
+He looked down, then raised his eyes, narrowed into slits, and fixed
+them above her head.
+
+"I fancy it's true--in the main," he said, half apologetically.
+
+"Well, and if it is," she retorted impatiently, "of what interest can it
+be to us? We don't know the Earl of Angleford, and don't care a button
+that he is married, and that his nephew is--what do you
+say?--disinherited."
+
+"N-o," he admitted.
+
+"Very well, then," she said triumphantly. "It is like reading the doings
+of people living in the moon."
+
+"The moon is a long ways off," he ventured.
+
+"Not farther from us than the world in which these earls and lords have
+their being," she retorted. "It all seems so--so impertinent to me,
+when I am reading it. Of what interest can the lives of these people be
+to us, to me, Nell Lorton? I never heard of Lord Angleford, and
+Lord--what is it?--Lord Selbie, before; did you?"
+
+He glanced at her, then looked fixedly through the window.
+
+"I've heard of them--yes," he said reluctantly.
+
+"Ah, well, you are better informed than I am," said Nell, laughing
+softly. "There's Dick; he's calling me. Do you mind being left? He will
+make an awful row if I don't go out."
+
+"Certainly not. Go by all means!" he said. "And thank you for--all the
+trouble you have taken."
+
+Nell nodded and hurried out, and Mr. Vernon leaned back and bit at his
+mustache thoughtfully, not to say irritably.
+
+"I feel like a bounder," he muttered. "Why the blazes didn't I give my
+right name? I wonder what they'd say--how that girl would look--if I
+told them that I was the Lord Selbie this rag was cackling about? Shall
+I tell them? No. It would be awkward now. I shall be gone in a day or
+two, and they needn't know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The following morning, the carrier's cart stopped at the cottage, and
+Dick, having helped the carrier to bring in a big portmanteau, burst
+into the sitting room with:
+
+"Your togs have arrived, Mr. Vernon; and the carrier says that there are
+a couple of horses at the station. They're directed 'Drake Vernon,
+Esquire,' so they must be for you!"
+
+Vernon nodded.
+
+"That's all right," he said. "They were doing nothing in--where they
+were, and I thought I'd have them sent down here. I suppose I must get
+some one to exercise them?"
+
+Dick's eyes sparkled and his mouth stretched in an expressive grin.
+
+"Not much difficulty about that," he said. "For instance, I don't mind
+obliging you--as a favor."
+
+Mr. Vernon smiled.
+
+"I thought perhaps you might be so good," he said; and he added
+casually: "Anybody here who could be trusted to bring them from the
+station?"
+
+"I know a most trustworthy person; his name is Richard Lorton, and he
+will go for 'em in a brace of jiffs," said Dick.
+
+Mr. Vernon flicked a five-pound note across the table.
+
+"There may be some carriage. By the way, one of them is a lady's nag,
+and I fancy they may have sent a sidesaddle."
+
+Dick nodded and repeated the grin.
+
+"I can get them put up at Sandy's," he said. "Sandy used to keep some
+stables going for post horses before the coach ran to Hartland, you
+know. I've got your horse there. Oh, they'll be all right. You trust to
+me."
+
+"I do," said Mr. Vernon. "One moment," as Dick was rushing out to put on
+his well-worn riding suit. "I don't think I'd say anything about--the
+sidesaddle to Miss Lorton--yet."
+
+Once again Dick nodded--a nod so full of comprehension as to be almost
+supernal.
+
+Mr. Vernon went upstairs, and, with Molly's assistance, unpacked the
+huge portmanteau, and, when she had got out of the room, examined the
+contents. Strangely enough, the linen was all new and unmarked. Only on
+the silver fittings of the dressing case were a monogram--in which the
+initial "S" was decipherable--and a coronet.
+
+"Sparling's an idiot!" Vernon muttered. "Why didn't he buy a new case? I
+shall have to keep this locked."
+
+When he came down again, having changed into a blue serge suit, Nell was
+in the drawing-room, arranging some flowers, and she looked up with a
+smile of recognition at his altered appearance.
+
+"Your box has arrived, I see," she said, with the frankness of--well,
+Shorne Mills. "You must be glad. And where has Dick dashed off to? He
+nearly knocked me down in his hurry."
+
+"To Shallop," he said. "I had a couple of horses sent down."
+
+"But you couldn't ride, with your arm in a sling; and you've a horse
+here already."
+
+"Don't suppose it's fit to ride yet," he said, "and I'm not going to
+carry a sling forever. Besides, they were eating their heads off--where
+they were."
+
+He said nothing about the sidesaddle.
+
+"I see. Well, I'm sorry Dick's gone this morning, for I wanted him to
+come out in the boat. It's a good day for mackerel." She looked
+wistfully at the sea shining below them. "Of course I could go by
+myself, but I promised Mr. Gadsby that I wouldn't."
+
+"Who's Mr. Gadsby?"
+
+"The vicar. I got caught in a squall off the Head one day, and--I really
+wasn't in the least danger--but they were all waiting for me at the
+jetty, and they made a fuss--and so I had to promise that I wouldn't go
+out alone. And old Brownie's out with his nets--he goes with me
+sometimes. It's a nuisance."
+
+He stood by the window silently for a moment, then he glanced at her
+wistful face, and said:
+
+"I should be a poor substitute, in my present condition, for old
+Brownie, or old anybody else; but if you'll allow me to go with you, I
+shall be very grateful. I can manage the tiller, at any rate."
+
+Nell's face lit up; she wanted to go very badly; it was a "real"
+mackerel day, and, like the days of other fishing, not to be missed.
+
+"Will you? That's awfully kind of you! Not that I want any help; it
+isn't that, for I can manage the _Annie Laurie_ in half a gale; but
+there's a feeling that, because I'm only a girl, I'm not to be trusted
+alone."
+
+"I quite understand," he said. "I'll promise not to interfere, if you'll
+let me come."
+
+"And it may do you good--it's sure to!" she said eagerly. "There's the
+loveliest of breezes--you must have some wind for mackerel--and----Can
+you go at once?"
+
+"This very minute. I'm all ready," he said.
+
+"All right," she exclaimed, just as Dick might have done. "I'll be ready
+before you can say Jack Robinson!"
+
+She ran out of the room and was down again in a very few minutes. Vernon
+glanced at her as they left the cottage and descended the steep road.
+She had put on a short skirt of rough serge, with a jersey, which
+accentuated every flowing line of her girlish, graceful figure, and the
+dark hair rippled under a red tam-o'-shanter. He was familiar enough
+with the yachting costumes of fashion, but he thought that he had never
+seen anything so workmanlike and becoming as this get-up which Nell had
+donned so quickly and carelessly. As they walked down the steps which
+led to the jetty, Nell exchanging greetings at every step, an old
+fisherman, crippled with rheumatism, limped beside them, and helped to
+bring the boat to the jetty steps.
+
+Nell eyed the _Annie Laurie_ lovingly, but said apologetically:
+
+"She's a very good boat. Old, of course. She is a herring boat, and
+though she isn't fascinatingly beautiful, she can sail. Dick--helped by
+Brownie--decked her over, and Dick picked up a new set of sails last
+year from a man who was selling off his gear. Have you put in the bait
+and the lines, Willy?"
+
+"Aye, aye, Miss Nell; I'm thinkin' you'll be gettin' some mackerel if
+the wind holds. Let me help 'ee wi' the sail."
+
+"No, no," said Nell, "I can manage. Oh, please don't you trouble!" she
+added to Vernon. "If you'll give me the sheet--that's the rope by your
+hand."
+
+Vernon nodded, and suppressed a smile.
+
+"She'll go a bit tauter still, I think," he said, as Nell hoisted the
+mainsail.
+
+She looked at him.
+
+"You understand?" she said, with a little surprise.
+
+Vernon thought of his crack yacht, but answered casually:
+
+"I've done some yachting--yes."
+
+"Yachting!" said Nell. "This isn't yachting. You must feel a kind of
+contempt for our poor old tub."
+
+"Not at all; she's a good boat, I can see," he said.
+
+Nell took up the oars, but she had to pull only a few strokes, for the
+wind soon filled the sail, and the _Annie Laurie_, as if piqued by the
+things that had been said of her, sprang forward before the wind.
+
+Nell shipped the oars, looked up at the sail, and glanced at Vernon, who
+had taken his seat in the stern, and got hold of the tiller with an
+accustomed air.
+
+"Make for the Head," she said. "I'll get the lines ready."
+
+There was silence for a minute or two while she baited the lines and
+paid them out, and Vernon watched her with a kind of absent-minded
+interest.
+
+She was quite intent on her work, and he felt that, so far as she was
+concerned, he might have been old Brownie, or the rheumatic Willy, or
+her brother Dick; and something in her girlish indifference to his
+presence and personality impressed him; for Drake, Viscount Selbie, was
+not accustomed to be passed over as a nonentity by the women in whose
+company he chanced to be.
+
+"That ought to fetch them," she said, eying the baited line with an air
+of satisfaction. "You might keep her to the wind a little more, Mr.
+Vernon; she can carry all we've got, and more."
+
+"Aye, aye!" he responded, in sailor fashion. "You only did her bare
+justice, Miss Lorton," he added. "She's a good boat."
+
+Nell looked round at him with a gratified smile.
+
+"She's a dear old thing, really," she said; "and she behaves like an
+angel in a gale. Many's the time Dick and I have sailed her when half
+the other boats were afraid to leave the harbor."
+
+"Wasn't that rather dangerous, a tempting of Providence?" he said,
+rather gravely, at the thought of the peril incurred by these two
+thoughtless children--for what else were they?
+
+"Oh, I don't know," she replied carelessly. "We know every inch of the
+coast and every current, and if it should ever come on too stiff, we
+should make for the open. It would have to be a bad sea to sink the
+_Annie Laurie_; and if we came to grief----Well, we can die but once,
+you know; and, after all, there are meaner ways of slipping off the
+mortal coil than doing it in a hurricane off Windy Head. There's the
+first fish! If Brownie were here, we should 'wet it'; but I haven't any
+whisky to offer you."
+
+Her low but clear laugh rang musical over the billowing water, and she
+nodded at her companion as if he were one of the fishing men or Dick.
+
+Vernon leaned back and gazed in turn at the sea and the sky and the
+slim, girlish form and beautiful face, and half unconsciously his mind
+concentrated itself upon her.
+
+She was not the first young girl he had known, but she was quite unlike
+any young girl he had hitherto met. He could recall none so free and
+frank and utterly unselfconscious.
+
+Most young girls with whom he had become acquainted had bored him by
+their insipidity or disgusted him by their precocity; but from this one
+there emanated a kind of charm which rested while it attracted him. It
+was pleasant to lean back and look at and listen to her; to watch the
+soft tendrils of dark hair stirred by the wind, to see the frank smile
+light up the gray eyes and curve the sweet red lips; to listen to the
+musical voice, the low brief laugh, which was so distinct from the
+ordinary girl's giggle or forced and affected gayety.
+
+The fish were biting, and soon a pile of silver lay wet and glittering
+in the bottom of the boat.
+
+"Haven't you got enough?" asked Vernon, with your sportsman's dislike of
+"pot hunting."
+
+"For ourselves? Oh, yes; but some of the old people of the Mills like
+mackerel," replied Nell, "and they'll be waiting on the jetty for the
+_Annie Laurie's_ return. Are you getting tired?" she asked, for the
+first time directing her attention to him. "I quite forgot you were an
+invalid."
+
+"Go on forgetting it, please," he said. "In fact, the invalid business
+is played out. I'm far too hungry to keep up the character."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"So am I."
+
+She raised herself on her elbow and looked toward the shore.
+
+"If you'll take her to that cove just opposite us, we'll have some
+lunch. You can eat fish, I hope? It was awfully stupid of me not to
+remember----"
+
+"I can eat anything," he said quickly. "I was just going to propose that
+we should cast lots, in cannibalistic fashion, to decide who should
+lunch on the other."
+
+She laughed, and pulled in her line.
+
+"That's a beauty for the last. Do you know how to cook mackerel?"
+
+"No; but I can learn."
+
+"Very well, then; you'll find a spirit lamp and stove in that locker
+under the tiller. Yes, that's it. And there ought to be some bread and
+butter, and some coffee. Milk, as we don't carry a cow, we shall have to
+do without. We shall be in smooth water presently, and then we can
+lunch."
+
+He sailed the boat into a sheltered cove, and, rather awkwardly, with
+his one hand, extracted the cooking utensils from the locker. Nell
+lowered the sail, dropped the anchor, and came aft.
+
+"I'm afraid I shall have to cook," she said. "Dick generally does it,
+but you've only one hand. There's one fish;" as she cut it open
+skillfully. "How many can you eat?"
+
+"Two--three dozen," he said gravely.
+
+She laughed, and placed three of the silver mackerel in the frying pan.
+
+"Now don't, please, don't say that you haven't a match!" she said, half
+aghast with dread.
+
+He took his silver match box from his pocket, and was on the point of
+handing it to her. Then he remembered the coronet engraved on it, and
+holding it against his side, managed to strike a light and ignite the
+spirit.
+
+"Of course, you have to pretend that you don't mind the smell of cooking
+fish; but it really isn't so bad when one is hungry," she said, as the
+pan began to hiss and the fish to brown.
+
+"There's salt and pepper somewhere," she remarked. "You put them on
+while the fish is cooking; it is half the battle, as Dick says. They're
+in the back of the locker, I think. If you'll move just a little----"
+
+He screwed himself into as small a compass as possible, and she dived
+into the locker and got out a couple of tin boxes.
+
+"And here's the bread--rather stale, I'm afraid--and some biscuits. The
+coffee's in that tin, and the water in this jar. Do you know how to make
+coffee?"
+
+"Rather!" he said, with mock indignation. "I've made coffee under
+various circumstances and in various climes; in the galley of a Porto
+Rico coaster; in an American ravine, waiting for the game; on a Highland
+moor, when the stags had got scent and the last chance of sport in the
+day was gone like a beautiful dream; in an artist's attic in Florence,
+where the tobacco smoke was too thick to cut with anything less than a
+hatchet; and after a skirmish with the dervishes, when a cup of coffee
+seemed almost as precious as the life one had just managed to save by
+the skin of one's teeth; but I never made it under more pleasant
+circumstances than these."
+
+He looked up and round him as he spoke, with a brighter expression on
+his face than she had as yet seen, and Nell regarded him with a sudden
+interest.
+
+"How much you have traveled!" she said--"that mackerel wants turning;
+raise the pan so that the butter can run under the fish; that's it--and
+how much you must have seen! Italy, Egypt, Porto Rico--where is that?
+Oh, I remember! How delightful to have seen so much! You must be a very
+fortunate individual!"
+
+She leaned her chin in her brown, shapely hands, and looked at him
+curiously, and with a frank envy in her gray eyes.
+
+His face clouded for a moment.
+
+"Count no man fortunate until he is dead!" he said, adapting the
+aphorism. "Believe me that I'd change places with you at this moment,
+and throw in all my experiences."
+
+She laughed incredulously.
+
+"With me? Oh, you can't mean it. It is very flattering, of course; but
+it's absurd. Why"--she paused and sighed--"I've never been anywhere, or
+seen anything. I've never been to London even, since I was quite a
+little girl, and----Change places with me!" She laughed again, just a
+little sadly. "Yes, it does sound absurd. For one thing, you wouldn't
+like to be poor; and we are poor, you know."
+
+"Poor and content is rich enough," he remarked sententiously. Then he
+laughed. "I'm as good as a copy book with moral headings this morning."
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"I think that is nonsense, like most copy-book headings. And yet----Yes,
+I should be content enough if it were not for Dick. After all, one can
+be happy though one is poor, especially if one lives in a beautiful
+place like Shorne Mills, and has a boat to sail in the summer, and books
+in the winter, and knows all the people round, and----"
+
+"And happens to be young and full of the joy of life," he said, with a
+smile. "And it's only on your mind!"
+
+She nodded gravely.
+
+"Yes, of course I know that it's not right that he should be hanging
+about the Mills, doing nothing, and wasting his time. I'm always
+worrying about Dick's future. It's a sin that he should be wasted, for
+Dick is clever. You may not think so----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," he said thoughtfully. "But I wouldn't worry. Something
+may turn up----"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"That is what he is always saying; but he says it rather bitterly
+sometimes, and----But I ought not to worry you, at any rate. Those fish
+are just done."
+
+"Then my life is just saved," he responded solemnly.
+
+"There are two plates; you hold them on the top of the stove to
+warm--that's it! And now you fill the kettle--oh! I see you've thought
+of that. It will boil while we eat the fish."
+
+She helped him to some, and they ate in silence for some minutes. Only
+they who have eaten mackerel within a few minutes of their being caught,
+and eaten them while reclining in a boat, with a blue sky overhead and a
+sapphire sea all around, can know how good mackerel can taste. To
+Vernon, who possessed the appetite of the convalescent, the meal was an
+Olympian feast.
+
+"No more?" he said, as Nell declined. "Pray don't say so, or I shall,
+from sheer decency, have to refuse also; and I could eat another half,
+and will do so if you will take the other. You wouldn't be so heartless
+as to deprive me of a second serve, surely!"
+
+Nell laughed and held out her plate.
+
+"I consent because I do not think the recently starving should eat too
+much at first. Didn't you say that you had been in Egypt fighting? You
+are in the army, then?"
+
+He nodded casually, and she looked at him thoughtfully.
+
+"Then we ought not to call you 'Mr.,'" she said. "What are you--a
+colonel?"
+
+He laughed shortly as he picked the fish from the bones.
+
+"Good heavens! do I look so old? No, not colonel. I'm a captain. But I'm
+not in the army now. I left it--worse luck!"
+
+"Why did you leave it?" she asked.
+
+He looked a little bored--not so much bored, perhaps, as reluctant.
+
+"Oh, for a variety of reasons; the most important being the fact that a
+relative of mine wished me to do so."
+
+His face clouded for a moment or two; then he said, with the air of one
+dismissing an unpleasant topic:
+
+"This water's boiling like mad. Now is my time to prove my assertion
+that I am capable of making coffee. I want two jugs, or this jug and the
+tin will do. The coffee? Thanks. I'm afraid I'll have to get you to hold
+the tin. This is the native method: You make it in the tin--so; then,
+after a moment or two, you pour the liquid--not the coffee grounds--into
+the jug, then back, and then back again, and lo! you have cafe a la
+Francais, or Cairo, or Clapham fashion."
+
+"It's very good," she admitted, when it had cooled sufficiently for her
+to taste it. "And that is how you made it on the battlefield?"
+
+"Scarcely," he said. "There was no jug, only an empty meat can; and the
+water--well, the water was almost as thick, with mud, before the coffee
+was put in as afterward, and the men would scarcely have had patience
+to wait for the patent process. Poor beggars! Some of them had not had a
+drop past their lips for twenty-four hours--and been fighting, too."
+
+Nell listened, with her grave gray eyes fixed on his face.
+
+"How sorry you must have been to leave the army!" she said thoughtfully.
+
+"Does warfare seem so alluring?" he retorted, with a laugh. "But you're
+right; I was sorry to send in my papers, and I've been sorrier since the
+day I did it."
+
+Nell curled herself up in the bottom of the boat like a well-fed and
+contented cat, and Vernon, having washed the plates by the simple
+process of dragging them backward and forward through the water,
+stretched himself and felt in his pockets. He relinquished the search
+with a sigh of resignation, and Nell, hearing it, looked up.
+
+"Are you not going to smoke?" she asked. "Dick would have his pipe
+alight long before this; and, of course, I don't mind--if that is what
+you were waiting for. Why should I?"
+
+"Thanks; but, like an idiot, I've forgotten my pipe. I've got some
+tobacco and cigarette paper."
+
+"Then you are all right," she remarked.
+
+"Scarcely," he said carelessly. "This stupid mummy of an arm of mine
+prevents me rolling a cigarette, you see."
+
+"How stupid of me to forget that!" she said. "Give me the tobacco and
+the paper and let me try."
+
+He produced the necessary articles promptly; and showed her how to do
+it.
+
+"Not quite so much tobacco"--she had taken out enough for ten
+cigarettes, and spilled sufficient for another five--"and--er--if you
+could get it more equal along the paper. Like this--ah, thanks!"
+
+In showing her, his fingers got "mixed" with hers, but Nell seemed too
+absorbed in her novel experiment to notice the fact.
+
+"Like that? Rather like a miniature sausage, isn't it? And it will all
+come undone when I let go of it," she added apprehensively.
+
+"If you'll be so good as just to wet the edge with your lips," he said,
+in a matter-of-fact way.
+
+She looked at him, and a faint dash of color came into her face.
+
+"You won't like to smoke it afterward," she said coolly.
+
+He stared at her, then smiled.
+
+"Try me!" he said succinctly.
+
+She gave a little shrug of the shoulders, moistened the cigarette in the
+usual way, and handed it to him gravely.
+
+"I'll try to make the next better," she said. "I suppose you will want
+another?"
+
+"I'm afraid I shall want more than you will be inclined to make," he
+said, "and I shouldn't like to trespass on your good nature."
+
+"Oh, it's not very hard work making cigarettes," she said. "I'd better
+set about the next at once. How is that?" and she held up the production
+for inspection.
+
+"Simply perfect," he said. "You would amass a fortune out in the East as
+a cigarette maker."
+
+She looked up at him, beyond him, wistfully.
+
+"I wish I could amass a fortune; indeed, I'd be content if I could earn
+my living any way," she said, as if she were communing with herself
+rather than addressing him. "If I could earn some money, and help Dick!"
+
+Her voice died away, and she sighed softly.
+
+He regarded her dreamily.
+
+"Don't think of anything so--unnatural," he said.
+
+She raised her eyes, and looked at him with surprise.
+
+"Is it unnatural for a woman--a girl--to earn her own living?" she said.
+
+"Yes," he said emphatically. "Women were made for men to work for, not
+to toil themselves."
+
+Nell laughed, in simple mockery of the sentiment.
+
+"What nonsense! As if we were dolls or something to be wrapped up in
+lavender! Why, half the women in Shorne Mills work! You see them driving
+their donkeys down to the beach for sand--haven't you seen them with
+bags on each side?--and doing washing, and making butter and going to
+market. Why, I should have to work if anything happened to mamma. At
+least, she has often said so. She has--what is it?--oh, an annuity or
+something of the kind; and if she died, Dick and I would have to 'face
+the world,' as she puts it."
+
+He said nothing, but looked at her through the thin blue cloud of his
+cigarette. She looked so sweet, so girlish, so--yes, so helpless--lying
+there in the sunlight, one brown paw supporting her shapely head, the
+other--after the manner of girls--dabbling in the water. A pang of
+compassion smote him.
+
+"It's a devil of a world," he muttered, almost to himself.
+
+"Do you think so?" she said, with surprise. "I don't. At any rate, I
+don't think so this afternoon."
+
+"Why this afternoon?" he asked, half curiously.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps it's the sunshine, or--or--do you think it's
+the mackerel?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"But I feel so happy and free from care. And yet all the old trouble
+remains. There's Dick's future--and--oh, all the rest. But this
+afternoon everything seems bright and hopeful. I wonder why?"
+
+She looked at him wistfully, as if he might perhaps explain; but Vernon
+said nothing.
+
+"Have you really finished that cigarette? You smoke much less quickly
+than Dick. Well, there's another ready; and when you've finished that, I
+think we ought to be getting back. I want--let me see--yes, ten more
+fish, and I can get them when we get farther out."
+
+They set the sail, and the _Annie Laurie_ glided out of the placid
+little cove into the open sea.
+
+As Vernon steered for the Head, behind which Shorne Mills sheltered, he
+sighed unconsciously. He, too, had been happy and free from care that
+morning, and the afternoon seemed full of indescribable peace and
+happiness. He, like Nell, wondered why. A day or two ago--or was it a
+month, a year?--he had been depressed and low-spirited, and firmly
+convinced that life was not worth living; but this afternoon----
+
+What a pretty picture she made in her jersey, that fitted her like a
+skin, with the soft black hair rippling beneath the edge of the
+tam-o'-shanter!
+
+Suddenly the pretty picture called out, "Sail ahead, sir!" and Vernon,
+taking his eyes from her, saw a yacht skimming along the sapphire waves,
+almost parallel with the _Annie Laurie_.
+
+"That's a yacht," said Nell; "and a fine one, too."
+
+He looked at it, shading his eyes with his practicable hand.
+
+"I wonder who she is?" said Nell. "There's a field glass in the
+locker--get it. Can you see her name?"
+
+He put the glass to his eyes and adjusted it; and, as he got the focus,
+an exclamation escaped him.
+
+"What did you say?" inquired Nell.
+
+"Nothing, only that she's a fine vessel," he said indifferently.
+
+"Yes. I should like to be on her," said Nell. "Wouldn't you?"
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"I am content with the _Annie Laurie_," he replied.
+
+She stared at him incredulously, then laughed.
+
+"Thank you for the compliment; but you can't seriously prefer this dear
+old tub to that! I wonder whom she belongs to? How fast she travels. I
+should like to have a yacht like that."
+
+"Would you?" he said, eying her rather strangely. "Perhaps some day----"
+
+He stopped, and knocked the ash from his cigarette.
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Were you going to say that perhaps some day I should own one like her?
+What nonsense! It is like the things one reads in books, when the
+benevolent and wise old gentleman tells the boy that perhaps, if he
+works hard, and is honest and persevering, he may own a carriage and a
+pair like that which happens to be passing at the moment."
+
+Vernon laughed.
+
+"Life is full of possibilities," he said, with his eyes fixed on the
+yacht, which, after sailing broadside to them for some time, suddenly
+put down the helm and struck out for sea.
+
+"I thought they might be making for Shorne Mills," said Nell, rather
+regretfully. "Yachts put in there sometimes, and I should have liked to
+have seen this one."
+
+"Would you?" he said, as curiously as he had spoken before.
+
+"It doesn't matter whether I would or wouldn't; she's gone out into the
+channel now," said Nell.
+
+He stifled a sigh which sounded like a sigh of relief, and steered the
+_Annie Laurie_ for home.
+
+Nell swept the fish into an old reed basket which had held many such a
+catch, and held it up to the admiring and anticipatory gaze of a small
+crowd of women and children which had gathered on the jetty steps at the
+approach of the _Annie Laurie_.
+
+As she stepped on shore and distributed the fish, receiving the short
+but expressive Devonshire "Thank 'ee, Miss Nell, thank 'ee," Vernon
+looked at the beautiful girlish face pensively, and thought--well, who
+can tell what a man thinks at such moments? Perhaps he was thinking of
+the hundred and one useless women of his class who, throughout the whole
+of their butterfly lives, had never won a single breath of gratitude
+from the poor in their midst.
+
+"Come along," she said, turning to him, when she had emptied the basket.
+"I'm afraid we're in for a scolding. I quite forgot till this moment
+that mamma did not know you had gone out."
+
+"What about you?" he said, remembering for the first time that he had
+spent so many hours with this girl alone and unchaperoned.
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Oh, she would not be anxious about me. Mamma is used to my going out
+for a ride--when I can borrow a horse from some one--or sailing the
+_Annie Laurie_ with old Brownie; but she'll be anxious about you. You're
+an invalid, you know."
+
+"Not much of the invalid about me, saving this arm," he said.
+
+As they climbed the hill, they came upon Dick mounted upon a horse the
+like of which Nell had never seen; and she stopped dead short and stared
+at him.
+
+"Hallo, Nell! Hallo, Mr. Vernon! Just giving him a run, after being shut
+up in that stuffy railway box."
+
+"That's right," said Vernon. "Like him?"
+
+"Like him?" responded Dick, with the superlative of approval; "never
+rode a horse to equal him, and the other is as good. And"--in an
+undertone--"the sidesaddle has come."
+
+But Nell, whose ears were sharp, heard him.
+
+"Who is the sidesaddle for?" she asked, innocently and ungrammatically.
+
+Vernon took the bull by the horns.
+
+"For you, if you will deign to use it, Miss Nell," he said.
+
+It was the first time he had addressed her as "Miss Nell," but she did
+not notice it.
+
+"For me?" she exclaimed.
+
+They were opposite Sandy's stables, and Dick dropped off his horse and
+brought out the other.
+
+"Look at her, Nell!" he exclaimed, with bated breath. "Perfect, isn't
+she?"
+
+Nell looked at her with a flush that came and went.
+
+"Oh, but I--I--could not!" she breathed.
+
+Mr. Drake Vernon laughed.
+
+"Why not?" he said argumentatively. "Fair play's a jewel. You can't
+expect to have all the innings your side, Miss Nell. You've treated
+me--well, like a prince; and you won't refuse to ride a horse of mine
+that's simply spoiling for want of exercise!"
+
+Nell looked from him to the horse, and from the horse to him.
+
+"I--I--am so surprised," she faltered. "I--I will ask mamma."
+
+"That's all right," said Vernon, who had learned to know "mamma" by this
+time.
+
+Nell left Dick and Vernon standing round the horses in man fashion. Dick
+was all aglow with satisfaction and admiration.
+
+"Never saw a better pair than these, Mr. Vernon," he said. "I should
+think this one could jump."
+
+She had just won a military steeplechase, and Vernon nodded assent.
+
+"You must persuade your sister to ride her," he said.
+
+As he spoke, he seated himself on the edge of the steep roadway which
+led to the jetty.
+
+"Take the horses in," he said. "I'll come up in a few minutes."
+
+But the minutes ran into hours. He looked out to sea with a meditative
+and retrospective mind. He was going over the past which seemed so far
+away, so vague, since he had gone sailing in the _Annie Laurie_ this
+morning.
+
+Then suddenly the past became the present. There was a stir on the jetty
+below him. Voices--the voice of fashionable people, the voices of
+"society"--rose in an indistinguishable sound to his ears. He moved
+uneasily, and refilled and lit the pipe that he had borrowed of Dick. He
+heard the footsteps of several persons climbing the steep stairs. One
+seemed familiar to him. He pulled at his pipe, and crossed his legs with
+an air of preparation, of resignation.
+
+The voices came nearer, and presently one said:
+
+"I certainly, for one, decline to go any farther. I think it is too
+absurd to expect one to climb these ridiculous steps. And there is
+nothing to see up there, is there?"
+
+At the sound of the voice, clear and bell-like, yet languid, with the
+languor of the fashionable woman, Mr. Drake Vernon bit his lips and
+colored. He half rose, but sank down again, as if uncertain whether to
+meet her, or to remain where he was; eventually he crossed his legs
+again, rammed down his pipe, and waited.
+
+"Oh, but you'll come up to the top, Lady Lucille!" remonstrated a man's
+voice, the half-nasal drawl of the man about town--the ordinary club
+lounger. "There's a view, don't you know--there really is!"
+
+"I don't care for views. Not another step, Archie. I'll wait here till
+you come back. You can describe the view--or, rather, you can't, thank
+Heaven!"
+
+As she spoke, she mounted a few steps, and turned into the small square
+which offered a resting place on the steep ascent, and so came full upon
+Mr. Vernon.
+
+He rose and raised his hat, and she looked at him, at first with the
+vagueness of sheer amazement, then with a start of recognition, and with
+her fair face all crimson for one instant, and, the next, pale, she
+said, in a suppressed voice, as if she were afraid of being overheard:
+
+"Drake!"
+
+He looked at her with a curious smile, as if something in the tone of
+her voice, in her sudden pallor following upon her; blush, were
+significant, and had told himself something.
+
+"Well, Luce," he said; "and what brings you here?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The girl who, with changing color, stood gazing at Lord Drake Selbie
+might have stepped out of one of Marcus Stone's pictures. She was as
+fair as a piece of biscuit china. Her hair was golden, and, strange to
+say in these latter days, naturally so. It was, indeed, like the fleece
+of gold itself under her fashionable yachting hat. Her eyes, widely
+opened, with that curious look of surprise and fear, were hazel--a deep
+hazel, which men, until they knew her, accepted as an indication of Lady
+Lucille's depth of feeling. She was slightly built, but graceful, with
+the grace of the fashionable modiste.
+
+She was the product of the marriage of Art and Fashion of this
+fin-de-siecle age. Other ages have given us wit, beauty allied with
+esprit, dignity of demeanor, and a nobility of principle; this end of
+the nineteenth century has bestowed upon us--Lady Lucille Turfleigh.
+
+It is in its way a marvelous product. It is very beautiful, with the
+delicate beauty of excessive culture and effete luxury. It has the
+subtle charm of the exotic, of the tall and graceful arum, whose
+spotless whiteness cannot bear a single breath of the keen east wind.
+
+It is charming, bewitching; it looks all purity and spirituality; it
+seems to breathe poetry and a Higher Culture. It goes through life like
+a rose leaf floating upon a placid stream. It is precious to look at,
+pleasant to live with, and it has only one defect--it has no heart.
+
+We have cast off the old creeds like so many shackles; we are so finely
+educated, so cultivated, that we have learned to do more than laugh at
+sentiment; we regard it with a contemptuous pity.
+
+There is only one thing which we value, and that is Pleasure. Some
+persons labor under the mistaken notion that Money is the universal
+quest; but it is not so. The Golden God is set up in every market place,
+it stands at every street corner; but it is not for himself that the
+crowd worship at the feet of the brazen image, but because he can buy so
+much.
+
+It is Money which nowadays holds the magician's rod. With a wave he can
+give us rank, luxury, power, place, influence, and beauty. This is the
+creed, the religion, which we teach our children, which is continually
+in our hearts if not on our lips; and it is the creed, the religion, in
+which Lady Lucille was reared.
+
+Her history is a public one. It is the story of how many fashionable
+women? Her father, Lord Turfleigh, was an Irish peer. He had inherited a
+historic title, and thousands of acres which he had scarcely seen, but
+which he had helped to incumber. All the Turfleighs from time immemorial
+had been fast and reckless, but this Turfleigh had outpaced them all,
+and had easily romped in first in the race of dissipation. As a young
+man his name had been synonymous with every kind of picturesque
+profligacy. Every pound he could screw out of the land, or obtain at
+ruinous interest from the Jews, had been spent in what he and his kind
+call pleasure.
+
+He had married for money, had got it, and had spent it, even before his
+patient and long-suffering wife had expiated the mistake of her life in
+the only possible way. She had left Lady Lucille behind, and the girl
+had matriculated and taken honors in her father's school.
+
+To Lady Lucille there was only one thing in life worth having--money;
+and to obtain this prize she had been carefully nurtured and laboriously
+taught. Long before she left the nursery she had grown to understand
+that her one object and sole ambition must be a wealthy and suitable
+marriage; and to this end every advantage of mind and body had been
+trained and cultivated as one trains a young thoroughbred for a great
+race.
+
+She had been taught to laugh at sentiment, to regard admiration as
+valueless unless it came from a millionaire; to sneer at love unless it
+paced, richly clad and warmly shod, from a palace. She had graduated in
+the School of Fashion, and had passed with high honors. There was no
+more beautiful woman in all England than Lady Lucille; few possessed
+greater charm; men sang her praises; artists fought for the honor of
+hanging her picture in the Academy; the society papers humbly reported
+her doings, her sayings, and her conquests; royalties smiled approvingly
+on this queen of fashion, and not a single soul, Lady Lucille herself
+least of all, realized that this perfection was but the hollow husk and
+shell of beauty without heart or soul; that behind the lovely face,
+within the graceful form, lurked as selfish and ignoble a nature as that
+which stirs the blood of any drab upon the Streets.
+
+"Drake!" she said. "Why! I'd no idea! What are you doing here?"
+
+He motioned her to a seat with a wave of his pipe, and she sank down on
+the stone slab, after a careful glance at it, and eyed him curiously but
+with still a trace of her first embarrassment.
+
+She looked a perfect picture, as she sat there, with the steep,
+descending wall, the red Devon cliffs, the blue, glittering sea for her
+background; a picture which might have been presented with a summer
+number of one of the illustrated weeklies; and all as unreal and as
+unlike life as they are. It is true that she wore a yachting costume
+exquisitely made and perfectly fitting; and Drake, as he looked at it,
+acknowledged its claims upon his admiration, but he knew it was all a
+sham, and, half unconsciously, he compared it with the old worn skirt
+and the serviceable jersey worn by Nell, who had gone up the hill--how
+long ago was it? Nell's face and hands were brown with the kiss of
+God's sun; Lady Lucille's face was like a piece of delicate Sevres, and
+her hands were incased in white kid gauntlets. To him, at that moment,
+she looked like an actress playing in a nautical burlesque at the
+Gaiety; and, for the first time since he had known her, he found himself
+looking at her critically, and, notwithstanding her faultless
+attire--faultless from a fashionable point of view--with disapproval.
+
+"You are surprised to see me, Luce?" he said.
+
+"Of course I am," she replied. "I'd no idea where you were. I've written
+to you--twice."
+
+"Have you?" he said. "That was good of you. I've not had your letters;
+but that's my fault, not yours. I told Sparling not to send any letters
+on."
+
+She looked down, as if rather embarrassed, and dug at the interstices of
+the rough stone pavement with her dainty, and altogether unnautical,
+sunshade.
+
+"But what are you doing here?" she asked. "And--and what's the matter
+with your arm? Isn't that a sling?"
+
+"Yes, it's a sling," he said casually. "I'd been hunting with the Devon
+and Somerset; I found London unbearable, and I came down here suddenly.
+I meant to write and tell you; but just then I wasn't in the humor to
+write to any one, even to you. I lost my way in one of the runs, and was
+riding down the top of the hill here, riding carelessly, I'll admit, for
+when the horse shied, I was chucked off. I broke my arm and knocked my
+head. Oh, don't trouble," he added hastily, as if to ward off her
+commiseration. "I am all right now; the arm will soon be in working
+order again."
+
+"I'm very sorry," she said, lifting her eyes to his, but only for a
+moment. "You look rather pulled down and seedy."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," he said. "And now, as I have explained my presence
+here, perhaps you will explain yours."
+
+"I've come here in the _Seagull_," she said. "Father's on board. He said
+you'd offered to lend the yacht to him--you did, I suppose?"
+
+Drake nodded indifferently.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said. "The _Seagull_ was quite at your father's service."
+
+"Well, father made a party; Sir Archie Walbrooke, Mrs. Horn-Wallis and
+her husband, Lady Pirbright, and ourselves."
+
+Drake nodded as indifferently as before. He knew the persons she had
+mentioned; members of the smart set in which he had spent his life--and
+his money; and Lady Lucille continued in somewhat apologetic fashion:
+
+"We went to the Solent first, for the races; then, when they were all
+over, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves so much that
+father--you know what he is--suggested that we should sail round the
+Devon coast. It hasn't been a bad time; and Sir Archie has been rather
+amusing, and Mrs. Horn-Wallis has kept things going. Oh, yes; it hasn't
+been so bad."
+
+"I'm glad you've been amused, Luce," he said, his eyes resting upon the
+beautifully fair face with a touch of cynicism.
+
+"We'd no idea you were anywhere here," she said, "or, of course, I would
+have written and asked you to join us; though, I suppose, under the
+circumstances----"
+
+She hesitated for a moment, then went on with a little embarrassment,
+which in no way detracted from her charm of voice and manner:
+
+"I told father that, after what had happened, it was scarcely in good
+taste to borrow your yacht. But you know what father is. He said that
+though things were altered, your offer of the _Seagull_ stood good; that
+you told him you didn't mean to use her this season, and that it was a
+pity for her to lie idle. And so they persuaded me--very much against my
+will, I must admit--to join them, and--and here I am, as you see."
+
+Drake puffed at his pipe.
+
+"I see," he said. "I needn't say that you are quite welcome to the
+yacht, Lucille, or to anything that I have. As you say, things
+are--altered. How much they are altered and changed, perhaps your
+letters, if I had received them, would have told me. What was it that
+you wrote me? Oh, don't be afraid," he added, with a faint smile, as she
+turned her head away and poked with her sunshade at the crack in the
+pavement. "I am strong; I can bear it. When a man has come a cropper in
+every sense of the word, his nerves are braced for the receipt of
+unwelcome tidings. I beg you won't be uncomfortable. Of course, you have
+heard the news?"
+
+She glanced at him sideways, and, despite her training, her lips
+quivered slightly.
+
+"Of course," she said. "Who hasn't? All the world knows it. Lord
+Angleford's marriage has come upon us like a surprise--a thunderbolt. No
+one would ever have expected that he would have been so foolish."
+
+Drake looked at her as he never thought that he could have looked at
+her--calmly, waitingly.
+
+"No one expected him to marry," she went on. "He was quite an old
+man--well, not old, but getting on. And you and he were always such
+great friends. He--he always seemed so fond and so proud of you. Why did
+you quarrel with him?"
+
+"I didn't quarrel with him," said Drake quietly. "As you say, we have
+always been good friends. He has always been good to me, ever since I
+was a boy. Good and liberal. We have never had a cross word until now.
+But you know my uncle--you know how keenly set he is on politics. He is
+a Conservative of the old school; one of those old Tories whom we call
+blue, and who are nearly extinct. God knows whether they are right or
+wrong; I only know that I can't go with them. He asked me to stand for a
+place in the Tory-Conservative interest. It was an easy place; I should
+have been returned without difficulty. Most men would have done it; but
+I couldn't. I don't go in very much for principle, either political or
+moral; but my uncle's views--well, I couldn't swallow them. I was
+obliged to decline. He cut up rough; sent me a letter with more bad
+language in it than I've ever read in my life. Then he went and married
+a young girl--an American."
+
+Lady Lucille heaved a long sigh.
+
+"How foolish of you!" she murmured. "As if it mattered."
+
+Drake filled his pipe again, and smiled cynically over the match as he
+lit it.
+
+"That's your view of it?" he said. "I suppose--yes, I suppose you think
+I've been a fool. I dare say you're right; but, unfortunately for me, I
+couldn't look at it in that way. I stuck to my colors--that's a
+highfalutin way of putting it--and I've got to pay the penalty. My
+uncle's married, and, likely enough--in fact, in all probability--his
+wife will present the world with a young Lord Angleford."
+
+"She's quite a young woman," murmured Lucille, with the wisdom of her
+kind.
+
+"Just so," said Drake. "So I am in rather a hole. I always looked
+forward to inheriting Anglemere and the estate and my uncle's money. But
+all that is altered. He may have an heir who will very properly inherit
+all that I thought was to be mine. I wrote and told you of this, though
+it wasn't necessary; but I deemed it right to you to place the whole
+matter before you, Lucille. I've no doubt that the society papers have
+saved me the trouble, and helped you thoroughly to realize that the man
+to whom you were engaged was no longer the heir to the earldom of
+Angleford and Lord Angleford's money, but merely Drake Selbie, a mere
+nobody, and plunged up to his neck in debts and difficulties."
+
+She was silent, and he went on:
+
+"See here, Luce, I asked you to marry me because I loved you. You are
+the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I fell in love with you the
+first time I saw you--at that dance of the Horn-Wallises. Do you
+remember? I wanted you to be my wife; I wanted you more than I ever
+wanted anything else in my life. Do you not remember the day I proposed
+to you, there under Taplow Wood, at that picnic where we all got wet and
+miserable? And you said 'Yes'; and my uncle was pleased. But all is
+changed now; I am just Drake Selbie, with very little or no income, and
+a mountain of debts; with no prospects of becoming Lord Angleford and
+owner of the Angleford money and lands. And I want to know how this
+change--strikes you; what you mean, to do?"
+
+She glanced up at him sideways.
+
+"You--you haven't got my letters?" she said.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'm--I'm sorry," she said. "It isn't my fault. Father--you know what he
+would say. He may be right. He said that--that you were ruined; that our
+marriage would be quite impossible; that--that our engagement must be
+broken off. Really, Drake, it is not my fault. You know how poor we are;
+that--that a rich marriage is an absolute necessity for me. Father is up
+to his neck in debt, too, and we scarcely seem to have a penny of ready
+money; it's nothing but duns, and duns, and duns, every day in the week;
+why, even now, we've had to bolt from London because I can't pay my
+milliner's bill. It's simply impossible for me to marry a poor man. I
+should only be a drag upon him; and father--well, father would be a drag
+upon him, too; you know what father is. And--and so, Drake, I wrote and
+told you that--that our engagement must be considered broken off and at
+an end."
+
+She paused a moment, and looked from right to left, like some feeble
+animal driven into a corner, and restlessly conscious of Drake Selbie's
+stern regard.
+
+"Of course I'm very sorry. You know I'm--I'm very fond of you. I don't
+think there is any one in the world like you; so--so handsome and--and
+altogether nice. But what can I do? I can't run against the wish of my
+father and of all my friends. In fact, I can't afford to marry you,
+Drake."
+
+He looked at her with a bitter smile on his lips, and a still more
+bitter cynicism in his eyes.
+
+"I understand," he said; "I quite understand. When you said that you
+loved me, loved me with all your heart and soul, you meant that you
+loved Drake Selbie, the heir of Angleford, the prospective owner of
+Anglemere and Lord Angleford's money; and now that my uncle has married,
+and that he may have a child which will rob me of the title and the
+money, you draw back. You do not ask whether I have enough, you do not
+offer to make any sacrifice. You just--jilt me!"
+
+"You put it very harshly, Drake," she said, with a frown.
+
+"I put it very truly and correctly," he said. "Can you deny it? You
+cannot! The man who sits here beside you is quite a different man to the
+one to whom you had plighted your troth. He is the same in bone and body
+and muscle and sinew, but he doesn't happen to be Lord Angleford's heir.
+And so you throw him over. No doubt you are right. It is the way of the
+world in which you and I have been bred and trained."
+
+"You are very cruel, Drake," she murmured, touching her eyes with a lace
+handkerchief, too costly and elaborate for anything but ornament.
+
+"I just speak the truth," he said. "I don't blame you. You are bred in
+the same world as myself. We are both products of this modern fin de
+siecle. To marry me would be a mistake; you decline to make it. I have
+only to bow to your decision. I accept your refusal. After this present
+moment you and I are friends only; not strangers; men and women in our
+set are never strangers. But I pass out of your life from this moment.
+Go back to the _Seagull_ with Archie and Mrs. Horn-Wallis, and find--as
+I trust you will--a better man than I am."
+
+She rose rather pale, but perfectly self-possessed.
+
+"I--I am glad you take it so easily, Drake," she said. "You don't blame
+me, do you? I couldn't run against father, could I? You know how poor we
+are. I must make a good marriage, and--and----"
+
+"And so it is 'good-by,'" he said.
+
+He looked so stern, so self-contained, that her self-possession forsook
+her for a moment, and she stood biting softly at her underlip and
+looking by turns at the ultramarine sea and the stern face of the lover
+whom she was discarding. He held out his hand again.
+
+"Good-by, Luce," he said. "You have taught me a lesson."
+
+"What--do you mean?" she asked.
+
+He smiled.
+
+"That women care only for rank and gold, and that without them a man
+cannot hold you. I shall take it to heart Good-by."
+
+She looked at him doubtfully, hesitatingly.
+
+"You will take the _Seagull_ south?" he said. "Be good enough to ask
+your father to wire me as to her whereabouts. I may need her. But don't
+hurry. I'm only too glad that you are sailing her. Good-by."
+
+She murmured "Good-by," and went down the steps slowly; and Drake,
+Viscount Selbie, refilled his pipe. Then he rose quickly and overtook
+her. She stopped and turned, and if he had expected to see signs of
+emotion in her beautiful face, he was doomed to disappointment; indeed,
+the look of apprehension with which she heard his voice had been
+followed by one of relief.
+
+"One moment," he said. "I want to ask you not to mention that you have
+seen me here."
+
+She opened her soft hazel eyes with some surprise and a great deal of
+curiosity.
+
+"Not say that I have seen you?" she said. "Of course, if you wish it;
+but why?"
+
+"The reason will seem to you inadequate, I am afraid," he said coldly;
+"but the fact is, I am staying here under another name--my own is being
+bandied about so much, you see," bitterly, "that I am a little tired of
+it."
+
+"I see," she said. "Then I am not to tell father. How will he know how
+to address the wire about the yacht?"
+
+"Send it to Sparling," he said. "I am sorry to have stopped you.
+Good-by."
+
+She inclined her head and murmured "Good-by" for the second time, and
+went on again; but a few steps lower she stopped and pondered his
+strange request.
+
+"Curious," she murmured. "I wonder whether there is any other reason?
+One knows what men are; and poor Drake is no better than the rest. Ah,
+well, it does not matter to me--now. Thank goodness it is over! Though
+one can always count upon Drake; he is too thorough a gentleman to make
+a scene or bully a woman. Heaven knows I am sorry to break with him, and
+I wish that old stupid hadn't made such a fool of himself; for Drake and
+I would have got on very well. But as things are----As father says, it's
+impossible. I wonder whether they are coming back; I am simply dying for
+tea."
+
+Before she got down to the jetty, her fellow voyagers caught her up.
+They were in the best of spirits, and hilarious over the fact that Sir
+Archie had slipped on one of the grassy slopes and stained his white
+flannel suit with green; and Lady Lucille joined in the merriment.
+
+"I'm sorry I didn't come, after all," she said. "It was rather boring
+waiting there all alone; but perhaps Sir Archie will kindly fall down
+again for my special benefit," and she laughed with the innocent,
+careless laughter, of a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The laugh floated up to Drake as he sat and finished his pipe, waiting
+until the party should get clear away, and his lips tightened grimly.
+Then he sighed and shrugged his shoulders, as he rose and went slowly up
+the hill.
+
+After all, Lucille had only acted as he had expected. As he had said,
+she had engaged herself to Viscount Selbie, the heir to Angleford--not
+to Viscount Selbie, whose nose had been put out of joint by his uncle's
+marriage. He could not have expected a Lady Lucille Turfleigh to be
+faithful to her troth under such changed circumstances. But her
+desertion made him sore, if not actually unhappy. Indeed, he was rather
+surprised to find that he was more wounded in pride than heart. It is
+rather hurtful to one's vanity and self-esteem to be told by the woman
+whom you thought loved you, that she finds it "impossible" to marry you
+because you have lost your fortune or your once roseate prospects; and
+though Drake was the least conceited of men, he was smarting under the
+realization of his anticipations.
+
+"She never loved me," he said bitterly. "Not one word of regret--real
+regret. She would have felt and shown more if she had been parting with
+a favorite horse or dog. God! what women this world makes of them! They
+are all alike! There's not one of them can love for love's sake, who
+cares for the man instead of the money. Not one, from the dairymaid to
+the duchess! Thank Heaven! my disillusionment has come before, instead
+of after, marriage. Yes, I've done with them. There is no girl alive, or
+to be born, who can make me feel another pang."
+
+As he spoke, he heard a voice calling him: "Mr. Vernon! Mr. Vernon!" And
+there, in the garden, which stood out on the hill like a little terrace,
+was Nell. She had taken off her hat, and the faint breeze was stirring
+the soft tendrils on her forehead, and her eyes smiled joyously down at
+him.
+
+"Tea is ready!" she said, her voice full and round, and coming down to
+him like the note of a thrush. "Where have you been? Mamma is quite
+anxious about you, and I have had the greatest difficulty in convincing
+her that there has not been an accident, and that I had not left you at
+the bottom of the bay."
+
+He smiled up at her, but his smile came through the darkness of a cloud,
+and she noticed it.
+
+"Has--has anything happened?" she asked, as she opened the gate for him;
+and her guileless eyes were raised to his with a sudden anxiety. "Are
+you ill--or--or overtired? Ah, yes! that must be it. I am so sorry!"
+
+He frowned, and replied, almost harshly:
+
+"Thanks. I am not in the least tired. How should I be? Why do you think
+so?"
+
+Nell shrank a little.
+
+"I--I thought you looked pale and tired," she said, in a voice so low
+and sweet that he was smitten with shame.
+
+"Perhaps I am a bit played out," he said apologetically, and passing his
+hand over his brow as if to erase the lines which the scene with Lady
+Lucille had etched. "Your convalescent invalid is a trying kind of
+animal, Miss Nell, and--and you must forgive it for snapping."
+
+"There is nothing to forgive," she said quietly. "It was thoughtless of
+me to let you stay out so long, and I deserve the lecture mamma has been
+giving me. Please come in to tea at once, or it will be repeated--the
+lecture, I mean."
+
+They went into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Lorton sat with due state
+and dignity before her tea table; and, having got him into the
+easy-chair, the good lady began at once:
+
+"So thoughtless of Eleanor to keep you out so long! You must be
+exhausted, I am sure. I know how trying the first days of recovery from
+illness are, and how even a little exertion will produce absolute
+collapse. Now, will you have a little brandy in your tea, Mr. Vernon? A
+teaspoonful will sometimes produce a magical effect," she added, as if
+she were recommending a peculiarly startling firework. "No? You are
+quite sure? And what is this Richard is telling me about two horses? He
+came rushing in just now with some story of horses that he had brought
+from Shallop."
+
+Drake looked up with a casual air.
+
+"Yes; they're mine. I was obliged to have them sent down. They were
+spoiling for want of exercise. I must turn them out in some of the
+fields here, or get some one to ride them, unless Dick and Miss Nell
+will be good-natured enough to exercise them."
+
+Nell laughed softly.
+
+"That is one way of putting it, isn't it, mamma? But I tell Mr. Vernon
+that I really must not, ought not, to take advantage of his good nature.
+It's all very well for Dick to----"
+
+"What's all very well for Dick? And don't you take my name in vain quite
+so freely, young party," remarked that individual, entering the room and
+making for the tea table. "Don't you be taken in by all this pretended
+reluctance, Mr. Vernon. It's the old game of Richard III. refusing the
+crown. See English history book. Nell will be on that mare to-morrow
+morning safe enough, won't you, Nellikins? And I say, sir, you must get
+your arm right and ride with her. Perhaps she would not be too proud to
+take lessons from a stranger--from you, I mean--though she does turn up
+her nose at her brother's kindly meant hints, an operation which, as I
+am perpetually telling her, is quite superfluous, for it's turned up
+quite sufficiently as it is."
+
+Nell glanced at Mrs. Lorton, who smiled with the air of a society lady
+settling a point of etiquette.
+
+"If Mr. Vernon has really been so kind as to offer to lend you a horse,
+it would be ungrateful and churlish to refuse, Eleanor," she said.
+
+"That's all right," said Dick. "Though you might say 'Thank you,' Nell.
+But, there; you'll never learn manners, though you may, after some long
+years, learn to ride. Did you see that yacht, sir?" he asked, turning to
+Drake.
+
+Drake nodded carelessly.
+
+"A spanker, wasn't she?" continued Dick. "Now, that's what I call a
+yacht. And hadn't she some swells on board! I met some of them coming up
+the hill. Talk about stylish togs!"
+
+"No one talks of 'stylish togs' but savages in the wilds of London, and
+vulgar boys," remarked Nell.
+
+Dick regarded her wistfully, and raised the last piece of the crust of
+his slice of bread and butter to throw at her, then refrained, with a
+reluctant sigh.
+
+"I never saw anything like it out of a fashion plate. You ought to have
+been there, mamma," he put in, parenthetically. "You'd have appreciated
+them, no doubt, whereas I wasn't capable of anything but staring. They
+were swells--real swells, too; for I spoke to one of the crew who had
+Strolled up from the boat. The yacht's that racer, the _Seagull_. Do you
+know her, Mr. Vernon?"
+
+"I've heard of her," said Drake.
+
+"I forget the name of her owner; though the man told me; but he's a
+nobleman of sorts. There were no end of titled and fashionable people on
+board. A Sir--Sir Archie something; and a Lord and Lady Turfleigh,
+father and daughter--perhaps you know them?"
+
+Drake looked at him through half-closed eyes.
+
+"Yes, I've heard of them," he said. "May I have another cup of tea, Mrs.
+Lorton? Thanks, very much. The sail this morning has made me ravenous."
+
+"I am so delighted," murmured Mrs. Lorton. "What name did you say,
+Richard? Turfleigh! Surely I have heard or seen that name----"
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Drake, "but if Dick has quite finished his
+tea, I think I'll stroll down to the stables and look at the horses."
+
+"Oh, right you are! Come on!" exclaimed Dick, with alacrity.
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked after the tall figure as it went out beside the
+boy's.
+
+"Mr. Vernon must be very well off, Eleanor," she said musingly, and with
+a little, satisfied smile at the corners of her mouth. "Three horses.
+And have you noticed that pearl stud? It is a black one, and must have
+cost a great deal; and there is a certain look, air, about him, which
+you, my dear Eleanor, are not likely to notice or understand, but which,
+to one of my experience of the world, is significant. Did he seem to
+enjoy his sail this morning?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," absently replied Nell, who was watching the tall
+figure as it went down the hill.
+
+Mrs. Lorton coughed in a genteel fashion, and her smile grew still more
+self-satisfied.
+
+"He could not be in a better place," she said; "could not possibly, and
+I do trust he will not think of leaving us until he is quite restored to
+health. I must really impress upon him how glad we are to have him, and
+how his presence cheers our dull and lonely lives."
+
+Nell laughed softly.
+
+"Mr. Vernon does not strike me as being particularly cheerful," she
+remarked; "at least, not generally," she qualified, as she remembered
+the unwonted brightness which he had displayed in the _Annie Laurie_.
+
+"In-deed! You are quite wrong, Eleanor," said Mrs. Lorton stiffly. "I
+consider Mr. Vernon a most entertaining and brilliant companion; and I,
+for one, should very deeply deplore his departure. I trust, therefore,
+you will do all you can to make his stay pleasant and to induce him to
+prolong it. Three horses; ahem!"--she coughed behind her mittened
+hand--"has he--er--hinted, given you any idea of his position
+and--er--income, Eleanor?"
+
+Nell flushed and shook her head.
+
+"No, mamma," she said reluctantly. "Why should he? We are not
+curious----"
+
+"Certainly not!" assented Mrs. Lorton, bridling. "I may have my faults,
+but curiosity is certainly not one of them. I merely thought that he
+might have dropped a word or two about himself, or his people, and
+the--ahem!--extent of his fortune."
+
+Nell shook her head again.
+
+"Nary a word--I mean, not a word!" she corrected herself hastily; "and,
+like yourself, mamma, I am not curious. What does it matter what and who
+he is, or who his people are? He will be gone in a day or two, and we
+shall probably never see him again."
+
+She moved away from the window as she made the response, and began to
+sing, and Mrs. Lorton looked after her, and listened to the sweet young
+voice, with a smile on her weakly shrewd face.
+
+"Eleanor has grown a great deal lately," she murmured to herself; "and I
+suppose some men would consider her not altogether bad-looking. I am
+quite certain he is a single man--he would have mentioned his wife; he
+couldn't have avoided it the first night I was talking to him. Three
+horses--yes; I suppose Eleanor really is good-looking. No one is more
+opposed than I am to the vulgar practice of matchmaking, which some
+women indulge in, but it really would be a mercy to get the girl
+settled. Yes; he must not think of leaving us until he is quite strong;
+and that won't be for some weeks, for some time, yet."
+
+Drake went down to the stables with Dick and "looked at" the horses,
+every now and then casting a glance through the open door at the
+_Seagull_ as it sailed across the bay.
+
+Did he regret the woman who had jilted him? Did he wish that he were on
+board his yacht with his friends, with the badinage, the scandal of the
+women, the jests and the doubtful stories of the men? He scarcely knew;
+he thought that he was sorrowing for the fair woman who had deserted
+him; but--he was not sure. From the meadows above there came the tinkle
+of a sheep bell, a lowing of a cow calling to her calf; the scent of the
+tar from a kettle on the beach rose with sharp pungency; the haze of the
+summer evening was blurring the hills which half ringed the sapphire
+sea. There was peace at Shorne Mills--a peace which fell upon the weary
+man of the world. He forgot his troubles for a moment; his lost
+inheritance, his debts, and difficulties; forgot even Woman and all she
+had cost him.
+
+Then suddenly, faintly, there came floating down to him the clear, sweet
+voice of Nell. What was it she was singing?
+
+            "Though years have passed, I love you yet;
+             Do you still remember, or do you forget?"
+
+A great wave of bitterness swept over him, and, between his teeth, he
+muttered:
+
+"They are all alike--with the face and the voice of an angel, and the
+heart of the Man with the Muck-rake. God save me from them from this
+time henceforth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+The weeks glided by, Drake's arm got mended, but he still lingered on at
+Shorne Mills.
+
+There was something in the beauty, the repose, of the place which
+fascinated and held him. He was so weary of the world, sore with
+disappointment, and shrinking from the pity of his friends who were, as
+he knew, dying to commiserate with him over his altered prospects.
+
+The weather was lovely, the air balmy, and for amusement--well, there
+was sailing in the _Annie Laurie_, lounging with a pipe on the jetty,
+listening, and sometimes talking, to the fishermen and sailors, and
+teaching Miss Nell Lorton to ride.
+
+"Not that you need much teaching," he said on the first day they rode
+together--that was before his arm was quite right, and Mrs. Lorton
+filled the air with her fears and anxieties for his safety. "But you
+have 'picked it up,' as they say, and there are one or two hints I may
+be able to give you which will make you as perfect a horsewoman as one
+would wish to see."
+
+"Isn't 'perfect' rather a big word?" said Nell.
+
+She turned her face to him, and the glory of its young beauty was
+heightened by the radiance of the smile which was enthroned on her lips
+and shone in her eyes.
+
+He looked at her with unconscious admiration and in silence for a
+moment.
+
+"There is no reason why you shouldn't be perfect," he said. "You've
+everything in your favor--youth, health, strength, and no end of pluck."
+
+"I ought to curtsy," said Nell, laughing softly. "But one can't curtsy
+on a horse, alas! Please let me off with a bow," and she bent low in the
+saddle, with all a girl's pretty irony. "But don't be sparing of those
+same hints, please. I really want to learn, and I will be very humble
+and meek."
+
+He laughed, as if amused by something.
+
+"I can scarcely fancy you either humble or meek, Miss Nell," he said.
+"Hold the reins a little nearer her neck. Like this. See? Then you've
+room to pull her if she stumbles; which, by the way, isn't likely. And
+you might sit a little closer at the canter. Don't trouble; leave the
+pace to the horse."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"I know!" she said. "How just being told a thing helps one! I should
+like to ride as well as you do. You and the horse seem one."
+
+He was not embarrassed by the compliment.
+
+"Oh, I've ridden all my life," he said, "and under all sorts of
+circumstances, on all sorts of horses, and one gets au fait in time.
+Now, let her have her head and we'll try a gallop. Don't bear too hard
+on her if she pulls--as she may--but ride her on the snaffle as much as
+possible."
+
+They had climbed the hill, and were riding along a road on the edge of
+one of the small moors, and after a moment or two of inspection of the
+graceful figure beside him, he motioned with his hand, and they turned
+on to the moor itself.
+
+As they cantered and galloped over the springy turf and heather, Drake
+grew thoughtful and absent-minded.
+
+The beauty of the scene, the azure sky, the clear, thin air, all soothed
+him; but he found himself asking himself why he was still lingering in
+this out-of-the-way spot in North Devon, and why he was content with the
+simple amusement of teaching a young girl to sit her horse and hold her
+reins properly.
+
+Why was he not on board the _Seagull_, which Lord Turfleigh had left in
+Southampton waters, or in Scotland shooting grouse, with one of the
+innumerable house parties to which he had been invited, and at which he
+would have been a welcome guest, or climbing the Alps with fellow
+members of the Alpine Club?
+
+So they were silent as they rode over this green-and-violet moor, over
+which the curlew flew wailingly, as if complaining of this breach of
+their solitude.
+
+And Nell was thinking, or, rather, musing; for though she was taking
+lessons, she was too good a rider to be absorbed in the management of
+her horse.
+
+Had she not scampered over these same moors on a half-wild Exmoor pony,
+bare-backed, and with a halter for a bridle?
+
+She was thinking of the weeks that had passed since the man who was
+riding beside her had been flung at her feet, and wondering, half
+unconsciously, at the happiness of those weeks. There had scarcely been
+a day in which he and she had not walked or sailed, or sat on the quay
+together. She recalled their first sail in the _Annie Laurie_; there had
+been many since then; and he had been so kind, so genial a companion,
+that she had begun to feel as if he were an old friend, a kind of second
+Dick.
+
+At times, it was true, he was silent and gloomy, not to say morose; but,
+as a rule, he was kind, with a gentle, protective sort of kindness
+which, believe me, is duly appreciated by even such a simple,
+unsophisticated girl as Nell.
+
+As she rode beside him, she glanced now and again at the handsome face,
+which was grave and lined with thought, and she wondered, girllike, upon
+what he was musing.
+
+Suddenly he turned to her.
+
+"Yes, you don't need much teaching," he said, with a smile. "You ride
+awfully well, as it is. With a little practice--you won't forget about
+holding the reins a little farther; from you?--you will ride like Lady
+Lucille herself."
+
+"Who is Lady Lucille?" she asked.
+
+He looked just a shade embarrassed for a moment, but only for a moment.
+
+"Oh, she's the crack fashionable rider," he said casually.
+
+"I feel very much flattered," said Nell. "And I am very grateful for
+your lesson. I hope you won't discontinue them because I show some
+promise."
+
+He looked at her with sudden gravity. Now was the time to tell her that
+he was going to leave Shorne Mills.
+
+"You won't want many more," he said; "but I hope you will let me ride
+with you while I'm here. I must be going presently."
+
+"Must you?" she said.
+
+Girls learn the art of mastering their voices much earlier than the
+opposite sex can, and her voice sounded indifferent enough, or just
+properly regretful.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes, I must leave Shorne Mills, worse luck."
+
+"If it is so unlucky, why do you go? But why is it so unlucky?" she
+asked; and still her tone sounded indifferent.
+
+"It's bad luck because--well, because I have been very happy here," he
+said, checking his horse into a walk.
+
+She glanced at him as she paced beside him.
+
+"You have been so happy here? Really? That sounds so strange. It is such
+a dull, quiet place."
+
+"Perhaps it's because of that," he said. "God knows, I'm not anxious to
+get back to London--the world."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully with her clear, girlish eyes; and he met
+the glance, then looked across the moor with something like a frown.
+
+"There is a fascination in the place," he said. "It is so beautiful and
+so quiet; and--and--London is so noisy, such a blare. And----"
+
+He paused.
+
+She kept the high-bred mare to a walk.
+
+"But will you not be glad to go?" she asked. "It must be dull here, as I
+said. You must have so many friends who--who will be glad to see you,
+and whom you will be glad to see."
+
+He smiled cynically.
+
+"Friends!" he said grimly. "Has any one many friends? And how many of
+the people I know will, I wonder, be glad to see me? They will find it
+pleasant to pity me."
+
+"Pity you! Why?" she asked, her beautiful eyes turned on him with
+surprise.
+
+Drake bit his lip.
+
+"Well, I've had a piece of bad luck lately," he said.
+
+"Oh, I'm sorry!" murmured Nell.
+
+He laughed grimly.
+
+"Oh, it's no more than I had a right to expect. Don't forget what I told
+you about holding your reins--that's right."
+
+"Is it about money?" she asked timidly. "I always think bad luck means
+that."
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes; I've lost a great deal of money lately," he replied vaguely.
+"And--and I must leave Shorne Mills."
+
+"I am sorry," she said simply, and without attempting to conceal her
+regret. "I--we--have almost grown to think that you belonged here. Will
+you be sorry to go?"
+
+He glanced at her innocent eyes and frowned.
+
+"Yes; very much," he replied. "There is a fascination in this place. It
+is so quiet, so beautiful, so remote, so far away from the world which I
+hate!"
+
+"You hate? Why do you hate it?" she asked.
+
+He bit his lip again.
+
+"Because it is false and hollow," he replied. "No man--or woman--thinks
+what he or she says, or says what he or she thinks."
+
+"Then why go back to it?" she asked. "But all the people in London can't
+be--bad and false," she added, as if she were considering his sweeping
+condemnation.
+
+"Oh, not all," he said. "I've been unfortunate in my acquaintances,
+perhaps, as Voltaire said."
+
+He looked across the moor again absently. Her question, "Then why go
+back to it?" haunted him. It was absurd to imagine that he could remain
+at Shorne Mills. The quiet life had been pleasant, he had felt better in
+health here than he had done for years; but--well, a man who has spent
+so many years in the midst of the whirl of life is very much like the
+old prisoner of the Bastille who, when he was released by the
+revolutionary mob, implored to be taken back again. One gets used to the
+din and clamor of society as one gets used to the solemn quiet of a
+prison. Besides, he was, or had been, a prominent figure in the
+gallantry show, and he seemed to belong to it.
+
+"One isn't always one's own master," he said, after a pause.
+
+Nell turned her eyes to him.
+
+"Are not you?" she said, a little shyly. "You seem so--so free to do
+just what you please."
+
+He laughed rather grimly.
+
+"Do you know what I should do if I were as free as I seem, Miss Nell?"
+he asked. "I should take one of these farms"--he nodded to a rural
+homestead, one of the smallest and simplest, which stood on the edge of
+the moor--"and spend the rest of my life making clotted cream and
+driving cows and pigs to market."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I can scarcely imagine you doing that," she said.
+
+"Well, I might buy a trawler, and go fishing in the bay."
+
+"That would be better," she admitted. "But it's very tough weather
+sometimes. I have seen the women waiting on the jetty, and on the
+cliffs, and looking out at the storm, with their faces white with fear
+and anxiety for the men--their fathers and husbands and sweethearts."
+
+"There wouldn't be any women to watch and grow white for me," he
+remarked.
+
+"Oh, but don't you think we should be anxious--mamma and I?" she said.
+
+He looked at her, but her eyes met his innocently, and there was not a
+sign of coquetry in her smile.
+
+"Thanks. In that case, I must abandon the idea of getting my livelihood
+as a fisherman," he said lightly. "I couldn't think of causing Mrs.
+Lorton any further anxiety."
+
+"Shall we have another gallop?" she asked, a moment or two afterward.
+"We might ride to that farm there"--she pointed to a thatched roof just
+visible above a hollow--"and get a glass of milk. I am quite thirsty."
+
+She made the suggestion blithely, as if neither her own nor his words
+had remained in her mind; and Drake brightened up as they sped over the
+springy turf.
+
+A woman came out of the farm, and greeted them with a cordial welcome in
+the smile which she bestowed on Nell, and the half nod, half curtsy, she
+gave to Drake.
+
+"Why, Miss Nell, it be yew sure enough," she said pleasantly. "I was
+a-thinkin' that 'eed just forgot us. Bobby! Bobby! do 'ee come and hold
+the horses. Here be Miss Nell of Shorne Mills."
+
+A barefooted, ruddy-cheeked little man ran out and laughed up at Nell as
+she bent down and stroked his head with her whip. Nell and Drake
+dismounted, and she led the way into the kitchen and living room of the
+farm.
+
+The room was so low that Drake felt he must stoop, and Nell's tall
+figure looked all the taller and slimmer for its propinquity to the
+timbered ceiling. The woman brought a couple of glasses of milk and some
+saffron cakes, and Nell drank and ate with a healthy, unashamed
+appetite, and apparently quite forgot Drake, who, seated in the
+background, sipped his milk and watched and listened to her absently.
+She knew this woman and her husband and the children quite intimately;
+asked after the baby's last tooth as she bent over the sleeping mite,
+and was anxious to know how the eldest girl, who was in service in
+London, was getting on.
+
+"Well, Emma, her says she likes it well enough," replied the woman,
+standing, with the instinctive delicacy of respect, with her firm hand
+resting on the spotlessly white table; "leastways her would if there was
+more air--it's the want o' air she complains of. Accordin' to she, there
+bean't enough for the hoosts o' people there be. Oh, yes, the family's
+kind enough to her--not that she has much to do wi' 'em; for she's in
+the nursery--she's nursemaid, you remembers, Miss Nell--and the mistress
+is too grand a lady to go there often. It's a great family she's in, you
+know, Miss Nell, a titled family, and there's grand goin's-on a'most
+every day; indeed, it's turnin' day into night they're at most o' the
+time, so says Emma. She made so bold, Emma did, to send her best
+respects to you in her last letter, and to say she hoped if ever you
+came to London she'd have the luck to see you, though it might be from a
+distance."
+
+Nell nodded gratefully.
+
+"Not that I am at all likely to go to London," she said, with a laugh.
+"If I did, I should be sure to go and see Emma."
+
+Emma's mother glanced curiously at Drake; and he understood the
+significance of the glance, but Nell was evidently unconscious of its
+meaning.
+
+"And this is the gentleman as is staying at the cottage, Miss Nell?" she
+said. "I hope your arm's better, sir?"
+
+Drake made a suitable and satisfactory response, and Nell, having talked
+to the two little girls, who had got as near to her as their shyness
+would permit, rose.
+
+"Thank you so much for the milk and cakes, Mrs. Trimble," she said. "We
+were quite famishing, weren't we?"
+
+"Quite famished," assented Drake.
+
+Mrs. Trimble beamed.
+
+"You be main welcome, Miss Nell, as 'ee knows full well; I wish 'ee
+could ride out to us every day. And that's a beautiful horse you're on,
+miss, surely!"
+
+"Isn't it?" said Nell. "It's Mr. Vernon's; he is kind enough to lend it
+to me."
+
+Mrs. Trimble glanced significantly again at Drake; but again Nell failed
+to see or understand the quick, intelligent question in the eyes.
+
+"Speakin' o' Emma, I've got her letter in my pocket, Miss Nell; and I'm
+thinkin' I'll give it 'ee; for the address, you know. It's on the top,
+writ clear, and if you should go to London----"
+
+Nell took the precious letter, and put it with marked carefulness in the
+bosom of her habit.
+
+"I shall like to read it, Mrs. Trimble. Emma and I were such good
+friends, weren't we? And I'll be sure to let you have it back."
+
+The whole of the family crowded out to see Miss Nell of Shorne Mills
+drive off, and Drake had to maneuver skillfully to get a coin into
+Bobby's chubby, and somewhat grubby, hand unseen by Nell.
+
+They rode on in silence for a time. The scene had impressed Drake. The
+affection of the whole of them for Nell had been so evident, and the
+sweet simplicity of her nature had displayed itself so ingenuously, that
+he felt--well, as he had felt once or twice coming out of church.
+
+Then he remembered the woman's significant glance, and his conscience
+smote him. No doubt all Shorne Mills was connecting his name with hers.
+Yes; he must go.
+
+She was singing softly as she rode beside him, and they exchanged
+scarcely half a dozen sentences on the way home; but yet Nell seemed
+happy and content, and as she slipped from her saddle in front of the
+garden gate, she breathed a sigh of keen pleasure.
+
+"Oh, I have enjoyed it so much!" she said, as he looked at her
+inquiringly. "Is there anything more beautiful and lovable than a
+horse?"
+
+As she spoke, she stroked the mare's satin neck, and the animal turned
+its great eyes upon her with placid affection and gratitude. Drake
+looked from the horse to the girl, but said nothing, and at that moment
+Dick came out to take the horses down to the stables.
+
+"Had a good ride, Nell?" he asked. "Wants a lot of coaching, doesn't
+she, Mr. Vernon? But I assure you I've done my best with her; girls are
+the most stupid creatures in the world; and the last person they'll
+learn anything from is their brother."
+
+Nell managed to tilt his cap over his eyes as she ran in, and Dick
+looked after her longingly, as he exclaimed portentously:
+
+"That's one I owe you, my child."
+
+Nell laughed back defiantly; but when she had got up to her own room,
+and was taking off the habit, something of the brightness left her face,
+and she sighed.
+
+"I am sorry he is going," she murmured to her reflection in the glass.
+"How we shall miss him; all of us, Dick and mamma! And I shall miss him,
+too. Yes; I am sorry. It will seem so--so dull and dreary when he has
+gone. And he does not seem glad to go. But perhaps he only said that to
+please me, and because it was the proper thing to say. Of course,
+I--we--could not expect him to stay for the rest of his life in Shorne
+Mills."
+
+She sighed again, and stood, with her habit half unbuttoned, looking
+beyond the glass into the past few happy weeks. Yes, it would seem very
+dull and dreary when he was gone.
+
+But he still lingered on; his arm got well, his step was strong and
+firm, his voice and manner less grave and moody. He rode or sailed with
+her every day, Dick sometimes accompanying them; but he was only
+postponing the hour of his departure, and putting it away from him with
+a half-hesitating hand.
+
+One afternoon, Dick burst into the sitting room--they were at tea--with
+a couple of parcels; one, a small square like a box, the other, a larger
+and heavier one.
+
+"Just come by the carrier," he said; "addressed to 'Drake Vernon,
+Esquire.' The little one is registered. The carrier acted as auxiliary
+postman, and wants a receipt."
+
+Drake signed the paper absently, with a scrawl of the pen which Dick
+brought him, and Dick, glancing at the signature mechanically, said:
+
+"Well, that's a rum way of writing 'Vernon'!"
+
+Drake looked up from cutting the string of the small box, and frowned
+slightly.
+
+"Give it me back, please," he said, rather sharply. "It isn't fair to
+write so indistinctly."
+
+Dick handed the receipt form back, and Drake ran his pen quickly through
+the "Selbie" which he had scrawled unthinkingly, and wrote Drake Vernon
+in its place.
+
+Dick took the altered paper unsuspectingly to the carrier.
+
+"So kind of you to trouble, Mr. Vernon!" said Mrs. Lorton. "As if it
+mattered how you wrote! My poor father used to say that only the
+illiterate were careful of their handwriting, and that illegible
+caligraphy--it is caligraphy, is it not?--was a sign of genius."
+
+"Then I must be one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived," said
+Drake.
+
+"And I'm another--if indifferent spelling is also a sign," said Dick
+cheerfully; "and Nell must cap us both, for she can neither write nor
+spell; few girls can," he added calmly. "Tobacco, Mr. Vernon?" nodding
+at the box.
+
+By this time Drake had got its wrapper off and revealed a jewel case. He
+handed it to Mrs. Lorton with the slight awkwardness of a man giving a
+present.
+
+"Here's a little thing I hope you will accept, Mrs. Lorton," he said.
+
+"For me!" she exclaimed, bridling, and raising her brows with juvenile
+archness. "Are you sure it's for me? Now, shall I guess----"
+
+"Oh, no, you don't, mamma," said Dick emphatically. "I'll open it if you
+can't manage it. Oh, I say!" he exclaimed, as Mrs. Lorton opened the
+case, and the sparkle of diamonds was emitted.
+
+Mrs. Lorton echoed his exclamation, and her face flushed with all a
+woman's delight as she gazed at the diamond bracelet reposing on its bed
+of white plush.
+
+"Really----My dear Mr. Vernon!" she gasped. "How--how truly magnificent!
+But surely not for me--for me!"
+
+He was beginning to get, if not uncomfortable, a little bored, with a
+man's hatred of fuss.
+
+"I'm afraid there's not much magnificence about it," he said, rather
+shortly. "I hope you like the pattern, style, or whatever you call it. I
+had to risk it, not being there to choose. And there's a gun in that
+case, Dick."
+
+Dick made an indecent grab for the larger parcel, and, tearing off the
+wrapper, opened the thick leather case and took out a costly gun.
+
+"And a Greener!" he exclaimed. "A Greener! I say, you know, sir----"
+
+He laughed excitedly, his face flushed with delight, as he carried the
+gun to the window.
+
+"Is it not perfect, simply perfect, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton, holding
+out her arm with the bracelet on her wrist. "Really, I don't think you
+could have chosen a handsomer one, Mr. Vernon, if you had gone to London
+to do so."
+
+"I am glad you are pleased with it," he said simply.
+
+"Pleased? It is perfect! Eleanor, haven't you a word to say? No; I
+imagine you are too overwhelmed for words," said Mrs. Lorton, with a
+kind of cackle.
+
+"It is very beautiful, mamma," she said gravely; and her face, as she
+leaned over the thing, was grave also.
+
+Drake looked at her as he rose, and understood the look and the tone of
+her voice, and was glad that he had resisted the almost irresistible
+temptation to order a somewhat similar present for her.
+
+"I say, sir, you must get your gun down, and we must go for some
+rabbits," said Dick eagerly. "And I can get a day or two's shooting over
+the Maltby land as soon as the season opens. I'm sure they'd give it
+me."
+
+"That's tempting, Dick," said Drake; "and it adds another cause to my
+regret that I am leaving to-morrow."
+
+"Leaving to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton, with a gasp. "Surely not!
+You are not thinking, dreaming of going, my dear Mr. Vernon?"
+
+"It's very good of you," he said, picking up his cap and nearing the
+door. "But I couldn't stay forever, you know. I've trespassed on your
+hospitality too much already."
+
+"Oh, I say, you know!" expostulated Dick, in a deeply aggrieved tone. "I
+say, Nell, do you hear that? Mr. Vernon's going!"
+
+"Miss Nell knows that I have been 'going' for some days past, only that
+I haven't been able to tear myself away. It's nearly five, Miss Nell,
+and we ordered the boat for half-past four, you know," he added, in a
+matter-of-fact way.
+
+She rose and ran out of the room for her jacket and tam-o'-shanter, and
+they went out, leaving Mrs. Lorton and Dick still gloating over their
+presents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Nell walked rapidly and talking quickly as they went down to the jetty,
+and it was not until the _Annie Laurie_ was slipping out into the bay
+that she grew silent and thoughtful. She sat in the stern with her arm
+over the tiller, her eyes cast down, her face grave; and Drake, feeling
+uncomfortable, said at last:
+
+"Might one offer a penny for your thoughts, Miss Nell?"
+
+She looked up and met the challenge with a sweet seriousness.
+
+"I was thinking of something that you told me the other day--when we
+were riding," she said.
+
+"I've told you so much----" "And so little!" he added mentally.
+
+"You said that you had been unlucky, that you had lost a great deal of
+money lately," she said, in a low voice.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes; I think I did. It's true unfortunately; but it doesn't much
+matter."
+
+"Does it not?" she asked. "Why did you give mamma so costly a present?
+Oh, please don't deny it. I don't know very much about diamonds, but I
+know that that bracelet must have cost a great deal of money."
+
+"Not really," he said, with affected carelessness. "Diamonds are very
+cheap now; they find 'em by the bucketful in the Cape, you know."
+
+She looked at him with grave reproach.
+
+"You are trying to belittle it," she said; "but, indeed, I am not
+deceived. And the gun, too! That must have been very expensive. Why--did
+you spend so much?"
+
+He began to feel irritated.
+
+"Look here, Miss Nell," he said; "it is true that I have lost some
+money, but I'm not quite a pauper, and, if I were, the least I could do
+would be to share my last crust with--with your people for their amazing
+goodness to me."
+
+"A diamond bracelet and an expensive gun are not crusts," she said,
+shaking her head.
+
+"Oh, dash it all!" he retorted impatiently. "The stupid things only very
+inadequately represent my----Oh, I'm bad at speech making and expressing
+myself. And don't you think you ought to be very grateful to me?"
+
+She frowned slightly in the effort to understand.
+
+"Grateful! I have just been telling you that I think you ought not to
+have spent so much. Why should I be grateful?"
+
+"That I didn't buy something for you," he said.
+
+She colored, and looked away from him.
+
+"I--I should not have accepted it," she said.
+
+"I know that," he blurted out. "If I thought you would have done so--but
+I knew you wouldn't. And so I've got a grievance to meet yours. After
+all, you might have let me give you some trifle----"
+
+"Such as a diamond bracelet, worth perhaps a hundred pounds?"
+
+"To remember me by. After all, it's only natural I should want to leave
+something behind me to remind you of me."
+
+"We shan't need such gifts to--to remind us," she said simply. "I think
+we had better luff."
+
+The sail swung over as she put the helm down; there was silence for a
+moment or two, then he said:
+
+"I'm sorry I've offended you, Miss Nell. Perhaps it was beastly bad
+taste. I see it now. But just put yourself in my place----" He slid over
+the thwart in his eagerness, and coiled himself at her feet. "Supposing
+you had broken your confounded arm--I beg your pardon!--your arm, and
+had been taken in and tended by good Samaritans, and nursed and treated
+like a prince for weeks, and had been made to feel happier than you've
+been for--for oh, years, would you like to go away with just a 'Oh,
+thanks; awfully obliged; very kind of you'? Wouldn't you want to make a
+more solid acknowledgment? Come, be fair and just--if a woman can be
+fair and just!--and admit that I'm not such a criminal, after all!"
+
+She looked down at him thoughtfully, then turned her eyes seaward again.
+
+"What do you want me to say?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, well; I see that you won't change your mind about these things, so
+perhaps I'd better be content if you'll say: 'I forgive you.'"
+
+A smile flitted across her face as she looked down at him again, but it
+was rather a sad little smile.
+
+"I--I forgive you!" she said.
+
+He raised his cap, and took her hand, and, before she suspected what he
+was going to do, he put his lips to it.
