initial commit of ebook 24794HEADmain

324 files changed, 26614 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/24794-8.txt b/24794-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ae4353
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8834 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+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: The Arbiter
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+Release Date: March 10, 2008 [EBook #24794]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ARBITER
+
+A NOVEL
+
+BY
+
+LADY F. E. E. BELL
+
+AUTHOR OF THE "STORY OF URSULA," "MISS TOD AND THE PROPHETS,"
+"FAIRY-TALE PLAYS," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+LONDON
+EDWARD ARNOLD
+37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
+1901
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE ARBITER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"It is a great mistake," said Miss Martin emphatically, "for any
+sensible woman to show a husband she adores him."
+
+"Even her own, Aunt Anna?" said Lady Gore, with a contented smile which
+Aunt Anna felt to be ignoble.
+
+"Of course I meant her own," she said stiffly. "I should hardly have
+thought, Elinor, that after being married so many years you would have
+made jokes of that sort."
+
+"That is just it," said Lady Gore, still annoyingly pleased with
+herself. "After adoring my husband for twenty-four years, it seems to me
+that I am an authority on the subject."
+
+"Well, it is a great mistake," repeated Miss Martin firmly, as she got
+up, feeling that the repetition notably strengthened her position. "As I
+said before, no sensible woman should do it."
+
+Lady Gore began to feel a little annoyed. It is fatiguing to hear one's
+aunt say the same thing twice. The burden of conversation is unequally
+distributed if one has to think of two answers to each one remark of
+one's interlocutor.
+
+"And you are bringing up Rachel to do the same thing, you know," the old
+lady went on, roused to fresh indignation at the thought of her
+great-niece, and she pulled her little cloth jacket down, and generally
+shook herself together. Crabbed age and jackets should not live
+together. Age should be wrapped in the ample and tolerant cloak, hider
+of frailties. It was not Aunt Anna's fault, however, if her garments
+were uncompromising and scanty of outline. Predestination reigns nowhere
+more strongly than in clothes, and it would have been inconceivable that
+either Miss Martin's body or her mind should have assimilated the
+harmonious fluid adaptability of the draperies that framed and
+surrounded Lady Gore as she lay on her couch.
+
+"I don't think it does her much harm," said Lady Gore, a good deal
+understating her conviction of her daughter's perfections.
+
+"That's as may be," said Miss Martin encouragingly. "Where is she
+to-day, by the way?" she said, stopping on her way to the door.
+
+"For a wonder she is not at home," Lady Gore said. "She has gone to stay
+away from me for the first time in her life; she is at Mrs. Feversham's,
+at Maidenhead, for the night."
+
+"How girls do gad nowadays, to be sure!" said Miss Martin.
+
+"I hardly think that can be said of Rachel," said Lady Gore.
+
+"Whether Rachel does or not, my dear Elinor, girls do gad--there is no
+doubt about that. I'm sorry I have not seen William. He is too busy, I
+suppose," with a slightly ironical intonation. "Goodbye!"
+
+"Can you find your way out?" said Lady Gore, ringing a hand-bell.
+
+"Oh dear, yes," said Miss Martin. "Goodbye," and out she went.
+
+Lady Gore leant back with a sigh of relief. A companion like Miss Martin
+makes a most excellent foil to solitude, and after she had departed,
+Lady Gore lay for a while in a state of pleasant quiescence. Why, she
+wondered, even supposing she herself did think too well of her husband,
+should Miss Martin object? Why do onlookers appear to resent the
+spectacle of a too united family? There is, no doubt, something
+exasperating in an excess of indiscriminating kindliness. But it is an
+amiable fault after all; and, besides, more discrimination may sometimes
+be required to discover the hidden good lurking in a fellow-creature
+than to perceive and deride his more obvious absurdities and defects. It
+would no doubt be a very great misfortune to see our belongings as they
+appear to the world at large, and the fay who should "gie us that
+giftie" ought indeed to be banished from every christening. Let us
+console ourselves: she commonly is.
+
+But poor Miss Martin had no adoring belongings to shed the genial light
+of affection on her doings, to give her even mistaken admiration,
+better than none at all. Life had dealt but bleakly with her; she had
+always been in the shadow: small wonder then if her nature was blighted
+and her view of life soured. Lady Gore smiled to herself, a little
+wistfully perhaps, as she tried to put herself in Miss Martin's
+place--of all mental operations one of the most difficult to achieve
+successfully. Lady Gore's sheer power of sympathy might enable her to
+get nearer to it than many people, but still she inevitably reckoned up
+the balance, after the fashion of our kind, seeing only one side of the
+scale and not knowing what was in the other, and as she did so, it
+seemed to her still possible that Miss Martin might have the best of it,
+or at any rate might not fall so short of the best as at first appeared.
+For in spite of her age she still had the great inestimable boon of
+health; she was well, she was independent, she could, when it seemed
+good to her, get up and go out and join in the life of other people.
+While as for herself ... and again the feeling of impotent misery, of
+rebellion against her own destiny, came over Lady Gore like a wave whose
+strength she was powerless to resist. For since the rheumatic fever
+which five years ago had left her practically an incurable invalid, the
+effort to accept her fate still needed to be constantly renewed; an
+effort that had to be made alone, for the acceptance of such a fate by
+those who surround the sufferer is generally made, more or less, once
+for all in a moment of emotion, and then gradually becomes part of the
+habitual circumstance of daily life. Mercifully she did not realise all
+at once the thing that had happened to her. In the first days when she
+was returning to health--she who up to the time of her illness had been
+so full of life and energy--the mere pleasure in existence, the mere joy
+of the summer's day in which she could lie near an open window, look out
+on the world and the people in it, was enough; she was too languid to
+want to do more. Then her strength slowly returned, and with it the
+desire to resume her ordinary life. But weeks passed in which she still
+remained at the same stage, they lengthened into months, and brought her
+gradually a horrible misgiving. Then, at last, despairingly she faced
+the truth, and knew that from all she had been in the habit of doing,
+from all that she had meant to do, she was cut off for ever. She began
+to realise then, as people do who, unable to carry their treasures with
+them, look over them despairingly before they cast them away one by one,
+all that her ambitions had been. She smiled bitterly to herself during
+the hours in which she lay there looking her fate in the face and trying
+to encounter it with becoming courage, as she realised how, with more
+than half of her life, at the best, behind her, she had up to this
+moment been spending the rest of it still looking onward, still living
+in the future. She had dreamt of the time when, helped by her, her
+husband should go forward in his career, when, steered under her
+guidance, Rachel would go along the smiling path to happiness. And now,
+instead, she was to be to husband and daughter but the constant object
+of care and solicitude and pity. Yes, pity--that was the worst of it.