+
+Her face grew crimson, then pale almost to whiteness. It was the first
+time a man's lips had touched her virgin hand, and----A tremor ran
+through her, her eyes grew misty, as she looked at him with a
+half-pained, half-fearful expression. Then she turned her head away, and
+so quickly that he saw neither the change of color nor the expression in
+her eyes.
+
+"I feel like a miscreant who had received an unexpected pardon," he said
+lightly, and yet with a touch of gravity in his voice, "and, like the
+miscreant, I at once proceed to take advantage of the lenity of my
+judge."
+
+She turned her eyes to him questioningly; there was still a
+half-puzzled, half-timid expression in them.
+
+"I want to be rewarded--as well as pardoned--rewarded for my noble
+sacrifice of the desire to bestow a piece of jewelry upon you."
+
+"Rewarded?" she faltered.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yes. After the awful rebuke and scolding you have administered, you
+cannot refuse to accept some token of my--some acknowledgment of my
+gratitude, Miss Nell. See here----"
+
+He felt in his waistcoat pocket, then in those of his coat, and at last
+brought out a well-worn silver pencil case.
+
+"I want you to be gracious enough to accept this," he said. "Before you
+refuse with haughty displeasure and lively scorn, be good enough to
+examine it. It is worth, I should say--shall I say five shillings? That,
+I should imagine, is its utmost value. But, on the other hand, it is a
+useful article, and I display my natural cunning in selecting it--it's
+the only thing I've got about me that I could offer you, except a match
+box, and, as you don't smoke, you've no use for that--because you will
+never be able to use it, I hope and trust, without thinking of the
+unworthy donor and the debt of gratitude which no diamond bracelet could
+discharge."
+
+During this long speech, which he had made to conceal his eager desire
+that she should accept, and his fear, that she should not, Nell's color
+had come and gone, but she kept her eyes fixed on his steadily, as if
+she were afraid to remove them.
+
+"Are you going to accept it--or shall I fling it into the sea as a
+votive offering? It would be a pity, for it is useful, a thing of sorts,
+and has been my constant companion for many a year. Yes, or no?"
+
+He held the pencil up, as if he were offering it by auction.
+
+Nell hesitated, then she held out her hand without a word. He dropped
+the battered pencil case into it, and his bantering tone changed
+instantly.
+
+"Thank you!" he said gravely, earnestly. "I--I was afraid that you were
+going to refuse, and--well, that would have hurt me. And that would have
+hurt you; for I know how gentle-hearted you are, Miss Nell."
+
+Her hand closed over the pencil case tightly until the silver grew warm,
+then she slipped the thing into her pocket.
+
+"Please observe," he said, after a pause, during which he lit a
+cigarette, "that I am not in need of any token as a reminder. I am not
+likely to forget--Shorne Mills."
+
+He turned on his elbow and gazed at the jetty and the cottages which
+straggled up from it in the narrow ravine to the heights above, to the
+unique and quaint village upon which the still hot sun was shining as
+the boat danced toward it.
+
+"No. I shan't find it difficult to remember--or regret."
+
+He stifled a sigh. A sigh rose to her lips also, but she checked it, and
+forced a smile.
+
+"One does not break one's arm every day, and it is not easy to forget
+that," she said; "and yet, I dare say you will remember Shorne Mills. I
+don't think you will see many prettier places. Isn't it quite lovely
+this evening, with the sun shining on the cliffs and making old
+Brownie's windows glitter--like--like the diamonds in mamma's bracelet?"
+
+She laughed with a girlish mischievousness, and ran on rapidly, as if
+she must talk, as if a pause were to be averted as a peril.
+
+"I've heard people say that there is only one other place in the world
+like it--Cintra, in Portugal, isn't it?"
+
+He nodded. He was gazing at the picturesque little place, the human
+nests stuck like white stones in the cleft of the cliffs; and something
+more than the beauty of Shorne Mills was stirring, almost oppressing,
+his heart. He had stayed at, and departed from, many a place as
+beautiful in other ways as this, and had left it with some little
+regret, perhaps, but never with the dull, aching feeling such as weighed
+upon him this evening.
+
+"And at night it's lovelier still," went on Nell cheerfully, after a
+snatch of song, just sung under her breath, to show how happy and free
+from care she was at that moment. "To sail in on the tide of an autumn
+evening when the lights have been lit, and every cottage looks like a
+lantern; and the blue haze hangs over the village, and the children's
+voices come floating over the water as if through a mist; then, on
+nights like that, the sea is all phosphorescent, and the boat leaves a
+line of silvery light in its wake; and one seems to have all the world
+to oneself----"
+
+She stopped suddenly and sighed unconsciously. Was she thinking that,
+when that autumn night came, and Drake Vernon was not with her, she
+would indeed have all the world to herself, and that all the world is
+all the nicer when one has a companion? He lowered his eyes to her face.
+
+"That was a pretty picture," he said, in a low voice. "I shall think of
+that--wherever I may be in the autumn."
+
+Nell laughed as the boat ran beside the jetty slip, and she rose.
+
+"Do you think you will? Perhaps you will be too much amused, engrossed
+with whatever you are doing. I know I should be, if--if I were to leave
+Shorne Mills, and go into the big world."
+
+"You do yourself an injustice," he said, rather curtly; and she laughed,
+and flushed a little.
+
+"I deserve that," she said. "Of course, I should not forget Shorne
+Mills; but you----Ah, it is different!"
+
+She sprang out before he could get on shore and offer his hand.
+
+"I shall want her to-morrow morning at eleven, Brownie," she said to the
+old fisherman who was preparing to take the _Annie Laurie_ to her
+moorings.
+
+He touched his forehead.
+
+"Aye, aye, Miss Nell! And you'll not be wanting me?" he asked, as a
+matter of form, and with a glance at Drake, who stood waiting with his
+hands in his pockets.
+
+"Oh, yes, please," she said. "I forgot; Mr. Vernon is going away
+to-morrow," she added cheerfully; and she began to sing under her breath
+again as they climbed upward. But Drake did not sing, and his face was
+gloomy.
+
+Throughout that evening, Mrs. Lorton contributed to the entertainment of
+her guest by admiring her bracelet and deploring his departure.
+
+"Of course I am aware that you must be anxious to go," she said, with a
+deep sigh. "It has been dull, I've no doubt, very dull; and I am so
+sorry that the state of my health has prevented me going out and about
+with you. There are so many places of interest in the neighborhood which
+we could have visited; but I am sure you will make allowances for an
+invalid. And we will hope that this is not your last visit to Shorne
+Mills. I need not say that we shall be glad, delighted, indeed, at any
+time----"
+
+Every now and then Drake murmured his acknowledgments; but he made the
+due responses absently. He was left entirely at Mrs. Lorton's mercy that
+evening--for Nell had suddenly remembered that she ought really to go
+and see old Brownie's mother, a lady whose age was set down at anything
+between a hundred and a hundred and ten, and Dick was in his "workshop"
+cleaning the new and spotless gun.
+
+Nell did not come in till late, was full of Grandmother Brownie's
+sayings and wonderfully maintained faculties, and ran off to bed very
+soon, with a cheerful "Good night, Mr. Vernon. Dick has ordered the trap
+for nine o'clock."
+
+Drake got up early the next morning; there were the horses to be
+arranged for--he was going to leave two behind, for a time, at any rate,
+in the hope that Dick and Miss Nell might use them; and he had to say
+good-by--and tip--sundry persons. He performed the latter operation on
+so liberal a scale that amazement sat upon the bosom of many a man and
+woman in Shorne Mills for months afterward. Molly, indeed, was so
+overcome by the sight and feel of the crisp ten-pound note, and her face
+grew so red and her eyes so prominent, that Drake was seriously afraid
+that she was going to have a fit.
+
+Nell had got up a few minutes after him, and had prepared his farewell
+breakfast; but she was not present, and Mrs. Lorton presided. It was not
+until the arrival of the trap that she came in hurriedly. She had her
+outdoor things on, and explained that she had had to go to the farm to
+order a fowl; and she was full of some story the farmer's wife had told
+her--a story which had made her laugh, and still seemed to cause her so
+much amusement that Mrs. Lorton felt compelled to remind her that Mr.
+Vernon was going.
+
+"Ah, yes! I suppose it is time. The train starts at ten-forty-five. Have
+you got some lunch for Mr. Vernon, Dick?"
+
+She had packed a neat little packet of sandwiches with her own hands,
+but put the question casually, as if she hoped that somebody had
+considered their departing guest's comfort.
+
+The girl's bright cheerfulness got on Drake's nerves. His farewell to
+Mrs. Lorton lacked grace and finish, and he could only hold out his hand
+to Nell, and say, rather grimly and curtly:
+
+"Good-by, Miss Nell."
+
+Just that; no more.
+
+Her hand rested in his for a moment. Did it tremble, or was it only
+fancy on his part? She said, "Good-by, and I hope you will have a
+pleasant journey," quite calmly.
+
+Dick burst in with:
+
+"Now, Mr. Vernon, if you've kissed everybody, we'd better be starting,"
+and Drake got into the trap.
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked after the departing guest, and waved her hand with an
+expression of languid sorrow; then turned to Nell with a sigh.
+
+"I might have known that he would go; but still I must say that it is a
+disappointment--a great disappointment. These trials are sent for our
+good, and----I do wish you would not keep up that perpetual humming,
+Eleanor. On an occasion like this it is especially trying. And how pale
+you look!" she added, staring unsympathetically.
+
+"I've--I've rather a headache," said Nell, turning toward the door. "I
+suppose it was hurrying up to the farm. It is very hot this morning.
+I'll go and take off my hat."
+
+She went upstairs slowly, slipped the bolt in her bedroom door, and,
+taking off her hat, stood looking beyond the glass for a moment or two;
+then she absently drew an old and somewhat battered pencil case from her
+pocket. She gazed at it thoughtfully, until suddenly she could not see
+it for the tears that gathered in her eyes, and presently she began to
+tremble. She slipped to her knees besides the bed, and buried her
+forehead in the hands clasped over Drake's "token of remembrance and
+gratitude."
+
+And as she struggled with the sobs that shook her, she still trembled;
+for there was something in the feeling of utter, overwhelming desolation
+which frightened her--something she could neither understand nor resist,
+though she had been fighting against it all through the long and weary
+night.
+
+Oh, the shame of it! That she should cry because Mr. Drake Vernon had
+left Shorne Mills! The shame of it!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+All the way up to town Drake felt very depressed. It is strange that we
+mortals never thoroughly appreciate a thing until we have lost it, or a
+time until it has slipped past us; and Drake only realized, as the
+express rushed along and took him farther and farther away from Shorne
+Mills, how contented, and, yes, nearly happy, he had been there,
+notwithstanding the pain and inconvenience of a broken limb.
+
+As he leaned back and smoked, he thought of the little village in the
+cleft of the cliffs, of the opaline sea, of the miniature jetty on which
+he had so often sat and basked in the sunlight; but, more than all, he
+thought of The Cottage, of the racketing, warm-hearted Dick, and--and of
+Nell of Shorne Mills.
+
+It seemed hard to realize, and not a little painful, that he should
+never again sit in the parlor which now seemed to him so cozy, and
+listen to the girl playing Chopin and Grieg; or ride beside her over the
+yellow and purple moor; or lie coiled up at her feet as she sailed the
+_Annie Laurie_.
+
+He began to suspect that he had taken a greater interest in her than he
+was aware of; he had grown accustomed to the sweet face, the musical
+voice, the little tricks of manner and expression which went to make up
+a charm which he now felt she certainly possessed. He looked round the
+carriage and sighed as if he missed something, as if something had gone
+out of his life.
+
+They had been awfully good to him; they had in very truth played the
+part of the good Samaritan; and in his mind he compared these simple
+folk, buried in an out-of-the-way fishing village, with some of his
+fashionable friends. Which of them would have nursed him as he had been
+nursed at The Cottage, would have treated him as one of the family,
+would have lavished upon him a regard nearly akin to affection? It was a
+hollow world, he thought, and he wished to Heaven he had been born in
+Shorne Mills, and got his living as a fisherman, putting in his spare
+time by looking after, say, the _Annie Laurie_!
+
+He had wired to his man, and he found his rooms all ready for him. He
+wondered as he looked round the handsome and tastefully furnished
+sitting room, while Sparling helped him off with his coat, whether he
+should be able to afford to keep them up much longer.
+
+"Any news, Sparling?" he asked. "Hope you've been all right," he added,
+in the pleasant and friendly way with which he always addressed those
+who did service for him.
+
+"Thank you, my lord," said Sparling, "I've been very well; but I was
+much upset to hear of your lordship's accident, and very sorry you
+wouldn't let me come to you."
+
+The man spoke with genuine sympathy and regret, for he was attached to
+Drake, and was fully convinced that he had the best, the handsomest, and
+the most desirable master in all England.
+
+"Thanks; very much," said Drake; "but it was nothing to speak of, and
+there was no reason for dragging you down there. There wasn't any
+accommodation, to tell the truth, and you'd have moped yourself to
+death."
+
+"You're looking very well, my lord--a little thinner, perhaps," said
+Sparling respectfully.
+
+Drake sighed at the naive retort, then sighed unaccountably.
+
+"Oh, I've done some fishing, boating, and riding," he said, "and I'm
+pretty fit--fitter than I've been for some time. There's an awful pile
+of letters, I see."
+
+"Yes, my lord; you told me not to send them on. Will your lordship dine
+at home to-night?"
+
+Drake replied in the affirmative, had a bath, and changed, and sat down
+to one of the daintily prepared dinners which were the envy and despair
+of his bachelor friends. It was really an admirable little dinner; the
+claret was a famous one from the Anglemere cellars, and warmed to a
+nicety; the coffee was perfection; Sparling's ministrations left nothing
+to be desired; and yet Drake sank into his easy-chair after the meal
+with a sigh that was weary and wistful.
+
+There had never been anything more than soup and a plain joint, with a
+pudding to follow, at the dinners at The Cottage; but the simple meal
+had been rendered a pleasant one by Dick's cheerful and boyish nonsense;
+and whenever Drake looked across the table, there had been Nell's sweet
+face opposite him, sometimes grave with a pensive thoughtfulness, at
+others all alight with merriment and innocent, girlish gayety.
+
+His room to-night seemed very dull and lonely. It was strange; he had
+never been bored by his own society before; he had rather liked to dine
+alone, to smoke his cigarette with the evening paper across his knee or
+a book on the table beside him. He tried to read; but the carefully
+edited paper, with its brilliant articles, its catchy little paragraphs,
+and its sparkling gossip, didn't interest him in the least. He dropped
+it, and fell to wondering, to picturing, what they were doing at that
+precise moment at The Cottage. Mrs. Lorton, no doubt, was sitting in her
+high-backed chair reading the _Fashion Gazette_; Dick was lounging just
+outside the window, smoking a cigarette, mending his rod, and whistling
+the last comic song. And Nell--what was Nell doing? Perhaps she was
+playing softly one of the pieces he had grown fond of; or leaning half
+out of the window squabbling affectionately with the boy.
+
+Or perhaps they were talking of him--Drake. Did they miss him? At the
+thought, he was reminded of the absurd song--"Will They Miss Me When I'm
+Gone?" And, with something like a blush for his sentimental weakness, as
+he mentally termed it, he sprang up and took his letters. They consisted
+mostly of bills and invitations. He chucked the first aside and glanced
+at the others; both were distasteful to him. He felt as if he should
+like to cut the world forever.
+
+And yet that wouldn't do. Everybody would say that he was completely
+knocked over by the ruin of his prospects, and that he had run away. He
+couldn't stand that. He had always been accustomed to facing the music,
+however unpleasant it might be; and he would face it now. Besides, it
+would never do to sit there moping, and wishing himself back at Shorne
+Mills; because that was just what he was doing.
+
+He turned over the gilt-edged cards and the scented notes--there seemed
+to be a great many people in town, notwithstanding the deadness of the
+season--and he selected one from a certain Lady Northgate. She was an
+old friend of his, and she had written him a pretty little note, asking
+him to a reception for that night. It was just the little note which a
+thorough woman of the world would write to a man whom she liked, and who
+had struck a streak of bad luck. Most of Drake's acquaintances who were
+in town would be there; and it would be a good opportunity of facing the
+situation and accepting more or less sincere sympathy with a good grace.
+
+It was a fine night; and he walked to the Northgates' in Grosvenor
+Square; and thought of the evening he and Nell had sailed in to Shorne
+Mills with the lights peeping out through the trees, and the stars
+twinkling in the deep-blue sky. It already seemed years since that
+night, but he saw the girl's face as clearly as if she were walking
+beside him now.
+
+The face vanished as he went up the broad staircase and into the
+brilliantly lighted room; and Shorne Mills seemed farther away, and all
+that had happened there like a dream, as Lady Northgate held out her
+hand and smiled at him.
+
+She was an old friend, and many years his senior; but of course she
+looked young--no one in society gets old nowadays--and she greeted him
+with a cheerful badinage, which, however skillfully, suggested sympathy.
+
+"It was a good boy to come!" she said. "I scarcely half expected you,
+and Harry offered to bet me ten to one in my favorite gloves that you
+wouldn't; but, somehow, I thought you would turn up. I wrote such a
+pretty note, didn't I?"
+
+"You did; you always do," said Drake. "It was quite irresistible."
+
+Lord Northgate, who was the "Harry" alluded to, came up and gave Drake a
+warm grip of the hand.
+
+"What the deuce are you doing here?" he asked. "Thought you were
+shooting down at Monkwell's place, or somewhere. Jolly glad Lucy didn't
+take my bet. And where have you been?"
+
+"With the Devon and Somerset," replied Drake, with partial truth.
+
+"Wish I had!" grumbled Northgate. "Kept at the Office." He was in the
+Cabinet. "There's always some beastly row, or little war, just going on
+when one wants to get at the salmon or the grouse. I declare to goodness
+that I work like a nigger and get nothing but kicks for halfpence! I'd
+chuck politics to-morrow if it weren't for Lucy; and why on earth she
+likes to be shut in town, and sweltering in hot rooms, playing this kind
+of game, I can't imagine."
+
+"But then you haven't a strong imagination, Harry, dear," said his wife
+pleasantly.
+
+"I've got a strong thirst on me," said Northgate, "and a still stronger
+desire to cut this show. Come down to the smoking room and have a cigar
+presently, old chap."
+
+Drake knew that this was equivalent to saying, "I'm sorry for you, old
+man!" and nodded comprehendingly.
+
+"You're looking very well, Drake," said Lady Northgate, as her husband,
+struggling with a fearful yawn, sauntered away. "And not at all
+unhappy."
+
+Drake shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What's the use? Of course, it's a bad business for me; but all the
+yowling in the world wouldn't better it. What can't be cured must be
+endured."
+
+Lady Northgate nodded at him approvingly.
+
+"I knew you'd take it like this," she said. "You won't go down to Harry
+for a little while?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Drake, with a smile. "I'm going the round; I'm not going
+to shirk it."
+
+He was one of the most popular men in London, and there were many in the
+room who really sympathized with and were sorry for him; and Drake, as
+he exchanged greetings with one and another, felt that the thing hadn't
+been so bad, after all. He made this consoling reflection as he leaned
+against the wall beside a chair in which sat a lady whom he did not
+know, and at whom he had scarcely glanced; and he was roused from his
+reverie by her saying:
+
+"May I venture to trouble you to put this glass down?"
+
+He took the glass and set it on the pedestal of the statuette beside
+him, and, as in duty bound, returned to the lady. She was an extremely
+pretty little woman, with soft brown hair and extremely bright eyes,
+which, notwithstanding their brightness, were not at all hard. He felt,
+rather than knew, that she was perfectly dressed, and he noticed that
+she wore remarkably fine diamonds. They sparkled and glittered in her
+hair, on her bosom, on her wrists, and on her fingers.
+
+He had never seen her before, and he wondered who she was.
+
+"You have just come up from the country?" she said.
+
+The accent with which she made this rather startling remark betrayed her
+nationality to Drake. The American accent, when it is voiced by a person
+of culture and refinement, is an extremely pretty one; the slight drawl
+is musical, and the emphasis which is given to words not usually made
+emphatic, is attractive.
+
+"Yes," said Drake. "But how did you know that?"
+
+"Your face and hands are so brown," she replied, with a frankness which
+was robbed of all offense by her placidity and unself-consciousness.
+"Nearly all the men one meets here are so colorless. I suppose it is
+because you have so little air and sun in London. At first, one is
+afraid that everybody is ill; but after a time one gets used to it."
+
+Drake was amused and a little interested.
+
+"Have the men in America so much color?" he asked.
+
+"Well, how did you know I was an American?" she inquired, with a
+charming little air of surprise. "I suppose my speech betrayed me? That
+is so annoying. I thought I had almost entirely lost my accent."
+
+"I don't know why you should want to lose it," said Drake, honestly
+enough. "It's five hundred times better than our London one!"
+
+"I didn't say I wanted to exchange it for that," she remarked.
+
+"Don't exchange it for any other, if I may be permitted to say so."
+
+"That's very good of you," she said; "but isn't it rather like asking
+the leopard not to change his spots? And after all, I don't know why we
+shouldn't be as proud of our accent as you are of yours."
+
+"I'm quite certain I'm not proud of mine," said Drake.
+
+She smiled up at him over her fan; a small and costly painted affair,
+with diamonds incrusted in the handle.
+
+"You are more modest than most Englishmen," she said.
+
+"I don't know whether to be grateful or not for that," remarked Drake.
+"Are we all so conceited?"
+
+"Well, I think you are all pretty well satisfied with yourselves," she
+replied. "I never knew any nation so firmly convinced that it was the
+pick of creation; and I expect before I am here very long I shall become
+as fully convinced as you are that the world was made by special
+contract for the use and amusement of the English. Mind, I won't say
+that it could have been made for a better people."
+
+"That's rather severe," said Drake. "But don't you forget that you were
+English yourself a few years ago; that, in a sense, you are English
+still."
+
+"That's very nicely said," she remarked; "more especially as I didn't
+quite deserve it. I was wanting to see whether I could make you angry."
+
+Drake stared at her with astonishment.
+
+"Why on earth should you want to make me angry?" he asked.
+
+"Well, I've heard a great deal about you," she replied. "And all the
+people who talked about you told me that you were rather hot-tempered.
+Lady Northgate, for instance, assured me you could be a perfect bear
+when you liked."
+
+Drake smiled.
+
+"That was extremely kind of Lady Northgate."
+
+"Well, so long as it wasn't true. I've heard so much about you that I
+was quite anxious to see you. I am speaking to Lord Drake Selbie, am I
+not?"
+
+"That's my name," said Drake.
+
+"The nephew of Angleford?"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+She looked up at him as if waiting to see how he took the mention of his
+uncle's name; but Drake's face could be as impassive as a stone wall
+when he liked.
+
+"You know my uncle?" he asked, in a tone of polite interest.
+
+"Yes," she said; "very well. I met him when he was in America. His wife
+is a great friend of mine. You know her, of course?"
+
+"I'm sorry to say I have not had that pleasure," said Drake. "I was
+absent from England when the present Lady Angleford came over, after her
+marriage."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the lady. "I suppose I ought not to have mentioned her?"
+
+"Good heavens! Why not?" asked Drake.
+
+"Well, of course," she drawled slowly, but musically, "I know that Lord
+Angleford's marriage was a bad thing for you. It wouldn't be my fault if
+I didn't, seeing that everybody in London has been talking about it."
+
+"Well, it's not a particularly good thing for me," Drake admitted; "but
+it's no reason why I should dislike any reference to my uncle or his
+wife."
+
+"You don't bear her any ill will?" she asked.
+
+This was extremely personal, especially coming from a stranger; but the
+lady was an American, with an extremely pretty face and a charming
+manner, and there was so much gentleness, almost deprecatory gentleness
+in her softly bright eyes, that Drake, somehow, could not feel any
+resentment.
+
+"Not the very least in the world, I assure you," he replied. "My uncle
+had a perfect right to marry when he pleased, and whom he pleased."
+
+"I didn't think you'd be angry with him," she said, "because everybody
+says you were such friends, and you are so fond of him; but I thought
+you'd be riled with her."
+
+Drake laughed rather grimly.
+
+"Not in the least," he said. "Of course, I should have preferred that my
+uncle should remain single, but I can't be absurd enough to quarrel with
+a lady for marrying him. He is a very charming man, and perhaps she
+couldn't help herself."
+
+"That's just it--she couldn't," said the lady naively. "And have you
+been to see your uncle since you've been back?" she asked.
+
+"Not yet," replied Drake. "I only came back to London an hour or two
+ago, but I will look him up to-morrow."
+
+"I knew you would," she said; "because that was such a nice letter you
+wrote, and such a pretty present you sent to Lady Angleford."
+
+As she spoke, she transferred her fan to her left hand and raised her
+right arm, and Drake recognized upon her wrist a bracelet which he had
+sent Lady Angleford as a wedding present. He colored and frowned
+slightly, then he laughed as he met the now timid and quite deprecatory
+gaze of the upturned eyes.
+
+"Was this quite fair, Lady Angleford?" he said, smiling.
+
+"Well, I don't know," she said, a little pathetically. "I thought it
+was, but I'm not quite sure now. You see, I wanted to meet you and talk
+to you, and know exactly how you felt toward me without your knowing who
+I was."
+
+Drake went and sat down beside her, and leaned toward her with one arm
+stretched on the back of her chair.
+
+"But why?" he asked.
+
+"Well, you see, I was a little afraid of you. When Lord Angleford asked
+me to marry him and I consented, I didn't quite realize how things stood
+between you and him. It was not until I came to Europe--I mean to
+England--that I realized that I had, so to speak, come between your
+uncle and you. And that made me feel bad, because everybody I met told
+me that you were such a--a good fellow, as they call it----"
+
+"One Englishman will become conceited, if you don't take care, Lady
+Angleford," put in Drake, with a smile.
+
+"That's what everybody says; and I found that you were so much liked and
+so popular; and it was hateful to me that I should cause a quarrel
+between you and Lord Angleford. It has made me very unhappy."
+
+"Then don't be unhappy any longer, Lady Angleford," he said. "There has
+been, and there need be, no quarrel between my uncle and me."
+
+"Ah, now you make me happy!" she said; and she turned to him with a
+little flush on her face which made her prettier than ever. "I have been
+quite wretched whenever I thought of you or heard your name. People
+spoke of you as if you had died, or got the measles, with a kind of pity
+in their voices which made me mad and hate myself. You see, as I said, I
+didn't realize what I was doing. I didn't realize that I was coming
+between an hereditary legislator and his descendant and heir."
+
+Drake could not help smiling.
+
+"You had better not call my uncle an hereditary legislator, Lady
+Angleford. I don't think he'd like it."
+
+"But he is, isn't he?" she said. "It is so difficult for an American to
+understand these things. We are supposed to have the peerage by heart;
+but we haven't. It's all a mystery and a tangle to us, even the best of
+us. But I try not to make mistakes. And now I want you to tell me that
+we are friends. That is so, isn't it?"
+
+She held out her tiny and perfectly gloved hand with a mixture of
+timidity and impulsiveness which touched Drake.
+
+"Indeed, I hope we are, Lady Angleford," he said.
+
+She looked at him wistfully.
+
+"You couldn't call me 'aunt,' I suppose?"
+
+Drake laughed outright.
+
+"I'm afraid I couldn't," he said. "You are far too young for that."
+
+"I am sorry," she said. "I think I should have liked you to call me
+aunt. But never mind. I must be satisfied with knowing that we are
+friends, and that you bear me no ill will. And now, I think I will go.
+My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?"
+
+"Quite a perfect success," said Drake. "And I congratulate you upon it."
+
+"Don't tell Lord Angleford," she said. "He'll say it was 'so American';
+and I do hate him to say that."
+
+Drake promised that he would not relate the little farce to his uncle,
+and got her cloak and took her down to the Angleford carriage. As he put
+her in and closed the door, she gave him her hand, and smiled at him
+with a little air of triumph and appeal.
+
+"We are friends, aren't we?" she asked.
+
+"The best of friends, Lady Angleford," he replied. "Good night."
+
+He went back to say good night to Lady Northgate.
+
+"You played it rather low down upon me, didn't you?" he remarked.
+
+"My dear Drake, what could I do?" she exclaimed. "That poor little woman
+was so terribly anxious to gain your good will. She didn't understand in
+the least the harm she was doing you. And what will you do? She is
+immensely rich--her father was an American millionaire----"
+
+Drake's face hardened. One thing at least he knew he couldn't do: he
+could not bring himself to accept charity from Lady Angleford. Lady
+Northgate understood the frown.
+
+"Don't kill me before all these people, Drake!" she said. "I dare say
+it's very silly of me, but I can't help plotting for your welfare. You
+see, I am foolish enough to be rather fond of you. There! Go down and
+drink that soda and whisky with Harry. If you won't let your friends
+help you, what will you do?"
+
+"I give it up; ask me another. Don't you worry about me, my dear lady; I
+shall jog along somehow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The next morning, while at breakfast, he received a little note from
+Lady Angleford, asking him to dinner that night. It was a charming
+little note, as pleading and deprecating as her eyes had been when she
+looked at him at the Northgates'.
+
+Drake sent back word that he would be delighted to come, and at eight
+o'clock presented himself at his uncle's house in Park Lane. Lord
+Angleford was, like Northgate, detained in London by official business.
+He was a very fine specimen of the old kind of Tory, and, though well
+advanced in years, still extremely good-looking--the whole family was
+favored in that way--and remarkably well preserved. His hair was white,
+but his eyes were bright and his cheeks ruddy, and, when free from the
+gout, he was as active as a young man. Of course, he was hot-tempered;
+all gouty men are; but he was as charming in his way as Lady Angleford,
+and extremely popular in the House of Lords, and out of it.
+
+Though he had fallen in love with a pretty little American, perhaps he
+would not have married her but for the little tiff with Drake; but that
+little tiff had just turned the scale, and, though he had taken the step
+in a moment of pique, he had not regretted it; for he was very fond and
+proud of his wife. But he was also very fond and proud of Drake, and was
+extremely pleased when Lady Angleford had told him that she had met
+Drake, and was going to ask him to dinner.
+
+"Oh, all right," he had said. "I shall be very glad to see him--though
+he's an obstinate young mule. I think you'll like him."
+
+"I do like him very much indeed," she had said. "He is so handsome--how
+very like he is to you!--and he's not a bit stand-offish and superior,
+like most Englishmen."
+
+"Oh, Drake's not a bad sort of fellow," said Lord Angleford, "but he's
+too fond of having his own way."
+
+At this Lady Angleford had smiled; for she knew another member of the
+family who liked his own way.
+
+She was waiting for Drake in the drawing-room, and gave him both her
+hands with a little impulsiveness which touched Drake.
+
+"I am so glad you have come," she said; "and your uncle is very glad,
+too. You won't--get to arguing, will you? You English are such dreadful
+people to argue. And I think he has a slight attack of the gout, though
+he was quite angry when I hinted at it this morning."
+
+Drake sincerely hoped his uncle hadn't, for everybody's sake. At that
+moment the earl came into the room, held out his hand, and said, as if
+he had parted with Drake only the night before:
+
+"How are you, Drake? Glad to see you. You've met Lady Angleford already?
+Isn't it nearly dinner time?"
+
+Drake took Lady Angleford in. There were no guests besides himself, and
+they had quite a pleasant little dinner. Lady Angleford talked with all
+the vivacity and charm of a cultured American who has seen both sides of
+the world, and kept her eyes open, and Drake began to feel as if he had
+known her for years. The earl was in a singularly good humor and
+listened to, and smiled at, his young wife proudly, and talked to Drake
+as if nothing had happened. It was just like old times; and Drake, as he
+opened the door for Lady Angleford, on her way to the drawing-room,
+smiled down at her, and nodded as she looked up at him questioningly.
+
+Then he went back to his chair, and the butler put the Angleford port in
+its wicker cradle before the earl.
+
+"I oughtn't to touch a drop," he said, "for I've had a twinge or two
+lately; but on this occasion----"
+
+He filled his glass, and passed the bottle to Drake--the butler had left
+the room.
+
+"So you met Lady Angleford last night?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and I take this, the first opportunity, to congratulate you.
+And Lady Angleford is as charming as she is pretty; and you won't mind
+my saying that I consider you an extremely lucky man."
+
+Of course, the earl looked pleased.
+
+"Thanks," he said; "that's very good of you, Drake--especially as my
+marriage may make all the difference to you."
+
+Drake looked at his cigarette steadily.
+
+"I've no reason to complain, sir; and I don't," he said. "You might have
+married years ago, and I'm rather surprised you didn't."
+
+The earl grunted.
+
+"I don't suppose I should have done so now, if you hadn't been such a
+stubborn young ass. That put my back up. But though I don't regret what
+I've done--no, by Jove!--I don't want you to think I am utterly
+regardless of your future. This port improves, doesn't it? Of course,
+you may be knocked out of the succession now----"
+
+"Most probably so, I should think," said Drake.
+
+"Just so. And, therefore, it's only right that I should do something for
+you."
+
+"You are very good, sir," said Drake.
+
+The earl colored slightly.
+
+"Now look here, Drake; I'm always suspicious of that d----d quiet way of
+yours! I was very glad when Lady Angleford told me that you were coming
+here, and I made up my mind that I would let bygones be bygones and act
+squarely by you. As I said, I'm not a bit sorry that I married; no,
+indeed!--you've seen Lady Angleford--but I don't want to leave you in
+the lurch. I don't want you to suffer more than--than can be helped.
+I've been thinking the matter over, and I'll tell you what I'll do. Have
+some more port."
+
+Unluckily for Drake, the old man filled his own glass before passing the
+bottle. Drake sipped his port and waited, and the earl went on:
+
+"Of course, I meant to continue your allowance; but I can see that under
+the circumstances that wouldn't be sufficient. Something might happen to
+me----"
+
+"I sincerely trust nothing will happen to you, sir," said Drake.
+
+The earl grunted.
+
+"Well, I'm not so young as I was; and I might get chucked off my horse,
+or--or something of that sort; and then you'd be in a hole, I imagine;
+for I suppose you've got through most of your mother's money?"
+
+"A great deal of it," admitted Drake.
+
+"Yes; I thought so. Well, look here; I'll tell you what I'll do, Drake.
+As you may know, Lady Angleford has a fortune of her own. Her father was
+a millionaire. That leaves me free to do what I like with my own money.
+Now, I'll settle ten thousand a year on you, Drake--but on one
+condition."
+
+Drake was considerably startled. After all, ten thousand a year is a
+large sum; and though the earl was immensely rich, Drake had not
+expected him to be so liberal. On ten thousand a year one can manage
+very comfortably, even in England. Drake thought of his debts, of all
+that a settled income would mean to him, and his heart warmed with
+gratitude toward his uncle.
+
+"You are more than kind, sir," he said. "Your liberality takes my breath
+away. What was the condition?"
+
+The earl fidgeted a little in his chair.
+
+"Look here, Drake," he said, "I've never worried you about your way of
+life; I know that young men will be young men, and that you've lived in
+a pretty fast set. That was your business and not mine, and as long as
+you kept afloat I didn't choose to interfere. But I think it's time you
+settled down; and I'll settle this money on you on condition that you do
+settle down. You're engaged to a very nice girl--just you marry and
+settle down, and I'll provide the means, as I say."
+
+Drake looked straight before him. Had this offer been made a month
+before he would have accepted it without a moment's hesitation, for he
+had thought himself in love with Luce, and, more important, he had
+thought that she had cared for him. But now all was changed. He knew
+that if a hundred thousand a year were dependent upon marrying Luce he
+couldn't accept it.
+
+The earl stared at him, and filled another glass with the port, which
+was a poison to him.
+
+"Eh? What the devil do you mean? I say that if you'll settle down and
+marry Luce I will provide a suitable income for you. What the blazes are
+you hesitating about? Why--confound it!--aren't you satisfied? You don't
+want to be told that I'm not bound to give you a penny!"
+
+The old man's handsome face was growing red, and his eyes were beginning
+to glitter; the port was doing its fell work.
+
+"I know," said Drake, with a quietude which only made his uncle more
+angry, "and I'm very much obliged to you. I know what ten thousand a
+year means; but I'm afraid I can't fulfill the conditions."
+
+"What the devil do you mean?" demanded the earl.
+
+Drake smoked in silence for a moment or two. Most men would have said at
+once that Lady Lucille Turfleigh had, on his change of prospects, jilted
+him; but Drake had some old-world notions of honor in respect to women,
+and he could not give Lady Luce away.
+
+"I'm afraid I can't marry Luce," he said. "Our engagement is broken
+off."
+
+The earl swore a good old Tory oath.
+
+"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" he said. "One of the nicest
+girls I know, and--devoted to you. More devoted to you than you deserve.
+And you don't mean to marry her? I suppose you've seen some one else?"
+
+Drake grew hot, but he still clung to his notion of honor.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Drake," said the earl, bringing down his port
+glass on the table so violently that it snapped off at the stem, "you
+young fellows of the present day haven't any idea of honor. Here's a
+girl, a beautiful girl, and nice in every way, simply devoted to you,
+and you go and throw her over. For some insane fancy, I suppose! Well,
+see here, I'm d----d if I'll countenance it. I abide by my condition.
+You make it up with Luce and marry her, and I'll settle this money on
+you, as I've said. If not----"
+
+Drake knocked the ash off his cigarette and looked straight before him.
+He could still save himself by telling the truth and sacrificing Lady
+Luce. But that was not his way.
+
+"I'm sorry, sir----" he began.
+
+"Sorry be d----d!" broke in the earl tempestuously. "Will you, or will
+you not?"
+
+"I can't," said Drake quietly.
+
+The old man rose to his feet, flinging his serviette aside.
+
+"Then, by Heaven! I've done with you!" he exclaimed. "I made you a fair
+offer. I've only asked you to act like a gentleman, a man of honor. Am I
+to understand that you refuse?"
+
+Drake had also risen slowly.
+
+"I'm afraid I must, sir," he said.
+
+"All right," said the earl, red with anger. "Then there's nothing more
+to be said. You can go your own way. But permit me to tell you----"
+
+"Oh, don't, sir!" said Drake, rather sadly. "I can't do what you ask.
+God knows I would if I could, but--it's impossible. For Heaven's sake,
+don't let us quarrel----"
+
+"Quarrel! I am as cool as a cucumber!" exclaimed the earl, his face the
+color of beetroot. "All I say is"--here a twinge of the gout checked his
+utterance--"that you're behaving shamefully--shamefully! We'd better
+join the ladies--I mean Lady Angleford----"
+
+"I think I'll get you to excuse me, sir," said Drake. "There is no need
+to upset Lady Angleford. She asked me here with the very best
+intentions, and she would be disappointed if she knew we had--quarreled.
+There is no need to tell her. I'll clear out. Make my excuse to her."
+
+"As you like," said the earl shortly. "But let me tell you that I think
+you are----"
+
+"No end of a fool, I've no doubt," said Drake, with a rather weary
+smile. "I dare say I am. But I can't help it. Good night, sir."
+
+The earl muttered something that sounded like "good night," and Drake
+left the house. He ought to have said good night to Lady Angleford, but
+he shirked it. He bore her no animosity; indeed, he liked her very
+much--so much that he shrank from telling her about this quarrel with
+his uncle; and he knew that if he went to her she would get it out of
+him.
+
+He walked home, feeling very miserable and down on his luck. How he
+hated London, and all that belonged to it! Like a whiff of fresh air the
+memory of Shorne Mills wafted across his mind. He let himself in with
+his latchkey, and, taking a sheet of note paper, made some calculations
+upon it. There was still something remaining of his mother's fortune to
+him. If he were not Lord Drake Selbie, but simply Mr. Drake Vernon, he
+could manage to live upon it. The vision of a slim and graceful girl,
+with soft black hair and violet-gray eyes, rose before him. It seemed to
+beckon him, to beckon him away from the hollow, heartless world in which
+he had hitherto lived. He rose and flung open wide the window of his
+sitting room, and the breath of air which came through the London
+streets seemed fragrant with the air which wafted over Shorne Mills.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No pen, however eloquent, can describe the weariness of the hours for
+Nell which had passed since "Mr. Drake Vernon" had left Shorne Mills.
+Something had seemed to have gone out of her life. The sun was shining
+as brightly, there was the same light on the sea, the same incoming and
+outgoing tide; every one was as kind to her as they had been before he
+left, and yet all life seemed a blank. When she was not waiting upon
+mamma she wandered about Shorne Mills, sailed in the _Annie Laurie_, and
+sometimes rode across the moor. But there was something wanting, and the
+lack of it made happiness impossible. She thought of him all day, and at
+night she tossed in her little bed sleeplessly, recalling the happy
+hours she had spent with him. God knows she tried hard to forget him, to
+be just the same, to feel just the same, as she had been before he had
+been thrown at her feet. But she could not. He had entered into her life
+and become a principal part of it, absorbed it. She found herself
+thinking of him all through the day. She grew thin and pale in an
+incredibly short time. Even Dick himself could not rouse her; and Mrs.
+Lorton read her a severe lecture upon the apathy of indolence.
+
+Life had been so joyous and so all-sufficing a thing for her; but now
+nothing seemed to interest her. There was a dull, aching pain in her
+heart which she could not understand, and which she could not get rid
+of. She longed for solitude. She often walked up to the top of the hill,
+to the purple moor over which she had ridden with Drake Vernon; and
+there she would sit, recalling every word she had said, every tone of
+his voice. She tried to forget him, but it was impossible.
+
+One evening she walked up the hill slowly and thoughtfully, and seated
+herself on a mossy bank, and gave herself up to that reverie in which we
+dream dreams which are more of heaven than of earth.
+
+Suddenly she heard the sound of footsteps. She looked up listlessly and
+with a slight feeling of impatience, seeing that her reverie was
+disturbed.
+
+The footsteps came nearer, a tall figure appeared against the sunset.
+She rose to her feet, trembling and filled with the hope that seemed to
+her too wild for hope.
+
+In another moment he was beside her. She rose, quivering in every nerve.
+
+Was it only a dream, or was it he? He held her hand and looked down at
+her with an expression in his eyes and face which made her tremble, and
+yet which made her heart leap.
+
+"Nell!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+They stood and looked at each other in silence for a moment; but what a
+silence!
+
+It almost seemed to Nell as if it were not he himself who stood before
+her, but just a vision of her imagination, called up by the intensity of
+her thoughts of him. The color came and went in her face, leaving it, at
+last, pale and startled. And he, too, stood, as incapable of speech as
+any of the shy and bashful young fishermen on the quay; he, the man of
+the world, who had faced so many "situations" with women--women of the
+world armed with the weapons of experience, and the "higher culture." At
+that moment, intense as it was, the strength of the emotion which swept
+over him and mastered him, amazed him.
+
+He knew, now that he was face to face with her, how he had missed this
+girl, how keen and intolerable had been his longing for her.
+
+He remembered to hold out his hand. Had he done so yet? For the life of
+him, he could not have told. The sight of the sweet face had cast a
+spell over him, and he did not know whether he was standing or sitting.
+
+As she put her small hand in his, Nell recovered something of her
+self-possession; but not all, for her heart was beating furiously, her
+bosom heaving, and she was in agony lest he should see the mist of dew
+which seemed to cover her eyes.
+
+"I'm afraid I startled you," he said.
+
+Nell smiled faintly, and drew her hand away--for he had held it half
+unconsciously.
+
+"I think you did--a little," she admitted. "You see, I--we did not
+expect you. And"--she laughed the laugh he had heard in his dreams,
+though it had not always been so tremulous, so like the flutelike quaver
+of this laugh--"and even now I am not quite sure it is you."
+
+"It is I--believe me," he said. "It is the same bad penny come back."
+
+Then it flashed upon him he must give some reason for his return.
+Incredible as it may seem, he was not prepared with one. He had made up
+his mind to come; he would have gone through fire and water to get back
+to Shorne Mills, but he had quite forgotten that some excuse would be
+necessary.
+
+But she did not seem to see the necessity.
+
+"Are you quite well now?" she asked, just glancing up at him.
+
+"Quite," he said; "perfectly well."
+
+"And how did you come? I mean when--have you been staying near?"
+
+"I came by this morning's train," he said, "and I walked over; my
+luggage follows by the carrier. I enjoyed the walk."
+
+"You must be quite strong again," she said, with a quiet little
+gladness. "Mamma--and Dick--will be so glad to see you!"
+
+"They haven't forgotten me?" he asked insanely.
+
+She laughed again.
+
+"They have talked of very little else but you, since you have been gone,
+and Dick is like a boy who has lost a schoolfellow."
+
+She said it so frankly that Drake's heart sank.
+
+"Well--I've thought--I've missed you--Dick," he said, stumbling over the
+sentence. "Shorne Mills is, as you said, not the kind of place one
+forgets in a hurry."
+
+"Did I say that?" she asked. "I don't remember it."
+
+"Ah! but I do," he said. "I remember----"
+
+"Hadn't we better walk on?" she said. "You must be tired, and will be
+glad of some tea--or something."
+
+He seemed to notice for the first time that they had been standing, and
+they walked on.
+
+Her heart was still beating fast--beating with a new and strange
+happiness glowing through her. Only a few minutes ago she had felt so
+weary and wretched; the familiar scene, which she loved so dearly, had
+seemed flat and dreary and full of melancholy, and now--oh! how lovely
+it was! how good it was to look upon!
+
+Why had everything changed so suddenly? Why was every pulse dancing to
+the subtle music with which the air seemed full?
+
+The question came to her with a kind of dread and fear; and her eyes,
+which shone like stars, grew momentarily troubled and puzzled.
+
+He scarcely dared look at her. The longing to touch her, to take her in
+his arms--that longing of passionate love which he had never felt
+before--rose imperiously in his heart; but something restrained him. She
+was so young, so innocent and girlish that a kind of awe fell upon him.
+When, as she walked beside him, the sleeve of her jacket came in contact
+with his arm, a thrill ran through him, and he caught his breath.
+
+But he would hold himself in check; not at this moment, when she was
+startled by his sudden appearance, would he tell her. It was more than
+likely that he would frighten her, and that she would fly from him.
+
+"And is there any news?" he asked.
+
+She looked up as if she had come from a reverie.
+
+"News! There is never any news at Shorne Mills!" she said, smiling
+brightly. "Nothing ever happens. Dick has shot some rabbits--and there
+was a good catch of mackerel yesterday, and--that's all."
+
+Her eyes shone up at him, and he looked into their depths. "I wish I'd
+been here," he said. "But perhaps they'll have another big catch."
+
+"Are you going to stay?"
+
+The question sprang from her lips almost before she knew it, and she bit
+them a moment after the words were spoken; for it seemed to her that he
+must have noticed the eagerness, the anxiety in the query; but Drake
+only thought that she had asked with some surprise.
+
+"A--a little while," he replied.
+
+"Mamma and Dick will be very pleased," she said, in as matter-of-fact a
+tone as she could.
+
+"I wired to Mrs. Brownie, asking her if she could put me up--old Brownie
+lets some rooms, he told me----"
+
+Her face fell for a moment.
+
+"You are not coming to us--to The Cottage?" she said cheerily.
+
+"No; I couldn't trespass upon Mrs. Lorton's hospitality," he replied.
+
+"I hope you will be comfortable----" She hesitated. "Mrs. Brownie's
+cottage is very small and----"
+
+"Oh, I'm used to roughing it," he cut in; "and perhaps, when I find it
+too small, you will let me come up and see you----"
+
+"In our palatial mansion--for a change."
+
+She was bright again, and her eyes were sparkling. After all, though he
+would not be under the same roof, he would be near--would be in Shorne
+Mills.
+
+"I think I'll go down to Mrs. Brownie's and see if it is all right, and
+then come up for a cup of tea, if I may," he said, as they neared The
+Cottage.
+
+He opened the gate for her; she gave him a little nod, her sweet face
+radiant with the new-born happiness which suffused her whole being, and
+ran in.
+
+"Mamma--guess who has come!" she exclaimed breathlessly, as she entered
+the sitting room where Mrs. Lorton was reclining on the sofa with the
+_Fashion Gazette_ and a bottle of eau de Cologne beside her. "Dick, I
+will give you three guesses--with a box of cigarettes as a prize," as
+Dick sauntered in with the gun under his arm.
+
+"My dear Eleanor, why this excitement?" asked Mrs. Lorton rebukingly.
+"Your face is flushed, and your hat is on one side----"
+
+"You'll have to give up drinking in the daytime, Nell," remarked Dick.
+"No, mamma, the gun will not go off, because it is not loaded. I wish it
+would, because I'm stone-broke and haven't any more cartridges. If I had
+a sister worthy of the name, she would advance me a small sum out of her
+pocket money."
+
+"Guess, guess!" broke in Nell impatiently.
+
+Dick smiled contemptuously.
+
+"Some conceited clown to lecture in the schoolroom?" he said. "We know
+you of old, my dear Nell. Is there to be any tea this afternoon?"
+
+"Clown!" retorted Nell scornfully. "Really, I've a good mind not to tell
+you until he--he comes himself."
+
+"He--who? I must ask you to restrain your excitement, Eleanor. My nerves
+are in a very sad condition to-day, and I cannot--I really cannot bear
+any mental strain."
+
+"It's Mr. Drake Vernon," said Nell, more soberly.
+
+Dick uttered the yell of a rejoicing red Indian; and Mrs. Lorton slid
+into an upright position with incredible rapidity.
+
+"Mr. Vernon! Go on, you're joking, Nell!" cried Dick; "and yet you look
+pleased enough for it to be true! Mr. Vernon! Hurrah! Sorry, mamma, but
+my feelings, which usually are under perfect control----"
+
+"Is my hair tidy, Eleanor? Take this eau de Cologne away. Where is he?
+Did you think to bring a tea cake for tea? No, of course not; you think
+of nothing, nothing! I sometimes wonder why you have not imitated some
+of the Wolfer tact and readiness."
+
+"I met Mr. Vernon on the moor, away from the village. I will make some
+toast. He is coming up presently. He is going to stay at the
+Brownies'--this is my best hat. Do be careful!"
+
+For Dick, in his joy, had fallen against her in the passage and nearly
+knocked her hat off; then he seized her by the arm, and, fixing her with
+a gaze of exaggerated keenness, demanded in melodramatic tones, but too
+low for Mrs. Lorton to hear:
+
+"What means this sudden and strange return of the interesting stranger?
+Speak, girl! Attempt not to deceive; subterfuge will not avail ye! Say,
+what means this unexpected appearance? Ah! why that crimson blush which
+stains your nose----"
+
+Nell broke from him--half ashamedly, for was she, indeed, blushing?--and
+ran to make the toast, and Dick went to the gate to watch for Drake.
+
+Drake found the Brownies expecting him, and was shown the tiny sitting
+room and bedroom they had hastily prepared; and, his luggage having
+arrived, he had a wash and a change.
+
+And as he dried himself on the lavender-scented towel, he invented an
+excuse for his return. He was filled with a strange gladness; the surge
+of the waves as they beat against the jetty sang a welcome to him; he
+could hear the fishermen calling to each other, as they cleaned their
+boats, or whistling as they sat on the jetty spreading their nets to
+dry; it was more like coming back to his birthplace, or some spot in
+which he had lived for years, than to the little seaside village which
+he had seen for the first time a few weeks ago.
+
+As he went up slowly to The Cottage, every man, woman, and child he met
+touched his hat or curtsied and smiled a welcome to him, and Dick's
+"Hallo, Mr. Vernon! then it is you, and Nell wasn't spoofing us. How are
+you? Come in!" went straight to his heart.
+
+He went in with his hand on the boy's shoulder, and was received by Mrs.
+Lorton with a mixture of stately dignity and simpering pleasure, which,
+however, no longer roused his irritation and impatience.
+
+"I am quite sure you will not be comfortable at the Brownies', Mr.
+Vernon," she said; "and I need not say that we shall be glad if you are
+not. Your room awaits you whenever you feel inclined to return to
+it--Richard, tell Eleanor that we are ready for the tea. And how did
+you leave London, Mr. Vernon? I am aware that it is not the season; but
+there are always some good families remaining in town," et cetera.
+
+Drake answered with as fair an imitation of interest as he could manage;
+then Nell came in, followed by Molly, with the tea. There was no longer
+any sign of a blush on the girl's face, but the gray eyes were still
+bright, and a smile--such a tender, joyous, sunny smile--lurked in
+ambush at the corners of her sweet lips. She did not look at him, and
+was quite busy with the teacups and saucers; but she listened to every
+word he said, as if every word were too precious to miss.
+
+"I was obliged to come down--the horses, you know," he said, as if that
+fully explained his return; "and, to tell you the truth, my dear Mrs.
+Lorton, I was very glad of the excuse. London is particularly hateful
+just now; though, as you say, there are a good many people there still."
+
+"Did you meet my cousin Wolfer?" asked Mrs. Lorton.
+
+Drake expressed his regret at not having done so.
+
+"I think you would like him," she said, with her head on one side, and
+with a long sigh. "It is years since I have seen him. When last we
+met----"
+
+"'He wore a wreath of roses!'" murmured Dick, under his breath.
+
+--"And no doubt he would find me much changed; one ages in these
+out-of-the-way places, where the stir and bustle of the great world
+never reaches one."
+
+"Mamma dropping into poetry is too touching!" murmured Dick; then aloud:
+"Nell, my child, if you are going to have a fit you had better leave the
+room. This is the second time you have shot out your long legs and
+kicked me. You had better see Doctor Spence."
+
+The boy's badinage, Nell's half-shy delight, filled Drake with joy; even
+Mrs. Lorton's folly only amused him. He leaned back and drank his tea
+and ate his toast--he knew that Nell had made it, and every morsel was
+sweet to him--with a feeling of happiness too deep for words. And yet
+there was anxiety mixed with his happiness. Was the delight only that
+which would arise in the heart of a young girl, a child, at the visit of
+a friend?
+
+"Shall we go down and look at the boat?" he asked, after he had
+dutifully listened to some more of Mrs. Lorton's remarks on fashion and
+nobility.
+
+"Right you are!" said Dick; "and if you will promise to behave yourself
+like a decent member of society, you shall come too, Nell. You won't
+mind my bringing my little sister, sir?"
+
+Drake smiled, but the smile died away as they walked down to the jetty;
+he could have dispensed with the presence of Nell's little brother.
+
+"We might go for a short sail, mightn't we?" he said, as they stood
+looking at the boat. "Pity you didn't bring your gun, Dick!"
+
+"Oh, I can fetch it!" said Dick promptly. "I shan't be ten minutes."
+
+Drake waved to Brownie to bring the _Annie Laurie_ to the steps, and
+helped Nell into the boat; then ran up the sail, and pushed off.
+
+"Aren't we going to wait for Dick?" said Nell innocently.
+
+"Oh, we'll just cruise about till he comes," said Drake. "Let me take
+the tiller."
+
+He steered the boat for the bay, and lit his pipe. It was just as if he
+had not left Shorne Mills; and, as he looked around at the multicolored
+cliffs, the sky dyed by the setting sun with vivid hues of crimson and
+yellow, and at Nell's lovely and happy face, he thought of the world in
+which he had moved last night; and its hollowness and falsity, its
+restless pursuit of pleasure, its selfish interests appalled him. He had
+resolved, or only half resolved, perhaps, last night, that he would "cut
+it"--leave it forever. Why shouldn't he? Why should he go back?
+
+Even before he had met Nell, he had been utterly weary of the old life;
+and, even if he had still hankered after it, it was now not possible for
+him. It was very improbable that he would inherit the title and estates;
+he had quarreled with his uncle; he had learned the bitter truth, that
+the women of his set were incapable of a disinterested love. And he had
+desired to be loved for himself alone. Does not every man desire it?
+
+Why should he not remain as "Drake Vernon," without title or fortune? If
+he won a woman's love, it would be for himself, not for the rank he
+could bestow----
+
+"There is Dick!" said Nell.
+
+Drake awoke from his reverie.
+
+"Scarcely worth while going back for him, is it?" he said. "Besides,
+he'll want to shoot something--and these gulls look so happy and
+contented----"
+
+"Why, you told him to get his gun!" she said, with surprise. "But it
+doesn't matter. He's going out in Willy's boat, I see. I suppose he
+thinks we shan't turn back for him. Isn't it lovely this evening?"
+
+"Yes," he assented absently.
+
+If--if Nell, now, for instance, were to--to promise to be his wife, he
+would be sure that it was for himself she cared! She did not know that
+he was anything other than just Mr. Drake Vernon. No carking doubts of
+the truth and purity of her love would ever embitter his happiness.
+
+"Where are we going?" she asked, turning on her elbow as he steered for
+the cove where they had lunched the other day.
+
+"I've a fancy to look into that cave," he said. "What a capital place it
+would be for a picnic! Shall we go ashore for a few minutes?"
+
+He threw out the anchor, leaped to the shore, and pulled the boat in for
+her. She prepared to jump, as usual, but as she stood, her slight figure
+poised on the gunwale, he took her in his arms and lifted her out.
+
+Her face went crimson for an instant, but she turned aside, and walked
+up the beach, and by the time he had overtaken her the crimson had gone;
+but the grip of his arms had set her tingling, and her heart was beating
+fast; and yet it was so foolish to--to mind; for had not Brownie and
+Willy, and half the fishermen of Shorne Mills, lifted her out of a boat
+when the sea was rough and the boat unsteady?
+
+"Let us sit down," Drake said.
+
+There was a big bowlder just within the cave, and Nell seated herself on
+it, and he slid down at her side.
+
+"If Dick is angry, you will have to protect me," she said, breaking the
+silence which seemed to oppress her with a sense of dread.
+
+"I will; especially as it was my fault," he said. "I didn't want
+Dick--for a wonder. I wanted to be--alone--with you again. I have wanted
+it every minute since I left you. Do you know why?"
+
+She had grown pale; but she tried to smile, to meet the ardent gaze of
+his eyes; but she could not.
+
+"Hadn't--hadn't we better be going back?" she faltered; "it is growing
+late."
+
+But her voice was so low that she wondered whether she had spoken aloud.
+
+"I want to tell you that I have missed you, how I have longed for you,"
+he went on, not speaking with the fluency for which some of his men
+friends envied him, but brokenly, as if the words were all inadequate to
+express his meaning. "All the way up to London I thought of you--I could
+not help thinking of you. All the time I was there, whether I was alone
+or in the midst of a mob of people, I thought of you. I could see your
+face, hear your voice. I could not rest day or night. I felt that I must
+come back to you; that there would be no peace or contentment for me
+unless I could see you, hear you, be near you."
+
+She sat, her hands clasped tightly, her eyes downcast and hidden by the
+long dark lashes. Every word he was faltering was making the strangest,
+sweetest music in her ears and in her heart. That he should miss
+her--want to come back to her!--oh, it could not--could not be true!
+
+"Do you know why?" he went on, looking up at her with a touch of
+anxiety, of something like fear in his eyes, for her downcast face told
+him nothing; her pallor might only be a sign of fear. "It was because
+I--love you."
+
+She trembled, and raised her eyes for one instant; but she could not
+meet his--not yet.
+
+"I love you," he said, his voice deepening, so that it was almost
+hoarse. "I love you."
+
+Just the three words, but how much they mean! Is it any wonder that the
+poet and the novelist are never weary of singing and writing them? and
+that the world will never be weary of hearing and reading them? How much
+hangs upon the three little words! Love: it is the magic word which
+transforms a life. It means a heaven too great for mortals to imagine,
+or a hell too deep to fathom. To Nell the words spoke of a mystery which
+she could not penetrate, but which filled her heart with a joy so great
+as almost to still it forever.
+
+"Dearest, I have frightened you!" he said, as she sat so silent and so
+motionless. "Forgive me! It seems so sudden to you; but I--I have felt
+it for days past, have known it so long, it seems to me. I have been
+thinking, dwelling on it. Nell, do you--care for me? Can you love me?"
+
+Her hands unclasped and went with a swift motion to her eyes, and
+covered them. His heart sank with a sudden dread. She was not only
+frightened; she did not care for him--or was it because she did not
+know? She was so young, so girlish, so innocent!
+
+"Forgive me--forgive me!" he pleaded, and he ventured to touch her arm.
+"I have--startled you; you did not expect--it was unfair to bring you
+here. But I can't take it back. I love you with all my heart and soul.
+See, Nell--you will let me call you that? It's the name I love above all
+others--the name I think of you by. I--I won't harass you. You--you
+shall have time to think. I will go away for--for a few days--and you
+shall think over----No, no!" he broke off, springing to his feet and
+bending over her with a sudden passion which swept all before it. "I
+can't go. I can't leave you again, unless--unless I go forever. I must
+have your answer now--now! Speak to me, Nell. 'Yes' or 'No'?"
+
+He drew her hands from her face as she rose, and her eyes were lifted
+and met his. Love's sweet surrender shone in them; and, with a cry of
+wonder and joy, he caught her to him.
+
+"Nell, Nell!" was all that he could say. "Is it true? You--you love me,
+Nell?"
+
+She hid her face on his breast, and her hands trembled on his shoulders.
+
+"Yes--yes," she breathed, almost inaudibly. Then: "Do I?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+He took her face in his hands and turned it up to him, but paused as her
+lips nearly met his.
+
+"Do you? Why, don't you know, dearest?" he asked tenderly.
+
+"Yes, ah! yes, I do," she said, and the tears sprang to her eyes as
+their lips met. "It was because I loved you that I was so sorry when you
+went; that every hour and day was a misery to me, and seemed to hang
+like lead; it was because I loved you that I could not think of anything
+else, and--and all the world became black and dark, and--and--I hated to
+be alive. It was because--because of that, was it not?"
+
+He answered with the lover's mute language.
+
+"And--and you love me! It seems so wonderful!" she murmured, looking at
+him with her eyes, now deep as violets and dewy with her tears. "So
+wonderful! Why--why do you?"
+
+He laughed--the laugh that for the first time in his life had left his
+lips.
+
+"Have you no looking-glass in your room, Nell?" he asked. "You beautiful
+angel! But not only because you are the loveliest----"
+
+She put her hand to his lips, her face crimson; but he kissed it and
+laid it against his cheek.
+
+--"You are not only the loveliest woman I know, but the sweetest, Nell,"
+he said. "No man could help loving you."
+
+"How foolish!" she breathed; but, ah! the joy, the innocent pride that
+shone in her eyes! "You must have met, known, hundreds of beautiful
+women. I never thought that I--that any one could care for me----"
+
+"Because there's not a spark of vanity in my Nell, thank God!" he said.
+"See here, dearest, you speak of other women--it is because you are
+unlike any other woman I have ever known--thank God again!--because you
+are so. Ah, Nell! it's easier to love you than to tell you why. All I
+know is that I'm the happiest man on earth; that I don't deserve----"
+His voice grew grave and his face clouded. "The best of us doesn't
+deserve the love of the worst woman; and I, who have got the sweetest,
+the dearest----Ah, Nell! if you knew how bad a bargain you have made!"
+
+She laid her face against his hand, and her lips touched it with a kiss,
+and she laughed softly, as one laughs for mere joy which pants for
+adequate expression.
+
+"I am satisfied--ah, yes! I am satisfied!" she whispered. "It is you who
+have made the bad bargain--an ignorant girl--just a girl! Why, Dick will
+laugh at you! And mamma will think you are too foolish for words."
+
+He looked down at her--he was sitting on the bowlder now, and she was on
+the sand at his feet, her head resting against him, his arm round her.
+
+"Mrs. Lorton knows nothing about me," he said. "I'm afraid, when she
+knows----"
+
+His words did not affect her. In a sense, she was scarcely noting them.
+This new happiness, this unspeakable joy, was taking complete possession
+of her. That his lips should have touched hers, that his arm should be
+round her, that her head should be resting against him, his kisses upon
+her hair, was all so wonderful that she could scarcely realize it. Would
+she awake presently and find that she was in her own room, with the
+pillow wet with the tears that had fallen because "Mr. Drake Vernon" had
+left Shorne Mills forever?
+
+"Does she not?" she said easily. "She knows as much about you as I do,
+and I am content. But mamma will be pleased, because she likes you. And
+Dick"--she laughed, and her eyes glowed with her love for the boy--"Dick
+will yell, and will tease me out of my life. But he will be glad,
+because he is so very fond of you. What do you do to make everybody like
+you so much, Mr. Vernon?"
+
+"Oh, 'Drake, Drake, Drake'!" he said.
+
+"Drake," she murmured, and he stifled the word on her lips with kisses.
+
+"I'm by no means sure that Mrs. Lorton will be pleased," he said, after
+a moment. "See here, Nell--I never saw such hair as yours. It is dark,
+almost black, and yet it is soft and like silk----"
+
+"And it is all coming down. Ah, no, you cannot coil it up. Let it be for
+a moment. Do you really like it? Dick says it is like a horse's mane."
+
+"Dick is a rude young scamp to whom I shall have to teach respect for
+his sister. But Mrs. Lorton, dearest--I'm afraid she won't be pleased. I
+ought to have told you, Nell, that I'm a poor man."
+
+"Are you?"
+
+She nestled a little closer, and scooped up the sand with her disengaged
+hand--the one he was not holding--and she spoke with an indifference
+which filled Drake to the brim with satisfaction.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I was not always so poor; but I am one who has had
+losses, as Shakespeare puts it."
+
+"I am sorry," she said simply, but still with a kind of indifference.
+"Mamma said you must be rich because you--well, persons who are poor
+don't keep three horses and give diamond bracelets for presents."
+
+She spoke with the frankness and ingenuousness of a child, and Drake
+stroked her hair as he would that of a child.
+
+"Yes, that's reasonable enough," he said. "But I've lost my money
+lately. See?"
+
+She nodded, and looked up at him a little more gravely.
+
+"Yes? I am sorry. I suppose it must have seemed very hard to you. I have
+never been rich, but I can imagine that one does not like losing his
+money and becoming poor. Poor--Drake!"
+
+"Then, you don't mind?" he inquired. "You don't shrink from the prospect
+of being a pauper's bride, Nell?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Why should I?" she said simply. "We've always been poor--at least,
+nearly since I can remember; and we have always been happy, Dick and I.
+Now, it would not have been so nice if you had been very rich."
+
+"Why not?" he asked, lifting a tress of her hair to his lips.
+
+She thought for a moment.
+
+"Oh, don't you see? I should have felt that you had been foolish to--to
+love me----" There was an interlude. Should he ever grow tired of
+kissing her? he asked himself. "And I should have been afraid."
+
+"Afraid of what?"
+
+"Well, that you would be ashamed of me when you took me into the society
+of fashionable people, and----Oh, I am very glad that you are not rich!
+That sounds unkind, I am afraid."
+
+"Nell," he said solemnly, "I have long suspected that you were an angel
+masquerading as a mere woman, but I am now convinced of it."
+
+She laughed, and softly rubbed her cheek against his arm.
+
+"And I have long suspected that you were a rich man and a 'somebody'
+masquerading as a poor one, and I am delighted to hear that I was
+mistaken."
+
+He started at the first words of her retort, but breathed a sigh of
+relief as she concluded.
+
+"Poor or rich, I love you, Nell," he said, with a seriousness which was
+almost solemn, "and I will do my level best to make you happy. When you
+are my wife----"
+
+The blood rushed to her face, and her head dropped.
+
+"That will be a long time hence," she whispered.
+
+"No, no!" he said quickly, passionately. "I couldn't wait very long,
+Nell. But when you are my wife, I will try to prove to you that poor
+people can be happy. We shall just have enough to set up a house in some
+foreign land."
+
+She looked up at him gravely.
+
+"And leave mamma and--Dick? Yes?"
+
+The acquiescence touched him.
+
+"You won't mind, dearest--you won't mind leaving England?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"How cold and cruel I have become," she said, as if she were communing
+with herself. "But I do not care; I feel as if I could leave any one--go
+anywhere--if--if--I were with you!"
+
+She moved, so that she knelt beside him, and her small brown hands were
+palm downward on his breast; her eyes shone like stars with the light of
+a perfect love glowing in them; her sweet lips quivered, as, with all a
+young girl's abandonment to her first passion, she breathed:
+
+"Do you think I care whether you are poor or rich? I love you! Do you
+think I care whether you are handsome or ugly? It is you I love. Do you
+think I care where I go, so that you take me with you? I could not live
+without you. I would rather wander through the world, in rags, and
+starving, cold, and hungry, than--than marry a king and live in a
+palace! I only want you, you, you! I have wanted you since--since that
+first day--do you remember? I--turn your eyes away, don't look at me; I
+am so ashamed!--I came down to you that night--the first night! You were
+calling for water, and I--I raised you on my arm, and--and oh! I was so
+happy! I did not know, guess, why; but I know now. I--I must have loved
+you even then!"
+
+She hid her eyes on his arm, and he kissed her hair reverently.
+
+"And every day I--I grew to love you more. I was only happy when I was
+with you. I wondered why. But I know now! And you were always so kind
+and gentle with me; so unlike any other man I had met--the vicar, Doctor
+Spence--and I used to like to listen to you; and--and when you touched
+me something ran through me, something filled me with gladness."
+
+She paused for breath, her eyes fixed on his face, as if she were not
+seeing him, but the past, and her own self moving and being in that
+past.
+
+"And then you went, and all the happiness, all the gladness, seemed to
+go, and--bend lower--I--I can only whisper it--the night you went I
+flung myself on the bed and--and cried."
+
+"My Nell, my dearest!" was all he could say.
+
+"I cried because it seemed to me that my life had come to an end; that
+never, so long as I should live, should I know one moment of happiness
+again. It was as if all the light had gone out of the sky, as if the sun
+had turned cold--ah! you don't know!"
+
+"Do I not, dearest?"
+
+"And then, when I saw you to-day, all the light and warmth came rushing
+back, and I knew that it was you who were my light, my sun, and that
+without you I was not living, but only a shadow and a mockery of life."
+
+Her hands fell from his breast, her head sank upon his knees, she sobbed
+in the abandonment of her passion.
+
+And the man was awed by it, and almost as white as herself. He gathered
+her in his strong arms and murmured passionate words of love and
+gratitude and devotion.
+
+"Nell, Nell, my Nell! God make me more worthy of your love!" he said
+brokenly, hoarsely.
+
+She raised her head from his knees and offered him--of her own free
+will--her sweet lips, and then clung to him with a half-tearful,
+maidenly shame.
+
+"Let me go!" she said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The light that never was on earth or sky beamed on the _Annie Laurie_ as
+it skimmed toward the jetty.
+
+Nell sat in the stern, and Drake lay at her feet, his arms round her,
+his face upturned to hers.
+
+God knows he was grateful for her love. God also knows how unworthy he
+felt. This love is such a terrible thing. A maiden goes through the ways
+of life, in maiden meditation fancy free, pausing beside the brook to
+pluck the flowers which grow on its bank, and thinking of nothing but
+the simple girlish things which pertain to maidenhood. Then suddenly a
+shadow falls across her path. It is the shadow of the Man, and the love
+which shall raise her to heaven or drag her down to the nethermost hell.
+A glance, a word, and her fate is decided; before her stretch the long
+years of joy or misery.
+
+And, alas! she has no choice! Love is lord of all, of our lives, of our
+fate, and none can say him nay. No one of us can elect to love a little
+wisely, or unwisely and too well.
+
+But there was no doubt, no misgiving, in Nell's mind that night. She had
+given herself to this man who had fallen at her feet in Shorne Mills,
+and she had given herself fully and unreservedly. His very presence was
+a joy to her. It was a subtle delight to reach out her hand and touch
+him, though with the tips of her fingers. The gates of paradise had
+opened and she had entered in.
+
+How short the hour seemed during which they had sailed toward the jetty!
+She breathed a sigh, which Drake echoed.
+
+"Let me lift you out," he pleaded. "I want to feel you in my arms--once
+more to-night!"
+
+She surrendered herself, and, for a moment, her head sank on his
+shoulder.
+
+They walked up the hill almost in silence; but every now and then his
+hand sought hers, and not in vain.
+
+She looked up at the starlit sky in a kind of wondering amazement. Was
+it she?--was it he?--were they really betrothed? Did he really love her?
+Oh, how wonderful--wonderful it was! And they said there was no real
+happiness in this world.
+
+She could have laughed with the scorn of her full, complete joy!
+
+They entered The Cottage side by side, and were met by Dick, with
+half-serious indignation.
+
+"Well, upon my word, for a clear case of desertion, I never----Why
+didn't you wait for me? I've got a couple of gulls, and----What's the
+matter with you, Nell? You look as if you'd found a threepenny piece."
+
+"Just in time for supper," simpered Mrs. Lorton.
+
+Drake took Nell's hand and led her into the light of the lamp, which
+illumined the night and perfumed the day.
+
+"I've brought Nell back, Mrs. Lorton," he said, with the shyness of the
+newly engaged man, "and--and she has promised to be my wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Drake's announcement was received with amazed silence for a moment; then
+Dick flung up his piece of bread behind his back, caught it dexterously,
+and burst out with:
+
+"See the conquering hero comes! Hurrah! Nell--Nell! Don't run away! Wait
+for the congratulations of your devoted brother!"
+
+But Nell had fled to her room, and, on pretense of chivying her, Dick
+discreetly withdrew, leaving Drake to the inevitable interview with Mrs.
+Lorton.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what to say," she murmured. "It is so unexpected,
+so quite unlooked for. It is like a bolt out of the green----" She meant
+blue, but had got the colors mixed. "I had no idea that you had any
+serious intentions!"
+
+Then she remembered that she had to play the part of guardian, and
+endeavored to fill the role with the dignity due to a lady of her
+exalted birth.
+
+"I need not say that I--er--congratulate you, Mr. Vernon. Eleanor is
+a--er--dear girl; she has been the comfort and consolation of my life,
+and--er--the parting with her will be a great--a very great--trial.
+Pardon my emotion!" She snuffed into a handkerchief, and wiped her eyes
+with a delicate touch or two. "But I should not dream of standing in the
+way of her happiness. No! If she has made her heart's choice, I shall
+not attempt to dissuade her. And I feel that she has chosen wisely. Of
+course, my dear Mr. Vernon, though we have had the pleasure of your
+presence with us for some time, we do not--er--know----"
+
+Drake winced slightly. Should he tell her the truth? Should he say, "My
+name's Drake Vernon, right enough, but I happen to be Lord Selbie?"
+
+But he shrank from the avowal, the confession. He knew that it would
+call forth quite a torrent of amazement and self-satisfaction; that he
+would be asked why he had concealed his full name and rank--and
+to-night, of all nights, he felt unequal to the scene which would most
+certainly follow the confession.
+
+"I will tell you all--I can," he said, with a pause before the last
+words which, fortunately for him, Mrs. Lorton was top excited to notice.
+"I'm afraid Nell hasn't made a very wise choice. I'm not worthy of her;
+but that goes without saying; no man alive is. But even in the usual
+acceptation of the term, I'm not what is called a good match."
+
+Mrs. Lorton looked blank and rather puzzled as she thought of the
+diamond bracelet and the three horses.
+
+"I--we--er--imagined that you were well off," she said.
+
+"I've met with reverses lately," said Drake; "and I'm poorer than I was
+a--er--little while ago."
+
+Mrs. Lorton drew herself up a little, and her expression grew less
+complaisant.
+
+"Indeed?" she said interrogatively.
+
+"Yes," he went on quietly. "I am quite aware that Nell deserves----Perhaps
+I'd better tell you the income we shall have to get along on."
+
+He mentioned the sum which the remnant of his fortune would produce,
+and, though it was much smaller than Mrs. Lorton had expected, it was
+large enough to cause her countenance to relax something of its
+stiffness.
+
+"It is not a large income," she said. "And I cannot but remember that
+Eleanor, though she is not a Wolfer by birth, is connected with the
+family; and that, if she were taken up by them, she might--one never
+knows what may happen under favorable circumstances. A season in London
+with my people----"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"I know," he said, "Nell is worthy of the best, and no doubt if she were
+in London I should stand a poor chance; but it's my luck that she isn't,
+you see. And"--his voice dropped--"and I'm conceited enough to believe
+that she cares for me; and I don't suppose my poverty will make any
+difference. Heaven knows, I wish I were rich, for her sake!"
+
+"Well, we must make the best of it," said the good lady. "After all,
+money isn't everything." She spoke as if she were suffering from the
+burden of a million. "True hearts are more than coronets. I must write
+and tell my cousin, Lord Wolfer."
+
+"I wouldn't! I mean, is it necessary--at any rate, just yet?" said
+Drake. It was just possible that Lord Wolfer might interest himself
+sufficiently to ask questions; he might, indeed, connect "Drake Vernon"
+with the two first names of Viscount Selbie. And Drake--well, this was
+the first bit of romance in his life, and he clung to it. The idea of
+marrying Nell, of marrying her as plain "Drake Vernon," down on his
+luck, was sweet to him. He could tell her after the wedding, when they
+were too far away to suffer from the fuss which Mrs. Lorton would
+inevitably make over the revelation.
+
+"You see, we shall have to be married very quietly; and I'm thinking of
+spending some time abroad, on the Continent--Nell will like to see a
+foreign city or two--and, do you think it's worth while troubling your
+people?"
+
+The "your people" flattered her, and she yielded, with a sigh.
+
+"As you please, Mr. Vernon--but I suppose I must now call you 'Drake'?"
+she broke off, with a simper; "though, really, it sounds so strange,
+and--er--so familiar."
+
+Drake wondered whether he ought to kiss her as he murmured assent.
+
+"I'll do my best to make Nell happy," he said; "and you must make the
+best of a bad bargain, my dear Mrs. Lorton; and if you feel like being
+very good to me, you'll help me persuade Nell to an early marriage."
+
+She brightened up at the word marriage, and at the prospect of playing a
+part in the function beloved of all women; and when Nell stole in, with
+pink cheeks and glowing eyes, drew the girl to her and bestowed a
+pecklike kiss upon her forehead.
+
+Mrs. Lorton provided the conversation during that meal, and, while she
+prosed about the various marriages in the Wolfer family, Nell listened
+in dutiful silence, now and again flushing and thrilling as Drake's hand
+touched hers or his eyes sought her face.
+
+And Dick behaved very well. He reserved his chaff for a future occasion,
+and only permitted himself one allusion to the state of affairs by
+taking Nell's hand and murmuring: "Beg pardon, Nell! Thought it was a
+spoon!"
+
+As Drake walked down the hill to the Brownies' cottage his heart
+throbbed with the first pure happiness of his life. Nell's kiss, which
+she had given him at parting at the gate, glowed warm upon his lips. And
+if his happiness was alloyed by the reflection that he was deceiving her
+in the matter of his rank, he thrust it from him.
+
+After all, what did it matter? What would she care? It was he, the man,
+not the viscount, whom she loved. Yes, the gods had been good to him,
+notwithstanding the ruin of his prospects; for was he not loved for
+himself alone?
+
+He smiled, with a sense of the irony of circumstances, when he
+remembered that only a few weeks ago he had congratulated himself that
+he had "done with women!" But at that time he had not fallen in love
+with Nell of Shorne Mills, and won her love; which made all the
+difference!
+
+And Nell? She lay awake in a sleepless dream. Every word he had spoken
+came back to her like the haunting refrain of a beautiful song; the
+expression in his eyes, the touch of his hand--ah! and more, the kiss of
+his lips--were with her still. It was her first love. No man before
+Drake had ever spoken of love to her; it was her virgin heart which he
+had won; and when this is the case the man assumes the proportions of a
+god to the girl.
+
+And it seemed so wonderful, so incredible, that he should have fallen in
+love with her, that he should have chosen her; as his queen, as his
+wife. She tried to draw a mental picture of herself, to account for his
+preference for her, and failed to find any reason for it. He had said
+that she was--beautiful. Oh, no--no! He must have met a hundred women
+prettier than she was; but he had chosen her. How strange! how
+wonderful! Sleep came to her at last, but it was a sleep broken by
+dreams--dreams in which Drake--she could think of him as "Drake"--held
+her in his arms and murmured his love. She could feel his kisses on her
+lips, her hair. Once the dream turned and twisted somewhat, and he and
+she seemed separated--a vague something came between them, an intangible
+mist or cloud which neither could pass, though they stood with
+outstretched hands and yearning hearts; but this dream passed, and she
+slept the sleep of joy and peaceful happiness.
+
+Happiness! It is given to so few to know happiness that one would like
+to linger over the days which followed their betrothal. For every day
+was an idyl. Drake had resolved to send the horses up to London for
+sale; he had given Sparling notice, six months' wages, and a character
+which would insure him a good place; but he clung to the horses, and
+Nell and Dick and he had some famous rides before the nags went to
+Tattersall's.
+
+And what rides they were! Dick, wise beyond his years, would lag behind
+or canter a long way in front; and Nell and Drake would be left alone to
+whisper together, or clasp hands in silent ecstasy.
+
+And there was the _Annie Laurie_. To sail before the wind, with the sun
+shining brightly from the blue sky upon the opal sea; to hold his
+beloved in his arms; to feel the warmth of her lips on his; to know that
+in a few short weeks she would be his own, his wife!--the rapture of it
+made him catch his breath and fall into a rapt silence.
+
+One day, as they were sailing homeward, the _Annie Laurie_ speeding on a
+flowing tide and a favorable breeze, his longing became almost
+insupportable.
+
+"See here, Nell," he said, with the timidity of the man whose every
+pulse is throbbing with passion, "why--why shouldn't we be married at
+once? I mean, what is the use of waiting?"
+
+"Married!"
+
+She drew away from him and caught her breath.
+
+"Why not?" he asked. "I shan't be any the richer for waiting, and--and I
+want you very badly."
+
+"But I am here--you have got me," she said, with all the innocence of a
+child. "Oh, why should we hurry?"
+
+He bit his pipe hard.
+
+"I know," he said, rather huskily. "But I want you altogether--for my
+very own. I don't want to have to part with you at the gate of The
+Cottage. You don't understand; but I don't want you to. But, Nell, as we
+are going to be married, we might as well be married now as months
+hence."
+
+Her head sank lower; the _Annie Laurie_ lost the wind, and fell off and
+rolled on the ground swell.
+
+"Do you--want to marry me--so soon?" she murmured.
+
+"So soon!" he echoed. "Why, it is months--weeks--since we were engaged."
+
+"But--but--aren't you happy--content?" she asked. "I--I am so happy. I
+know that you love me; that is happiness enough."
+
+He drew her to him and kissed her with a reverence which he thought no
+woman would have received from him.
+
+"No; it is not enough, dearest," he said. "You don't understand. I'll
+put the banns up to-morrow--no; I'll get a special license. I want you
+for my own, all my own, Nell."
+
+When they sailed into the slip by the jetty, Dick was waiting for them.
+
+"Hal-lo!" he yelled. "I've been waiting for you for the last two hours.
+I've news for you."
+
+"News?" said Drake.
+
+Nell was coiling the sheet in a methodical fashion, and thinking of
+Drake's words.
+
+"Yes. The Maltbys are going to give a dance, and you and I and Nell are
+asked."
+
+"And who are the Maltbys?" he inquired, with a lack of interest which
+nettled Dick.
+
+"The Maltbys are our salt of the earth," he replied; "they are our
+especial 'local gentry'; and, let me tell you, an invitation from them
+is not to be sneezed at."
+
+"I didn't sneeze," said Drake, clasping Nell's hand as he helped her out
+of the boat.
+
+"It's for the fifth," said Dick; "and it's sure to be a good dance;
+better still, it's sure to be a good supper. Now, look here, don't you
+two spoons say you 'don't care about it,' for, I've set my mind upon
+going."
+
+Drake laughed easily.
+
+"Would you like to go?" he asked of Nell.
+
+"Would you?" she returned.
+
+Loverlike, he thought of a dance with her. She was, her girlish
+innocence, so sparing of her caresses, that the prospect of holding her
+in his arms during a waltz set him aching with longing.
+
+"Yes," he said, "if you like."
+
+"All right," she said. "Yes, I should think we might go, Dick."
+
+"I should think so!" he shouted. "Fancy chucking away the chance of a
+dance!"
+
+"How did they come to ask us?" Nell inquired. "We don't know them very
+well," she explained to Drake. "The Maltbys are quite grand folk
+compared with us; and, though Lady Maltby calls once in a blue moon, and
+sends us cards for a garden party now and again, this is the first time
+we have been invited to a dance."
+
+"You have to thank me, young people," said Dick, with exaggerated
+self-satisfaction. "I happened to meet young Maltby--he's home for a
+spell; fancy he's sent down from Oxford--and he asked me to go rabbiting
+with him. He's not much of a shot, though he is a baronet's son and
+heir, and I rather think I put him up to a wrinkle or two. Anyway, the
+other day he mentioned that they were going to have a dance--quite an
+informal affair--and asked if I'd care to go; and Lady Maltby's just
+sent a note."