+"An invalid," she repeated to herself, and felt that at last she knew
+what that word meant that she had heard all her life, that she had
+applied unconcernedly to one fellow-creature or another without
+realising all that it means of tragedy, of startled, growing dread,
+followed by hopeless and despairing acceptance. Then there came a day
+when, calling all her courage to her help, she made up her mind bravely
+to begin life afresh, to sketch her destiny from another point of view,
+and yet to make a success of the picture. The battle had to be fought
+out alone. Sir William, after the agony of thinking he was going to lose
+her, after the rapture of joy at knowing that the parting was not to be
+yet, had insensibly become accustomed, as one does become accustomed to
+the trials of another, to the altered conditions of their lives, and it
+was even unconsciously a sort of agreeable certainty that whatever the
+weather, whatever the claims of the day, she would every afternoon be
+found in the same place, never away, never occupied about the house,
+always ready to listen, to sympathise. She had made up her mind that
+since now she was debarred from active participation in the lives of her
+husband and daughter, she would by unceasing, strenuous daily effort
+keep abreast of their daily interests, and be by her sympathy as much a
+part of their existence as though she had been, as before, their
+constant companion.
+
+The smallness of such a family circle may act in two ways: it may either
+send the members of it in different directions, or it may draw them
+together in an intense concentration of interests and sympathy. This
+latter was happily the condition of the Gores. The varying degrees of
+their strength and weaknesses had been so mercifully adjusted by destiny
+that each could find in the other some support--whether real or fancied
+does not matter. For illusions, if they last, form as good a working
+basis for life as reality, and in the Gore household, whether by
+imagination or not, the equipoise of life had been most skilfully
+adjusted. The amount of shining phantasies that had interwoven
+themselves into the woof of the family destiny had become so much a part
+of the real fabric that they were indistinguishable from it.
+
+As far as Sir William's career, if we may give it that name, was
+concerned, the calamity which had fallen upon his wife had in some
+strange manner explained and justified it. The younger son of a country
+gentleman of good family, he had, by the death of his elder brother,
+come into the title, the estate, and the sufficient means bequeathed by
+his father. Elinor Calthorpe, the daughter of a neighbouring squire, had
+been ever since her childhood on terms of intimate friendship with the
+Gore boys; as far back as she could remember, William Gore, big, strong,
+full of life and spirits, a striking contrast to his delicate elder
+brother, had been her ideal of everything that was manly and splendid:
+and when after his brother's death he asked her to marry him, she felt
+that life had nothing more to offer. In that belief she had never
+wavered. Sir William, by nature estimable and from circumstances
+irreproachable, made an excellent husband; that is to say, that during
+nearly a quarter of a century of marriage he had never wavered either in
+his allegiance to his wife or in his undivided acceptance of her
+allegiance, and hers alone. She on her side had never once during all
+those years realised that the light which shone round her idol came from
+the lamp she herself kept alive before the shrine, nor even that it was
+her more acute intelligence, blind in one direction only, which
+suggested the opinion or course of action that he quite unconsciously
+afterwards offered to the world as his own. It was she who infused into
+his life every possibility beyond the obvious. It was her keenness, her
+ardent interest in those possibilities, that urged him on. When she
+finally persuaded him to stand for Parliament as member for their county
+town, it was in a great measure her popularity that won him the seat.