+
+"All right," said Drake.
+
+Then he suddenly remembered his masquerade, and looked grave and
+thoughtful. Yes, it was just possible that some one there might
+recognize him.
+
+"Who are the Maltbys?" he asked. "I never heard of them."
+
+Dick's eyes twinkled.
+
+"I can't truthfully say that that argues you unknown," he said; "for
+they are very quiet people, and only famous in their own straw yard. Old
+Sir William hates London, and he and Lady Maltby seldom leave the
+Grange."
+
+"There is no daughter, only this one son," explained Nell. "They are not
+at all 'grand,' and I think you will like them. Lady Maltby is always
+very kind, and Sir William is a dear old man, who loves to talk about
+his prize cattle."
+
+"Do you happen to know who is staying at the house?" asked Drake.
+
+After all, perhaps, he would run no risk of detection; as he had never
+met the Maltbys, it was highly improbable that they had heard of him.
+
+"Oh, it's not a large party. I remember some of the names, because young
+Maltby ran over them. He said there weren't enough in the house to make
+up a dance. I shrewdly conjectured that that's one reason why we were
+asked."
+
+"Wise but ungrateful youth!" said Drake. "Let us hear the names."
+
+Dick repeated all that he could remember.
+
+"Know any of them?" he asked.
+
+"No," replied Drake, with relief.
+
+"The fifth," mused Nell, thinking of her dress. "It is very short
+notice."
+
+"It's only a scratch affair; but, all the same, I should wear my white
+satin with Brussels lace, and put on my suite of diamonds and rubies, if
+I were you," advised Dick.
+
+Nell laughed, as she glanced up at Drake.
+
+"I am just wondering whether I have outgrown my nun's veiling," she
+said simply. "It's the only dress I have. I'm afraid"--she
+hesitated--"I'm afraid you will think it a very poor one!"
+
+"Are you?" he said significantly. "You never can tell. Perhaps I shall
+admire it."
+
+As he spoke he asked himself whether he should send up to Bond Street
+for some jewels for her; but he resisted the temptation. Later on, when
+they were married, he would give himself the treat of buying her some of
+the things women loved. Even in the matter of the engagement ring he had
+held himself in check, and only a very simple affair encircled the third
+finger of Nell's left hand.
+
+They found Mrs. Lorton in a flutter of excitement, and she handed Drake
+the note of invitation with the air of an empress conferring a patent of
+nobility.
+
+"Very good people," she said; "though not, of course, the creme de la
+creme. I am included in the invitation, but I shall not accept. The
+scene would but recall others of a more brilliant description in which I
+once moved--er--not the least of the glittering throng. No, Eleanor, you
+will not need a chaperon. You have Drake, who, I trust, will enjoy
+himself in what may be novel circumstances," she added, with affable
+patronage.
+
+"You will not need a new dress, Eleanor--Dick tells me that he must have
+a new suit."
+
+"Oh, no; I am all right!" said Nell cheerfully.
+
+She found that the old frock could, with a little alteration, be
+utilized, and for several evenings Drake sat and watched her as she
+lengthened the skirt and bestowed new lace and ribbons upon the thing,
+and, as he smoked, imagined how she would look on the night of the
+dance. He knew that not one of the other women, let them be arrayed in
+all the glory of the Queen of Sheba herself, would outshine his star.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+On the night of the fifth Nell sang softly to herself as she stood
+before the glass putting the last touches to her, toilet. She was
+brimming over with happiness, and as she looked at the radiant
+reflection she wondered whether her lover would be satisfied. It is the
+question which every woman who loves asks herself. It is for the man of
+her heart that she lives and has her being; it is that she may find
+favor in his sight that she brushes the hair he has kissed; it is with
+the hope that his eye may be caught, his fancy pleased, that she puts
+the flower at her bosom or winds the filmy lace around her neck. And it
+was of Drake--Drake--Drake--she thought and dreamed as she turned from
+the glass and went down the stairs.
+
+She had heard the wheels of the fly he had procured from Shallop, and
+she found him in the little hall waiting for her.
+
+He looked up at the lovely vision with startled admiration, for hitherto
+he had only seen her in week-a-day attire; and this slight, graceful
+form, clad in soft white, seemed so pure, so virginal and ethereal,
+that, not for the first time, his joy in her loveliness was tempered
+with awe.
+
+"Nell!" was all he could say, and he stretched out his arms, then let
+them fall. "I should crush you or break you," he said, half seriously.
+"Is that the dress I saw you making up--that! It looked like----"
+
+"A rag," she finished for him, her eyes shining down upon him with a
+woman's gratitude for his admiration. "Will it do? Do I look--passable?"
+
+"No," he said; "no one could pass you! Nell, my angel--yes, you are like
+an angel to-night!" he broke off, in lower tones. "You--you frighten me,
+dearest. I dread to see you spread your wings and fly away from me."
+
+She laughed shyly and shook her head.
+
+"And--and--how different you look!" she said; for it was the first time
+she had seen Drake in the costume which we share with the waiter; and
+her pride in him--in his tall figure and square shoulders--glowed in her
+eyes. If he had been lame and halt she would have still loved him;
+but--well, there is no woman who is not proud of her sweetheart's good
+looks. Sometimes she is prouder of them than of her own.
+
+"Let me put this wrap around you," he said; and as he did so she raised
+her head with a blush and an invitation in her eyes, and he kissed her
+on the lips. "See here, dearest," he said, "your first dance! And as
+many as you will give me afterward. Did I ever mention that I was
+jealous? Nell, I inform you of the gruesome fact now; and that I shall
+endure agonies every time I see you dancing with another man."
+
+"Perhaps you will be spared that pain," she said. "I may be a
+wallflower, waiting for you to take pity on me."
+
+"Yes, I should think that very probable," he retorted ironically. "Oh,
+Nell, how I love you, how proud----"
+
+Dick came out of the dining room at that moment, and at sight of Nell
+fell back against the wall in an assumed swoon.
+
+"Is it--can it be--the simple little fishergirl of Shorne Mills? My
+aunt, Nell, you do look a swell! Got 'em all on, Drake, hasn't she?
+Miss Eleanor Lorton as Cinderella! Kiss your brother, Nell!"
+
+He made a pretended rush at her with extended arms, and Nell shrieked
+apprehensively:
+
+"Keep him off, Drake! He'll crush my dress! Dick--Dick, you dare!"
+
+Dick winked at Drake.
+
+"You are requested not to touch the figure. Drake, have you observed and
+noticed this warning? But so it is in this world! One man may kiss this
+waxwork, while another isn't permitted to lay a finger on it. Now, are
+we going to the Maltbys' dance, or have you decided to remain here and
+spoon? And hasn't any one a word of approval for this figure? Between
+you and me, Drake, I rather fancy myself to-night. I do hope I shan't
+break any young thing's heart, for I'm not--I really am not--a marrying
+man. Seen too much of the preliminary business with other people, you
+know."
+
+They got into the fly, laughing, and Drake, as they drove along,
+compared this departure for a simple country dance with his past
+experiences. How seldom had he gone to a big London crush without
+wishing that he could stay at home and smoke or read!
+
+"Remember," he whispered to Nell, as they alighted at the Grange, "your
+first dance and as many as you can give me!"
+
+One or two other carriages set down at the same time, and they entered
+the hall, a portion of a small crowd, so that Lady Maltby, a buxom,
+smiling lady of the good old type of the country baronet's wife, had
+only time to murmur a few words; and Drake passed on with Nell on his
+arm.
+
+As they went up the room, a dance started, and he drew Nell aside, and
+standing by her, looked round curiously and a trifle apprehensively. But
+there was no person whom he knew, and Sir William, who came up to them,
+had even got Drake's name wrongly.
+
+"Glad to see you, Miss Lorton. Dear, dear! how the young ones do grow!
+Glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Verney Blake, and to congratulate
+you. I think I've met a relative of yours--an uncle, I fancy----"
+
+Drake's face grew expressionless in an instant.
+
+--"Sir Richard--or--was it Sir Joseph--Blake? He took the first for
+shorthorns in seventy-eight."
+
+Drake drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"No relation of mine, Sir William, I regret," he said.
+
+"No? Same name, too. Funny! But there are a good many Blakes. So you're
+going to run off with the belle of Shorne Mills, eh? Lucky fellow!"
+
+With a chuckle he ambled off to his wife, to be sent to some one else,
+and Drake bent to Nell.
+
+"Come!" was all he said, and he put his arm round her. The floor was
+good, the band from the garrison town knew its business, and Nell----Was
+he surprised that she should dance so well? Was not every ordinary
+movement of hers graceful? But the fact that she could dance like an
+angel, as he put it to himself, did not make his love for her any the
+less or his pride in her diminish, be certain. He himself had been the
+best dancer in his regiment, and this, his first waltz with the girl he
+adored, sent the blood spinning through his veins.
+
+"Aren't we in step rather--nicely?" she whispered, trying to speak
+casually, but failing utterly; for the joy that throbbed in her heart
+made it impossible for her to keep her voice steady. "Oh, Drake, I--I
+was afraid that I might not be able to dance, it is so long--ever so
+long--since----Why, this is my first real ball, and I am dancing with
+you! And how well you waltz! But you have danced so often--this is not
+your first ball!"
+
+He glanced at her with a pang of uneasiness, but her eyes shone up at
+him innocent of any other meaning than the simplest one, innocent of any
+doubt of him, any question of his past.
+
+"He would be a rank duffer who couldn't dance with you, Nell," he said.
+
+Her hand tightened on his with the faintest pressure, and she closed her
+eyes with a happy sigh.
+
+"If it could only go on forever!" was her thought; and she prayed that
+no other man might want her to dance, for a long time.
+
+She would have liked to sit out the dances she could not have with
+Drake, to sit and watch him. And she would not be jealous. Why should
+she be? Was he not her very own, her sweetheart, the man who loved her?
+
+The waltz came to an end all too soon, and as Drake led her to a seat,
+young Maltby approached her with two young fellows. She was the
+prettiest girl in the room, though she was the simplest dressed, and the
+men were anxious to secure her.
+
+Drake hastily scribbled his initials on several lines of her program,
+then had to resign her to her next partner, and, in discharge of his
+duty, seek a partner for himself.
+
+Lady Maltby introduced him to a daughter of a local squire, a fresh
+young girl, with all a country girl's frankness.
+
+"What a pretty girl that was with whom you were dancing!" she said, as
+they started. "She is really lovely!"
+
+"And yet they say that women never admire each other," he remarked.
+
+"Do you mean that?" she asked, looking up at him with her frank, blue
+eyes. "What nonsense! I love to see a pretty woman; and I quite looked
+forward to coming here to-night, because we are to have a famous London
+beauty."
+
+"Oh! Which one?" asked Drake absently; his eyes were following Nell, who
+happened to look across at him at the moment, and who smiled the smile
+which a woman only accords her lover.
+
+"I don't remember her name," said the girl. "But she is very beautiful,
+I am told; though I find it hard to believe that she can be lovelier
+than she is," and she nodded in Nell's direction.
+
+Drake felt very friendly toward the girl.
+
+"She is as good as she is beautiful," he said; then, as the triteness
+and significance of the words struck him, he laughed slightly.
+
+His partner glanced up at him shyly.
+
+"Oh--I beg your pardon!" she said. "I didn't know. How--how proud you
+must be!"
+
+"I am," said Drake.
+
+"And of course you want to be dancing with her now? If I were you I
+should hate to have to dance with any one else. I wish--you would
+introduce me to her after this waltz!"
+
+"With pleasure!" said Drake, wondering what on earth the girl's name
+was--for, of course, he had not caught it.
+
+But the introduction was not made, for her next partner came up
+immediately the dance was finished and bore her off; and Drake leaned
+against the wall and watched Nell.
+
+She was dancing with a subaltern from the garrison town, and was
+evidently enjoying herself. It was a pleasure to him to look at her; and
+it occurred to him that even if the bright little American, with the
+pleasant voice and tender heart, had not stepped in to ruin his
+prospects; if the title and estates were as near to him as they had been
+a few months ago; if he were moving in London society, in his own
+critical and exclusive set, he would not have made any mistake in asking
+Nell to be his wife. She would have justified his choice in any society,
+however high.
+
+It occurred to him that where they were going on the Continent he might,
+perhaps, procure a little amusement for her; there might be a dance or
+two at the hotels at which they would stay; or he might take her to one
+of the big state balls for which there would be no difficulty in
+obtaining an invitation.
+
+Yes, he thought as he watched her--her lips half parted with a smile of
+intense enjoyment, her eyes shining with the light of youth and
+ignorance of care--she should have a happy time of it or he would know
+the reason why; he would simply devote his life to watching over her, to
+screening her from every worry, to----
+
+"Are you staying in the house, Mr. Blake?"
+
+It was Sir William who had toddled up and addressed the reflective
+guest. Sir William never knew exactly how the house party was composed;
+and sometimes a man had been staying at the Grange for a fortnight
+without Sir William comprehending that the man was sleeping beneath his
+roof.
+
+"No? Beg your pardon! I should have liked to show you my Herefords
+to-morrow morning. I think you'd admire 'em; they're the best lot I've
+had, and I ought to do well with them at the show. But perhaps you don't
+take an interest in cattle-breeding?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," said Drake pleasantly, and with his rather rare
+smile--he was brimming over with happiness and would have patted a
+rhinoceros that night, and Sir William was anything but a rhinoceros.
+"Every man ought to take an interest in cattle-breeding and
+horse-breeding. I did a little in the latter way myself." He pulled up
+short. "I shall be very glad to come over to-morrow morning, if you'll
+allow me."
+
+"Do, do!" said Sir William genially, and evidently much gratified. "But,
+look here, you'll have to come over early, because I've got to go and
+sit on the bench, and shall have to leave here soon after ten. Why not
+come over to breakfast--say, nine o'clock?"
+
+"Thanks!" said Drake; "I shall be very glad to."
+
+At this moment Lady Maltby came up to them with a rather anxious
+expression on her pleasant face.
+
+"I can't think what has come to the Chesney party, William," she said.
+"I didn't expect them very early, but it's getting rather late now. Do
+you think they've had an accident?"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" returned Sir William cheerily. "They've had a jolly
+good dinner, and don't feel like moving. Don't blame them, either.
+Suppose we go and have a cigar, Mr. Blake?"
+
+Drake glanced toward Nell, saw that she was surrounded, exchanged a
+smile with her, then went off with Sir William to the smoking room. They
+were in the middle of their cigars, and talking cattle and horses, when
+Drake heard a carriage drive up.
+
+"That's the Chesney people, I dare say," said Sir William, and
+continued to dilate on a new rule which he was anxious that the
+Agricultural Society should adopt, and Drake and he discussed it
+exhaustively.
+
+Nell had just finished a dance when she saw Lady Maltby hurry across the
+room to receive four persons, two ladies and two men, who had just
+arrived. It was the belated Chesney party. Their entrance attracted a
+good deal of attention, and Nell herself was startled into interest and
+curiosity by the appearance of one of the new arrivals. She thought that
+she had never imagined--she had certainly never seen--so beautiful a
+woman, or one so magnificently dressed.
+
+A professional beauty in all her war paint is somewhat of a rara avis in
+a quiet country house, and this professional beauty was the acknowledged
+queen of her tribe. Her hair shone like gold, and it had been dressed by
+a maid who had acquired her art at the hands of a famous Parisian
+coiffeur; her complexion, of a delicate ivory, was tinted with the blush
+of a rose; her lips were the Cupid-bow lips which Sir Joshua Reynolds
+loved to paint. Naturally graceful, her figure was indebted to her
+modiste for every adventitious aid the art of modern dressmaking can
+bestow. Nell knew too little of dress to fully appreciate the exquisite
+perfection of the _toilette de la danse_; she could only admire and
+wonder. It was of a soft cream silk, rendered still softer in appearance
+by cobweb lace, in which, as if caught by the filmy strands, as in a
+net, were lustrous pearls. Diamonds glittered in the hair which served
+them as a setting of gold. Her very gloves were unlike those of the
+other women, and seemed to fit the long and slender hands like a fourth
+skin.
+
+"How beautiful!" she said involuntarily, and scarcely aware that she had
+spoken aloud.
+
+The man who was sitting beside her smiled.
+
+"Like a picture, is she not?" he said. "In fact, I never see her but I
+am reminded of a Lely or a Lawrence; one of those full-length pictures
+in Hampton Court, you know!"
+
+"I don't know," said Nell. "I've never been there."
+
+"Well, you won't think it a fair comparison when you do see them," he
+said; "for there isn't one of them half as beautiful as Lady Luce."
+
+"What is her name?" asked Nell, who had not caught it.
+
+He did not hear the question, for the music had struck up again, and
+with a bow he went off to his next partner. It was evident to Nell that
+the beauty was not known to Lady Maltby, for Nell saw the other lady
+introducing them. Nell felt half fascinated by the new arrival, and sat
+and watched her, looking at her as intently as one gazes at something
+quite new and strange which has swung suddenly into one's own ken.
+
+Nell was engaged for that dance, but her partner did not turn up. She
+was not sorry, for she wanted to rest; the room was hot, and, though she
+was by no means tired, she was not eager to dance the waltz--unless it
+were to be danced with Drake. She was sitting not very far from the
+window; some considerate soul had opened it a little, and Nell got up
+and went to it and looked out. It opened onto a wide terrace; the stars
+were shining brightly, the night air came to her softly and wooingly.
+How nice it would be to go out there! Perhaps if she stole out, and
+waited, presently Drake would come into the ballroom, and, missing her,
+would come in search of her, for he would guess that she would be out
+there, and they would have a few minutes by themselves under the starlit
+sky. It was worth trying for.
+
+She went out, without opening the window any wider, and leaning on the
+stone coping, looked up at the sky, and then to where, far away, the few
+lights which were still burning showed her where Shorne Mills nestled
+amid its trees.
+
+As long as life lasted she would never be able to think of Shorne Mills
+without thinking of Drake; she thought of him now, and longed for him;
+and as she heard the window open wider she turned with a little throb of
+expectation. But instead of Drake's tall figure, two ladies came out.
+Nell recognized the beauty by her dress, and saw that the lady who was
+with her was the one who had accompanied her to the ball.
+
+Nell's disappointment was so acute as to embarrass her for a moment,
+and, reluctant, with a girl's shyness, to be found there alone, she
+rather foolishly drew back quietly into the shadow accentuated by the
+contrast of the light streaming from the half-open window. She retreated
+as far as the corner of the terrace, and, finding a seat there, over
+which she had nearly stumbled, she sank into it. Beside her was a marble
+statue of the god Pan. The pedestal almost, if not quite, concealed her;
+and, although she was already ashamed of having taken flight, so to
+speak, she decided to remain where she was until the other two women
+returned to the ballroom, or Drake came out and she could call to him.
+
+Lady Luce went and leaned upon almost the very spot where Nell had
+leaned; and she looked up at the sky and toward the twinkling lights,
+and yawned.
+
+"Sorry you have come, dear?" said Lady Chesney, with a little laugh. "I
+know you so well that that yawn speaks volumes."
+
+"It is rather slow, isn't it?" admitted Lady Luce, with the soft little
+London drawl in her languid voice.
+
+"My dear Luce, I told you it would be slow. What did you expect? These
+dear, good people are quite out of the world--they are antediluvians.
+The best people imaginable, of course, but not of the kind which gives
+the sort of hop you care for. I'm sorry you came; but I did warn you,
+dear, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes, I know," assented Lady Luce.
+
+"And, really, you seemed so bored--forgive me, dear; I don't want to be
+offensive--that I thought that perhaps, after all, this rustic
+entertainment might amuse you."
+
+"I'm not bored, but I'm very sick and sorry for myself," said Luce. "One
+always is when one has been a fool."
+
+"My dear girl, you did it for the best."
+
+"That always seems to me such a futile, and altogether ineffectual,
+consolation," said Luce; "and people never offer it to you unless you
+have absolutely made a fool of yourself."
+
+"But I think, and everybody thinks with me, that you acted very wisely
+under the circumstances. He could not expect you to marry a poor man.
+Good heavens! fancy Luce and poverty! The combination is not to be
+imagined for a moment! It is not your fault that circumstances are
+altered, and that if you had only waited----"
+
+Lady Luce made a little impatient movement with her hand.
+
+"If I had only waited!" she said, with a mixture of irritation and
+regret. "It was just my luck that I should meet him when I did."
+
+There was a pause. It need scarcely be said that Nell was extremely
+uncomfortable. These two were discussing a matter of the most private
+character, and she was playing the unwelcome part of listener. Had she
+been a woman of the world, it would have been easy for her to have
+emerged from her hiding place, and to have swept past them slowly, as if
+she had seen and heard nothing, as if she were quite unconscious of
+their presence. But Nell was not a woman of the world; she was just Nell
+of Shorne Mills, a girl at her first ball, and her first introduction to
+society. She could not move--could only long for them to become either
+silent or to go away and leave her free to escape.
+
+"I suppose he was very much cut up?" remarked Lady Chesney.
+
+"That goes without saying," replied Luce. "Of course. He was very fond
+of me; or, why should he have asked me to marry him? You wouldn't ask
+the question if you had seen him the day I broke with him. I never saw a
+man so cut up. It made me quite ill."
+
+"Then the love was not altogether on one side, dear?" said Lady Chesney.
+
+Lady Luce shrugged her white shoulders in eloquent silence.
+
+"Where did the dramatic parting take place?" asked Lady Chesney.
+
+"Here," said Lady Luce.
+
+"Here?"
+
+"Well, near here. At a little port--fishing place, called--I forget the
+name--something Mills."
+
+"Oh! you mean Shorne Mills."
+
+Nell's discomfort increased, and yet a keen interest reluctantly awoke
+in her. It seemed so strange to be listening to what seemed to her a
+life's drama, the scene of which was pitched in Shorne Mills.
+
+"The yacht put in quite unexpectedly," continued Luce. "I didn't want to
+land at all, but Archie worried me into doing so. We climbed a miserable
+kind of steep place. I refused to go any farther. They went on, and I
+turned into a kind of recess to rest--and found Drake there."
+
+For a moment the name did not strike with its full significance upon
+Nell's mind, and the soft voice had continued for a sentence or two
+before she realized that the man of whom this woman was speaking, the
+lover whose loss she was regretting, bore the same name as Drake. She
+had no suspicion that the men were the same; it only seemed strange and
+almost incredible that there should be two Drakes at Shorne Mills.
+
+"I can imagine the scene," said Lady Chesney; "and I can quite
+understand how you feel about it. But, Luce, is it altogether hopeless?"
+
+Lady Luce laughed bitterly.
+
+"You don't know Drake," she said. There was a pause. "And yet"--she
+hesitated, and her tone became thoughtful and speculative--"sometimes I
+think that I could get him back. He is very fond of me; it must have
+nearly broken his heart. Yes; sometimes I feel sure that if I could have
+him to myself for, say, ten minutes, it would all come right."
+
+"Don't you know where he is?"
+
+"No. There was a row royal between his uncle and him, and he
+disappeared. No one knows where he is. It is just possible that he has
+gone abroad."
+
+"There is danger in that," said Lady Chesney gravely. "One never knows
+what a man may do in a moment of pique. They are strange animals."
+
+"You mean that he might be caught on the rebound, and marry some 'dusky
+bride' or ruddy-cheeked dairymaid?" said Lady Luce, with a little laugh
+of scorn. "You don't know Drake. He's the last man to marry beneath him.
+If I were not afraid of seeming egotistical, dear, I would say that he
+has known me too long and loved me too well----But there! don't let us
+talk any more about it. The gods may send him to my side again. If they
+do, I shall avail myself of their gracious favor and get him back; if
+not----" She sighed, and shrugged her shoulders. "Heavens! how I wish I
+had a cigarette!"
+
+"My dear, you shall have one," said Lady Chesney, with a laugh. "I know
+where the smoking room is. I'll go and get you one, you poor, dear
+soul!"
+
+She went in, and Nell rose from her seat. She could not remain a moment
+longer, even if she had to tell this lady she had overheard their
+conversation, and beg her pardon for having played, most reluctantly,
+the eavesdropper. But as she stood fighting with her nervousness, a man
+came out through the window. Her heart leaped with relief and
+thanksgiving, for it was Drake.
+
+"Is that you?" he said, as he saw the figure against the coping.
+
+Lady Luce turned; the light streamed full upon her face, and he stopped
+dead short and stared at her.
+
+"Luce!" he exclaimed, in a low voice.
+
+She stood for a moment as motionless as one of the statues. Another
+woman would have started, would probably have shrunk back, with a cry of
+amazement or of joy; but she stood for just that instant, motionless and
+silent, and looking at him with her eyes dilating with surprise and
+delight. Then, holding out both hands, she moved toward him, murmuring:
+
+"Drake! Thank God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Lady Luce came forward to him with both hands extended; and the "Drake,
+thank God!" was perhaps as genuinely a devout an expression as she had
+ever uttered. For it seemed to her that Providence had especially
+intervened in her behalf and sent him to her side. We all of us have an
+idea that Providence is more interested in us than in other persons.
+
+Drake stood and looked at her for an instant with the same surprise
+which had assailed him when he recognized her; then he took the small,
+exquisitely gloved hands. How could he refuse them? As he had said, the
+members of their set could not be strangers, though two of them had been
+lovers and one had been jilted. They had to meet as friends or
+acquaintances, as individuals of a community, which, living for
+pleasure, could not be bored by quarrels and estrangements.
+
+In the "smart" set a man lives not for himself alone, but for the other
+men with whom he plays and shoots and jokes and drinks; for the women
+with whom he drives and rides and dances. He must sink personal feeling,
+likes and dislikes, or the social ship which he joins as one of the
+crew, the ship which can sail only on smooth and sunlit waves, will
+founder. So Drake took her hands and smiled a greeting at her.
+
+"Why! To find you here! What are you doing here, Drake?" she said.
+
+She had no right to call him "Drake"; she had lost that right the day
+she had jilted him; but she called him "Drake," and the name left her
+lips softly and meltingly.
+
+"I might ask the same of you, Luce," he replied gravely, and unconscious
+in the stress of the moment that he, too, had used the Christian name.
+
+But, alas! Nell had heard it! She had, half mechanically, shrunk behind
+the pedestal; she shrank still farther behind it as Drake spoke, and she
+put up her hand on the cold marble as if for support. For she was
+trembling in every limb, and a sensation as of approaching death was
+creeping over her. The terrace and the two figures grew misty and
+indistinct, the music of the band sounded like a blurred discord in her
+ears, and the blood rushed through her veins like fire one moment and
+like ice the next.
+
+She would have rushed out of her hiding place and into the house, but
+she could not move. Was she going to die? or was this awful, sickening
+weakness only a warning that she was going to faint? She pressed her
+forehead against the marble, and the icy coldness of the unsympathetic
+stone revived her. She found that she could hear every word, though the
+two had moved to the stone rail.
+
+"It is quite a shock!" said Lady Luce. She put her handkerchief to her
+lips, her eyes, and then looked up at him with the smile, the confession
+of weakness, which is one of woman's most irresistible weapons.
+
+"I--I am staying at the Chesneys'--you know the Chesneys? No? There is a
+small party--some of us came over to-night to this dance--they are old
+friends of the Maltbys. Drake, I can scarcely believe it is you!"
+
+He stood beside her patiently, and yet impatiently. He was thinking of
+Nell even at that moment; wondering where she was, how soon he could get
+away from Lady Luce and find Nell.
+
+"You are staying here?" she asked, meaning at the Maltbys'.
+
+He nodded, thinking it well to leave her misconception uncorrected.
+
+"How strange! Drake, it--it is like Fate!" she murmured; and, indeed,
+she felt that it was.
+
+"Like Fate?" he asked.
+
+"Yes--that--that we should meet here, in this out-of-the way place, so
+soon. Oh, Drake, if you knew how glad I am!"
+
+She put out her hand and touched his arm with the timid touch, the
+suggestion of a caress, which women can convey so significantly.
+
+Drake glanced toward the open window apprehensively. Nell--any
+one--might come out any moment, and----
+
+"Shall we walk to the end of the terrace?" he said. "You will catch
+cold----"
+
+As he spoke he looked down at her. There was only a man's inquiry, and
+consideration for a woman's bare shoulders, in the look; but to Nell,
+whose eyes were fixed upon him with an agonized intentness, it seemed
+that the look was eloquent of tenderness and passion.
+
+"Yes, yes," assented Lady Luce quickly. "Some one may come, and--and--we
+have so much to say, haven't we, Drake?"
+
+He drew her arm within his mechanically, as he would have drawn it if he
+had been leading her to a dance, or in to dinner, and they moved beyond
+Nell's hearing.
+
+Drake bit his lip, and glanced sideways toward the house. What could she
+have to say to him? and what did this sudden tenderness, this humility,
+of hers mean?
+
+Suddenly it occurred to him that she had seen his uncle, and heard of
+the old man's offer. Ten thousand a year was not a large income for one
+in Lady Lucille Turfleigh's position; but--well, she might have been
+tempted by it. His face hardened with an expression of cold cynicism
+which Nell had never seen.
+
+"What have we to say, Luce?" he asked. "I thought you and I had
+exhausted all topics of absorbing interest when we parted the other
+day."
+
+She winced, and looked up at him reproachfully.
+
+"Oh, how cruel of you, Drake!" she murmured, "As if I hadn't suffered
+enough!"
+
+"Suffered!"
+
+He smiled down at her, with something as nearly approaching a sneer as
+Drake Selbie could bring himself to bestow upon a woman.
+
+"Yes. Drake, did you think I was quite heartless? that--I--I--did what I
+did without suffering? Ah, no, you couldn't think that; you know me too
+well."
+
+Her audacity brought a smile to his lips, and he found it difficult to
+restrain a laugh of amusement. It was because he had learned to know her
+so well that he himself had not suffered a pang at their broken
+engagement--at least, no pang since he had learned to know and love
+Nell.
+
+Where was she? How could he get away from this woman, whose face was
+upturned to him with passionate pleading on it?
+
+"Have you seen my uncle lately?" he asked grimly, but with a kind of
+suddenness.
+
+"No," she replied, and the lie came "like truth"--so like truth that
+Drake felt ashamed of his suspicion of her motive.
+
+She had not, then, heard of his uncle's offer? Then--then why was she
+moved at sight of him? Why were her eyes moist with unshed tears, the
+pressure of her hand on his arm tremulous and beseeching?
+
+"No," she said; "I--I have been scarcely anywhere. I have--not been
+well. I came down here to the Chesneys' to bury myself--just to bury
+myself. I have been so wretched, so miserable, Drake."
+
+"I'm sorry," he said gravely. "But why?"
+
+She looked up at him reproachfully.
+
+"Don't you--know? Ah, Drake, can't you guess? Don't--don't look at me
+like that and smile. It is not like you to be so--so hard."
+
+"We men are hard or soft as you women make us, Luce," he said quietly.
+"Remember that I have been through the mill. I was not hard or
+cruel--once."
+
+It was an unwise thing to say. Never, if you have done with a woman, or
+she has done with you, talk sentiment, says Rousseau. It was unwise, for
+it let Luce in.
+
+"I know! Yes, it was all my fault. Drake, do you think I don't know
+that? Do you think that I don't tell myself so every hour of the day,
+every hour at night, when I lay awake thinking of--of the past?"
+
+"The past is buried, Luce," he said, with a short laugh. "Don't let us
+dig it up again. After all, you acted wisely----"
+
+"No; I acted like a fool!" she broke in; and she meant it. "If I had
+only listened to the cry of my own heart--if I had only refused to obey
+father, and--and stuck to you! But, Drake, though you think me
+heartless, and--and sneer----"
+
+"I didn't mean to sneer, Luce," he said. "Forgive me if I did so
+unintentionally. I quite understood your difficulty, and, as I told you
+the day we parted, I--well, I made allowances for you. You did what most
+women of our set would have done."
+
+"Would they? But perhaps they really are heartless, while I----Drake,
+you can't tell what I have suffered; how--how terribly I have missed
+you! I--yes, I will tell you the truth. Do you know, Drake, that I had
+made a vow that whenever we met, whether it was soon, or not for years,
+I would tell you all. Yes--though, like a man, you should despise me for
+it!"
+
+"I'm not likely to despise you for it, Luce," he said. As he spoke, Lady
+Chesney came out onto the terrace. She looked up and down, saw the two
+figures standing together, and, with a smile, returned to the house.
+
+"No; you are too generous for that, Drake; even if I--I confess that I
+have not spent one happy--oh, the word is a mockery!--that I have been
+wretched since the hour I--I left you."
+
+His face grew grave, almost stern.
+
+"I'm sorry," he said simply. "Candidly, I didn't think----"
+
+"No, I know! You thought that I only cared for you because----You told
+me that I was heartless and mercenary, you remember, Drake. But, ah; it
+wasn't true! Yes, I've been brought up at a bad school. I've been taught
+that it's a sacred duty for every girl, as poor as I am, to make a good
+match; and I thought--see how frank I am!--that I could part from you,
+oh, not easily, but without breaking my heart. But I--I was mistaken! I
+miss you so dreadfully! There is not another man in the world I can care
+for, or even dream of caring for."
+
+"Hush!" he said sternly.
+
+There was always something impressive about Drake, a touch of the
+manliness which is somewhat rare nowadays, the manliness which women are
+so quick to acknowledge and bow to; and Lady Luce shrank a little; but
+her hand tightened on his arm, and her brown, velvety eyes dimmed with
+genuine tears--for she was more than anxious, and more than half in love
+with him--looked up at him penitently, imploringly.
+
+"Drake--you believe me?" she whispered. "Don't--don't punish me too
+badly! See, I am at your feet--a woman--Drake"--her voice sank to a
+whisper, became almost inaudible, and her head drooped forward until it
+nearly rested on his breast. "Drake--forgive--me and----"
+
+Her voice broke suddenly.
+
+He was moved to something like pity. Is there any man alive who can
+resist the prayer, the touch of a beautiful woman, especially if she is
+the woman he has once loved? If such a man there be, his name is not
+Drake Selbie.
+
+"Hush!" he said again, but in a gentler voice. "God knows, I loved you,
+Luce----"
+
+She uttered a faint cry. It was no louder than the sough of the night
+breeze.
+
+"Drake--Drake! ah, Drake!" she breathed, her face lifted to his, her
+other hand touching his breast. "Say it again! It's the sweetest music
+I've heard since--since----Say it again, Drake. I won't ask for any
+more----"
+
+"Don't!" he said hoarsely. The caress of her hand made him miserable; it
+had no power to thrill him now. "I want to tell you, Luce----"
+
+"No--no," she said quickly, eagerly. "Don't scold me to-night. I am so
+happy now. It is as if I had come back to life. Say it once more, Drake.
+Just 'I forgive you'!"
+
+"I forgive you; but, listen, Luce," he added quickly.
+
+She slid her white arm round his neck, and drew his head down and kissed
+him. The next moment, before he could say a word, she drew away from him
+quickly.
+
+"Go in--I will come presently," she said. "There is some one--there is a
+door."
+
+Confused, almost hating her for the kiss she had stolen--with Nell
+flashing on his mind--he turned and entered the house by the door to
+which she had pointed.
+
+She stood for a moment, then she went toward Lady Chesney. Her face was
+pale, but there was a smile on her lips, a glow of triumph in her brown
+eyes, as she paused in the light from the open window.
+
+Lady Chesney looked at her, then laughed.
+
+"My dear, you look transformed. Was that--but of course it was! Well?
+But one need not ask any questions. Your face tells its own tale."
+
+Luce laughed, and touched her lips with her handkerchief.
+
+"Yes, it was Drake," she said. "What luck! what luck! And they say there
+is no Providence!"
+
+"And--and it is all right?" asked Lady Chesney, anxiously.
+
+Lady Luce laughed softly.
+
+"Oh, yes! Didn't I tell you that if I could have him to myself for ten
+minutes----And we have been longer, haven't we? You see, he was fond of
+me, and----Oh! have you brought a cigarette? I am simply dying for one
+now!"
+
+Lady Chesney held one out to her.
+
+"Here it is. But hadn't you better go in? They will miss you----"
+
+Lady Luce shrugged her shoulders as she struck a match from the gold box
+Drake had given her.
+
+"What does it matter what these people think?" she retorted. "Nothing
+matters now. I have got Drake back, and----All the same, we will get out
+of sight of the window, lest we shock these simple folk. Yes, I am a
+lucky young woman."
+
+They passed along the terrace, and Nell, as if released from a spell,
+fell into the seat and covered her face with her hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Presently she let them fall slowly and looked vacantly with her brows
+drawn--as if waiting for the return of some sharp pain--in the direction
+of Shorne Mills. The lights had gone out; so also had died the light of
+her young life.
+
+She tried to realize what this was that had happened to her; but it was
+so difficult--so difficult! Only a little while ago she had been happy
+in the possession of Drake's love. He had been hers--was her sweetheart,
+her very own; he was to have been her husband; she was to have been his
+wife.
+
+And now--what had happened? Was she dead--had she done some evil thing
+which had turned his love for her to hate and driven him from her?
+
+Slowly the numbed sensation, the feeling of stupor passed, and the
+truth, as she thought of it, came upon her with a rush and made her
+press her hand to her heart as if a knife had stabbed it.
+
+Drake loved her no longer. He had never loved her. The woman he had
+loved was the most beautiful of God's creatures, and Drake had only
+turned to her--Nell--in a moment of pique. And this woman with the
+perfect face, and soft, lingering voice; this woman whose every movement
+was grace itself, who carried herself like an empress--an empress in the
+first flush of her beauty and power--had changed her mind and called him
+back to her. And he had gone.
+
+The fact caused such intense misery as to leave no room for resentment.
+At that moment there was not one spark of anger, one drop of bitterness
+in Nell's emotion; only misery so acute, so agonizing, as to be like a
+physical pain.
+
+It seemed to her so natural, so reasonable, that he should desert her
+when this siren with the melting eyes, the caressing laugh, should
+beckon him; for who could have resisted her? Not any man who had once
+loved her.
+
+Nell's head moved slowly from side to side, like that of an animal
+stricken to death. Her throat had grown tight, her eyes were hot and
+burning, the sound, as of the plash of waves, sang in her ears; but she
+could not cry. It seemed to her that she would never be able to cry
+again. She looked vaguely at the other women as they walked at the far
+end of the terrace, and she shivered as if with bodily fear. There was
+something terrible, Circe-like, to her in the face, the movements, the
+very voice of this woman who had taken Drake from her.
+
+Presently the two exquisitely dressed figures passed into the house, and
+Nell rose, steadying herself by the pedestal. As she did so, she looked
+up. A streak of light shot right across the statue, and the cruel face
+with its leering eyes seemed to smile down upon her mockingly,
+jeeringly, and she actually shrank, as if she dreaded to hear the satyr
+lips shoot some evil gibe at her.
+
+And all the while the music, a waltz of Waldteufel's, soft and ravishing
+and seductive, floated out to her, and mocked her with the memory of the
+happiness that had been hers but an hour--half an hour ago. She
+staggered to the edge of the terrace and leaned her head on her hands,
+and, closing her eyes, tried hard to persuade herself that it was only a
+dream; just a dream, from which she should wake shuddering at the unreal
+misery one moment, then laughing at its unreality the next.
+
+But it was true. The dream had been the happiness of the last few weeks,
+and this was the awakening.
+
+Before her mental vision passed, like a panorama, the days which the
+gods had given her--that they might punish her all the more cruelly for
+daring to be so happy.
+
+Yes; how often had she asked herself what right she, Nell of Shorne
+Mills, had to so much joy? What had she done to deserve it?
+
+She remembered now how, sometimes, she had been terrified by the
+intensity of her joy. That day Drake had told her that he loved her; the
+morning he had taken her in his arms and kissed her; the night he had
+looked down into her eyes and sworn that no man in all the world loved
+any woman as he loved her. She had not deserved it, had no right to it,
+and God had punished her for her presumption in daring to be so happy.
+
+But now what was she to do?
+
+She asked the question with a kind of despair.
+
+It never for one moment occurred to her that she should accuse Drake of
+his faithlessness, much less that she should upbraid him. Indeed, what
+would be the use? Could she--she, an ignorant, half-taught girl, just
+Nell of Shorne Mills--contend against such a woman as this Lady Luce?
+
+Luce! Luce! She remembered--for the first time that night, strangely
+enough--how he had murmured the name in his delirium. She had forgotten
+that, she had not thought of it, and had not asked who the woman was
+whose visage haunted him in his fever.
+
+If she had only done so! He would have told her--yes, for Drake was
+honest; he would have told her--and she would not have allowed herself
+to fall in love with him. Even as it was, she had fought against it; but
+her struggle had been of no avail. She had loved him almost from the
+first moment.
+
+And now she had lost him forever!
+
+"Drake, Drake, Drake!" her heart called to him, though her lips were
+mute.
+
+What should she do?
+
+No; she would not upbraid him. There should be no "scene." She knew
+instinctively how much he would loathe a scene. She would just tell
+him--what? That--that--it had all been a mistake; that--she did not love
+him, and--and ask him to give her back her freedom.
+
+That was all. Not one word of Lady Luce would she say. He would go--go
+without a word; she knew that.
+
+And now she must go back to the ballroom, and try and look and behave as
+if nothing had happened.
+
+Was she very white? she wondered dully. She felt as if she had died, and
+was buried out of reach of any pain, beyond all possibility of further
+joy. Her life was indeed at an end. That kiss of Drake's--to her it had
+appeared as if indeed it had been his, and not Luce's only, stolen from
+him unawares--that kiss had killed her.
+
+Let Ibsen be a great poet and dramatist, or a literary fraud, there are
+one or two things which he says which strike men with the force of a
+revelation; and when he speaks of the love-life which is given to every
+man and woman, and calls him and her a murderer who kills it, he speaks
+truly, and as one inspired.
+
+Nell's love-life lay dead at her feet, and Drake, though all
+unconsciously, had slain it.
+
+She wiped her lips, though they were dry and parched, and with trembling
+hands smoothed her hair--the lips and the hair Drake had kissed so
+often, with such rapture--and slowly, fighting for strength and
+self-possession, passed into the ballroom.
+
+The brilliant light, the music, the dancers, acted upon her
+overstrained nerves as a dash of cold water upon a swooning man. For the
+first time since the blow had fallen pride awoke in her. She had lost
+Drake forever; but she would make no moan; other women before her had
+lost their lovers and their husbands by death, and they had to bear
+their bereavements; she must learn to bear hers.
+
+A young fellow hurried up to her with a mingled expression of relief and
+complaint.
+
+"Oh, Miss Lorton; this is ours!" he said. "I have been looking for you
+everywhere, everywhere, on my honor, and I was nearly distracted!"
+
+Nell moistened her lips and forced a smile.
+
+"I have been out on the terrace; it--it was hot."
+
+"And--you didn't feel faint? You look rather pale now!" he said
+apprehensively. "Would you rather not dance?"
+
+"No, no; I would rather dance!" she replied, with a kind of feverish
+impatience. "I--I think I am cold." She shivered a little. "I shall be
+all the better for a dance!"
+
+She went round like one moving in a dream; her eyes looking straight
+before her in a fixed gaze, her lips curved with a forced smile. After a
+moment or two she grew warmer; the blood began to circulate, a hectic
+flush started out on her cheeks.
+
+Any one seeing her would have thought she was enjoying herself
+amazingly; would not have suspected that her heart was racked by agony;
+that the music was beating upon her brain, inflicting pain with every
+stroke; that she longed, with an aching longing, to be in the dark, in
+her own room, alone with her unspeakable misery.
+
+One talks glibly enough of women's sufferings; but not one of us ever
+comes near gauging them, for the gods who have denied them some things
+have granted to the least of them the great power of enduring in
+silence, of smiling while they suffer, of murmuring commonplaces while
+the iron is cutting deeper and deeper into their souls. The nobler the
+woman the greater this power of hers; and there was much that was noble
+in poor Nell. And as she danced, those who looked at her were full of
+admiration or envy. She was so young; her loveliness was so untainted by
+the world; the delicate droop of the pure lips was so childlike, while
+it hinted of the deeper nature of the woman, that many who regarded her
+and then glanced at the professional beauty, mentally accorded Nell the
+palm.
+
+And among them was Drake. He had gone straight to the smoking room, had
+lit a cigarette, and, pacing up and down, had, with stern lips and
+frowning brows, revolved the problem which fate had set him.
+
+He swore under his breath, after the manner of men, as he went over the
+scene with Luce. What devil of ill chance had sent her down there? And
+why--why had she changed her mind? Was it really true that she--cared
+for, him still? He could scarcely believe it; and yet the caress of her
+hand, the look in her eyes, the--the--kiss----He flung the cigarette
+away--for he had bitten it in two--and fumed mentally. And what did she
+mean, think? Was it possible that she thought he could go back to her?
+
+He laughed grimly, in mockery of the idea. Why, even if there had been
+no Nell, he could not have gone back to Luce. And there was Nell! Yes,
+thank God! there was Nell, his dear, sweet, beautiful Nell! His girl
+love, the girl who was like a pure star shining in God's heaven compared
+with a flame from--yes, from the nethermost pit. Love! He, who now knew
+what love meant, laughed scornfully at the idea in connection with Lady
+Luce. Passion it might be--but love! And she had left him with a kiss,
+as if she were convinced that she had recovered him! Oh, it was
+damnable, damnable!
+
+Why--why, she might even behave in the ballroom as if--as if she had a
+right to claim him! She might even tell the Chesneys that--that----
+
+He strode out of the smoking room in time to see the Chesney party
+taking their departure. As Lady Luce shook hands with the hostess and
+murmured her thanks for "a delightful evening"--and for once they were
+genuine and no idle formula--he saw her glance round the room as if in
+search of some one; but he drew back out of sight.
+
+Then, when they had gone, he reentered the ballroom and his eyes sought
+Nell. She met them, and he smiled, but rather anxiously, with a feeling
+of disquietude; for there was----Was there something strange in the
+expression of her face? But as she smiled back--can one imagine what
+that smile cost Nell?--he drew a breath of relief, found a partner, and
+joined in the dance.
+
+By this time the party had reached the after-supper stage, and the
+waltzes had grown faster. A set of lancers had been danced with so much
+spirit and enjoyment that it had been encored. Some of the men were
+talking and laughing just a little loudly, and the women's faces were
+flushed with the one glass of champagne which is generally all they
+permit themselves, the spell of the music, and the excitement of rapid
+and rhythmical movement. Couples found their way into the anterooms and
+recesses, or sat very close together in corners of the great, broad
+staircase.
+
+Some of the men had boldly deserted the ballroom and retreated to the
+smoking room, where they could play whist and drink and smoke: "Must
+wait for my womenfolk, you know."
+
+Dick, at this, his first dance, was enjoying himself amazingly. He had
+gone steadily through the program, and as steadily through most of the
+dishes at supper, and he was now flirting, with all a boy's ardor, with
+a plump little girl, the niece of Lady Maltby.
+
+She was "just out," and Dick had danced three dances in succession with
+her before she remembered that she was committing a breach of etiquette.
+
+"Dance again with you? Oh, I couldn't!" she said, when Dick, with inward
+tremors but an outward boldness, begged for the fourth. "I mustn't--I
+really mustn't!"
+
+"Why not?" demanded Dick innocently.
+
+"If you weren't such a boy you wouldn't ask," she retorted severely, but
+with a smile lurking in her bright young eyes.
+
+"I bet I'm as old as you are," he said.
+
+"Are you? I don't think you are. You look as if you'd just come from
+school. I'm----No, I won't tell you. It was just a trick to learn my
+age. But if you must know why I won't dance again with you, it is
+because no lady ought to dance three times in succession with a man."
+
+"But I'm only a boy, which makes all the difference, don't you see?"
+said Dick naively. "Nobody cares what a boy does, you know. Come along."
+
+She pretended to eye him severely.
+
+"No; I won't 'come along.' And I think it's very rude of you not to take
+an answer."
+
+"All right," he said cheerfully. "Then will you come and have some
+supper?"
+
+"Why, it isn't half an hour ago since we had some."
+
+"Then come and see me eat some more," he suggested.
+
+"Thank you; but I am never very fond of seeing animals fed, even at the
+Zoo!"
+
+"That was rather good," he said, with a grin. "My sister, Nell couldn't
+have put that one in more neatly."
+
+"Your sister Nell? That's the girl over there, dancing with Captain
+White? How pretty she is!"
+
+"Think so? Yes, she is, now you mention it. We are considered very much
+alike."
+
+The girlish laughter, which he had been waiting for, rang out, and,
+taking advantage of it, Dick coaxed her into a corner on the stairs,
+where they could flirt to their hearts' content.
+
+"I wonder whether you'd be offended if I told you that you were the
+jolliest--I mean nicest--girl I've met?" said the young vagabond, with
+an assumption of innocence and humility which robbed the remark of any
+offense--at any rate, for his hearer, whose eyes sparkled.
+
+"Not at all. And I wonder whether you'd mind if I told you that I think
+you are the rudest and most--most audacious boy I ever met?"
+
+"Not the least in the world, because it's no news--I mean that I'm--what
+was it--the rudest and most audacious? I have a sister, you know, and
+she deals in candor, candor in solid blocks. But what a mission my
+condition opens up before you, Miss Angel!"
+
+"A mission?" she asked reluctantly, young enough to know that she was
+going to be caught somehow.
+
+"Yes," he said, with demure gravity. "The mission of my reformation. If
+you think me so bad to-night, I don't know, I really don't, what you
+would have thought of me yesterday, before I had had the advantage of
+your elevating society. Now, Miss Angel, here is a chance for you--the
+great chance of your life! Continue your elevating influence. Your
+cousin has asked me to a rabbit shoot to-morrow."
+
+"You'll shoot somebody. They really ought not to allow boys to carry
+guns----"
+
+"Who's rude now?" he asked, with a grin. "I was going to say, when you
+interrupted me, that if you came out with the luncheon party, I should
+have the opportunity of a lesson in--in deportment and manners. See?"
+
+"I shouldn't think of coming," she declared promptly.
+
+"Oh, yes, you will," he said teasingly, and with an air of conviction.
+"Women always do what they wouldn't think of doing."
+
+"Really!" she retorted, with mock indignation. "There is only one thing
+I can do, and it is my duty. I shall tell your sister----Oh, look!" she
+broke off suddenly, and with something like dismay in her voice, as she
+pointed downward.
+
+Dick leaned over, and saw Nell, sitting on an old oak bench just below
+them. She was leaning back; her eyes were closed, and her face white.
+
+"Oh, go to her; she is not well. I am so sorry! Go to her at once!"
+
+Dick ran down the stairs, and the girl followed a step or two, then
+stood watching them timidly.
+
+"Hallo, Nell! What's the matter?" asked Dick.
+
+She opened her eyes and rose instantly, struggling with all a woman's
+courage beating in her heart to renew the fight, to play her part to the
+end of that never--never-ending night.
+
+"Nothing, nothing. I am just a little tired, I think."
+
+At this moment Drake came up.
+
+"This is my dance, Nell," he said. His face, his voice were grave, for
+his soul was still disquieted within him. "I have been looking for
+you----"
+
+He stopped suddenly and put out his hand, for her face had grown white
+again. She had raised her eyes to his for a moment with the look of a
+dumb animal in pain; but she lowered them instantly and bent aside to
+take up her dress.
+
+"I am tired," she said, forcing a smile. "The heat--could we not go
+home? I--I mean, Dick and I--there is no need for you----"
+
+"Yes, yes; at once; this instant!" he said. "Wait while I get you some
+water--wait----"
+
+He went off quickly, and Nell turned to Dick.
+
+"Will you order the fly, Dick?" she said, in a tone that was quite new
+to him.
+
+It was, though the boy did not know it, the voice of the woman who has
+just parted with her girlhood.
+
+"Don't wait, please. I shall be all right."
+
+Dick left her, and Miss Angel came down to her timidly.
+
+"Is there anything I can do--I know what it is. You feel faint----"
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"God grant you may never know what it is," she thought, looking up at
+the girl's face, and feeling years and years older than she.
+
+"Perhaps it is," she said. "But I shall be all right the moment I get
+into the air."
+
+Miss Angel whipped off her shawl, which Dick had insisted upon her
+wearing.
+
+"Come with me--you can wait just outside the hall. I know what it is;
+you want to get outside at once--at once!"
+
+Nell went out with her, and as she felt the cool, fresh air, she drew a
+breath of relief; then she turned to the girl.
+
+"I am all right now; you must not wait. I have your wrap----"
+
+Dick came up with the fly, and Drake appeared with her cloak and a glass
+of wine. He had got his hat and coat as he came along. She drank some of
+the wine, and turned to hold out her hand to the girl and wish her good
+night and thank her.
+
+"I am quite, quite right now!" Drake heard her say; and his fears--for
+to a man a woman's fainting fit is a terrible thing--were somewhat
+dispelled.
+
+They got into the fly, and it drove off. Nell, instead of sinking into
+the corner, sat bolt upright and forced a smile.
+
+"What a jolly evening!" said Dick, with a deep sigh. "Don't wonder you
+girls are so fond of parties."
+
+"Yes," she said, with a brightness which deceived both of them, "it has
+been very jolly. What a pretty girl that is with whom you were sitting
+out, Dick!"
+
+"I always thought you had great taste," he said approvingly. "She was
+the nicest girl there--as I ventured to tell her."
+
+Nell laughed--surely the hollowness of the laugh must strike them, she
+thought--but neither of the two noticed its insincerity, and Dick
+rattled on, suspecting nothing.
+
+Drake sat almost silent. To be near her, to have her so close to him,
+was all the sweeter after the hateful scene with Luce. Heaven! how
+different was this love of his to that other woman from whom he had
+escaped! It was a terrible word, but it was the only fitting one to his
+mind.
+
+He would tell Nell in the morning. Yes, he would tell Nell who he was,
+and--and--of his engagement to Luce. It would be an unpleasant, hateful
+story, but he would tell it. There had been too much concealment, too
+much deceit; he had been a fool to yield to the temptation to hide his
+identity; he would make a clean breast of it to-morrow. Once he
+stretched out his hand in the direction of hers, but Nell, though her
+eyes were not turned in his direction, saw the movement, and quickly
+removed her hand beyond his reach.
+
+The fly drew up at The Cottage, and Dick jumped out and opened the door
+with his key, and purposely went straight into the house. As Drake
+helped Nell out, she drew her hand away to gather up her dress, and went
+quickly into the little hall, and he followed her.
+
+Her heart beat fast and painfully. She felt as if she could not lift her
+eyes; as if she were the guilty one. Would he--would he attempt to kiss
+her? Oh, surely, surely not! He could not be so false. She held out her
+hand.
+
+"I am so sleepy," she said. "Good night!"
+
+He looked at her as he held her hand, and at that moment the kiss which
+Luce had taken burned like fire upon his lips. He shrank from touching
+the pure lips of the girl he loved while the other woman's kiss still
+lingered on his consciousness. It would be desecration.
+
+"You are all right now--not faint?" he said; and there was a troubled
+expression in his face and voice.
+
+Nell thought she could read his mind, and knew the reason of his
+hesitation. A few hours ago he would have lost no time in catching her
+to his heart. But now--he loved her, no longer.
+
+Her face went white, though she strove to keep the color in it.
+
+"Yes, oh, yes!" she said. "I am only tired and--sleepy."
+
+"Then I won't keep you," he said gravely. "Good night."
+
+He had turned; but even as he turned, the longing in his heart grew too
+fierce for restraint. He swung round suddenly and caught her to him, drew
+her head upon his breast, and kissed her with passionate love--and
+remorse.
+
+Nell strove for strength to repulse him, to free herself from his arms;
+but the strength would not come. For a moment she lay motionless, her
+lips upturned to his, her eyes seeking his, with an expression in them
+which haunted Drake for many a long year afterward.
+
+"Nell," he said hoarsely, "I--I have something to tell you to-morrow.
+I--I have to ask your forgiveness. I would tell you to-night, but--I
+haven't courage. To-morrow!"
+
+The words broke the spell. The flush of a hot, unbearable shame burned
+in her veins and shone redly in her face. With an effort, she drew
+herself from his arms and blindly escaped into the sitting room.
+
+Drake raised his head and looked after her, biting his lip.
+
+"Why not tell her to-night?" he asked himself. There was no guardian
+angel to whisper, "The man who hesitates is lost!" and thinking, "Not
+to-night; she is too tired--to-morrow!" he left the house.
+
+Nell stood in the center of the room, her face white, her hands shaking;
+and Dick, as he peeled off what remained of his gloves, surveyed her
+critically.
+
+"If I were you, young person, I'd have a stiff glass of grog before I
+tumbled into my little bed. Look here, if you like to go up now, I'll
+have a smoke, and bring you some up presently. You look--well, you look
+as if you were going to have the measles, my child."
+
+Nell laughed discordantly.
+
+"Do I?" she said, pushing the hair from her forehead with both hands,
+and staring before her vacantly. "Perhaps I am."
+
+"Measles--or influenza," he said, with a pursing of the lips. "Get up to
+bed, Nell."
+
+"I'm going," she said.
+
+She came round the table, and, leaning both hands on his shoulders, bent
+her lovely head and kissed him.
+
+"Dick, you--you care for me still?" she asked, in a strained voice.
+
+He stared at her, as, brother like, he wiped the kiss from his lips.
+
+"Care for you? What----Look here, Nell, you're behaving like a
+second-class idiot. And your lips are like fire. I'm dashed if I don't
+think you are going to have something."
+
+She laughed and shook her head, and went upstairs. How long the few
+stairs seemed! Or was it that her legs seemed to have become like lead?
+
+As she passed Mrs. Lorton's room, that lady's voice called to her. Nell
+opened the door, leaning against it.
+
+"Is that you, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton. "What a noise you made coming
+in! Really, I think you might have shown some consideration. You know
+how lightly I sleep. I've the news for you." There was a touch of
+self-satisfaction in her voice. "A letter has come. Here it is. You had
+better read it and think over it."
+
+Nell crossed the room unsteadily in the dim flicker of the night light,
+and took the letter held out to her--took it mechanically--wished Mrs.
+Lorton good night, and went to her own room.
+
+Before she had got there she had forgotten the letter, and it fell from
+her hand as she dropped on her knees beside the bed, her arms flung wide
+over the white counterpane, her whole frame shaking.
+
+"Drake, Drake, Drake!" rose from her quivering lips. "Oh, God! pity
+me--pity me! I cannot bear it--I cannot bear it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Nell woke with that sickening sense of loss which all of us have
+experienced--that is, all of us who have gone to bed with sorrow lying
+heavily upon our hearts. The autumnal sun was pouring in through the
+windows, the birds were singing; some of them waiting on the tree
+outside for the crumbs which Nell had been in the habit, ever since she
+was a child, of throwing to them. Even in her misery of last night she
+had not forgotten the birds; in the misery of her awakening she
+remembered them, and went unsteadily to the lattice window.
+
+The keen air, as it blew upon her face, brought the full consciousness
+of the sorrow that had befallen her.
+
+Yesterday morning she was the happiest girl in all the world; this
+morning she was the most wretched.
+
+She put her hands to her face, as if some one had struck her, and she
+called all her woman's courage to meet and combat her trouble. The
+bright world seemed pressing down upon her heavily, the shrill notes of
+the birds clamoring their gratitude as they greedily fought for the
+crumbs, pierced through her head. She swayed to and fro, as if she were
+about to fall; for, in the young, mental anguish produces an absolute
+physical pain, and her head as well as her heart was aching.
+
+She would have liked to have thrown herself upon the bed, but Dick would
+be clamoring for his breakfast presently, and Mrs. Lorton would want her
+chocolate. Life is a big wheel, and one has to push it round, though its
+edges are set with spikes of steel, and our hands are torn in the effort
+to keep it moving.
+
+As she dressed herself with trembling hands, she kept saying to
+herself--her lips quivering with the unspoken words:
+
+"I have lost Drake--I have lost Drake; I have got to bear it!"
+
+He would be here presently--or, perhaps, he would not come. Perhaps he
+would write to her. And yet, no; that would not be like him; he was no
+coward; he would come and tell her the truth, would ask her to forgive
+him.
+
+And what should she say? Yes; she would forgive him; she would make no
+"scene" with him; she would not utter one word of reproach, but just
+tell him that he was free. She would even smile, if she could; would
+assure him that she was not going to break her heart because the woman
+he had loved before he had met her--Nell--had won him back. After all,
+he was not to blame. How could any man resist such a woman as Lady Luce?
+She--Nell--was just an interlude in his life's story; he had thought
+himself in love with her; and, perhaps, if this beautiful creature,
+before whom all hearts seemed to go down, had not desired to lure him
+back, he would have remained faithful to the "little girl" whom he had
+chanced to meet at that "out-of-the-way place in Devonshire, don't you
+know." Nell could almost hear Lady Luce referring to the episode in
+these terms, if ever it should come to her ears.
+
+No; there should be no scene. She would give him both her hands, would
+say "good-by" quite calmly, and would then take her broken heart to the
+solitude of her own room, and try to begin to repair it.
+
+Dick shouted for his breakfast, and she went downstairs. He was busy
+reading a letter, and his face was full of eagerness, his eyes sparkling
+with excitement.
+
+"I say, Nell, what a good chap Drake is!" he exclaimed. "He never said a
+word to me about it; but he's been worrying Bardsley & Bardsley for
+weeks past, and they've written to say that they think they can take me
+on. Just think of it! Bardsley & Bardsley! The biggest firm in the
+engineering line! Drake must have a great deal of influence; and I don't
+know how on earth he managed it. I didn't know he knew any one connected
+with the profession. It's a most splendid chance, you know!"
+
+Nell went round beside him, and laid her hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"I am very glad, Dick," she said.
+
+Something in her voice must have struck him, for he looked up at her
+quickly, and with surprise.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Nell?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing," she said. "I have a headache."
+
+"Just so. 'After the opera is over,' you know. That's the penalty one
+pays for one's first dance. And you were queer last night, too, weren't
+you? Why didn't you lie in bed?"
+
+"Never mind me," said Nell. "Tell me about this letter. When are you
+going, Dick?"
+
+A fresh pang smote her. Was she going to lose the boy as well?
+
+"Oh, they don't say," he replied. "They're going to let me know. They
+may send me abroad; you can't tell. What a good chap Drake is, and what
+a lot we owe him? Upon my word, Nell, you're a lucky girl to have got
+hold of such a fellow for your young man."
+
+Nell turned away with a sickening pain about her heart. No; she would
+not tell the boy at this moment. She wouldn't spoil his happiness with
+the wet blanket of her own misery. She must even, when she came to tell
+him, make light of the broken engagement, take the blame upon herself,
+and prevent any rupture of the friendship between Drake and Dick.
+
+He was almost too excited to eat any breakfast; certainly too excited to
+notice Nell's untouched cup and plate.
+
+"I must see Drake about this at once," he said. "I think I'll go down
+and meet him. He's sure to be coming up here, isn't he?" he added, with
+a bantering smile; and Nell actually tried to smile back at him.
+
+As she took the chocolate up to Mrs. Lorton, she tried to put her own
+trouble out of her head, and to think only of Dick's good fortune. How
+she had longed for some such chance as this to come to the boy, and now
+it had come. But who had sent it? Drake! Well, all the more reason that
+she should forgive him, and utter no word of reproach or bitterness.
+
+"You are ten minutes late, Eleanor!" said Mrs. Lorton peevishly. "And,
+good heavens! what a sight you look! If one late night has this effect
+upon you, what would half a dozen have? I am quite sure that I never
+looked half as haggard and colorless as you do, even when I'd been
+through a whole season." For a moment the good lady was quite convinced
+that she had been a fashionable belle. "I should advise you to keep out
+of Drake's sight for an hour or two; at any rate, until you have got
+some color in your face, and your eyes have ceased to look like boiled
+gooseberries."
+
+The mention of Drake brought the color to Nell's face quickly enough,
+but for an instant only. It was white again, as she resolved to tell
+Mrs. Lorton that the engagement was broken off.
+
+"It doesn't matter, mamma," she said; and she tried to smile.
+
+Mrs. Lorton stared at her over the chocolate.
+
+"Doesn't matter?" she echoed. "You think he's so madly in love with you
+that it doesn't matter how you look, I suppose? Don't lay that
+flattering unction to your soul, Eleanor. I've known many an engagement
+broken off in consequence of the man coming suddenly upon the girl when
+she had a bad cold and had got a red nose and eyes."
+
+"Perhaps I've had a bad cold without knowing it, mamma, and Drake must
+have come upon me when my nose and eyes were appallingly red, for our
+engagement--is--broken--off."
+
+Mrs. Lorton nearly dropped the cup of chocolate, and stared and gasped
+like a fish out of water.
+
+"Broken off!" she exclaimed. "Take this cup away! Give me the sal
+volatile. Open the window! No, don't open the window! What are you
+talking about? Are you out of your mind?"
+
+Nell took the cup, got the sal volatile, and soothed the flustered woman
+in a mechanical fashion.
+
+"Hush, hush, mamma!" she said. "I don't want Dick to know yet."
+
+"But why--how----What have you been doing?" demanded Mrs. Lorton; and
+Nell could have laughed.
+
+"Nothing very bad, mamma," she said.
+
+"But you must have," insisted Mrs. Lorton. "Of course it's your fault."
+
+"Is it absolutely necessary that there should be any fault?" said Nell
+wearily. "But let us say that it is my fault. Perhaps it is!" She
+laughed unconsciously, and with a touch of bitterness. "What does it
+matter whose fault it is? The reason isn't of any consequence at all;
+the fact is the only important thing, and it is a fact that our
+engagement is broken. It was broken last night, and I tell you at once,
+mamma; and I want to beg you not to ask me any questions. Drake--Mr.
+Vernon--will no doubt go away to-day, and we shan't see him any more."
+She went to the window to arrange the blind, and Mrs. Lorton didn't see
+the twitching of the white lips which spoke so calmly. "And I want to
+forget him; I want you, too, to try and forget him, and not to remind me
+of him by a single word. It was very foolish, my thinking that he cared
+for me----Oh, I can't say another word----"
+
+She stopped suddenly, her hands writhing together.
+
+Mrs. Lorton stared at the counterpane with a half-sly, half-speculative
+expression in her faded eyes.
+
+"After all," she said meditatively, "it was not such a particularly good
+match. One knows nothing about him or his people, and--and I suppose
+you've not felt quite satisfied. Yes, perhaps you might do better. You
+may have some chances now. You've read the letter, and made up your
+mind, of course?"
+
+"The letter?" echoed Nell stupidly.
+
+Mrs. Lorton stared at her angrily, and with a flush of resentment on her
+peevish face.
+
+"The letter I gave you last night, of course," she said. "Do you mean to
+tell me that you haven't read it? The most important letter I have ever
+received! At least, it is of the greatest importance to you. It is from
+my cousin, Lord Wolfer. What have you done with it, Eleanor?"
+
+Nell put her hand to her head.
+
+"I must have left it in my room," she said. "I will go and fetch it."
+
+Mrs. Lorton snorted.
+
+"Such gross carelessness and indifference is really shameful!" she flung
+after Nell.
+
+Nell found the letter beside the bed, and returned with it to Mrs.
+Lorton's room.
+
+"Why, it's all crumpled up, as if you had been playing shuttlecock with
+it!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton indignantly. "It is absolutely disrespectful
+of you, not to say ungrateful. Read it, if you please, and slowly; I
+could not bear to have my cousin's letter gabbled over. I, at least,
+know what is due to a Wolfer."
+
+It was a moment or two before Nell's burning eyes could accomplish the
+task of deciphering the lines of handwriting which seemed to have been
+formed by a paralytic spider that had fallen into the ink and scrambled
+spasmodically across the paper. There was no need to tell her to read
+slowly, and she stumbled over every other word of the letter, which ran
+thus:
+
+
+"MY DEAR SOPHIA: You will doubtless be surprised at hearing from me,
+and, indeed, I should not have written, for, as you are aware, my time
+is fully occupied with public affairs, and I rarely write private
+letters; but I have promised Lady Wolfer to communicate with you
+directly, as, for obvious reasons, which you will presently see, she
+does not desire my secretary to know of the proposal which I am about
+to make you; as, in the event of your declining the proposition, there
+would be no need for the fact of its having been made to become the
+common knowledge of my household and the servants' hall. As you are
+doubtless aware, by reading the public prints, Lady Wolfer takes a great
+interest and a prominent part in the movement which is being made toward
+the amelioration of the position of woman; indeed, I may say, with
+pardonable pride, that she is one of the great leaders in this social
+revolution, which, we trust, will place woman upon the throne from which
+man has hitherto thrust her.
+
+"This being so, Lady Wolfer's time is, as you will readily understand,
+much absorbed; so completely, indeed, that she is unable to pay any
+attention to those smaller and meaner; household cares to which women
+less highly gifted very properly devote so much of their time. Having no
+daughter of our own, it occurred to us that it might, perhaps, be a
+beneficial arrangement for your stepdaughter, Miss Lorton, if she would
+come to us and render Lady Wolfer such assistance as is afforded by the
+ordinary housekeeper. You will say: Why not engage a duly qualified
+person for the post? I reply: We have done so, and do not find the
+ordinary person, though apparently duly qualified, satisfactory. Lady
+Wolfer is of an extremely sensitive and delicate organization, and it is
+absolutely necessary that the person with whom she would be brought in
+daily contact should be young and docile.
+
+"I have referred to the photograph of Miss Lorton which you were good
+enough to send me some months ago, and you will be pleased to hear that
+Lady Wolfer approves of the young lady's personal appearance. I take it
+for granted--you, her guardian, being a Wolfer--that she has been
+properly trained; and if she should be willing to come to us on what is
+termed a month's trial, we shall be very pleased to receive her. She may
+come at any moment, and without any notice beyond a mere telegram. I
+will not speak of the advantages accruing from such a position as that
+which she would hold, for I am quite sure you will be duly sensible of
+them, and will point them out to her.
+
+"I trust that you are in good health, and with best wishes for your
+prosperity and happiness,
+
+          "I remain, dear Sophia, yours very truly,
+
+                                                    "WOLFER.
+
+"P. S.--I omitted to say that I should be pleased to pay Miss Lorton an
+honorarium of fifty guineas per annum."
+
+At another time Nell would have found it difficult to refrain from
+laughing at the stilted phraseology of the letter, at the pomposity
+with which the proposal was made, and the meanness which strove to hide
+itself in a postscript; but a Punch and Judy show would have seemed a
+funereal performance at that moment, and she stared as blankly at the
+letter when she had finished it as if she had been reading some language
+which had no meaning for her.
+
+Mrs. Lorton emitted a cough of self-satisfaction.
+
+"It is extremely kind and thoughtful of my Cousin Wolfer," she said;
+"and I must say that I think you are an extremely fortunate girl,
+Eleanor, to have had such an offer made you. Of course, if you had been
+still engaged to Mr. Vernon, you would have been obliged to have sent a
+refusal to Lord Wolfer; but, as it is, I presume you will not hesitate
+for a moment, but will jump at such an opportunity."
+
+Nell looked before her blankly, and remained silent.
+
+"It will be a chance such as few girls of your position ever meet with;
+for, of course, when my cousin speaks of a housekeeper, he does not wish
+us to infer that you would be expected to take the position of a menial.
+No; he will not forget that though you are not my daughter, I married
+your father, and that you are, therefore, connected with the family. Of
+course, you will go into society, you will meet the elite and the creme
+de la creme, and will, therefore, enjoy advantages similar to those
+which I enjoyed, but which I, alas! threw away. Really, when one comes
+to consider it, this breach of your engagement with this Mr. Vernon is
+quite providential, as it removes the only obstacle to your accepting my
+cousin's noble offer."
+
+Nell woke with a start when the stream of self-complacent comment had
+ceased, and realized that she was being asked to decide. What should she
+do? To leave Shorne Mills, to go into the world among strangers, to
+enter a big house as a poor relation--she shrank from the prospect for a
+moment, then she nerved herself to face it. After all, she could never
+be happy at Shorne Mills again. Every tree, every rock, every human
+being would remind her of Drake, of the lover she had lost. With Dick
+gone, there would be nothing for her to do, nothing to distract her mind
+from the perpetual brooding over the few past weeks of happiness, and
+the long, gray life before her. With these people there would be sure to
+be some work for her, something that would save her from spending every
+hour in futile regret and hopeless longing.
+
+"Well, Eleanor?" demanded Mrs. Lorton impatiently.
+
+"I have made up my mind; I will go," said Nell.
+
+Mrs. Lorton flushed eagerly.
+
+"Of course you will," she said. "It would be wicked and ungrateful to
+neglect such a chance. When will you go? Fortunately, you have some new
+clothes, and you will get what else you want in London. There are one
+or two things I should like you to get for me. You could pick them up at
+some of the sales; they are all on now, and things are sold ridiculously
+cheap. And, Eleanor, be sure and send me a full description of Lady
+Wolfer's dresses. You might snip off a pattern, perhaps. And I shall
+want to hear all about the people who go to the house, and the dinner
+parties and entertainments. I should say that it is not at all unlikely
+that Lady Wolfer may ask me to go and stay there. Of course, she will be
+curious to know what I am like--have I mentioned that we have never
+met?--and you will tell her that I--I--have been accustomed to the
+society in which she moves; and you might say that you are sure the
+change will do me good. Write often, and be sure and tell me about the
+dresses."
+
+"But I shall leave you all alone, mamma," said Eleanor. "Are you sure
+you won't be lonely?"
+
+Mrs. Lorton drew a long sigh, and assumed the air of a martyr.
+
+"You know me too well to think that I should allow my selfish comfort to
+stand in the way of your advancement, Eleanor. Of course, I shall miss
+you. But do not think of that. Let us think only of your welfare. I
+shall have Molly, and must be content."
+
+Nell checked a sigh at the evident affectation of the profession. It was
+not in Mrs. Lorton to miss any human being so long as her own small
+comforts were assured.
+
+"Then I think I will go at once--to-night," said Nell. "Why should I
+not? They want me--some one--at once, and----"
+
+"Certainly," assented Mrs. Lorton eagerly. "I should go at once. You
+will write immediately, and tell me what the house is like, and the
+dresses."
+
+Nell went downstairs, feeling rather confused and bewildered by the
+sudden change in her life. She was to have been Drake's wife; she was
+now to be--what was it, companion, housekeeper?--to Lady Wolfer!
+
+Dick met her at the bottom of the stairs.
+
+"I can't find Drake," he said, of course, with an injured air. "They say
+he left the cottage early this morning--they thought he was coming up
+here, as usual; but he hasn't been, has he?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"See, Dick, I've some news for you," she said. "I am going to London."
+
+She gave him the letter to read, and he read it, with a running
+commentary of indignant and scoffing exclamations.
+
+"Of all the pompous, stuck-up letters, it's the worst I ever imagined!
+And you say you're going? Oh, but look here! What will Drake say?"
+
+Nell turned away.
+
+"I don't think he will object," she said, almost inaudibly.
+
+Dick stared at her.
+
+"Look here, young party, what is up between you two? Is there anything
+wrong? Oh, dash it! don't look as if I'd said there was a ghost behind
+you! What is it?"
+
+"Drake--Drake and I are not going to be married," she said, trying to
+smile, but breaking down in the attempt. "We--we have agreed--to--to
+part!"
+
+Dick uttered a low whistle, and gazed at her, aghast.
+
+"All off!" he said. "Phew! Why--when--how?"
+
+She began to collect some of her small belongings--a tiny workbasket,
+some books, and such like, and answered as she moved to and fro,
+studiously keeping her face turned away from him:
+
+"I can't tell you; don't ask me, Dick. Don't--don't ask him. It--it is
+all right. It is all for the best, as mamma would say; and--and----" She
+went behind him and laid her hand on his shoulder, her favorite attitude
+when she was serious or pleading. "And mind, Dick, it is to make no
+difference between you--and Drake. It--is--yes, it is all my fault. I--I
+was foolish and----"
+
+She could bear no more; and, with a quick movement of her hand to her
+throat, hastened from the room.
+
+Dick looked after her ruefully for a moment or two, then his face
+cleared, and he winked to himself.
+
+"What an ass I am to be upset by a lovers' quarrel. Of course, it's all
+in the game. The other business would pall after a time if there wasn't
+a little of this kind of thing chucked in for a change. I wonder whether
+that jolly girl, Miss Angel, will come down to the lunch? Now, there's a
+girl no chap could have even a lovers' quarrel with. Poor old Drake! Bet
+I shall find 'em billing and cooing as usual when I come back," And Dick
+grinned as he marched off with his gun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Drake rode over to the Grange for breakfast, according to his promise.
+He was glad of the ride, glad of an hour or two in which he could think
+over the dramatic events of the preceding night, and, so to speak, clear
+his brain of the unpleasant glamour which Lady Luce's words and behavior
+had produced.
+
+Not for a moment did he swerve from his allegiance to Nell; never for a
+moment did the splendor of Luce's beauty, the trick of her soft voice,
+her passionate caress, eclipse the starlike purity of Nell's nature and
+personality. If it were possible, he loved Nell better and more
+devotedly, longed for her more ardently, since his meeting with Luce,
+than he had done before.
+
+All the way to the Grange he rehearsed what he would say to Nell when he
+rode back to The Cottage. He would tell her everything; would beg her to
+forgive him for his deception, his concealment of his full name and
+title, and--yes, he would admit that he had once loved, or thought that
+he had loved, Lady Luce; but that now----Well, there was only one woman
+in the world for him, and that was Nell.
+
+He found Sir William standing on the lawn, dressed in riding cords of
+the good old kind, loose in fit and yellow in color, and surrounded by
+dogs of divers shapes and various breeds. He was as ruddy-cheeked and
+bright-eyed as if he had been to bed last night at ten o'clock, and he
+scanned the well-set-up Drake as he rode up, with a nod of approval.
+
+"Up to time, Mr. Vernon--got your name right at last, eh? None the worse
+for the hop last night, I suppose? Don't look any, anyway. That's a good
+nag you're riding. Bred him yourself, eh? Gad! It's the best way, if
+it's the dearest."
+
+He called for a groom to take the horse, and bade Drake come in to
+breakfast.
+
+"You'll find nobody down, and we shall have it all to ourselves. That's
+the worst of women: keep 'em up half an hour later than usual, or upset
+their nerves with a bit of a row or anything of that kind, and, by
+George! they've got to lie abed the next morning! Now, help yourself to
+anything you see--have anything else cooked if you don't fancy what's
+here. I always toy with half a pound of steak, just to lay a foundation;
+been my breakfast, man and boy, for longer than I can remember."
+
+Drake ate his breakfast and listened to the genial old man--not very
+attentively, it is to be feared, for he was thinking of Nell most of the
+time--and when the baronet had demolished his steak, they went to the
+farm, followed by the motley collection of dogs which had waited outside
+with more or less patience for the reappearance of their master, and
+welcomed him with a series of yappings and barkings which might have
+been heard a mile off.
+
+The farm was a good one, and Drake gradually got interested in the
+really splendid cattle which Sir William exhibited with the enthusiasm
+of a breeder. The morning slipped away, but though Drake glanced at his
+watch significantly now and again, Sir William would not let him go;
+and at last he said:
+
+"What's your hurry, Vernon? Why not ride to Shallop with me? You could
+look around the town while I'm on the bench--unless you care to step
+into court and see how we administer justice--hah! hah! it's only a few
+'drunk and disorderlies' or a case of assault that we get nowadays; or
+perhaps a petty larceny--anyway, you will ride into the town with me,
+and we will have a bit of lunch together at the Crown and Scepter. No, I
+won't take any refusal! To tell you the truth, I want to have a chat
+with you about that last bull I showed you."
+
+Drake, thinking that it would be quicker to consent--that is to say, to
+ride into Shallop and cut across the country to Shorne Mills, yielded;
+the horses were brought round, and after Sir William had disposed of a
+tankard of ale, by way of a good, old-fashioned stirrup cup, the two men
+started.
+
+Sir William talked and joked as they rode along, and Drake pretended to
+listen, while in reality he continued his rehearsal of all he would say
+to Nell when presently he should be by her side, with his arms round her
+and her head on his breast.
+
+It was market day at Shallop, and the usual crowd of pigs and sheep and
+cattle, with their attendant drovers and farmers, blocked the streets.
+Sir William pulled up occasionally, throwing a word to one and another,
+but the two men reached the Town Hall at last, and Drake was just on the
+point of remarking that he would be off, when he saw Sir William grow
+very red in the face and very bulgy about the eyes, while at the same
+time his big hand went in a helpless kind of fashion to his
+old-fashioned neck stock.
+
+Drake could not imagine what was the matter, and was still in the first
+throes of amazement when Sir William suddenly swayed to and fro in the
+saddle, and then fell across his horse's neck to the ground.
+
+Drake was off his horse in a moment, and had raised the old man's head
+as quickly. A crowd collected almost as rapidly as if the place had been
+London, and cries of "Dear, dear! it's Sir William! it's a fit! Fetch a
+doctor!" rose from all sides.
+
+A doctor presently pushed his way through the gaping mob of farmers and
+tradesmen, and knelt beside Drake.
+
+"Apoplexy," he said, pursing his lips and shaking his head. "Always
+thought it would happen. Let us get him to the hotel."
+
+Between them they carried the stricken man to the Crown and Scepter, at
+which--irony of fate!--Sir William would have lunched, and got him to
+bed.
+
+"I've warned him once or twice," said the doctor, with a shrug of the
+shoulders. "But what's the use! You tell a man to cut tobacco and
+spirits, or they will kill him, or to refrain from rump steak and old
+ale for breakfast, and he obeys you--until the next time!"
+
+"Is he going to die?" asked Drake sadly, for he had taken a fancy to the
+old man.
+
+"No-o; I don't think so. Not this time. We shall have to keep him quiet.
+Lady Maltby ought to know--ought to be here. And we mustn't frighten
+her. Would you mind riding over for her--bringing her, I mean? She'll
+want some one with her who can keep a cool head, and I fancy you can do
+that, sir."
+
+"That's all right," said Drake at once; "of course I'll go."
+
+So it happened that, instead of riding to Shorne Mills and seeing Nell,
+and telling her the truth, the whole truth, which would have turned her
+misery to happiness, he was going as fast as his horse could carry him
+back to the Grange.
+
+It was not the first time he had broken bad news--he had seen men fall
+in the hunting field, and on the race course, and had had more than once
+to carry the tidings to the bereaved--and he fulfilled his sad task with
+all the tact of which he was capable. So well, indeed, that even if he
+had intended permitting Lady Maltby to proceed to Shallop without him,
+she would not have let him go. The poor woman clung to him, as women in
+their hour of need always cling to the strong man near them.
+
+They found Sir William coming back to consciousness--a condition which,
+though fortunate for him, was unfortunate for Drake; for the sick man
+seemed to cling to him and to rely upon him just as Lady Maltby had
+done. He implored Drake not to leave him, and Drake sat on one side of
+the bed, with the frightened wife on the other, until Sir William fell
+into a more or less refreshing slumber.
+
+It was just four when he mounted his horse and rode to Shorne Mills. The
+performance of a good deed always brings a certain amount of
+satisfaction with it, and, as he rode along, Drake felt more at ease
+than he had done since the scene with Lady Luce. Indeed, last night
+seemed very far away, and the incident on the terrace of very little
+consequence. Death, or the warning of death, is so solemn a thing that
+other matters dwarf beside it. But his resolution to tell Nell
+everything had not weakened, and he urged his rather tired horse along
+the steep and switchbacky road.
+
+At a place called Short's Cross he caught sight of the Shorne Mills
+carrier on his way to the station. But Drake did not guess that Nell
+was sitting under the tilt cover, that by just turning his horse and
+riding hard for a minute or two he could be beside her. He glanced at
+the cart, thought of the day he had first seen it, and of all that had
+happened since, and, gently touching his horse with his whip, rode on.
+
+The sun was sinking as he crossed the moor, and the cliffs were dyed a
+fiery red as he came in sight of them and The Cottage on the brow of the
+hill. His heart beat fast during the few minutes spent in reaching the
+garden gate. What would she say? Would she be much startled when she
+learned that he was "Lord Selbie"? Would she understand that he had
+never really loved Luce; that it was she--Nell--whom he wanted for his
+wife, had wanted almost from the first day of his seeing her?
+
+At the sound of the horse's hoofs Dick came out of The Cottage, and down
+to the gate.
+
+"Hallo!" he exclaimed. "Why, where on earth have you been?"