+
+He was in the House without making any special mark for two years, with
+a comfortable sense, not clearly stated perhaps even to himself, that
+there was time before him. Men go long in harness in these days; some
+day for certain that mark would be made. Then his party went out, and in
+spite of another unsuccessful attempt in his own constituency, and then
+in one further afield, he was left by the roadside, while the tide of
+politics swept on. His wife consoled herself by thinking that at the
+next opportunity he would surely get in. But when the opportunity came,
+she was so ill that he could not leave her, and the moment passed. Then
+when they began to realise what her ultimate condition might be, and she
+was recommended to take some special German waters which might work a
+cure, he and Rachel went with her. Sir William, when the necessity of
+going abroad first presented itself to him--a heroic necessity for the
+ordinary stay-at-home Englishman--had felt the not unpleasant stimulus,
+the tightening of the threads of life, which the need for a given
+unexpected course of action presents to the not very much occupied
+person. Then came those months away from his own country and his own
+surroundings--months in which he acquired the habit of reading an
+English newspaper two days old and being quite satisfied with it, when
+everything else also had two days' less importance than it would at
+home, and gradually he tasted the delights of the detached onlooker who
+need do nothing but warn, criticise, prophesy, protest. With absolute
+sincerity to himself he attributed this attitude which Fate had assigned
+to him as entirely owing to his having had to leave England on his
+wife's account. He had quite easily, quite calmly drifted into a
+conviction that for his wife's sake he had chivalrously renounced his
+chances of distinction. Lady Gore on her side--it was another bitterness
+added to the rest--did not for a moment doubt that it was her condition
+and the sacrifice that her husband had made of his life to her which had
+ruined his political career. And they both of them gradually succeeded
+in forgetting that the alternative had not been a certainty. They
+believed, they knew, they even said openly, that if it had not been for
+his incessant attendance on her he would have gone into the House, he
+would have taken office, and eventually have been one of the shapers of
+his country's destiny. The phraseology of their current talk to one
+another and to outsiders reflected this belief. "If I had continued in
+the House," Sir William would say, with a manner and inflection which
+conveyed that he had left it of his own free will and not attempted to
+return to it, "I should have----" or, "If I had taken office----" or
+even sometimes, "If I were leading the Liberal party----" and no one,
+indeed, was in a position to affirm that these things might not have
+been. If a man's capacities are hinted at or even stated by himself to
+his fellow-creatures with a certain amount of discretion, and if he does
+not court failure by putting them to the proof, it does not occur to
+most people to contradict him, and the possible truth of the
+contradiction soon sinks out of sight. So Sir William sat on the brink
+of the river and watched the others plunging into the waves, diving,
+rising, breasting the current, and was agreeably supported by the
+consciousness that if Fate had so ordained it, he himself would have
+been capable of performing all these feats just as creditably. No need
+now to stifle a misgiving that in the old days would occasionally
+obtrude itself into the glowing views of the future, that he was
+possibly not of a stature to play the great parts for which he might be
+cast. On the contrary, what now remained was the blessed peace brought
+by renunciation, the calm renunciation of prospects that in the light of
+ceasing to try to attain them seemed absolutely certain. No one now
+could ever say that he had failed. He had been prevented by
+circumstances from achieving any success of a definite and conspicuous
+kind, although the position he had attained, the consideration nearly
+always accorded to the ordinary prosperous middle-aged Englishman of the
+upper classes who has done nothing to forfeit his claim to it, and more
+than all, the plenitude of assurance which he received of his deserts
+from his immediate surroundings, might well have been considered success
+enough. And on his return to England, after eighteen months of
+wandering, although he was no longer in Parliament and had no actual
+voice in deciding the politics of his country, it pleased him to think
+that if he chose he could still take an active line, that he could
+belong to the volunteer army of orators who make speeches at other
+people's elections and who write letters to the newspaper that the world
+may know their views on a given situation.
+
+At the time of which we speak political parties in England were trying
+in vain to re-adjust an equable balance. Conservatives and Unionists,
+almost indistinguishable, were waving the Imperialist banner in the
+face of the world. The Liberals, once the advanced and subversive party,
+were now raising their voices in protest, tentatively advocating the
+claims of what they considered the oppressed races. Derisive epithets
+were hurled at them by their enemies; the Pro-Boers, the Little
+Englanders took the place of the Home Rulers of the past. Sir William
+was by tradition a Liberal. Inspired by that tradition he wrote an
+article on the "Attitude of England," which appeared in a Liberal
+Review. Thrilled by the sight of his utterances in print, he determined
+in his secret soul to expand that article into a book. The secret was of
+course shared by his wife, who fervently believed in the yet unwritten
+masterpiece. The fact that in spite of the dearth of prominent men in
+his party, of men who had in them the stuff of a leader, that party had
+not turned to Gore in its need, aroused no surprise, no misgiving, in
+either his mind or that of his wife. It was simply in their eyes another
+step in that path of voluntary renunciation which he was treading for
+her sake.
+
+With this possible interpretation of all missed opportunities entirely
+taken for granted, Sir William's existence flowed peacefully and
+prosperously on. It was with an agreeable consciousness of his dignity
+and prestige that he sat once or twice in the week at the board meetings
+of one or two governing bodies to which he belonged. They figured in his
+scheme of existence as his hours of work, the sterner, more serious
+occupation which justified his hours of leisure. The rest of that
+leisure was spent in happy, congenial uniformity: a morning ride,
+followed by some time in his comfortable study, during which he might be
+supposed to be writing his book; an hour or two at his club; a game or
+two of chess, a pastime in which he excelled; and behind all this a
+beautiful background, the deep and enduring affection of his wife, whose
+companionship, and needs, and admiration for himself filled up all the
+vacant spaces in his life. He would, however, have been genuinely
+surprised if he had realised that it was by a constant, deliberate
+intention that she succeeded in entertaining him, in amusing him, as
+much as she did her friends and acquaintances; if he had thought that
+she had made up her mind that never, while she had power to prevent it,
+should he come into his own house and find it dull. And he never did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+To be a popular invalid is in itself a career: it blesses those that
+call and those that receive. The visitors who used day by day to go and
+see Lady Gore used to congratulate themselves as they stood on her
+doorstep on the knowledge that they would find her within, and glad--or
+so each one individually thought--to see them. She was an attractive
+person, certainly, as she lay on her sofa. Her hair had turned white
+prematurely early, it enhanced the effect of the delicate faded