+
+Drake explained as he got off the horse.
+
+"I breakfasted at the Grange. I don't think I mentioned it last night,
+did I? Then I rode into Shallop with Sir William, and he had a fit of
+some sort--apoplexy, I fancy--and I had to come back and fetch Lady
+Maltby. Then the poor old chap came to, and--well, he felt like wanting
+company, and I couldn't leave him until he fell asleep."
+
+"Poor old chap! I haven't heard a word of it," said Dick. "I say, come
+in! Mamma will be delighted to hear news of that kind--no, no; I don't
+mean--you know what I mean. Something exciting like that is like a
+bottle of champagne to her."
+
+"I'll take the horse in; he's had rather a hard day of it," said Drake.
+"I've bucketed him up hill and down dale; obliged to, you know."
+
+As he spoke, he looked beyond Dick and toward the open door of The
+Cottage wistfully. Why didn't Nell come out? As a rule, it was she who
+first heard the sound of his footsteps or his horse's.
+
+"I'll take it. Oh, I say, Drake, how awfully kind of you
+to--to----Bardsley & Bardsley, you know! Upon my word, I don't know how
+to thank you! I don't, indeed!"
+
+"That's all right," said Drake. "Hope it's what you want, Dick. If it
+isn't, we must find something else. Anyway, you can try it."
+
+"What I want! Rather! I should think so! As I told Nell----"
+
+"Where is Nell, by the way?" cut in Drake, with all a lover's
+impatience.
+
+Dick looked rather taken aback.
+
+"Oh--ah--that is--I say, you know, what's this shindy between you and
+Nell?" he said, with a somewhat uneasy grin.
+
+"Shindy? What do you mean?" demanded Drake.
+
+Dick began to look uncomfortable.
+
+"I don't know anything about it," he said hesitatingly, "only what she
+told me. She was awfully upset this morning; red-eyed and white about
+the gills, and all I could understand was that it was 'all over' between
+you." He grinned again, but more uncomfortably. "Of course, I knew it
+was only a lovers' tiff--'make it up and kiss again,' don't you know."
+
+His voice and the grin died away under the change in Drake's expressive
+countenance.
+
+"What is the matter, anyway?" he demanded. "Is there a real quarrel?"
+
+"I don't know what you are talking about," said Drake, speaking as a man
+speaks when a cold fear is beginning to creep about his heart.
+
+"Well, I don't know myself," said Dick desperately. "Oh, I've got a
+letter for you somewhere--perhaps that will explain. Now, what did I do
+with it? Oh, I know! Wait a moment!"
+
+He ran into the house, and Drake waited, mechanically stroking his
+horse's sweating neck.
+
+Dick came out and held out a letter.
+
+"She gave me this for you."
+
+Drake opened the letter, and read:
+
+"DEAR DRAKE: I may call you so for the last time. I am writing to tell
+you that our engagement must come to an end. I have found that I have,
+that we both have, made a mistake. You, who are so quick to understand,
+will know, even as you read this, that I have discovered all that you
+have kept secret from me, and that, now I know it all, it is impossible,
+quite impossible, that I should----" Here a line was hastily scratched
+through. "I want you to believe that I don't blame you in the least; it
+is quite impossible that I could care for you any longer, or that I
+could consent to remain your promised wife; indeed, I am sorry, very,
+very sorry, that we should have met. If I had known all that I know now,
+I would rather have died than have let you speak a word of love to me.
+
+"So it is 'good-by' forever. Please do not make it harder for me by
+writing to me or attempting to see me--but I know that you have cared,
+perhaps still care enough for me not to do so. Nothing would induce me
+to renew our engagement, though I shall always think kindly of you, and
+wish you well. I return the ring you gave me. You will let me keep the
+silver pencil as a souvenir of one who will always remain as, but can
+never be more than, a friend.
+
+               "Yours,                              ELEANOR LORTON."
+
+Men take the blows of Fate in various fashions. Drake's way was to take
+his punishment with as little fuss as possible. His face went very
+white, and his nostrils contracted, just as they would have done if he
+had come an ugly cropper over a piece of timber.
+
+"Where--where is Nell?" he asked, in so changed and strained a voice
+that Dick started, and gaped at him, aghast.
+
+"She's----Didn't I tell you? Didn't she tell you? She's gone----"
+
+"Gone!" repeated Drake dully.
+
+"Yes; she's gone to London, to some relations of ours--that is, mamma's,
+you know!"
+
+Drake didn't know where she had gone, but he thought he understood why
+she had gone. She meant to abide by her resolution to break with him.
+Her love had changed to distrust, perhaps--God knew!--to actual dislike.
+
+He turned to the horse and mechanically arranged the bridle.
+
+"It--it doesn't matter," he said. "I'll take the horse down. Oh, by the
+way, Dick, I may have to go to London to-night."
+
+"What, you, too!" said Dick. "I say, there's nothing serious the matter,
+is there? It's only a lovers' tiff, isn't it?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," said Drake, as calmly as he could. "See here, Dick, we
+won't talk about it; I can't. Your--your sister has broken our
+engagement----Hold on! there's no use discussing it. She's quite right.
+Do you hear? She's quite right," he repeated, with a sudden fierceness.
+"Everything she says is right. I--I admit it. I am to blame."
+
+"Why, that's what she said!" exclaimed the mystified and somewhat
+exasperated Dick.
+
+"What she has said is true--too true," continued Drake; "and there's no
+more to be said. When you write--if you see her, tell her that--that--I
+obey her--it's the least I can do--and that I won't--won't worry her.
+Her word, her wish, is law to me. And--and you may say I deserve it all.
+You may say, too, that----"
+
+He broke off, and slowly, with the heaviness of a man become suddenly
+tired, got on his horse.
+
+"No; say nothing, excepting that I obey her, and that I won't worry her.
+Good-by, Dick."
+
+He held out his hand, and Dick, with an anxious face and bewildered
+eyes, clung to it.
+
+"Here, I say, Drake; this is awful! You don't mean to say it's 'good-by'!
+I don't understand."
+
+"I'm afraid it is," said Drake, pulling himself together, and forcing a
+smile. "I'm sorry to leave you, Dick; you and I have been good friends;
+but--well, the best of friends must part. I shall have gone to-night. I
+can catch the train. Look up Bardsley & Bardsley."
+
+With a nod--the nod which we give nowadays when we are saying farewell
+with a broken heart--he turned the horse down the hill and rode away.
+
+He tossed his things into a portmanteau, got the one available trap to
+carry them to the station, and caught the night mail. At Salisbury he
+changed for Southampton, and reached that flourishing port the next
+morning.
+
+The sailing master of the _Seagull_ happened to be on board when the
+owner of that well-known yacht was rowed alongside, and he hastened to
+the side and touched his hat as Drake climbed the ladder.
+
+"Did you wire, my lord?" he asked. "I haven't had anything."
+
+"No; I came rather unexpectedly," said Drake quietly. "Is everything
+ready?"
+
+"Quite, my lord, or nearly so. I think we could sail, say, in half a
+dozen hours."
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"If my cabin is ready, I'll go below and change," he said. "We'll sail
+as soon as possible."
+
+"Certainly, my lord. Where are we bound for?" asked Mr. Murphy, in as
+casual a manner as he could manage; for, though he was used to short
+notice, this, to quote his expression to the mate later on, "took the
+cake."
+
+Drake looked absently at the sky line.
+
+"Oh, the Mediterranean, I suppose," he said listlessly. He stood for a
+moment with his hand upon the rail of the saloon steps, and Mr. Murphy
+ventured to inquire:
+
+"Quite well, I hope, my lord?" for there was a pallor on his lordship's
+face which caused the worthy skipper a vague uneasiness. He had seen his
+master under various and peculiar circumstances, but had never seen him
+look quite like this.
+
+"Perfectly well and fit, thanks, captain," said Drake. "Will you have a
+cigar? Wind will just suit us, will it not?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About the same time Nell's cab arrived at Wolfer House, Egerton Square.
+There were several other cabs and carriages standing in a line opposite
+the house, and Nell's cab had to wait some little time before it could
+set her down; but at last she was able to alight, and a footman
+escorted her and her box into a large and rather gloomy hall. He seemed
+somewhat surprised by her box, and eyed her doubtfully as she inquired
+for Lady Wolfer.
+
+"Lady Wolfer? Yes, miss. Her ladyship is in the dining room. The meeting
+is now on. Perhaps you had better walk in."
+
+Sharing the man's hesitation, Nell followed him to the door. As he
+opened it, the sound of a woman's voice, thin, yet insistent and
+rasping, came out to meet her. She saw that the room was crowded. Nearly
+all who were present were women--women of various ages, but all with
+some peculiarity of manner or dress which struck Nell at the very first
+moment. But there were some men present--men with fat and rather flabby
+faces, men small and feeble in appearance, men long-haired and
+smooth-shaven.
+
+At the end of the room, behind a small table, stood a woman, still
+young, dressed in a tailor-made suit of masculine pattern and cut. Her
+hair was pretty in color and texture, but it was cut almost close, and
+just touched the collar of her covert coat. She wore a bowler hat, her
+gloves were on the table in front of her--thick, dogskin gloves, like a
+man's. She held a roll of paper in her hand, which was bare of rings,
+though feminine enough in size and shape. A pince-nez was balanced on
+her nose, and her chin--really a pretty chin--was held high in an
+aggressive manner.
+
+Nell had an idea that this was Lady Wolfer, and she edged as close to
+the wall as she could, and watched and listened to the speaker with a
+natural curiosity and anxiety.
+
+"To conclude," the orator was saying, with a wave of the roll of paper
+and a jerk of the chin, "to conclude, we are banded together to wage a
+war against our old tyrant--a war of equity and right. Oh, my sisters,
+do not let us falter, do not let us return the sword to the scabbard
+until we have cleaved our way to that goal toward which the eyes of
+suffering womanhood have been drawn since the gospel of equal rights for
+both sexes sounded its first evangel!"
+
+It was evidently the close, the peroration, of the speech; there was a
+burst of applause, much clapping of hands, and immediately afterward a
+kind of stampede to some tables, behind which a couple of footmen were
+preparing to dispense light refreshments.
+
+Nell, much mystified, and rather shy and frightened, remained where she
+was; and she was just upon the point of inquiring for Lady Wolfer, when
+the recent speaker came down the room, talking with one and another of
+the presumably less hungry mob, and catching sight of Nell's slight and
+rather shrinking figure, advanced toward her.
+
+"This is a new disciple, I suppose," she said, smiling through her
+eyeglasses.
+
+"I--I wish to see Lady Wolfer," said Nell, trying not to blush.
+
+"I am Lady Wolfer," said the youngish lady with the short hair and
+mannish suit; and she spoke in a gentler voice than Nell would have been
+inclined to credit her with.
+
+"I am--I am Nell Lorton."
+
+Lady Wolfer looked puzzled for a moment; then she laughed and held out
+her hand.
+
+"Really? Why, how young and----" She was going to say "pretty," but
+stopped in time. "Did you wire? But of course you did. I must have
+forgotten. I have such a mass of correspondence!" She laughed again. "I
+thought you were a new disciple! Come with me!"
+
+And, with what struck Nell as scant courtesy, her ladyship left the
+other ladies, took her by the hand, and led her out of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Lady Wolfer led Nell to her ladyship's own room. It was as unlike a
+boudoir as it well could be; for the furniture was of the simplest kind,
+and in place of the elegant trifles with which the fair sex usually
+delight to surround themselves, the tables, the couch, and even the
+chairs were littered with solid-looking volumes, blue books, pamphlets,
+and sheets of manuscript paper.
+
+There was a piano, it is true; but its top was loaded with handbills and
+posters announcing meetings, and the dust lay thick on its lid. The
+writing table was better suited to an office than a lady's "own room,"
+and it was strewn with the prevailing litter.
+
+Lady Wolfer cleared a chair by sweeping the books from it, and gently
+pushed Nell into it.
+
+"Now, you sit down for a moment while I ring for a maid to take you to
+your room. Heaven only knows where it is, or in what condition you will
+find it! You see, I quite forgot you were coming. Candid, isn't it? But
+I'm always candid, and I begin at once with you. By the way, oughtn't
+you to have come earlier--or later?"
+
+Nell explained that she had had her breakfast at the station, and spent
+an hour in the waiting room, so as not to present herself too early.
+
+"How thoughtful of you!" said Lady Wolfer. "You don't look--you look so
+young and--girlish."
+
+"I'm not very old," remarked Nell, with a smile. "Perhaps I'm not old
+enough to fill the position."
+
+"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't throw a doubt upon your staying!" said
+her ladyship quickly. "I'm so tired of old, or what I call old, people,
+and I am sure you will do beautifully. For, though you are so young, you
+look as if you could manage; and that is what I can't do--I mean manage
+a house. I can talk--I can talk the hind leg off a donkey, as Archie
+says"--she stopped, looking slightly embarrassed for a moment, and Nell
+supposed that her ladyship alluded to Lord Wolfer--"but when it comes to
+details, fortunately there is always somebody else."
+
+While she had been speaking, Lady Wolfer had taken off her hat and
+jacket, and flung them onto the book-and-paper-strewn couch.
+
+"I'm just come in from a breakfast meeting to attend this one at home,"
+she explained. "And I've got to go out again directly to a
+committee--the Employment of Women Bureau. Have you ever heard of it?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"No? I'm half inclined to envy you. No, I'm not! If it weren't for my
+work, I should go out of my mind."
+
+She put her hand to her head, and for an instant a wearied, melancholy
+expression flitted across her face, as if some hidden trouble had reared
+its head and grinned at her.
+
+The door opened, and a maid appeared.
+
+"Burden, this is Miss Lorton," said Lady Wolfer. "Is her room ready?"
+
+Burden looked exceedingly doubtful.
+
+"I expected it! Please have it got ready at once; and send some wine and
+biscuits, please."
+
+A footman brought them, and Lady Wolfer poured some wine out for Nell.
+
+"Oh, but you must! Heaven knows when we shall have lunch; they'll very
+likely consider that scramble downstairs as sufficient. But you'll see
+to all that for the future, won't you?"
+
+"You must tell me, Lady Wolfer----" began Nell, but her ladyship, with a
+grimace, stopped her.
+
+"My dear girl, I can't tell you anything, excepting that Lord Wolfer
+takes his breakfast early--not later than nine--is seldom in to lunch,
+and still less frequently at home to dinner; but when he does dine here,
+he dines at eight. The cook, who is, I believe, rather a decent sort of
+man, knows what Lord Wolfer likes, and you can't go very far wrong, I
+fancy, if you have a joint of roast beef or a leg of mutton on the menu;
+the rest doesn't matter."
+
+Nell began to feel daunted. There was just a little too much carte blanche
+about it.
+
+"And as to the other servants, why, there's an old person named
+Hubbard--Old Mother Hubbard, I call her--who is supposed to look after
+them."
+
+Nell could not help smiling.
+
+"I don't quite see where I come in," she remarked.
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed.
+
+"Oh, don't you?" she replied, as if she had been explaining most fully.
+"You are the figurehead, the goddess of the machine. You will see that
+all goes right, and give Lord Wolfer his breakfast, and preside at the
+dinner when I'm out on the stump----"
+
+"On the what?" asked the mystified Nell.
+
+"Out speaking at meetings or serving on committees," said Lady Wolfer.
+"And you will arrange about the dinner parties and--and all that kind of
+thing, you know--the stupid things that I'm expected to do, but which I
+really haven't any time for. Do you quite see now?"
+
+"I will do all I can," Nell said, and she laughed.
+
+Lady Wolfer glanced at her rather curiously.
+
+"How pretty you look when you laugh--quite different. You struck me as
+looking rather sad and sobered when I first saw you; but when you
+laugh----I should advise you not to laugh when you first see Lord
+Wolfer, or he'll think you too absurdly young and girlish for the post.
+Do take your hat and jacket off! It will be some time before your room
+is ready. Let me help you."
+
+Nell got her outdoor things off quickly, and Lady Wolfer looked at her
+still more approvingly.
+
+"You really are quite a child, my dear!" she said, and for some reason
+or other she sighed. "Why didn't Wolfer tell me about you before, I
+wonder? I wish he had; I should like to have had you come and stay with
+us. But he is so reserved----" she sighed again. "But never mind; you
+are here now. And how tired you must be! You are looking a little pale
+now. Why don't you drink that wine? When you are rested--quite
+rested--to-night, after dinner, perhaps--let me see, am I going
+anywhere?"
+
+She consulted a large engagement slate of white porcelain which stood
+erect on the crowded table.
+
+"Hem! yes, I have to speak at the Sisters of State Society. Never mind;
+to-morrow, after lunch--if I'm at home. Yes, I can see that we shall be
+great friends, and that is what I wanted. The others--I mean your
+predecessors--were such terrible old frumps, without any idea above
+cutlets and clean sheets, that they only bored and worried me; but you
+will be quite different----"
+
+"Perhaps I shan't be able to rise to the cutlet and clean sheets,"
+suggested Nell diffidently; but her ladyship laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes, you will!" she declared. "I am an excellent judge of
+character--it's one of my qualifications for the work I'm engaged
+in--and I can see that you are an admirable manager. I suppose you ran
+the house at home?"
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"'Home' meant quite a small cottage," she said. "This is a mansion."
+
+"Same thing," commented Lady Wolfer encouragingly. "It's all a question
+of system. I haven't any; you have; therefore you'll succeed where I
+fail. You've got that quiet, mousy little way which indicates strength
+of character----What beautiful hair you have, by the way."
+
+Nell blushed.
+
+"It's no prettier than yours. Why do you wear it so short, Lady Wolfer?"
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed--just a little wearily, so it struck Nell.
+
+"Why? Oh, I don't know. All we advanced women get our hair cut. I
+imagine we have a right to do so, and that by going cropped we assert
+that right."
+
+"I see," said Nell. "But isn't it--a pity?"
+
+Lady Wolfer looked at her curiously, with an expression which Nell did
+not understand at that early period of their acquaintance.
+
+"Does it matter?" she said. "We women have been dolls too long----"
+
+"But there are short-haired dolls," said Nell, with her native
+shrewdness.
+
+Lady Wolfer did not seem offended.
+
+"That was rather smart," she remarked. "Take care, or we shall have you
+on a public platform before long, my dear."
+
+"Oh, I hope not! I mean--I beg your pardon."
+
+"Not at all," said Lady Wolfer, with no abatement of her good humor.
+"There's no danger--fortunately, for you. No, my dear; I can see that
+yours is a very different metier. Your role is the 'angel of the
+house'--to be loved and loving." She turned to the desk as she spoke,
+and did not see the flush that rose for an instant to poor Nell's pale
+face. "You will always be the woman in chains--the slave of man. I hope
+the chain will be of roses, my dear."
+
+She stifled a sigh as she finished the pretty little sentence; and Nell,
+watching her, saw the expression of unrest and melancholy on her
+ladyship's face again. Nell wondered what was the matter, and was still
+wondering when there came a knock at the door.
+
+"Come in!" said Lady Wolfer; and a gentleman entered. He was young and
+good-looking, his tall figure clad in the regulation frock coat, in the
+buttonhole of which was a delicate orchid. The hat which he carried in his
+lavender-gloved hands shone as if it had just left the manufacturer's
+hands, and his small feet were clad in the brightest of patent-leather
+boots.
+
+"I beg pardon!" he began, in the slow drawl which fashion had of late
+ordained. "Didn't know you weren't alone. Sorry!"
+
+At the sound of his voice a faint flush rose to Lady Wolfer's rather
+pretty face.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said, nodding familiarly. "I thought it was
+Burden."
+
+"I've come to take you to the meetin'," said the beautifully dressed
+gentleman, clipping off his "g" in the manner approved by the smart set.
+
+"Thanks. This is Sir Archie Walbrooke," said Lady Wolfer, introducing
+him; "and this is my cousin--we are cousins, you know, my dear--Miss
+Lorton."
+
+Sir Archie bowed, and stared meditatively at Nell.
+
+"Goin' to the meetin', too?" he asked. "Hope so, I'm sure. Great fun,
+these meetin's."
+
+"No; oh, no," explained Lady Wolfer. "Miss Lorton has come to set us all
+straight, and keep us so, I hope."
+
+"Trust I'm included; want it," said Sir Archie--"want it badly."
+
+"Oh, you're incorrigible--incorrigibly stupid, I mean," retorted Lady
+Wolfer. "She has come to take care of us--Wolfer and me."
+
+"Run the show--I see," he said gravely. "If it isn't a rude question, I
+should like to ask: 'Who's goin' to take care of Miss Norton?'"
+
+"Lorton, Lorton," corrected Lady Wolfer. "And it is a rude question, to
+which you won't get an answer. Go downstairs and smoke a cigarette. I'll
+be ready presently."
+
+"All right--delighted; but time's up, you know," he said; and, with a
+bow to Nell, sauntered out.
+
+Lady Wolfer sat down at the desk, and wrote rapidly for a moment; then
+she said casually--a little too casually, it would have struck a woman
+of the world:
+
+"That is a great friend of mine--and Lord Wolfer's," she added quickly.
+"He is an awfully nice man, and--and very useful. He is a kind of tame
+cat here, runs in and out as he likes, and plays escort when I'm
+slumming or attending meetings. I hope you'll like him. He's not such a
+fool as he looks, and though he does clip his 'Gees'--sounds like a
+pun, doesn't it?--and cuts his sentences short, he--he is very
+good-natured and obliging."
+
+"He seems so," said Nell, a little puzzled to understand why Lady Wolfer
+did not take her maid or one of her lady friends to her meetings,
+instead of being taken by Sir Archie Walbrooke.
+
+Burden knocked at the door at this moment, and announced that Miss
+Lorton's room was ready.
+
+"Very well," said Lady Wolfer, as if relieved. "Be sure that Miss Lorton
+has everything she wants. And, oh, Burden, please understand that all
+Miss Lorton's orders are to be obeyed--I mean, obeyed without hesitation
+or question. She is absolutely in command here."
+
+"Yes, my lady," responded Burden respectfully.
+
+Nell followed her to a corridor on the next floor, and into a large and
+handsomely furnished room with which the bedchamber communicated. Her
+box had been unpacked, and its modest contents arranged in a wardrobe
+and drawers. The rooms looked as if they had been got ready hurriedly,
+but they were handsome and richly furnished, and Burden apologized for
+their lack of homeliness.
+
+"I'll get some flowers, miss," she said. "There's a big box of them
+comes up from the country place every morning. And if you think it's
+cold, I'll light a fire----"
+
+"Oh, no, no," said Nell, as brightly as she could.
+
+"And can I help you change, miss? I'm your maid, if you please."
+
+Nell shook her head, still smiling.
+
+"It is all very nice," she said, "and I shall only be a few minutes. I
+should like to go over the house," she asked, rather timidly.
+
+"If you ring that bell, miss, I will come at once; and I will tell Mrs.
+Hubbard that you want to go round with her," said Burden.
+
+Nell, after the ardently desired "wash and change," sat down by the
+window and looked onto the grimy London square, whose trees and grass
+were burned brown, and tried to convince herself that she really was
+Nell of Shorne Mills; that she really was housekeeper to Lady Wolfer;
+that this really was life, and not a fantastic dream. But it was
+difficult to do so. Back her mind would travel to Shorne Mills and
+to--to Drake.
+
+What had he done and said when he had got her letter? Ah, well, he would
+understand; yes, he would understand, and would take it as final. He
+would go away, to Lady Luce. They would be married. She would not think.
+
+Providence had sent her work--work to divert her mind and save her from
+despair, and she would not look back, would not dwell upon the past.
+But how her tender, loving heart ached and throbbed with the memory of
+those happy weeks, with the never-to-be-forgotten kisses of the man who
+had won her heart, whose face and voice haunted her every moment of the
+day.
+
+She sprang to her feet and rang the bell, and Burden came in and led her
+along the broad corridors and across the main hall. A middle-aged woman
+in a stiff, black dress stood waiting for her, and gave her a stately
+bow.
+
+"I am Mrs. Hubbard, miss," she began, rather searchingly; but Nell's
+sweet face and smile melted her at once. "I shall be pleased to take you
+hover, miss," she commenced, a little less grumpily. "It's a big 'ouse,
+and not a heasy one to manage; but per'aps, your ladyship--I beg your
+pardon, miss--per'aps you have been used to a big 'ouse?"
+
+"No, indeed," said Nell, whose native shrewdness told her that this was
+a woman who had to be conciliated. "I have never lived in anything
+bigger than a cottage, and I shall need all your help, Mrs. Hubbard. You
+will have to be very patient with me."
+
+Mrs. Hubbard had been prepared to fight, or, at any rate, to display a
+haughty stand-offishness; but she went down before the sweet face and
+girlish voice, and, if the truth must be told, by a certain something in
+Nell's eyes, which shone there when the _Annie Laurie_ was beating
+before a contrary wind; a directness of gaze which indicated a spirit,
+not easily quelled, lurking behind the dark-gray eyes.
+
+Mrs. Hubbard instantly realized that this beautiful girl, young as she
+was, was compounded of different material to the "old frumps" who had
+preceded her, and whom Mrs. Hubbard had easily vanquished, and the old
+lady changed her tactics with rather startling promptitude.
+
+She conducted Nell over the large place; the footmen and maidservants
+stood up, questionably at first, but respectfully in the end, and Nell
+tried to grasp the extent of the responsibility which she had
+undertaken.
+
+"I think it all rests with you, Mrs. Hubbard," she said, as she sat in the
+housekeeper's room, Mrs. Hubbard standing respectfully--respectfully!--in
+front of her. "I am too young and inexperienced to run so large a place
+without your help; but I think--I only think--I can do it, if you stand by
+me. Will you do so? Yes, I think you will."
+
+She looked up with the smile which had made slaves of all Shorne Mills
+in her gray eyes, and Mrs. Hubbard was utterly vanquished.
+
+"If you come to me every morning after breakfast, we can talk matters
+over," said Nell, "and can decide between us what is to be done, and
+what not to be done; but you must never forget, please, that I know so
+little about anything."
+
+And Mrs. Hubbard went back to the servants' hall with her mouth and her
+eyes set firmly.
+
+"Now, mind," she said, with an imperial dignity to the curious and
+expectant servants, "there's to be no more goings-on from this time
+forth. No more coming in by the area gate after eleven, and no more
+parties in the servants' 'all when 'is lordship and ladyship is dining
+out! An' I'll 'ave the bells answered the first time, an' no waitin'
+till they're rung twice or three times, mind! An' if you want to see the
+policeman, Mary Jane, you can slip out for five minutes; he don't come
+into the house, you understan'!"
+
+Little dreaming of the domestic reformation she had brought about, Nell
+went back to her room, and resumed her endeavor to persuade herself that
+she was not moving in a dream.
+
+Presently a gong sounded, and, guessing that it rang for lunch, she went
+down to the smaller dining room, in which Mrs. Hubbard had told her that
+meal was usually served.
+
+The butler and footman were in attendance, but, though covers were laid
+for three, there was no one present but herself.
+
+She looked round the richly decorated and handsomely furnished room, and
+felt rather lonely and helpless, but it occurred to her that either Lord
+or Lady Wolfer might come in, and that it was her place to be there; so
+she sat at the head of the table--where the butler had drawn back her
+chair for her--and began her lunch.
+
+By this time, she was feeling hungry--for she had eaten nothing since
+her very early breakfast, excepting the biscuit in Lady Wolfer's room;
+and she was in the middle of her soup when the footman went in a
+leisurely manner to the door and opened it, and a gentleman entered.
+
+Now, Nell, from Mrs. Lorton's talk of him, and his letter, had imagined
+Lord Wolfer as, if not an old man, one well past middle age; she was,
+therefore, rather startled when she saw that the gentleman who went
+straight to the bottom of the table, thus proving himself to be Lord
+Wolfer, was anything but old; indeed, still young, as age is reckoned
+nowadays. He was tall and thin, and very grave in manner and expression;
+and Nell, as with a blush she rose and eyed him, noticed, even in that
+first moment, that--strangely enough--his rather handsome face wore the
+half-sad, half-wistful expression which she had seen cross Lady Wolfer's
+pretty countenance.
+
+He had not noticed her until he had gained his chair, then he started
+slightly, as if aroused from a reverie, and came toward her.
+
+"You are--er--Miss Lorton?" he said, with an intense gravity in his
+voice and eyes.
+
+"Yes," said Nell. "And you are--Lord Wolfer?"
+
+"Your cousin--I am afraid very much removed," he responded. "When did
+you arrive? I hope you had a pleasant journey?" he replied and asked as
+he sank into his seat.
+
+Nell made a suitable response.
+
+"You will take some soup? Oh, you have some. Yes; it was a long journey.
+Have you seen my wife--Lady Wolfer? Yes? I'm glad she was in. She is
+very seldom at home." He did not sigh, by any means; but his voice had a
+chilled and melancholy note in it. "And Sophia--Mrs. Lorton--is, I hope,
+well? It is very kind of you to put in an appearance so soon. I'm afraid
+you ought to be in bed and resting."
+
+Nell laughed softly, and he looked as if the laugh had startled him, and
+surveyed her through his eyeglasses with a more lengthened and critical
+scrutiny than he had hitherto ventured on. The fresh, young loveliness
+of her face, the light that shone in her dark-gray eyes, seemed to
+impress him, and he was almost guilty of a common stare; but he
+remembered himself in time, and bent over his plate.
+
+"I am not at all tired, Lord Wolfer," said Nell. "I am not used to
+traveling--this is the first long journey I have made--but I am
+accustomed to riding"--she winced inwardly as she thought of the rides
+with Drake--"and--and--sailing and yachting."
+
+The earl nodded.
+
+"Put the--the cutlets, or whatever they are, on the table, and you may
+go," he said to the butler; and when the servants had left the room he
+said to Nell:
+
+"I seldom lunch at home, and I like to do so alone."
+
+Nell smiled. Grave as he looked, she did not feel at all afraid of him.
+
+"I did not mean that," he said, with an answering smile. "I meant
+without the servants. And so you have come to our assistance, Miss
+Lorton?"
+
+"I don't know whether that is the way to put it," said Nell, with her
+usual frankness. "I'm afraid that I shall be of very little use; but I
+am going to try."
+
+His lordship nodded.
+
+"And I think you will succeed--let me hand you a cutlet. Our great
+trouble has been--may I trouble you for the salt? Perhaps you would
+prefer to have the servants in the room?"
+
+"No, oh, no!" replied Nell, quickly, as, reaching to her fullest extent,
+she pushed the salt. "It is much nicer without them--I mean that I am
+not used to so many servants."
+
+He inclined his head.
+
+"As you please," he said courteously. "Our great trouble has been that
+my wife's public duties have prevented her from taking any share in
+domestic matters. She is--er--I presume she is not coming in to lunch?"
+he asked, with a quick glance at Nell, and an instant return to his
+plate.
+
+"N-o; I think not," replied Nell. "Lady Wolfer has gone to a
+meeting--I'm sorry to say I forget what it is. Some--some Sisters--no, I
+can't remember. It is very stupid of me," she wound up penitently.
+
+"It is of no consequence. Lady Wolfer is greatly in request; there is no
+movement of the advanced kind with which she is not connected," said his
+lordship; and though he spoke in a tone of pride, he wound up with a
+stifled sigh which reminded Nell of the sigh which she had heard Lady
+Wolfer breathe. "She is--er--an admirable speaker," he continued, "quite
+admirable. Did she go alone?"
+
+The question came so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and apparently so
+irrelevantly, that Nell was almost startled.
+
+"No," she replied. "A gentleman went with her."
+
+The earl laid down his knife and fork suddenly, then picked them up
+again, and made a great fuss with the remains of his cutlet.
+
+"Oh! Did you--er--did you hear who it was?"
+
+"Yes," said Nell, "but I can't remember his name. It has quite gone for
+the moment;" and she knit her brows.
+
+The earl stared straight at the epergne.
+
+"Was it--Sir Archie Walbrooke?" he said, in a dry, expressionless voice.
+
+Nell laughed, as one laughs at the sudden return of a treacherous
+memory.
+
+"Of course, yes! That was the name," she said brightly. "How stupid of
+me!"
+
+But Lord Wolfer did not laugh. He bent still lower over the cutlet, and
+worried the bone a minute or two in silence; then he consulted his
+watch, and rose.
+
+"I beg you will excuse me," he said. "I have an appointment--a
+meeting----"
+
+He mumbled himself out of the room, and Nell sat and gazed at the door
+which had closed behind him.
+
+She was too innocent, too ignorant of the world, to have even the
+faintest idea of the trouble which lowered over the house which she had
+entered; but a vague dread of something intangible took possession of
+her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+If Nell wanted work that would prevent her dwelling upon her heart's
+loss, she had certainly found it at Egerton House. Before a week had
+passed she had slipped into her position of presiding genius; and,
+marvelous to relate, seeing how young and inexperienced she was, she
+filled it very well.
+
+At first she was considerably worried by the condition of domestic
+affairs. Meals were prepared for persons who might or might not be
+present to eat them. Sometimes she would sit down alone to a lunch
+sufficient for half a dozen persons; at others, Lady Wolfer would come
+down at the last moment and say:
+
+"Oh, Nell, dear"--it had very quickly come to "Nell"--"ever so many
+women are coming to lunch--nine or ten, I forget which. I ought to have
+told you, oughtn't I? And I really meant to, but somehow it slipped out
+of my head. And they are mostly people with good appetites. Is there
+anything in the house? But, there! I know you will manage somehow, won't
+you, dear?"
+
+And Nell would summon the long-suffering Mrs. Hubbard, and additions
+would hastily be made to the small menu, and Nell would come in looking
+as cool and composed as if the guests had run no risk of starvation.
+
+The dinner hour, as Lady Wolfer had said, was eight, but it was often
+nine or half-past before she and Lord Wolfer put in an appearance; and
+more than once during the week the earl had been accompanied by persons
+whom he had brought from the House or some meeting, and expected to have
+them provided for.
+
+The cook never knew how many guests to expect; the coachman never knew
+when the horses and carriages would be wanted; the footmen were called
+upon to leave their proper duties and wait upon a mob of "advanced
+women" collected for a meeting--and a scramble feed--in the dining room,
+when perhaps a proper lunch should have been in preparation for an
+ordinary party.
+
+There was no rest, no cessation of the stir and turmoil in the great
+house, and amid it all Nell moved like a kind of good fairy, contriving
+to just keep the whole thing from smashing up in chaotic confusion.
+
+Presently everybody began to rely upon her, and came to her for
+assistance; and the earl himself was uneasy and dissatisfied if she were
+not at the head of the breakfast table, at which he and she very often
+made a duet. He seemed to see Lady Wolfer very seldom, and gradually
+got into the habit of communicating with her through Nell. It would be:
+
+"May I trouble you so far, Miss Lorton, as to ask Lady Wolfer if she
+intends going to the Wrexhold reception to-night?" Or: "Lady Wolfer
+wishes for a check for these bills. May I ask you to give it to her?
+Thank you very much. I am afraid I am giving you a great deal of
+trouble."
+
+Sometimes Nell would say: "Lady Wolfer is in her room. Shall I tell her
+you are here?" and he would make haste to reply:
+
+"Oh, no; not at all necessary. She may be very much engaged. Besides, I
+am just going out."
+
+Grave and reserved, not to say grim, though he was, Nell got to like
+him. His pomposity was on the surface, and his stiffness and hauteur
+were but the mannerisms with which some men are cursed. At the end of
+the week he startled her by alluding to the salary which he had offered
+her in his letter.
+
+"I am afraid you thought it a very small sum, Miss Lorton," he said. "I
+myself considered it inadequate; but I asked a friend what he paid in a
+similar case, and I was, quite wrongly, I see, guided by him."
+
+"It is quite enough," said Nell, blushing. "I think it would have been
+fairer if you had not paid me anything--at any rate, to start with."
+
+"We will, if you please, increase it to one hundred pounds," he said,
+ignoring her protest. "I beg you will not refuse; in fact, I shall
+regard your acceptance as a favor."
+
+He rose to leave the room before Nell could reply, and Lady Wolfer,
+entering with her usual rapidity, nearly ran against him. He begged her
+pardon with extreme courtesy, and was passing out, when she stopped him
+with a:
+
+"Oh, I'm glad I've seen you. Will the twenty-fourth do for the dinner
+party? Are you engaged for that night? I'm not, I think."
+
+The earl's grave eyes rested on her pretty, piquant face as she
+consulted her ivory tablets, but his gaze was lowered instantly as she
+looked up at him again.
+
+"No," he said. "Is it a large party?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I'm afraid so. I'm going over the list with Nell, here. Oh, for
+goodness' sake, don't run away, dear!" she broke off, as Nell, thinking
+herself rather de trop, moved toward an opposite door; and Nell, of
+course, remained.
+
+"She's the most awful girl to get hold of!" said her ladyship. "If ever
+you want to speak to her, to have a nice, quiet chat with her, she has
+always got to go and 'see to something.'"
+
+"I can understand that Miss Lorton's time must be much occupied," said
+the earl, with a courteous little inclination of the head to Nell.
+
+"Yes, I know; but she might occupy it with me sometimes," remarked her
+ladyship.
+
+"I can give you just five minutes," said Nell, laughing. "This is just
+my busiest hour."
+
+The earl waited for a minute, waited as if under compulsion and to see
+if Lady Wolfer had anything more to say to him, then passed out. On his
+way across the hall he met Sir Archie Walbrooke.
+
+"Mornin', Wolfer," said the young man, in his slow, self-possessed way.
+"Lady Wolfer at home? Got to see her about--'pon my honor, forget what
+it was now!"
+
+The earl smiled gravely.
+
+"You will find her in the library, Walbrooke," he said, and went on his
+way.
+
+Sir Archie was shown into the room where Lady Wolfer and Nell were
+conferring over the dinner party, and Lady Wolfer looked up with an
+easy:
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it? What brings you here? Oh, never mind, if you can't
+remember; I dare say I shall presently. Meanwhile, you can help us make
+out this list."
+
+"Always glad to make myself useful," he drawled, seating himself on the
+settee beside Lady Wolfer, and taking hold of one side of the piece of
+paper which she held.
+
+They were soon so deeply engaged that Nell, eager to get to Mrs.
+Hubbard, left them for a while.
+
+When she came in again, the list was lying on the floor, Lady Wolfer was
+leaning forward, with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her pretty
+face lined and eloquent of some deep emotion, and Sir Archie was talking
+in a low, and, for him, eager tone.
+
+As Nell entered, Lady Wolfer rose quickly, and Sir Archie, fumbling at
+his eyeglass, looked for the moment somewhat disconcerted.
+
+"If we're goin' to this place, hadn't we better go?" he said, with his
+usual drawl; and Lady Wolfer, murmuring an assent, left the room. Nell,
+following her to her room to ask a question about the dinner party, was
+surprised and rather alarmed at finding her pale and trembling.
+
+"Oh, what is the matter?" Nell asked. "Are you ill?"
+
+"No, oh, no! It is nothing," Lady Wolfer replied hastily. "Where is my
+hat? No, don't ring for my maid. Help me--you help me----"
+
+She let her hand rest for a moment on Nell's arm, and looked into her
+grave eyes wistfully.
+
+"Were you--were you ever in trouble, Nell?" she asked. "I mean a great
+trouble, which threatened to overshadow your life--not a death; that is
+hard enough to fight, but--how foolishly I am talking! And how white you
+have gone! Why, child, you can't know anything of such trouble as I
+mean! What is it?" she broke off, as the maid knocked at the door and
+entered.
+
+"The phaeton is ready, my lady; and Sir Archie says are you going to
+drive, or is he? because, if so, he will change his gloves, so as not to
+keep your ladyship waiting."
+
+"I don't care--oh, he can drive," said Lady Wolfer. She spoke as if the
+message, acting as a kind of reminder, had helped her to recover her
+usual half-careless, half-defiant mood. "About this dinner, Nell; will
+you ask Lord Wolfer if there is any one he would like asked, and add
+them to the list? Where did I leave it? Oh, it's in the library."
+
+Nell went down for it, and, as she opened the door, Sir Archie came
+forward with an eager and anxious expression on his handsome face--an
+expression which changed to one of slight embarrassment as he saw that
+it was Nell.
+
+"The list? Ah, yes; here it is. I'm afraid it's not fully made out; but
+there's plenty of time. Is Lady Wolfer nearly ready?"
+
+Nell went away with a vague feeling of uneasiness. Had Lady Wolfer been
+telling Sir Archie of her "trouble"? If so, why did she not tell her
+husband? But perhaps she had.
+
+Nell had no time to dwell upon Lady Wolfer's incoherent speech, for the
+coming dinner party provided her with plenty to think about. She had
+hoped that she herself would not be expected to be present, but when on
+the following evening she expressed this hope, Lady Wolfer had laughed
+at her.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "don't expect that you are going to be let
+off. Of course, you don't want to be present; neither do I, nor any of
+the guests. Everybody hates and loathes dinner parties; but so they do
+the influenza and taxes; but most of us have to have the influenza and
+pay the taxes, all the same."
+
+"But I haven't a dress," said Nell.
+
+"Then get one made. Send to Cerise and tell her that I say she is to
+build you one immediately. Anyway, dress or no dress, you will have to
+be present. Why, I shouldn't be at all surprised if my husband refused
+to eat his dinner if you were not."
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"And I know that Lord Wolfer would not notice my presence or my
+absence," she said.
+
+Lady Wolfer looked at her rather curiously, certainly not jealously, but
+gravely and wistfully.
+
+"My dear Nell, don't you know that he thinks very highly of you, and
+that he considers you a marvel of wisdom and cleverness?"
+
+"I should be a marvel of conceit and vanity if I were foolish enough to
+believe that you meant some of the pretty things you say to me,"
+remarked Nell. "And have I got the complete list of all the guests? I
+asked Lord Wolfer, and he said that he should like Lord and Lady
+Angleford invited."
+
+Lady Wolfer nodded.
+
+"All right. You will find their address in the _Court Guide_. But I think
+he has the gout, and Lady Angleford never goes anywhere without him.
+Did--did my husband say anything more about the party--or--anything?" she
+asked, bending over the proofs of a speech she was correcting.
+
+"No," said Nell. "Only that he left everything to you, of course."
+
+"Of course," said her ladyship. "He is, as usual, utterly indifferent
+about everything concerning me. Don't look so scared, my child," she
+added, with a bitter little laugh. "That is the usual attitude of the
+husband, especially when he is a public man, and needs a figure to sit
+at the head of his table and ride in his carriages instead of a wife!
+There! you are going to run away, I see. And you look as if I had talked
+high treason. My dear Nell, when you know as much of the world as you
+know of your prayer book----Bah! why should I open those innocent eyes
+of yours? Run away--and play, I was going to say; but I'm afraid you
+don't get much play. Archie was saying only yesterday that we were
+working you too hard, and that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves."
+
+Nell flushed rather resentfully.
+
+"I am much obliged to Sir Archie's expression of sympathy," she began.
+
+"Yes! You sound like it!" said Lady Wolfer, laughing. "My dear, why
+don't you get angry oftener? It suits you. Your face just wants that
+dash of color; and I'd no idea your eyes were so violety! You can give
+me a kiss if you like--mind the ink! Ah, Nell, some day some man will go
+mad over that same face and eyes of yours. Well, don't marry a
+politician, or a man who thinks it undignified to care for his wife!
+There, do go!"
+
+As Nell went away, puzzled by Lady Wolfer's words and manner, her
+ladyship let her head fall upon her hand, and, sighing deeply, gazed at
+the "proof" as if she had forgotten it.
+
+Nell did not send for Madame Cerise, but purchased a skirt of black lace,
+and set to work to make up the bodice. She was engaged on this one evening
+two nights before the dinner, when Burden came in with:
+
+"A gentleman to see you, miss. He's in the library. It's Mr. Lorton,
+your brother, I think----"
+
+Nell was on the stairs before the maid had finished, and running into
+the library, had got Dick in her arms--and his brand-new hat on the
+floor.
+
+"Dick! Oh, Dick! Is it really you?"
+
+"Yes; but there won't be much left of me if you continue garroting me;
+and would you mind my picking up my hat? It is the only one I've got,
+and we don't grow 'em at Shorne Mills! Why, Nell, how--yes, how thin
+you've got! And, I say, what a swagger house! I'd always looked upon
+mamma's swell relations as a kind of 'Mrs. Harrises,' until now."
+
+He nodded, as he endeavored to smooth the roughened silk of his hat.
+
+"Mamma--tell me; she is all right, Dick?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I've got no end of messages. She's had your letters, all of
+'em; and she hopes that you are taking advantage of your splendid
+position. Is it a splendid position, Nell? They seemed to think me of
+some consequence when I mentioned, dissembling my pride in the
+connection, that I was your brother."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"Yes, yes; it is all right, and I am quite--happy. And Shorne Mills,
+Dick, are they all well?"
+
+"And kicking. I've got a hundred messages which you can sum up in 'love
+from all.' And, Nell, I've only time to say how are you, for I'm going
+to catch the Irish mail. Fact! Bardsley & Bardsley are sending me to
+some engineering work there. How's that for high? Ah, would you!"
+gingerly whisking his hat behind him. "Keep off; and, Nell, how's
+Drake?"
+
+The abrupt question sent the blood rushing through Nell's face, and then
+as suddenly from it, leaving it stone white.
+
+"Drake--Mr. Vernon?" she said, almost inaudibly. "I--I do not know. I--I
+have not seen--heard."
+
+"No? That's rum! I should have thought that tiff was over by this time.
+Can't make it out! What have you been doing, Miss Lorton?"
+
+Nell bravely tried to smile.
+
+"You--you have seen him? You never wrote and told me, Dick! You--you
+gave him my note?"
+
+Dick nodded rather gravely.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And--and----" She could not speak.
+
+"Oh, yes; I gave it him, and he said----Well, he looked broken up over
+it; quite broken up. He said--let me see; I didn't pay very much
+attention because I thought he'd write to you and see you. They
+generally wind up that way, after a quarrel, don't they?"
+
+"It does not matter. No, I have not seen or heard," said Nell.
+
+"Well, he said: 'Tell her that it's quite true.' Dashed if I know what
+he meant! And that he wouldn't worry you, but would obey you and not
+write or see you. I think that was all."
+
+It was enough. If the faintest spark of hope had been left to glow in
+Nell's bosom, Drake's message extinguished it.
+
+Her head dropped for a moment, then she looked up bravely.
+
+"It was what I expected, Dick. It--was like him. No, no; don't speak;
+don't say any more about it. And you'll stay, Dick? Lady Wolfer will be
+glad to see you. They are all so kind to me, and----"
+
+"I'm so glad to hear that," said Dick; "because if they hadn't been I
+should have insisted upon your going home. But I suppose they really are
+kind, and don't starve you, though you are so thin."
+
+"It's the London air, or want of air," said Nell. "And mamma, does
+she"--she faltered wistfully--"miss me?"
+
+"We all miss you--especially the butcher and the baker," replied Dick
+diplomatically. "And now I'm off. And, Nell--oh, do mind my hat!--if you
+know Drake's address, I should like to write to him."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Strange," said Dick. "I wrote to the address in London to which I
+posted the letters when he was ill, and it came back 'Not known.' I--I
+think he must have gone abroad. Well, there, I won't say any more;
+but--'he was werry good to me,' as poor Joe says in the novel, you know,
+Nell."
+
+Yes, it was well for Nell that she had no time to dwell upon her heart's
+loss; and yet she found some minutes for that "Sorrow's crown of
+sorrow," the remembrance of happier days, as she leaned over her black
+lace bodice that night when the great house was silent, and the quiet
+room was filled with visions of Shorne Mills--visions in which Drake,
+the lover who had left her for Lady Luce, was the principal figure.
+
+On the night of the big dinner party, she, having had the last
+consultation with Mrs. Hubbard and the butler, went downstairs. The vast
+drawing-room was empty, and she was standing by the fire and looking at
+the clock rather anxiously--for it was quite on the cards that Lady
+Wolfer would be late, and that some of the guests would arrive before
+the hostess was ready to receive them--when the door opened and her
+ladyship entered. She was handsomely dressed, and wore the family
+diamonds, and Nell, who had not before seen her so richly attired and
+bejeweled, was about to express her admiration, when Lady Wolfer stopped
+short and surveyed the slim figure of her "housekeeper companion" with
+widely opened eyes and a smile of surprise and friendly approval.
+
+"My dear child, how--how----Ahem! no, it's no use; I must speak my mind!
+My dear Nell, if I were as vain as some women, and, like most, had a
+strong objection to being cut out in my own house by my own cousin, I
+should send you to bed! Where did you get that dress, and who made it?"
+
+Nell laughed and blushed.
+
+"I bought it in Regent Street--half of it--and made the rest; and please
+don't pretend that you like it."
+
+"I won't," said Lady Wolfer succinctly. "My dear, you are too pretty for
+anything, and the dress is charming! Oh, mine! Mine is commonplace
+compared beside it, and smacks the modiste and the Louvre; while
+yours----Archie is right; you have more taste than Cerise herself----"
+She broke off as the earl entered. "Don't you admire Nell's dress?" she
+said, but with her eyes fixed on one of her bracelets, which appeared to
+have come unfastened.
+
+The earl looked at Nell--blushing furiously now--with grave attention.
+
+"I always admire Miss Lorton's dresses," he said, with a little bow.
+Then his eyes wandered to the white arm and the open bracelet, and he
+made a step toward his wife; then he hesitated, and, before he could
+make up his mind to fasten it, she had snapped to the clasp.
+
+"I tell her she will cause a sensation to-night," she said, moving away.
+
+He looked at his wife gravely.
+
+"Indeed, yes," he said absently. "Is it not time some of them arrived?"
+
+As he spoke, the footman announced Lady Angleford.
+
+She came forward, her train sweeping behind her, a pleasant smile on her
+mignonne face.
+
+"Am I the first, Lady Wolfer? That is the punishment for American
+punctuality!"
+
+"So good of you!" murmured Lady Wolfer. "And where is Lord Angleford?"
+
+"I'm sorry, but he has the gout!"
+
+Lady Wolfer expressed her regret.
+
+"And Lord Selbie?" she asked. "Shall we see him?"
+
+"Did you ask him?" asked Lady Angleford, her brow wrinkling eagerly. "Is
+he in England? Have you heard that he has returned?"
+
+Another woman would have been embarrassed, but Lady Wolfer was too
+accustomed to getting into scrapes of this kind not to find a way out of
+them.
+
+"Isn't that like me? Nell, dear--this is my cousin and our guardian
+angel, Miss Lorton--Lady Angleford! Did we ask Lord Selbie?"
+
+Nell smiled and shook her head.
+
+"N-o," she said; "his name was not on the list, I think."
+
+Lady Angleford, who had been looking at her with interest, went up to
+her.
+
+"It wouldn't have been any use," she said. "He is abroad--somewhere."
+
+She stifled a sigh as she spoke.
+
+"Then there is no need for us to feel overwhelmed with guilt, Nell,"
+said Lady Wolfer. "Come and warm yourself, my dear. Oh, that gout! No
+wonder you won't join the 'Advance Movement!' You've quite enough to try
+you. Nell, come and tell Lady Angleford how hard I work."
+
+Nell came forward to join in the conversation; but all the time they
+were talking she was wondering where she had heard Lord Selbie's name!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Lord Selbie?--Lord Selbie? Nell worried her memory in vain. She had read
+extracts from the _Fashion Gazette_ so often, the aristocratic names had
+passed out of her mind almost before she had pronounced them, and it was
+not surprising that she should fail to recall this Lord Selbie's.
+
+She had not much time or opportunity for reflection, for the other
+guests were arriving, and the party was almost complete. As she stood a
+little apart, she noticed the dresses, and smiled as she felt how
+incapable she would be of describing their magnificence to mamma. It was
+her first big dinner party, and she was amused and interested in
+watching the brilliant groups, and in listening to the small talk.
+
+Lady Wolfer's clear voice could be heard distinctly; but though she
+talked and laughed with apparent ease and freedom, Nell fancied that her
+ladyship was not quite at her ease, that there was something forced in
+her gayety, and that her laugh now and again rang false. Nell saw, too,
+that Lady Wolfer's glance wandered from time to time to the door, as if
+she were waiting for some one.
+
+The earl came up to Nell.
+
+"Are we all here? It is late," he said, in his grave way, and glancing
+at the clock.
+
+Nell looked around and counted.
+
+"One more," she said, in as low a tone. As she spoke, the door opened,
+and Sir Archie Walbrooke entered.
+
+Nell heard Lady Wolfer hesitate in the middle of a sentence, and saw her
+turn away, with her back to the door.
+
+Sir Archie came across the room in his usual deliberate fashion, as
+self-possessed and impassive as if he were quite ignorant that he had
+kept a roomful of people waiting.
+
+Lady Wolfer gave him her hand without breaking off her conversation with
+the prime minister, who was chatting and laughing with the carelessness
+of a boy, and as if he had never even heard of a ministerial crisis.
+
+"Afraid I'm late," said Sir Archie, in slow and even tones. "Cab horse
+fell down--nearly always does when I'm behind one. Strange."
+
+"I will hand your excuse to the cook," said Lady Wolfer. "I hope he will
+believe it. None of us do, I assure you."
+
+The butler announced dinner, and the party coupled and filed in, the
+earl taking a dowager duchess, a good-natured lady with an obvious wig
+and cheeks which blushed--with rouge--like unto those of a dairymaid.
+Nell fell to the lot of an undersecretary for the colonies, who was so
+great a favorite of the prime minister's that no one dreamed of asking
+the great man without sending an invitation to his friend, who was
+generally known as "Sir Charles." Like most clever men, he was
+simplicity itself, and he watched Nell through his pince-nez as she
+surveyed the brilliant line of guests round the long, oblong table, with
+an interest in her interest.
+
+"How well Lady Wolfer is looking to-night," he said, staring at the
+hostess at the head of the table. Her eyes were bright, a faint flush on
+her cheeks, and her soft hair, which her maid had arranged as
+advantageously as short hair can be dressed, shone in the subdued light
+of the shaded candles. "One is so accustomed to seeing her in--well,"
+and he smiled, "strictly business garb, that full war paint strikes one
+with the revelation of her prettiness."
+
+"Yes; isn't she pretty?" said Nell eagerly. "But I always think she is;
+though, of course, I like her best in evening dress."
+
+He smiled at the promptitude of her ingenious admiration.
+
+"If I had my way, your sex should always wear one of two costumes: a
+riding habit or dinner dress."
+
+"That would be rather inconvenient," said Nell. "Imagine walking out on
+a wet day in a habit or a ball frock!"
+
+"I know," he said. "But I don't think you ought to walk out on a wet
+day."
+
+"You ought to live in Turkey," said Nell, with a laugh.
+
+"That is rather neat," he said approvingly; "but pray, don't repeat my
+speech to Lady Wolfer; she would think me exceedingly frivolous, and I
+spend my time in the endeavor to convince her of my gravity and
+discretion."
+
+"Are all politicians supposed to be grave?" asked Nell, glancing at the
+prime minister, who had just related an anecdote in his own inimitable
+manner, and was laughing as heartily as if he had not a care in the
+world.
+
+Sir Charles followed her eyes and smiled.
+
+"Judging by Mr. Gresham, one would answer with an emphatic negative," he
+said. "But he is an exception to the rule. He is only grave when he is
+in the House--and not always then. I have known him crack a joke--and
+laugh at it--at the very moment the fate of his ministry swung in the
+balance. Some men are born boys, and remain so all their lives, and
+some----" He stopped and involuntarily looked at his host, who sat at
+the end of the table, his tall, thin figure bolt upright, his face with
+a kind of courteous gravity. He had heard the anecdote and paid it the
+tribute of a smile, but the smile had passed quickly, and his
+countenance had resumed its wonted seriousness in a moment.
+
+"I always regard Lord Wolfer as a model of what a statesman should
+seem," said Sir Charles. "I mean that he, more than any man I know,
+comes up to the popular idea of a great statesman--that is, in manner
+and bearing."
+
+Nell remained silent. It was not befitting that she should discuss her
+host and employer; and she wondered whether the clever undersecretary
+beside her knew who she was and the position she held in the house. She
+did not know enough of the world to be aware that nowadays one discusses
+one's friends--even at their own tables--with a freedom which would have
+shocked an earlier generation.
+
+"I often think," he continued, "that Lord Wolfer would have served the
+moralists as an instance of the vanity of human wishes."
+
+"Why?" Nell could not help asking.
+
+"Think of it!" he said, with a slight laugh. "He is the bearer of an old
+and honored title, he is passing rich, he is a cabinet minister, he is
+married to an extremely clever and charming lady--we agreed that she is
+pretty, too, didn't we?--and----" He paused a moment. "Should you say
+that Lord Wolfer is a happy man?"
+
+As he put this significant question, which explained his remark about
+the vanity of human wishes, Nell looked at the earl. He was apparently
+listening to the duchess by his side; but his eyes, under their
+straight, dark brows, were fixed upon his wife, who, leaning forward
+slightly, was listening with downcast eyes and a smile to Sir Archie, a
+few chairs from her.
+
+Nell flushed.
+
+"N-o, I don't know," she said, rather confusedly. "Lord Wolfer has so
+much on his mind--politics, and----He is nearly always at work; he is
+often in his study writing until early morning."
+
+Sir Charles looked at her quickly.
+
+"You know them very well. You are staying here?" he asked.
+
+"I live here," said Nell simply. "I am what Sir Archie Walbrooke calls
+'general utility.' Lady Wolfer has so much to do, and I help her keep
+house, or try and persuade myself that I do."
+
+Sir Charles was too much a man of the world to be discomfited; but he
+laughed a little ruefully as he said:
+
+"That serves me right for discussing people with a lady with whom I
+haven't the honor and pleasure of an acquaintance. It reminds me of that
+very old story of the man at the evening party, which you no doubt
+remember."
+
+"No; I've heard so few stories, old or new," said Nell, smiling. "Please
+tell it me."
+
+"I will if you'll tell me your name in exchange; mine is Fletcher, but I
+am usually called Sir Charles because Mr. Gresham honors me with his
+close friendship. 'Charles, his friend,' as they used to put it in the
+old play books, you know."
+
+"I see; and my name is Lorton, Eleanor Lorton, commonly called Nell
+Lorton--because I have a brother. And the story?"
+
+Sir Charles laughed.
+
+"Oh, it's too old; but, old as it is, I had forgotten to take its moral
+to heart. A man was leaning against the wall, yawning, at an evening
+party. He was fearfully bored, for he knew scarcely any one there, and
+had been brought at the last moment by a friend. As he was making up his
+mind to cut it, another man came and leaned against the wall beside him
+and yawned, also. Said the first: 'Awful slow, isn't it?' 'Yes,' replied
+Number Two, 'frightful crush and beastly hot.' 'Dreadful. I could stand
+it a little longer if that woman at the piano would leave off squalling.
+Come round to my club, and let us get a drink and a smoke.' 'Nothing
+would give me more pleasure! Wish I could!' replied Number Two. 'But you
+see, unfortunately for me, this is my house, and the lady at the piano
+is my wife.'"
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"It is a good story," she said. "The first man must have felt very
+foolish."
+
+"Yes," assented Sir Charles; "I know exactly how he felt. I hope you
+forgive me, Miss Lorton? Can I make amends in any way for my stupidity?"
+
+"You might tell me who some of the people are," said Nell. "I only know
+them by name--and scarcely as much as that. I have not been here very
+long, and this is my first dinner party."
+
+"How I envy you!" he said, with a sigh. "Dear me! I seem fated to put my
+foot into it to-night! But you know what I mean, or you would if you
+dined out as often as I--and Mr. Gresham do. Whom would you like me to
+tell you about? I think I know everybody here. One moment! Mr. Gresham
+is going to tell the story of his losing himself in London; it was in
+one of the new streets, for the making of which he had been a strong
+advocate."
+
+They waited until the story was told, and the prime minister had enjoyed
+the laughter, and then Nell said:
+
+"That little lady with the diamond tiara and the three big rubies on her
+neck is Lady Angleford--I know her name because I was introduced to her
+before dinner. I like the look of her so much; and she has so pleasant a
+voice and smile. Please tell me something about her."
+
+"An easy task," said Sir Charles. "She is Lord Angleford's young
+wife--an American heiress. I like her very much. In fact, though I have
+not known her very long, I am honored with her friendship. And yet I
+ought not to like her," he added, almost to himself.
+
+Nell opened her eyes upon him.
+
+"Why not?" she asked.
+
+Sir Charles was silent for a moment; then he said, as if he were
+weighing his words, and choosing suitable ones for his auditor:
+
+"Lord Angleford has a nephew who is a great, a very great friend of
+mine--Lord Selbie. He was Lord Angleford's heir; but--well, his uncle's
+marriage may make all the difference to him."
+
+Nell knit her brows and made another call on her memory.
+
+"Of course!" she exclaimed, in a tone of triumph, which rather surprised
+Sir Charles. "I remember reading about it. Lord Selbie! Yes--oh, yes; I
+recollect."
+
+Her voice grew sad and absent, as she recalled the afternoon when Mrs.
+Lorton had insisted upon her reading the stupid society paper to Drake.
+How long ago it seemed! How unreal!
+
+"I dare say," said Sir Charles. "It's one of those things which the
+world chatters about, and the newspapers paragraph. Poor Selbie!"
+
+"Was he a very great friend of yours?" asked Nell, rather mechanically,
+her eyes wandering from one face to another.
+
+"Yes, very great," replied the undersecretary, with a warmth which one
+does not look for in a professional politician. "We were at Eton
+together, and we saw a great deal of each other afterward, though he
+went into the army, and I, for my sins, fell into politics. He is one of
+the best of fellows, an Admirable Crichton, at once the envy and the
+despair of his companions. There is scarcely anything that Selbie
+doesn't do, and he does all things well--the best shot, the best rider,
+the best fencer, the best dancer of his set, and the best-hearted. Poor
+old chap!"
+
+It was evident that he had, in his enthusiasm, almost forgotten his
+auditor.
+
+"Where is he now?" asked Nell. "I heard Lady Angleford say that he is
+abroad."
+
+"Yes. No one knows where he is. He has disappeared. It sounds a strong
+word, but it is the only one that will meet the case. And perhaps it was
+the best thing he could do. When a man's prospects are blighted, and his
+ladylove has jilted him----"
+
+Nell turned quickly. She had tried to remember the whole of the
+paragraph she had read to Drake, but she could not.
+
+"What was the name of the lady who--who jilted him?" she asked.
+
+Sir Charles was about to reply, and if he had spoken, Nell would have
+learned Drake's identity; but at that moment there came a lull in the
+conversation, and before it had recommenced, the prime minister leaned
+forward and asked a question of his friend. The answer led to a general
+discussion, and at its close Lady Wolfer smiled and raised her eyebrows
+at the duchess, received a responsive nod, and the ladies rose.
+
+Sir Archie was the gentleman nearest the door, and he opened it for
+them. As Lady Wolfer was passing through, a flower fell from the bosom
+of her dress. He picked it up and held it out to her, with a bow and a
+smile; but she had turned to say something to the lady behind her, and
+he drew his hand back and concealed the flower in it.
+
+Nell, who chanced to be looking at him, was, perhaps, the only one who
+saw the action, and she thought little of it. He could scarcely
+interrupt Lady Wolfer by a too-insistent restoration of the blossom.
+
+With the flower in his hand, Sir Archie went back to the table. The
+other men had closed up near the earl, but Sir Archie retained his seat.
+He allowed the butler to fill his glass and raised it to his lips with
+his right hand; then, after a moment or two, he took the flower from his
+left and fixed it in the buttonhole of his coat.
+
+It was a daring thing to do; but he had been--well, not too sparing of
+the wine, and his usually pale and impassive face was flushed, and
+indicative of a kind of suppressed excitement.
+
+Perhaps he thought that no one would recognize the flower, and probably
+no one did--no one, that is, but the earl. His eyes, as they glanced
+down the row of men, saw the blossom in its conspicuous place in Sir
+Archie's coat, and the earl's face went white, and his thin lips
+twitched.
+
+"Have you any wine, Walbrooke?" he asked.
+
+The butler had left the room.
+
+Sir Archie started, as if his thoughts had been wandering.
+
+"Eh? Oh--ah! thanks!" he said.
+
+He took the decanter from the man next him, and filled his glass. The
+earl's eyes rested grimly upon the flower for a moment, then, as if with
+an effort, he turned to Mr. Gresham and got into talk with him. No man
+in the whole world was more ready to talk than the prime minister. The
+other men joined in the conversation, which was anything but
+political--all but Sir Archie. He sat silent and preoccupied, filling
+his glass whenever the decanter was near him, and drinking in a
+mechanical way, as if he were scarcely conscious of what he was doing.
+Now and then he glanced at the flower in his coat, deeming the glance
+unnoticed; but the earl saw it, and every time he detected the downward
+droop of the eyes, his own grew sterner and more troubled.
+
+Meanwhile, in the drawing-room, the ladies were sipping their coffee and
+conversing in the perfunctory fashion which prevails while they are
+awaiting the arrival of the gentlemen.
+
+Lady Wolfer, who had, up to the present, borne her part in the
+entertainment extremely well, suddenly appeared to have lost all
+interest and all desire to continue it. She seated herself beside the
+fire and next the easy-chair into which the duchess had sunk, and gazed
+dreamily over the screen which she held in her hand. Some of the ladies
+gathered in little groups, others turned to the books and albums, one or
+two yawned almost openly. A kind of blight seemed falling upon them.
+Nell, who was unused to the phenomena of dinner parties, looked round,
+aghast. Were they all going to sleep? Suddenly she realized that it was
+at just such a moment as this that she was supposed to come in. She
+went up to Lady Wolfer and bent down to her.
+
+"Won't somebody play or sing?" she asked. "They all seem as if they were
+going to sleep."
+
+"Let them!" retorted Lady Wolfer, almost loudly enough for those near to
+hear. "I don't care. Ask some one to sing, if you like."
+
+Nell went up to a young girl who stood, half yawning, before a picture
+of Burne-Jones'.
+
+"Will you play or sing?" she asked.
+
+The girl looked at her with languid good humor.
+
+"I'd sing; but I can't. I have no parlor tricks," she said. "Besides,
+what's the use? Nobody wants it," and she smiled with appalling candor.
+
+Nell turned from her in despair, and met Lady Angleford's eyes bent upon
+her with smiling and friendly interest. Nell went up to her appealingly.
+
+"I want some one to sing or play--or do something, Lady Angleford," she
+said.
+
+Lady Angleford laughed, the comprehensive, American laugh which conveys
+so much.
+
+"And they won't? I know. It isn't worth while till the gentlemen come
+in," she said. "I know that--now. It used to puzzle me at first; but I
+know now. You English are so--funny! In America a girl is quite content
+to sing to her lady friends; but here--well, only men count as audience.
+They will all wake up when the men appear. I have learned that. Or
+perhaps you will play or sing?"
+
+Lady Wolfer was near enough to hear.
+
+"Yes, Nell, sing," she said, with a forced smile.
+
+Nell looked round shyly, then went to the piano.
+
+"That's the sweetest girl I've seen in England," said Lady Angleford to
+her neighbor, who happened to be the dowager duchess. Her grace put up
+her eyeglasses, with their long holder, and surveyed the slim, girlish
+figure on its way to the grand piano.
+
+"Yes? She's awfully pretty. And very young, too. A connection of the
+Wolfers', isn't she? Rather sad face."
+
+"A face with a history," said Lady Angleford, more to herself than the
+duchess. "Do you know anything about her, duchess?"
+
+Her grace shrugged her fat shoulders sleepily.
+
+"Nothing at all. She's here as a kind of lady companion, or something of
+the sort. Yes, she's pretty, decidedly. Are you going on to the
+Meridues' reception?"
+
+Nell sat down and played her prelude rather nervously; then she sang one
+of the songs which she had sung in The Cottage at Shorne Mills--one of
+the songs to which Drake had never seemed tired of listening. There was
+a lull in the lifeless, perfunctory conversation, and one or two of the
+sleepy women murmured: "Thank you! Thank you very much!"
+
+"Bravo! Sing us something else, Nell!" said Lady Wolfer.
+
+Nell was in the middle of the second song when the men filed in. Some of
+them came straight into the room and sought the women they wanted,
+others hung about the doors, and, hiding their yawns, glanced quite
+openly at their watches.
+
+The earl made his way to his wife where she was sitting by the fire, her
+eyes fixed on the flames, which she could just see over the top of her
+hand screen.
+
+"I have to go on to the Meridues' when these have gone," he said. "Are
+you coming, Ada?"
+
+She glanced up at him. His eyes were fixed on the bosom of her dress, on
+the spot where the white blossom had shone conspicuously, but shone no
+longer; and there was a wistful, yearning expression on his grave face.
+
+She did not raise her eyes.
+
+"I don't know. I may be tired. Perhaps I may follow you."
+
+He bowed, almost as he would have bowed to a stranger; then, as he was
+turning away, he said casually, but with a faint tremor in his voice:
+
+"You have lost your flower!"
+
+She raised her eyes and looked at him coldly.
+
+"My flower? Ah, yes. My maid must have put it in insecurely."
+
+The earl said nothing, but his grave eyes slowly left her face and
+wandered to Sir Archie and the flower in his buttonhole.
+
+"I will wait for you until twelve," he said, with cold courtesy.
+
+Lady Wolfer rose and went toward Lady Angleford.
+
+"I wish you'd join us, my dear," she said. "Why, the woman movement
+sprang from America. You ought to sympathize with us."
+
+"Oh, but I'm English now," said Lady Angleford, "and, being a convert,
+I'm more English than the English. What a charming specimen of your
+country you have in Miss Lorton! I don't want to rob you of her, but do
+you think you could spare her to come to us at Anglemere? We are going
+there almost directly."
+
+Lady Wolfer replied absently:
+
+"Yes, certainly; ask her. It will not matter to me."
+
+"Not matter!" said Lady Angleford. "Why, I should have thought you would
+have suffered pangs at the mere thought of parting with her. She is an
+angel! Did you hear her sing just now? I don't know much about your
+English larks, but I was comparing her with them----"
+
+Lady Wolfer fanned herself vigorously.
+
+"Ask her, by all means," she said. "Oh, yes; of course I shall miss
+her."
+
+As she spoke, Sir Archie came toward her. A faint flush rose to her
+face. Her eyes fell upon the white flower in his buttonhole.
+
+"Why--how----Is that my flower?" she said, in a low voice.
+
+"Yes," he replied. "It is yours. You dropped it, and I picked it up. Has
+any one a better right to it?"
+
+She looked up at him half defiantly, half pleadingly.
+
+"You have no right to it," she said, in a low voice, which she tried in
+vain to keep steady. "You--you are attracting attention----"
+
+She glanced at the women near her, some of whom were eying the pair with
+sideway looks of curiosity.
+
+"I am desperate," he said; "I can bear it no longer. I told you the
+other day that I had come to the end of my power of endurance. You--you
+are cold--and cruel. I want your decision; I must have it. I cannot
+bear----"
+
+"Hush!" she said warningly, the screen in her hand shaking. "I will
+speak to you later--after--after some of them have gone. No; not
+to-night. Do not remain here any longer."
+
+"As you please," he said, with a sullen resentment; and he crossed the
+room to Nell, and began to talk to her. As a rule, he talked very
+little; but the wine had loosened his tongue, and he launched out into a
+cynical and amusing diatribe against society and all its follies.
+
+Nell listened with surprise at first; then she began to feel amused, and
+laughed.
+
+He drew a chair near her and bent toward her, lowering his voice and
+speaking in an impressive tone quite unusual with him. To the casual
+observer it might well have seemed that they were carrying on a
+desperate flirtation; but every now and then he paused absently, and
+presently he rose almost abruptly and went into an anteroom.
+
+An antique table with writing materials stood in a recess. He wrote
+something rapidly on a half sheet of note paper, and placing it inside a
+book, laid the volume on the pedestal of a Sevres vase standing near the
+table.
+
+When he left Nell, Lady Wolfer crossed over to her.
+
+"Sir Archie has been amusing you, dear?" she said, casually enough; but
+the smile which accompanied the remark did not harmonize with the
+unsmiling and anxious eyes.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing. "He has been talking the most utter
+nonsense."
+
+"He--he is very strange to-night," said Lady Wolfer, biting her lip
+softly. Not to innocent Nell could she even hint that Sir Archie had
+taken more wine than was good for him. "He has been talking utter
+nonsense to me. Did you notice the flower in his coat?"
+
+"No," said Nell, with some surprise. "Why?"
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed unnaturally.
+
+"Nothing. Yes! Nell, I want you to get that flower from him. It--is a
+bet."
+
+"I--get it from him?" said Nell, opening her gray eyes.
+
+Lady Wolfer flushed for a moment.
+
+"It is only a piece of folly," she said. "But--but I want you to get it.
+Ask him for it--he cannot refuse. Oh, I can't explain! I will, perhaps;
+but get it!"
+
+She moved away as Sir Archie reappeared in the doorway. He came straight
+up to Nell.
+
+"I think I'll be off," he said. "Some of the others have gone already."
+
+He went toward Lady Wolfer as if to say "Good night," but, with the
+skill which every woman can display on occasion, Lady Wolfer turned from
+him as if she did not see him, and joined in the conversation which was
+being carried on by the duchess and Lady Angleford.
+
+"I've come to say good night, Lady Wolfer," he said.
+
+She met his gaze for a moment.
+
+"Good night," she said, in the conventional tone. He bowed over her
+hand, looked at her with an intense and questioning gaze for an instant,
+then left her and came back to Nell.
+
+"Oh, I've forgotten!" he exclaimed, half turning as if to rejoin the
+group he had left; then he hesitated, and added: "Will you be so kind as
+to give Lady Wolfer a message for me?"
+
+"Yes, certainly," said Nell, rather absently; for she was wondering how
+she could ask for the flower, on which her eyes were unconsciously
+fixed.
+
+"Thanks! You are always so kind. Will you tell her, please, that the
+book she wants is on the Sevres pedestal, just behind the vase. She will
+want it to-night."
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"I won't forget," she said. "Are you going to take that poor flower into
+the cold, Sir Archie?"
+
+She blushed as she asked the question; but he was too absorbed in the
+fatal game of passion to notice her embarrassment.
+
+"The flower?" he said unthinkingly. "It is nearly faded already; too
+poor an offering to make you, Miss Lorton; but if you will accept
+it----"
+
+He had expected her to refuse laughingly, but she replied simply:
+
+"Thank you; yes, I should like to have it," and in his surprise he took
+it from his coat, and, with a bow, handed it to her, wished her good
+night, and left her. At the door he paused and looked in the direction
+of Lady Wolfer, met her eyes for an instant, then went out.
+
+Nell was about to place the flower on the table, but, quite
+unthinkingly, stuck it in the bosom of her dress. As she was crossing
+the room to some people who were taking their departure, the earl came
+up to her.
+
+"I am going to the library presently, and may not see Lady Wolfer before
+I leave. Will you please tell her that I hope she will not go out
+to-night? I think she is looking tired--and--and overstrained. Do you
+not think so?"
+
+His tone was so full of anxiety, there was so sad and strained an
+expression in his grave face, as he looked toward his young wife, who
+was talking rather loudly and laughing in a way women will when there is
+anything but laughter in their hearts, that Nell's sympathy went out to
+him. It was as if suddenly she understood how much he cared for the
+woman who was wife to him in little more than the name.
+
+"Yes, yes! I will tell her," she said. "I am sure she will not go if you
+do not wish it."
+
+He smiled bitterly, and, for once dropping the cold reserve which
+usually masked him, said, with sad bitterness:
+
+"You think she considers my wishes so closely?"
+
+Nell looked up at him, half frightened by the intensity of his
+expression.
+
+"Why--yes!" she faltered.
+
+He smiled as bitterly as he had spoken; then his manner changed
+suddenly, and his eyes became fixed on the flower in her dress.
+
+"Where did you get that flower? Who----" he asked, almost sternly.
+
+Nell's face flamed; then, ashamed of the uncalled-for blush, she
+laughed.
+
+"Sir Archie Walbrooke gave it me," she said.
+
+The earl looked at her with surprise, which gradually changed to a keen
+scrutiny, under which Nell felt her blush rising again. But she said
+nothing, and, after a moment during which he seemed to be considering
+deeply, he passed on, his hands clasped behind his tall figure, his head
+bent.
+
+Immediately the last guest had gone, Lady Wolfer went to her own
+apartments. Nell stood in the center of the vast and now empty room, and
+looked round her absently, and with that sense of some pending calamity
+which we call presentiment.
+
+Innocent of the world and its intrigues, as she was, she could not fail
+to have seen that neither the earl nor the countess was happy; and that
+the endless work and excitement in which they endeavored to absorb
+themselves only left them dissatisfied and wretched.
+
+She liked them both; indeed, she had grown very fond of Lady Wolfer, and
+her heart ached for the woman who had striven to hide her unhappiness
+behind the mask of a forced gayety and recklessness. For a moment, a
+single moment, as she caught sight of the flower, a vague suspicion of
+the danger which threatened the countess arose in Nell's mind; but she
+put the suspicion from her with a shudder, for it was too dreadful to be
+entertained.
+
+Sometimes she went to Lady Wolfer's room after she had retired, and,
+remembering the earl's message, she went now upstairs and knocked at the
+countess' door.
+
+A low voice bade her come in, and Nell entered and found Lady Wolfer
+sitting on a low chair before the fire. She was alone, and the figure
+crouching before the blaze, as if she were cold, aroused Nell's pity.
+She crossed the room and bent over her.
+
+"Are you ill, dear, or only tired?" she asked gently.
+
+Lady Wolfer started and looked up at her, and Nell saw that her face was
+white and drawn.
+
+"Is it you?" she said. "I thought it was Wardell"--Wardell was her maid.
+"Yes, I am tired."
+
+"Lord Wolfer has asked me to beg you not to go out to-night. He saw that
+you looked tired," she said.
+
+Lady Wolfer gazed in the fire, and her lips curled sarcastically.
+
+"He is very considerate," she said. "Extraordinarily so! One would think
+he cared whether I was tired or not, wouldn't one, eh, dear?"
+
+"Why do you say that, and so bitterly?" Nell said, in a low voice. "Of
+course he cares. He is always kind and thoughtful."
+
+Lady Wolfer rose abruptly and, with a short, hard laugh, began to pace
+up and down the room.
+
+"He does not care in the least!" she said, in a harsh, strained voice.
+"Why did you come in to-night? I wish you hadn't! I--I wanted to be
+alone. No, do not go! Stay, now you are here," for Nell had moved to
+the door. She went back and laid her hand on the unhappy woman's arm.
+
+"Won't you tell me what is the matter?" she said.
+
+Lady Wolfer stopped and sank into the chair again.
+
+"I'm almost tempted to!" she said, with a reckless laugh. "It might be
+useful to you--as a 'frightful example,' as the temperance people say.
+Oh, don't you know? You are young and innocent, Nell, but--but you
+cannot fail to have seen how wretched I am! Nell, you are not only young
+and innocent, but beautiful. You have all your life before you--you,
+too, will have to choose your fate--for we do choose it! Don't wreck
+your life as I have wrecked mine; don't, don't marry a man who does not
+love you--as I did!"
+
+"Hush!" said Nell, startled and shocked. "You are wrong, quite wrong!"
+
+Lady Wolfer laughed bitterly.
+
+"I've said too much; I may as well tell you all," she said, with a shrug
+of her white shoulders. "It was a marriage of convenience. We--my
+people--were poor, and it was a great match for me. There was no talk of
+love--love!" She laughed again, and the laugh made Nell wince. "It was
+just a bargain. Such bargains are made every day in this vile marriage
+market of ours. I was as innocent as you, Nell. The glitter of the
+thing--the title, the big house, the position--dazzled me. I thought I
+should be more contented and satisfied. Other girls have done the same
+thing, and they seemed happy enough. But I suppose I am different. I
+wearied of the whole thing--the title, the big house, the diamonds,
+everything--before the first month. I wanted something else; I scarcely
+knew what----Ah, yes, I did! I did! I wanted love--the thing they all
+laugh and sneer at! I had sold myself for gold and place and power, and
+when I had gotten them they all turned to Dead Sea fruit, dust and
+ashes, on my lips!"
+
+She gripped her hands tightly, and bent lower over the fire, and Nell
+sank on her knees beside her, pale herself, and incapable of speech.
+
+"For a time I tried to bear it, to live the weary, dragging life; then,
+when I was nearly mad--I tried to find relief in the world outside my
+own home. I was supposed to be clever--clever! I could write and talk. I
+took up this woman's rights business!" She laughed again. "All the time
+they were lauding me to the skies and flattering and fooling me, I knew
+how stupid the whole thing was. But it seemed the only chance for me,
+the only way of forgetting myself and--and my slavery. At any rate, it
+served as an excuse for getting out of the house, for not inflicting my
+presence upon the man who had bought me, and who regarded me simply as
+the figurehead for his table, the person to receive his guests and play
+the necessary part in his public life."
+
+"No, no! You're wrong, wrong!" said Nell earnestly.
+
+Lady Wolfer seemed scarcely to have heard her.
+
+"I ought to have known that it would not help me long. It has come to an
+end. I am going to end it. I cannot bear this life any longer--I cannot,
+I cannot! I will not! I have only one life--that I know of----"
+
+"Oh, hush, hush!" Nell implored. "You are all wrong! I know it, I am
+sure of it! You think he does not care for you. He does, he does! If you
+had seen his face to-night--had heard his voice!"
+
+Lady Wolfer looked at her with a half-startled glance; then she shook
+her head and smiled bitterly.
+
+"No, I am not wrong," she said. "I know what love is--at last! It
+beckons me--I have resisted--God knows I have struggled with and fought
+against it--have kept it from me with both hands--but my strength has
+failed me at last, and----"
+
+Nell caught her arm and clung to it.
+
+"Oh, what do you mean?" she asked, in vague terror.
+
+Lady Wolfer started, and slowly unclasped Nell's hands.
+
+"I have said too much," she said, panting and moistening her parched
+lips. "I did not mean to tell you--no, I will not say another word. I
+don't know why I am so unnerved, why I take it so much to heart I
+think--Nell, I am fond of you; you know it?"
+
+Nell made a gesture of assent, and touched the countess' clasped hands
+lovingly, tenderly.
+
+"I--I think it is your presence here that--that has made me
+hesitate--has made me realize the gravity of what I am going to do. I--I
+never look at you, hear you speak, but I am reminded that I was once,
+and not so long ago, as innocent as you. But I can hesitate no longer. I
+have to decide, and I have decided!"
+
+She rose and stood with her hands before her face for the moment; then
+she let them fall with a sigh, and forced a smile.
+
+"Go now, dear!" she said. "I--I wish I had not spoken so freely; but
+that tender, loving heart of yours is hard to resist."
+
+"What is it you have decided to do?" Nell asked, scarcely above her
+breath.
+
+A deep red rose slowly to the countess' face, then slowly faded, leaving
+it pale and wan, and set with determination.
+
+"I cannot tell you, Nell," she said. "You--you will know soon enough.
+And when you know, I want you--I want you to think not too badly of me,
+to remember how much I have suffered, how hard and cruel my life has
+been--how I have hungered and thirsted for one word, one look of love;
+that I have struggled and striven against my fate, and have yielded only
+when I could endure no longer. Oh, go now, dear!"
+
+"Let me stay with you to-night! I can sleep on this couch--on this
+chair--beside you, if you like," pleaded Nell, confused and frightened,
+but aching with pity and sympathy. "I know that it is all wrong, that
+you are mistaken. If I could only convince you! If I could only tell you
+what I saw in Lord Wolfer's eyes as he looked at you to-night!"
+
+The countess shook her head.
+
+"It is you who are mistaken," she said, "and it is too late. No, you
+shall not stay. I have done wrong to say so much. Try--try and forget
+it. But yet--no, don't forget it, Nell. Remember me and my wretchedness,
+and let it be a warning to you, if ever you are tempted to marry a man
+who does not love you, whom you do not love. Ah, but you must go, Nell!
+I am worn out!"
+
+Nell went to her and put her arm round her neck, and drew her face down
+that she might kiss her, but the countess gently put Nell's arm from
+her, and drew back from the proffered kiss.
+
+"No; you shall not kiss me!" she said, in a low voice. "You will be glad
+that you did not--presently! Stay--give me that flower!" she said,
+holding out her hand, but looking away.
+
+Nell started, and drew the flower from her bosom as if it had been
+something poisonous, and flung it in the fire.
+
+The countess shrugged her shoulders with an air of indifference, and
+turned to watch the flower withering and consuming in the fire, and
+Nell, with something like a sob, left her.
+
+What should she do? She understood that her friend stood on the verge of
+a precipice; but how could she--Nell--with all her desire to save her,
+drag her back?
+
+As she was going to her room she heard a step in the hall, and, looking
+over the balustrade, saw the earl pass from the library to the
+drawing-room. For an instant she was half resolved to go down to him,
+to--what? How could she tell him? She dared not!
+
+Lord Wolfer wandered into the drawing-room and stood before the fire,
+looking into it moodily, as he leaned against the great mantelpiece of
+carved marble.
+
+He was thinking of the flower which he had seen first in his wife's
+possession, then in Sir Archie's, and lastly in Nell's; and of her blush
+and confusion when he had asked her how she came by it. He knew Sir
+Archie, knew him better and more of his life than Sir Archie suspected.
+The man was a perfect type of the modern lover; incapable of a fixed
+passion, as fickle as the wind. Could it be that he had transferred,
+what he would have called his "devotion," from the countess to Nell? It
+seemed at first sight too improbable; but Wolfer knew his world and the
+ethics of the smart set of which Sir Archie Walbrooke was a conspicuous
+member too well to scout the idea as impossible. The fact that Sir
+Archie had spent the last three months flirting with one woman would be
+no hindrance to his transferring his attentions to a younger and
+prettier one.
+
+The harassed man turned away with a weary sigh, wandered purposelessly
+into the anteroom, and, in a mechanical fashion, fingered the various
+articles on the writing table. His eye fell on the book on the pedestal,
+and he took up the volume absently, intending to restore it to its place
+in the bookcase. On his way he opened the book, and a half sheet of note
+paper fell from it and fluttered to his feet. He picked it up, read what
+was written on it, and stood for a moment motionless, his eyes fixed on
+the carpet, his lips writhing.
+
+How long he stood there he did not know, but presently he was aroused by
+the sound of footsteps. He listened. Some one--the rustling of a
+dress--was approaching the room. He slipped the note into the book and
+replaced the volume on the pedestal, and quickly stepped behind the
+portiere curtains.
+
+He expected his wife. Should he come forward and confront her? His stern
+face grew red with shame--for her, for himself. Then, with a sudden leap
+of the heart, with a sensation of relief which was absolutely painful in
+its intensity, he saw Nell enter the room and go straight to the
+pedestal. Her face was pale and troubled, and she looked round with what
+seemed to him a guilty expression in the gray eyes. Then she opened the
+book as he had done, but, as if she expected to find something, took out
+the note, and after a moment of hesitation read it. He saw her face
+flush hotly, then grow white, and her hand go out to the pedestal as if
+for support. For a moment she stood as motionless as he had done, then
+she thrust the note into her pocket, dropped the book from her hand--it
+fell on the floor unregarded by her--and slowly left the room.
+
+Wolfer passed his hand over his brow with a bewildered air, then, as if
+obeying an irresistible impulse, he followed her up the stairs.
+
+Quietly but slowly. He knew that she had not seen him, did not know that
+he was following her, and he waited at the end of the corridor,
+watching her with a heart throbbing with an agony of anxiety. Was she
+going to carry the note to his wife? But she did not even hesitate at
+the door of Lady Wolfer's room, but went straight to her own, and he
+heard the key turn as she locked it.
+
+The sweat was standing in great drops upon his forehead, and he put up a
+trembling hand and wiped them away as he looked toward his wife's door.
+Should he go in and question her? Should he ask her straightly whether
+the note was intended for her or Nell? It seemed too horrible to suspect
+the girl who had seemed innocence and purity itself, and yet had he not
+seen her go straight for the book, as if she had known that it was there
+waiting for her?
+
+Like a man in a dream he went down to the library, and, locking the
+door, flung himself into a chair, and buried his face in his hands. What
+was he to think?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+Nell stood in the middle of the room with the note which she had found
+in the book in her hand. She had read it half mechanically and
+unsuspectingly, as one reads a scrap of paper found in a volume, or in
+some unexpected place; and, trembling a little, she went to the electric
+light and read the note again. It ran thus--and with every word Nell's
+face grew pale:
+
+"I can wait no longer. You cannot say I have been impatient--that I
+haven't endured the suspense as well as a man could. If you love me, if
+you are really willing to trust yourself to me, come away with me
+to-morrow. God knows I will try and make you happy, and that you can
+never be under this roof with a man who doesn't care for you. I will
+come for you at seven to-morrow morning--we can cross by the morning
+boat. Don't trouble about luggage; everything we want we can get on the
+other side. For Heaven's sake, don't hesitate! Be ready and waiting for
+me as the clock strikes. Don't hesitate! The happiness of both our lives
+lies in your hands.                                     ARCHIE."
+
+Nell sank into a chair and stared at the wall, trying to think; but for
+a moment or two the horror and shame of the thing overwhelmed her. She
+had read of such incidents as these, for now and again one of the new
+school of novels reached The Cottage; but there is a lot of difference
+between reading, say, of a murder, and watching the committal of one.
+She was almost as much ashamed and shocked as if the note had been
+intended for herself.
+
+She was not ashamed of having read it--though the mere touch of the
+paper was hateful to her--for she felt that Providence had ordained it
+that she should stand between Lady Wolfer and the ruin to which Sir
+Archie was beckoning her.
+
+But what should she do? Should she take the letter to Lady Wolfer and
+implore her to send Sir Archie a refusal? This was, of course, Nell's
+first impulse, but she dared not follow it; dared not run the risk of
+letting Lady Wolfer see the note. The unhappy woman's face haunted Nell,
+and her reckless words, and her tone of desperation, still rang in
+Nell's ears. No; she dared not let Lady Wolfer know that this man would
+be waiting for her. Few women in the position of the countess could
+resist such a note as this, such an appeal from the man who, she
+thought, loved her. But if she did not take the note to the countess,
+what was she to do?
+
+Sir Archie would be, then, in the library at seven o'clock; he would ask
+for the countess; she would go to him, and--Nell shuddered, and walked
+up and down. If there were any one to whom she could go for advice! But
+there was no one. At all costs, the truth must be kept from the earl;
+his wife must be saved.
+
+It was a terrible position for a young and inexperienced girl; but,
+despite her youth and inexperience, the note could scarcely have fallen
+into better hands than Nell's; for she possessed courage, and was not
+afraid for herself. Most girls, keenly though they might desire to save
+their friend, would have destroyed the note and left the rest to
+Providence; but Nell's spirit had been trained in the bracing air of
+Shorne Mills, and her views tempered by many a tussle with tide and wind
+in the _Annie Laurie_; and the pluck which lay dormant in the slight
+figure rose now to the struggle for her friend's safety. She had grown
+to love the woman who had confided her heart's sorrow to her that night,
+and she meant to save her. But how? Sir Archie would be there at seven,
+and Lady Wolfer must be kept in ignorance of his presence; and he must
+be sent away convinced of the hopelessness of his passion.
+
+Nell walked up and down, unconscious of weariness, ignorant that in his
+own room the earl was listening to her footsteps, and putting his own
+construction upon her agitation. Now and again she thought of Drake and
+her own love affair. Were all men alike? Were there no good men in the
+world? Were they all selfish and unscrupulous in the quest of their own
+interest and amusements? Love! The word sounded like a mockery, a
+delusion, a snare. Drake had loved, or thought he loved her, until Lady
+Luce had beckoned him back to her; and this other man, Sir Archie--how
+long would he continue to love the unhappy woman if she yielded to him?
+
+The silver clock on the mantelshelf struck five, and Nell, worn out at
+last, and still apparently far away from any solution of the problem
+which she had set herself, flung herself on the bed. She had scarcely
+closed her eyes before a way of helping Lady Wolfer presented itself to
+her.
+
+Her face crimsoned, and she winced and closed her eyes with a slight
+shudder; but though she shrank from the ordeal, she resolved to make it.
+Lady Wolfer had been kind to her, had won her love, and, more than all
+else, had confided in her, and she--Nell--would save her at any cost.
+
+A little before seven she rose, and changed her dinner dress for a plain
+traveling one, and, putting on her hat and jacket, went down to the
+library slowly and almost stealthily. A maidservant was sweeping the
+hall, and she looked up at Nell, clad in her outdoor things, with some
+surprise.
+
+"I expect Sir Archie Walbrooke at seven o'clock," said Nell. "I am in
+the library, please."
+
+She spoke quite calmly and casually, buttoning her glove in a leisurely
+fashion as she passed on her way; and the maid responded unsuspiciously,
+for the coming and going at Wolfer House were always somewhat erratic.
+
+Nell went into the library, and, closing the door, turned up the
+electric light a little--for the maids had not yet been to the room, and
+the shutters were still closed. The morning was a wet and chilly one,
+and Nell shuddered slightly as she sat and watched the second hand of
+the clock, which at one moment seemed to move slowly and at the next
+appeared to fly. She had not decided upon the words she would use; she
+would be guided by those which Sir Archie might speak; but she was
+resolved to fight as long as possible, to hide every tremor which, at
+these moments of waiting and suspense, quivered through her.
+
+Then she heard his voice, his slow step--no quicker than usual this
+morning--crossing the hall; the door opened, and he was in the room.
+Nell rose, and stood with her back to the light; and, closing the door,
+he came toward her with a faint cry of satisfaction and relief.
+
+"Ada!" he said. "You have come----"
+
+Nell raised her veil, but, before she had done so, he had seen that she
+was not the countess; and he stopped short and stared at her.
+
+"Miss Lorton!" he exclaimed, under his breath, so taken aback that the
+shock of his disappointment was revealed in his face and voice. "I--I
+thought--expected--to see Lady Wolfer. Is--is she up? Does she know that
+I am here? You have a message for me?"
+
+He tried to speak casually, and forced a smile, as if the appointment
+was quite an ordinary one; but Nell saw that the hand that held his hat
+shook, and that his color, which had risen as he entered the room and
+greeted her, had slowly left his face, and her courage rose.
+
+"Yes, I have a message for you, Sir Archie," she said, keeping her voice
+as steady as she could, and saying to herself: "It is to save her--save
+her!"
+
+"Yes?" he said, with suppressed eagerness and anxiety. "What is it? I--I
+am rather pressed for time." He glanced at his watch. "Won't she see me?
+If you would go up and ask her. I shan't detain her more than a minute."
+
+"No; she cannot see you," said Nell. "I am to ask you to go--where you
+are going--without seeing her."
+
+He looked at her steadily, gnawing his lip softly.
+
+"I--I don't understand," he said, still trying to smile. "She--told you
+that I am going--abroad?"
+
+Nell inclined her head gravely.
+
+"Yes? But didn't she tell you that--that I must see her before I go?
+That--that it is important?"
+
+"She cannot see you," said Nell, her heart beating fast. "She wishes you
+to go, and--and to remain abroad----"
+
+His face crimsoned, then went pale.
+
+"You know--she has told you why--why I have come this morning?" he said,
+in a low voice.
+
+"Yes, I know," assented Nell, the shame, for him, dyeing her face.
+
+He stared at her for a moment in silence; then he said, half defiantly,
+half sullenly:
+
+"Very well, then. If you know why I am here, you must know that I cannot
+take such a message, that I cannot go--without her. For Heaven's sake,
+Miss Lorton, go and fetch her! There is no time to lose. Her--my
+happiness is at stake. I beg your pardon; I'm afraid I'm brusque;
+but----For Heaven's sake, bring her! If I could see her, speak to her
+for a moment----"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"I cannot," she said. "It would be of no use. Lady Wolfer would not go
+with you."
+
+He came nearer to her and lowered his voice, almost speaking through his
+teeth.
+
+"See here, Miss Lorton, you--you have no right to be in this
+business--to interfere with it. You--you are too young to
+understand----"
+
+Nell crimsoned.
+
+"No," she said, almost inaudibly. "I understand. I--I have seen your
+letter." Her calm, almost her courage, broke down, and, clasping her
+hands, she pleaded to him. "Oh, yes, I do understand! Sir Archie, go; do,
+do go! It is cruel of you to stay. If--if you really love her, you will go
+and never come back."
+
+His face went white and his eyes flashed.
+
+"No, you don't understand, although you think you do. You say that I am
+cruel. I should be cruel if I did what she asks me, what you wish me to
+do, to leave her in this house, to the old life of misery. I love her; I
+want to take her away with me from the man who doesn't care an atom for
+her, whom she does not love."
+
+"It isn't true!" said Nell, with a sudden burst of indignation, and with
+a sudden insight as inexplicable as it was sudden. "He loves her, and
+she, though she does not know it, cares for him. They would have
+discovered the truth if you had not come between them and made them hard
+and cold to each other. Yes, you are cruel, cruel and wicked! But--but
+perhaps it has not been all your fault--and--I'm sorry if--if I have
+spoken too harshly."
+
+He scarcely seemed to have heard her concluding words, but repeated to
+himself: "She cares for him. She cares for Wolfer--her husband!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Nell eagerly, anxiously. "I know it; I have seen her
+when she was most unhappy. I have heard the truth in her voice--I
+remember little things--the way she has behaved to him, spoken to him,
+when she was off her guard. Yes, it is true she cares for him as much as
+he cares for her; but they have hidden it from each other--and you--you
+have made it harder for them to show their love! But you know the truth
+now, and--and you will go, will you not?"
+
+In her anxiety she laid her hand on his arm imploringly, and looked up
+at him with eyes moist with tears.
+
+He looked at her, his brows knit, his lips set closely.
+
+"By Heaven, if I thought you were right!" broke from him; then his tone
+changed, and his eyes grew hard with resentment. "No; you are wrong,
+quite wrong! And it is you who have come between us, and will rob us of
+our happiness! I--I--beg your pardon!" he faltered, for this slave of
+passion was, after all, a gentleman. "I beg your pardon! If you knew
+what I am suffering, what she must be suffering at this moment! Miss
+Lorton, you are her friend--you have no reason to bear me any ill
+will--I honor you for--for your motives in all this--but I implore you
+to stand aside. If you will go and bring her, I will wait here, and you
+shall hear from her own lips that you are wrong in supposing that any
+affection exists between her and him. I will wait here. Go, I beg of
+you! There is no time to lose!"
+
+"I will not!" said Nell, her slight figure erect, her eyes more eloquent
+than the tone of her resolution to save her friend.
+
+"Then I will ring and ask her to come," he said, and he went toward the
+bell.
+
+Nell sprang in front of it.
+
+"No," she said, in a low voice. "It is I who will ring, and it is the
+earl who shall come."
+
+Sir Archie stood, his hand outstretched to push her aside. Men of his
+class and character dislike a scene. He was not physically afraid of
+Lord Wolfer, but--a scene and a scandal which would leave Lady Wolfer at
+Wolfer House, while he was turned out, was a contretemps to be avoided,
+if possible.
+
+"You must be mad!" he said, between his teeth. "Worse; you are laboring
+under a hideous mistake. She loves me, and you know it--she has never
+cared for Lord Wolfer. Please stand aside."
+
+He put out his hand to gently remove her from before the bell, and at
+his touch the strain which Nell was undergoing became too tense for
+endurance. The color left her face and left it deathly white. With a
+faint moan she put her hand to her throat as if she were choking, and
+swayed to and fro as if she were giddy.
+
+Sir Archie caught her just in time.
+
+"Good heavens, don't faint!" he exclaimed, in a horrified whisper.
+
+At the sound of his voice, at his touch, Nell recovered her full
+consciousness.
+
+"Let me go! Don't touch me!" she breathed, with a shudder; but, before
+she could free herself from his hold, the door opened, and the earl
+entered.
+
+With an oath, Sir Archie turned and glared at him, and Nell sank against
+the mantelshelf, and leaned there, faint and trembling.
+
+The two men stood quite still and looked at each other. In these days we
+have taught ourselves to take the most critical moments of our lives
+quietly. There is no loud declamation, no melodramatic denunciation, no
+springing at each other's throats, or flashing of swords. We carry our
+wrongs to the law courts, and an aged gentleman in an ermine tippet, and
+a more or less grimy wig, avenges us--with costs and damages.
+
+The earl was pale enough, and his eyes wore a stern expression as they
+rested upon his "friend"; but yet there was something in his face which
+seemed to indicate relief; and, presently, after a moment which seemed
+an age to Nell, his gaze left the other man's face and fixed itself on
+her.
+
+"Were you going out with Sir Archie Walbrooke, Miss Lorton?" he asked
+coldly.
+
+Sir Archie started slightly, and would have spoken, but Nell looked at
+him quickly, a look which smote him to silence. She, too, remained
+silent, her hands clasped, her eyes fixed on the ground.
+
+"Is my inference a correct one?" said the earl, still more coldly. "I
+find you here--at this unusual hour--and dressed for traveling. And he
+is here--by appointment, I presume? Ah, do not deny it! It is too
+obvious."
+
+Sir Archie opened his lips, but once more Nell looked at him, and once
+more her eyes commanded, rather than asked, his silence. He suppressed
+an oath, and stood with clenched hands, waiting in helpless
+irresolution. What was this girl going to do? Was she--was it possible
+that she was going to screen Lady Wolfer at the cost of her own
+reputation! The man was not altogether bad, and the remnant of honor
+which still glowed in his breast rose against the idea of such a
+sacrifice. And yet--it was for the woman he loved!
+
+The perspiration broke out on his pale face, and he looked from the
+stern eyes of the earl to Nell's downcast ones.
+
+"I can't stand this!" broke from his lips. "Look here, Wolfer!"
+
+The earl raised his head.
+
+"I have nothing to say to you. I decline to hear you," he said grimly.
+"I am addressing Miss Lorton. I have asked her a question; but it is not
+necessary to inflict the pain of an answer. I am aware that I have no
+legal right to interfere in Miss Lorton's movements, but she is under my
+roof, she is a connection"--his voice grew a shade less stern--"I am,
+indeed, almost in the position of her guardian. Therefore, I deem it my
+duty to acquaint her with the character of the man with whom she
+proposes to--elope."
+
+Nell raised her head, the crimson staining her whole face; and it seemed
+to Sir Archie as if her endurance had broken down; but she checked the
+indignant denial which had sprung to her lips, and, closing her lips
+tightly, sank back into her former attitude--an attitude which convinced
+Lord Wolfer of her guilt.
+
+"Are you aware that this gentleman, who has honored you by an invitation
+to fly with him, is already a married man, Miss Lorton?"
+
+Nell made no sign, but Sir Archie started and ground his teeth.
+
+"He has carefully concealed the fact; but--well, I happen to know it, and
+I think he will not venture to deny it."
+
+He paused, but Sir Archie remained silent.
+
+"Were you ignorant of it?" asked the earl.
+
+Nell opened her lips, and they formed the word "Yes."
+
+"I expected as much," said the earl. "And now that you know the truth,
+are you still desirous of accompanying him?"
+
+Nell, with her eyes fixed on the ground, shook her head.
+
+"No!" she whispered.
+
+Sir Archie swore under his breath.
+
+"I can't stand this!" he said desperately. "Look here, Wolfer, you are
+making a damnable mistake. Miss Lorton----"
+
+The earl turned to him, but looked above his head.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, "I have no desire to hear any explanation of your
+conduct--it would be impossible for you to defend it. But, having
+received Miss Lorton's reply to my question, I have the right to ask you
+to quit my house--and I do so!"
+
+Sir Archie went up to Nell and looked at her straight in the face.
+
+"Do you--do you wish me to remain silent?" he said hoarsely. "Think
+before you speak! Do you?"
+
+Nell looked up instantly.
+
+"Yes!" she replied, in a low voice. "If you will go--forever!"
+
+Sir Archie gazed at her as if he had suddenly become unconscious of the
+earl's presence.
+
+"My God!" he breathed. "You--you are treatin' me better than I deserve.
+Yes, I am goin'," he said, turning fiercely to the earl, who had made a
+slight movement of impatience. "But I want to say this. I want"--he
+moistened his lips, as if speech were difficult--"to tell you--and--and
+her--that--that what has taken place will never be spoken of by me while
+I live. I am goin'--abroad. I shall not return for some time."
+
+The earl made a gesture of indifference.
+
+"Your movements can be of no interest to me," he said, "and I trust that
+they may be of as little importance to this unhappy girl, now that she
+knows the character of the man whom she was about to trust."
+
+Sir Archie laughed--a laugh that sounded hideously grotesque at such a
+moment; then he took up his hat and gloves; but he laid them down again.
+
+"Will you give me a minute--three--with Miss Lorton, alone?" he asked,
+biting his lip.
+
+The earl hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Nell searchingly; then, as
+if satisfied, he said:
+
+"Yes, I will do so, on condition that you leave this house at the
+expiration of that time. I will rejoin you when he has gone."
+
+As he left the room, Sir Archie turned to Nell.
+
+"Do you know what you have done?" he asked hoarsely, and almost
+inaudibly. "Do you know what this means: that you have sacrificed
+yourself for--for her?"
+
+Nell had sunk into a chair, and she looked up at him, and then away from
+him; but in that momentary glance he had read the light of an inflexible
+resolution, an undaunted courage in the gray eyes.
+
+"Yes, I know," she said. "He--he thinks, will always think, that it was
+I----" She broke off with an irrepressible shudder.
+
+Sir Archie's hand went to his mustache to cover the quiver of his lips.
+
+"My God! it's the noblest thing! But--have you counted the cost--the
+consequences?"
+
+"Yes," she said. "But it does not matter. I--I am nobody--only a girl,
+with no husband, no one who loves, cares for me; while she----Yes, I
+know what I have done; but I am not sorry--I don't regret. I have your
+promise?" she looked up at his strained face solemnly. "You will keep
+it?--you will not break your word? You will go away and--and leave her?"
+
+His hands clenched behind him, and he was silent for a moment; then he
+said:
+
+"Yes, by Heaven! I will! The sacrifice shall not be all on your side.
+Tell her--no, tell her nothin', or you will have to tell her all. Tell
+her nothin'. Miss Lorton----" His voice broke, and he hesitated. Nell
+waited, and he found his voice again. "When I hear that there are no
+good women, no noble ones, I--I shall think of what you have done this
+mornin'. Good-by. I--I can't ask you to shake hands. My God! I'm not fit
+for you to touch! I see that now. Good-by!"
+
+He went out of the room with drooping head, but he raised it as he
+passed the earl, and the two men nodded--for the benefit of the footman
+who opened the door.
+
+Nell hid her face in her hands and waited, and presently the earl
+reentered the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+Lord Wolfer stood, with his hand resting upon the table, in silence for
+a moment or two, regarding Nell, no longer sternly, but with an
+expression of pity which was novel in him. Nell sat with her head
+resting in her hands, her eyes downcast. She was still pale, but her
+lips were set firmly, as if she were prepared for rebuke and reproach.
+
+"Do not be afraid," he said, at last. "I have not returned to--to blame
+you. You are too young to understand the peril--perhaps, too, the
+sin--of the step which you meditated taking. I am a man of the world,
+and I can appreciate the temptation to which you have been subjected.
+Sir Archie--well, all the world knows that such men are difficult to
+resist, and--and your inexperience betrayed you. I know the arts by
+which he gained your affections and hoped to mislead you."
+
+It was almost more than she could bear; but Nell set her teeth hard and
+held her breath; for she felt it well-nigh impossible to resist the
+aching longing to utter the cry of the unjustly accused. "I am
+innocent--innocent!" But she remembered the unhappy woman whom she had
+saved, and suffered in silence.
+
+"That you bitterly regret your--your weakness I am convinced," said Lord
+Wolfer; "and I am quite satisfied with your promise that you will not
+see him--I wish I could add, not think of him--again. He is a dangerous
+man, Miss Lorton"--he paused and paced to the window, and his lips
+twitched--"such men are a peril to every woman upon whom they--they
+chance to set their fickle fancy. At one time--yes, I owe it to you to
+be candid--at one time I feared"--he stopped again, and drummed upon the
+windowsill with his forefinger--"I feared he was paying Lady Wolfer too
+much attention. Even now I am not sure that my fears were groundless. He
+came to the house frequently, and was at my wife's side perpetually,
+before you came."
+
+Nell held her breath. Had her sacrifice been in vain? Had he got an
+inkling of the truth? But he went on sternly and in a low voice:
+
+"If there were any reason for my suspicions, it is evident that he
+transferred his affections to you. It is a terrible thing to say,
+but--but I feel as if--as if--your presence here had averted a dreadful
+catastrophe from us. Yes; that letter might have been meant for my wife,
+and I might have found her here instead of you. Do not think it
+heartless of me if I say that, deeply as I sympathize with you and
+grieve for your--your trouble, I am relieved--relieved of an awful
+apprehension on--on Lady Wolfer's account. I have suffered a great deal
+during the past few months."
+
+"Yes," said Nell, forgetting her own misery in sympathy for him.
+
+He looked at her quickly.
+
+"You have noticed it?"
+
+Nell inclined her head.
+
+"I have lived in the house--I have seen----" she faltered.
+
+He nodded once or twice.
+
+"Yes; I suppose that you could not help seeing that there has been a--a
+gulf between us; that we are not as other, happier, husbands and wives."
+
+He sighed, and passed his hand across his brow wearily.
+
+"But we are not the only couple who, living in the same house, are
+asunder. I am not the only man who has to endure, secretly and with a
+smiling face, the fact that his wife does not care for him."
+
+Nell raised her head, and the color came to her pale face.
+
+"You are wrong--wrong!" she said, in a low voice, but eagerly.
+
+"Wrong? I beg your pardon?" he said gravely.
+
+"It is all a terrible mistake," said Nell. "She does care for you. Oh,
+yes, yes! It is you who have been blind; it is your fault. It is hers,
+too; but you are the man, and it is your place to speak--to tell her
+that you love her----"
+
+He reddened as he turned to her with a curious eagerness and surprise.
+
+"I don't understand you," he said, with a shake in his voice. "Do you
+mean me to infer that--that I have been under a delusion in thinking
+that my wife----"
+
+Nell rose and stretched out her hands with a gesture of infinite
+weariness.
+
+"Oh, how blind you are!" she said, almost impatiently. "You think that
+she does not care for you, and she thinks that of you, and you are both
+in love with each other."
+
+His face glowed, and a strange brightness--the glow of hope--shone in
+his eyes.
+
+"Take care!" he said huskily. "You--you use words lightly, perhaps
+unthinkingly----"
+
+Nell laughed, with a kind of weary irritation.
+
+"I am telling you the truth; I am trying to open your eyes," she said.
+"She loves you."
+
+"Why--why do you think so? Have you ever heard her address a word to me
+that had a note of tenderness in it?"
+
+"Have you ever addressed such a word to her?" retorted Nell.
+
+He started, and gazed at her confusedly.
+
+"You have always treated her as if she were a mere acquaintance, some
+one who was of no consequence to you. Oh, yes, you have been polite,
+kind, in a way, but not in a way a woman wants. I am only a girl,
+but--but"--she thought again of Drake, of her own love story, and her
+lips trembled--"but I have seen enough of the world to know that there
+is nothing which will hurt and harden a woman more than the 'kindness'
+with which you have treated her. I think--I don't know, but I think if I
+cared for a man, I would rather that he should beat me than treat me as
+if I were just a mere acquaintance whom he was bound to treat politely.
+And did you think that it was she who was to show her heart? No; a woman
+would rather die than do that. It is the man who must speak, who must
+tell her, ask her for her love. And you haven't, have you, Lord Wolfer?"
+
+He put his hand to his brow and bit his lips.
+
+"God forgive me!" he murmured. Then he looked at her steadily. "Yes, you
+have opened my eyes! Heaven grant that I may see this thing as you see
+it! Heaven grant it! My dear"--his voice shook with his
+gratitude--"where--where did you learn this wisdom, this knowledge of
+the human heart?"
+
+Nell drew a long breath painfully, and her gray eyes grew dark.
+
+"It isn't wisdom," she said wearily. "Any schoolgirl knows as much,
+would see what I have seen--though a man might not. You have been too
+busy, too taken up with politics--politics!--and she--she has tried to
+forget her troubles in lecturing, and meetings and committees. And all
+the while her heart was aching with longing, with longing for just one
+word from you."
+
+The earl turned his head aside.
+
+"Ah! if you doubt it still, go to her!" said Nell. "Go and ask her!"
+
+"I will," he said, raising his head, his eyes glowing. "I will go."
+
+He moved to the door, then stopped and came back to her; he had
+forgotten her, forgotten the tragic scene in which he had just taken
+part.
+
+"I beg your pardon! Forgive me! It was ungrateful of me to forget your
+trouble, my dear!"
+
+Nell made a gesture of indifference.
+
+"It does not matter," she said dully. "I--I will go."
+
+"Go?" he said.
+
+"Yes. I will go--leave the house at once. I could not stay."
+
+She looked round as if the walls were closing in on her.
+
+Wolfer knit his brows perplexedly.
+
+"I--I do not like the idea of your going. Where will you go?"
+
+"Home," she said; and the word struck across her heart and almost sent
+the tears to her eyes.
+
+He went to the window and came back again.
+
+"If--if you think it best," he said doubtfully. "I know that--that it
+must be painful to you to remain here, that the associations of this
+house----"
+
+"Yes--yes," said Nell, almost impatiently.
+
+"I need not say--indeed, I know that I need not--that no word of--of
+what has occurred this morning will ever pass my lips," he said in a low
+voice.
+
+Nell looked up swiftly.
+
+"Yes. Promise me, promise me on your honor that you will not tell Lady
+Wolfer!" she said.
+
+"I promise," said the earl solemnly.
+
+Nell glanced at the clock and mechanically took up her gloves, which she
+had torn from her hands.
+
+"I will go straight to the station."
+
+"You do not wish to see Ada?" he said, speaking of his wife by her
+Christian name, for the first time in Nell's hearing.
+
+"No," she said, quietly but firmly.
+
+"Perhaps it is best," he murmured. "I will order a carriage for you--you
+will have something to eat?"
+
+"No, no; I will not! The carriage, please! Tell--tell Lady Wolfer that I
+had to go home suddenly. Tell her anything--but the truth."
+
+He inclined his head; then he went to the bureau and took out some
+notes.
+
+"You will let me give you these?" he asked, very humbly and anxiously.
+
+Nell looked at the money with a dull indifference.
+
+"What is owing to me, please. No more," she said.
+
+"If I gave you that, it would leave me beggared," he said gravely.
+"Please give me your purse."
+
+He folded some notes and put them in her purse, and held out his hand.
+
+"You will let me go to the station?" he asked.
+
+"No, no!" said Nell. "I would rather go alone."
+
+"You are not afraid?" he ventured, in a low voice.
+
+Nell was puzzled for a minute; then she understood that he meant afraid
+of Sir Archie. It was the last straw, and she broke down under it; but,
+instead of bursting into tears, she laughed--so wild, so eerie a laugh,
+that Wolfer was alarmed. But the laugh ceased suddenly, and she lowered
+her veil. He held out his hand again, and held hers in a warm and
+grateful grasp.
+
+"God bless you, my dear!" he said. "If you are right, I--I shall owe my
+life's happiness to you!"
+
+Nell went up to her room and told Burden to pack a small hand bag. "I am
+going away for a few days," she said; and though she endeavored to speak
+easily, the maid looked at her anxiously.
+
+"Not bad news, miss, I hope?" she said.
+
+"No; oh, no!" replied Nell.
+
+The earl was waiting for her in the hall, and put her into the brougham;
+and he stood and looked after the carriage with conflicting emotions.
+
+Then he went upstairs, and, after pausing for a moment or two, knocked
+at his wife's door.
+
+"It is I," he said.
+
+He heard her cross the room, and presently she opened the door. She was
+in her dressing robe, and she looked at him as if she were trying to
+keep her surprise from revealing itself in her face.
+
+"May I come in?" he said, his color coming and going. "I--I want to
+speak to you."
+
+She opened the door wide, and he entered and closed it after him.
+
+She moved to the dressing table, and took up a toilet bottle in an
+aimless fashion.
+
+"I have come to tell you that I have to go abroad," he said. He had
+thought out what he would say, but his voice sounded strange and forced,
+and, by reason of his agitation, graver even than usual.
+
+"Yes," she said, with polite interest. "When do you go?"
+
+"To-day--at once," he said. "Can you be ready in time for us to catch
+the afternoon mail?"
+
+She turned her head and looked at him. The sun had come out, and shone
+through the muslin curtains upon her pretty face and soft brown hair.
+
+"I!" she said, surprised and startled. "I! Do you want me to go?"
+
+"Yes," he said.
+
+He stood, his eyes fixed on hers, his brows knit in suspense and
+anxiety.
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+He came a little nearer, but did not stretch out his hands, though he
+longed to do so.
+
+"Because--I want you," he replied.
+
+She looked at him, and something in his eyes, something new, strange,
+and perplexing, made her heart beat fast, and caused the blood to rush
+to her face.
+
+"You--want--me?" she said, in a low voice, which quavered. Its tremor drew
+him to her, and he held out his arms.
+
+"Yes; I have wanted you--I have always wanted you. Ada, forgive me! Come
+to me!"
+
+She half yielded, then she shrank back, her face white, her eyes full of
+remorse and something like fear.
+
+"You--you don't know!" she panted.
+
+"Yes, I know all--enough!" he said. "It was my fault as much--more than
+yours. Forgive me, Ada! Let us forget the past; let us begin our lives
+from to-day--this hour! No, don't speak! It is not necessary to say a
+word. Don't let us look back, but forward--forward! Ada, I love you! I
+have loved you all along, but I was a fool and blind; but my eyes are
+opened, and----Do you care for me? Or is it too late?"
+
+She closed her eyes, and seemed as if about to fall, but he caught her
+in his arms, and, with a sob, she hid her face on his breast, weeping
+passionately.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nell sank into a corner of the luxurious carriage, and stared vacantly
+before her. The reaction had set in, and she felt bewildered and
+confused. She was leaving Wolfer House "under a cloud." For all her life
+one person, at least--Lord Wolfer--would deem her guilty of misconduct.
+She shuddered and closed her eyes. How should she account to mamma for
+her sudden return? Then she tried to console herself, to ease her aching
+heart with the thought of the meeting, the reconciliation of the husband
+and wife. She had not sacrificed herself in vain, not in vain!
+
+What did it matter that the earl deemed her guilty? As she had said, she
+was nobody, a girl for whom no one cared. She was going back to Shorne
+Mills. Well, thank God for that! In six hours she would be home. Home!
+Her heart ached at the word, ached with the longing for rest and peace.
+
+She found that a train did not start until three, and she walked up and
+down the station for some time, trying to forget her unhappiness in the
+bustle and confusion which, even at the end of this nineteenth century,
+make traveling a burden and a trial.
+
+Presently she began to feel faint rather than hungry, and she went into
+the refreshment room and asked for a glass of milk. While she was
+drinking it a gentleman came in. She saw that it was Lord Wolfer, and
+set down the glass and waited. The man seemed totally changed. The
+sternness had disappeared from his face, and his eyes were bright with
+his newly found happiness.
+
+"Why have you come?" she asked dully.
+
+"I had to," he said. "I--I wanted to tell you--you were right--yes, you
+were right! I was blind. We were both blind! We are going abroad
+to-day--together. She has asked for you--almost directly--almost as if
+she--she suspected that you had brought us together! I told her that you
+had been sent for by Sophia. I wish you were not going; I wish you were
+coming with us!"
+
+Nell shook her head wearily; and he nodded. He seemed years younger; and
+his old stiffness had disappeared from his manner, the grave solemnity
+from his voice.
+
+"That is my train," said Nell.
+
+He looked at her wistfully, as if he longed to take her back with him,
+but Nell walked resolutely down the platform, and he put her into a
+first-class compartment. Then he got some papers and magazines, and laid
+them on the seat beside her. It was evident that he did not know how
+sufficiently to express his gratitude.
+
+"Your going is the only alloy to my--our happiness!" he said.
+
+Nell smiled drearily.
+
+"You will soon forget me," she could not help saying.
+
+"Never! Don't think that!" he said. "Have you wired to say that you are
+coming?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"I will do so," he said.
+
+The guard made his last inspection of the carriages, and Wolfer held her
+hand.
+
+"Good-by," he said. "And--and thank you!"
+
+The words were conventional enough, but Nell understood, and was
+comforted.
+
+As the train left the station, the boys from the book stall came along
+with the early edition of the evening papers.
+
+"Paper, miss?" asked one, standing on the step. "Evening paper? Sudden
+death of the Hearl of Hangleford!"
+
+But Nell had no desire for an evening paper, and, shaking her head, sank
+back with a sigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+Beaumont Buildings is scarcely the place one would choose in which to
+spend a summer's day; for, though they reach unto the heavens, they are,
+like most of their kind, somewhat stuffy, the dust of the great city in
+all their nooks and corners, and the noise of the crowded life
+penetrates even to the topmost flat.
+
+The agent, a man of fine imagination and unlimited descriptive powers,
+states that Beaumont Buildings is "situated in a fashionable locality";
+but though Fashion may dwell close at hand, and its carriages sometimes
+roll luxuriously through the street in which the Buildings tower, the
+street is a grimy and rather squalid one, in which most of the houses are
+shops--shops of the cheap and useful kind which cater for the poor.
+
+There is always a noise and a blare in Beaumont Street. The butcher not
+only displays his joints and "block ornaments" outside his shop, but
+proclaims their excellence in stentorian tones; and the grocer and
+fruiterer and fishmonger compete with the costermongers, who stand
+yelling beside their barrows from early morn to late and gaslit night.
+
+The smells of Beaumont Street are innumerable, and like unto the sea
+shells for variety; and the scent of oranges, the pungent odor of fried
+fish, from the shop down the side street, and that vague smell familiar
+to all who dwell in the heart of London, rise and enter the open
+windows.
+
+On the pavement and in the roadway, among the cabs and tradesmen's
+carts, the children play and yell and screech; and at night the song of
+the intoxicated as he rolls homeward, or is conveyed to the nearest cell
+by the guardian of the peace he is breaking, flits across the dreams of
+those in the Buildings who are so unfortunate as to sleep lightly; and
+they are many.
+
+And yet in a small room of a small flat on the fourth floor of this
+Babel of noise and unrest sat Nell.
+
+Eighteen months had passed since she made her sacrifice and left Wolfer
+House. The black dress in which she looked so slight, and against which
+the ivory pallor of her face was accentuated, was worn as mourning for
+Mrs. Lorton; for that estimable lady had genteelly faded away, and Nell
+and Dick were alone in this transitory world.
+
+The sun was pouring through the open window, and Nell had dragged her
+chair into the angle of the wall just out of the reach of the hot beams,
+but still near the window, in the hope of catching something of the
+smoke-laden air which away out in the country must be blowing so fresh
+and sweetly.
+
+As she bent over the coat which she was mending for Dick, she was
+thinking of one place over which that same air was at that moment
+wafting the scent of the sea and the flowers--Shorne Mills; and, as she
+raised her eyes and glanced at the triangular patch of sky which was
+framed by the roofs of the opposite houses, she could see the picture
+she loved quite distinctly, and almost hear--notwithstanding the
+intermezzo banged out by the piano organ in the street below--the songs
+and whistling of the fishermen, and the flap of the sails against the
+masts. Let the noise in and outside the Buildings be as great as it
+might, she could always lose herself in memories of Shorne Mills; and if
+sorrow's crown of sorrow be the remembering of happier days, such
+remembrance is not without its consolation.
+
+When Dick and she had come to the Buildings, two months ago, Nell felt
+as if she should never get used to the crowded place and its
+multitudinous discomforts; but time had rendered life, even amid such
+surroundings, tolerable; and there were moments in which some phase of
+the human comedy always being played around her brought the smile to her
+pale face.
+
+Presently she glanced at the tiny clock on the mantelshelf, and, laying
+the coat aside, put the kettle on the fire, and got ready for tea; for
+Dick would soon be home from the great engineering works on the other
+side of the water, and he liked his tea "to meet him on the stairs."
+
+As she was cutting the bread for the toast there came a knock at the
+door, and in answer to her "Come in!" the door was opened halfway, and a
+head appeared around it.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Lorton. Lorton not in? I thought I heard his
+step," said a man's voice, but one almost as soft as a woman's.
+
+Nell scarcely looked up from her task; the tenants of Beaumont Buildings
+are sociable, and their visits to one another were not limited to the
+fashionable hours. For instance, the borrowing and returning of a
+saucepan or a sewing machine, or some lump sugar, went on all day, and
+sometimes late into the night; and the borrower or lender often granted
+or accepted a loan without stopping the occupation which he or she
+happened to be engaged in at the entrance of the other party.
+
+"Not yet. It is scarcely his time, Mr. Falconer. Is it anything I can
+do?"
+
+The young man came in slowly and with a certain timidity, and stood by
+the mantelshelf, looking down at her as she knelt and toasted the bread.
+He was very thin--painfully so--and very pale. There were shadows round
+his large, dark eyes--the eyes of a man who dreams--and his black hair,
+worn rather long, swept away from a forehead as white as a woman's, but
+with two deep lines between the eyes which told the story of pain
+suffered patiently and in silence.
+
+His hands were long and thin--the hands of a musician--and the one on
+which his chin rested as he leaned against the mantelshelf trembled
+slightly. He had been practicing for three hours. He wore an old, a very
+old black velvet jacket, and trousers bulgy at the knees and frayed at
+the edges; but both were well brushed, and his shirt and collar were
+scrupulously clean, though, like the trousers, they; showed signs of
+wear.
+
+He occupied a room just above the Lortons' flat, and the sound of his
+piano and violin had entered so fully into Nell's daily life that she
+was sometimes conscious of a feeling of uneasiness when it ceased, and
+often caught herself waiting for it to begin again.
+
+"Is it anything I can do?" she asked again, as he remained silent and
+lost in watching her.
+
+"Oh, no!" he said. "I wanted him to help me lift the piano to another
+part of the room. The sun comes right on to it now, and it's hot. I
+tried by myself, but----" He stopped, as if he were ashamed of his
+weakness. "You've no idea how heavy a piano can make itself, especially
+on a hot day."
+
+"He will be in directly, and delighted to help you. Meanwhile, help me
+make the toast, and stop to tea with us."
+
+"I'll help you with the toast," he said. "But I've had my tea, thanks."
+
+It was a falsehood, for he had run out of tea two days before; but he
+was proud as well as poor, which is a mistake.
+
+"Oh, well, you can pretend to drink another cup," said Nell lightly; for
+she knew that the truth was not in his statement.
+
+He stuck a slice of bread on a toasting fork, but did not kneel down
+before the fire for a moment or two.
+
+"Your room faces the same way as mine," he said. "But it always seems
+cooler." His dark eyes wandered round meditatively. Small as the room
+was, it had that air of neatness which indicates the presence of a lady.
+The tea cloth was white, the few ornaments and pictures--brought from
+The Cottage--the small bookcase and wicker-work basket gave a touch of
+refinement, which was wholly wanting in his own sparsely furnished and
+always untidy den. "Coming in here is like--like coming into another
+world. I feel sometimes as if I should like to suggest that you should
+charge sixpence for admission. It would be worth that sum to most of the
+people in the Buildings, as a lesson in the use and beauty of soap and
+water and a duster."
+
+Nell smiled.
+
+"I think it is wonderful that they keep their rooms as clean as they do,
+seeing that every time one opens the windows the blacks pour in----"
+
+"Like Zulus into a zareba--if that's what they call it. Yes; no denizen
+of the Buildings would feel strange in Africa, for, whatever the
+weather may be, the blacks are always with us. Should you say that this
+is done on this side?"
+
+He held up the slice on the toasting fork for her inspection.
+
+"Beautifully! Turn it, please."
+
+"I hope to Heaven I shan't drop it! There you are! I knew I should."
+
+"Well, you can keep that one for yourself," said Nell, laughing.
+
+He listened to the laugh, with his head a little on one side.
+
+"I like to hear that," he said, almost to himself, "though, sometimes, I
+wonder how you can do it--you, who must always be longing for the fresh
+air--for the country."
+
+Nell winced.
+
+"What is the use of longing for that which one cannot have?" she said
+lightly, but checking a sigh.
+
+He looked at her quickly, strangely, and a faint dash of color rose to
+his pale face.
+
+"That's true philosophy, at any rate," he said, in a low voice; "but,
+all the same, one can't help longing sometimes."
+
+As he spoke, he stole a glance at the beautiful face; and, in looking,
+forgot the toast, which promptly showed its resentment of his neglect by
+"catching," and filling the apartment with the smell of scorched bread.
+
+"I think that's burning," said Nell.
+
+"And I'm sure of it," he said penitently. "If ever you are in doubt as
+to the statement that man is a useless animal, set me to some simple
+task, Miss Lorton, and I'll prove it beyond question. Never mind, it's
+my slice, and charcoal is extremely wholesome."
+
+"There's another; and do be careful! And how are you getting on?"
+
+He jerked his head toward the sitting room above, where the piano was.
+
+"The cantata? Slowly, slowly," he said thoughtfully. "Sometimes it goes,
+like a two-year-old; at others it drags and creeps along, and more often
+it stops altogether. You haven't heard it lately; perhaps that's the
+reason I'm sticking. I notice that I always get on better and faster
+after you--and Lorton--have been up to mark progress. Perhaps you'll
+come up this evening? It's cruel to ask you, I know, for you must hate
+the sound of my piano and fiddle, just as much as I hate the sound of
+Mrs. Jones spanking Tommy, or the whizzing of the sewing machine of that
+poor girl in the next room. And you must hear them, too--you, who have
+been so used to the quiet of the country, the music of the sea, and the
+humming of bees! Yes, it is harder for you, Miss Lorton, than for any of
+the rest of us; and I often stop in the middle of the cantata and think
+how you must suffer."
+
+"Then don't think of it again," said Nell cheerfully, "for, indeed,
+there is no cause to pity me. At first----" She stopped, and her brows
+knit with the memory of the first few weeks of Beaumont Buildings.
+"Well, at first it was rather--trying; but after a while one gets
+used----"
+
+"Used to the infernal--I beg your pardon--the incessant bangings on a
+piano, and the wailings of Tommy Jones. But you wouldn't complain even
+if you still suffered as keenly as you did when you first came. I know.
+Sometimes I feel that I would give ten years of my life if I could hear
+you say 'Good-by, Mr. Falconer; we are going!' though God knows
+I--we--should all miss you badly enough."
+
+There came a knock at the door--a soft, dull knock, followed by a rattle
+of the handle--and a mite of a boy stood in the opening, inhaling the
+scent of the tea and toast, and gazing wide-eyed at the two occupants of
+the room.
+
+"Please, mother ses will 'oo lend her free lumps o' sugar, Miss 'Orton;
+'cos she've run out."
+
+"Of course I will! And come in, Tommy!" said Nell. "There you are!"
+
+She wrapped half the contents of the sugar basin in a piece of paper and
+gave it him; then, seeing his eyes fixed wistfully on the pile of
+buttered toast, she took a couple of slices, arranged them in sandwich
+fashion, butter side inward, and put them into his chubby and grimy
+fist. "There you are. And, Tommy, you'll be a good boy, and won't eat
+any of the sugar, will you?"
+
+"No; I'll be dood, Miss 'Orton. I'll promise I'll be dood."
+
+"Then there's one lump all to yourself!" she said, sticking it into the
+other fist. "Open the door for him, Mr. Falconer; and don't watch him up
+the stairs; he'll keep his promise," she added, in a low voice, as she
+searched for a comparatively clean spot on Tommy's face on which to kiss
+him.
+
+"Go on--you lucky young beggar!" said Falconer, under his breath, and
+eying Tommy enviously.
+
+"If you've any pity to waste, spend it on the children," said Nell, with
+a sigh. "Oh, what would I give to be a fairy, just for one day, and
+whisk them off to the seaside, into the open fields, anywhere out of
+Beaumont Buildings. Sometimes, when I see the women drive by in their
+carriages, with a lap dog on their knees or stuck up beside them, it
+makes me feel wicked! I want to stick my head out of the window and
+call put: 'Come up here and fetch some of the children for a drive; I'll
+take care of the dog while you're gone!' Dick's late!" she broke off;
+"we'd better begin. Help me wheel the table down to the window."
+
+He attempted to do it by himself, but the color rose to his face and his
+breath came fast, and Nell insisted on bearing a hand.
+
+"That's better!" she said cheerfully, and ignoring the signs of his
+weakness. "You can reach the toast----"
+
+He stood by the window, looking down absently and regaining his breath
+which the effort, slight as it was, had tried.
+
+"There's a brougham stopped at the door," he said. "Doctor, I suppose.
+No, it's a lady--a fashionable lady. Perhaps she's come to take one of
+the children for a drive?"
+
+Nell looked out and uttered an exclamation.
+
+"I--I know her," she said, with some agitation. "I'm afraid she's coming
+here--to see me!"
+
+He moved to the door at once.
+
+"Oh, but stay! Why do you run away?" she exclaimed.
+
+He glanced at his seedy coat with a grave shyness.
+
+"I'll come back if you're mistaken," he said. "Your swell visitor would
+be rather astonished at my appearance; and I'm afraid there isn't time
+to get my frock coat out of pawn."
+
+"Don't go!" begged Nell; but he shook his head and left her; and as she
+heard his step going slowly up the stone stairs, she glanced at the tea,
+and thought pitifully of the meal he was losing; then she stood by the
+table and waited, trying to steady the beating of her heart, to assure
+herself that she had been mistaken; but presently some one knocked, and,
+opening the door, she saw Lady Wolfer standing before her.
+
+Lady Wolfer drew the slight figure to her and kissed her again and
+again.
+
+"You wicked girl!" she said, gazing at her with tender reproach. "Aren't
+you going to let me come in? Why do you stand and look at me with those
+grave eyes of yours, as if you were sorry to see me? Oh, my dear, my
+dear!"
+
+"Yes, come in," said Nell, with something like the sigh of resignation.
+
+Lady Wolfer still held her by the arm, and turned her face to the light.
+There had been a dash of color in it a moment ago, but it had faded, and
+Lady Wolfer's eyes filled with tears as she noticed the thinness and
+pallor of the face.
+
+"Nell, Nell! it is wicked of you! I only knew it last night, when we
+came back. I thought you were at Shorne Mills still! You wrote from
+there--you said nothing about coming to London."
+
+"That was more than two months ago," said Nell, with a grave smile.
+"And--and I said nothing because I knew that you--that Lord
+Wolfer--would want to--to help us. And there was no need--is none."
+
+"No need!" Lady Wolfer looked round the room, listened for a moment to
+the strains of the piano mingling with the squeals of the children in
+the house, the yells of those playing in the street, and scented the
+various odors floating in at the window. "No need! Oh, Nell! isn't it
+wicked to be so stubborn and so proud? And we knew nothing! We thought
+that you had enough----"
+
+"So we have," said Nell. "They have been very good to Dick at the works,
+and he is earning wages, and there--there was some money left--a
+little--but enough."
+
+"Only enough to permit you to live here! In this prison! Nell, you must
+let me take you away----"
+
+Nell shook her head, smiling still, but with that "stubborn" expression
+in her eyes which the other woman remembered.
+
+"And leave Dick!" she said. "No, no! Don't say another word! Call us
+proud and stiff-necked, if you like--we're not, really--but neither Dick
+nor I could take anything from any one while we have enough of our own.
+If we could--if ever we 'run short,' and are in danger of starvation,
+then----But that won't happen. You don't know how clever Dick is, and
+how much they think of him at the works! He'll be in directly, with his
+hands and face all smutty, and famishing for his tea----" She laughed as
+she fetched another cup. "And you've come just in time. Sit down and
+leave off staring at me so reproachfully, and tell me all the news."
+
+"No," said Lady Wolfer. "You tell me; yes, tell me all about it, Nell."
+
+Nell smiled as she poured out the tea--the smile which bravely checks
+the sigh.
+
+"There is not much to tell," she said. "When I got home--to Shorne
+Mills"--should she never be able to speak the words without a pang?--"I
+found mamma unwell, very unwell. She was quite changed----"
+
+"That is why she sent for you, of course," said Lady Wolfer. "Nell, why
+did you go without seeing me, without saying good-by?"
+
+"I had to leave at once," said Nell timidly, and fighting with her
+rising color.
+
+"That day! I shall never forget it," said Lady Wolfer softly, and
+looking straight before her. "Yes, I have something to tell you, dear.
+But go on."
+
+"Mamma was ill; but I was not frightened--not at first. She was always
+an invalid, you know, and I thought that she would get better. But she
+did not; she got weaker every day, and----" The tears came to her eyes,
+and she turned away to the fire for a moment. "Molly and I nursed her.
+Molly was our servant, and like a friend indeed, and the parting with
+her----She did not suffer much, and she was so patient, so changed. She
+was like a child at last; she could not bear me to leave her. I used to
+think that she--she was not very fond of me; but--but all that was
+changed before she died, and she grew to like me as much as she liked
+Dick. He had always been her favorite. To the last she did not think she
+was going to die, and--and--the evening before she went we"--she
+laughed, the laugh so near akin to tears--"we cut out a paper pattern
+for a new dress for her--one of your patterns."
+
+"My poor Nell!" murmured Lady Wolfer.
+
+"Then she died; and the Bardsleys offered Dick a situation--it was very
+kind and unusual, Dick says, and he cannot quite understand it even
+now--and, of course, we had to come to London----"
+
+She stopped, and Lady Wolfer looked round and out of the window.
+
+"No; we had to live in London, to be near the works, you know. We are
+very comfortable and happy."
+
+"My poor Nell!"
+
+"Oh, but don't pity us," said Nell, smiling. "You don't know how jolly
+we are, and how full of amusement our life is. We even go to the theater
+sometimes, and sometimes Dick brings a friend home to tea; and there are
+friends here in the Buildings--one has just left me. And Dick is going
+to be a great man, and rich and famous. Oh, there is not a doubt about
+it. Though Beaumont Buildings are pretty large, we have several castles
+in the air quite as big. And now tell me--about yourself," she broke off
+suddenly, and with a touch of embarrassment. "You are looking very well;
+yes, and younger; and your hair is long; and what a swell you are!"
+
+"Am I?" said Lady Wolfer, in a low voice, and smiling softly. "I am
+glad. Nell, while you have been in such trouble--my poor, dear Nell!--I
+have been so happy. How can I tell you? I feel so ashamed." Her face
+grew crimson, and she looked down as if smitten with shame; then she
+raised her eyes. "It began--my happiness, I mean--the day you left us.
+Do you remember the night before, and--and the wild, wicked words I
+spoke to you?"
+
+Nell nodded slightly, and bent over the tea things.
+
+"I was mad that night--reckless and desperate. I--I thought that my
+husband didn't care for me."
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"Yes; you said I was wrong--that it was all a mistake. How did you know,
+dear? But I did not believe you; and I--I thought--God forgive me!--that
+I owed it to the man who did love me--that other. Nell, I cannot bear to
+speak his name now--now that all is altered! I thought that I was bound
+to go away with him! He had asked me--implored me more than once. I knew
+that he would ask me again, and soon, and--and I should have yielded!"
+
+"No, no!" said Nell, going round to her, and putting her arms round her.
+
+"Yes, ah, yes, I should!" said Lady Wolfer. "I had made up my mind. I
+was reckless and desperate. That very morning I had decided to go,
+whenever he asked me; and that very morning, quite early, while I was
+dressing, my husband came to me, and--Nell, you were right, though even
+now I cannot guess how you knew."
+
+"Spectators see more of the game, dear," said Nell softly.
+
+"And in a moment everything was changed; and I knew the truth--that he
+loved me--had loved me from the first. We had both been blind. But I was
+the worst; for I, being a woman, ought to have seen that his coldness
+was only the screen which his pride erected between his heart and the
+woman whom he thought had only married him for position. We went away
+together that day--our real honeymoon. Forgive me, Nell, if--if I almost
+forgot you! Happiness makes us selfish, dear! But I did not forget you
+for long. And he--Nell, why does he always speak of you as if he owed
+you something----"
+
+She broke off, looking at Nell with a puzzled air.
+
+Nell smiled enigmatically, but said nothing.
+
+"Nell, dear, he bade me bring you back with me."
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"You will not? But you will come and stay with us; you will bring your
+brother? Make your home with us while we are in town, at any rate, dear.
+Ah, don't be stubborn, Nell! Somehow, I feel as if--as if I owed my new
+happiness to you--that's strange, isn't it? But it is so. And you will
+come?"
+
+But Nell was wise in her generation, and remained firm.
+
+"I must stay with Dick," she said. "We are all and all to each other.
+But you shall come and see me sometimes, if you will promise to be good,
+and not try and persuade me into leaving that sphere in which the Fates
+have placed me."
+
+Lady Wolfer sighed.
+
+"You little mule! You always had your own way while you were at Wolfer
+House, and I see you haven't changed. But I give you fair warning, Nell,
+that one day I shall take you at your weakest, and bear you away from
+this--this awful place! It is not fitting that you should be here! Dear,
+don't forget that you are a relation of mine!"
+
+"A poor relation," said Nell, laughing softly. "And, like all poor
+relations, to be kept at a proper distance. Go now, dear; that coachman
+of yours is getting anxious about his horses."
+
+Lady Wolfer pleaded hard, but Nell remained firm.
+
+Her ladyship was welcome to visit at Beaumont Buildings as often as she
+chose, but Beaumont Buildings would keep itself to itself; and, at last,
+her brougham drove away.
+
+It had scarcely turned the corner before Falconer knocked at the
+Lortons' door.
+
+"Gone!" he said.
+
+"Yes, quite gone," said Nell cheerfully, but thoughtfully. "Come and
+have your tea; and I'll have another cup."
+
+He sat down at the table. Tea is a serious meal at Beaumont Buildings,
+and is eaten at the table, not in chairs scattered over the room. But
+Falconer set his cup down at the first sip and pushed his plate away.
+
+"I know the sequel of this comedy," he said.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nell, staring at him.
+
+"Enter swell friend. 'Found at last! Ah, leave this abode of poverty and
+squalor. Come with me!' and the heroine goeth."
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"How foolish you are, Mr. Falconer! The heroine--if you mean me--does
+not 'goeth,' but remains where she is."
+
+"Do you mean it?" he asked, the color rising to his pale face.
+
+"Yes," she said, with a cheerful nod.
+
+"Then pass the toast," he said. "I breathe again, and tea is possible.
+But she wanted you to go? Don't deny it!"
+
+Nell's pale face flushed.
+
+"Yes. She wanted me to go; but I would not. I am going to remain at
+Beaumont Buildings," said Nell resolutely.
+
+As she spoke, the door opened, and Dick entered quickly. His face and
+hands were smudgy, but his eyes were bright in their rings of smoke and
+smut.
+
+"Hallo, Nell; hallo, Falconer!" he cried. "Eaten all the tea? Hope not,
+for I'm famishing. Nell, I've got some news for you--wait till I've
+cleaned myself."
+
+"No, you don't!" said Falconer, catching him by the arm. "What is it?"
+
+"Oh, not much. Only there's a chance of our leaving these beastly
+Buildings. I've got to go down to a place in the country to manage some
+water works, and install the electric light."
+
+Falconer's face fell for a moment, then he smiled cheerfully.
+
+"Congratulations, old fellow!" he said. "When do you go?"
+
+"Oh, in about a fortnight. That's what kept me late. Think of it! The
+country, Nellakins! Jump for joy, but don't upset the tea things!"
+
+"Where is it, Dick?" she asked, as he went to the door.
+
+"At a place called Anglemere. One of the ancestral halls, don't you
+know. 'Historic Castles of England' kind of place."
+
+"Anglemere?" said Nell, wrinkling her brows. "I seem to remember it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+Dick, having "cleaned" and "stoked" himself with tea and toast,
+vouchsafed for further information:
+
+"Anglemere's in Hampshire. It's a tremendous place, so a fellow at the
+works says, who's seen it; one of the show places, you know; 'a
+venerable pile,' with a collection of pictures, and a famous library,
+and all that. Lord Angleford----"
+
+"I remember!" Nell broke in, "I met Lady Angleford at Wolfer House; a
+little woman, and very pretty. She was exceedingly kind to me."
+
+"Sensible as well as pretty," murmured Falconer. He had drawn his chair
+to the window, and was gazing down at the crowded street rather absently
+and sadly. In a fortnight the girl who had brightened his life, who had
+transformed Beaumont Buildings into an earthly paradise for him, would
+be gone!
+
+"Oh!" said Dick. "That would have been the late earl's wife. The present
+one isn't married. He's a young chap--lucky bargee! The late earl died
+about eighteen months ago, suddenly. I heard old Bardsley talking about
+it while I was in the office with him. He's been away traveling----"
+
+"Who--old Bardsley?" asked Nell.
+
+"No, brainless one," said Dick; "the young earl, Lord Angleford. Rather
+a curious sort of customer, I should fancy, for nobody seems to know
+where he has been, or where he is. Left England suddenly--kind of
+disappearance. They couldn't find him in time for the funeral, and he's
+away still; but he's sent orders that this place--the beggar's got
+three or four others in England and elsewhere, I believe--should be put
+in fighting trim--water supply, new stables, electric light--the whole
+bag of tricks. And I--I who speak to you--am going to be a kind of clerk
+of the works. No need to go on your knees to me, Falconer; just simply
+bow respectfully. You will find no alteration in me. I shall be as
+pleasant and affable as ever. No pride in me."
+
+"Thank you--thank you," said Falconer, with exaggerated meekness.
+"But--pardon the curiosity of an humble friend--I don't quite see where
+Miss Lorton comes in."
+
+"Oh, it's this way," said Dick, reaching for his pipe--for your
+engineer, more even than other men, must have his smoke immediately
+after he has stoked: "the place is empty--nobody but caretakers and a
+few servants--and the agent has offered me the use of one of the lodges.
+There is no accommodation at the inn, I understand."
+
+"I see," said Falconer.
+
+"Just so, perspicacious one. It happens to be a tiny-sized lodge, with
+two or three bedrooms. My idea is that Nell and I could take possession
+of the lodge, hire a slavey from the village, and have a good time of
+it."
+
+"Pleasure and business combined," said Falconer. "And it will be nice,
+when the Buildings are as hot as--as a baker's oven, to think of Miss
+Lorton strolling through the woods--there must be woods, of course--or
+sitting with a book beside the stream--for equally, of course, there is
+a stream."
+
+"Get your fiddle and play us a 'Te Deum' for the occasion," said Dick
+suddenly.
+
+When Falconer had left the room, Nell told Dick of Lady Wolfer's visit.
+
+"Oh!" he said, by no means delightedly. "And wants you to go and live
+with her; or offered to make us an allowance, I suppose? At any rate, I
+won't have anything of that kind, Nell," he added, with fraternal
+despotism.
+
+"You need not be afraid. I shall not go--there are reasons----" She
+turned away to hide the sudden blush. "And I am as proud as you, Dick. I
+should like to ask Mr. Falconer to come down to us at this place. He has
+not been looking well lately."
+
+Dick shook his head.
+
+"No, poor beggar! I'm afraid he's in a bad way. Do you hear him cough at
+night? It's worse than he pretends."
+
+"Hush!" said Nell warningly, as the musician reentered, his violin held
+lovingly under his arm.
+
+Soon the small room was filled with the strains of jubilant music--a "Te
+Deum" of thanksgiving and rejoicing.
+
+"That's for you," he said.
+
+Then suddenly the tune changed to a sad yet delicious melody whose
+sweetness thrilled through Nell, and made her think of Shorne Mills--and
+Drake; and as he played on she turned her face away from him and to the
+open window through which the wailing of the music floated, causing more
+than one of the passers-by in the street beneath to pause and look up with
+wistful eyes.
+
+"And that is for me," said Falconer; "for me--and the rest of us--whom
+you will leave behind. Good night." And with an abrupt nod he left the
+room.
+
+As a rule he played, in his own room, late into the night; but to-night
+the piano and violin were silent, and he sat by the window looking at
+the stars, in each of which he saw the beautiful face of the girl in the
+room below.
+
+"She doesn't even guess it," he murmured. "She will never know that I--I
+love her. And that's all right; for though she wouldn't laugh at the
+love of a pauper with one leg in the grave, she'd pity me, and I
+couldn't stand that. She'd pity me and make herself unhappy over my--my
+folly; and she's unhappy enough as it is. I wonder what it is? As I
+watch her eyes, with that sad, wistful look in them, I feel that I would
+give the world to know, and another world on top of it to be able to
+help her. Sometimes I fancy that the look is a reflection of that in my
+own eyes, and that would mean that she loved some one as I love her. Is
+that the meaning? Is there some one of whom she is always thinking as I
+think of her? The look was in her eyes while I was playing to-night; I
+saw it as I have seen it so often."
+
+He sighed, and hid his face in his long, thin hands.
+
+"They paint love as a chubby, laughing child," he mused bitterly. "They
+should draw him as a cruel, heartless monster, with a scourge instead of
+a toy dart in his hands. If I wrote a love song, it should be the wail
+of a breaking heart. Only two months! It seems as if I had known her for
+years. Was that look always in her eyes? Will it always remain there?
+Oh, God! if I could change it, if I could be the means----Yes; I'd ask
+for nothing more, nothing better, but just to see her happy. They might
+carry my coffin down the stairs as soon as they pleased afterward."
+
+He stretched out his hand for his violin, but drew his hand back.
+
+"Not to-night. They are talking over the brother's slice of luck, and I
+won't break in upon their joy. Good night, my love--who never will be
+mine."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Every evening Dick came home with fresh items of information about the
+work to be done at Anglemere, and Nell began to catch something of the
+excitement of his anticipation.
+
+Sometimes Falconer came down to listen, and he tried to hide the pain
+the prospect of their departure cost him, as now and again he joined in
+the discussion of their plans; but more often he sat gazing out of the
+window, and stealing glances at the beautiful face as it bent over some
+needlework for Dick or herself--more often for Dick.
+
+But one night--it was the night before they were to start--he almost
+betrayed himself.
+
+"To-morrow you will have escaped the piano and violin, Tommy's squeals
+and the yowling of the cats, the manifold charms of Beaumont Buildings,
+and the picturesque cabbages of the costers' barrows, Miss Lorton. I
+wonder whether you will ever come back?"
+
+"Why, of course," said Nell, smiling. "Dick is not going to spend the
+remainder of his life at Anglemere. Oh, yes; we shall be back almost
+before you have missed us, Mr. Falconer."
+
+"Think so?" he said, smiling, too, but with a strange look in his eyes,
+and a tremulous quiver of the thin and too-red lips. "Then you will have
+to be back in a very few minutes after the cab has left the door. No;
+somehow I fancy that Beaumont Buildings is seeing the last of you. Tommy
+must share my dread, for he howled with more than his accustomed
+vehemence when he said 'Good-by' just now."
+
+"That was because you said I ought not to kiss him, because he was so
+dirty," said Nell. "Poor little Tommy! Yes, I think he'll miss me!"
+
+"It's not improbable," he said, in his ironical way. "I wish I were
+seven years old, with a smudgy face and a perpetual sniff. Who knows!
+You might have some pity to spare for me."
+
+Nell laughed with the unconscious heartlessness of the woman who does
+not suspect that the man she is laughing at loves her better than life
+itself.
+
+"Oh, I hope you will miss us, too," she said. "But you will be freer to
+get on with your work. I'm afraid Dick--and I, too!--have often
+interrupted you and interfered with your composing. You must set at the
+cantata while we are away, and have it finished for us to hear when we
+come back. And, Mr. Falconer, you will take care of yourself, won't you?
+You are so careless, you know--about going out in the rain and at night
+without an umbrella or overcoat. I heard you coughing last night."
+
+"Did you?" he said. "I hope I didn't keep you awake! I kept my head
+under the bedclothes as much as I could! Yes, I'll take care, though I
+don't think it matters very much."
+
+Nell looked up at him, startled and rather shocked.
+
+"Why do you say that?" she said reproachfully. "Do you think that
+Dick--and I--wouldn't be sorry if you were ill?"
+
+"Yes," he said, smiling gravely, "you would be sorry. So you would be if
+Tommy got the measles, or the black cat opposite were to slip off the
+tiles and break its neck, or Giles came home sober enough one night to
+kill his wife. There! I've hurt you! I didn't mean to! It's sheer
+cussedness on my part, and I'm an ill-conditioned cur to say a word."
+Then suddenly the smile vanished, and his misery showed itself in his
+dark eyes. "Ah! can't you see what your going means to me--can't you
+see?" He caught his emotion by the throat and checked it. "That--that I
+shall miss you--and Dick; that I shan't have any one to come to with my
+cantata and my cough. There's Dick calling, and good-by. I--I shall be
+out at a music lesson when you start to-morrow."
+
+He held her hand for a moment or two, half raised it slowly, but, with a
+wistful smile and a tightening of his lips, let it fall.
+
+He was not out when they drove away next morning, but his door was
+closed, and he watched them from behind the ragged curtains drawn
+closely over the grimy window. Then, when the cab had rattled away, he
+went out on the landing and found Tommy seated on the stairs, bewailing
+his desertion, with his two chubby, sooty fists kneading his swollen
+eyes.
+
+"Come inside, Tommy," he said. "Let us mingle our tears together. You
+ungrateful young sweep, how dare you cry! She kissed you!"
+
+Nell, of the tender heart, had grown somewhat fond of Beaumont
+Buildings, and she sighed rather wistfully as she looked back at it, and
+thought of the humble friends who would, she knew, miss her; but her
+spirits rose as the train left the tops of the houses and carried Dick
+and her into the fresh air of the great Hampshire downs.
+
+"It seems years, ages, since I saw the country!" she exclaimed. "Dick,
+do you see those sheep? They are white! Think of it! Think of the grimy
+ones in the parks! Couldn't we have a Society for Washing the Poor
+London Sheep, Dick? And look at that farmhouse! Oh, Dick, it isn't
+Devonshire and--and Shorne Mills, but it is the country at last!"
+
+"All right; keep your hair on, young woman," said Dick, looking out of
+the window in a patronizing fashion. "This is all very well; but wait
+until you get to Anglemere. Then you can shout and carry on if you
+like. Old Bardsley--nice old chap when he steps off his perch--says it
+is one of the most delightful 'seats' in England; as if it were a kind
+of armchair! Lucky beggar, this young lord! Nell, I've a kind of feeling
+that I ought to have been the heldest son of an hearl, but that I was
+changed in the cradle, don't you know. I should advise you not to stick
+your head too far out of the window, or one of these tunnels will knock
+it off. A brainless sister I can bear with, but one without any head at
+all would be rather too much."
+
+He was pretty jubilant himself, though, boylike, he tried to play the
+cynic; and when the ramshackle fly drove through the picturesque
+village, and they came in sight of a huge palace of a house which
+gleamed redly through the trees of an English park, and the flyman,
+pointing with his whip, informed them that it was Anglemere, Dick
+emitted a whistle of surprise and admiration.
+
+"I say, that is something like! What signifies the Maltbys' and the
+other places we know, after that?"
+
+But Nell's eyes, after a glance at the great house, were fixed upon the
+lodge at which the fly had stopped.
+
+"Oh, Dick, how pretty!" she exclaimed, her beautiful face radiant with
+delight as she gazed at the ivy-covered little house with its latticed
+windows and Gothic porch.
+
+A young girl--the village slavey Dick had engaged--stood under the porch
+to welcome them, and demurely conducted Nell over the lodge.
+
+They scrambled through a hasty meal, and Dick invited Nell--with a touch
+of importance and dignity which made her smile, to "come up and see the
+house."
+
+They walked up a magnificent avenue, and stood for a moment or two
+looking upon one of the finest specimens of Gothic domestic architecture
+in England.
+
+"Fine, isn't it?" said Dick, with bated breath. "Like a picture in a
+Christmas number, eh, Nell? See the carving along the front, and the
+terrace? And there's the peacock, there, perched behind that stone lion.
+Fancy such a place as this belonging to you, your very own. Yes, Lord
+Angleford's a lucky chap!"
+
+They went up the stone steps to the terrace steps, up which Queen Bess
+had ascended with stately stride, and, crossing the terrace, into the
+hall.
+
+The staircase, broad enough for a coach and four, had sheets of brown
+holland hanging from it, and the pictures, statuary, cabinets, and
+figures in armor were swathed in protecting covers; but enough was
+visible of the magnificence, the antiquity of the grand old hall to
+impress Nell.
+
+Some men were at work, whitewashing and decorating, and they stopped
+their splashing to permit Nell and Dick to go upstairs; and one or two
+of them touched their hats respectfully to the pretty young lady and her
+brother.
+
+The corridors were wide and newly decorated, and lined with priceless
+pictures which Nell longed to linger over; but Dick led her on from one
+room to another; from suites in which the antique furniture had been
+suffered to remain to others furnished with modern luxury.
+
+As they went downstairs again they were met by a dignified old lady who
+introduced herself as the housekeeper; and who, upon being informed that
+Dick was "the gentleman from Bardsley & Bardsley," graciously conducted
+them over the state apartments. Most of us know Anglemere, either from
+having visited it, or from the innumerable photographs of it, but Nell
+had not seen any pictorial representation of it, and its glories broke
+upon her with all the force of freshness. In silent wonder she followed
+the stately dame as she led them from one magnificent room to another,
+remarking with a pleasant kind of condescension:
+
+"This is the great drawing-room. Designed by Onigo Jones. Pictures by
+Watteau. Queen Elizabeth sat in that chair near the antique mantelpiece
+of lapis-lazuli; this chair is never moved. This, the adjoining room, is
+the ballroom. Pictures by Bouchier; notice the painted ceiling, the
+finest in Europe, and costing over twenty thousand pounds. The next room
+is the royal antechamber, so called because James II. used it for
+writing letters while visiting Anglemere. We now pass into the banquet
+hall. Carved oak by Grinling Gibbings. You will remark the lifesized
+figures along the dado. It was here that Charles I., the Martyr, dined
+with his consort, Henrietta. That buffet, large as it is, will not hold
+the service of gold plate. That painted window's said to be the oldest
+of any, not ecclesiastic, in Europe. It is priceless. The pictures round
+the room are by Van Dyck and Carlo Dolci. The one over the mantelpiece
+is a portrait of the seventh Earl of Angleford."
+
+Nell looked up at it. She was half confused by the splendors of the
+place and her efforts to follow the descriptions and explanations of the
+stately housekeeper; but as she raised her eyes to the portrait she was
+conscious of a sensation of surprise. For in some vague way the portrait
+reminded her of Drake. The pictured Angleford wore a ruff, and was
+habited in satin and armor, but the face----
+
+"Come on! What are you staring at?" said Dick, impatiently; and she
+followed the cicerone into another room, and listened to the monotonous
+voice repeating the well-learned lesson.
+
+"We have here the library, the famous Angleford library. There are
+twenty thousand volumes, many of them unique. They are often consulted
+by savants--with the permission of the earl. Many of them are priceless.
+That portrait is Lord Bacon," et cetera, et cetera.
+
+"Let us go," whispered Nell, in Dick's ear. "The greatness of the house
+of Angleford is getting on my nerves! I--I can't help thinking of
+Beaumont Buildings! It is too great a contrast!"
+
+"Shut up!" retorted Dick, who was intensely interested.
+
+Nell went through the remainder of the inspection with a vague feeling
+of dissatisfaction. What right had any one man to such luxury, to such
+splendor, while others were born to penury and suffering?
+
+While she was asking herself this question, the housekeeper had led them
+to the picture gallery, the gallery which artists came from all corners
+of the world to visit.
+
+"Portraits of the earls of Angleford," she said, waving a black-clad,
+condescending arm.
+
+"Is the portrait of the present Earl of Angleford here?" asked Dick,
+with not unnatural interest.
+
+"No, sir. The present earl is not here. You see, it was not thought that
+he would be the earl. That is the late earl. Would you like to see the
+stables? If so, I will call the head coachman----"
+
+But they had seen enough for one day, and, almost in silence, walked
+back to the lodge.
+
+"I wonder whether Lord Angleford knows, realizes, how big a man he is?"
+said Dick, as he smoked his last pipe that night in the sitting room of
+the lodge. "We've seen the house, but we haven't seen the park or the
+estates or the farms, which extend for miles around. Fancy owning all
+this, and a title, a name, which every boy and girl learns about when
+they read their English history!"
+
+"I decline to fancy to realize anything more," said Nell, with a laugh.
+"That old woman's voice rings in my ears, and I feel as if I were
+intoxicated with, overwhelmed by, the grandeur of the Anglefords. I am
+going to bed now, Dick. To bed in a house in the country, with the scent
+of the flowers stealing in at the windows! Oh, think of it! and think
+of--Beaumont Buildings! Dick, would it be possible to obtain the post of
+lodgekeeper to Anglemere House? I envy the meanest laborer on the
+estate. Next to being the earl himself, I think I would like to be
+keeper of one of the lodges, or--or chief of the laundry!"
+
+She went up to her room--a room in which the ceiling was "covered" to
+the shape of the thatched roof.
+
+She was brushing the long tresses of soft, fluffy black hair which
+Drake had loved to kiss, when she heard the sound of a horse trotting up
+the avenue.
+
+She went to the window, and, screened by the curtain, looked out. A full
+moon was shining and flooding the avenue With light.
+
+She waited, looking out absently. The sound came nearer, and suddenly
+the horseman came in sight. Holding the muslin curtain for a screen, she
+still waited and watched for him. Then, with a faint cry--a cry almost
+of terror--she shrank back.
+
+For the man who was riding up the avenue to Anglemere was strangely like
+Drake!
+
+He had passed in an instant; his head was bowed, his face only for a
+moment in the moonlight, and yet--and yet! Was she dreaming--was fancy
+only trifling with her--or was it indeed and in truth Drake himself?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+Nell lay awake for hours, dwelling on the appearance of the horseman who
+had ridden by in the moonlight.
+
+It seemed to her that it was impossible that she, of all persons in the
+world, could be mistaken; and yet how could Drake be here, and why
+should he be riding up the avenue of Anglemere at this time of night?
+
+The sight of him, if it was he, aroused all the love in her heart, which
+needed little, indeed, to arouse it. She had tried to forget him during
+the vicissitudes of the last two years, but she knew that he was still
+enshrined in her heart, that while life lasted she must love him and
+long for him. She endeavored, by thinking of him as betrothed--perhaps
+married--to Lady Luce, as belonging to her, to oust her love for him as
+a sin, as shameful as it was futile; but there was scarcely an hour of
+the day in which her thoughts did not turn to him, and at night she
+awoke from some dream, in which he was the central figure, with an
+aching heart.
+
+Life is but a hollow mockery to the woman, or the man, whose unrequited
+love fills the hours with an unsatisfied longing.
+
+When she awoke in the morning, the likeness to Drake of the man she had
+seen had grown vaguer to her mind, and she persuaded herself that it was
+a likeness only; but her restless night had made her pale and
+preoccupied; but Dick, when he came in to breakfast, was too engrossed
+and excited to notice it.
+
+"I've just been up to the house," he said, as he flung his cap on the sofa
+and lifted the cover from the savory dish of ham and eggs. "By George! we
+shall have to slip into it and look alive! The contractors have had a
+letter from Lady Angleford. It seems the earl's in England, and wants the
+place as soon as possible. The foreman has sent to London for more hands.
+I've wired the Bardsleys, telling them we've got to hurry up. It's always
+the way with these swells; when they want anything, they want it all in a
+minute. Something like ham and eggs! Rather different to the measly rasher
+and the antediluvian eggs from the grocer's opposite. But you don't seem
+to be very keen?" he added, as Nell pushed her plate away and absently
+took a slice of toast. "Miss the good old London air, Nell, or the
+appetizing smells of Beaumont Buildings?"
+
+"I've got a little headache; only a tiny one," said Nell,
+apologetically. "I shall go for a long walk after breakfast, and you
+will see that I shall be all right by lunch."
+
+"Don't talk of lunch to me!" he said. "I shan't have time for it. I
+shall take a hunk of bread and butter in my pocket, and nibble at it for
+a few minutes during the workman's dinner hour; you bet the noble
+British workman won't cut short his precious meal, bless him!"
+
+He was off again as soon as he had swallowed his breakfast, with his
+pipe in his mouth, and a roll of plans and drawings in his hand; and
+Nell, after gazing from the window at the avenue up which the horseman
+had ridden, put on her things and went down to the village, marketing.
+
+It was a picturesque one, and showed every sign of the sleepy prosperity
+which distinguishes a self-respecting English village lucky enough to
+lie outside the gates of such a place as Anglemere.
+
+It was like old Shorne Mills times to Nell, and her spirits rose as she
+walked along with her basket on her arm.
+
+The butcher touched his forehead and smiled with respectful admiration
+as she entered the tiny and scrupulously clean shop.
+
+"You be the young lady from the lodge, miss?" he said, with a pleasant
+kind of welcome. "I heard as you'd come with the electric gentleman. Ah!
+there's going to be grand changes at the Hall, I'm told. Well, miss,
+it's time. Not that I've got aught to say against the old earl, for he
+was a good landlord and a kind-hearted gentleman. But, you see, he
+wasn't here very much--just a month or two in the shooting season, and
+perhaps at Christmas; but we're hoping, here at Anglemere, that the new
+earl will come oftener. It will be a great thing for us, of course,
+miss. But there! you can't expect him to stay for long, he's got so
+many places; and I'm told that some of 'em are finer and grander even
+than the Hall, though it's hard to believe. A piece of steak, miss?
+Certainly; and it's the best I've got you shall have. And about Sunday,
+miss? What 'u'd you say to a leg of mutton--a small leg, seem' that
+there's only two of you?"
+
+"That will do," said Nell.
+
+"Yes, miss. Perhaps you'd like to see it? It's in the meadow there--the
+sheep near the hedge."
+
+The butcher grew radiant at the sweet, low-toned laugh with which Nell
+received this practical suggestion.
+
+"I am afraid I shouldn't be able to judge it through that thick fleece,"
+she said. "But I am more than willing to trust you, thank you."
+
+"Thank you, miss," he said, as he cut the steak with critical care. "I'm
+told that Lord Angleford's in England, and is coming to the Hall sooner
+than was expected. And that's good news for all of us. Fine gentleman,
+the earl, miss! A regular credit to the country that bred him. I've
+knowed him since he was a boy, for, of course, he used to stay here in
+his holidays, and durin' the shootin' and Christmas. A great favorite of
+his uncle's, the old earl, miss, and no wonder, for there wasn't a more
+promising young gentleman among the aristocracy. Always so pleasant and
+frank spoken, and not a bit of side about him. It 'u'd be, 'Hallo,
+Wicks'--which was me, miss--'how are you? And how's the brindle pup?'
+And he'd take his hat off to the missus just as if she was one of his
+grand lady friends."
+
+Nell moved toward the open door, but Mr. Wicks followed her as if loath
+to let her go.
+
+"Rare cut up we was, miss, when we heard that him and the old earl had
+quarreled and the old gentleman had gone and got married, which was just
+like the Anglefords--always so hotheaded and flyaway. Yes, it was a
+cruel blow to Lord Selbie, or so it seemed; but it all turned out right,
+seeing that there wasn't a heir born to cut him out. Not that any of us
+had a word to say about the lady the old earl married. As nice and as
+pretty--begging her pardon--a little lady, though a foreigner, as ever
+you met. Yes, it's all right, and our young gentleman as we was all so
+fond of is coming into his own, as the saying is. Yes, miss, it shall be
+sent up at once, certainly. And good day to you, miss!"
+
+Wherever she went, Nell found the people rejoicing at the coming advent
+of the new lord, who was anything but new to most of them, who, like
+Wicks, knew and were attached to him. Before she had finished her
+shopping, Nell found herself quite interested in the new master of
+Anglemere, and wondered whether she should see him and what he would be
+like. By the time she had got back to the lodge, her headache had gone,
+and she was singing to herself as she arranged some flowers she had
+picked on her way through the woods.
+
+In the afternoon, she went for a long walk; but, long as it was, it did
+not by any means take her out of the domains of the Earl of Angleford,
+which stretched away for miles round the great house. She saw farms
+dotted here and there on the hillsides, and looking prosperous with
+their cattle and sheep feeding in the fields, and the corn waving like a
+green sea on the slopes of the hills. There were large plantations, in
+which she disturbed the game; and parklike spaces, in which colts
+frisked beside the brood mares, for which Anglemere was famous all the
+world over.
+
+Everything spoke in an eloquent and emphatic way of wealth, and Nell
+sighed and grew rather pensive, now and again, as she thought of the
+denizens of Beaumont Buildings, and the grinding poverty in which their
+lives were spent. But that was like Nell--tender-hearted Nell of Shorne
+Mills.
+
+Dick came home to dinner, tired, and approved of the steak, which, he
+declared, beat even the ham and eggs.