+colouring and the soft brown eyes. The sweet brightness of her manner
+was mingled with dignity, with the comprehensive sympathy and pliability
+of a woman of the world; an innate distinction of mind and person
+radiated from her looks. Those who watched the general grace and repose
+of her demeanour and surroundings involuntarily felt that there might be
+advantages in a condition of life which prevented the mere thought of
+being hot, untidy, hurried, like some of the ardent ladies who used to
+rush into her room between a committee meeting and a tea-party and tell
+her breathlessly of their flustered doings. Rachel had inherited
+something of her mother's dainty charm. She had the same brown eyes and
+delicate features, framed by bright brown hair. It was certainly
+encouraging to those who looked upon the daughter to see in the mother
+what effect the course of the years was likely to have on such a
+personality. There was not much dread in the future when confronted with
+such a picture. But in truth, as far as most of the spectators who
+frequented the house were concerned, Rachel's personality had been
+merged in her mother's, and any comparison between the two was perhaps
+more likely to be in the direction of wondering whether Rachel in the
+course of years would, as time went on, become so absolutely delightful
+a human product as Lady Gore. Rachel's own attitude on this score was
+entirely consonant with that of others. Her mother was the centre of her
+life, the object of her passionate devotion, her guide, her ideal. It
+was when Rachel was seventeen that Lady Gore became helpless and
+dependent, and the girl suddenly found that their positions were in some
+ways reversed; it was she who had to take care of her mother, to
+inculcate prudence upon her, to minister incessantly to her daily wants;
+there was added to the daughter's love the yearning care that a loving
+woman feels for a helpless charge, and there was hardly room for
+anything else in her life. Rachel, fortunately for herself and for
+others, had no startling originality; no burning desire, arrived at
+womanhood, to strike out a path for herself. She was unmoved by the
+conviction which possesses most of her young contemporaries that the
+obvious road cannot be the one to follow. Lady Gore's perceptions, far
+more acute as regarded her daughter than her husband, and rendered more
+vivid still by the whole concentration of her maternal being in Rachel,
+had entirely realised, while she wondered at it, the complete lack in
+her child of the modern ferment that seethes in the female mind of our
+days. But she had finally come to see that if Rachel was entirely happy
+and contented with her life it was a result to rejoice over rather than
+be discontented with, even though her horizon did not extend much beyond
+her own home. Besides, it is always well to rejoice over a result we
+cannot modify. Needless to say that the girl, who blindly accepted her
+mother's opinion even on indifferent subjects, was, biassed by her own
+affection, more than ready to endow her father with all the qualities
+Lady Gore believed him to possess. She had arrived at the age of
+twenty-two without realising that there could be for her any claims in
+the world that would be paramount to these, anything that could possibly
+come before her allegiance to her parents.
+
+One of the bitterest pangs of Lady Gore's bitter renunciation was the
+moment when she realised that she could not be the one to guide Rachel's
+first steps in a wider world than that of her home, that all her plans
+and theories about the moment when the girl should grow up, when her
+mother would accompany her, steer her, help her at every step, must
+necessarily be brought to nought. And this mother, alas! had been so
+full of plans; she had so anxiously watched other people and their
+daughters, so carefully accumulated from her observation the many
+warnings and the few examples which constitute what is called the
+teaching of experience. But when the time came the lesson had been
+learnt in vain. Rachel's eighteenth and nineteenth years were spent in
+anxious preoccupations about her mother's health, in solicitous care of
+her father and the household, and the girl had glided gently from
+childhood into womanhood with nothing but increased responsibility,
+instead of more numerous pleasures, to mark the passage. But the result
+was something very attractively unlike the ordinary product of the age.
+She had had, from the conditions of her life, no very intimate and
+confidential girl friends by whose point of view to readjust and
+possibly lower her own, and with whom to compare every fleeting
+manifestation of thought and feeling. She remained unconsciously
+surrounded by an atmosphere of reticence and reserve, a certain shy
+aloofness, mingled with a direct simple dignity, that gave to her
+bearing an ineffable grace and charm. The mothers of more dashing
+damsels were wont to say that she was not "effective" in a ballroom. It
+was true that she had nothing particularly accentuated in demeanour or
+appearance which would at once arrest attention, an inadequate
+equipment, perhaps, in the opinion of those who hold that it is better
+to produce a bad effect than none at all.
+
+Mrs. Feversham, of Bruton Street, was an old friend of Lady Gore's,
+whose junior she was by a few years. She had no daughters of her own,
+and had in consequence an immense amount of undisciplined energy at the
+service of those of other people. She was not a lady whose views were
+apt to be matured in silence; she was ardently concerned about Rachel's
+future, and she was constantly imparting new projects to Lady Gore, who
+received them with smiling equanimity.
+
+It was at an "At Home" given by Mrs. Feversham one evening early in the
+season, when the rooms were full of hot people talking at the top of
+their voices, that the hostess, looking round her with a comprehensive
+glance, saw Rachel standing alone. There was, however, in the girl's
+demeanour none of that air of aggressive solitude sometimes assumed by
+the neglected. The eye fell upon Rachel with a sense of rest, looking on
+one who did not wish to go anywhere or to do anything, who was standing
+with unconscious grace an entirely contented spectator of what was
+passing before her. Mrs. Feversham's one idea, however, as she perceived
+her was instantly to suggest that she should do something else, that at
+any price some one should take her to have some tea, or make her eat or
+walk, or do anything, in fact, but stand still. Rachel, however, at the
+moment she was swooped down upon, was well amused; a smile was
+unconsciously playing on her lips as she listened to an absurd
+conversation going on between a young man and a girl just in front of
+her.
+
+"By George!" said the boy, "it is hot. Let's go and have ices."
+
+"Ices? Right you are," the girl replied, and attempted to follow her
+gallant cavalier, who had started off, trying to make for himself a path
+through the serried hot crowd, leaving the lady he was supposed to be
+convoying to follow him as near as she might.
+
+"Hallo!" he said suddenly. "There's Billy Crowther. Do you mind if I go
+and slap him on the back?"
+
+"All right, buck up, then, and slap him on the back," replied the fair
+one. "I'll go on." Thus gracefully encouraged, the youth flung himself
+in another direction, and almost overturned his hostess, who was coming
+towards Rachel.
+
+"Sorry," he said, apparently not at all discomposed, and continued his
+wild career.
+
+"Well! the young men of the present day!..." said Mrs. Feversham, as she
+joined Rachel; then suddenly remembering that a wholesale condemnation
+was not the attitude she wished to inculcate in her present hearer, she
+went on: "Not that they are all alike, of course; some of them are--are
+different," she supplemented luminously. "Now, my child, have you had
+anything to eat?"
+
+"I don't think I want anything, thank you," said Rachel.