+
+"We're getting on first-rate," he said, in answer to Nell's inquiry;
+"and I'm afraid we shan't make a very long stay here. I'd hoped that
+this job would spin out for--oh, ever so long; but it will have to be
+pushed through in a few weeks. They're waking up at the house like mad.
+Money makes the mare go! And there's no end to the money this young lord
+has got. But, from all I hear, he's a decent sort----"
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Please don't you begin to sing his praises, Dick," she said. "I've
+heard a general chorus of laudations all the morning, and I think I am
+just a wee bit tired of my Lord of Angleford! Though I'm very grateful
+to him for this change! I wish we could turn lodgekeepers, Dick! Fancy
+living here always!"
+
+They were seated in the porch--Dick smoking away furiously--and she
+gazed wistfully at the greensward, and the trunks of the great elms
+glowing like copper in the rays of the setting sun.
+
+"And, oh, Dick!" she cried, "if only Mr. Falconer could be here! How he
+would enjoy it! He's always talking of the country, and how much good it
+would do him!"
+
+"Poor beggar--yes!" said Dick, with a nod of sympathy. "I say, Nell, why
+shouldn't we ask him to pay us a visit?"
+
+Nell grew radiant at the suggestion; then looked doubtful.
+
+"But may we?" she asked. "This isn't our lodge, Dick; though I have
+begun to feel as if it were."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Dick emphatically. "The agent placed it absolutely at
+our disposal. A nice state of things if we couldn't ask a friend! Have
+Britons--especially engineers--become slaves? I pause for a reply. No?
+Good! Then I'll write him a line that will fetch him down--with his
+fiddle! What a pity we haven't got a piano!"
+
+Nell laughed.
+
+"Yes, we could put it in the sitting room, and look at it through the
+window; for there certainly wouldn't be room inside for it and us
+together!"
+
+Dick wrote the next day, and Falconer walked up and down his bare and
+narrow room, with the letter in his hand, his thin face flushing and
+then paling with longing and doubt. To be in the country, in the same
+house with her! And yet--would it not be wiser to refuse? His love grew
+large enough when it was only fed on memory; it would grow beyond
+restraint in such close companionship. Better to refuse and remain where
+he was than to go near her, and so increase the store of agony which the
+final parting would bring him. And so, after the manner of weak man, he
+sat down and wrote a line, accepting.
+
+Dick stole half an hour to go with Nell to meet him at the station, and
+Dick's hearty greeting and Nell's smile brought the blood to his face
+and made the thin hand he gave them tremble.
+
+"The fact is, we couldn't get on without the violin--brought it? That's
+all right. Because if you hadn't, you'd be sent back for it, young man.
+Pretty country, isn't it? All belongs to our young swell. I say 'our,'
+because we feel as if we'd got a kind of share in him, as if he belonged
+to us. You'll hear nothing but 'Lord Angleford,' 'the earl,' all day
+long here; and you'll speedily come to our conviction, that the earth,
+or this particular corner of it, with all that it contains, man, woman,
+and child, birds, beasts, and fishes, was made for his lordship's
+special behoof. Nice little place--kind of fishing box, isn't it?" he
+said, nodding to the vast pile as it came in sight. "That's where I
+spend my laborious days, putting on water for his lordship to drink and
+wash with, and setting up electric light for his lordship to shave
+himself by, though I suppose his lordship's valet does that. And what
+price the lodge? For this is our residence pro tem."
+
+Falconer was almost speechless with delight and happiness; his dark eyes
+glowed with a steady light, which grew brighter and deeper whenever they
+rested on Nell's beautiful face.
+
+His obvious happiness reflected itself on her mood, and it was a merry
+trio which sat down to the simple dinner, that, simple as it was, seemed
+luxurious to the fare which he had left behind at Beaumont Buildings.
+
+After dinner he got out his violin and played for them.
+
+Dick sprawled on the sofa, and Nell leaned back in her cozy chair with
+some useful and necessary darning, and--with unconscious
+cruelty--thought of Drake and Shorne Mills, as the exquisite strains
+filled the tiny room.
+
+Some of the workmen, as they tramped by from their overtime, paused to
+listen, and nodded to each other approvingly, and carried the news to
+the village that "a swell musician fellow" was on a visit at the lodge;
+and the next day, when Nell walked through the village, with Falconer by
+her side, carrying her basket, the good folk eyed his pale face and long
+hair with awed curiosity and interest, and then, when the couple had
+passed, exchanged winks and significant smiles, none of which Nell saw,
+or, if she had seen, would, in her unconsciousness, have understood. For
+it never occurs to the woman whose whole being is absorbed in love for
+one man, that any other man may be in love with her. So Nell was
+placidly happy in the musician's happiness, and never guessed that the
+music he played for her delight was but the expression of the longing of
+his heart, and that when she was not looking, his dark eyes dwelt upon
+her with a sad and wistful tenderness, which was all the more tender
+because of its hopelessness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Now, while all Anglemere talked of its lord and master, it had no
+suspicion that he was near at hand.
+
+Two days before Nell and Dick had arrived at the lodge, the _Seagull_
+sailed, with all the grace and ease of its namesake, into Southampton
+water, with my Lord of Angleford on board.
+
+Drake leaned against the rail and looked with grave face and preoccupied
+air at his native land. Two years had passed since he had last seen it,
+and they had scored their log upon his face. It was handsome still, but
+the temples were flecked with gray, and there were certain lines on the
+forehead and about the mouth which are graven by other hands than
+Time's.
+
+It was the face of one who lived in the past, and could find no pleasure
+in the present; and the expression in his eyes was that of the man to
+whom the gods have given everything but the one thing his heart desired.
+
+As he leaned against the side, with his hands in his pockets, his yacht
+cap tilted over his eyes, he pondered on the vanity of human wishes.
+
+Here he was, the Earl of Anglemere, owner of an historic title, the
+master of all the Angleford estates and wealth. Almost every man who
+heard his name envied him--some doubtless hated him--because of his
+wealth and rank. And yet he would have given it all if by so doing he
+could have been the "Drake Vernon" who had been loved by a certain Nell
+Lorton; and as he looked at the blue water, rippling in the sunlight
+round the stately yacht, his thoughts went back sadly to the _Annie
+Laurie_ and its girl owner, and he sighed heavily.
+
+He had intended to be absent from England for some years--perhaps
+forever, and even when the cable informing him of his uncle's death and
+his own succession to the title had reached him, he had clung to his
+resolution of remaining abroad, for when the news got to him his uncle
+had been long buried, and there seemed to him no need of his return. It
+was easier to forget, or to persuade himself that he forgot, Nell, while
+he was sailing from port to port, or shooting big game in the wild and
+desolate places of the earth, than it would be in England. If Nell had
+still been pledged to him, how differently he would have received this
+gift which the gods had bestowed on him! To have been able to go to her
+and say: "Nell, you will be the Countess of Angleford; take my hand, and
+let me show you the inheritance you will share with me!" That would have
+been a happiness which would have doubled and trebled the value of his
+title and estates. But now! Nell was no longer his; he had lost her,
+and, having lost her, all the good things which had fallen to him were
+of as little value as a Rubens to the blind, or a nocturne of Chopin to
+the deaf.
+
+When the lawyers worried him he sent curt and evasive replies, telling
+them in so many words to do the best they could without him, and when
+Lady Angleford wrote, begging him to return and take up his duties, he
+answered with condolences on her loss, and vague assurances that he
+would be back--some time. Then she wrote again; the kind of letter a
+clever woman can write; the letter which, for all its gentleness, stings
+and irritates:
+
+"Much as you may dislike it, much as it may interfere with your love of
+wandering, the fact remains that you are the Earl of Angleford, my dear
+Drake. And the Earl of Angleford has higher duties than ordinary men.
+The lawyers want you, the estate want you, the people--do you think they
+do not want you? And, most of all, I think, I want you. Do you remember
+our first meeting? It was thought that I had come between you and yours;
+but the fact that I have not done so, the consolation I find in the
+thought, is made of no avail by your absence. You are too good a fellow
+to inflict pain upon a lonely and sorrow-stricken woman, Drake. Come
+back and take your place among your peers and your people. Sometimes I
+think there must be some reason, some mysterious cause, for your
+prolonged absence, your reluctance to take up the duties and
+responsibilities of the position which has fallen to you; but if there
+should be, I beg of you to forget it, to set it aside. You are, you
+cannot help being, the Earl of Angleford. Come and play your part like a
+man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was the kind of letter which few men, certainly not Drake, could
+resist. Wondering bitterly whether she guessed at the reason, the cause
+of his reluctance to return to England, to take up the purple and ermine
+which had fallen from her husband's shoulders, he wrote a short note
+saying that he would "come back." In a second letter he asked her to get
+Angleford ready for him, not dreaming that she would take his request as
+a carte blanche, and turn the old place inside out and make it fit, as
+she considered fitness, for its new lord and master.
+
+As the _Seagull_ glided to her moorings, his expression grew harder and
+sterner. He was a man of the world, and he knew what would be expected
+of him. An earl, the owner of an historic title and vast estates, has a
+paramount duty--that of providing an heir to his title and lands.
+
+Now that he had come back, he would be expected, would be hustled and
+goaded into marrying. Marrying! He swore under his breath, and began to
+pace up and down restlessly, so that Mr. Murphy, the yacht's master,
+thinking that his lordship was in a hurry to land, bustled the crew a
+bit. But when the dingy was lowered and the man-o'-warlike sailors were
+in their places, their lord and master lingered, for he was loath to
+leave the _Seagull_. How many nights had he paced her deck, thinking of
+Nell, calling up the vision of the clear, oval face, the soft, dark
+hair, the eyes that had grown violet-hued as they turned lovingly to
+him. That vision had sailed with him through many a stormy and sunlit
+sea, and he was loath to part with it. On shore, there he would have to
+plunge into his "duties," would have to sign leases, and read deeds, and
+listen to stewards and agents. There would be little time to think, to
+dream of Nell.
+
+The dinghy took him ashore, and he put up at the large and crowded
+hotel, and spent the evening wishing that he was on the _Seagull_. The
+next day it occurred to him that he was within a ride of Anglemere, and
+he procured a horse and rode out to it. He had very little desire to see
+the chief of his "places," and when he had ridden up to the terrace he
+turned his horse down a side road and regained his hotel, little
+thinking that he had passed the window of Nell's room, that her eyes had
+rested upon him.
+
+The sight of the old place had awakened memories which saddened him. He
+had played on that terrace, on the lawn beneath, when a boy. Even as a
+boy he had learned to regard Anglemere as his future home; and he had
+been, in a childish way, proud of the fact. It was his now--and what
+little pride and pleasure could be found in its possession! If
+Nell----With something like an oath he dragged himself up the grandiose
+stairs of the hotel, and went to bed.
+
+In the morning the mate of the yacht brought him a letter from Lady
+Angleford. It said that she had heard that he had arrived at
+Southampton, and that she hoped he would go on to Anglemere and see and
+approve of the alterations and improvements she was attempting, and that
+he would "go into residence" in three weeks' time, as she had asked a
+housewarming party to welcome him.
+
+Drake stared at the letter moodily, and wished himself among the big
+game in Africa, or salmon fishing in Norway; but he felt that Lady
+Angleford was trying to do her duty by him, and knew that he ought to
+follow suit.
+
+He gravitated between the hotel and his yacht for a few days, his face
+growing sterner and more moody each day, then he rode out to Anglemere
+again.
+
+It was a lovely afternoon, and, if he had not been haunted by the vision
+of Nell, Drake would have reveled in the blue sky, the soft breeze, the
+singing of the birds, and the scent of the flowers; but all these
+recalled Nell and Shorne Mills, and only made the aching of his heart
+more acute.
+
+He wondered, as he rode along the well-kept roads, whether she was still
+at Shorne Mills; whether she had forgotten him, whether she was married.
+At the last thought, the blood rushed to his head, and he jerked the
+reins so that the good horse broke into a gallop which carried Drake to
+the southern lodge, where--if he could but have known it!--dwelt Nell
+herself!
+
+The gates were open, and he rode through; but as he passed the lodge,
+the sound of a violin played by a master hand smote upon his ear. He
+pulled the horse into a walk, and approached the house in a dream.
+
+Workmen were all over the place, and he stared about him like a
+stranger; and they eyed him with half-indifferent, half-curious
+scrutiny. He got off his horse and walked up the stone steps of the
+terrace into the hall. Here the foreman of the firm of decorators
+approached him.
+
+"Do you want to see any one, sir?" he asked.
+
+"No," said Drake diplomatically. He was reluctant to announce himself.
+"You are making some alterations?" he said.
+
+"Rather, sir," assented the foreman, with a self-satisfied smile. "We're
+just turning the old place inside out. For the new lord, you know."
+
+"I see," said Drake.
+
+He knew that he ought to have said: "I am the new lord--I am Lord
+Angleford." But he shrank from it. The whole thing, the transformation
+of the old place, though he knew it was necessary, was distasteful to
+him.
+
+"What is that?" and he nodded toward a cluster of small globes in the
+center of the hall.
+
+"Oh, that! That's the electric light," said the man. "There's going to
+be electric lights all over the house. Wait a minute, and I'll turn some
+of it on; though perhaps I'd better not, for the gentleman who manages
+it is away to-day. He's gone to Southampton to see after some things
+which ought to have come this morning."
+
+"Don't trouble," said Drake absently.
+
+"Well, perhaps I'd better not," said the man. "He mightn't like it. He's
+the gent that lives in the lodge."
+
+"In the lodge!" said Drake. "The south lodge?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"He plays the violin?" said Drake.
+
+The man grinned.
+
+"No, no! That's his friend. He's a musician--the gentleman his sister is
+engaged to."
+
+Drake got on his horse and rode away, leaving the park by the east
+lodge.
+
+The three weeks slipped away, and the day for the great gathering at
+Anglemere was near at hand. By dint of working day and night, the
+contractors had succeeded in getting the house finished in time; and
+Lady Angleford, who had come down, with an army of servants, at the
+week's end, expressed her approval and her astonishment that so much
+should have been effected in so short a time.
+
+The lord and master was not to arrive until the evening of the
+twenty-first, the date of the ball, and most of the house party had
+reached Anglemere before him. He had pleaded urgent business as an
+excuse for not putting in an appearance earlier; but, beyond seeing his
+lawyers and listening to their complaints at his absence, he had done
+very little business, and had been cruising in the Solent to while away
+the interval.
+
+The villagers wanted to "receive" him at the station, and talked of a
+"welcome" arch; but no one could find out at what hour to expect him;
+and Lady Angleford, who, with native quickness, had learned a great
+deal of his character in her short acquaintance with him, and was quite
+aware that he disliked fuss of any kind, had discouraged the idea.
+
+The dogcart was sent to the station to meet the six-o'clock train, on
+chance, and he arrived by it, and was driven home, cheered by a few
+groups of the villagers who had hung about in the hope of seeing him.
+
+Lady Angleford met him in the hall, and they went at once to the
+library.
+
+"I can't tell you how glad I am that you have come, Drake--I suppose I
+may call you Drake?" she said, holding out her hand again to him.
+
+"You shall call me by any name that pleases you," he said, smiling at
+her, and speaking very gently, for she was still in mourning, and looked
+very fragile and petite.
+
+"Thanks. And yet I am not a little nervous. I don't know how you'll
+quite take the alterations I have made, whether you will think I have
+been too presumptuous. I shall watch your face with an anxious eye when
+I take you over the place presently."
+
+"My only feeling is one of intense gratitude," he said; "and I can't
+express my thanks and surprise that you should have taken so much
+trouble. I had an idea that the place was all right, that what was good
+enough for my uncle----"
+
+She winced slightly, but smiled bravely.
+
+"No, Drake; he was an old man, and came here but seldom; you are young,
+and, I hope, will spend a great deal of time here. After all, it is your
+real English home."
+
+He nodded, but not very assentingly.
+
+"I don't know," he said, rather moodily. "I am rather a restless mortal,
+and find it difficult to settle in any one place."
+
+"Have you been well?" she asked, as she saw his face plainly, for he had
+turned to the window.
+
+"Oh, yes; quite," he replied.
+
+She looked at him rather doubtfully.
+
+"You are thinner, and----"
+
+"Older," he said, with a smile.
+
+"I was not going to say that; but I was going to say that you looked as
+if you had not been sparing yourself lately."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I had rather a rough time of it in Africa--and a touch of fever. It
+always leaves its mark, you know."
+
+She nodded as if she accepted the explanation; but she was not
+satisfied. A touch of fever does not leave behind the expression of
+weariness which brooded in his eyes.
+
+"If you are not too tired, will you come round with me?" she said.
+"There's an opportunity now, for all the people are out riding or
+driving, and we shall be more free than we shall be when they come
+bustling in."
+
+"Certainly," he said, opening the door for her. "I suppose you have
+filled the house? Is it a large party?"
+
+"I am afraid it is," she said, apologetically; "but the house is not
+quite full, for some of the people who are coming to the dance to-morrow
+will have to stay the night. By the way, I asked you if there was any
+one to whom you would like me to send a card, but you did not reply."
+
+"Didn't I? I humbly beg your pardon, countess! No, there was no one."
+
+He looked round the hall admiringly.
+
+"You have done wonders!" he said; "and in such a short time! I rode over
+here from the hotel the other day, and imagined they would take at least
+a month to finish. And is that the old drawing-room? Can it be possible!
+It is charming! Ah, you have left the dining room untouched--that's
+right."
+
+Lady Angleford laughed.
+
+"There is not an inch of it that has not been touched; but with reverent
+hands, I hope. It is upstairs that we have done most. The bedrooms, you
+will admit, wanted thorough renovating."
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, as he walked beside her. "It's all perfect. It must
+have cost a great deal of money."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Oh, yes; but it does not matter, you know."
+
+He glanced at her questioningly.
+
+"It really does not," she said. "Have you any idea how rich you are,
+Drake?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'm ashamed to say that I don't quite know how I stand. The lawyers
+jawed about it the other day, and I did fully manage to understand that
+my uncle had left me everything. Was that fair, countess?" he added
+gravely.
+
+"Yes," she replied simply. "He wanted to leave me all he could; but I
+would not let him. You know that I have enough, and much more than
+enough, of my own. So why should he leave me any more?"
+
+Drake took her hand, and kissed it gratefully.
+
+"You have been very good to me," he said, in a low voice. "Better than I
+have any right to expect, or deserve."
+
+"No," she said. "And there is no need of gratitude. I wanted to
+atone----No, that's not the right word. I wanted to make up to you for
+the trouble I had, all unconsciously, caused between you and him.
+And--there was another reason, Drake. Don't get conceited; but I took a
+fancy to my nephew the first time I saw him." She laughed softly. "And
+just at present I have no other object in life than the attempt to make
+him happy."
+
+Drake suppressed a sigh.
+
+Happy? Oh, Nell, Nell! How vain and foolish all this splendor, now he
+had lost her!
+
+"So you turned my rambling old place into a palace? Well, it was a
+substantial attempt, and if I am not happy, I shall be the most mulish
+and ungrateful of men. The place is perfect; it lacks nothing, I should
+say," he added, as they descended to the hall again.
+
+"Only a mistress," thought Lady Angleford; but she was too wise to say
+so.
+
+"You haven't told me who is here," he said, as he watched her pour out
+the tea which had been laid in a windowed recess from which was an
+exquisite view of the lawns and the park beyond.
+
+"Oh, a host of your friends," she said. "Do you like sugar, Drake? Fancy
+an aunt having to ask her nephew that! I shall get used to all your fads
+and fancies presently. There are the Northgates, and the Beeches, and
+old Lord Balfreed"--she ran through the list, and he listened absently
+until she came to--"and the Turfleighs."
+
+"The Turfleighs?" he said, with something that was almost a frown; and,
+seeing it, the countess noticed how stern his face had become.
+
+"Yes. Lady Luce and her father will arrive to-morrow, just in time for
+the dance. They are staying at a place near here--the Wolfers'. You
+remember them? They are coming with her, of course."
+
+"Quite a gathering of the clans," he said, as brightly as he could. "It
+is a long time since Anglemere had such a beau fete. Who is that?" he
+broke off to inquire. "One of the guests?"
+
+Lady Angleford looked out of the window.
+
+"I am so near-sighted----"
+
+"A tall, thin man, with long hair," he said. "He has just gone round the
+corner toward the lodge."
+
+"That must be the man who is staying at the south lodge," she said. "His
+name is Falconer, and he is a musician."
+
+"A musician staying at the south lodge?" said Drake, with surprise. "Ah,
+yes! I remember hearing the violin, as I passed the other day."
+
+"Yes," said Lady Angleford. "The young fellow the engineers sent down is
+staying at the lodge with his sister and their friend, this Mr.
+Falconer. They were to have gone yesterday, when the work was completed;
+but I thought they had better stay a few days, until after the dance, at
+any rate, in case anything should go wrong with the electric light. It
+is such a nuisance if they happen to pop out all of a sudden; and they
+generally do when there is something on. You don't mind their being
+here?"
+
+He smiled.
+
+"Why should I? It was a good idea to keep him. I suppose there is to be
+a resident engineer?"
+
+"Yes; I suppose so. It would not be a bad idea to keep this young
+fellow, for I'm told that he has done the work very well. I've not seen
+him or his sister. I hear that she is an extremely pretty girl, and very
+ladylike, and I meant calling at the lodge and asking if they were
+comfortable; but I have been so busy."
+
+"I can quite understand that," he said. "I only hope you will not have
+tired yourself out for to-morrow night."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I am not easily tired; and I'm tough, though I'm small," she retorted,
+with her pretty twang. "By the way, speaking of to-morrow night. I
+wonder whether this Mr. Falconer would come up and play----"
+
+She hesitated, and looked at him doubtfully.
+
+Drake smiled.
+
+"You think he may be some swell musician?" he said. "Too swell to play
+for money? It's likely."
+
+"No, it wasn't that; I was thinking that I could scarcely ask him
+without asking the girl. He's engaged to her, I'm told."
+
+"That's one of those problems which a man is quite unqualified to
+solve," he said indifferently.
+
+"Well, I'll ask them, and chance it. Oh, here are some of the carriages.
+Would you like to run away, or will you----"
+
+But he went to the front to meet and greet his guests.
+
+A couple of hours later, while the trio at the lodge were at supper, the
+servant brought in two notes.
+
+"One for me, and one for you, Mr. Falconer. And from the house! Do you
+see the coronet on the envelope? I wonder what it is? Perhaps a polite
+intimation that we are to clear out!" said Nell.
+
+"Or an equally polite request that we will keep off the grass," said
+Dick. "Do you know how to find out what's in that envelope, Nell?"
+
+"No," she said, holding it up to the light.
+
+"By opening it, my brainless one!"
+
+"Mr. Falconer, you are nearer him than I am; will you oblige me by
+kicking him? Oh, Dick! It's an invitation to the dance to-morrow--for
+you and me."
+
+"And for me," said Falconer. "And will I be so very kind as to bring my
+violin?"
+
+"Very kind of 'em," said Dick. "I should like it very much," as he
+lifted his tankard, "but there won't be any dancing for me to-morrow
+night, unless I indulge in a hornpipe in the engine room. I'm going to
+stick there on guard right away from the beginning to the end of the
+hop. I should never forgive myself if anything went wrong with those
+blessed lights. But you and Falconer can go and foot it to your heart's
+content."
+
+"Quite impossible," said Nell emphatically. "I haven't a dress. So that
+settles me. Besides, Mrs. Hawksley, the housekeeper, has been kind
+enough to ask me to go into the gallery and look on, and I accepted
+gratefully."
+
+"Among the servants?" said Dick, rather dubiously.
+
+"Why not?" said Nell, stoutly. "I don't in the least mind. I shall enjoy
+looking down--for the first time in my life--upon Mr. Falconer."
+
+Falconer smiled and shook his head.
+
+"I haven't a dress suit, and I can't dance, Miss Lorton; and if I had
+and could, I shouldn't go without you. But I'd like to go and play. I
+owe these people a heavy debt for permitting me, through you, to spend
+the happiest days of my life--yes, I'll go and play. They won't mind my
+old velvet jacket, I'm sure."
+
+"Quite the correct thing, my boy," said Dick. "You look no end of a
+musical swell in it; a Paderewski and Sarasati rolled into one. And to
+tell you the truth, I'm relieved to think you're disposed of; for I was
+afraid you'd offer to keep me company in the engine room; and the last
+time you were there you very nearly got mixed up with the engines and
+turned into sausage meat."
+
+Nell was looking at her envelope.
+
+"Lady Angleford addresses me as Miss 'Norton,'" she said, with a smile.
+"I wonder if she would know me if she saw me. Very likely not."
+
+"The right honorable the earl arrived this afternoon, I'm told," said
+Dick. "'I very nearly missed missing him,' as the Irishman said. He'd
+gone into the house just before I came out. There's to be a fine kick-up
+to-morrow night. Not sure that I shan't come up to the gallery for a
+minute or two, after all; only the conviction that the beastly lights
+will know that I am gone and all go out, will prevent me."
+
+On the following evening Dick and Falconer went up to the house before
+Nell, Dick wanting to be present at the lighting up, and Falconer being
+desirous of ascertaining exactly where he "came in" with his violin; and
+Nell, having donned her best dress, went round to the housekeeper's
+room. She had found Mrs. Hawksley "partaking" of a cup of tea, in which
+Nell was easily induced to join, and Mrs. Hawksley chatted in the
+stately way which thinly hid a wealth of motherly kindness.
+
+"I am so glad you have come, Miss Lorton; for it will be a grand sight,
+the like of which you have probably not seen, and may not see again."
+
+And Nell nodded, suppressing a smile as she thought of her short sojourn
+in the world of fashion.
+
+"Some of the dresses, the maids tell me, are magnificent; and the
+jewels! But, there; none of them can be finer than the Angleford
+diamonds. I do hope the countess will wear them, though it's doubtful,
+seeing that her ladyship's still in mourning. You say you've seen the
+countess, Miss Lorton? A sweet-looking lady. It's quite touching to see
+her ladyship and his lordship together, she so young, and his aunt, too!
+You haven't seen the earl yet, have you?"
+
+"No; tell me what he is like, Mrs. Hawksley," said Nell, knowing how
+delighted the old lady would be to comply.
+
+"Well, Miss Lorton, though I suppose I shouldn't, seeing he kind of
+belongs to us, I must say that his lordship will be the handsomest and
+finest gentleman in the room to-night, let who will be coming. Not but
+what he's changed. It gave me quite a turn--as the maids say," she
+picked herself up apologetically--"when he came right into this very
+room, with his hand stretched out, and his 'Well, Mrs. Hawksley, and how
+are you, after this long time?'"
+
+"Because he was so friendly?" asked Nell innocently.
+
+The old lady drew herself up.
+
+"No, Miss Lorton. The Anglefords were always friendly to their old
+servants, because they know that we shouldn't take advantage of it and
+forget our proper places. No, but because he was so changed. He used to
+be so bright and--and boyish, as one may say, with all respect; but now
+he's as grave as grave can be--almost stern-looking, so to speak--and
+there's gray hairs at his temples, and he's a way of looking beyond you
+in a sad sort of fashion. His lordship's had some trouble, I know. I
+said so to his man, but he wouldn't say anything. He hasn't been with
+the earl for some time, and mightn't know----There's the music; and,
+hark; I can hear them moving into the ballroom. We'd better be going up
+to the gallery; and I do hope you will enjoy yourself, Miss Lorton."
+
+Nell followed the old lady into the small gallery, where some chairs had
+been placed for the servants, behind the musicians. She saw Falconer in
+front, his whole soul absorbed in his business; but he turned his eyes
+as she entered, and smiled for a moment.
+
+"Can you see?" asked Mrs. Hawksley. "Go a little nearer to the front.
+Make room for Miss Lorton, please."
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"I can see very well," she said, also in a whisper, for she did not want
+to be seen.
+
+She craned forward and looked down on the brilliant, glittering crowd.
+The lights of which Dick was so proud dazzled her for a moment or two;
+but presently her eyes became accustomed to them, and she recognized
+Lady Angleford, the Wolfers, and others. Lady Angleford was in black
+satin and lace, and, at Drake's request, had put on the family diamonds.
+
+"You are right, Mrs. Hawksley," said Nell. "They are magnificent. What a
+lovely scene!"
+
+"I am glad you are pleased, Miss Lorton," responded the old lady, as if
+she had got up the whole show for Nell's sole benefit. "I am looking for
+the earl, to point him out to you; but I don't see him. He must be under
+the gallery at this moment. Ah! yes; here he comes. Now, quick! lean
+forward. There! that tall gentleman with the fair lady on his arm. Lean
+forward a little more, and you will see him quite plainly. The lady's in
+a kind of pale mauve silk----"
+
+Nell leaned forward with all a girl's eager curiosity; then she uttered
+a faint cry, and drew back. The couple Mrs. Hawksley had pointed out
+were Drake and Lady Luce. Drake!
+
+"What is the matter? Did any one squeeze you? Did you see his lordship?"
+asked Mrs. Hawksley.
+
+"No," said Nell, trying to keep her voice steady. "I--I saw that
+gentleman with the lady in mauve; but----"
+
+Mrs. Hawksley stared at her.
+
+"Well, that is the earl. That is Lord Angleford with Lady Luce Turfleigh
+on his arm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+Nell sat still--very, very still. The vast room seemed to rise and sway
+before her like a ship in a heavy sea; the lights danced in a mad whirl;
+the music roared a chaos of sound in her ears, and a deathly feeling
+crept over her.
+
+"I will not faint--I will not faint!" she said to herself, clenching her
+teeth hard, and gripping her dress with her cold hands. "It is a
+mistake--a mistake. It is not Drake. I thought I saw him the other
+night; it is thinking, always thinking of him, that makes me fancy any
+one like him must be he! Yes; it is a mistake."
+
+She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them and found
+that the room had ceased rocking, and the lights were still, she leaned
+forward, calling all her courage to her aid, and looked again.
+
+A waltz was in progress, and the rich dresses, the flashing jewels
+whirled like the colored pieces of a kaleidoscope, and for a moment or
+two she could not distinguish the members of the glittering crowd; but
+presently she saw the tall figure again. He was dancing with Lady Luce;
+they came down toward the gallery end of the room, floating with the
+exquisite grace of a couple whose steps are in perfect harmony, and Nell
+saw that she had made no mistake--that it was Drake indeed.
+
+She drew a long breath, and sank back; Mrs. Hawksley leaned toward her.
+
+"Do you feel faint, Miss Lorton? It's very hot up here. Would you like
+to go down----"
+
+"No, no!" said Nell quickly, almost anxiously. She did not want to go.
+It was agony to see him dancing with this beautiful woman, whose hair
+shone like gold, whose grace of form and movement were conspicuous even
+among so many graceful and beautiful women; but a kind of fascination
+made Nell feel as if she could not go, as if she must drain her cup of
+misery to the dregs. "No, no; I am not faint--not now. It is hot, but I
+am--all right."
+
+She gazed with set face and panic-stricken eyes at the couple, as they
+floated down the room again. It was Drake, but--how changed! He looked
+many years older--and his face was stern and grave--sterner and graver
+and sadder even than when she had first seen it that day the horse had
+flung him at her feet. It had grown brighter and happier while he had
+stayed at Shorne Mills--it had been transformed, indeed, for the few
+short weeks he had been her lover; but the look of content, of joy in
+life which it wore in her remembrance, had gone again. Had he been ill?
+she wondered. Where had he been; what had he been doing?
+
+But it did not matter, could not matter to her. He was back in England,
+and dancing with the woman he loved--with the beautiful Lady Luce, whom
+he had kissed on the terrace.
+
+"And what do you think of his lordship?" Mrs. Hawksley asked, as if the
+Right Honorable the Earl of Angleford were her special property. "I
+wasn't far wrong, was I, Miss Lorton, when I said that he would be the
+finest, handsomest man in the room?"
+
+"No," said Nell, scarcely knowing what she answered. "That is----" She
+put her hand to her lips. Even now she had not realized that her Drake
+and the earl were one and the same man. "Oh, yes; he is handsome,
+and----" she finished, as the old lady eyed her half indignantly. "But
+I--I have made a mistake. I mean----What was Lord Angleford called
+before he succeeded to the title?"
+
+Mrs. Hawksley looked at her rather curiously.
+
+"Why, Lord Selbie, of course," she said. "He ought, being one of the
+Anglefords, to have been Lord Vernon, Drake Vernon; but his father was a
+famous statesman, a governor of New South Wales and they made him a
+viscount. Do you understand?" she asked, proud of her own knowledge of
+these intricacies of the earl's names and titles.
+
+Poor Nell looked confused. But it did not matter. She had learned
+enough. Drake Vernon, who had made her love him, and had asked her to be
+his wife, had been Lord Selbie. Why had he concealed his rank? Why had
+he deceived her? He had seemed so honest and true, that she would have
+trusted him with her life as freely as she had given him her love; and
+all the while----Oh, why had he done it? Was it worth while to
+masquerade as a mere nobody, to pretend that he was poor? Had he, even
+from the very first, not intended to marry her? Was he only--amusing
+himself?
+
+Her face was dyed, with the shame of the thought, for a moment, then the
+hot flush went and left her pale and wan.
+
+Drake was the Earl of Angleford, and she--she the girl whose heart he
+had broken, was in his house, looking on at him among his guests! The
+thought was almost unendurable, and she slowly rose from her chair; then
+she sat down again, for she was trembling and quite incapable of leaving
+the gallery.
+
+How long she sat in this state she did not know. The ball went on. She
+saw Drake--no, the earl--would she never realize it?--dancing
+frequently. Sometimes he joined the group of dowagers and chaperons on
+the dais at the other end of the room, or leaned against the wall and
+talked with the nondancing men; and wherever he went she saw that he was
+received with that subtle empressement with which the children of Vanity
+Fair indicate their respect for high rank and wealth.
+
+"You can see how high his lordship stands not only in the county, but
+everywhere," said Mrs. Hawksley proudly. "They treat him almost as if he
+were a prince of the blood; and he is the principal gentleman here,
+though there's some high and mighty ones down there, Miss Lorton, I
+assure you. That's the Duchess of Cleavemere in that big chair on the
+dais; and that's her eldest daughter--she'll be as big as the duchess,
+mark my words--seated beside her; and that's the Marquis of Downfield,
+that tall gentleman with the white hair. He's a great man, but he can't
+hold a candle, in appearance, to our earl; and he's a poor man compared
+with his lordship. And that's Lord Turfleigh, that old gentleman with
+the very black hair and mustache; dyed, of course, my dear. The 'wicked
+Lord Turfleigh' they call him--and no wonder. He's the father of Lady
+Luce. Ah! his lordship's going to dance with her again! Look how pleased
+her father looks. See, he's nodding and smiling at her; I'll be bound I
+know what he's thinking of! And I shouldn't be surprised if it came off.
+Lord Selbie and she used to be engaged, but it was broken off when his
+lordship's uncle married. The Turfleighs are too poor to risk a marriage
+without money. But his lordship's the earl now, and, of course----"
+
+Nell understood. It was because the woman he loved had jilted him that
+Drake had hidden himself from the world at Shorne Mills. That was why he
+had looked so sad and cast down the day she had first seen him.
+
+"It's a pity your brother doesn't come up," said Mrs. Hawksley, who was
+standing behind Nell, and could not see the white, strained face. "He'd
+enjoy the sight, I'm sure. I'm half inclined to send a word to him."
+
+Nell caught her arm. Dick must not come up here and recognize Drake,
+must not see her white face and trembling lips. If possible, she must
+leave Anglemere in the morning; must induce Dick to go before he could
+learn that Drake and Lord Angleford were one and the same.
+
+"My brother would not come," she said. "Please do not send for him.
+He--the lights----"
+
+Mrs. Hawksley nodded.
+
+"As you think best, my dear," she said. "But it's a pity. Here's the
+interval now. What is going on in the orchestra?"
+
+Nell looked toward the band, which had ceased playing; but Falconer was
+softly tuning his violin. About half the dancers had left the room, and
+those that remained were pacing up and down, talking and laughing, or
+seated in couples in the alcoves and recesses.
+
+Falconer finished tuning, glanced toward Nell--the gallery was too dimly
+lit for him to see the pallor of her face--then began to play a solo.
+
+Coming after the dance music, the sonata he had chosen was like a breath
+of pure, heather-scented air floating in upon the gas-laden atmosphere
+of the heated room; and at the first strains of the delicious melody the
+people below stopped talking, and turned their eyes up to the front of
+the gallery, where the tall, thin form in its worn velvet jacket stood,
+for that moment, at least, the supreme figure.
+
+Nell, as she listened, felt as if a cool, pitying hand had fallen upon
+her aching heart; as if a voice of thrilling sweetness were whispering
+tender consolation. Never loud, but with an insistent force which held
+the listeners in thrall, sometimes so low that it was but a murmur, the
+exquisite music stole over the senses of all, awakening tender memories,
+reviving scattered hopes, softening, for the short space it held its
+sway, world-hardened hearts.
+
+The tears gathered in Nell's eyes, bringing her infinite relief; but she
+could see through her tears that the great hall was filling with the
+hasty return of those who had been within hearing of the music, and when
+it ceased there rose a burst of applause, led by the earl himself.
+
+"How very beautiful!" exclaimed the duchess, who was on his arm. "The
+man must be a genius. Where did you find him, Lord Angleford?"
+
+Drake did not reply for a moment, as if he had not heard her. The music
+had moved him more deeply, perhaps, than it had moved any other. His
+face was set, his brows knit, and his head drooped as if weighed down by
+some memory. He had been so occupied by his duties as host that he had
+forgotten the past for that hour or two, at any rate; but at the first
+strains of the music Nell came back to him. It was the swell of the tide
+against the _Annie Laurie_; it was Nell's voice itself which he heard
+through the melody of the famous sonata. He listened with an aching
+longing for those past weeks of pure and perfect love, with a loathing
+for the empty, desolate present. "Nell! Nell!" his heart seemed to cry.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "I did not find him. He is here by
+chance."
+
+"He must be a very great musician," said the duchess enthusiastically.
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Falconer," replied Drake. "He's staying at one of the lodges."
+
+"He played superbly. Do you think I could persuade him to come on to the
+court for the ninth? I wish you'd ask him. But surely he is going to
+play again?" she added eagerly.
+
+"I will ask him," said Drake.
+
+"Yes, do, Drake," murmured Lady Luce, who had reentered the room and
+glided near him. The divine music had not touched her in the least;
+indeed, she had thought the solo rather out of place at a dance--quite
+too sad and depressing; but as she seconded the duchess' request, her
+blue eyes seemed dim with tears, and her lips tremulous. "It was so very
+beautiful! I am half crying!" and the perfectly shaped lips pouted
+piteously.
+
+Drake nodded, led the duchess to a chair, and went slowly up the room
+toward the gallery stairs.
+
+Nell, who had been watching him in a dull, vacant way, lost him for a
+moment or two; then she heard his voice near her, and saw him dimly
+standing in the gallery doorway.
+
+She stifled a cry, and shrank back behind Mrs. Hawksley, so that the
+stout form of the old lady completely hid her.
+
+"Mr. Falconer?" she heard the deep voice say gravely.
+
+Falconer bowed, his violin under his arm, his pale, thin face perfectly
+composed. His music was still ringing in his ears, vibrating in his
+soul, too great to be stirred by the applause which had again broken
+out.
+
+"I have come to thank you for the sonata, Mr. Falconer, and to ask you
+to be so kind as to play again," said Drake, in the simple, impassive
+manner of the Englishman.
+
+"I shall be very pleased, my lord," said Falconer quietly; and he placed
+his violin in position.
+
+Drake looked absently round the gallery. It was only dimly lit by the
+candles in the music stands, and the servants had respectfully drawn
+back, so that Nell was still hidden; but she trembled with the fear that
+those in front of her might move, and that he might see her; for she
+knew how keen those eyes of his could be.
+
+Drake felt that the dim light was a pleasant contrast to the brilliance
+of the room below, and he lingered, leaning against the wall, his arms
+folded, his head drooped. He was so near Nell that she could almost have
+touched him--so near that she almost dreaded that he must hear the wild
+throbbings of her heart. Once, as the violin wailed out a passionate,
+despairing, yet exquisitely sweet passage of the Raff cavatina Falconer
+was playing, she heard Drake sigh.
+
+The cavatina came to an end, the last notes--those wonderful
+notes!--floating lingeringly like a human voice, and yet more exquisite
+than any human voice. Falconer lowered his violin, the applause broke
+out again as vehemently and enthusiastically as if the crowd below were
+at an ordinary concert, and Drake made his way to the player. As he did
+so, he stumbled over a violin case, the servants with a little cry--for
+the stumble of an Earl of Angleford is a matter of importance--moved
+apart, and Drake, putting out his hand as he recovered himself, touched
+Mrs. Hawksley's arm.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "Ah! is it you, Mrs. Hawksley? You are so
+pleasantly dark up here."
+
+His eyes wandered from her face to that of the girl who had been
+shrinking behind her, and he paused, as if smitten by some sudden
+thought or memory. But Nell rose quickly and hid herself in the group,
+and Drake went on to Falconer.
+
+"Thank you again," he said. "I have never heard the cavatina--it was it,
+wasn't it?--better played. I am the bearer of a message from the Duchess
+of Cleavemere, Mr. Falconer. If you are not engaged, the duchess would
+be very glad if you could play for her at Cleavemere Court on the ninth
+of next month. I ask you at once and so unceremoniously, because her
+grace is anxious to know. The ninth."
+
+Falconer bowed.
+
+"May I consider, my lord?" he began hesitatingly.
+
+"Why, certainly," said Drake, in the frank, pleasant fashion which Nell
+knew so well. "Will you send me word? Thanks. That is a fine violin you
+have."
+
+"It was my father's," said Falconer simply, and unconsciously pressing
+the instrument closer to him, as if it were a living thing, a
+well-beloved child.
+
+He had often sold, pawned his belongings for bread, and as often had
+forgotten his cold and hunger because his precious violin had remained
+in his possession; that he had never pawned.
+
+Drake nodded, as if he understood; then he looked round.
+
+"Isn't there some supper going, Mrs. Hawksley?" he said pleasantly.
+
+The old lady curtsied in stately fashion.
+
+"Yes, my lord."
+
+"Then it's high time Mr. Falconer--and the rest of us--were at it," he
+said; and, with a smile and a nod, he left the gallery.
+
+He would have taken Falconer with him to the supper in the banquet room
+below, but he knew that, though none of the men or women there would
+have remarked, or cared about, the old velvet jacket, the musician would
+be conscious of it, and be embarrassed by it.
+
+While Drake had been absent, Lady Luce had stood, apparently listening
+with profound attention and sympathy, but the movement of her fan almost
+gave her away, for it grew rapid now and again, and when Lord Turfleigh
+came up beside her, his hawklike eyes glancing sharply, like those of a
+bird of prey, from their fat rims, she shot an angry and unfilial glance
+at him.
+
+"Where's Drake?" he asked, lowering his thick voice.
+
+"Up there in that gallery somewhere; gone to pay compliments to that
+fiddler fellow who is playing now."
+
+"Gad!" said his lordship, with a stare of contempt at the rapt audience.
+"What the devil does he want with the 'Dead March in Saul,' or whatever
+it is, in the middle of a dance. Always thought he was mad! Has he
+spoken, said anything?"
+
+He lowered his voice still more, and eyed her eagerly.
+
+She shook her head slightly by way of answer, and the coarse face
+reddened.
+
+"Curse me, if I can understand it--or you," he said, his hand tugging
+at his dyed mustache. "You told me, God knows how long ago, that he was
+'on' again; then he bolts--disappears."
+
+"Do you want all these people to hear you?" she asked, her eyes hidden
+by her slowly moving fan.
+
+Her father had been several times to the refreshment buffet, and had
+"lowered"--as he would have put it--the best part of a bottle of
+champagne, and was a little off the guard which he usually maintained so
+carefully.
+
+"They can't hear. I'm not shouting. And you always evade me. You're not
+behaving well, Luce. Dash it all! I've reason to be anxious! This match
+means a good deal to me in the present state of our finances!"
+
+"Hush!" she whispered warningly. "I can't explain now. I don't
+understand it myself; but I've seen enough to know that I should only
+lose him altogether if I tried to force him. You know him, or ought to
+do so! Did you ever get anything from Drake by driving him? He had no
+opportunity of speaking, of explaining."
+
+"By gad! I don't understand it!" he muttered. "Either you're engaged to
+him or you're not. You led me to believe that the match was on
+again----"
+
+The fan closed with a snap, and her blue eyes flashed at him with bitter
+scorn.
+
+"Hadn't you better leave me to play the game?" she asked. "Or perhaps
+you think you can play it better than I can? If so----The man has
+stopped; Drake will be down again. I don't want him to see us talking.
+Go--and get some more champagne."
+
+Lord Turfleigh swore behind the hand that still fumbled at his mustache,
+and walked away with the jerky, jaunty gait of the old man who still
+affects youth, and Lady Luce composed her lovely face into a look of
+emotional ecstacy.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful, Drake!" she said. "Do you know that I have been very
+nearly crying? And yet it was so sweet, so--so soothing! Who is he? And
+what are we going to do now?" she asked, without waiting for an answer
+to her first question, about which she was more than indifferent.
+
+Drake looked round for the duchess.
+
+"I must take the duchess in to supper," he said apologetically. "I will
+find some one for you--or perhaps you will wait until I will come for
+you?"
+
+"I will wait, of course," she said, with a tender emphasis on the "of
+course."
+
+Those who had been listening followed Drake and the duchess to the
+supper room, talking of the wonderful violin playing as they went; and
+Lady Luce seated herself in a recess and waited. Several men came to her
+and offered to take her to supper, but she made some excuse for
+refusing, and presently Drake returned.
+
+She rose and took his arm, and glanced up at him, not for the first time
+that evening, curiously. The easy-going, indolent Drake of old seemed to
+have disappeared, and left in his place this grave and almost
+stern-mannered man. She had always been just a little afraid of him,
+with the fear which is always felt by the false and shifty in the
+presence of the true and strong; and to-night she was painfully
+conscious of that vague and wholesome dread.
+
+He found a place for her at a small table, and a footman brought them
+things to eat and drink; but though she affected a blythe and joyous
+mood, tapping her satin-clad foot to the music which had begun again,
+she was too excited, too anxious, to enjoy the costly delicacies before
+her.
+
+"I have so much to tell you, Drake!" she said, in a low voice, after one
+or two remarks about the ball and its success. "It seems years, ages,
+since I saw you! Why--why did you go away for so long, Drake? And why
+did you not write to me?"
+
+He looked at her with his grave eyes, and her own fell.
+
+"I wrote to no one; I was never much of a hand at letter writing," he
+said.
+
+"But to me, Drake!" she whispered, with a pout. "I wanted to hear from
+you so badly! Just a line that would have given me an excuse for writing
+to you and telling you--explaining----"
+
+He did not smile. He was not the man to remind a woman of her falseness,
+but something in his eyes made her falter and lower her own.
+
+"I went away because I was tired of England," he said. "I came back
+because--well, because I was obliged."
+
+"But you won't go away again?" she said, with genuine dismay in her
+voice and face. "I--I feel as if, as if it were my fault; as if--ah,
+Drake, have you not really forgiven me?"
+
+Her eyes filled with tears, as genuine as her dismay--for think of the
+greatness of the prize for which she was playing--and Drake's heart was
+touched with a pity which was not wholly free from contempt.
+
+"There shall be no such word as forgiveness between us, Luce," he said
+gravely. She caught at this, though it was but a straw, and her hand,
+from which she had taken her glove, stole over to his, and her eyes
+sought his appealingly.
+
+But before he could take her hand--if he had intended doing so--Lady
+Angleford came up to them.
+
+"Drake, they want you to lead the cotillon," she said.
+
+He rose, but stood beside Luce.
+
+"Directly Lady Luce has finished her supper, countess. Please don't
+hurry."
+
+But Lady Luce sprang up at once.
+
+"I have finished long ago; I was not hungry."
+
+"Come, then," he said, and he offered her his arm, "Will you dance it
+with me?"
+
+Her heart leaped.
+
+"Yes. It will not be for the first time--Drake!" and as she entered the
+room with him, her heart thrilled with hope, and her blue eyes sparkled
+with a triumph which none could fail to notice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+Certainly not poor Nell, who still remained in her dim corner in the
+gallery. Mrs. Hawksley had begged her to come down to the supper which
+had been laid for her and her brother and Falconer; but Nell, who felt
+that it would be impossible to make even a pretense of eating or
+drinking, had begged them to excuse her; and when they had gone and the
+gallery was empty, she leaned her head against the wall and closed her
+eyes; for she was well-nigh exhausted by the conflicting emotions which
+racked her. She longed to go, to leave the place, to escape from the
+risk of Drake's presence; but she could not leave the house alone, and
+to go from the gallery and absent herself for the rest of the evening
+might attract notice and comment.
+
+Was it possible that Drake had been near her, so near as to almost have
+touched her? She trembled--and thrilled--at the thought; then crimsoned
+with shame for the sinful thrill of joy and happiness which his nearness
+had caused her.
+
+What was he to her now? Nothing, nothing! She had yielded him up to the
+beautiful woman he had loved before he saw her, Nell; and it was
+shameful and unwomanly that she should feel a joy in his proximity.
+
+Falconer came up before the rest of the orchestra, and brought a glass
+of wine and a biscuit for her.
+
+"I am afraid you have a headache, the lights and the music--they are so
+near; and it is hot up here. Will you drink some of this, Miss Lorton?"
+
+His voice was low and tender, though he strove to give it a conventional
+touch and merely friendly tone.
+
+"Thank you, yes," said Nell gratefully. "How good of you to think of me!
+How magnificently you played! I can't tell you how happy your success
+has made me! And such a success! I was as proud as if it were I who was
+playing; and I was prouder still when I saw how quietly you took it.
+Ah, you felt that it was just your due. I suppose genius always takes
+the crowd's applause calmly."
+
+His face flushed, and his dark eyes glowed.
+
+"There is some applause I, at any rate--who am no genius,
+however--cannot take calmly," he said. "I would rather have those words
+of approval from you than the shouting and clapping of a multitude. Yes,
+it made me happy; but I am happier now than words can express."
+
+If Nell had looked up into the eyes bent on hers, she must have read his
+secret in them; but the band had begun to play, and at that moment Drake
+was leading Lady Luce to her place for the cotillon, and Nell's eyes
+were drawn, riveted to the fair face, the blue eyes shining
+triumphantly; and she forgot not only Falconer's presence, but his
+existence.
+
+As he saw that she did not heed him, the color died out from his face,
+and the light from his eyes, and, with a sigh, he left her and went back
+to his place in the orchestra.
+
+The dance proceeded through all its graceful and intricate evolutions,
+and even to the spectators in the gallery it was evident that Lady Luce
+had stepped into the position of the belle of the ball. The excitement
+of hope and fear, the gratification of vanity which sprang from her
+consciousness that she was occupying the most prominent place as the
+earl's partner, had given to her face the touch of warmth it needed to
+make its beauty well-nigh perfect. Her lips were parted with a smile,
+the blue eyes--ordinarily a trifle cold--were glowing, and the diamonds
+sparkled fiercely on her heaving bosom.
+
+Nell could not remove her eyes from her, but sat like a bird held by the
+fascination of the serpent. She was blind to all else but those two--the
+man she loved, the woman to whom she had surrendered him.
+
+The time passed unheeded by her, and Falconer's voice sounded miles away
+as he bent over her.
+
+"Dick has sent up to say that we can go," he said. "There's no fear of
+the lights now; indeed, the ball is nearly over. This is the last
+dance."
+
+Nell rose stiffly and wearily.
+
+"I--I am glad," she said.
+
+"You are tired, very tired," he said. "Will you let me give you my arm?"
+
+He felt her hand tremble as she put it on his arm, and he looked down at
+her anxiously.
+
+"I wish I had taken you out of this before," he said remorsefully. "I
+have spoken to you--asked you--once or twice; but--but you did not seem
+to hear me. It is my fault. I ought to have insisted upon your going."
+
+"No, no!" said Nell. "It is nothing. I am a little tired, and----Is it
+late?"
+
+"Yes," he said. "Most of the people are leaving. It has been a great
+success. Is this the way?"
+
+They had gone down the stairs leading to the lower hall, but here
+Falconer hesitated doubtfully. This second hall led into the larger one,
+through which the guests were passing.
+
+Nell caught a glimpse of them, and shrank back.
+
+"Not there," she said warningly. "There must be a door----"
+
+"Ah, here it is!" he said; and he led her through an opening between
+portiere curtains. They found themselves in a small conservatory, and
+Falconer again stopped.
+
+"It is very stupid!" he said apologetically.
+
+"There may be an opening to the terrace," said Nell nervously; "once we
+are outside----"
+
+"Here we are, out in the open air."
+
+Nell drew a long breath, and pushed the hair from her forehead.
+
+"We must go down these steps, and then to the right. I remember----"
+
+They crossed the terrace, when two or three persons came out through a
+window behind them. They were talking, and Nell heard a voice which made
+her wince, and her hand grip Falconer's arm convulsively; for the voice
+was Drake's.
+
+"They have a fine night to go home in," he was saying. "Not much of a
+moon, but better than none."
+
+Nell stopped and looked despairingly at the patch of light which the
+window threw right across their path to the steps.
+
+"Come quickly," said Falconer, in a low voice.
+
+"No, no; we shall be seen!" she implored, in an agitated whisper.
+
+But Falconer deemed it best to go on, and did so.
+
+As they moved, Drake saw them, but indistinctly.
+
+"Good-night, once more!" he called out, in the tone of a host speeding
+parting guests.
+
+Falconer raised his soft felt hat.
+
+"Good-night, my lord," he responded. At the same moment they stepped
+into the stream of light. Drake had been on the point of turning away,
+but as he recognized Falconer's voice and figure, he stopped and took a
+step toward them. Then, as suddenly, he stopped again, gazing after them
+as a man who gazes at a vision of the fancy.
+
+"Who--who is that?" he demanded, almost fiercely.
+
+Lady Luce was just behind him.
+
+"That was the man who played the violin," she said. "Didn't you
+recognize him? How romantic he looks! Quite the idea of a musician."
+
+Drake put his hand to his brow and stood still, looking after the two
+figures, now disappearing in the darkness, made more intense by the
+contrasting streaks of light from the windows.
+
+"My God! How like!" he muttered, taking a step or two forward
+unconsciously.
+
+But Lady Luce's voice aroused him from the half stupor into which he had
+fallen, and he turned back to her.
+
+"I must be mad or dreaming!" he muttered. "What folly! And yet how
+like--how like!"
+
+"Why, what is the matter, Drake?" asked Lady Luce, laying her hand on
+his arm, and looking up at him anxiously. "You are quite pale. You
+look"--she laughed--"as if you had seen a ghost!"
+
+He smiled grimly. She had described his feelings exactly. In the
+resemblance of the girl, whoever she was, on the violinist's arm, he had
+in very truth seen the ghost of Nell of Shorne Mills.
+
+Nell hurried Falconer along, but presently was forced to stop to regain
+her breath. Her heart was beating so wildly that she had to fight
+against the sensation of suffocation which threatened to overcome her.
+
+"Let us wait a minute," said Falconer gently. "You are nervous,
+overtired. We will wait here."
+
+But Nell had got her breath again by this time.
+
+"No, no!" she said, almost vehemently. "Let us go. I know the way----"
+
+"Dick will be waiting for us at the door of the east wing," he said. "If
+you can find that----"
+
+"I know," she said quickly. "That is it on our left. But--but I do not
+want to see any one."
+
+"All the guests are leaving by the front of the house; we are not likely
+to meet any one."
+
+He was somewhat surprised at her agitation, and her evident desire to
+leave the place unseen; for Nell was usually so perfectly self-possessed
+and free from nervousness or gaucherie.
+
+She drew him to the side park under the shadow of the wing, in which few
+of the windows were lighted, and as they waited she gradually recovered
+herself.
+
+"There is Dick," said Falconer presently. "He is waiting for us by that
+window."
+
+Nell looked in the direction he indicated.
+
+"Is that Dick?" she said, peering at the figure. "It is so dark I can
+scarcely see. I don't think it is Dick. If it is, why is he looking in
+at the window?"
+
+"He may be talking to some one inside," said Falconer. "I'll call him.
+Dick!"
+
+As he called, the figure half turned, then swung round away from them,
+and with lowered head moved quickly away from the window, and passed
+into the darkness of the shrubbery.
+
+"How strange!" said Falconer; and he felt puzzled. Why should Dick start
+at the sound of his name, and make off into the darkness?
+
+Falconer bit his lip. It was just possible that Dick, who was young, and
+also particularly good-looking, was carrying on a flirtation with some
+one in the house. If so, the explanation of his sudden flight was
+natural enough.
+
+"Why did he run away? Where has he gone?" said Nell. "You were wrong. It
+was not Dick."
+
+"Very likely," assented Falconer. "It was so dark----Yes, I was wrong,
+for there he stands by the door," he broke off, as, coming round the
+corner, they saw Dick, who was engaged in lighting his pipe.
+
+"Hallo! here you are, at last," he said, cheerfully. "Couldn't tear
+yourselves away from the festive scene? By George! if you'd spent the
+night in an engine room, you'd be glad enough to cut it."
+
+"Poor Dick!" said Nell.
+
+"Oh, I haven't had such a bad time," he said. "They brought me a ripping
+supper, and a special dish with the chef's compliments. I don't know
+where the chef's going when he leaves this terrestrial sphere; but,
+wherever it is, it's good enough for me. Well, Nellikins, enjoyed
+yourself?"
+
+Nell forced a smile.
+
+"Very much," she replied. "It--it was a great success."
+
+"So I hear," said Dick. "But you seem to have taken the cake to-night,
+old man. They told me that you created a perfect furore, whatever that
+is. Anyway, Mrs. Hawksley and the rest came down with the most exciting
+account of your triumph. Seriously, Falconer, I congratulate you. I
+won't say that I prophesied your success long ago, because that's a
+cheap kind of thing to say; but I always did believe you'd hit the
+bull's-eye the first time you got a chance; and you've done it."
+
+"I think they were pleased," said Falconer.
+
+"His lordship and the rest of the swells ought to be very much obliged,"
+remarked Dick. "You've given eclat to his dance. Observe the French
+again? There is no extra charge."
+
+"His lordship was extremely kind," said Falconer, "and his thanks more
+than repaid me for my poor efforts. I don't wonder at his popularity.
+I've always heard that the higher the rank the simpler the manners; and
+Lord Angleford is an instance of it. My acquaintance with the nobility
+is extremely limited----"
+
+"Ditto here," said Dick. "Though the young lady on your arm has lived in
+marble halls, and hobnobbed with belted earls and lords of high degree.
+But I'm glad to hear that this one is affable."
+
+Falconer laughed.
+
+"Affable is the wrong word; it means condescension, doesn't it? And Lord
+Angleford was anything but condescending. He might have known me for
+years, if one judged by the tone of his voice and manner; and, as I
+said, I'm more than repaid."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to hear he made a favorable impression on you," Dick
+said. "I haven't had the pleasure of making his acquaintance yet; but I
+shall probably see him before I go. But your success doesn't end here,
+Falconer. I'm told that you are going to play at Cleavemere Court. By
+George! if you knock them there as you did here--which, of course, you
+will do--your fortune's made. The duchess has no end of influence, and
+you'll be paragraphed in the papers, and get engagements at the houses
+of other swells, and before we know where we are, we shall see 'Senor
+Falconer's Recitals at St. James' Hall,' advertised on the front page of
+the _Times_. And serve you right, old man, for if ever a man deserved
+good luck, it is you. Eh, Nell?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Nell.
+
+"And did you see his lordship, our all-puissant earl, my child?"
+
+"Yes," she said, beginning to tremble--but, indeed, she had been
+trembling all through the conversation. How should she be able to get
+away from the house--the place which belonged to Drake? "Yes, I saw him.
+Dick, did a man--a man with a slight figure something like yours--pass
+you just before we came up?"
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"Are you sure? He must have passed by you."
+
+"A figure like mine, did you say? Yes; I'm quite sure he didn't. I have
+too keen an eye for grace of form to let such a figure pass unnoticed."
+
+"It may have been a servant or one of the guests," Falconer said.
+
+"Oh, draw it mild!" remonstrated Dick. "Do I look like a flunkey or a
+groom? What is it you think you have seen?"
+
+"A man was standing looking in at one of the windows of the inner side
+of the wing," said Nell. "We thought it was you; but, when Mr. Falconer
+called, the man, whoever he was, turned and walked into the shrubbery."
+
+"A 'particular friend' of one of the maids, I dare say," remarked Dick
+easily. "And I've no doubt you have broken up a very enjoyable spooning.
+Now, would you like----Now what is it?"
+
+For Nell had stopped short, and had seized his arm.
+
+"There!" she exclaimed, in a whisper. "There he is again--that is the
+man!"
+
+They had come to the lodge by this time, and Nell was gazing rather
+nervously toward the big gates.
+
+"Where?" asked Dick. "I can see no one. Nell, you have had too much
+champagne. You'll be seeing snakes presently if you don't mind. Where is
+he?"
+
+Nell laughed, but a little shakily.
+
+"He has gone, of course. He went quickly through the gate."
+
+"And why shouldn't he?" said Dick, with a yawn. "Oh, Falconer! when I
+think of the cool tankard into which I shall presently plunge my
+beak----What's come to you, Nell? It isn't like you to 'get the
+nerves.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+The man whom Nell and Falconer had mistaken for Dick passed through the
+lodge gates, and, turning to the right, walked quickly, but not
+hurriedly, beside the high park fencing, and presently came up with a
+dogcart which was being walked slowly along the road.
+
+The cart was a very shabby one, but the horse was a very good one, and
+looked as if it could stretch itself if it were required to do so. In
+the cart was a young man in clerical attire. He looked like a curate,
+and his voice had the regulation drawl as he leaned down and asked:
+
+"Well, Ted?"
+
+The man addressed as Ted shook his head.
+
+"The girl was right," he said, with an air of disappointment. "She's got
+'em all on."
+
+"Then it's no use trying it to-night," said the curate. "Perhaps a
+little later? It must be darkish for some time."
+
+Ted shook his head again.
+
+"No use! Too risky. It will be hours before they all go to bed and the
+house is quiet; the servants always keep it up after a big affair like
+this; some of 'em won't go to bed at all, perhaps. Besides, I was
+spotted just now."
+
+The Parson, as he was called by the burgling fraternity, of which he and
+Ted were distinguished members, swore under his breath.
+
+"How was that?" he asked.
+
+"I was looking in at one of the windows of the servants' quarters,
+getting a word or two with the girl, when a couple of the swells came
+along. They saw me, and mistook me for some one by the name of Dick, and
+called to me. I walked off as quickly as I could, and I swear they
+didn't see my face, neither then nor just now, when, as luck would have
+it, they caught sight of me going out of the gates. They went into the
+lodge with the young fellow they'd mistaken me for."
+
+The Parson swore again.
+
+"What's to be done? Did you see the things?"
+
+Ted nodded emphatically.
+
+"Yes! They're the best swag I've ever seen. There's a fortune in them;
+and, if we had any luck, we might get a few more in addition."
+
+"They'll be in the bank to-morrow," said the Parson gloomily. "These
+swells know how to take care of their jewelry, especially when they're
+family diamonds like these. We've lost our chance for the present, Ted.
+Jump up."
+
+But Ted shook his head.
+
+"Not yet. The girl promised to meet me if she could, and I reckon she'll
+try to." He smiled and smoothed his mustache. "You drive on slowly and
+wait for me at the turn of the road. I'll come to you, say, in a quarter
+of an hour."
+
+The dogcart went on, and Ted followed until he came to a small gate in
+the park fencing, and, opening this, he stood just inside it. His hand
+went to his pocket for his pipe, but, with the smoker's sigh, he dropped
+it back again, for he could not risk striking a match.
+
+After he had been waiting there for a few minutes he heard footsteps and
+the rustle of a skirt among the undergrowth, and presently a woman stole
+out from the darkness, and, running up to the man, clutched his arm,
+panting and trembling with fear and excitement.
+
+Now, when Lord and Lady Wolfer had started for the Continent, on the day
+of what may be called their reconciliation, Burden, her maid, had
+refused to go. She was a bad sailor, and hated what she called "foreign
+parts"; and she begged her mistress to leave her behind. Lady Wolfer,
+full of sympathy in her newly found happiness, had not only let the girl
+off, but had made her a handsome present, and given her an excellent
+written character.
+
+Burden took a holiday, and went home to her people, who kept what is
+called a "sporting public" in the east of London.
+
+Sport, like charity, is made to cover a lot of sins; and Burden, while
+assisting in the bar of the pub, made the acquaintance of several
+persons who were desirable neither in the matter of morals nor manners.
+
+One of these was a good-looking young fellow who went by the name of
+Ted. He was supposed to be a watchmaker and jeweler by trade--a working
+jeweler--but he spent most of his time at the public which Burden now
+adorned, and though he certainly did not carry on his trade there,
+always appeared to have as much money as leisure.
+
+Cupid, who seems to be indifferent to his surroundings, hovered about
+the smoky and beery regions of the Blue Pig, and very soon worked
+mischief between Burden and Ted.
+
+He was pleasant spoken as well as good-looking, and had a free-and-easy
+way, was always ready with an order for the play or one of the music
+halls, and--in short, Burden fell in love with him. But when he asked
+her to marry him, Burden, who was a respectable girl, and, as Lady
+Wolfer's maid, had held a good position for one of her class, began to
+make inquiries.
+
+She did not go on with them, but she learned enough to rouse her
+suspicions.
+
+The jewelry business evidently served as a blind for less honest
+pursuits. She took alarm, and, like a sensible girl, fled the paternal
+pub and sought a fresh situation.
+
+As chance--there is no such thing, of course--would have it, Lady Luce
+was changing maids at this time.
+
+Burden, armed with her most excellent and fully deserved "character,"
+applied for and obtained the situation.
+
+She ought to have been thankful for her escape, and happy and contented
+in a service which, though very different from that of Lady Wolfer's,
+was good enough. But Burden had lost her heart; and when one has lost
+one's heart, happiness is impossible.
+
+She longed for a sight, just a sight, of her good-looking Ted; and one
+day, while the Turfleighs were stopping at Brighton, her heart's desire
+was gratified.
+
+She saw her handsome Ted on the pier. He was, if anything, handsomer
+than ever, was beautifully dressed--quite the gentleman, in fact, and
+though Burden had fully intended to just bow and pass on, she stopped
+and talked to him. Cupid slipped round her the chains from which she had
+so nearly freed herself, and----The woman who goes back to a man is
+indeed completely lost.
+
+They met every day; but alas, alas! Ted no longer spoke of marriage; and
+his influence over the woman who loved him unwisely and too well, grew
+in proportion to her devotion and helplessness.
+
+She soon learned that the man to whom she had given herself was a
+criminal, one of a skillful gang of burglars. But it was too late to
+draw back; too late even to refuse to help him.
+
+It was Burden who clung to the man in hiding behind the park gate.
+
+"What made you hurry so, old girl?" he said soothingly, and putting his
+arm round her. "What's your fear?"
+
+"Oh, Ted, Ted!" she gasped. "It's so dark----"
+
+"All the better," he said coolly. "Less chance of any one seeing you."
+
+"But some one saw you as you were standing by the window. It was Miss
+Lorton--they called out--they may have suspicions."
+
+"Don't you worry," he said. "They only thought it was some one after one
+of the girls. And it was the truth, wasn't it? What a frightened little
+thing it is! You'd be scared by your own shadow!"
+
+"I am! I am, Ted!" said the unhappy girl. "I start at the slightest
+noise; and I'm so--so nervous, that I expect Lady Lucille to send me
+away every day."
+
+The man frowned.
+
+"She mustn't do that," he said, half angrily. "I can't have that; it
+would be precious awkward just now! That would spoil all our plans."
+
+"I know! I know!" she moaned. "Oh, if you'd only give it up! Give it up
+this time, only this one time to please me, Ted, dear."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I'd do anything to please you, but I'm not alone in this plant, you
+know; there's others; and I can't go back on my pals; so you mustn't go
+back on me."
+
+He spoke in the tone which the man who has the woman in his power can
+use so effectually; then his voice grew softer, and he stroked her cheek
+gently.
+
+"And think of what this means if we pull this off, Fan! No more dodging
+and hiding, no more risks of chokee and a 'life' for me, and no more
+slaving and lady's-maiding for you! We'll be off together to some
+foreign clime, as the poet calls it; and, with plenty of the ready, I
+fancy you'll cut a dash as Mrs. Ted."
+
+It was the one bait which he knew would be irresistible. She caught her
+breath, and, pressing closer to him, looked up into his eyes eagerly.
+
+"You mean it, Ted? You won't deceive me again? You'll keep your word?"
+
+"Honor bright!" he responded. "Why shouldn't I? You know I'm fond of
+you. I'd have married you months ago if I'd struck a piece of luck like
+this; but what was the use of marrying when I had to--work, and there
+was the chance of my being collared any day of the week? No! But I
+promise you that if we pull this off, I am going to settle down; I shall
+be glad enough to do it. We'll have a little cottage, or a flat on the
+Continong, eh, Fan? Is the countess going to send the diamonds back to
+the bank to-morrow?"
+
+He put the question abruptly, but in a low and impressive voice.
+
+Burden shook her head.
+
+"No," she replied reluctantly. "I--I asked her maid; they were talking
+about them just before I came out. Everybody was talking about them at
+the ball, and her ladyship's maid gives herself airs on account of
+them."
+
+"Gases about them? Very natural. And she says?"
+
+"There's a dinner party the night after next, and the countess thought
+it wasn't worth while sending them to the bank for one day. She's going
+to keep them in the safe in her room."
+
+Ted's eyes glistened, and he nodded.
+
+"Who keeps the key of the safe, Fan?" he asked; and though they were far
+from any chance of listeners, his voice dropped to a whisper.
+
+"The countess," replied Burden, still reluctantly.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I must have that key, Fan. Yes, yes! Remember what we are playing for,
+you and me! You get that key and put it in the corner of the windowsill
+where I was standing to-night."
+
+"No, no!" she panted. His arm loosened, and he looked down at her
+coldly.
+
+"You mean that you won't? Very well, then. But look here, my girl, we
+mean having these diamonds, with or without your help. You can't prevent
+us, for I don't suppose you'd be low enough to split and send me to
+penal servitude----"
+
+"Ted! Ted!" she wailed, and put her arms round him.
+
+He smiled to himself over her bowed head.
+
+"What's the best time? While they're at dinner?"
+
+She made a sign in the negative.
+
+"No," she whispered, setting her teeth, as if every word were dragged
+from her. "No; the maid will be in the room putting the countess' things
+away; afterward--while they are in the drawing-room."
+
+He bent and kissed her, his eyes shining eagerly.
+
+"There! You've got more sense than I have, by a long chalk! I should
+never have thought of the maid being in the room. Clever Fan! Now,
+you'll put the key on the sill--when? Say ten o'clock. And you'll see,
+Fan, that the little window on the back staircase isn't locked, and
+keep at watch for us?"
+
+"No, no!" she panted. "I will not! I cannot! I--I should faint! Don't
+ask me, Ted; don't--don't, dear! I shall say 'I'm ill'--and I shall
+be--and go to bed!"
+
+"Not you!" he said, cheerfully and confidentially. "You'll just hang
+about the landing and keep watch for us; and if there's any one there to
+spoil our game, you'll go to the window and say, just loud enough for us
+to hear: 'What a fine night!'"
+
+She hid her face on his breast, struggling with her sobs.
+
+"Why, what is there to be afraid of!" he said. "If all's clear we shall
+have the things in a jiffy, and if it isn't we shall take our hook as
+quietly as we came, and no one will be the wiser. Should you like
+Boulogne, Fan, or should you like Brussels? We could be married directly
+we got on the other side. Boulogne's not half a bad place, and you'd
+look rather a swell at the Casino."
+
+It was the irresistible argument again. She raised her head.
+
+"You--you will go quietly; there will be no--no violence, Ted?"
+
+"Is it likely?"
+
+She shuddered.
+
+"There--there was in that case at Berkeley Square, Ted!" and she
+shuddered again.
+
+His face darkened.
+
+"That was an accident. The gentleman was an obstinate old fool. But
+there's no fear of anything of that kind in this affair. I tell you we
+shall not be in the house more than five minutes, and if we're seen it
+won't matter. I'm in decent togs, and my pal is the model of a curate.
+Any one seeing us would think we were visitors in the house. You shall
+have a regular wedding dress, Fan. White satin and lace--real lace, mind
+you! Come, give us a kiss to say that it's done with, Fan!"
+
+He took her face in his hands and kissed her, and with a choking sob she
+clung to him for a moment as if she could not tear herself away. But,
+having got what he wanted, the man was anxious to be off.
+
+"Ten o'clock, mind, Fan! And a sharp lookout. There, let me put your
+shawl round your head. I'll wait here till I hear you're out of the
+wood."
+
+But he remained only a moment or two after she had left him, and, with
+quick, light steps, he joined his confederate.
+
+"It's all right," he said, as he got into the dogcart. "I've found out
+what I wanted. And I've managed with the girl. Had a devil of a job,
+though! That's the worst of women! You've always got to play the
+sentimental with them; nothing short of making love or offering to marry
+'em is any use. It's a pity this kind of thing can't be worked without a
+petticoat. There's always trouble and bother when they come in.
+To-morrow night, Parson, ten o'clock, you and I are men or mice; but
+it's going to be men," he added, between his teeth. "Did you bring my
+barker as well as your own?"
+
+The Parson touched the side pocket of his overcoat, and nodded
+significantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+The day following a big dance is always a slack one, and the house party
+at Anglemere came down late for breakfast, the last stragglers
+endeavoring to screen their yawns behind their hands, and receiving the
+usual "plans for the day" with marked coolness.
+
+Drake, though he had slept but little, did his duty manfully, and
+proposed sundry rides and drives; but the majority of the party seemed
+to prefer a lounge in the drawing-room, or a quiet saunter in the
+garden; but eventually a drag started for some picturesque ruins, and
+some of the more energetic rode or drove to a flower show in the
+neighborhood.
+
+It is an understood thing nowadays that your host, having provided for
+your amusement, is not necessarily compelled to join in your pursuits;
+in short, that his house shall not only be Liberty Hall for his guests,
+but for himself, and Drake, having dispatched the various parties,
+started a quiet game in the billiard room, and seen that the
+drawing-room windows were open and shaded, took his hat and stick and
+went out for a walk.
+
+Lady Luce had not yet put in an appearance. She remained in bed or in
+her room on such occasions, and only sallied forth in time for luncheon,
+thereby presenting a fresh complexion and bright eyes with which to
+confound her less prudent sisters.
+
+Drake had been thinking of her as well as of Nell. He knew that he would
+have to marry. The present heir to the title and estates was anything
+but a desirable young man, and it behooved Drake to keep him out of the
+succession if possible.
+
+Drake, with all his freedom from pride and side, was fully sensible of
+the altitude of his position, and he knew the world looked to him for an
+heir to Angleford.
+
+Yes, he would have to marry, and as he had lost Nell, why, not marry
+Luce? He had an idea that she cared for him, as much as she cared for
+any other than herself, and he knew that she would fill the place as
+well as, if not better than, another.
+
+Their names had been coupled together. Society expected the match. Why
+should he not ask her to renew the engagement, and ask her at once? The
+house would be comparatively empty, for most of the guests would not
+return until dinner time, and he would have the opportunity of making
+his proposal.
+
+He stopped dead short, half resolved to obey the impulse; then, after
+the manner of men, he walked on again, and away from Anglemere, and,
+instead of returning to the house in time for lunch, found himself at
+one of the outlying farms.
+
+It is needless to say that he was accorded a hearty welcome. They did
+not fuss over him; the Anglemere tenants were prosperous and
+self-respecting; and though they regarded their lord and master as a
+kind of sovereign, and felt greatly honored by his presence under their
+roof, there was nothing servile in their attentions.
+
+Drake sat down to the midday meal with a ruddy-cheeked child on each
+side of him, and chatted with the farmer and his wife, the farmer eating
+his well-earned dinner with his usual appetite, the latter waiting on
+them with assiduity and perfect composure. Now and again Drake made a
+joke for the sake of the children, who laughed up at him with round eyes
+and open mouths; he discussed the breeding and price of poultry, the
+rival merits of the new churns and "separators" with the dame, and the
+prospects of the coming harvest with the good man. For a wonder the
+farmer did not grumble. The Anglefords were good landlords; there was no
+rack-renting, no ejections, and a farm falling vacant from natural
+causes was always eagerly tendered for.
+
+After the meal, which Drake enjoyed exceedingly, he and the farmer sat
+at the open window with their pipes and a glass of whisky and water, and
+continued their conversation.
+
+"I'm hearing that your lordship thinks of coming to Anglemere and living
+among us," said the farmer. "And I hope it's true, with all my heart.
+The land needs a master's presence--not that I've anything to complain
+of. Wood, the steward, has acted like a gentleman by me, and I hear no
+complaints of him among the neighbors. But all the same, it ain't like
+having the earl himself over us. It makes one's heart ache to see that
+great place shut up and empty most o' the year. Seems as if there ought
+to be some one living there pretty nigh always, and as if there ought to
+be little children running about the terrace an' the lawns. Begging your
+lordship's pardon, if I'm too free."
+
+"That's all right, Styles," said Drake. "I know what you mean."
+
+The farmer nodded, and stopped his pipe with his fat little finger.
+
+"I make so bold because I remember your lordship a wee chap so high." He
+put his hand about eighteen inches from the floor, as usual. "And a
+rare, hot-spirited youngster you was! Many's the time you've made me
+lift you into the cart, and you'd allus insist upon driving, though the
+reins were most too thick for your hands. Well, my lord, what we feels
+is that we'd like to live long enough to see another little chap--a
+future lordship--a-running about the place."
+
+Drake nodded gravely and took a drink. Even this simple fellow was aware
+of Drake's duty to the title and estates.
+
+"Perhaps you may some day, Styles," he said, smiling, and checking the
+sigh.
+
+The farmer nodded twice, with pleasure and satisfaction.
+
+"Glad to hear it, my lord; and I hope the wedding's to be soon."
+
+"Soon or late, I hope you will come and dance at the wedding ball,
+Styles," Drake responded, with a laugh, as he got up to go.
+
+But the laugh was not a particularly happy one, and he walked toward
+home in anything but a cheerful mood; for it is hard to be compelled to
+have to marry one woman while you are in love with another.
+
+He entered the park by the small gate behind which Ted and Burden had
+stood on the preceding night, and was treading his way through the wood
+when he saw two figures--those of a man and a girl--walking in the
+garden behind the south lodge. He glanced at them absently for a moment,
+then he stopped, and, leaning heavily on his stick, caught his breath.
+
+The man was Falconer, and the girl was--Nell!
+
+They were pacing up and down the path slowly, she with her eyes
+downcast, some flowers in her hands, he with his face turned toward her,
+a rapt look in his eyes, his hands, folded behind his back, twitching
+nervously. They turned full face to Drake as he stood watching them, and
+he saw her distinctly. It seemed marvelous to him that he had not fully
+recognized her last night, that he had not guessed that the young
+engineer was Dick. The blood rushed to his face, then left it pale, and
+he stood, unseen by them, gnawing at his mustache.
+
+In all his musings on the past, all his thoughts and dreams of her, the
+possibility of her being engaged or married had never occurred to him.
+He had always pictured her as still "Nell of Shorne Mills," living at
+The Cottage as she had done when she and he were lovers.
+
+And it was she--she, Nell!--to whom this musician was engaged! A wave of
+bitterness swept over him, and in the agony of his jealousy he could
+have laughed aloud.
+
+He had been sighing for her, longing for her, feeding his soul on his
+memory of her, all these months, while she had not only forgotten him,
+but had learned to love another man!
+
+He stood and stared at them, as if he saw them through a mist, too
+overwhelmed to move; but presently he saw Nell look up with tears in her
+eyes, and hold out her hand slowly, timidly.
+
+Falconer took it and put his lips to it. The sight broke the spell that
+held Drake, and, with a muttered oath, he turned and walked away quickly
+through the wood toward the house.
+
+The first dinner bell was ringing as he entered the hall. Most of the
+guests had gone up to dress, but one or two still lingered in the hall,
+and among them Lady Angleford and Lady Luce. The former came to meet him
+as he entered.
+
+"Why, where have you been, Drake?" she said, with the little maternal
+manner with which she always addressed him.
+
+Lady Luce was lounging in a chair, playing with a grayhound, and she
+looked up at him with a smile, then lowered her eyes, as if she were
+afraid their welcome should be too marked.
+
+"I've been for a walk," he said. His face was flushed, his eyes
+bright--too bright--with suppressed emotion. "I've been lunching at the
+Styles' farm----"
+
+"That's a long way! Aren't you tired? Will you have some tea? I'll get
+some made in a moment or two. Do!"
+
+"No, no; thanks!" he said, as he pitched his cap on the stand. "It's too
+late."
+
+As he spoke he went up to Lady Luce and looked down at her, his face
+still flushed, his eyes still unnaturally bright.
+
+"What have you been doing with yourself, Luce?" he asked.
+
+She glanced up at him for a moment, then lowered her eyes and drew the
+dog's sleek head close to her.
+
+"I don't know," she said, with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
+"Nothing, I think. It has been an awfully long day."
+
+"Luce has been bored to death, and--for once--has admitted it," said
+Lady Angleford, laughing. "Her yawns and sighs have been too awful for
+words."
+
+He stood and looked down at her. She was perfectly dressed, and looked
+like a girl in the light frock, with its plain blouse and neat sailor
+knot. At any rate, if he married her he would have a beautiful wife;
+and that was something. That she loved him, was still more.
+
+Now that he knew Nell had forgotten him, there was no reason why he
+should hesitate.
+
+He bent lower, and his hand fell on the dog's head and touched hers.
+
+"Luce!" he said.
+
+She looked up, saw that the words she had been longing for were
+trembling on his lips, and her face grew pale.
+
+"Luce, I want to speak to you," he said, in a low voice. Lady Angleford
+had gone to a table to collect her work; there was no one within
+hearing. "I want to ask you----"
+
+Before he could finish the all-important sentence, Wolfer and one or two
+other men who had been riding came in at the door.
+
+"Bell gone?" exclaimed Wolfer. "Afraid we are late. Had a capital ride,
+Angleford! What a lovely country it is! Is my wife in yet?"
+
+Drake bit his lip; for, having made up his mind to the plunge, he
+disliked being pulled up on the brink.
+
+"After dinner," he whispered, bending still lower, and he went upstairs
+with the other men. Lord Turfleigh, who was with them, paused at the
+landing, murmured an excuse, and toddled heavily down again. Lady Luce
+had picked up her book and risen, and she lifted her head and looked at
+her father with an unmistakable expression on her face.
+
+He raised his heavy eyebrows and stretched his mouth in a grin of
+satisfaction.
+
+"No!" he said, in a thick whisper. "Really?"
+
+She nodded, and flashed a smile of exultant triumph round the hall.
+
+"Yes. He had nearly spoken when you came in! My luck, of course! Another
+minute! But he will speak to-night!"
+
+"My dear gyurl!" he murmured. "You make your poor old father a proud and
+happy man. My own gyurl!"
+
+She glanced at Lady Angleford warningly, and going up to her, took her
+arm and murmured sweetly:
+
+"Let us go upstairs together, dear."
+
+Lady Angleford looked at her with a meaning smile.
+
+"How changed you have suddenly become, Luce!" she said. "Where are all
+your yawns gone? One would think you had heard news!"
+
+Luce turned her face with a radiant smile.
+
+"Perhaps I have," she said, in a low voice. "I--I will tell
+you--to-morrow!"
+
+They parted at the door of Lady Angleford's room, Lady Luce's being
+farther down the corridor. Next to Lady Angleford's was the suite which
+had been prepared for Drake, and he came out of the room which adjoined
+the one she used as a dressing room as she was going into it.
+
+"I'm sorry if my absence to-day was inconvenient, countess," he said.
+
+"Not in the least! Everybody was disposed of; indeed, I was so free that
+Lady Wolfer and I went for a long drive. How changed she is! I don't
+know a happier woman! And she has given up all that woman's rights
+business."
+
+Drake nodded, with, it must be admitted, little interest.
+
+"By the way," he said, as casually as he could, "what is the name of the
+young engineer and his sister who are staying at the lodge?"