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" said Mrs. Feversham. "You must." And, looking round for
+the necessary escort, she saw a new arrival coming up the stairs. "The
+very man!" she said to herself, but fortunately not aloud, as "Mr.
+Rendel!" was announced. A young man of apparently a little over thirty,
+with deep-set, far-apart eyes and clear-cut features, came up and took
+her outstretched hand with a little air of formal politeness refreshing
+after the manifestations she had been deploring.
+
+"I am so glad to see you," she said cordially. Rendel greeted her with a
+smile. "Do you know Miss Gore?" Rendel and Rachel bowed.
+
+"I have met Sir William Gore more than once," he said.
+
+"She is dying for something to eat," said Mrs. Feversham, to Rachel's
+great astonishment. "Do take her downstairs, Mr. Rendel." The young
+people obediently went down together.
+
+"I am not really dying for something to eat," Rachel said, as soon as
+they were out of hearing of their hostess. "In fact, I am not sure that
+I want anything."
+
+"Oh, don't you?" said Rendel.
+
+"Two hours ago I was still dining, you see."
+
+"Of course," said Rendel, "so was I." They both laughed. They went on
+nevertheless to the door of the room from whence the clatter of glass
+and china was heard.
+
+"Now, are you sure you won't be 'tempted,' according to the received
+expression?" said Rendel, as a hot waiter hurried past them with some
+dirty plates and glasses on a tray.
+
+"No, I am afraid I am not at all tempted," said Rachel.
+
+"Well, let us look for a cooler place," said Rendel. What a soothing
+companion this was he had found, who did not want him to fight for an
+ice or a sandwich! They went up again to a little recess on the landing
+by an open window. The roar of tongues came down to them from the
+drawing-room.
+
+"Just listen to those people," said Rendel. A sort of wild, continuous
+howl filled the air, as though bursting from a company of the condemned
+immured in an eternal prison, instead of from a gathering of peaceable
+citizens met together for their diversion. "Isn't it dreadful to realise
+what our natural note is like?" he added. "It is hideous."
+
+"It isn't pretty, certainly," said Rachel, unable to help smiling at his
+face of disgust. The roar seemed to grow louder as it went on.
+
+"It is a pity we can't chirp and twitter like birds," said Rendel.
+
+"I don't know that that would be very much better," said Rachel. "Have
+you ever been in a room with a canary singing? Think of a room with as
+many canaries in it as this."
+
+"Yes, I daresay--it might have been nearly as bad," Rendel said; "though
+if we were canaries we should be nicer to look at perhaps," and his eye
+fell on an unprepossessing elderly couple who were descending the stairs
+with none of the winsomeness of singing birds. "Have you read
+Maeterlinck's 'Life of the Bees'?"
+
+"No," Rachel answered simply.
+
+"I agree with him," Rendel said, "that it would be just as difficult to
+get any idea of what human beings are about by looking down on them from
+a height, as it is for us to discover what insects are doing when we
+look down on them."
+
+"Yes, imagine looking at that," said Rachel, pointing towards the
+drawing-room. "You would see people walking up and down and in and out
+for no reason, and jostling each other round and round."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel. "How aimless it would look! Not more aimless than it
+is, after all," he added.
+
+"It amuses me, all the same," said Rachel, rather deprecatingly. "I
+mean, to come to a party of this kind every now and then; perhaps
+because I don't do it very often."
+
+"Why, don't you go out every night of your life in the season?" said
+Rendel; "I thought all young ladies did."
+
+"I don't," she said. "It isn't quite the same for me as it is for other
+people--at least, I mean that I have only my father to go out with;" and
+then, seeing in his face the interpretation he put on her words, she
+added, "my mother is an invalid, and we do not like to leave her too
+often."
+
+"Ah! but she is alive still," said Rendel, with a tone that sounded as
+if he understood what the contrary might have meant.
+
+"Oh yes," said Rachel quickly. "Yes, yes, indeed she is alive," in a
+voice that told the proportion that fact assumed in existence.
+
+"My mother died long years ago," said Rendel, in a lower voice. "Not so
+long, though, that I did not understand." Rachel looked at him with a
+soft light of pity flooding her face, and drawing the words out of him,
+he knew not how. "My father married again," he said, "while I was still
+a child--while I needed looking after, at least."
+
+"Oh," said Rachel, "you had a stepmother?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I had a stepmother," and his face involuntarily became
+harder as he recalled that long stretch of loveless years--the father
+had never quite understood the shy and sensitive child--during which he
+had been neglected, suppressed, lonely, with no one to care that he did
+well at school and college, and that later he was getting on in the
+world, with no place in the world that was really his home. Then he went
+on after a moment: "And now my father is dead, too, so I am pretty much
+alone, you see."
+
+"How terrible it must be!" said Rachel softly. "How extraordinary! I
+can't quite imagine what it is like."
+
+"Well, it is not very pleasant," said Rendel looking up, and again
+penetrated by the sweet compassion in Rachel's face. "You can't think
+how strange it is----" He broke off and got up as Sir William Gore came
+downstairs towards them. Sir William, with the true instinct of a
+father, had chosen this moment to wonder whether Rachel was being
+sufficiently amused, and was bearing down upon her and her companion
+with an air of cheerful virtue which proclaimed that her conversation
+with Rendel was at an end. Sir William's political principles did not
+permit him to think very much of Rendel, since he was private secretary
+to a man whose policy Sir William cordially detested, Lord Stamfordham,
+the Foreign Minister, whose acute and wide-reaching sagacity inspired
+his followers with a blind confidence to himself and his methods. Lord
+Stamfordham had soon discovered the practical aptitude, the political
+capacity, the determined, honourable ambition that lay behind Francis
+Rendel's grave exterior, and had made up his mind, as indeed had others,
+that the young man had a distinguished future before him.
+
+"Ah, Rendel, how are you?" said Gore. "What is your Chief going to do
+next, eh?"
+
+"I am afraid I can't tell you, Sir William," said Rendel with a half
+smile.
+
+"Well, the people round him ought to put the brake on," said Gore, "or I
+don't know where the country will be."
+
+"I am afraid it is a brake I am not strong enough to work," said Rendel;
+"like Archimedes, I have not a lever powerful enough to move the
+universe."
+
+"H'm!" said Sir William, with a sort of snort. There are fortunately
+still some sounds left in our vocabulary which convey primeval emotions
+without the limitations of words. "Come, Rachel, it is time for us to be
+going."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Feversham's watchful eye had managed to observe what appeared to
+be the sufficiently satisfactory sequel to the introduction she had
+made. She was not a woman to let such a seed die for want of planting
+and watering. She asked Rendel to dinner to meet the Gores, she talked
+to Lady Gore about him, she it was who somehow arranged that he should
+go to call at Prince's Gate, and he finally grew into a habit of finding
+his way there with a frequency that surprised himself. Lady Gore
+subjugated him entirely by her sweet kindly welcome, and the interest
+with which she listened to him, until he found himself to his own
+astonishment telling her, as he sat by her sofa, of his hopes and fears
+and plans for the future.
+
+Gradually new possibilities seemed to come into his life, or rather the
+old possibilities were seen in a new light shed by the womanly sympathy
+which up to now he had never known. He came away from each visit with
+some fresh spurt of purpose, some new impulse to achievement. Lady Gore,
+on her side, had been more favourably impressed by Rendel than by any of
+the young men she had seen, until she realised that here at last was a
+possible husband who might be worthy of Rachel. But with her customary
+wisdom she tried not to formulate it even to herself: she did not
+believe in these things being helped on otherwise than by opportunity
+for intercourse being given. But where Mrs. Feversham was, opportunity
+was sure to follow. Lady Gore one morning had an eager letter from her
+friend saying, "I know that you and Rachel make it a rule of life that
+she can never go away from home. But you must let her come to me next
+Thursday for the night. I shall have"--and she underlined this
+significantly without going into more details--"_just the right people
+to meet her_." And for once, as Lady Gore folded up the letter, she too
+was seized with an ardour of matchmaking. She had a real affection for
+Rendel, and the devotion of the young man to herself touched and pleased
+her. His probably brilliant future and comfortable means were not the
+principal factors in the situation, but there was no doubt that they
+helped to make everything else easy. So it was that, to Rachel's great
+surprise, the day after the party at Bruton Street, her mother having
+told her without showing her the letter of Mrs. Feversham's invitation,
+advised her to accept it, and, to the mother's still greater surprise,
+the daughter, in her turn, after a slight protest, agreed to do so,
+stipulating, however, that she should not be away more than twenty-four
+hours. The accusation that Rachel "gadded" as much as other girls of her
+age was obviously an unmerited one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+"Alone?" said Sir William, as he came into the room. "Thank Heaven! Have
+you had no one?"
+
+"Aunt Anna," Lady Gore replied, in a tone which was comment on the
+statement.
+
+"Aunt Anna? What did she come again for?" said Sir William.
+
+"I really don't know," Lady Gore said. "I think to-day it was to tell me
+that Rachel and I ought not to worship you as we do."
+
+"I don't know what she means," said Sir William, standing from force of
+habit comfortably in front of the fireplace as though there were a fire
+in the grate. "I should have thought it was Rachel and I who adored
+you."
+
+"She would like that better," Lady Gore replied. "But, oh dear, what a
+weary woman she is!"
+
+"She has tired you out," Sir William said. "It really is not a good plan
+that your door should be open to every bore who chooses to come and call
+upon you. One ought to be able to keep people of that sort, at any rate,
+out of one's house."
+
+Lady Gore heaved a sigh.
+
+"Well, it is rather difficult and invidious too," she said, "to try to
+keep certain people out when one is not sure who is coming--and it is
+rather dull not to see any one," with a little quiver of the lip which
+Sir William did not perceive. Then speaking more lightly, "It is a pity
+we can't have some kind of automatic arrangement at our front doors,
+like the thing for testing sovereigns at the Mint, by which the heavy,
+tiresome people would be shot back into the street, and the light,
+amusing ones shot into the hall."
+
+"I am quite agreeable," said Sir William, "as long as Aunt Anna is shot
+back into the street."
+
+"Ah, how delightful it would be!" said Lady Gore longingly.
+
+"And Miss Tarlton too, please," said Sir William.
+
+"My dear William," Lady Gore said, "Miss Tarlton is quite harmless."
+
+"Harmless?" repeated Sir William; "I don't know what you call harmless.
+The very thought of her fills me with impotent rage. A woman who talks
+of nothing but photography and bicycling, and goes about with her
+fingers pea-green and her legs in gaiters! It's an outrage on society. I
+am thankful that Rachel has never gone in for any nonsense of that
+sort--nor ever shall, while I can prevent it."
+
+"My good friend," said Lady Gore, "you may not find that so easy."
+
+"I will prevent it as long as she is under my roof," replied Sir
+William. "I suppose if she marries a husband with any fads of that sort,
+she will have to share them."
+
+"But"--Lady Gore checked herself on the verge of saying, "I don't think
+he has," as she suddenly realised what image was called up by the
+mention of Rachel's possible husband--"but she might marry some one who
+hasn't," she ended lamely.
+
+"Oh dear me, yes," said Sir William, "there is time enough for that; she
+is very young after all."
+
+"She is twenty-two," said Lady Gore. "Perhaps that is young in these
+days when women don't seem to marry until they are nearly thirty. But I
+don't think it is a good plan to wait so long."
+
+"I don't think it's a bad one," said Sir William; "they know their own
+minds at any rate."