+
+"Lorton," replied the countess. "So stupid of me! I thought it was
+Norton, and I addressed the invitation so; but Mrs. Hawksley tells me
+that it is Lorton. The brother comes from Bardsley & Bardsley."
+
+Drake nodded. He needed no confirmation of the fact of Nell's presence.
+
+"And she's engaged to this Mr. Falconer?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied the countess. "There can be no doubt of it. Mrs.
+Harksley says that his attentions to her last night--at the ball, I
+mean--were quite touching. They walked home together arm in arm. I
+really must call on her. They say she is extremely pretty."
+
+"No need to call, I think," he said. "I mean," he went on, as the
+countess looked surprised, "that--that they will be gone directly."
+
+"Oh, but I thought he might be going to remain as resident engineer."
+
+"No, I think not," said Drake, almost harshly. "From all I hear, he's
+too young."
+
+Lady Angleford nodded, and went into her room, where her maid was
+awaiting her.
+
+"Will you wear your diamonds, my lady?" she asked.
+
+The countess nodded absently, and took the key of the safe from her
+purse; but when the maid placed the square case which held the marvelous
+jewels on the dressing table, Lady Angleford changed her mind.
+
+"No, no," she said; "not to-night. It is only a house party. Put them
+back, please."
+
+The maid replaced the case in the safe, but she could not turn the key.
+
+"You must be quick. I am afraid I'm late," said the countess.
+
+"I can't turn the key, my lady," said the woman.
+
+Lady Angleford rose and tried to turn it, but the key remained
+obstinately immovable.
+
+"Knock at the earl's door and ask him if he will be kind enough to come to
+me," she said.
+
+The maid did so, and Drake came in.
+
+"I can't lock the safe, Drake," said the countess. "I am so sorry to
+trouble you."
+
+"It's no trouble," he responded. "Literally none," he added, with a
+short laugh. "You hadn't quite closed the door. See?"
+
+"We were stupid. How like a woman!" she said penitently.
+
+"Take care of the key," he said. "The diamonds had better be sent to the
+bank the day after to-morrow, unless you want to wear them again soon."
+
+"No," she said. "They make such a fuss about them; and--well, they are
+rather too much of a blaze for such a little woman as I am."
+
+"Nonsense!" he said. "Here's the key."
+
+He laid it on the dressing table, and she was about to take it up to
+replace it in her purse, and put the purse in one of the small drawers
+of the dressing table, when there came a knock at the door, and Burden
+entered.
+
+"I--I beg your ladyship's pardon," she faltered, drawing back.
+
+"What is it?" asked the countess.
+
+"I wanted to borrow some eau de Cologne for my lady," said Burden. "I
+thought your ladyship had gone down, or I wouldn't----"
+
+"Give her the eau de Cologne," said the countess to her maid. "Please
+ask Lady Luce to keep it. I shall not want it."
+
+Burden took the bottle and went out. On the other side of the door she
+paused a moment and caught her breath. Chance, or the devil himself, was
+working on Ted's behalf, for she had happened to enter the room at the
+very moment the countess had put the key in the purse, and the purse in
+the drawer. And all day Burden had been wondering how she should get
+that key.
+
+She went on after a moment or two, and Lady Luce looked up from her
+chair in front of the dressing table, as Burden entered.
+
+"Where have you been?" she asked sharply.
+
+"I went to borrow some eau de Cologne, my lady," replied Burden.
+
+"Well, please be quick; you know we are late. I will wear----" she
+paused a moment. She wanted to look her best that night. The beauty
+which had caught Drake in the past, the beauty which was to ensnare him
+again, and win for her the Angleford coronet, must lack no advantage
+dress could lend it. "The silver gray and the pearls, please," she
+said, after a moment or two of consideration. "Why, what is the matter
+with you?" she asked sharply, as she saw the reflection of Burden's face
+in the glass. "Are you ill, or what?"
+
+Burden tried to force the color to her face and keep her hands steady.
+
+"I--I am not very well, my lady," she faltered. "I--I have had bad
+news."
+
+"Bad news! What news?" asked Lady Luce coldly.
+
+"My--mother is very ill, my lady," replied Burden, on the spur of the
+moment.
+
+Lady Luce moved impatiently.
+
+"It is a singular thing that persons of your class are always in some
+trouble or other; you are either ill yourselves, or some of your
+relations are dying. I am very sorry and all that, Burden, but I hope
+you were not thinking of asking me to let you go home, because I really
+could not just now."
+
+"No, my lady; perhaps a little later----"
+
+"Well, I'll see," said Lady Luce irritably. "I don't suppose you could
+do any good if you were to go home; I suppose there's some one to look
+after your mother; and, after all, she may not be so bad as you think.
+Servants always look at the worst side of things, and meet troubles
+halfway."
+
+"Yes, my lady," said Burden.
+
+"And do, for goodness' sake, try and look more cheerful, my good girl!
+It's like having a ghost behind me. Besides, if you are worrying
+yourself about your mother you can't dress me properly; and I want you
+to be very careful to-night--of all nights!"
+
+She leaned back and smiled at her face in the glass, and thought no more
+of the maid's pale and anxious one. Had she been not so entirely
+heartless, had she even only affected a little interest and expressed
+some sympathy, the unhappy girl might have broken down and confessed her
+share in the meditated crime; but Lady Luce was incapable of pretending
+sympathy with a servant. In her eyes servants were of quite a different
+order of creation to that of her own class; hewers of wood and drawers
+of water, of no account beyond that which they gained from their value
+to their masters or mistresses. To consider the feelings of the servants
+who waited upon her would have seemed absurd to Lady Luce, almost,
+indeed, a kind of bad form.
+
+The dinner bell had rung before she was dressed, and she hurried down to
+find herself the last to arrive in the drawing-room. She sought Drake's
+face as she entered. It still wore the expression of suppressed
+excitement which she had noticed when he came in from his walk, and he
+smiled with a kind of reluctant admiration as he noticed the magnificent
+dress, and the way in which it set off her beauty.
+
+At dinner his altered mood was so marked that several persons who were
+near him noticed it. He, who had been so quiet and grave, almost stern
+in his manner and speech, to-night talked much and rapidly, and laughed
+freely.
+
+The flush on his face deepened, and his eyes flashed so brightly that
+Wolfer, who was sitting near him, could not help noticing how often
+Drake permitted the butler to fill his glass, and wondered whether
+anything had happened, and whether he were drinking too much.
+
+But Drake's gayety was infectious enough, and the dinner was a much
+livelier one than any that had preceded it.
+
+Lady Luce was, perhaps, the most quiet and least talkative; but she sat
+and listened to Drake's stories and badinage, with a smile in her eyes
+and her lips slightly apart.
+
+In a few hours he would speak the word which would make her the future
+Countess of Angleford!
+
+The ladies lingered at the table rather longer than usual, for Drake's
+stories had suggested others to the other men, and his high spirits had
+awakened those of the persons near him. But Lady Angleford rose at last,
+and the ladies filed off to the drawing-room.
+
+The men closed up their ranks, and Drake sent the wine round briskly.
+There was no dance to cut short the pleasant "after-the-ladies-have-gone"
+time; and they sat long over their wine, so that it was nearly ten
+o'clock when Drake, with his hand on the decanter near him, said:
+
+"No more, anybody? Sure? Turfleigh, you will, surely!"
+
+But the old man knew that he had had enough. He, too, was excited, and
+under a strain, and he rose rather unsteadily and shook his head.
+
+"No, thanks. Er--er--I fancy we've rather punished that claret of yours
+to-night, my dear boy."
+
+"It's a sad heart that never rejoices!" Drake retorted, with a laugh
+which sounded so reckless that Wolfer glanced at him with surprise.
+
+"We'd better have a cigarette in the smoking room before we go into the
+drawing-room," said Drake, and he led the way.
+
+As they went, talking and laughing, together across the hall, a
+white-faced woman leaned over the balustrade above, and watched them.
+
+The other servants were in the servants' hall, enjoying themselves; the
+gentlemen were in the smoking room, and the ladies in the drawing-room.
+She was alone in the upper part of the house, which was so quiet and
+still that the sound of a clock, in one of the rooms, striking ten was
+like that of a church bell in her ears.
+
+She started and pressed her hand to her heart, then stole to the window
+on the back staircase, and, keeping behind the curtain, listened. Her
+heart beat so loudly as to almost deafen her, but she heard a slight
+noise outside, and something fell with a soft tap against the window
+sill. It was the top of the ladder falling into its place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+Burden had switched off some of the electric lights in the
+corridor--was, indeed, prepared to switch the remainder if any one
+happened to come up--and she could just see a face through the window.
+The sight of it almost made her scream, for the face was partially
+covered by a crape mask, through which the eyes gleamed fiercely.
+
+Burden clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle the cry of terror, and,
+absolutely incapable of remaining on the spot, fled to her own room and
+locked herself in.
+
+Ted raised the window noiselessly and stepped into the corridor. He had
+a plan of the house, drawn from Burden's description, and he made
+straight for the countess' room. The Parson stood at the bottom of the
+ladder on guard. And each man carried a revolver loaded in all six
+barrels.
+
+A few minutes before the burglar had so neatly effected his entrance,
+the men left the smoking room for the drawing-room--all excepting Lord
+Turfleigh, who had taken a soda and brandy with his cigar, and deemed it
+prudent to indulge in a little nap before joining the ladies.
+
+Drake was a little less excited than he had been, but he was still
+resolved to ask Luce to be his wife, and he meant to take her into the
+conservatory, or one of the rooms where they could be alone for a few
+minutes. But when he entered the drawing-room she was playing. He went
+up to the piano, and, bending over it as if to look at the music,
+whispered:
+
+"Will you go into the conservatory presently?"
+
+She nodded, and without raising her eyes, but with a sudden flush. Drake
+went across the room to where Lady Angleford and Lady Wolfer were
+seated, talking, and the first word he heard was Nell's name.
+
+"Of course it is the same," Lady Wolfer was saying eagerly. "Her brother
+was at the engineers, Bardsley & Bardsley! And Nell has been near us all
+this time, and in this house, and I didn't know it! If I had, I would
+have gone to her at once. She's the dearest and sweetest girl in all the
+world, and I owe her----" She stopped and sighed, but not sadly. "She
+left us quite suddenly to go to her stepmother, who was a cousin of my
+husband's; and I have only seen her once since. They--she and her
+brother--were living in one of these large mansions--a dreadfully
+crowded and noisy place; but, though they were poor, she seemed quite
+happy and contented. I begged her to come and live with me, but she
+would not leave her brother--though for that matter we should have been
+delighted to have him also, especially if he is anything like her. Oh,
+yes, the dearest girl! And you don't know how much I owe her! Some day I
+may be tempted to tell you." She sighed again, and was silent for a
+moment, as she recalled the scene in her bedroom on the night of the
+dinner party, the night before Nell had left Wolfer House so suddenly.
+"I must go and see her to-morrow morning. They say she is engaged to the
+young man, the violinist."
+
+Lady Angleford nodded.
+
+"Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would
+account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an
+extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your
+dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of
+her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me."
+
+Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set
+sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he
+listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to
+a man who certainly was not worthy of her.
+
+Lady Angleford looked up at him.
+
+"We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake," she said.
+"She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a
+time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young
+to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom
+one knows."
+
+"I will see," he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with
+some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him
+and sighed.
+
+"How changed he is!" she said, in a low voice.
+
+"In what way?" asked Lady Wolfer.
+
+The countess was silent for a moment or two.
+
+"He seems as if he were unhappy about something," she said; "as if
+something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into
+the title, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was
+bright and cheerful; but now----I noticed the change the moment he came
+into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for
+anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now
+one would think he possessed all that a man could desire."
+
+"The vanity of human wishes, my dear!" said Lady Wolfer. "Something may
+have happened while he was abroad," she suggested in a low voice.
+
+"You mean a love affair? I don't think so."
+
+The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was
+about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the
+last man in the world to marry for the sake of "convenience."
+
+Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the
+piano; but she was playing a long piece--an interminable one, as it
+seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not
+finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling
+had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there
+was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his
+dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down,
+and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were
+fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as
+his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.
+
+It was a peculiar sound, like the soft bang which is made by the closing
+of a safe door. For a moment Drake paid no heed to it; then suddenly its
+significance struck upon him. Lady Angleford was in the drawing-room.
+Who could be at the safe?
+
+He stepped outside the door, and waited for a second or two, then he
+opened the door softly, and saw a man rising from his knees in front of
+the safe. The man turned at the moment and stood with the case of
+diamonds in his hand--two other cases bulged from his side pockets--his
+eyes gleaming through his mask.
+
+Now, in fiction the hero who is placed in this position always cries
+aloud for help, and instantly springs at the burglar; but in real life
+the element of surprise has to be taken into account; and Drake was too
+amazed at the moment to fling himself upon the thief. Besides, it is
+your weak and timid man who immediately cries for help. Drake was
+neither weak nor timid, and it would not occur to him to shriek for
+assistance. So the two men stood motionless as statues, and glanced at
+each other while you could count twenty. Then the burglar whipped a
+revolver from his pocket and presented it.
+
+"Stand out of my way!" he said gruffly, and disguising his voice, for
+he knew how easily a voice can become a means of identification. "Better
+stand out of my way, or, by God! I'll fire!"
+
+Drake laughed, the short laugh of a strong man ridiculing the proposal
+that he shall probably stand aside and permit a thief to pass with his
+booty.
+
+"Put down that thing," he said. "You know you can't fire; too much
+noise. Put it down--and the cases. No? Very well!"
+
+He sprang aside with one movement, and with the next went for the man.
+
+Ted was really a skillful craftsman, and had taken the precaution to
+fasten a string across the room, from the bed to the grate.
+
+Drake's foot caught in it, and he went sprawling on his face.
+
+Ted sprang over him, and gained the corridor. With a dexterity beyond
+all praise, he switched off the remaining lights and then pushed up the
+window and dropped, rather than climbed, down the ladder.
+
+Drake was on his feet in a moment and out in the corridor in the next.
+He had heard the window pushed up, and knew the point at which the man
+had made his escape.
+
+Even then he did not give the alarm, and he did not turn up the lights,
+for he could see into the night better without them. He leaned out of
+the window and peered into darkness, and distinguished two forms gliding
+toward the shrubbery.
+
+It was a long drop, but he intended taking it. He swung one leg over the
+sill as some one came up the stairs.
+
+It was Sparling.
+
+"Why are all the lights out?" he exclaimed. "Who's there?" for there was
+light enough from the hall for him to see Drake dimly.
+
+"All right; it's I," said Drake quietly. "Turn up the lights. There are
+burglars. Don't shout; you'll frighten the ladies. Get the bicycle lamp
+from my room--quick!"
+
+Sparling tore into the room, and came dashing out with the lamp, and,
+with trembling hands, lit it.
+
+"Drop it down to me when I call," said Drake. "I'll risk its going out.
+Then get some of the men and search the grounds. And--mind!--no
+frightening the ladies!"
+
+Then he lowered himself, dropped, and called up. He caught the lamp,
+which was still alight, and covering the glass with his hand, ran in the
+direction the men had taken; and as he ran he buttoned his dress coat
+over the big patch of white made by his wide shirt front.
+
+He had stalked big game often enough to be aware that his only chance of
+tracking the thieves lay in his following them quietly and unseen, and
+he ran on tiptoe, and keeping as much as possible among the shrubs as he
+went, his ears and eyes strained attentively, he endeavored to put
+himself in their place.
+
+"Yes," he muttered, "they'll make for the road, where there'll be a trap
+waiting for them--or bicycles; but which part of the road?"
+
+The park fence was high, but easily climbable by an experienced burglar,
+and they might make for it at any point; presumably the nearest.
+
+By this time he was cool enough, but extremely angry; and he blamed
+himself for falling so easily into the string trap. What he ought to
+have done----At this point in his futile reflections he stopped and
+listened, not for the first time, and he fancied he heard a rustling
+among the trees in front of him. He ran on as softly as possible, and
+presently saw a figure--one only--going swiftly in the direction of the
+lodge.
+
+Drake understood in a moment; one man had gone to bring the vehicle near
+the gates, and this other man was waiting for it.
+
+Up to this instant Drake had given no thought to the fact that he was
+pursuing two men, desperate, and, no doubt, armed, while he had no kind
+of weapon upon him. But now he smiled with a grim satisfaction as he saw
+that he had only one man to deal with.
+
+Their separation was a point in his favor.
+
+Steadily he followed on the man's track, and in a moment or two he saw
+the glimmer of the light from the lodge window; and as he saw it, he
+heard the roll of wheels approaching the gates.
+
+The burglar, unacquainted with the topography of the road, was breaking
+his way through the undergrowth; and Drake, seeing that there was a
+chance of cutting him off by striking into one of the paths, turned into
+it.
+
+He had to run for all he was worth now, and as he sped along he was
+reminded of his old college days, when he sprinted for the mile
+race--and won it. He reached a corner where the narrow path joined the
+wider one leading to the gate, and here he stopped, listening intently,
+and still covering the light of the lamp with his hand. Suddenly he
+heard footsteps near the lodge, and with a thrill of excitement more
+keen than any other chase had given him, he ran toward them.
+
+As he did so, he caught sight of a woman's dress, and a faint cry of
+alarm and surprise arose. Was there a woman in the business?
+
+Before he could answer the mental question he saw a figure--the figure
+he had been pursuing--dash from the woods on the right and make for the
+path he had just left. Drake swung round sharply and tore after him. The
+man looked over his shoulder, swore threateningly, and snatched
+something from his pocket. In drawing the revolver, however, he dropped
+something, and Drake saw, with immense satisfaction, that it was the
+diamond case.
+
+"Give in, my man!" he said.
+
+Ted laughed, caught up the case, and rushed on in the direction of the
+gate. But at that moment the tall figure of Falconer ran from the lodge.
+
+Falconer stood for a moment, then he took in the situation, and dashing
+to the gate, flung it close. Ted heard the clang of the gate, and ran
+back toward Drake, with revolver raised.
+
+Death stared Drake in the face; but it is at such moments that men of
+his temperament are coolest. He sprang aside as he had done in Lady
+Angleford's room. The revolver "pinged," there was a flash of light, but
+the bullet sped past him, and Drake flung himself upon his man.
+
+Ted was as slippery as an eel, and striking Drake across the head with
+the revolver, he ran into the woods, with Drake after him; but the man
+knew there was no escape for him in that direction, and after a moment
+or two he turned and faced Drake again.
+
+"Keep off, you fool, or I'll shoot you!" he growled hoarsely.
+
+"Give in," said Drake again. "The game's up!"
+
+Ted laughed shortly, and aimed the revolver again; but as his finger
+pressed the trigger, a cry rose from behind him, his arm was struck
+aside, and once more the bullet whizzed past its mark, and Drake was
+saved.
+
+He saw the figure of a woman struggling with the burglar, saw the man
+raise his hand to strike her from him, saw her fall to the ground, and
+knew, by some instinct, that it was Nell.
+
+In that instant the capture of the man was of no moment to him. With a
+cry, he flung himself on his knees beside her.
+
+"Nell, Nell!" he panted. "Is it you?"
+
+She remained quite motionless under his words, his touch, and he raised
+her head and tried to see her face.
+
+The lamp he had dropped some moments before.
+
+Suddenly a great shudder ran through her. She sighed, and opened her
+eyes.
+
+"Drake!" she murmured; "Drake! Is he----"
+
+He thought she referred to the man.
+
+"Never mind him," he said eagerly. "Are you hurt? Tell me?"
+
+She put her hand to her head, and struggled to her feet, swaying to and
+fro as if only half conscious, then her hands went out to him, and she
+uttered a cry of terror and anxiety.
+
+"He--he shot you!" she gasped.
+
+"No, no!" he responded quickly. "There is no harm done, if the brute has
+not hurt you."
+
+She shook her head and leaned against the tree, trembling and panting.
+
+"I was in the garden. I--heard you and the man running, and--and--I--ran
+across the path----"
+
+"In time to save my life," he said gravely. "But I'd rather have died
+than you should come to harm."
+
+As he spoke, he heard the noise of a struggle behind him. He had
+absolutely ceased to care what became of the man whom he had been
+pursuing so relentlessly for a few minutes before; but the noise, the
+hoarse cries, which now broke upon them had recalled him to a sense of
+the situation.
+
+"They are struggling at the gate--I must leave you," he said hurriedly.
+And he ran down the path.
+
+As he approached the gate, he saw Falconer and the burglar struggling
+together. Falconer was losing ground every moment, and as Drake was
+nearly upon them, Ted got his opponent under him; but Falconer still
+clung to him, and Ted could not get free from him. As he shot a glance
+at Drake he ground his teeth.
+
+"Let me go, you fool!" he hissed. "Let me----"
+
+He got one arm free, the glimmer of steel flashed in the dim light as he
+struck downward, and Falconer with a sharp groan loosed his hold.
+
+Ted was clear of him in an instant and sprang for the gate; but as he
+opened it Drake was upon him. Ted was spent with his struggle with
+Falconer; he had dropped his revolver; Drake had seized the arm which
+held the knife--seized it in a grip like that of a vise.
+
+"Parson! Quick!" cried Ted. The dogcart drove up to the gate, and the
+Parson was about to spring to the aid of his mate, when another figure
+came running up. It was Dick.
+
+"Why, what on earth's the matter?" he cried.
+
+At the sound of his voice, the Parson, counting his foes with a quick
+eye, leaped into the cart and drove away at a gallop. Ted cursed at the
+sound of the retreating cart and struck out wildly, but Drake had pinned
+him against the gate.
+
+"Knock that knife out of his hand!" he said sharply, and Dick did so. In
+another moment the burglar was on his back in the road with Drake's knee
+on his chest.
+
+"That will do!" he panted. "I give in! It's a fair cap! But if that
+white-livered hound had stood by me, I'd have beaten the lot of you! As
+it is, I've given as good as I've got, I fancy!" and he nodded
+tauntingly as he glanced to where Dick knelt beside Falconer.
+
+Drake tore off the mask, and Ted shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You can take your knee off my chest, my lord," he said; "you're a tidy
+weight. Oh, I'm not going to try to escape. I know when I'm done. But it
+was a near thing."
+
+Sparling and a couple of grooms with lanterns came running toward them,
+and Drake rose.
+
+"Look to him," he said quietly. "He is not armed."
+
+Ted took the cases from his pockets and flung them down as the men
+surrounded him; then he drew out a cigarette case, and, with a cockney
+drawl, said:
+
+"Can one of you oblige me with a light?"
+
+Sparling knocked the cigarette out of his hand, and one of the grooms
+growled:
+
+"Shall I give him one over the head, for his cheek, Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"Yes; that's about all you flunkeys can do; hit a man when he's down,"
+said Ted. "But you needn't trouble. Here comes the peelers."
+
+His quick ears had caught the heavy footsteps of the policeman, who came
+running up, and, before he was asked to do so, he held out his hands for
+the handcuffs.
+
+"Is the cove dead?" he asked curtly; but no one answered him; indeed, no
+answer was possible, for Falconer lay like one dead, and Drake, who
+supported his head, could perceive no movement of the heart.
+
+"One of you take a cart and go for the doctor," he said gravely.
+
+As he spoke, Nell came toward them. The climax had been reached so
+quickly that Falconer had been wounded and the burglar caught before she
+could find strength to follow Drake; for the reaction which had followed
+upon her discovery of the fact that he was unhurt had made her weaker
+than the man's blow had done.
+
+But now, as she saw the circle of men bending and kneeling round a
+prostrate figure, her terror rose again and she hurried forward. Pushing
+one of the men aside, she looked down, and with a cry fell on her knees
+beside the unconscious man and gazed with horror-stricken eyes.
+
+"He is dead! He is dead! He has killed him!" she moaned.
+
+There was a moment's silence, while Drake looked at her with set face
+and gloomy eyes; for at the anguish in her voice a pang of jealousy shot
+through him, of envy; for how willingly he would have changed places
+with the injured man!
+
+He rose, lantern in hand, and went round to her.
+
+"He is not dead," he said, almost inaudibly.
+
+"Oh, thank God!" she breathed.
+
+"But he is badly hurt, I am afraid," said Drake gravely. Then he turned
+to the men. "We will carry him to the lodge. Gently!"
+
+They lifted the wounded man and bore him along slowly. As they did so,
+Nell walked by his side, and half unconsciously took his hand and held
+it fast clasped in her trembling one. Even at that moment he saw her
+actions, and his heart ached. Yes, to have Nell hold his hand thus, to
+have her sweet eyes resting on him so tenderly, so anxiously, he would
+have willingly been in Falconer's place.
+
+They carried Falconer up to his room, and Drake, with the skill he had
+acquired in many a knife-and-gun-shot accident, staunched the wound.
+Falconer had been stabbed in the chest, and the blood was flowing, but
+slowly.
+
+Drake was so absorbed in the task that he had forgotten Dick's presence
+until, looking up, he caught Dick's eye fixed on him with sheer wonder.
+
+"Drake!" he said, in a whisper. "You here?"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"Yes; it's a strange meeting, Dick, isn't it? But we have been near each
+other--though we didn't know it--for some days past. You are 'the young
+engineer,' and I----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and Dick leaped at the truth.
+
+"You are Lord Angleford?" he said.
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"Yes. I'll explain presently. Just now all we can think of is this poor
+fellow."
+
+"Poor chap!" said Dick sadly. "If I'd only come up a minute or two
+sooner--I'd gone down to the village for some 'bacca. Who'd have thought
+he was such a plucky one. For he's not strong, Drake, you see."
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"No," he said; "but it is not always the strongest who are the bravest.
+Who is that?" for there came a knock at the door.
+
+Dick went and opened it. Nell stood there, white to the lips, but calm
+and composed. He answered the question in her eyes.
+
+"All right, Nell! Don't be frightened. He'll pull through; won't he,
+Drake?"
+
+She turned her eyes upon him, and he met their appeal steadily.
+
+"I hope so," he said.
+
+She stole into the room, and, with her hands clasped, looked down at
+Falconer in silence.
+
+"I hope so," repeated Drake emphatically. "There are not so many brave
+men that the world can afford to lose one."
+
+She raised her eyes to his face quickly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "he was unarmed and knew that it was a struggle for
+life, that the man was desperate and would stick at nothing. It was the
+pluckiest thing I have ever seen." Then he remembered how she had sprung
+forward to strike up the burglar's arm, and he added, under his breath,
+"almost the pluckiest."
+
+The crimson dyed her face for a moment, and her eyes dropped under his
+regard; but she said nothing, and presently she stole out again.
+
+It seemed an age to the two men before the doctor arrived, though the
+time was really short; it seemed another age while he made his
+examination. He met Drake's questioning gaze with the grave evasion
+which comes so naturally to the smallest of country practitioners.
+
+"A nasty wound, my lord!" he said. "But I've known men recover from a
+worse one. Unfortunately, he is not a strong man. This poor fellow has
+known the meaning of privation." He touched the thin arm, and pointed to
+the wasted face. "They tell their own story! Now, if it were you, my
+lord----" he smiled significantly.
+
+"Would to God it had been!" said Drake. The village nurse, whom the
+doctor had instructed to follow him, entered and moved with professional
+calm to the bedside, and the doctor gave her some instructions.
+
+"I'll send you some help, nurse," he said.
+
+As he spoke, Nell came to the door.
+
+"No," she said, very quietly; "there is no need; I will help."
+
+Almost as if he had heard her, Falconer's lips quivered, and he murmured
+something. Nell glided to the bed, and kneeling beside him, took his
+hand. His eyes opened, with the vacant stare of unconsciousness for a
+moment, then they recognized her, and he spoke her name.
+
+"Nell!"
+
+"Yes," she whispered, in response. "It is I. You are here at the lodge.
+Here is Dick, and"--her voice fell before Drake's steady regard--"you
+are with friends, and safe."
+
+He smiled, but his eyes did not leave her face.
+
+"I know," he said. "I--I am more than content."
+
+Drake could bear it no longer. Dick followed him out of the room, and
+they went downstairs.
+
+"I will wire for Sir William, the surgeon," said Drake, very quietly.
+"He will come down by the first train. Everything shall be done.
+Tell--tell your sister----"
+
+Dick nodded gravely.
+
+"He's one of the best fellows in the world; he's worth saving, Drake----"
+he said. "I beg your pardon," he broke off. "I--I suppose I ought to call
+you 'my lord' now. I can scarcely realize yet----"
+
+Drake flushed almost angrily.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no!" he exclaimed. "There need be no difference
+between you and me, Dick, whatever there may be between----I'll come
+across in the morning to inquire, and I'll tell you all that has
+happened. Dick, you'll have to forgive me for hiding my right name down
+there at Shorne Mills. It was a folly; but one gets punished for one's
+follies," he added, as he held out his hand.
+
+Still confused by the discovery that his old friend "Drake Vernon" was
+Lord Angleford, Dick could only let him go in silence, and Drake passed
+out.
+
+As he did so, he looked up at the window of the sick room. A shadow
+passed the blind, and as he recognized it he sighed heavily. Yes;
+notwithstanding his wound and his peril, the penniless musician was the
+lucky man, and he, my Lord of Angleford, the most unfortunate and
+unhappy.
+
+Slowly he made his way toward the house, and as he went the face and the
+voice of the woman he loved haunted him. For a moment she had rested in
+his arms, and he could still feel her head on his breast, still hear the
+"Drake, Drake!"
+
+She had not forgotten him, then; she still remembered him with some
+kindness, though she loved Falconer? Well, he should be grateful for
+that. It would be good to think of all through the weary years that lay
+before him.
+
+How beautiful she was! With what an exquisite tenderness her eyes had
+dwelt upon the wounded man! He started, and almost groaned, as he
+remembered that not so long ago those eyes had beamed love and
+tenderness upon himself.
+
+"Oh, Nell, Nell!" broke from him unconsciously. "Oh, my dear, lost love!
+how shall I live without you, now that I have seen you, held you in my
+arms again?"
+
+The great house loomed before him; the hall door was open; figures were
+standing and flitting in the light that streamed on the terrace; and
+with a pang he awoke to the responsibilities of his position, to the
+remembrance of his interview with Luce. There she stood on the top of
+the steps, a shawl thrown round her head, her face eager and anxious.
+
+"Drake! Is it you?" she exclaimed; and she came down the steps to meet
+him, her hand outstretched.
+
+The others crowded round, all talking at once. He shook her hand, held
+it a moment, then let it drop.
+
+"He is all right, I hope," he said.
+
+"He!" she murmured. "It is you--you, Drake!"
+
+He frowned slightly.
+
+"Oh! I?" he said, with self-contempt. "I have got off scot-free. Where is
+the countess?"
+
+Lady Luce looked at him keenly, and with a half-reproachful air.
+
+"I--I--have been very frightened, Drake," she said.
+
+For the life of him he could not even affect a tenderness.
+
+"On my account? There was not the least need."
+
+Lady Angleford came forward hurriedly.
+
+"Drake! You are not hurt! Thank God!" And her hands clasped his arm.
+
+"You have got your jewels?" he said, in the curt tone with which a man
+tries to fend off a fuss. "Are they all there?"
+
+She made an impatient movement.
+
+"Yes, yes--oh, yes! As if they mattered! Tell me how that poor man is.
+How brave of him!"
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"Yes. He will pull round, I hope. We shall know more in the morning.
+Hadn't you ladies better go to bed? Wolfer, I have wanted a drink once
+or twice in my life, but never, I think, quite so keenly as now."
+
+The men gathered round him as he stopped at the foot of the stairs to
+wish the women good night. Luce came last, and as she held out her hand,
+looked at him appealingly. Was he going to let her go without the word
+she had been expecting--the word he had promised? He understood the
+appeal in her eyes, but he could not respond. Not to-night, with Nell's
+face and voice haunting him, could he ask Lady Luce to be his wife.
+To-morrow--yes, to-morrow!
+
+She smiled at him as he held her hand, but as she went up the stairs the
+smile vanished, and, if it is ever possible for so beautiful a woman to
+become suddenly plain, then Lady Luce's face achieved that
+transformation.
+
+Gnawing at her underlip, she entered her room, flung herself into a
+chair, and beat a tattoo with her foot. The door opened softly, and
+Burden stole in. She was very pale, there were dark marks under her
+eyes, and she trembled so violently that the brushes rattled together as
+she took them from the table.
+
+Lady Luce looked up at her angrily.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" she demanded. "You look more like a ghost
+than a human being, or as if you'd been drinking."
+
+Burden winced under the insult, and stole behind her mistress' chair;
+but Lady Luce faced round after her.
+
+"You're not fit to do my hair, or anything else!" she said. "What is the
+matter now? Your mother or one of your other relations, I suppose. You
+always have some excuse or other for your whims and fancies."
+
+"I--I am rather upset, my lady!" Burden responded, almost inaudibly.
+"The--the robbery----"
+
+"What does it concern you?" said Lady Luce sharply. "It is no affair of
+yours; your business is to wait upon me, and if you can't or won't do it
+properly----"
+
+The brush fell from Burden's uncertain hand, and Lady Luce sprang to her
+feet in a passion.
+
+"Oh, go away! Get out of my sight!" she said contemptuously. "Go down to
+the kitchen and tremble and shake with the other maids. I can't put up
+with you to-night."
+
+"I'm--I'm very sorry, my lady. I'm upset--everybody's upset."
+
+"Oh, go--go!" broke in Lady Luce impatiently. "If you are not better
+to-morrow, you'd better go for good!"
+
+Burden stood for a moment uncertainly; then, with a stifled sob, left
+the room, and went down the corridor toward the servants' apartments;
+but halfway she stopped, hesitated, then descended the back stairs and
+stole softly along one of the passages. A door from the smoking room
+opened on to this passage, and against this she leaned and listened.
+
+Sparling and the grooms who had joined in the pursuit of the burglars
+had come back full of the chase and its results, and there was an
+excited and dramatic recital going on in the servants' hall at that
+moment; but she dared not go there, though she was in an agony of
+anxiety to know the whole truth and the fate of her lover. Her face, her
+overwrought condition, would have betrayed her; so, at the least, would
+have caused surprise and aroused suspicion. She could not face the
+servants' hall, but she knew that the gentlemen would be discussing the
+affair in the smoking room, and that if she could listen unseen she
+should hear what had happened to Ted. It was Ted, and nothing, no one
+else she cared about.
+
+All the men were in the smoking room, and all were plying Drake with
+questions. Drake, knowing that he would have to go through it, was
+giving as concise an account of it as was possible. He was wearied to
+death, not only of the burglary, but of the emotions he had experienced,
+and his voice was low and his manner that of a man talking against his
+will; but Burden heard every word, for, at its lowest, Drake's voice was
+singularly clear.
+
+She listened, motionless as a statue, till he came to the point where
+the burglar had turned and faced him. Then she moved and had hard work
+to stifle a moan.
+
+"That was a near thing, Angleford!" said Lord Turfleigh, over the edge
+of his glass; "a deuced near thing! If I'd been you, I should have cried
+a go, and let the fellow off. Dash it all! a man in your position has
+no right to risk his life, even for such diamonds as the Angleford."
+
+Drake laughed shortly.
+
+"I didn't think of the diamonds," he said quietly. "It was a match
+between me and the man. He missed me and bolted to cover. I followed,
+and he slipped behind a tree and aimed; but he missed--fortunately for
+me."
+
+"Missed you?" said Lord Wolfer, who had been listening attentively and
+in silence. "How was that? You must have been very near?"
+
+Drake was silent for a moment; then, as if reluctantly, he replied:
+
+"There were several persons engaged in the game. One of them was a young
+lady who is staying at the lodge--the south lodge. She happened to be
+out, strolling in the garden, and heard the rumpus. And she"--he lit a
+fresh cigarette--"she sprang on him and struck his arm up!"
+
+"No!" exclaimed one of the men. "Dash it all! Angleford, if this isn't
+the most dramatic, sensational affair I've ever heard of."
+
+"Yes?" came in Drake's grave, restrained tones. "Yes, that saved my
+life."
+
+There was a moment's silence, an impressive silence, then he went on:
+
+"And did for the man. If he had disposed of me, he could have shot poor
+Mr. Falconer at the gate and got off. As it was----" He stopped and
+seemed to consider. "Well, it left me free to collar him at the gate,
+but not, unfortunately, until he had wounded Falconer."
+
+"Poor devil!" muttered Lord Turfleigh. "Hard lines on him, eh,
+Angleford?"
+
+"Yes," said Drake gravely.
+
+"Then, as I understand it," said Lord Wolfer, "your life, the salvation
+of the countess' jewels, and the capture of the burglar are due to this
+lady?"
+
+"That is so," assented Drake quietly.
+
+"Who is she? What is her name?" asked several men, in a breath.
+
+There was a pause, during which Burden listened breathlessly.
+
+"Her name is Lorton," said Drake, very quietly. "She is staying at the
+south lodge."
+
+Burden started and bit her lip. Lorton? Where had she heard----
+
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed Lord Wolfer. "You don't mean that Miss Lorton
+who was with us?"
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"The same," he said gravely.
+
+Burden's lips twitched, and her hands gripped the edge of the door frame.
+
+There was silence for a moment, then one of the men asked:
+
+"And what do you think the fellow will get, Angleford?"
+
+"It all depends," replied Drake, after a pause. "If this fellow Falconer
+should die----Well, it will be murder. If not--and God grant he may
+not!--it will be burglary simply, and it will mean penal servitude for
+so many years."
+
+"And serve him right, whichever way it goes!" cried one of the men.
+"Anyway, this young lady, this Miss Lorton, is a brick! Here's her
+health!"
+
+Burden waited for no more. She was white still, but she was trembling no
+longer. Her eyes were glowing savagely, and her lips were strained
+tightly. Her sweetheart was captured; he would either be hanged or
+sentenced to penal servitude; and Miss Lorton was the person with whom
+she had to reckon!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+Before morning Falconer became delirious. He did not rave nor shout, but
+he talked incessantly, with his eyes wide open and fixed vacantly, and
+his long hand plucking at the bedclothes. Nell stole in from her room,
+though she had promised to rest and leave the night duty to the village
+nurse, and, sitting beside him, held his hand.
+
+At the touch of her cool fingers he became quiet for a moment or two,
+and something like a smile crossed his pain-lined face; but presently he
+began again. Sometimes he was back at the Buildings, and he hummed a bar
+or two of music while his fingers played on the counterpane as if it
+were a piano. Once or twice he murmured her name in a tone which brought
+the color to Nell's face and made her heart ache. But it did not need
+the whisper of her name to tell her Falconer's secret. She knew that he
+loved her, for he had told her so at the moment when Drake had seen them
+walking together in the garden.
+
+And as she sat and held his hand, she tried to force her mind from
+dwelling on Drake, and to remember the devotion of the stricken man
+beside her.
+
+Though he had confessed his love, he had asked for nothing in return. He
+had said that he knew that his passion was hopeless, but that he could
+not help loving her, that he must continue to do so while life lasted.
+
+"I will never speak of it again," he had said. "You need not be afraid.
+I don't know why I told you now; it slipped out before I knew----No,
+don't be afraid. All I ask is that you should still look upon me as a
+friend, that you will still let me be near you as often as is possible.
+It is too much to ask? If so, I will go away--somewhere, and cease to
+trouble you with the sight of me!"
+
+And Nell, with tears in her eyes--as Drake had seen--had given him her
+hand in silence, for a moment or two, and then, almost inaudibly, had
+answered:
+
+"I am sorry--sorry! Oh, why did you tell me? No, no; forgive me! But you
+must not go. I--I could not afford to lose your--friendship!"
+
+"That you shall not do!" he had said, very quietly, and with a brave
+smile. "Please remember that I said I knew there was no hope for me. How
+could there be? How could it be possible for you--you!--to care for me?
+But a weed may dare to love the sun, Miss Lorton, though it is only a
+weed and not a stately flower. I ought not to have told you; but that
+little success of mine, and the prospect it has opened out, must have
+turned my head. But you have forgiven me, have you not? and you will try
+and forget that I was mad enough to show you my heart?"
+
+He had not waited for her to respond, but had left her at once, and, so
+that she should not think him quite heartbroken, had hummed an air as he
+went.
+
+And now that he lay here 'twixt life and death, Nell's heart ached for
+him, and she longed, with a longing beyond all words, that she could
+have returned the love he bore her.
+
+But alas, alas! she had no love to give. Drake had stolen it long ago,
+there at Shorne Mills; and though he had flung it from him, it could not
+come back to her.
+
+Even as she sat, with Falconer's hand in hers, she could not keep her
+mind from dwelling on Drake, though the failure of her attempt to do so
+covered her with shame. She had been in his arms again, had heard his
+voice, and the glamour of his presence and his touch were upon her.
+
+His face hovered before her in the dim light of the sick room, and
+filled her with the aching longing of unsatisfied love.
+
+Oh, why could she not forget him? Why could she not bring herself to
+accept, to return, the love of the man who loved her with all his heart
+and soul? He was all that was good, he was a genius, and a brave man to
+boot! Surely any woman might be proud to possess him for a husband,
+might learn to love him!
+
+She turned and looked at him as he lay, his head tossing restlessly on
+the pillow, his lips moving deliriously; but though her whole being was
+stirred with pity for him, pity is not love, though it may be nearly
+akin, and one cannot force love as one forces a hothouse plant.
+
+After a while he became weaker, and the rambling, incoherent talk
+ceased; but she was still holding his hand when Dick and the doctor came
+in again. She sought the latter's face eagerly, but he merely smiled
+encouragingly.
+
+"He has had a better night than I expected," he said, "and the
+temperature is not exceedingly high. You had better get some rest, Miss
+Lorton; you have been sitting up, I see."
+
+Dick drew Nell out of the room.
+
+"Drake--confound it! Lord Angleford, I mean!--has sent for Sir William.
+Is--is he going to die, do you think. Nell?"
+
+Nell shook her head, her eyes filling.
+
+"I don't know; I hope not. You--you have seen Dra--Lord Angleford,
+Dick?"
+
+"Just now. He came to inquire. Nell, I can't understand it, though he
+has tried to explain why he hid his real name; and--and--Nell--he didn't
+tell me why you and he broke it off."
+
+She flushed for a moment.
+
+"There was no need," she said. "It does not matter."
+
+Dick sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"No, I suppose it doesn't; but it's a mysterious affair. I hear he is
+going to marry that fair woman, Lady Luce."
+
+Nell inclined her head, her lips set tightly.
+
+"It's a pity we can't get away from here," he said gloomily. "It's jolly
+awkward. Though Drake was more than friendly with me last night and just
+now. He's awfully changed."
+
+They were standing by the window of the sitting room, and Nell was
+looking out with eyes that saw nothing.
+
+"Changed?"
+
+"Yes; he looks years older, and he's stern and grave as if----Well, he
+doesn't look the same man, and it strikes me that he's anything but
+happy, though he is the Earl of Angleford, and going to marry one of the
+most beautiful woman in England."
+
+Nell stood with compressed lips and eyes fixed on vacancy.
+
+"He got a nasty blow last night," said Dick, after a pause.
+
+Her manner changed in a moment, and her eyes flew round to him.
+
+"He was hurt?" she said, with a catch in her breath.
+
+Dick nodded.
+
+"Yes; that ruffian struck him with the revolver or something. And I
+say, Nell, I haven't heard your share in this affair yet. Drake told me
+that the fellow struck you."
+
+"Did he?" she said indifferently. "I--I don't remember. Was Lord
+Angleford badly hurt? Tell me."
+
+"Oh, no; I think not; not badly," replied Dick. "There's a bruise on his
+temple; but what's that to the damage poor Falconer suffered? Drake says
+that it was the pluckiest thing he's seen. Oh, Lord! what a sickening
+business it is! Thank goodness, they've got the fellow. It will be a
+lifer for him, that's one consolation."
+
+Nell shuddered.
+
+"And they've got the jewels back, that's another," said Dick, more
+cheerily. "Though I'd rather the fellow had got off with them than poor
+Falconer should have been hurt. What beastly bad luck, just after he'd
+struck oil and got a start! Drake says that Falconer will be a
+celebrity, if he lives; and you may depend Drake will do his best to
+make his words good. There'll be a 'Falconer boom,' mark my words. I
+never saw any one so concerned about a man as Drake is about him. He was
+here outside talking with the doctor before it was light. The whole of
+the remainder of the big house is to be placed at our disposal. In
+short, if it had been Drake himself who was stabbed, there couldn't be
+more concern shown. Here's the breakfast, and for the first time in my
+life, I don't want it. Why the deuce can't the swells look after their
+blessed diamonds?"
+
+Nell gave him his coffee, and then stole up to her own room and flung
+herself on the bed.
+
+Drake was hurt. It might have been Drake instead of Falconer lying
+between life and death. Her heart throbbed with thankfulness; but the
+next moment she hid her face in her hands for very shame. She tried to
+sleep, but she could not, and it was almost a relief when the servant
+knocked and said that two ladies from the Hall were downstairs.
+
+"But I was not to disturb you if you was asleep, miss," she added, with
+naivete.
+
+Nell bathed her face and smoothed her hair quickly, and went down; and,
+as she entered the sitting room, was taken into Lady Wolfer's embrace.
+
+"My dear, dear Nell!" she cried, in the subdued tones due to the sick
+room above. "Why, it's like a fairy story! Why didn't I or some of us
+know you were here, till last night? You remember Lady Angleford, dear?"
+
+The countess came forward and held out her hand with her friendly and
+gentle smile.
+
+"Come to the light and let me look at you," Lady Wolfer went on, drawing
+Nell to the window; "though it's scarcely fair, after all you have gone
+through. Nell, who would have thought that we were entertaining a
+heroine unawares? We knew you were an angel, of course; but a heroine--a
+heroine of romance! You dear, brave girl!"
+
+Nell colored painfully.
+
+"The whole place, the whole county, by this time, to say nothing of
+London and every other place where a telegraph wire runs, is full of
+it."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry!" said poor Nell, aghast.
+
+Lady Angleford smiled.
+
+"It is the penalty one pays for heroism, Miss Lorton," she said; "and
+you must forgive me for being grateful to you for saving Lord
+Angleford's life."
+
+"Oh, but I didn't--indeed I didn't!" exclaimed Nell, in distress.
+
+"Oh, but indeed you did!" retorted Lady Wolfer. "Lord Angleford says so,
+and he ought to know. He says that but for you the wretch would have
+shot him--he was quite close."
+
+Nell's face was white again now, and the countess came to her aid.
+
+"We are forgetting one of the objects of our visit," she said. "You know
+how anxious we are about Mr. Falconer, Miss Lorton. I hope he is in no
+danger, my dear?"
+
+She took Nell's hand as she spoke, and pressed it, and Nell colored
+again under the sympathy in the countess' eyes.
+
+"When I heard that he had been injured, I wished with all my heart that
+the man had got clear off with the miserable diamonds--I was going to
+say 'my' miserable diamonds, but they are only mine for a time. But I am
+sure Lord Angleford joins me in that wish. All the diamonds in the world
+are not worth rescuing at such a price as Mr. Falconer--and you--have
+paid. I hope you can tell us he is better. We are all terribly anxious
+about him."
+
+Now, even in the stress and strain of the moment, Nell noticed a certain
+significance in the countess' tone, a personal sympathy with herself,
+conveyed plainly by the "and you," and it puzzled her. But she put the
+faint wonder aside.
+
+"I don't know," she said simply. "He is very ill--he was badly stabbed.
+He has been delirious most of the night----"
+
+"My poor Nell!" murmured Lady Wolfer, pressing her hand.
+
+"I hope the nurse you have in to help you is a good one," said the
+countess, as if she took it for granted that Nell was also nursing him.
+"If not, we will send to London for one; indeed, Sir William may bring
+one with him. I don't know what Lord Angleford telegraphed."
+
+"I wish we could do something for you, Nell," whispered Lady Wolfer.
+"Only last night, before the burglary, we were arranging that we would
+come down here and carry you--by main force, if necessary--up to the
+Hall. And now----But, dear, you must not lose heart! He may not be badly
+hurt; and the surgeons do such wonderful things now. Perhaps, when Sir
+William comes, he may tell you that there is no danger whatever, and
+that you will have him well again before very long."
+
+Her eyes dwelt on Nell's with tender pity and womanly sympathy; and
+Nell, still puzzled, could only remain silent. As if she could not say
+enough, Lady Wolfer drew her to the window, and continued, in a lower
+voice:
+
+"I meant to congratulate you, Nell, and I do. I--we all admired him so
+much the other night, little guessing the truth; and now that he has
+proved himself as brave as he is clever, one can understand your losing
+your heart to him. All the same, dear, I think he is a very--very lucky
+man."
+
+The red stained Nell's face, and then left it pale again. She opened her
+lips to deny that she and Falconer were engaged, but at that moment a
+dogcart drove through the gate and stopped at the lodge.
+
+"Here is Drake!" said the countess. "He has been to Angleford to see the
+police."
+
+Nell drew away from the window quickly, and the countess went out as
+Drake got down from the cart.
+
+"How is he?" Nell heard him ask. Though she had moved from the window,
+she could see him. He looked haggard and tired, and she saw the bruise
+on his temple. Her heart beat fast, and she turned away and leaned her
+arm on the mantelshelf. "And--and Miss Lorton?" he inquired, after the
+countess had replied to his first question.
+
+She lowered her voice.
+
+"She looks very ill, but she is bearing up wonderfully. It is a terrible
+strain for her, poor girl."
+
+Drake nodded gloomily.
+
+"Tell her that Sir William will be down by the midday train. And tell
+her not to give up hope. I saw the wound, and----"
+
+"Hush! She may hear," whispered the countess.
+
+He glanced toward the window, and the color rose to his face.
+
+"Is she there?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. Would you like to see her?"
+
+He hesitated for a moment, his eyes fixed on the ground; then he said,
+rather stiffly:
+
+"No; she might think it an intrusion"--the countess stared at him. "No;
+I won't trouble her. But please tell her that everything shall be done
+for--him."
+
+The countess accompanied him to the gate.
+
+"You have been to the police?"
+
+He nodded almost indifferently.
+
+"Yes; the man is well known. We were flattered by the attentions of a
+celebrated cracksman. I've seen the detective in charge of the case, and
+given him all the particulars. He says that the men were assisted by
+some one inside the house--one of the servants, he suggests."
+
+The countess looked startled.
+
+"Surely not, Drake! Who could it be?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders with the same indifference.
+
+"Can't tell. It doesn't matter. I've sent the things to the bank, and
+the other people will look after their jewels pretty closely after this.
+I wouldn't worry myself, countess."
+
+"But you are worrying, Drake!" she said shrewdly, as she looked at his
+haggard face. "About this poor Mr. Falconer, of course!"
+
+He started slightly, but he was too honest to assent.
+
+"Partly; but there is no need for you to follow my example. I'll go on
+now."
+
+He got up and drove off, but slowly, and he put the horse to a walk as
+he neared the house.
+
+He had not seen Luce that morning, for he had been out, inquiring at the
+lodge at six, and had gone straight on to Anglebridge, where he had
+breakfasted.
+
+In his heart he had been glad of the excuse for his absence, for the few
+hours of reprieve. But he would have to see her now, would have to ask
+her to be his wife--while his heart ached with love for Nell!
+
+As he drove up to the door, one of the Angleford carriages came round
+from the stables. He glanced at it absently, and entered the hall
+slowly, draggingly, and was amazed to find Lord Turfleigh, in overcoat
+and hat, standing beside a pile of luggage.
+
+"By George! just in time, Drake!" he exclaimed, his thick voice
+quavering with suppressed excitement, his hands shaking as he tugged at
+his gloves. "Just had bad news--deuced bad news!"
+
+But though he described the intelligence as bad, there was a note of
+satisfaction in his voice.
+
+"I'm sorry. What is it?" asked Drake.
+
+"Buckleigh--Buckleigh and his boy gone down in that infernal yacht of
+his!" said Lord Turfleigh hoarsely.
+
+He turned aside as he spoke to take a brandy and soda which the footman
+had brought.
+
+The Marquis of Buckleigh was Lord Turfleigh's elder brother, and, if the
+news were true, Lord Turfleigh was now the marquis, and a rich man.
+
+Drake understand the note of satisfaction in the whisky-shaken voice.
+
+"Just time to catch the train!" said the new marquis. "Where the devil
+is Luce? I always said Buckleigh would drown himself----Where is Luce?
+She thinks I'll go without her; but I won't!" He swore.
+
+At that moment Lady Luce came down the stairs. She was coming down
+slowly, reluctantly, her fair face set sullenly; but at sight of Drake
+her expression changed, and she ran down to him. There might yet be time
+for the one word.
+
+"Drake!" she cried, in a low voice, "I am going----You have heard?"
+
+"Yes, yes," her father broke in testily. "I've told him. Get in. It will
+be a near thing as it is. Come on, I tell you!" and he shambled down the
+steps to the carriage.
+
+She held Drake's hand and looked into his eyes appealingly.
+
+"You see! I must go!" she murmured.
+
+He nodded gravely.
+
+"But you will come back?" he said, as gravely. "Come back as soon as you
+can."
+
+Her face lit up, and she breathed softly. She was now the daughter of a
+rich man, but she wanted Drake, none the less.
+
+"The Fates are against me, Drake," she whispered; "but I will come
+back."
+
+"Where the devil is that confounded maid of yours, Luce?" Turfleigh
+called to her.
+
+Burden came down the stairs. Her veil was drawn over the upper part of
+her face, but the lower part was white to the lips.
+
+"I'm half inclined to leave her behind," said Lady Luce irritably. "Pray
+be quick, Burden!"
+
+Burden got up on the box seat without a word.
+
+Drake put Lady Luce in, held her hand for a moment, then the carriage
+started, and he was standing alone, staring after it half stupidly.
+
+He was still free!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+Two days later, Nell sat beside Falconer. He was asleep, but every now
+and then he moved suddenly, and his brows knit as if he were suffering.
+
+The great surgeon--who, by the way, was small and short of stature--had
+come down, made his examination, said a few cheerful words to the
+patient, gone up to the Hall to dinner--at which he had talked fluently
+of everything but the case--and returned to London with a big check from
+Drake. But though he did not appear to have accomplished anything beyond
+a general expression of approval of everything the local man had done,
+all persons concerned felt encouraged and more hopeful by his visit; and
+when Falconer showed signs of improvement it was duly placed to Sir
+William's credit. There is much magic in a great name.
+
+But the improvement was very slight, and Nell, as she watched the
+wounded man, often felt a pang of dread shoot through her. Sometimes she
+was assailed by the idea that Falconer was not particularly anxious to
+live. When he was awake he would lie quite still, save when a spasm of
+pain visited him, with his dark eyes fixed dreamily upon the window;
+though when she spoke to him he invariably turned them to her with a
+world of gratitude, a wealth of devotion in them.
+
+And for the last two days the pity in Nell's tender heart had grown so
+intense that it had become own brother to love itself. When a woman
+knows that she can make a good man happy by just whispering "I love
+you," she is sorely tempted to utter the three little pregnant words,
+especially when she herself knows what it is to long for love.
+
+She could make this man who worshiped her happy, and--and was it not
+possible in doing so she might find, if not happiness, contentment for
+herself?
+
+A hundred times during the last two days she had asked herself this
+question, until she had grown to desire that the answer might be in the
+affirmative. Perhaps if she were betrothed to Falconer she would learn
+to forget Drake, for whose voice and footstep she was always waiting.
+
+On this afternoon, as she sat at her post, she was dwelling on the
+problem, which had become almost unendurable at last, and she sighed
+wearily.
+
+Falconer awoke, as if he had heard her, and turned his eyes upon her
+with the slow yet intense regard of the very weak.
+
+"Are you there still?" he asked, in a low voice. "I thought you promised
+me that, if I went to sleep, you would go out, into the garden, at
+least."
+
+"It wasn't exactly a promise. Besides, I don't think you have been
+really asleep; and if you have it is not for long enough," she said,
+smiling, and "hedging" in truly feminine fashion. "Are you feeling
+better--not in so much pain?"
+
+"Oh, yes," he replied. "I'm in no pain." He told the falsehood as
+admirably as he managed his face when he was awake, but it gave him away
+when he was asleep. "I shall be quite well presently. I wish to Heaven
+they would let me be removed to the hospital!"
+
+"That sounds rather ungrateful," said Nell, with mock indignation.
+"Don't you think we are taking enough care of you?"
+
+He sighed.
+
+"When I lie here and think of all the trouble I've given, I sometimes
+wish that that fellow's knife had found the right place. Though I
+suppose they'd have hanged him if it had."
+
+Nell shuddered.
+
+"Is that the only reason you regret he did not kill you?" she said.
+
+"Am I to speak the truth?"
+
+"Nothing else is ever worth speaking," she remarked, in a low voice.
+
+"Well, then, yes. I am not so enamored of life as to cling to it very
+keenly," he said, stifling a sigh. "I don't mean because I have had a
+rough time of it--the majority of the sons of men find the way paved
+with flints--but because----What an ungrateful brute I must seem to you.
+Forgive me; I'm still rather weak."
+
+"Rather!"
+
+"Very weak, then; and I talk like a hysterical girl. But, seriously, if
+any man were given his choice, I think he'd prefer to cross the river at
+once to facing the gray and dreary days that lie before him."
+
+"But the days that lie before you are brilliant; crimson with fame and
+fortune, instead of gray and dreary," she said. "Have you forgotten your
+success at--at the ball? that you were to play at the duchess'?
+Everybody says that you will become famous, that a great future lies
+before you, Mr. Falconer."
+
+"Do they?" he said, gazing at the window dreamily. "No, I have not
+forgotten. I wonder whether they are right?"
+
+"I know, I feel, they are right," she said quietly. "Very soon we shall
+all be bragging of your acquaintance--I, for one, at any rate. I shall
+never lose an opportunity of talking of 'my friend, Mr. Falconer, the
+great musician, you know.'"
+
+"Yes," he said, looking at her with a faint smile. "I think you will be
+pleased. And I----"
+
+He paused.
+
+"Well?" she asked.
+
+"If the prophecy comes true, I shall spend my time looking back at the
+old days, and sighing for the Buildings, for that sunny room of yours,
+with the tea kettle singing on the hob, and----Has Dick come back from
+Angleford?"
+
+Nell nodded.
+
+"And the man? Has he been committed for trial?"
+
+"Yes," she replied. "But I don't want to speak of that--it isn't good
+for you."
+
+He was silent a moment; then he said:
+
+"Do you know, I've got a kind of sneaking pity for the man. He wanted
+the diamonds badly--he needed them more than the countess did. What
+would it have mattered to her if he had got off with them? And he risked
+his liberty and his life for them. A man can't do more than that for the
+thing he wants."
+
+Nell tried to laugh.
+
+"I have never listened to a more immoral sentiment," she said. "I think
+you had better go to sleep again. But I understand," she added, as if
+she were compelled to do so.
+
+"And I fancy the reflection that he made a good fight for it--and it was
+a good one; he was a plucky fellow!--must console him for his failure.
+After all, one can only try."
+
+"Try to steal other people's jewels," said Nell.
+
+"Try for what seems the best--what one wants," he said dreamily. "I
+wonder whether he would have been satisfied if he had got off with, say,
+a small box of trinkets?"
+
+"I should imagine he would consider himself very lucky," said Nell, her
+eyes downcast.
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Falconer quietly. "Somehow, I fancy you're
+wrong. He would have hankered after those diamonds for the rest of his
+life, and no amount of small trinkets would have consoled him for having
+missed them. Though I dare say, being a plucky fellow, he would have
+made the best of it."
+
+Nell began to tremble. The parable was plain to her. The man beside her
+had failed to win the woman he loved, and would try to make the best of
+the poor trinkets of fame and success. Her lips quivered, and her eyes
+drooped lower.
+
+"Perhaps--perhaps he would have tried for the diamonds again," she said,
+almost inaudibly.
+
+He looked at her with a sudden light in his eyes, a sudden flush on his
+white face.
+
+"Do--do you think so? Do you think it would have been any use?"
+
+Nell rose, and brought some milk and water for him.
+
+"I--I don't know," she said. "I--I think, if he felt that he wanted them
+so badly, he would have tried again; and that--that--he might----"
+
+He raised himself on his elbow and looked at her fixedly, his breath
+coming fast, his eyes searching hers.
+
+"Ah!" he said. "You think that if he came to the countess and whined
+for the things, she would have given them to him out of sheer pity! Is
+that it?"
+
+Nell shook her head.
+
+"One can't imagine his being such a cur, such a fool, as to do it!" he
+said, sinking back. "And yet that is what I am! See how weak and
+cowardly I am, Nell! I promised that I would never again trouble you
+with my love; that I would be content to be your friend--your friend
+only; and yet a few days' sickness, and I am crawling at your feet and
+begging you to take compassion on me! And you'd do it!--yes, I know what
+you meant when you said that the man would try for the diamonds
+again!--out of womanly pity you would! Oh, shame on me for a cur to take
+advantage of my weakness!"
+
+"Hush, hush!" she said brokenly. "I meant what I said; I--I----" She
+tried to smile. "I am a woman, and--and may change my mind!"
+
+"But not your heart!" he said. He raised himself on his elbow again.
+"For God's sake, don't tempt me! I--I am not strong enough to resist. I
+want my diamonds so badly, you see, that I would stoop to stealing them.
+Nell, don't tempt me!"
+
+He sank back, and put his hand over his eyes as if to shut out the
+beautiful face of the girl he loved.
+
+Nell sank into a chair, and sat silent for a moment; then she said, in a
+low voice:
+
+"I want to tell you the truth."
+
+He took his hand away from his eyes, and fixed them on her downcast
+face.
+
+"Go on," he said. "Tell me everything; why--why you have aroused a
+hope--the dearest hope of my life----But no; it never was a hope, only a
+hopeless longing. Ah! if you knew what such love meant, you would
+forgive me for my weakness, for my cowardice. To long day and night! If
+you knew!"
+
+"Perhaps I do!" she whispered, in so low a voice that it was wonderful
+he should have heard her. But he did hear, and he turned to her quickly.
+
+"You! And I--I never guessed it! Oh, forgive me! forgive me! Then indeed
+there never was any hope for me. I understand! How blind I have been!
+Who----No; I've no right to ask. Now I understand the look in your eyes
+which has often haunted and puzzled me. Oh, what a blind, blundering
+fool I have been all this time!"
+
+"Hush!" she said, still so low that he could only just hear the broken
+murmur. "I--I am glad you did not know. I--I would not have told you
+now, if--if it were not all past and done with!"
+
+"Nell!" he said.
+
+"Yes, it is all past and done with," she repeated. "And--and I want to
+forget it. I want you--to help me! Oh! must I speak more plainly? Won't
+you understand? If you will be content to take me--knowing what I have
+told you--if you will be content to wait until I--I have quite
+forgotten! and I shall soon, very soon----"
+
+He stretched out his hand to her, an eager cry on his lips.
+
+"Content!" he said. "You ask me if I shall be content!"
+
+Then, as she put out her hand to meet his, he saw her face. It was white
+to the lips, and there was a look in her eyes more full of agony than
+his own had worn at his worst times. He let his hand fall on the bed.
+
+"Is it all past?" he asked doubtfully.
+
+She was about to speak the word "Yes," when a voice came from below
+through the open window. It was Drake talking to Dick. The blood flew to
+her face, her brows came together, and she shrank as if some one had
+struck her.
+
+Falconer, with his eyes fixed upon her, heard the voice, saw the change
+on her face. The light died out of his eyes, and slowly, very slowly, he
+drew his hand back.
+
+Nell stood looking before her, her lips set tightly, her eyes downcast.
+It was a terrible moment, in which she appeared under a spell so deep as
+to cause her to forget the presence of the man beside her. And, as he
+watched her, the life seemed to die out of his face as well as his eyes.
+
+The door opened, and Dick came in.
+
+"Drake's come to inquire after the patient," he said. "How are we,
+Falconer?"
+
+"Better," said Falconer, with a smile; "much better. Couldn't you
+persuade Miss Lorton to take down the report, Dick?"
+
+Dick nodded commandingly at Nell.
+
+"Yes; you go, Nell."
+
+She hesitated a moment; then she raised her head and glanced at Falconer
+reproachfully.
+
+"Yes, I will go," she said, almost defiantly.
+
+Drake leaned against the rails in the sunlight, softly striking his
+riding whip against his leg. His horse's bridle was hitched over the
+gate, and as he waited for Dick he thought of the time when the bridle
+had been hitched over another gate.
+
+He heard a step lighter than Dick's on the stairs behind him, and slowly
+turned his head. The sun was streaming through the doorway, so that the
+slim, graceful figure and lovely face were set as in an aureole. A
+thrill ran through him, the color rose to his bronzed face, and he
+stood motionless and speechless for a moment; then he raised his hat.
+
+"How is Mr. Falconer?" he asked.
+
+He had not seen her since the night of the burglary, the night he had
+held her in his arms, and the blunt question sounded like a mockery set
+against the aching longing of his heart.
+
+"He is better," she said.
+
+Her eyes rested on him calmly, and she spoke quite steadily, so that he
+did not guess that her heart was beating wildly, and that she had to
+clench the hand beside her in her effort to maintain her composure.
+
+"I am glad," he said simply. "It has been an anxious time--must be so
+still--for you, I am afraid."
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+He stood looking at her, and then away from her, and then at her again,
+as if his eyes must return to her against his will.
+
+"I--I am glad to see you. I wanted to tell you--to thank you for what
+you did for me the other night. You know that I owe you my life?"
+
+She shook her head and forced a smile.
+
+"Isn't that rather an--exaggeration, Lord Angleford?"
+
+He bit his lip at the "Lord Angleford." And yet how else could she
+address him?
+
+"No," he said; "it is the simple truth. The man would have shot me."
+
+"Then I am glad," she said quietly, as if there were no more to be said.
+
+He bit his lip again.
+
+"You are looking pale and thin."
+
+"Oh, no," she said. "I am quite well."
+
+Why did he not go? Every moment it became more difficult for her to
+maintain her forced calm. If he would only go! But he stood, his eyes
+now downcast, now seeking hers, his brows knit, as if he found it awful
+to remain, and yet impossible to go.
+
+"Will you tell Mr. Falconer that directly he is able to go out I will
+send a carriage for him--a pony phaeton, or something of that sort?" he
+said, at last.
+
+Nell inclined her head.
+
+"We will leave here as soon as he can be moved," she said.
+
+His frown deepened.
+
+"Why?" he asked sharply. "Why should you?"
+
+The blood began to mount to her face, and, gnawing at his mustache, he
+turned away. But as he did so Dick came down the stairs, two at a time.
+
+"Hi, Drake!" he called out. "Don't go. Falconer would like to see you!"
+
+Drake hesitated just for a second--then----
+
+"I shall be very glad," he said.
+
+Nell moved aside to let him pass, and went into the sitting room, and he
+followed Dick upstairs. She went to the window, and stood looking out
+for a moment or two, then she caught up her hat and left the house, for
+she knew that she could not see him again--ah! not just yet.
+
+Drake went up the stairs slowly, trying to brace himself to go through
+the ordeal like a man--and a gentleman. He was going to congratulate Mr.
+Falconer on his good fortune in winning the woman he himself loved. It
+was a hard, a bitterly hard thing to have to do, but it had to be done.
+
+"Here's Lord Angleford, old man," said Dick, introducing him. "I don't
+know whether visitors are permitted yet, but you can lay the blame on
+me; and you needn't palaver long, Drake."
+
+"I will take care not to tire Mr. Falconer," said Drake, as he went to
+the bedside and held out his hand.
+
+Falconer took it in his thin one, and looked up at the handsome face
+with an expression which somewhat puzzled Drake.
+
+"I'm glad to hear you're better," he said. "I suppose I ought not to
+refer to the subject, but I can't help saying, Falconer, how much we--I
+mean Lady Angleford--and all of us--are indebted to you. But for you the
+fellow would have got off, and her diamonds would have been lost."
+
+Falconer noticed the friendly "Falconer," and though his heart was
+aching, he could not help admiring the man who stood beside him with all
+the grace of health and high birth in his bearing; and he sighed
+involuntarily as he drew a contrast between himself and "my lord the
+earl."
+
+"All the same," Drake went on, "the countess would rather have lost her
+diamonds than you should be hurt."
+
+"Her ladyship is very kind," said Falconer. His eyes, unnaturally
+bright, were fixed on Drake's face, his voice was low but steady. "I am
+glad I was of some little use in saving them. The man has been committed
+for trial, I hear?"
+
+Drake nodded indifferently.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I wish he had dropped the jewel cases and got off. It
+would have saved a lot of bother. But don't be afraid that you will be
+wanted as a witness," he added quickly. "I and one or two of the men who
+were present when he was captured will be sufficient. There will be no
+need to worry you--or Miss Lorton."
+
+Falconer nodded.
+
+"I hope you will be able to get out soon," said Drake. "I told Miss
+Lorton that I would send a carriage for you--something bulky and
+comfortable. Perhaps you'll let me drive you?"
+
+Falconer nodded again, and Drake began to feel vaguely uncomfortable
+under his fixed gaze and taciturnity; and being uncomfortable, he
+blundered on to the subject that tortured him.
+
+"But Miss Lorton can drive you well enough; she is a perfect whip.
+And--and now I am mentioning her, I will take the opportunity of
+congratulating you upon your engagement, Falconer."
+
+Falconer's lips twitched, but his eyes did not leave Drake's face, which
+had suddenly become stern and grim.
+
+"You knew Miss Lorton before she came here, Lord Angleford?" said
+Falconer.
+
+Drake colored, and set his lips tightly.
+
+"Yes," he said, trying to speak casually. "We met----"
+
+He stopped, overwhelmed by a thousand memories. His eyes fell, but
+Falconer's did not waver.
+
+"Then it is as an old friend of hers that you congratulate me, Lord
+Angleford?" he said.
+
+"Yes, an old friend," said Drake, his throat dry and hot. "I wish you
+every happiness, my dear fellow; and I think you----"
+
+Falconer raised himself on his elbow.
+
+"You are laboring under a mistake, Lord Angleford," he said, very
+quietly. "You think that Miss Lorton--is betrothed to me?"
+
+Drake nodded. His face had grown pale; there was an eager light in his
+eyes. Falconer dropped back with a sigh.
+
+"You are wrong," he said. "Who told you?"
+
+Drake was silent a moment. The blood was rushing through his veins.
+
+"Who told me? I heard--everybody said----"
+
+He dropped into the chair and leaned forward, his face stern and set.
+
+Falconer smiled as grimly as Drake could have done.
+
+"What everybody says is rarely true, my lord. We are not betrothed."
+
+"You don't----" exclaimed Drake.
+
+A worm will turn if trodden on too heavily. Falconer turned. His face
+grew hot, his dark eyes flashed.
+
+"Yes, my lord, I love her!" he said, and the lowness of his voice only
+intensified its emphasis. "I love her so well--so madly, if you
+like--that I choose to set conventionality at defiance, and speak the
+truth. I love her, but I can never win her, because there is one who
+comes between her and me. Wait!"--for Drake had risen, and was gazing
+down at the wan face with flashing eyes. "I do not know who he is. She
+has never uttered a word to guide me; but I can guess. Wait a moment
+longer, my lord! Whoever he may be, he is not worthy of her; but she
+cares for him, and that is enough for me, and should be enough for him.
+If I were that man----"
+
+He stopped, for his breath had failed him. Drake leaned over him as if
+he would drag the conclusion of the sentence from him.
+
+"If I were that man, I'd strive to win her as I'd strive for heaven! Ah,
+it would be heaven!" His lips twitched, and he turned his face away for
+a moment. "I would count everything else as of no account. I would
+thrust all obstacles aside, would go through fire and water to reach
+her----"
+
+Drake caught him by the arm.
+
+"Take care!" he said hoarsely. "You bid me hope! Dare I do so?"
+
+Falconer looked at him fixedly.
+
+"Go to her and see. Wait, my lord. I love her as dearly--more dearly,
+perhaps, God knows!--than you do. She would be mine at a word."
+
+Drake stood motionless, his face white and set.
+
+"But that word will never be spoken by me. So I prove my love. Prove
+yours, my lord, and go to her!"
+
+Drake tried to speak, but could not. His hand closed over Falconer's for
+a moment, then he hurried from the room and went down the stairs.
+
+Dick was lounging in the porch with a cigarette, and he stared at
+Drake's hurried appearance, at his white, set face.
+
+"Where is Nell? Where is your sister?" Drake demanded.
+
+"Heaven only knows! She went out when you came in. She's in the wood, I
+should think."
+
+Drake strode down the path and into the wood. His brain was on fire. She
+was free--they were both free! There was heaven in the thought!
+
+Nell was seated at the foot of one of the big elms, and heard his quick,
+firm steps. She looked up, and would have risen and flown, but he was
+upon her before she could move--was upon her, and in some strange,
+never-to-be-explained way had got her hand in his.
+
+"Nell--Nell!" was all he could say, as he knelt beside her and looked
+into her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+At the passionate "Nell! Nell!" at the grasp of his hand, the blood
+rushed to Nell's face, and her breath came painfully. She was startled
+and not a little alarmed. Why was he kneeling at her feet, why did he
+call upon her name with the appeal of love, the note of entreaty, in his
+voice? He was no longer Drake Vernon, but the Earl of Angleford, the
+promised husband of Lady Lucille.
+
+The color left her face, and she drew her hand from his and shrank away
+from him, so that she almost leaned against the tree.
+
+He half rose and looked at her penitently, and with something like shame
+for his vehemence. Indeed, he had rushed from the lodge in search of
+her, remembering nothing, thinking of nothing, but the fact that they
+were both free. But now he realized how suddenly he had come upon her,
+how great a shock his passionate words, his excited manner, must have
+been to her.
+
+"Forgive me!" he said, still on one knee; "forgive me! I have frightened
+you. I forgot."
+
+Nell tried to still the throbbing of her heart, to regain composure; but
+she could not speak. He rose and stood before her, his eyes fixed on
+her, eloquent with love and admiration. She had never seemed more
+beautiful to him than at this moment. Her face was thinner and paler
+than it had been in the happy days at Shorne Mills, but it had grown in
+beauty, in that spiritual loveliness which replaces in the woman that
+which the girl loses. The gray eyes were pure violet now, and fuller and
+deeper, as they mirrored the soul which had expanded in the bracing
+atmosphere of sorrow and trial.
+
+He had fallen in love with an innocent, unsophisticated girl; he was
+still more passionately in love with her now that, a girl still in
+years, she had developed into glorious, divine womanhood. His eyes
+scanned her face hungrily, yet reverently, as he thought: Was it
+possible that he had once kissed those beautiful lips, had once heard
+them murmur "I love you?" And was it possible that he might again hear
+those magic words? His soul thirsted for them. It seemed to him that if
+he were to lose her now, if she were to send him away, life would not be
+worth having, that nothing remained for him in the future but misery and
+despair. To few men is it given to love as he loved the girl before him,
+and in that moment he suffered an agony of suspense which might well
+have caused the recording angel to blot out the follies of his past
+life.
+
+But he must not frighten her, he must not drive her away from him by
+revealing the intensity of his passion.
+
+So his voice was calm, and so low that it was little more than a
+whisper, as he said:
+
+"I have come in search of you; I have something to say that I hope, I
+pray, you will hear. Won't you sit down again?" and he motioned to the
+place where she had been seated.
+
+But Nell shook her head and remained standing, her hands clasped loosely
+before her, her eyes downcast.
+
+"What is it, Lord Angleford?" she said, in a voice as low as his. "I--I
+want to go back to the lodge."
+
+"Wait a few minutes," he said imploringly. "I will not keep you long. I
+have just left the lodge. He--Mr. Falconer--is all right; he will not
+mind--will not miss you for a few minutes. And I must speak to you. All
+my happiness, my future, depends on it--upon you!"
+
+"Ah, let me go!" she said, almost inaudibly; for at every word he spoke
+her heart went out to him, and she was tempted to forget that he was no
+longer her lover, but the betrothed of Lady Lucille. Whatever he said,
+she must not forget that!
+
+"No; it is I who will go, when I have spoken, and if you tell me," he
+said gravely. "When you sent me away last time I went--I obeyed you. I
+promise to do so now if you send me away again. Nell--ah! I must call
+you so. It is the name I think of you by, the name that is engraven on
+my heart! Nell, I want to ask you if there is no hope of my recovering
+my lost happiness. Do you remember when I told you that I loved you,
+there at Shorne Mills? I told you I was not worthy of you. Even then I
+was deceiving you."
+
+She drew nearer to the tree, and put her hand against it for support.
+
+"I was masquerading as Drake Vernon. I concealed my real name and rank;
+but I had no base motive in doing so. I was sick of the world, and weary
+of it and myself, and I longed to escape the maddening notoriety which
+harassed me. And then, when I thought--ah, no! I won't say thought, for;
+I know that then, then, Nell, you loved me!"
+
+Her lips quivered, but she kept the tears back bravely.
+
+"Then it seemed so precious a thing to know that you should have loved
+me for myself alone, that you were not going to marry me for my rank and
+position, as many another girl would have done, that I was tempted to
+play the farce to the end. It was folly, but the gods punish folly more
+surely and quickly than they punish crime. The night that you
+discovered I had deceived you, I had resolved to tell you the truth and
+beg your forgiveness. But it was too late. Most of our good resolutions
+come too late, Nell. You had learned that I had deceived you; you had
+learned that I was not worthy to win and hold the love of a pure and
+innocent girl, and you sent me away."
+
+She raised her eyes and glanced at him, half bewildered. Was it possible
+that he thought that was her only reason for breaking the engagement?
+
+"You were right, Nell. I think you would be right if you sent me away
+now; but I am daring to hope that you won't do so. It is but the
+shadow--the glimmer of a hope, and yet I cling to it, for it means so
+much to me--so much!"
+
+There was silence for a moment, then he went on:
+
+"I left Shorne Mills that day, and I sailed in the _Seagull_, determined
+that I would accept your sentence, that I would never harass or worry
+you, that, if it were possible, you should never be troubled by the
+sight of me. But, Nell, though I left you, I carried your image with me
+in my heart. I tried to forget you, but I could not. I have never ceased
+to love you; not for a single day have you been absent from my mind, not
+for a single day have I ceased to long for you!"
+
+She looked at him again, wonder and indignation dividing her emotion.
+There was truth in his accents, in his eyes. Had he forgotten Lady
+Lucille?
+
+"There was no more wretched and unhappy man on God's earth than I was at
+that time," he went on. "Nell, if you had been called upon to find a
+punishment heavy enough for the deceit which I practiced, I do not think
+you could have hit upon a heavier one. For I could not be rid of my love
+for you. I could not forget your sweet face; your dear voice haunted me
+wherever I went, and I moved like a man under a curse, the curse of
+weariness and despair."
+
+His voice almost broke, and he put his hand to his forehead as if he
+still felt the weight of the weary months.
+
+"Then came the news of my uncle's sudden death; but when I had got over
+my grief for him--he had been good to me, and I was fond of him!--even
+then I could find no pleasure in the inheritance which had fallen to me.
+Of what use was the title and the rest of it, if all my happiness was
+set upon the girl I had lost forever? I came home to do my duty, in a
+dull, dogged fashion, came home with the conviction that I should not be
+able to rest in England, that I should have to take to wandering again.
+I loved you still, Nell, but I hoped--see, now, I tell you the
+truth!--that I might at least get some peace, might learn to deaden my
+heart. And then, as the Fates would have it, I find you here, and----"
+
+He paused for a moment and caught his breath.
+
+"Hear that you were going to marry another man."
+
+Nell started slightly, and the color rose to her face. She had forgotten
+Falconer!
+
+"That was the last drop in my cup of misery. Somehow, I had always
+thought of you as the little girl of Shorne Mills, as--as--free. I had
+not reflected that it was inevitable that some other man should admire
+and love you. You see, you--you still, in some strange way, seemed to
+belong to me, though I knew I had lost you!"
+
+No words he could have uttered could have touched her more sharply and
+deeply than this simple avowal. She turned her head aside so that he
+might not see the quivering of her lips, the tenderness which sprang
+into her eyes.
+
+"That was the hardest blow of all that Fate had dealt me, Nell. It
+almost drove me mad to know that you once loved me, and yet that you
+were to be the wife of another man! It made me mad and desperate for a
+time, then I had to face it, as I had faced my loss of you. But,
+Nell----"
+
+He paused again, and ventured to draw a little nearer to her; but as she
+still shrank from him, and leaned against the tree, he stopped short and
+did not venture to take her hand.
+
+"Now I have just left Mr. Falconer, I have heard from his own lips that
+there is no engagement, that----Oh, Nell! It was the knowledge that you
+were still free that sent me to you just now, that made me cry out to
+you as I did! I love you, Nell, more dearly, more truly, if that be
+possible, than I did! Won't you forgive me the folly which made you send
+me away from you? Won't you let me try and win back your love?"
+
+There was silence, broken only by the rustle of the leaves in the summer
+breeze, by the note of a linnet singing in the branches above their
+heads.
+
+"See, dear, I plead as a man pleads for his life! And on your answer
+hangs all that makes life worth living. Forgive me, Nell, and give me
+back your love! I have been punished enough, rest assured of that.
+Forgive me that past folly and deceit, Nell! I'll teach you to forget in
+time. Dearest, you loved me, did you not? You loved me until that night
+of the ball--at the Maltbys'--when you discovered who I was!"
+
+Back it all came to her, and she turned her face to him with grief and
+reproach in her violet eyes.
+
+"I was on the terrace," she said, almost inaudibly. "It is you who
+forget. It was not because you kept your right name and rank from me. I
+was on the terrace. I saw you and--and Lady Luce!"
+
+He started, and his hand fell to his side. He could not speak for a
+moment, the shock was so great, and in silence he recalled, saw as in a
+flash of lightning, all the incidents of that night.
+
+"You--you were there? You saw--heard?" he said, half mechanically.
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+She was calm, unnaturally calm now, and her voice was grave and sad
+rather than reproachful.
+
+"I saw and heard everything. I saw her and Lady Chesney before you came
+out. I heard Lady Luce telling her friend that you and she were engaged,
+that you had parted, but that she still cared for you, and that you
+would come back to her; and when you came out of the house on the
+terrace, I saw her--and you----Oh, why do you make me tell you? It is
+hateful, shameful!"
+
+She turned her face away, as if she could not bear his gaze fixed on her
+with amazement, and yet with some other emotion qualifying it.
+
+"You saw Lady Luce come to meet me, heard her speak to me, saw her kiss
+me?" he said, almost to himself; and even at that moment she was
+conscious of the fact that there was no shame in his voice, none in his
+eyes.
+
+She made a motion with her hand as if imploring him to say no more, to
+leave her; but he caught at her hand and held it, though she strove to
+release it from his grasp.
+
+"My God! and that was the reason? Why, oh, Nell! Nell! why did you not
+tell me what you had seen? Why did you say no word of it in your letter?
+If you had done so--if you had only done so!"
+
+She looked at him sadly.
+
+"Was it not true? Were you not engaged to her?" she asked, almost
+inaudibly.
+
+"Yes," he replied quickly. "I kept that from you; but it was true. You
+read of the engagement in that paragraph in the stupid paper, you
+remember? I ought to have told you, and I thought that it was because I
+had not, as well as because I had concealed my rank, that you broke with
+me. But, Nell, my engagement with her was broken off by herself; when
+there was a chance of my losing the title and the estates, she jilted
+me. I was free when I asked you to be my wife. You believe that? Great
+heavens! you do not think me so bad, so base----"
+
+"No," she said, with a sigh. "No; but you went back to her. Oh, I do not
+blame you! She is very beautiful; she was a fitting wife----"
+
+He uttered an exclamation--it was very like an oath--and caught her hand
+again.
+
+"No, no," he said, almost fiercely. "You are wrong--wrong!"
+
+She sighed again.
+
+"I saw you--and her," she said, as if that were conclusive.
+
+"I know it," he said. "You saw her come toward me and greet me as
+if--Heaven! I can scarcely bear to speak of it, to recall it!--as if she
+were betrothed to me. You saw her kiss me. But, Nell--ah! my dearest,
+listen to me, believe me!"--for she turned away from him in the
+bitterness of her agony, the remembrance of the agony she had suffered
+that night on the terrace. "You must believe me! The kiss was hers, not
+mine. I would rather have died than my lips should have touched her that
+night."
+
+Nell's heart began to throb, and something--a vague hope--the touch of a
+joy too great and deep for words--began to steal over her.
+
+"I am a fool, and weak, but, as Heaven is my witness, I had no thought
+for her that night. All my heart, my love, were yours! The very sight of
+her, her presence, was painful to me! Even as she came toward me, I was
+thinking of you, was in search of you. And her kiss! If the lips had
+been those of one of the statues on the terrace, it could not have moved
+me less. Nell, be merciful to me! What could I do? I am a man, she is a
+woman. Could I thrust her from me? I longed to do so; I would have told
+her I loved her no longer, that my love was given to another, to you,
+Nell; but there was no time. She left me before I could scarcely utter a
+word. And then I went in search of you--and the rest you know. Think,
+Nell! When you sent me away, did I go to her? No; I left England with my
+disappointment and my misery. Ah, Nell, if you had only told me that you
+had beheld the scene on the balcony! Go back to her--and leave you!"
+
+He laughed with mingled bitterness and desperation. The strain was
+growing too tense for mere words.
+
+At such moments as this, the man, if there is aught of manliness in him,
+has need of more than words.
+
+"Think, dearest!" he said hoarsely. "Compare yourself with poor Luce!
+You say she is 'beautiful.' Do you never look in the glass? Dearest, you
+are, in all men's sight, ten times more lovely! The pure and flawless
+gem against the falsely glittering paste! Oh, Nell, if my heart was not
+so heavy, I could laugh, laugh! And you thought I had left you for her,
+gone back to her! And so you sent me away to exile and misery!"
+
+His voice grew almost stern.
+
+"Nell! It is you who ought to plead for forgiveness! Yes! You have
+sinned against me!"
+
+She started and looked at him, open-eyed in her amazement.
+
+"Yes, you also have sinned, Nell! You ought to have spoken to me,
+brought your accusation. I could have explained it all; we should have
+been married--and happy! And I should have been spared all these months
+of unhappiness, this awful hell upon earth!"
+
+He had struck the right note at last. Convince a woman that she has been
+cruel to you, and, if she loves you, the divine attribute of pity will
+awaken in her, and bring her, who a moment before was as inflexible as
+adamant, to your feet.
+
+Nell, panting for breath, looked at him; questioningly at first, then,
+by short degrees, pleadingly, almost penitently.
+
+"Drake!" she breathed piteously.
+
+He sprang forward and caught her in his arms, and pressed a torrent of
+kisses upon her lips, her hair.
+
+"Nell! My love, my dearest! Oh, have I got you back again? Have I? Tell
+me you believe me, Nell! Tell me that I may hope; that you will love me
+again!"
+
+She fought hard to resist him; but when a man holds the woman he loves,
+and who loves him, in his arms, the woman fights in vain. Every sense in
+her plays traitor, and fights on the man's side.
+
+Nell put her hands on his broad chest, and tried to hold him off; but he
+would not be denied.
+
+"Nell, I love you!" he cried hoarsely. "I want you. Let the past go.
+Don't hold me at arm's length, dearest! I love you! Nell, you will take
+me back?"
+
+She still struggled and protested against the flood of happiness which
+overwhelmed her.
+
+"But--but she?" she said, meaning Luce. "Since you have been
+here----They say----Ah, Drake!"
+
+He laughed as he pressed her to him.
+
+"Let them say!" he retorted. "Nell, I'll tell you the whole truth. If
+you had been engaged to poor Falconer, I should have married Luce----"
+
+"Ah!" she breathed, with a shudder she could not repress.
+
+"But you are not. And I am still free! And you are free! Nell, lift your
+head! Give me one kiss--only one--and I will be satisfied."
+
+Her head still drooped for a moment, then she raised it and kissed him
+on the lips.
+
+The summer breeze made music in the leaves, the linnet sang his heart
+out above their heads, the soft air breathed an atmosphere of love, and
+these two mortals were, after months of misery, happy beyond the power
+of words to express.
+
+And as they sat, hand in hand, talking of the past, and picturing the
+future, neither of them naturally enough gave a thought to Lady Luce.
+
+And yet he had asked her to come back to Anglemere; and without doubt
+she would come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+It was an enchanted world to these two. For some time they sat side by
+side, or, rather, Drake sat at Nell's feet, her hand sometimes resting,
+lightly as a dove's wing, with a caress in its touch, upon his head.
+There were long spells of silence, for such joy as theirs is shy of
+words; but now and again they talked.
+
+They had so much to tell each other, and each was greedy of even the
+smallest detail. Drake wanted to hear of all that had happened to her
+since the terrible parting on the night of the Maltbys' ball--how long
+ago it seemed to them as they sat there in the sunshine that flickered
+through the leaves and touched Nell's hair with flashes of light.
+
+And Nell told him everything--everything excepting the episode of Lady
+Wolfer and Sir Archie--that was not hers to tell, but Lady Wolfer's
+secret, and Nell meant to carry it to the grave with her; not even to
+this dearly loved lover of hers could she breathe a word of that crisis
+in Ada Wolfer's life. And yet, if she had been free to tell him about it
+then and there, how much better it would have been for them both, how
+much difference it would have made in their lives!
+
+"And was there no one, no other man whom you saw, who could teach you to
+forget me, Nell?" he asked, half fearfully.
+
+Nell blushed and shook her head.
+
+"Surely there was some one among all you knew who was not quite blind,
+who was sensible enough to fall in love with the loveliest and the
+sweetest girl in all London?"
+
+Nell's blush grew warmer as she remembered some of the men who had paid
+court to her, who would have been her suitors if she had not kept them
+at arm's length.
+
+"There was no one," she said simply.
+
+"Falconer?" he said, in a low voice.
+
+The color slowly ebbed from her face, and her eyes grew rather sad as she
+reflected that her happiness had been purchased at the cost of his pain
+and self-sacrifice.
+
+"Yes," she said, in a whisper, for she could not hide the truth from
+him; her heart was bare to his gaze. "If--if you had not come, if he had
+chosen to accept me, I should have married him. But you came at the very
+moment, Drake; and at the sound of your voice----He saw my face, and
+read the truth."
+
+"Poor Falconer," he said, very gravely. "He is a better man than I am,
+than I shall ever be, even under the influence of your love, and the
+happiness it will bring me. I owe him a big debt, Nell; and though I
+can't hope to pay it, I must do what I can to make his life more
+smooth."
+
+"He is very proud," she said, a little proudly herself.
+
+"I know, I know; but he must let me help him in his career. I can do
+something in that direction, and I will. But for him! Ah, Nell, I don't
+like to think of it; I don't like to contemplate what might have
+happened if I had lost you altogether. Yes; I owe him a debt no man
+could hope to repay. I wish it had been I who had lived at Beaumont
+Buildings and played the violin to you, instead of him. All that time I
+was sailing in the _Seagull_, or wandering about Asia, wondering whether
+there was anything on earth, or in the waters under the earth, that
+could bring me a moment's pleasure, a moment of forgetfulness."
+
+"And--and--you thought of me all that time? There was no one else?"
+
+"There was no one else," he said, as simply as she had answered his
+question. "Though sometimes----Do you want me to tell you the whole
+truth, dearest?"
+
+"The whole truth," she responded, looking down at him with trustful
+eyes, and yet with a little anxious line on her brow. For what woman
+would not have been apprehensive? She had cast him off, and he had been
+wandering about the world, free to love again, to choose a wife.
+
+"Well, sometimes I tried to efface your image from my mind, to forget
+Nell of Shorne Mills, in the surest and quickest way. I went to some
+dinners and receptions; I joined in a picnic or two, and an occasional
+riding party. Once I sailed in a man's yacht which had three of the
+local belles on board, and I tried to fall in love with one of them--any
+of them--but it was of no use. Now and again I endeavored to persuade
+myself that I was falling in love. There was one, a girl who was
+something like you; she had dark hair, and eyes that had a look of yours
+in them; and when she was silent I used to look at her and try----But
+when she spoke, her voice was unlike yours, and her very unlikeness
+recalled yours; and I saw you, even as I looked at her, as you stood on
+the steps at the quay, or sat in the stern of the _Annie Laurie_, and my
+heart grew sick with longing for you, and I'd get up and leave the girl
+so suddenly that she used to stare after me with mingled surprise and
+indignation. What charm do you exert, what black magic, Nell, that a
+big, strong, hulking fellow like me cannot get free from the spell you
+throw over him? Tell me, dearest."
+
+Her eyes rested on him lovingly, and there was that in the half-parted
+lips which compelled him to rise on his elbow and kiss them.
+
+"And yet you could have married Lady Luce," she said, not reproachfully,
+but very gravely. "Did you not think of her, Drake?"
+
+"No," he replied gravely. "I gave no thought to her until I came home
+and saw her. And it was not for love of her that I should have married
+her, Nell, but in sheer desperation. You see, it did not matter to me
+whom I married if I could not have you."
+
+"And yet--ah, how hard love is!--she cares for you, Drake! I have seen
+her--I saw her on the terrace, I saw her at the ball here."
+
+He laughed half bitterly.
+
+"My dear Nell, don't let that idea worry you. There is nothing in it; it
+is quite a mistaken one. Luce is a charming woman, the most finished
+product of this fin de siecle life----"
+
+"She is very beautiful," Nell said, just even to her rival.
+
+"I'll grant it, though compared to a certain violet-eyed girl I
+know----"
+
+Nell put her hand over his lips; and he kissed it, and went on gravely.
+
+"No, it is not given to Luce to love any one but herself. She and her
+kind worship the Golden Image which we set up at every street corner.
+Rank, wealth, the notoriety that is paragraphed in the society papers,
+those are what Luce worships, and marries for. By the accident of birth
+I represent most of these things, and so----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
+
+"And now chance has helped me again, for her father has inherited the
+Marquisate of Buckleigh, and he will be rich. It is likely enough that
+she would have jilted me again."
+
+"But you were not engaged to her?" said Nell, drawing her hand from his
+head, where it had rested lightly.
+
+"No," he said. "But I should have been, and she knows it. The whole
+truth, dearest! No, I am free, thank God! Free to win back my old
+love."
+
+Nell drew a sigh of relief, and her hand stole back to him.
+
+"She will let me go calmly and easily enough. There are at least two
+marriageable dukes in the market, and Luce----"
+
+"Ah, Drake, I do not like to hear you speak so harshly--even of her."
+
+"Forgive me, Nell. You are right," he said penitently. "But I can't
+forget that by her play acting on the terrace that night she nearly
+robbed me of you forever, and caused both of us months of misery. I
+can't forget that."
+
+"But you must!" said Nell gently. "After all, it may not have been
+acting."
+
+He laughed again, and drew her down to him.
+
+"Ah, Nell, not even after the experience you had at Wolfe House, do you
+understand the fashionable woman, the professional beauty. It was all
+'theater' on Luce's part, believe me! She would have made a magnificent
+actress. But do not let us talk about her any more. Tell me again how
+you used to live in Beaumont Buildings. Nell, we'll go there after we
+are married--we'll go and see the rooms in which you lived. I want to
+feel that I know every bit of your life since we parted."
+
+At the "after we are married," spoken with all the confidence of the
+man, Nell's face grew crimson.
+
+"And now, dearest, you will come up to the Hall?" he said, after a
+pause, and as if he were stating an indisputable proposition. "By
+George! how delighted the countess will be to hear of our reconciliation
+and engagement! She knows nothing of our love and our parting. I told no
+one; my heart was too sore; but I think I shall tell her now, and she
+will be simply delighted. You'll like her, Nell; she's such a dear,
+tender-hearted little woman. I don't wonder at my uncle falling in love
+with her. Poor old fellow! She has been wonderfully good to me. You'll
+come up to the Hall, and be treated like a princess."
+
+"No, Drake," she said. "I must not. I must stay with--him; he needs me
+still."
+
+He was silent a moment, then he kissed her hand assentingly.
+
+"It shall be as you will, my queen!" he said quietly. "Ah, Nell, I shall
+make a bad husband; for I foresee that I shall spoil you by letting you
+have your own way too much. I wanted you at the Hall, wanted you near
+me. But I see--I see you are right, as always. But, Nell, there must be
+no delay about our marriage. Directly Falconer is well enough to----"
+
+She drew her hand away, but he recovered it and held it against his
+face.
+
+"There must be no other chance of a slip between the cup and the lip,"
+he said, almost solemnly. "I want you too badly to be able to wait.
+Besides, do you forget that we have been engaged two years? Two years! A
+lifetime!"
+
+At this moment a "Coo-ee!" sounded through the wood--an impatient and
+half indignant "Coo-ee!"
+
+It was Dick, and he approached them, yelling:
+
+"Nell! Nell! Where on earth are you, Nell?"
+
+They had barely time to move before he was upon them.
+
+"I say, Nell, where on earth have you been? I'm starving----Hallo!" he
+broke off, staring first at Nell's red and downcast face, and then at
+Drake's smiling and quite obviously joyous one. "What----"
+
+Drake took Nell's hand.
+
+"We quite forgot you, Dick, and everybody and everything else. But
+you'll forgive us when you hear that Nell and I have--have----"
+
+"Made it up again!" finished Dick, with a grin that ran from ear to ear.
+"By George, you don't say so! Well, I said it was only a tiff; now,
+didn't I, Nell? But it was a pretty long one. Eighteen months or
+thereabouts, isn't it?"
+
+For a moment the two lovers looked sad, then Drake smiled.
+
+"Just eighteen months too long, Dick," he said. "But you might wish us
+joy."
+
+"I do, I do--or I would, if I wasn't starving!" retorted Dick. "While
+you have been spooning under the spreading chestnut tree, I've been
+wrestling with the electric dynamos; and the sight of even bread and
+cheese would melt me to tears. But I am glad, old man," he said, in a
+grave tone--"glad for both your sakes; for any one could see with
+three-quarters of an eye, to be exact, that you were both miserable
+without each other. Oh, save me from the madness of love!"
+
+"There was a very pretty girl by the name of Angel at the Maltbys'
+dance," put in Drake musingly; "a very pretty girl, indeed, who sat out
+most of the dances, if I remember rightly, with a young friend of mine."
+
+Dick's face grew a healthy, brick-dust red, and he glanced shyly from
+one to the other.
+
+"Well hit, Drake, old man!" he said. "Yes; there was one, and I've seen
+her in London once or twice----"
+
+"Oh, Dick, and you never told me!" said Nell reproachfully.
+
+"I don't tell you everything, little girl," he remarked severely; "and I
+won't tell you any more now unless you come on and give me something to
+eat. See here, now; I'll walk in front, and promise not to look
+round----"
+
+Nell, blushing painfully, looked at Drake appealingly, and he seized
+Dick by the arm and marched him off in the direction of the lodge, Nell
+following more slowly.
+
+As they entered, the nurse came down from Falconer's room, and Nell
+inquired after him anxiously.
+
+"He is much better, miss," said the nurse; "and he asked me to say that
+he should be glad if you and his lordship would go up to him."
+
+Drake nodded, and he followed Nell up the stairs.
+
+Falconer was sitting up, leaning back against a pile of pillows; and he
+greeted them with a smile--the half-sad, half-patiently cynical smile of
+the old days in Beaumont Buildings--the smile which served as a mask to
+hide the tenderness of a noble nature.
+
+Nell came into the room shyly, with the sadness of the self-reproach
+which was born of the knowledge that her happiness had been gained at
+the cost of this man who loved her with a love as great as Drake's; but
+Drake came up to the bed boldly, and held out his hand.
+
+"We have come--to thank you, Falconer," he said, in the tone with which
+one man acknowledges his debt to another. "No, not to thank you, for
+that's impossible. Some things are beyond thanks, and this that you have
+done is one of them. You have brought happiness where there was nothing
+but misery and despair. Some day I will tell you the story of our
+separation; but that must wait. Now I can only try and express my
+gratitude----"
+
+He stammered and broke down; for with Falconer's eloquent eyes upon him,
+he realized the extent of the man's self-sacrifice, and it seemed to him
+that any attempt to express his own gratitude was worse than absolute
+silence. Can you thank a man for the gift of your life?
+
+Falconer looked from one to the other, the half-sad smile lighting up
+his wan face.
+
+"I know," he said simply. And indeed he knew how he should feel if he
+were in the place of this lucky man, this favored of the gods. "I know.
+There is no need to say anything. You are happy?"
+
+His eyes rested on Nell. She slipped to her knees beside the bed and
+took his hand; but she could not speak; the tears filled her eyes, and
+she gazed up at him through a mist.
+
+"Ah! what can I say?" she murmured.
+
+He smiled down at her with infinite tenderness.
+
+"You have said enough," he said simply, "and I am answered. Do you think
+it is nothing to me, your happiness? It is everything--life itself!"
+His dark eyes glowed. "There is no moment since I knew you that I would
+not have laid down this wretched life of mine, if by so doing I could
+have made you happy at a much less cost."
+
+He turned his eyes to Drake with sudden energy.
+
+"Don't pity me, Lord Angleford. There is no need."
+
+Drake took his other hand and pressed it.
+
+"You must get well soon, or her--our--happiness will be marred,
+Falconer," he said warmly.
+
+Falconer nodded.
+
+"I shall get well," he said. "I am better already. We artists are never
+beyond consolation. Art is a jealous mistress, and will brook no rival."
+
+"And you worship a mistress who will make you famous," said Drake.
+
+Falconer smiled.
+
+"We are content, though she should deny us so much as that," he said.
+"Art is its own reward."
+
+Nell rose from her knees and stole from the room. When she had gone,
+Falconer raised his head and looked long and seriously at Drake.
+
+"Be good to her, my lord," he said, very gravely. "You have won a great
+prize, a ruby without a blemish; value it, cherish it."
+
+Drake nodded.
+
+"I know," he said simply.
+
+Nell stole into the room again. She was carrying Falconer's violin
+carefully, tenderly. She put it in his hands, held out eagerly to
+receive it, and he placed it in position, turned it swiftly, and began
+to play, his eyes fixed on hers gratefully.
+
+Nell and Drake withdrew to the window, their heads reverently bent.
+
+He played slowly, softly at first, a sad and yet exquisitely sweet
+melody; then the strain grew louder, though not the less sweet, and the
+tiny room was throbbing with music which expressed a joy which only
+music could voice.
+
+Drake's hand stole toward Nell's, and grasped it firmly. Her head
+drooped and the tears rose to her eyes, and soon began to trickle down
+her cheeks. The exquisite music seemed to reach her soul and raise it to
+the seventh heaven, in even which there are tears.
+
+"Drake!" she murmured. "Drake!"
+
+"Nell, my dearest!" he responded, in a whisper.
+
+Then suddenly the music ceased. Falconer slowly dropped the violin on
+the bed and fell back, his eyes closed, his face as calm as that of a
+child falling to sleep.
+
+"Go now," whispered Nell; and Drake stole from the room, leaving Nell
+kneeling beside the musician, who had apparently fallen asleep.
+
+Drake went down the stairs like a man in a dream, the strange, weird
+music still ringing in his ears, and walked up to the Hall.
+
+The countess met him as he entered, and he took her hand and led her
+into the library without a word.
+
+"Oh, what is it, Drake?" she asked anxiously, for she knew that
+something had happened.
+
+He placed her in one of the big easy-chairs, and stood before her, the
+light of happiness on his face.
+
+"I've something to tell you, countess," he said. "I am going to be
+married."
+
+She smiled up at him.
+
+"I am very glad, Drake. I have expected it for some time past. What a
+pity it is that she should have had to go!"
+
+"She! Who?" he exclaimed.
+
+For the moment he had forgotten Lady Luce.
+
+The countess stared at him.
+
+"Who?" she said, with surprise. "Why, who else should it be but Luce?"
+
+His brows came together, and he made an impatient movement.
+
+"No, no!" he said. "It is Nell--I mean Miss Lorton."
+
+She rose with amazement depicted on her countenance.
+
+"Miss Lorton! At the lodge?"
+
+"Yes," he said impatiently. "We were engaged nearly two years ago. There
+was a--a--misunderstanding--but it is all cleared up. I want your
+congratulations, countess."
+
+She was an American, and therefore quick to seize a point.
+
+"And you have them, Drake. That sweet, beautiful girl! I am glad!
+But--but----"
+
+"What?" he asked impatiently.
+
+"But Luce!" she stammered. "We all thought that----"
+
+"You are wrong," he said, almost hoarsely. "It is Miss Lorton. Go to her
+at the lodge, and----"
+
+He said no more, but went to the writing table.
+
+Lady Angleford, all in amaze, left the room.
+
+He took up a pen and scribbled over a sheet of note-paper, then tore it
+up. He filled several other sheets, which he destroyed, but at last he
+wrote a few words which satisfied him.
+
+Then he remembered that he did not know Luce's address; and, for want of
+a better, he addressed the letter, announcing his engagement to Miss
+Lorton, to Lord Turfleigh's club in London; and, like a man, was
+satisfied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+Was it any wonder that Nell should lie awake that night asking herself
+if this sudden joy and happiness that had come to her was real--that
+Drake loved her still--had never ceased to love her--and was hers again?
+
+Perfect happiness in this vale of tears is so rare that we may be
+pardoned for viewing it with a certain amount of incredulity, and with a
+doubt of its stability and lasting qualities. But Drake's kisses were
+still warm on her lips, and his passionate avowal of love still rang in
+her ears.
+
+And next morning, almost before she had finished breakfast, down came
+the countess to set the seal, so to speak, upon the marvelous fact that
+Nell of Shorne Mills was to be the wife of the Earl of Angleford.
+
+Nell, blushing, rose from the table to receive her, and the countess
+took and held her hand, looking into the downcast face with the tender
+sympathy of the woman, who knows all that love means, for the girl who
+has only yet learned the first letters of its marvelous alphabet.
+
+"My dear, you must forgive me for coming so early. Mr. Lorton, if you do
+not go on with your breakfast, I will run away again. I am so glad to
+meet you. Now, pray, pray, sit down again."
+
+But Dick, who knew that the countess wished to have Nell alone, declared
+that he had finished, and took himself off. Then the countess drew Nell
+to her and kissed her.
+
+"My dear, I am come to try and tell you how glad I am! Last night Drake
+and I sat up late talking of you. He has told me all your story. It is a
+romance--a perfect romance! And none the less charming because, unlike
+most romances in life, it has turned out happily. And we are all so
+pleased, so delighted--I mean up at the Hall; and I am sure the people
+on the estate will be as pleased, for I know that you have become a
+general favorite, even though you have been here so short a time. Lady
+Wolfer begged me to let her come with me this morning, but I would not
+yield. I wanted you all to myself. Not that I shall have you for long, I
+suppose, for Drake will be sure to be here presently."
+
+Nell's blush grew still deeper. She was touched by the great lady's
+kindness, and the tears were very near her eyes.
+
+"Why are you all so glad?" she faltered, gratefully and wonderingly. "I
+know that there is a great difference between us. I am--well, I am a
+nobody, and Drake is stooping very low to marry me. You must all feel
+that."
+
+"My dear," said the countess, with a smile, "no man stoops who marries a
+good and innocent girl. It's the other way about--at least, that's my
+feeling; but then I'm an American, you know; and we look at things
+differently on the other side. But, Nell, we are glad because you have
+made Drake happy. None of us could fail to see that he has been wretched
+and miserable, but that now he has completely changed. If you had seen
+the difference in him last night! But I suppose you did," she put in
+naively. "He seemed to have become years younger; his very voice was
+changed, and rang with the old ring. And you have worked this miracle!
+That is why we are all so delighted and grateful to you."
+
+The tears were standing in Nell's eyes, though she laughed softly.
+
+"And yet--and yet he ought to have married some one of his own rank."
+The color rushed to her face. "I did not know who he was when--when I
+was first engaged to him at home, at Shorne Mills."
+
+"I know--I know. He has told me the whole story. It was very foolish of
+him--foolish and romantic. But, dear, don't you see that it proves the
+reality, the disinterestedness of your love for him? And as for the
+difference of rank--well, it does not matter in the least. Drake's rank
+is so high that he may marry whom he pleases; and he is so rich that
+money does not come into the question."
+
+"It is King Cophetua and the beggar maid," murmured Nell.
+
+"If you like; but there is not much of the beggar maid about you, dear,"
+retorted the countess, holding Nell at arm's length and scanning the
+refined and lovely face, the slim and graceful form in its plain morning
+frock. "No, my dear; there is nothing wrong about the affair, excepting
+the extraordinary misunderstanding which parted you for a time, and
+brought you so much unhappiness. But all that is past now, and you and
+he must learn to forget it. And now, my dear, I want you to come up with
+me to the Hall."
+
+But Nell shook her head.
+
+"I can't do that, countess," she said. "I can't leave Mr. Falconer. He
+is much better and stronger this morning; the nurse says that he slept
+all night, for the first time; but he still needs me--and--I owe him so
+much!" she added in a low voice.
+
+The countess looked at her keenly for a moment; then she nodded.
+
+"I see. Drake told me that I should find you harder to move than you
+look. And I am not sure that you are not right," she said. "When you
+come to stay at the Hall it will be as mistress." Nell's face crimsoned
+again. "But, my dear girl, we can't pass over the great event as if it
+were of no consequence. Drake's engagement, under any circumstances,
+would be of the deepest interest to all of us, to the whole country; but
+his engagement to you will create a profound sensation, and we must
+demonstrate our satisfaction in some way. I'm afraid you will have to
+face a big dinner party."
+
+Nell looked rather frightened.
+
+"Oh!" she breathed. "Is--is it necessary? Can't we just go on as if--as
+if nothing had happened?"
+
+The countess laughed.
+
+"That's exactly what Drake said when I spoke to him about it last night.
+It is nice to find you so completely of one mind. But I'm afraid it
+wouldn't do. You see, my dear, the people will want to see you, to be
+introduced to you; and if we pursue the usual course there will be much
+less talk and curiosity than if we let things slide. Yes, you will have
+to run the gauntlet; but I don't think you need be apprehensive of the
+result," and she looked at her with affectionate approval.
+
+"Very well," said Nell resignedly. "You know what is best, and I will do
+anything you and Drake wish."
+
+"What a dutiful child!" exclaimed the countess, banteringly. "And though
+you won't come and stay at the Hall, you will come up and see us very
+often, to lunch and tea and----"
+
+"When Mr. Falconer can spare me," said Nell quietly.
+
+"Yes. And about him, dear. We talked of him last night, and his future.
+That will be Drake's special care. He, too, owes him a big debt, and he
+feels it. Mr. Falconer is a genius, and the world must be made to know
+it before very long. And your brother, dear; you will let him come up to
+the Hall?"
+
+Nell laughed softly.
+
+"You are thinking of everything," she said. "Even of Dick. Oh, yes,
+he'll come. Dick isn't a bit shy; but he thinks more of his electric
+machines than anything else on earth just at present."
+
+"I know," said the countess, laughing. "But we must try and lure him
+from them now and again. I am sure we shall all like him, for he is
+wonderfully like you. Now, about the dinner, dear. Shall we say this day
+week?"
+
+"So soon!" said Nell.
+
+"Yes; it mustn't be later, for this wretched trial is coming on; the
+assizes are quite close, you know; and Drake will have to be there as
+witness. My dear, I'm glad they did not get off with the diamonds! You
+little thought that night, when you saved Drake's life, and prevented
+the man getting away, that you were fighting for your own jewels."
+
+"Mine!" said Nell.
+
+The countess laughed.
+
+"Why, yes, you dear goose! Are they not the Angleford diamonds, and will
+they not soon be yours?"
+
+Nell blushed and looked a little aghast.
+
+"I--I haven't realized it all yet," she said. "Ah! I wish Drake
+were--just Drake Vernon! I am afraid when I think----"
+
+The countess smiled and shook her head.
+
+"There is no need to be afraid, my dear," she said shrewdly. "You will
+wear the Angleford coronet very well and very gracefully, if I am not
+mistaken, because you set so little store by it. And now here comes
+Drake! It is good of him to give me so long with you. Give me a kiss
+before he comes--he won't begrudge me that surely! Ah, you happy girl!"
+
+Drake drove up in a dogcart.
+
+"I can't get down; the mare won't stand"--he hadn't brought a groom, for
+excellent reasons. "Please tell Nell to get her things on as quickly as
+she can!" he said to the countess as she came out.
+
+Nell looked doubtful.
+
+"I will go upstairs first," she said. But Falconer was asleep, and when
+she came down she had her outdoor things on.
+
+Drake bent down and held out his hand to help her up.
+
+"You won't be long?" she asked, and she looked up at him shyly, for,
+after their long separation, he seemed almost strange to her.
+
+"Just as long as you like," he said, understanding the reason for her
+question, and glancing at the window of Falconer's room. "Dick tells me
+that he is better this morning. I couldn't say how glad I am, dearest
+Nell," he whispered, as the mare sprang at the collar and they whirled
+through the gates and down the road. "Is it you really who are sitting
+beside me, or am I dreaming?"
+
+Nell's hand stole nearer to his arm until it touched it softly.
+
+"I have asked myself that all night, Drake," she said, almost inaudibly.
+"It is so much more like a dream than a reality. Are we going through
+the village?" she asked, suddenly and shyly.
+
+"Yes," he said. "We are. Nell, I want to show my treasure to the good
+folk who have known me since I was a boy. Perhaps the news has reached
+the village by this time--for the servants at the Hall know it, and I
+want them to see how happy you have made me!"
+
+There could be no doubt of the news having got to the village, for as
+the dogcart sped through it the people came to the doors of the shops
+and cottages, all alive with curiosity and excitement.
+
+Drake nodded to the curtseys and greetings, and looked so radiantly
+happy that one woman, feeling that touch of nature which makes all men
+kin, called out to them:
+
+"God bless you, my lord, and send you both happiness!"
+
+"That's worth having, Nell," he said, very quietly; but Nell didn't
+speak, and the tears were in her eyes. "A few days ago I should have
+laughed or sneered at that benediction," he said gravely. "What a change
+has come over my life in a few short hours! There is no magic like that
+of love, Nell."
+
+They were silent for some time after they had left the village behind
+them, but presently Drake began to call her attention to the various
+points of interest in the view; the prosperous farms, and thickly wooded
+preserves; and Nell began, half unconsciously, to realize the extent of
+the vast estate--the one of many--of which the man she was going to
+marry was lord and master.
+
+"I'm going to take you to a farm which has been held by the same family
+for several generations," he said. "I think you will like Styles and his
+wife; and you won't mind if they are outspoken, dearest? I was here to
+lunch only the other day, and Styles read me a lecture on my duties as
+lord of Angleford. One of the heads was that I ought to choose a wife
+without loss of time. I want to show him that I have taken his sermon to
+heart."
+
+"Perhaps he may not approve of your choice," said Nell.
+
+Drake laughed.
+
+"Well, if he doesn't, he won't hesitate to say so," he said.
+
+They pulled up at the farm, and Styles came down to the gate to welcome
+them, calling to a lad to hold the mare.
+
+"Yes, we will come in for a minute or two, Styles, if Mrs. Styles will
+have us," said Drake.
+
+Mrs. Styles, in the doorway, wiping her hands freshly washed from the
+flour of a pudding, smiled a welcome.
+
+"Come right in, my lord," she said. "You know you be welcome well
+enough." She looked at Nell, who was blushing a little. "And all the
+more welcome for the company you bring."
+
+"Sit down, my lord; sit ye down, miss--or is it 'my lady'?" said Styles,
+perfectly at ease in his unaffected pleasure at seeing them.
+
+"This is Miss Lorton, the young lady who is rash enough to promise to be
+my wife, Mrs. Styles," said Drake. "I drove over to introduce her to you,
+and to show that I took your good advice to heart."
+
+The farmer and his wife surveyed Nell for a moment, then slowly averted
+their eyes out of regard for her blushes.
+
+"I make so bold to tell your lordship that you never did a wiser thing
+in your life," said Styles quietly, and with a certain dignity; "and if
+the young lady be as good as she is pretty--and if I'm anything of a
+judge, I bet she be!--there's some sense in wishing your lordship and
+her a long life and every happiness."
+
+Drake held out his hand, and laughed like a boy.
+
+"Thanks, Styles," he said. "It was worth driving out for. And I'm happy
+enough, in all conscience, for the present."
+
+"I've heard of Miss Lorton, and I've heard naught but good of her," said
+Mrs. Styles, eying Nell, who had got one of the children on her knee;
+"and to us as lives on the estate, miss, it's a matter of importance who
+his lordship marries. It may just mean the difference between good times
+or bad. Us don't want his lordship to marry a fine London lady as 'u'd
+never be contented to live among us. And there be many such."
+
+Nell fought against her shyness; indeed, she remembered the simple folk
+of Shorne Mills, who talked as freely and frankly as this honest couple,
+and plucked up courage.
+
+"I'm not a fine London lady, at any rate, Mrs. Styles," she said, with a
+smile. "I have lived for nearly all my life in a country village, much
+farther away from London than you are; and I know very little of London
+life."
+
+"You don't say, miss!" exclaimed Mrs. Styles, much gratified.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing softly. "And I could finish making this
+apple pudding, if you'd let me, and boil it after I'd make it."
+
+Mrs. Styles gazed at her in speechless admiration, and Drake laughed
+with keen enjoyment of her surprise.
+
+"Oh, yes; Miss Lorton is an excellent cook and housekeeper, Mrs. Styles;
+so I hope you are satisfied?"
+
+"That I be, and more, my lord," responded Mrs. Styles. "But, Lor'! your
+lordship do surprise me, for she looks no more than a schoolgirl--begging
+her pardon."
+
+"Oh, she's wise for her years!" said Drake. "Yes, I'll have a glass of
+your home-brewed, Styles."
+
+Mrs. Styles brought some milk and scones for Nell, and the two women
+withdrew to the settle and talked like old friends, while Drake, his
+eyes and attention straying to his beloved, discussed the burglary at
+the Hall with Styles. As Mrs. Styles' topic of conversation was
+Drake--Drake as a lad and a young man--Nell was in no hurry to go; but
+suddenly she remembered Falconer--he might be wanting her--and she got
+up and went to Drake, who, his beloved brier in his mouth, leaned back
+in an easy-chair and talked to the farmer as if time were of no
+consequence. He sprang up as she approached him.
+
+"Well, good-by, Styles. I said you should dance at my wedding, and so
+you shall," he said.
+
+"Thank you, my lord," he responded. "I'll do my best, but I thought your
+lordship was only joking. Here's a very good health to you, my lord, and
+your future lady."
+
+"And God bless ye both," said Mrs. Styles, in the background.
+
+They drove away in grand style, the mare insisting on putting on frills
+and standing on her hind legs; and Drake, when the mare had settled down
+to her swinging trot, stole his hand round Nell's waist, and pressed her
+to him.
+
+"Do you know why I took you there this morning, Nell?" he said, in a low
+voice.
+
+Nell shook her head shyly.
+
+"I'll tell you. The sudden good fortune has seemed so unreal to me that
+I haven't been able to realize it, to grasp it. It wasn't enough for the
+countess to know and congratulate us--it wasn't enough, somehow. I
+wanted some of the people on the estate to see you, and, so to speak,
+set their seal on our engagement and approaching marriage. Do you
+understand, dearest? I'm not making it very plain, I'm afraid."
+
+But Nell understood, and her heart was brimming over with love for him.
+
+"You have been accepted this morning into the--family, as it were," he
+said. "And now I feel as if it were impossible that I should lose you
+again. Styles will go down to the inn to-night and talk about our visit,
+and give a detailed account of the 'new ladyship,' and everybody on the
+estate will know of my good fortune. It is almost as if"--he paused, and
+the color rose to his face--"as if we were married, Nell. I feel that
+nothing can separate us now."
+
+She said not a word, but she pressed a little closer to him, and he bent
+and kissed her.
+
+"You don't mind my taking you to the Styles', dearest?" he asked.
+
+"No, oh, no!" she replied. "I would rather have gone there than to any
+of the big houses--I mean the county people, Drake. I like to think I am
+not the sort of person they dreaded. What was it? 'A fine London lady.'
+Perhaps it would be better for you if I were; but for them--well,
+perhaps for them it will be better that I am only one of themselves,
+able to understand and sympathize with them. Drake, you will not forget
+that I am only a nobody, that I am only Nell of Shorne Mills."
+
+He smiled to himself, for he knew that this girl whom he had won was, by
+virtue of her beauty and refinement, qualified to fill the highest place
+in that vague sphere which went by the name of "society."
+
+"Don't you worry, dearest," he said. "You have won the heart of the
+Styles family; and that is no mean conquest. That farm on the right is
+the Woodlands, and that just in front is the Broadlands. You will learn
+all the names in time, and I want you to know them; I want you to feel
+that you have a part and lot in them. Nell, do you think you will ever
+be as fond of this place as you are of Shorne Mills?"
+
+"Yes," she said; "because--it is yours, Drake."
+
+He looked down at her gratefully.
+
+"But you shan't lose Shorne Mills," he said resolutely. "I mean to buy
+some land there, and build a house, just on the brow of the hill--you
+know, Nell; that meadow above The Cottage?--and we'll go there every
+summer, and we'll sail the _Annie Laurie_."
+
+So they talked, with intervals of silence filled with his caresses,
+until they reached the lodge. And as they came up to it, they heard the
+strains of a violin.
+
+Nell awoke with a start.
+
+"Oh, I had almost forgotten!" she said remorsefully.
+
+"Listen!" Drake whispered.
+
+Nell, in the act of pushing the dust cloak from her, listened.
+
+Falconer was playing the "Gloria in Excelsis."
+
+"Oh, how happy I have been!" she murmured, half guiltily.
+
+"And how happy you will be, Heaven grant it, dearest!" Drake murmured,
+as he released her hand and she got down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up
+and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotamia' seven times!"
+
+It was the night of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as Dick put
+it, she was to be "on view" as the fiancee of my lord of Angleford, and
+Nell had come down to the little sitting room dressed and ready to
+start.
+
+Dick and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered
+sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his
+violin with him.
+
+"Don't tease her, Dick," said Falconer, with the gentle, protective air
+of an elder brother. "She does not look a bit nervous."
+
+"But I am!" said Nell, laughing a little tremulously; "I am--just a
+little bit!"
+
+"And no wonder!" said Falconer promptly. "It is rather an ordeal she has
+to go through; to know that everybody is regarding you critically. But
+she has nothing to be afraid of."
+
+"Now, there I differ with you," said Dick argumentatively. "If I were in
+Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth
+did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah,
+would you?" as Nell, laughing and blushing, caught up the sofa cushion.
+"You throw it and rumple my best hair, if you dare."
+
+Nell put the cushion down reluctantly.
+
+"It's a mean shame; you know I can't fight now."
+
+"Though you have your war paint on," said Falconer, looking at her with
+a half-sad, half-proud admiration and affection.
+
+"It's not much of a war paint," said Nell, but contentedly enough. "It's
+the dress I made for a party at Wolfer House--Dick, you know that the
+Wolfers have had to go? Lord Wolfer's brother was ill. I am so sorry!
+She would have made me feel less nervous, and rather braver. Yes, I'm
+sorry! It's an old dress, and I'm afraid Drake's jewels must feel quite
+ashamed of it," and she glanced at the pearls which he had given her a
+day or two ago, and which gleamed softly on her white, girlish neck and
+arms.
+
+"You hear her complaining, Falconer!" said Dick, with mock sternness and
+reproval. "You'd find it hard to believe that I offered to remain at
+home and pop my dress suit, that she might buy herself fitting raiment
+for this show. Oh, worse than a serpent's tooth, it is to have an
+ungrateful sister!"
+
+"I thought it was a new dress," remarked Falconer, still eying it and
+the wearer intently.
+
+Nell shook her head, coloring a little, as she said:
+
+"No; I wanted to wear this one. I didn't want to appear in a grand frock
+as if I were a fashionable lady."
+
+"Fine feathers do not always make a fine lady," observed Dick,
+addressing the ceiling. "No one would mistake you for anything
+but--what you are, a simple ch-e-ild of Nachure."
+
+"Don't tease her, Dick," remonstrated Falconer; but Nell laughed with
+enjoyment.
+
+"I don't mind in the least, Mr. Falconer. It's quite true, too; my plain
+frock is more suitable than anything Worth could turn out."
+
+"My dear Falconer, I'm sorry to see you so easily imposed on. Don't you
+see that she's as vain as a peacock, and that she's only playing at the
+humble and meek? Besides, I expect that idiot Drake--who slipped out
+just as we came down--he'll be late for dinner if he doesn't mind!--has
+been telling her that she looks rather pretty----"
+
+Nell blushed, for Drake had indeed told her that she looked more than
+pretty.
+
+"And, of course, she believes him. She'd believe him if he told her that
+the moon was made of green cheese. Put that cushion down, my child, or
+it will be worse for you. And I hope you will behave yourself properly
+to-night. Remember that the brother who has brought you up with such
+anxious care will be present, to say nothing of the friend to whose
+culture and refined example you owe so much. Don't forget that it is bad
+manners to put your knife in your mouth, or to laugh too loudly.
+Remember we shall be watching you closely and anxiously."
+
+"It is time we started," said Falconer. "Let me put that shawl more
+closely round you, Miss Lorton. It's a fine night, but one cannot be too
+careful."
+
+It was so fine that they had decided to walk the short distance to the
+Hall; and they set out, Falconer with his precious violin in its case
+under his arm, and Dick smoking a cigarette. They were all rather silent
+as they approached the great house, and Dick, looking up at it, said
+with a gravity unusual with him:
+
+"It's hard to realize that you are going to be the mistress of this huge
+place, Nell."
+
+Nell made no response; but she, too, looked up at the house with the
+same thought.
+
+Indeed, it was hard to realize. But the next moment Drake came out to
+meet them, and took her upon his arm, with a whispered word of loving
+greeting for her, and a warm welcome to the two men.
+
+"I needn't say how glad I am to see you, Falconer," he said, "or how
+delighted the countess and the rest of them will be. You must be
+prepared for a little hero worship, I'm afraid, for the countess has
+been diligent in spreading the story of your pluck."
+
+As he lovingly took off Nell's shawl, he whispered:
+
+"Dearest, how sweet and beautiful you look! If you knew how proud I
+am--how proud and happy!"
+
+Then he led them into the drawing-room. A number of guests had already
+arrived, and as the countess came forward and kissed Nell, they looked
+at her with a keen curiosity, though it was politely veiled.
+
+Nell was a little pale as the countess introduced her to one after
+another of the county people; but Drake stood near her; and everybody,
+prepossessed by her youth, and the girlish dignity and modesty which
+characterized her, was very kind and pleasant; and soon the threatened
+fit of shyness passed off, and she felt at her ease.
+
+The room, large as it was, got rather crowded. Guests were still
+arriving. Some of the women were magnificently dressed in honor of the
+occasion, but Nell's simple frock distinguished her, as the plain
+evening dress of the American ambassador is said to distinguish him
+among the rich uniforms and glittering orders of the queen's levee; and
+the women recognized and approved her good taste in appearing so simply
+dressed.
+
+"She is sweetly pretty," murmured the local duchess to Lady Northgate.
+"I don't wonder at Lord Angleford's losing his heart. Half the men in
+the room would fall in love with her if she were free. And I like that
+quiet, reticent manner of hers; not a bit shy, but dignified and yet
+girlish. Yes, Lord Angleford is to be congratulated."
+
+"So he would be if she were not half so pretty," said Lady Northgate;
+"for he is evidently too happy for words. See how he looks at her!"
+
+"Who is that bright-looking young fellow?" asked the duchess, putting up
+her pince-nez at Dick.
+
+"That is her brother. Isn't he like her? They are devoted to each other;
+and that is Mr. Falconer, the great violinist. Of course, you've heard
+the story----"
+
+"Oh, dear, yes," said the duchess. "And I want to congratulate him. I
+wish you'd bring the boy to me, dear."
+
+Lady Northgate went after him, but at that moment a young lady with
+laughing eyes came into the room, and Dick started and actually blushed.
+
+Drake, who was standing near him, laughed at his confusion.
+
+"An old friend of yours, I think, Dick, eh? Miss Angel. She's stopping
+in the house; came to-day. If you're good, you shall take her in to
+dinner."
+
+"I'll be what she is by name, if I may!" said Dick, eagerly. "I'll go
+and tell her so," and he made his way through the crowd to her.
+
+"Afraid you've forgotten me, Miss Angel," he said. "Hop at the Maltbys',
+you know!"
+
+Her eyes danced more merrily, but she surveyed him demurely for a
+moment, as if trying to recall him, then she said:
+
+"Oh, yes; the gentleman who was so very--very cool; I was going to say
+impudent; pretty Miss Lorton's brother."
+
+"You might have said Miss Lorton's pretty brother!" retorted Dick
+reproachfully. "But you'll have time to say it later on, for I'm going
+to take you in to dinner."
+
+"'Going to have the honor' of taking me in to dinner, you mean!" she
+said, with mock hauteur.
+
+"No; 'pleasure' is the word," said the unabashed Dick. "I say, how
+delighted I am to see you here----"
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Because I know so very few of this mob."
+
+"Oh, I see. I'll recall my thanks, please."
+
+Dick grinned.
+
+"I thought you were rather too previous with your gratitude. But isn't
+it jolly being here together!"
+
+"Is that a question or an assertion? Because, if it's the former, I beg
+leave to announce that I see no reason for any great delight on my
+part."
+
+"Oh, come now! You think! You can resume the lesson on manners you
+commenced at the Maltbys'. I want it badly; for I have been among a
+rough set lately. I'm a British workingman, you know--engineer. Come
+into this corner, and I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"I don't know that I want to hear," she retorted. "But, oh, well, I'll
+come after I've spoken to your sister. How lovely she looks to-night! If
+I were a man, I should envy Lord Angleford."
+
+"Would you? So should I if he were going to marry another young lady I
+know."
+
+"Oh, who is that?" she asked, with admirably feigned innocence and
+interest.
+
+"Oh, you can't see her just now. No looking-glass near," he had the
+audacity to add, but under his breath.
+
+The dinner hour struck, the carriages were setting down the last
+arrivals, and Lady Angleford was looking round and smilingly awaiting
+the butler's "Dinner is served, my lady!" when a footman came up to her
+and said something in a low voice.
+
+The countess went out of the room, and found her maid in the hall.
+
+The woman whispered a few words that caused Lady Angleford to turn pale
+and stand gazing before her as if she had suddenly seen a ghost.
+
+"Very well," she said.
+
+The maid hurried upstairs, but the countess stood for quite half a
+minute, still pale, and gazing into vacancy.
+
+Then she went back to the drawing-room, and, with a mechanical smile,
+passed among the guests until she reached Drake, who was talking to the
+duke and Lord Northgate.
+
+"You want me, countess?" he said, feeling her eyes fixed on him, and he
+followed her to a clear space.
+
+"Drake," she said, lifting her eyes to his face pitifully, "Drake,
+something dreadful has happened--something dreadful. I don't like to
+tell you, but I must. She is here!"
+
+She whispered the announcement as if it were indeed something dreadful.
+
+Drake looked at her in a mystified fashion.
+
+"She! Who?" he asked.
+
+"Luce!"
+
+He did not start, but his brows came together, and his face grew stern,
+for the first time since his reconciliation to Nell.
+
+"Luce!" he echoed. "Impossible!"
+
+"Oh, but she is!" she murmured, in despair. "She arrived a quarter of an
+hour ago."
+
+"But I wrote, telling her," he muttered helplessly.
+
+The countess made a despairing gesture.
+
+"Then she did not get your letter. She sent a telegram this morning,
+saying that she was able, unexpectedly, to come, but I have not had it.
+And if I had received it, there would not have been time to prevent her
+coming." She glanced at the slim, girlish figure of Nell, where it
+stood, the center of a group, and almost groaned. "What shall we do?"
+
+At such times a man is indeed helpless, and Drake stood overwhelmed and
+idealess.
+
+"She says that we are not to wait--that she will come down when she is
+dressed. She--she----Oh, Drake! she does not know, and she will think
+that--that you still--that she----"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know. But I am thinking of Nell," he said grimly. "Luce must be told.
+She--yes, she must go away again. She will, when she knows the truth."
+
+"But--but who is to tell her?" said the poor countess, aghast at the
+prospect before her.
+
+Drake shook his head.
+
+"Not you, countess. I will tell her."
+
+"You, Drake!"
+
+"Yes--I," he said, biting his lips. "She found little difficulty in
+telling me, there at Shorne Mills----No, no; I ought not to have said
+that. But I am anxious to spare Nell, and my anxiety makes me hard. Wait
+a moment."
+
+He went to the window, and, putting aside the curtains, looked out at
+the night, seeing nothing; then he came back.
+
+"Put the dinner back for a quarter of an hour, and send word to her and
+ask her to go into your boudoir. I will wait her there."
+
+"Is there no other way, Drake?" she asked, pitying him from the bottom
+of her heart.
+
+"There is none," he said frankly. "It is my fault. I ought to have found
+out her address; but it is no use reproaching oneself. Send to her,
+countess!"
+
+She left the room, and Drake went back to the duke, talked for a moment
+or two, then went up to the countess' room and waited. He had to face an
+ordeal more severe than any other that had hitherto fallen to his not
+uneventful life; but faced it had to be; and he would have gone through
+fire and water to save Nell a moment's pain. Besides, Luce was to be
+considered, though, it must be confessed, he felt little pity for her.
+
+Presently the door opened; but it was Burden who entered. She was
+looking pale and emaciated, as if she were either very ill, or
+recovering from illness, and Drake, even at that moment of strain and
+stress, noticed her pitiable appearance.
+
+"How do you do, Burden?" he said. "I am afraid you have not been well."
+
+Burden curtsied, and looked up at him with hollow eyes.
+
+"Thank you, my lord," she faltered. "My lady sent me to tell your
+lordship that she will be here in a minute or two."
+
+She left the room, and Drake leaned against the mantelshelf with his
+hands in his pockets, his head sunk on his breast; and in a minute or
+two the door opened again, and Luce glided toward him with outstretched
+hands.
+
+"Drake! How sweet of you to send for me--to wait!" she murmured.
+
+He took one of her hands and held it, and the coldness of his touch, the
+expression of his face, startled her.
+
+"Drake! What is the matter?" she asked. "Are--are you not glad to see
+me? Why do you look at me so strangely? I came the moment I could get
+away. There has been so much to do; and father"--she paused a moment and
+shrugged her shoulders--"has been very bad. The excitement and
+fuss----You know the condition he would be in, under the circumstances.
+I told Burden to wire this morning to say I was coming, but she forgot
+to do so. She seems half demented, and I am going to get rid of her.
+What is the matter, Drake?"
+
+She had moved nearer to him, expecting him to take her in his arms and
+kiss her; but his coldness, his silence, was telling upon her, and the
+question broke from her impatiently.
+
+"Haven't you had my letter?" he asked.
+
+"Your letter? No. Did you write? I am sorry! What did you write?"
+
+"I wrote"--he hesitated a moment, but what was the good of trying to
+"break" the news? "I wrote to tell you of my engagement----"
+
+She started and stared at him.
+
+"Your engagement! Your----Drake! What do you mean? Your engagement!
+To--to whom?"
+
+"Sit down, Luce," he said gravely, tenderly, and he went to lead her to
+a chair; but she shook her hand free and stood, still staring at him
+blankly, her face growing paler.
+
+"I wrote and told you all about it. I am engaged to Miss Lorton. You do
+not know her; but she is the young lady I met at Shorne Mills, the place
+in Devonshire----I was engaged to her then, but it was broken off, and
+we were separated for a time; but we met again----I am sorry, very
+sorry, that you did not get my letter."
+
+Her face was perfectly white by this time, her lips set tightly. He
+feared she was going to faint; but, with a great effort she fought
+against the deadly weakness which assailed her.
+
+"So that was what you wrote!" she breathed, every word leaving her lips
+as if it caused her pain to utter. "You--you--have deceived me."
+
+"No, Luce," he said quickly.
+
+"Yes, yes! When I left here you----Is it not true that you intended
+asking me to be your wife, to renew our engagement? Answer!"
+
+She glanced up at him, her teeth showing between her parted lips.
+
+He inclined his head.
+
+"Yes, it is true; but I had not met--I had not heard----Oh, what is the
+use of all this recrimination, Luce? I am engaged to the girl I love."
+
+She raised her hand as if to strike him. He caught it gently, and as
+gently released it.
+
+"I will go," she panted. "I will go at once. Be good enough to order my
+carriage----"
+
+She put her hand to her head as if she did not know what she was saying;
+and Drake's heart ached with pity for her--at that moment, at any rate.
+
+"Don't think too hardly of me, Luce," he said, in a low voice. "And you
+have not lost much, remember."
+
+She clasped her hands and swayed to and fro for a moment.
+
+"I see! It is your revenge. I once jilted you, and now----"
+
+"For God's sake, don't say--don't think----No man could be so base, so
+vile!" he said sternly.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"It is your revenge; I see it. Yes, you have scored. I will go--at once.
+Open the door, please!"
+
+There was nothing else to be done. He opened the door for her, and she
+swept past him. Outside, she paused for a moment, as if she did not know
+where she was, or in which direction her room lay; then she went
+slowly--almost staggered--down the corridor, and, bursting into her
+room, fell into a chair.
+
+So sudden was her entrance, so tragic her collapse, that the nervous
+Burden uttered a faint shriek.
+
+"Oh, my lady! what is the matter?" she cried, her hand against her
+heart.
+
+Lady Luce sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes gleaming from her
+white face, in silence for a moment; then she laughed, the laugh which
+borders on hysteria.
+
+"Congratulate me, Burden!" she said bitterly; "congratulate me! Lord
+Angleford is engaged!"
+
+Burden stared at her.
+
+"To--to your ladyship?" she said, but doubtfully. "I do congratulate
+you."
+
+"You fool!" cried Luce savagely. "He is engaged to another woman. He has
+jilted me! Oh, I think I shall go mad! Jilted me! Yes, it is that, and
+no less. Oh, my head! my head!"
+
+Burden hurried to her with the eau de Cologne, but Lady Luce pushed it
+away.
+
+"Keep out of my sight! I can't bear the sight of any human being!
+Engaged! 'I am engaged to Miss Lorton!'"--she mimicked Drake's voice in
+bitter mockery.
+
+Burden started, and let the eau de Cologne bottle fall with a soft thud
+to the floor.
+
+"What--what name did your ladyship say?" she gasped, her face as white
+as her mistress's, her eyes starting.
+
+Lady Luce glared at her.
+
+"You fool! Are you deaf? Lorton! Lorton!" she almost snarled at the
+woman.
+
+Burden stooped to pick up the bottle, but staggered and clutched a
+chair, and Lady Luce watched her with half-distraught gaze.
+
+"What is the matter with you? Why do you behave like a lunatic?" she
+demanded. "Do you know this girl? Answer!"
+
+Burden moistened her lips.
+
+"Is it the young lady--who helped catch Ted--I mean the burglar, my
+lady?" she asked hoarsely.
+
+"I suppose so. Yes. Well? Speak out--don't keep me waiting. I'm in no
+humor to be trifled with. You know her--something about her?"
+
+Burden tried to control her shaking voice.
+
+"If--if it is the same young lady who was at Lady Wolfer's----I was her
+maid, you remember----"
+
+"I remember, you fool! Quick!"
+
+"Then--then I know something. She's very pretty--and young, with dark
+hair----"
+
+Lady Luce sprang to her feet.
+
+"You idiot! You drive me mad. I've not seen her. But if it be the
+same----Well--well?"
+
+"Then--then Lord Angleford is to be pitied. He has been
+deceived--deceived cruelly," said Burden, in gasps.
+
+Lady Luce caught her by the shoulders and glared into her quailing eyes.
+
+"Listen to me, Burden: pull yourself together. Tell me what you
+know--tell me this instant! Well? Sit there in that chair. Now!" She
+pressed the shoulders she still held with the gesture of an Arab slave
+driver. "Now, quick! Who is she? What do you know against her?"
+
+In faltering accents, and yet with a kind of savage pleasure, Burden
+spoke for some minutes; and as Lady Luce listened, the pallor of her
+face gave place to a flush of fierce, malicious joy.
+
+"Are you sure? You say you saw, you listened? Are you sure?" she
+said--hissed, rather--at the end of Burden's story.
+
+"I--I am quite sure," she responded. "I--I could swear to it. I was just
+outside the library."
+
+Lady Luce paced up and down with the gait of a tigress.
+
+"If I could only be sure," she panted; "if I could only be sure! But you
+may be mistaken. Wait!" Her hand fell upon Burden's shoulder again. "Go
+downstairs, look at the people, and tell me if you see her there.
+Quick!"
+
+Burden, wincing under the savage pressure of her hand, rose, and stole
+from the room.
+
+In less than five minutes she was back.
+
+"Well?" demanded Lady Luce, as Burden closed the door and leaned against
+it.
+
+"It--it is the same. I saw her," she said suddenly.
+
+Lady Luce sank into a chair, and was silent and motionless for a
+moment; then she sprang up and laughed--a hideous laugh for such perfect
+lips.
+
+"Get out my pale mauve silk. Dress me, quick! I am not going to leave
+the house. I am going downstairs to make Miss Lorton's acquaintance!
+Quick!"
+
+Burden got out the exquisite dress. The flush which had risen to her
+mistress' face was reflected in her own. This Miss Lorton had helped to
+capture her beloved, her "martyred" Ted, and he was going to be avenged!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+After Luce had swept from the room, Drake remained for a minute or two
+thinking the thoughts that a man must think under such circumstances;
+then he went slowly down to the drawing-room.
+
+The countess was watching and waiting for him, and she looked up at his
+grave countenance anxiously as he came toward her.
+
+"It is all right," he said, in his quiet way; "she is going at once."
+
+His composure, the Angleford impassiveness which always came to their
+aid in moments of danger and difficulty, impressed her; she drew a
+breath of relief, and signed to the butler, who was hovering about
+awaiting her signal. "Dinner is served, my lady," he announced solemnly;
+and Drake gave the duchess his arm, and the company went into the dining
+room in pairs "like the animals into Noah's Ark," as Dick whispered to
+Miss Angel, who, to his great delight, he was taking in.
+
+It was a large party, and a brilliant one. The great room in the glory
+of its new adornment was worthy of the house and its guests. If the
+truth must be told, Nell was at first a little nervous, though it was
+not her first experience, as we know, of an aristocratic dinner party.
+She was seated on the left of Drake, and on pretense of moving one of
+her glasses, he succeeded in touching her hand, and, as he did so, he
+looked at her as a man looks who sees joy before him and an abiding
+happiness; then he turned and talked to the duchess, for he knew that
+Nell would like to be left alone for a few minutes.
+
+It was impossible for any party, however large and aristocratic, over
+which the countess presided, to be dull, and very soon they were all
+talking, and some of them laughing, for there were two young persons
+present, at any rate, who were by no means overawed by the splendor of
+the appointments or the rank of the guests. Dick would have found it
+possible to be merry at a Quakers' meeting, and Miss Angel, though she
+tried to preserve a demure, not to say repressive, mood, very soon
+yielded to Dick's light-hearted influence; and not only she, but those
+near them, were kept by him in ripples of laughter.
+
+It was just what Drake wanted, and he looked down the table toward Dick
+with approval and gratitude.
+
+"Dick hasn't changed a bit--thank Heaven!" he said to Nell.
+
+"Your brother's the most charming boy I've met for a very long time,"
+remarked the duchess. "Of course, he will come with you and the rest to
+me on the ninth. I am so glad to see Mr. Falconer here, and I hope he
+will be well enough to join us!"
+
+Nell glanced at Falconer with a sisterly regard, and Drake said:
+
+"We'll bring him, if we have to pack him in cotton wool!"
+
+The dinner was, inevitably, a lengthy one; but it was never for a moment
+dull, and the countess almost forgot Lady Luce as she realized the
+success of her party. She felt as a captain of a vessel feels when he
+has left behind him the perilous rocks on which he had nearly struck.
+Drake, too, almost forgot the ordeal through which he had just passed.
+How could he do otherwise when his darling was within reach of his hand,
+under his roof, at his table? The ladies remained some time after the
+appearance of the dessert, but the countess rose at last, and led the
+way to the drawing-room. There, of course, Nell was made much of. Some
+of the younger women drew their chairs near her, and showed as plainly
+as they could--and how plainly women can show things when they
+like!--that they were eager to welcome her into the county's social
+circle; and it required no effort on their part, for Nell's charm, which
+Drake had found so potent, was irresistible. There was some playing and
+singing, and the countess wanted Nell to do one or the other; but she
+shook her head.
+
+"Mr. Falconer will want me to play his accompaniments presently," she
+said. Not even in this full tide of her happiness did she forget him.
+
+Meanwhile, the men were having a very pleasant time in the dining room.
+Drake, like all the Anglefords, was a capital host. Anglemere was famous
+for its claret and its port, as we know, and Dick and the other young
+men waxed merry; and the duke voiced the general sentiment when, leaning
+back in his chair and sipping his claret, he said:
+
+"The gods might be envious of you, Angleford. If I were asked to spot a
+happy man, I should pitch upon you. I congratulate you upon your
+engagement. She's one of the prettiest and most charming girls I've ever
+met. That sounds rather banal, but I mean it. I hope you'll let us see a
+great deal of her, for Mary"--Mary was the duchess--"has, I can see,
+taken a great fancy to her. And I'm very glad to hear that you intend to
+make this your home; at least, so I hear from Styles, who appears to be
+in your confidence."
+
+And he laughed.
+
+And Drake laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes, Styles and I are old friends," he said. "We mean to live here
+a great deal. I shall keep up the Home farm; they've offered me the
+mastership of the hounds, and I think I shall take it. Nell's a capital
+horsewoman. In fact, we shall lead a country life most of the time, and
+see as much as we can of our people."
+
+"You're right," said the duke emphatically. "It's the best of all lives.
+If we all lived on our estates and looked after our people, we should
+hear very little of socialism, and such like troubles. It's the
+absenteeism which is answerable for most of the mischief."
+
+They discussed county affairs, "horses, hounds, and the land," for some
+minutes; then Drake, who was anxious to go to Nell, asked the men if
+they would have any more wine, and, receiving a negative, rose, and made
+for the drawing-room.
+
+Miss Angel was singing; Dick of course, was turning over her music.
+There was a little hushed buzz of conversation which is not too loud to
+permit the song to penetrate, and which indicates that things are going
+well. Drake went to Nell and leaned over the tall back of her chair
+without a word. When the song was finished, the countess went up to
+Falconer and asked him to play. A footman brought the precious violin,
+and Nell went to the piano and struck up the piece which they had
+chosen. Conversation ceased, and every one prepared to listen with eager
+anticipation.
+
+Falconer may have played as well in his life, but he certainly never
+played better. One could have heard a pin drop during the softer notes
+of the exquisite music, so intense and almost breathless was the silence
+of the rapt audience. When the last note had died away, the countess
+went up to him.
+
+"It is useless trying to thank you, Mr. Falconer," she said, "but if you
+will play again----"
+
+"Certainly," said Falconer. He turned to Nell. "What shall I play next?"
+he asked, as if the choice must naturally rest with her.
+
+She turned over the music and set up a Chopin, and he had placed the
+violin in position, when the door opened, and Lady Luce swept slowly in.
+She was superbly dressed, her neck and arms and hair were all a-glitter
+with diamonds. Though she was rather pale, her face was perfectly
+serene, and she smiled sweetly as she crossed the room.
+
+Her entrance caused a surprise; the countess happened to be standing
+with her back to the door, and did not see her come in; but she felt the
+sudden silence and turned to ascertain the cause. For a moment she was
+rooted to the spot, and the color left her face. It says much for her
+aplomb that she did not cry out. Her confusion lasted only for a moment,
+then she went toward Lady Luce with outstretched hand.
+
+"I am so sorry to be so late," said Luce, in her sweetest tones, "but my
+maid, who is a perfect tyrant, refused to dress me until I had
+rested----"
+
+"Your dinner?" almost gasped the countess.
+
+"I had some sent up to my room," said Lady Luce sweetly.
+
+She looked round. Drake stood by the piano, his face sternly set. Why
+had she remained? What was she going to do? He glanced at Nell, and saw
+that she had gone white, and that her eyes were fixed on Lady Luce. What
+should he do?
+
+Instinctively, he went to meet Luce, who was advancing with a placid
+smile, and the ease of a woman who is at peace with all the world, and
+sure of her welcome.
+
+"How do you do, Lord Angleford?" she said, as if this were their first
+meeting for some time. "I am so glad that I was able to get here
+to-night, though I wish that I could have arrived earlier. But I am
+interrupting the music! Please don't let me!"
+
+She moved away from him with perfect grace, and, greeting one and
+another, went and seated herself in a chair beside the duchess--and
+opposite Nell at the piano. There was a little buzz of conversation
+round her, then she herself raised her fan as a sign for silence, and
+Falconer began to play again.
+
+It was well for Nell that she knew every note of the nocturne by heart,
+for the page of music swam before her eyes, and she could not see a
+note. She felt Lady Luce's gaze, rather than saw it, and her heart
+throbbed painfully for a while; but presently the influence of the music
+stole over her and helped her--if only Falconer could have known
+it!--and she said to herself: "What can it matter to me if she is here?
+I know that Drake loves me, and me alone; that she is nothing to him and
+I am everything. It is she who should feel confused and embarrassed, not
+I. And yet how calm, how serene she is! Can she have forgotten that
+night on the terrace? Can she have forgotten all that has happened? Yes,
+it is she whose heart should be beating as mine is now."
+
+When the nocturne came to an end, and the applause which greeted it
+broke out, Lady Luce, still clapping her hands, rose and went toward
+Drake.
+
+"Will you please introduce me to Miss Lorton?" she said. "I am all
+anxiety to know her."
+
+She smiled at him so placidly that even Drake, who knew her better than
+did any other man, was completely deceived.
+
+"She means to forget the past," he said to himself. "She is behaving
+better than I had any reason to expect."
+
+He drew a breath of relief, and his stern face relaxed somewhat as he
+nodded slightly and went toward Nell, who had risen from the piano and
+stood near Falconer. She looked at Drake and Lady Luce as calmly as she
+could, and Drake made the introduction in as ordinary a tone as he could
+manage. Lady Luce held out her hand with a sweet smile.
+
+"I am so glad to meet you, Miss Lorton," she said. "I have heard so much
+about you; and I dare say you have heard something about me, for Lord
+Angleford and I are very old friends. How charmingly you played that
+difficult accompaniment! Shall we go and sit down somewhere together and
+have a chat?"
+
+What could Nell say or do? Both she and Drake were helpless. Nell stood
+with downcast eyes, the color coming and going in her face, and Drake
+looked from one to the other, half relieved, half in doubt.
+
+"Let us go and sit on that ottoman," said Lady Luce, indicating one in
+the center of a group of ladies.
+
+Nell, as she followed, glanced at Drake as if she were asking, "Must I
+go?" He made a slight gesture in the affirmative, returning her glance
+with one of tender love and trust.
+
+The countess stood at a little distance, watching them, though
+apparently absorbed in conversation, and no one would have guessed the
+condition of her mind as she saw the two women seated side by side.
+Presently she went up to Drake.
+
+"What does it mean?" she asked. "Why has she not gone? Why is she so--so
+friendly with Nell?"
+
+Drake shrugged his shoulders with a kind of smiling despair.
+
+"I can't tell you," he replied. "I think she is going to behave
+sensibly. At any rate, there is no need for anxiety. I have told Nell
+everything. She will trust me."
+
+"Yes; but I wish she had gone," said the countess, in a low voice.
+
+Drake smiled grimly.
+
+"So do I. But she hasn't."
+
+"She is too serene and contented," murmured the countess.
+
+Drake shrugged his shoulders again.
+
+"I know," he said significantly. "But what does it matter? She can do no
+harm. Nell knows everything."
+
+"I like the way you say that," said the countess. "But don't leave her."
+
+He nodded as if he understood, and gradually made his way toward the
+group among which Luce and Nell were sitting. As he approached, Lady
+Luce looked up with a smile.
+
+"I have been telling Miss Lorton that if there is one thing I adore upon
+earth, it is a romantic engagement, and that I quite envy her, and you,
+too, Lord Angleford! A glamour of romance will surround you for the rest
+of your lives. As I have often said to Archie, life without sentiment
+would not be worth having. By the way, Miss Lorton, you know Sir Archie
+Walbrooke?"
+
+Nell had scarcely been listening, for she had been wondering whether she
+could now rise and leave Lady Luce; but at the name of Sir Archie
+Walbrooke, she turned with a sudden start, and the color rose to her
+face. Lady Luce looked at her sweetly; then, as if she had suddenly
+remembered something, exclaimed, in a low voice:
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon! I quite forgot. How stupid of me!" Then she
+laughed softly and looked from Nell to Drake. "But of course you've told
+Lord Angleford? It is always the best way."
+
+The color slowly left Nell's face; a look of pain, of doubt, even of
+dread, came into her eyes. Drake glanced from one woman to the other.
+
+"What is it Nell must have told me, Lady Luce?" he asked easily.
+
+Lady Luce hesitated, seemed as if in doubt for a moment, and smiled in
+an embarrassed fashion.
+
+"Have you told him?" she asked Nell, in a low, but perfectly audible
+voice.
+
+Nell rose, then sank down again. She saw in an instant the trap which
+Lady Luce had set for her; and it seemed to her a trap from which she
+could not escape. It was evident that Lady Luce had become informed of
+the scene that had taken place between Sir Archie, Lord Wolfer, and Nell
+in the library at Wolfer House, and that Lady Luce intended to denounce
+her in the drawing-room before Drake and the large party gathered
+together in her honor.
+
+For one single instant there rose in her heart a keen regret that she
+had not told Drake; but it was only for an instant; for Nell's nature
+was a noble one, and she knew that at no time and under no circumstances
+whatever could she have sacrificed her friend, even to save her life's
+happiness--and Drake's.
+
+That chilly morning in the dim library she had taken her friend's folly
+and sin upon her own shoulders, scarcely counting, scarcely seeing the
+cost, certainly not foreseeing this terrible price which she would have
+to pay for it. And now--now that the terrible moment had come when
+Drake--she cared little for any other--would hear her accused of that
+which a pure woman counts the worst of crimes, she would not be able to
+rise, and, with uplifted head, exclaim: "I am innocent!"
+
+She felt crushed, overwhelmed, but she could not remain silent; she had
+to speak; the eyes of those who were near were fixed upon her waitingly.
+
+"I have not told him," she said at last, in a low but clear voice.
+
+Lady Luce bit her lip softly, as if very much confused.
+
+"I am so sorry I spoke!" she said, in an apologetic whisper. "It was
+very foolish of me--I am always blurting out awkward things--it is the
+impulsive Celtic temperament! Pray forgive me, Miss Lorton, and try and
+forget my stupid blunder."
+
+There was an intense silence. Nell looked straight before her, as one
+looks who hears the knell of the bell which signals the hour of her
+execution. Drake stood with his hands clasped behind him, his face
+perfectly calm, his eyes resting on Nell with infinite love and trust.
+The others glanced from one to the other with doubtful and
+half-suspicious looks. It seemed as if no one could start a
+conversation; the air was heavy with suspense and suspicion. The
+countess was quick and clever. She saw that for Nell's sake the matter
+must not be allowed to rest where it was; she knew that Lady Luce would
+have effected her purpose and cast a shadow of scandal over Nell's
+future life if not another word was spoken. Convinced that Nell was
+innocent of even the slightest indiscretion, she felt that it would be
+wiser to force Lady Luce's hand.
+
+So she came forward with a smile of tolerant contempt on her pretty,
+shrewd face, and said slowly, and with her musical drawl:
+
+"Oh, but, Lady Luce, we cannot let you off so easily. What is this
+interesting story in which Miss Lorton and Sir Archie Walbrooke are
+concerned?"
+
+Lady Luce rose with well-feigned embarrassment.
+
+"Pardon me, Lady Angleford," she said. "I have blundered and have asked
+forgiveness; I have not another word to say."
+
+She was crossing the room in front of Drake, and he saw her lip curl
+with a faint sneer. He laid his hand upon her arm gently but firmly.
+
+"We will hear the story, if you please, Lady Luce," he said.
+
+She bit her lip, as if she were driven into a corner, and did not know
+what to do.
+
+"Not here, at any rate!" she said, in a low voice, and looking round at
+the silent group.
+
+Some of them rose and moved away; but Drake held up his hand.
+
+"Oh, do not lose an amusing story!" he said, with a smile eloquent of
+contempt. "Now, Lady Luce, if you please."
+
+She looked from him to Nell.
+
+"What am I to do?" she asked, as if in great distress. "Miss Lorton, you
+see my predicament; please come to my aid, and help me to escape. Tell
+Lord Angleford that you do not wish me to say any more."
+
+Still looking straight before her, Nell responded, almost inaudibly:
+
+"Speak! Yes--tell them!"
+
+Lady Luce still seemed reluctant; at last she said, with an embarrassed
+laugh:
+
+"After all, it may amount to nothing, and you'll be very much
+disappointed. Indeed, it is very likely not true."
+
+Her reluctance was not altogether feigned, for it needed even her
+audacity and assurance to make such an accusation as she was about to
+bring against the future Countess of Angleford, and under her future
+roof; but she braced herself to a supreme effort, and, though she was
+really as white as Nell, she looked round boldly, as if confident of the
+truth of the thing she was going to say.
+
+"Everybody knows what Sir Archie is," she began. "He's the worst flirt
+and the most dangerous man in England. Everybody has heard stories of
+his delinquencies; some of them are true, but many of them, I dare say,
+are false, and I've not the least doubt that Miss Lorton will tell us
+that the story that she was about to elope with him from Wolfer House
+one morning, but that she was stopped by Lord Wolfer, is an absurd
+fable. The story goes that she did not know, until Lord Wolfer told her
+at the very moment that she and Sir Archie were leaving the house, that
+Sir Archie was a married man. Now that's the whole affair, and I really
+think Miss Lorton will be grateful to me for giving her an opportunity
+of rising in true dramatic fashion and exclaiming: 'It is not true!'"
+
+She nodded at Nell and laughed softly.
+
+There were many who echoed her laugh, for, indeed, the story did sound
+like an absurd fable. All eyes were turned on Nell, and all waited for
+her to bring about with a denial the satisfactory denouement. Drake did
+not laugh, for his heart was burning with fury against the audacity, the
+shameless insolence, of Lady Luce; but he smiled in a grim fashion as
+his eyes still rested on Nell's face.
+
+A moment passed. Why did she not rise? Why did she not, at any rate,
+speak? Four words would be enough: "It is not true!"
+
+But she remained motionless and silent. A kind of consternation began to
+creep over those who were watching, Drake went up to her and laid his
+hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Pray relieve Lady Luce's anxiety, Nell, and tell her that she has
+amused us with a canard too ridiculous to be anything but false," he
+said tenderly.
+
+She looked up at him, her brows drawn, her eyes pitiful in their agony
+of appeal, her lips quivering.
+
+"It is true!" she said, in a voice which, though low, was perfectly
+audible.
+
+There was an intense silence. No one moved; every eye was fixed on her
+in breathless excitement. They asked themselves if it were possible they
+had heard aright. Drake's hand pressed more heavily on Nell's shoulder;
+she could hear his breath coming heavily, could feel him shake. A faint
+cry escaped Lady Angleford's parted lips.
+
+"Nell!" she cried.
+
+Nell rose and looked at her with the same agony of appeal in her eyes,
+but with her face firmly set, as if she were buoyed up by an inflexible
+resolution.
+
+"What Lady Luce has said is true," she said. "I will go----"
+
+Drake was by her side in an instant. He took her cold hand and drew it
+within his arm.
+
+"No!" he said. "You will not go----"
+
+He looked at Lady Luce, and there was no need to finish the sentence.
+
+She smiled, and fanned herself slowly.
+
+"Of course, Miss Lorton can explain it all," she said. "I am very sorry
+to have been the cause, the innocent cause, of such an unpleasant scene.
+But really you forced me to speak; and we all know that though Miss
+Lorton has admitted her--what shall I call it?--little escapade, there
+must be some satisfactory explanation. No one will believe for a moment
+that she really intended to elope with Sir Archie."
+
+While she had been speaking, some of the guests had edged toward the
+door. At such moments the kindest thing one can do is to remove oneself
+as quickly as possible. When a sudden death happens in a ballroom, the
+dancing ceases, the music stops, the revelers vanish. Something worse
+than death had happened in this drawing-room. The happiness of more than
+one life had been blasted as by a stroke of lightning.
+
+There was a general movement toward the door. A group of old
+friends--county neighbors, real friends of Drake and the
+countess--gathered round the little group. Falconer and Dick pushed
+their way through them none too ceremoniously.
+
+"I'll take my sister home, Lord Angleford," said Dick hotly; while
+Falconer took her hand, his face white, his eyes flashing.
+
+Nell would have drawn away from Drake and turned to them; but he put his
+arm round her waist and held her by sheer force.
+
+"I beg that no one will go," he said; and his voice, though not loud,
+rang like a bell. Everybody stopped. "I think every one has heard Lady
+Lucille's accusation against my future wife," he said. "For reasons
+which concern herself and me only, my future wife"--he laid an emphasis
+on the words--"has seen fit not to deny this accusation. I am quite
+content that it should be so. If we have any friends here let----"
+
+Before he could finish his appeal, the door opened, and Lord and Lady
+Wolfer entered the room. They were in traveling dress, and Lady Wolfer
+looked pale and in trouble, while Wolfer's face was grave and stern.
+
+"If any friend, whether it be man or woman, deems an explanation due to
+them, I will ask Miss Lorton if she can give it to them," continued
+Drake. "If she should not think fit to do so----"
+
+Lady Wolfer, until now unnoticed except by a very few, came through the
+circle which at once had formed round the principal actors in this
+social tragedy. She went straight up to Nell, and took her hand and drew
+her into her embrace, as if to shelter and succor her. With a faint cry,
+Nell's head fell on Lady Wolfer's bosom. Lady Wolfer looked round, not
+defiantly, but with the air of one facing death bravely.
+
+"I will explain," she said. "It was not she who was going to elope with
+Sir Archie Walbrooke. It was I!"
+
+"No, no; you must not!" panted Nell.
+
+The living circle drew closer, and listened and stared in breathless
+silence.
+
+"It was I!" said Lady Wolfer.
+
+"You!" exclaimed Lady Luce. "Then Burden----"
+
+"Burden lied," said Lady Wolfer. "I want to tell every one; it is due to
+this saint, this dear girl, who sacrificed herself to me. I only heard
+this morning from my husband that he had found a note which Sir Archie
+had sent me, asking me to leave England with him. He placed this note on
+a pedestal in my drawing-room. Both my husband and Nell saw it, not
+knowing that the other had seen it. It never reached me; but this dear
+girl kept the appointment which Sir Archie had made for the library the
+next morning. She wanted to save me. I know, almost as if I had been
+there, how she pleaded with him, how she strove for my honor. While they
+were there my husband came upon them. The letter was not addressed to
+me, and he leaned to the conclusion that it was intended for Nell. She
+permitted him to make the hideous mistake, and, to save me, she left the
+house with her reputation ruined--in his eyes, at least. Until this
+morning he has never breathed a word of this to a soul. I am confident
+that Sir Archie Walbrooke, who went away full of remorse and penitence,
+has also kept silent. It was reserved for a woman to strike the blow
+aimed at the honor and happiness of an innocent and helpless girl--a
+girl so noble that she is ready to lay down her life's happiness and
+honor rather than betray the friend she loves. Judge between these two,
+between us three, if you will."
+
+It was not a moment for cheering, but sudden exclamations burst from the
+men, most of the women were in tears, and Nell was sobbing as she lay on
+her friend's bosom.
+
+Lady Luce alone remained smiling. Her face was white, her breath came in
+quick, labored gasps.
+
+"What a charming romance!" she exclaimed, with a forced sneer. "So
+completely satisfactory!"
+
+At the sound of her voice, the countess' spirit rose in true Anglo-Saxon
+fashion. She checked her sobs, wiped her eyes with a morsel of lace she
+called a handkerchief, and, sweeping in a stately manner to the door,
+said, with the extreme of patrician hauteur:
+
+"A carriage for Lady Lucille Turfleigh, please!"
+
+Lady Luce shrugged her shoulders, turned, and slowly moved toward the
+door; and, as she went, the crowd made way for her, and left her a clear
+passage, as if she had suddenly become infectious.
+
+Nell did not see her go, did not hear the mingled expressions of
+indignation and congratulation which buzzed round her.
+
+All she heard was Drake's "Nell! Nell! My dearest! my own!" as he put
+his arms round her and drew her head to his breast.
+
+Those persons who are fortunate enough to receive invitations to the
+summer and shooting parties, which Lord and Lady Angleford give at
+Anglemere, have very good reason to congratulate themselves; but those who
+are still more fortunate to receive a letter from Nell, asking them to
+spend a fortnight at the picturesque and "cottagy" house which Drake has
+built at a certain out-of-the-way spot in Devonshire called Shorne Mills,
+go about pluming themselves as if they had drawn one of the prizes in
+life's lottery. For only very intimate and dear friends are asked to
+Shorne Mills.
+
+The house is not large. With the exception of the grooms, there are no
+menservants; there is no state, and very little formality; life there is
+mostly spent in the open air, in that delicious mixture of sea and
+moorland air in which everyday worries and anxieties do not seem able to
+exist.
+
+At The Cottage no one finds time hanging heavily on his or her hands; no
+one is bored. It is a small Liberty Hall. There are horses to ride;
+there are tramps to be taken across the heather-scented hills; there are
+yachting and fishing in the bay, and there is always light-hearted
+laughter round and about the house--especially when her ladyship's
+brother, Mr. Dick Lorton, is present; and he and the famous musician,
+Mr. Falconer, always come down together, and remain while the family
+occupy The Cottage. There, too, the dowager countess is always a regular
+visitor; indeed, Nell and she are very seldom apart, for, if the
+countess could tear herself away from Nell, she certainly could not
+leave the baby son and heir, who is as often in her arms as in his
+mother's.
+
+Here, too, come, every year, the Wolfers. In fact, to sum it up, the
+party is composed of Nell's and Drake's dearest and tried friends, and
+they one and all have grown to love Shorne Mills almost as keenly as
+Nell and Drake themselves do. Nell is proud of Anglemere, and the other
+places which her husband has inherited, but there is a certain corner in
+her heart which is reserved for the little fishing place in which she
+first saw, and learned to love, "Drake Vernon."
+
+Watch them as they go down the steep and narrow way to the pier. It is a
+July evening; the sun is still bright, but the shadows are casting a
+purple tint on the hills beyond the moor; a faint breeze ripples the
+opaline bay; the fishing boats are gliding in like "painted ships on a
+painted ocean"; the tinkle of the cow bells mingles with the shrill cry
+of the curlew and the guillemot. The _Seagull_ lies at anchor in the bay
+ready to sail at a moment's notice. But Drake does not signal for the
+dinghy as Nell and he reach the pier, for, though they are going for a
+sail, it is not in the stately yacht.
+
+By the slip lies an old herring boat, with _Annie Laurie_ painted on its
+stern, and Brownie has got the sail up and stands waiting with a smile
+to help his beloved "Miss Nell" into the old boat. Nell lays her hand
+upon his shoulder as of old, and steps in and takes the tiller; Drake
+makes taut the sheet, and the old boat glides away from the slip and
+sails out into the open.
+
+Drake looks up at the wind with a sailor's eye, and glances at Nell. He
+does not speak, but she understands, and she steers the _Annie Laurie_
+for the little piece of smooth beach which leads to the cave under the
+cliff. It is to this point they nearly always make; for was it not here
+that Drake Vernon told Nell Lorton of his love, and drew the confession
+of hers from her lips? To this place they always come alone, for it is
+sacred.
+
+As, on this afternoon, they approach the spot, Drake utters an
+exclamation of surprise.
+
+"Why, Nell, there's another boat there!" he says.
+
+"Not really, Drake?" she says, with a little disappointment in her
+voice.
+
+For the moments they spend in this spot are sweet and precious to her.
+
+"Yes, there is," he says; "and, by George; there are two persons sitting
+on the bowlder--our bowlder!"
+
+Nell looks with keen eyes; then she blushes, and laughs softly.
+
+"Drake, it's Dick and Lettie Angel!" she says, in a whisper, as if they
+could hear her.
+
+But she need not be afraid; the two young people who are seated on the
+spot sacred to Nell and Drake's love, have no ears nor eyes for any but
+themselves. The girl's face is downcast and blushing, and Dick's is
+upturned to hers. He has got hold of her hand; he is pleading as--well,
+as a certain Drake Vernon once pleaded to a certain Nell Lorton.
+
+Nell and Drake exchange glances full of tenderness, full of sympathy.
+
+"Ourselves over again, dearest!" he says, in a low and loving voice.
+"Put her round; we won't disturb them. God bless them, and send them
+happiness like unto ours!"
+
+And "Amen!" whispers Nell, her eyes full of tears.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NELL, OF SHORNE MILLS***
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