+
+"They have known half a dozen of their own minds," said Lady Gore. "I
+think it is much better for a girl to marry before she knows that there
+is an alternative to the mind she has got, such as it is."
+
+Sir William smiled, but did not think it worth while to argue the point.
+It was not his province, but her mother's, to guide Rachel's career, and
+he was content to remain in comfortable ignorance of the complications
+of the female heart of a younger generation. However, he was not allowed
+to remain in that detached attitude, for Lady Gore, with the subject
+uppermost in her mind preoccupying her to the exclusion of everything
+else, could not help adding, "You often see Mr. Rendel at parties, when
+you and Rachel go out, I mean?"
+
+"Rendel? Yes," said Gore indifferently. "Why?"
+
+Lady Gore did not explain. "I like him," she said.
+
+"Oh yes, so do I," said Gore, without enthusiasm. "I don't agree with
+him, of course. I asked him one day what his Chief was about, and told
+him he ought to put the brake on."
+
+"Did he seem pleased at that?" said Lady Gore, smiling.
+
+"He will have to hear it, I'm afraid," said Gore, "whether it pleases
+him or not."
+
+"I must say," said Lady Gore, "I can't help admiring Lord Stamfordham. I
+do like a man who is strong, and this man is head and shoulders above
+other people."
+
+"Head and shoulders above little people perhaps," said Sir William.
+
+"Mr. Rendel says that when once one is caught up in Lord Stamfordham's
+train, it is impossible not to follow him."
+
+"Rendel!" said Sir William. "Oh, of course, if you're going to listen to
+what Stamfordham's hangers-on say...."
+
+"Oh, William, please!" said Lady Gore. "Don't say that sort of thing
+about Mr. Rendel."
+
+"Why?" said Sir William, amazed. "Why am I to speak of Rendel with bated
+breath?"
+
+"Because ... suppose--suppose he were to be your son-in-law some day?"
+
+"Oh," said Sir William, staring at her, "is that what you are thinking
+of?"
+
+"Mind--mind you don't say it," cried Lady Gore.
+
+"_I_ shan't say it, certainly," cried Sir William, still bewildered;
+"but has he said it? That's more to the point."
+
+"He hasn't yet," she admitted.
+
+"Well, he never struck me in that light, I must say," said Sir William.
+"I always thought it was you he adored."
+
+"_Cela n'empêche pas_," said Lady Gore, laughing.
+
+"I daresay he would do very well," said Sir William, who, as he further
+considered the question, was by no means insensible to the advantages of
+the suggestion put before him; "it is only his politics that are against
+him."
+
+"I am afraid," said Lady Gore, "that Rachel would always think her
+father knew best."
+
+"Afraid!" said Sir William, "what more would you have?"
+
+"My dear William," said his wife, smiling at him, "she might think her
+husband knew best, that is what some people do."
+
+"Quite right," said Sir William, looking at her fondly, but believing
+with entire conviction in the truth of what he was lightly saying.
+
+At this moment the door opened and a footman came in.
+
+"Young Mr. Anderson is downstairs, Sir William."
+
+"Young Mr. Anderson?" said Sir William, looking at him with some
+surprise.
+
+"Yes, Sir William--Mr. Fred," the man replied, evidently somewhat
+doubtful as to whether he was right in using the honorific.
+
+"Fred Anderson back again!" said Sir William to his wife. "All right,
+James, I'll come directly." "I wonder if his rushing back to England so
+soon," he said, as the door closed upon the servant, "means that that
+boy has come to grief."
+
+"Let us hope that it means the reverse," said his wife, "and that he has
+come back to ask you to be chairman of his company--as you promised, do
+you remember, when he went away?"
+
+"So I did, yes, to be sure," said Sir William, laughing at the
+recollection. "Upon my word, that lad won't fail for want of assurance.
+We shall see what he has got to say." And he went out.
+
+The Andersons had been small farmers on the Gore estate for some
+generations. Fred Anderson, the second son of the present farmer, a
+youth of energy and enterprise, had determined to seek his fortune
+further afield. Mainly by the kind offices of the Gores, he had been
+started in life as a mining engineer, and had, eighteen months before
+his present reappearance, been sent with some others to examine and
+report on a large mine lately discovered on British territory near the
+Equator. The result of their investigations proved that it was actually
+and most unexpectedly a gold mine, promising untold treasure, but at the
+same time, from its geographical situation, almost valueless, since it
+was so far from any lines of communication as to make the working of it
+practically impossible. The young, however, are sanguine; undaunted by
+difficulties, Fred Anderson, in spite of the discouragement and dropping
+off of his companions, remained full of faith in the future of the mine,
+and of something turning up which would make it possible to work it; in
+fact, he had actually gone so far as to obtain for himself a grant of
+the mining rights from the British Government. It was for this purpose
+that, giving a brief outline of the situation, he had written to Sir
+William some time before to ask him for the sum necessary to obtain the
+concession. Sir William had advanced it to him. It was when, two years
+before, the boy of nineteen was leaving home for the first time that he
+had half jestingly asked Sir William whether, if he and his companions
+found a gold mine and started a company to work it, he would be their
+chairman, and Sir William, to whom it had seemed about as likely that
+Fred Anderson would become Prime Minister as succeed in such an
+undertaking, had given him his hand on the bargain.
+
+"Well, my boy," said Sir William, and the very sound of his voice seemed
+to Fred Anderson to put him back two years--the two years that appeared
+to him to contain his life. "How is it you have hurried back to England
+so quickly?"
+
+"I will tell you all about it, Sir William," said the boy. "I thought it
+best to come over and get everything into shape myself."
+
+"You seem to be embarking on very adventurous schemes," said Sir
+William, feeling as he looked at the boy's bright, open face, full of
+alert intelligence, that it was not impossible that the schemes might be
+carried through.
+
+"I think you will say so, sir, when you have heard what I have to tell
+you," said Anderson, resolutely keeping down his excitement in a way
+that boded well for his powers of self-control.
+
+"I shall be much interested," said Sir William. "Now, what about those
+mining rights? Do I understand that you are the proprietor of a mine on
+the Equator, a thousand miles from anywhere?"
+
+"Yes, and no," said Anderson. "At least, yes to the first question; no
+to the second."
+
+"What," said Sir William, still speaking lightly, "has the mine come
+nearer since we first heard of it?"
+
+"Yes, practically it has," said Anderson, looking Gore in the face.
+Then, unrolling the paper which he held in his hand and rolling it the
+other way that it might remain open, he laid it carefully out on the
+table before Sir William. "I have brought you the map with all the
+indications on it, that you may see for yourself." Sir William adjusted
+an eyeglass and bent over the map, roused to more curiosity than he
+showed.
+
+"This," said the young man, pointing to a large tract in pink, "is
+British territory; that is Uganda; here is the Congo Free State. There,
+you see, are the Germans where the map is marked in orange. There is
+the Equator, and _there_ is the mine. Look, marked in blue."
+
+"That is a pretty God-forsaken place, I must say," remarked Sir William.
+
+"One moment," said Fred. "That thin, dotted ink line running north and
+south from the top of Africa to the bottom is the Cape to Cairo Railway,
+of which the route has now been determined on, and this," with a ringing
+accent of triumph, bringing his hand down on to the map, "is the place
+where the railway will pass within a few miles of us."
+
+"What?" said Sir William, starting.
+
+"Yes, there it is, quite close," Anderson answered. "When once it is
+there, all our difficulties of transport are over."
+
+Sir William recovered himself.
+
+"Cape to Cairo!" he said. "You had better wait till you see the line
+made, my boy."
+
+"That won't be so very long, Sir William, I assure you," said the young
+man. "This cross in ink marks where the line has got to from the
+northern end, and this one," pointing to another, "from the south, and
+they have already got telegraph poles a good bit further."
+
+"Before the two ends have joined hands," said Sir William, "another
+Government may be in which won't be so keen on that mad enterprise. As
+if we hadn't railways enough on our hands already."
+
+"Not many railways like this one," said the young man. "Did you see an
+article in the _Arbiter_ about it this morning? It is going to be the
+most tremendous thing that ever was done."
+
+"Oh, of course, yes," said Sir William with an accent of scorn in his
+tone. "Just the kind of thing that the _Arbiter_ would have a good
+flare-up about. I have no doubt that the scheme is magnificent on paper.
+However, time will show," he added, with a kinder note in his voice. He
+liked the boy and his faith in achieving the impossible.
+
+"It will indeed," said Anderson. "Only, you see, we can't afford to wait
+till time shows--we must take it by the forelock now, I'm afraid."
+
+"Then what do you propose to do next?" said Sir William.
+
+"We are going to form a company," said the boy, his colour rising. "We
+are going to have everything ready, and the moment the railway is
+finished we are ready to work the mine, and our fortune is made."
+
+"You are going to form a company?" said Sir William, incredulously.
+
+"Yes," Anderson replied. "In a week we shall have the whole thing in
+shape, and I hope that when the mine and its possibilities are made
+public, we shan't have any difficulty in getting the shares taken up."
+
+"Well, I am sure I hope you won't," said Sir William. "I'll take some
+shares in it if you can show me a reasonable prospect of its coming to
+anything. But I should like to hear something more about it first."
+
+"You shall, of course," said Anderson, as he took up his map again. "But
+it was not about taking shares I came to ask you, Sir William."
+
+"What was it, then?" said Sir William.
+
+"You said," the boy replied, with an embarrassed little laugh, looking
+him straight in the face, "that you would be the chairman of the first
+company I floated."
+
+"By Jove, so I did!" said Sir William. "Upon my word, it was rather a
+rash promise to make."
+
+"I don't think it was, I assure you," the boy said earnestly; "this
+thing really is going to turn up trumps."
+
+"Well, let's hope it is, for all concerned," said Sir William. "And what
+are you going to call it?"
+
+"Oh, we are going to call it," said Fred, "simply 'The Equator,
+Limited.'"
+
+"The Equator! Upon my word! Why not the Universe?" said Sir William.
+
+"That will come next," said the boy, with a happy laugh of sheer
+jubilation. "Then, Sir William, will you--you will be our chairman?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Sir William. "A promise is a promise. But mind, I shall
+be a very inefficient one. I don't suppose you could find any one who
+knew less about that sort of thing than I do."
+
+"Oh, that will be all right, Sir William," the boy said quickly. "There
+will be lots of people concerned who know all about it. Now that the
+mine is going to be accessible, the right people will be more than ready
+to take it up. I just wanted to have you there as the nominal head to
+it, because you have always been so good to me, and you have brought me
+luck since the beginning."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Sir William. "You'll have only yourself to thank, my
+boy, when you get on."
+
+"Oh, I know better than that," said Anderson. Something very like tears
+came into his eyes as he took the hand Sir William held out to him, and
+then left the room as happy a youth of twenty-one as could be found in
+London that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+There was another young creature, at that moment driving across London
+to Prince's Gate, to whom the world looked very beautiful that day.
+Rachel was still in a sort of rapturous bewilderment. The wonderful new
+experience that had come to her, that she was contemplating for the
+first time, seemed, as she saw it in the company of familiar
+surroundings, more marvellous yet. At Maidenhead everything had been
+unwonted. The new experience of going away alone, the enchanting repose
+of the hot sunny days on the river, the look of the boughs as they
+dipped lazily into the water, and the light dancing and dazzling on the
+ripples of the stream--all had been part of the setting of the new
+aspect of things, part of that great secret that she was beginning to
+learn. Yet all the time she had had a feeling that when the setting was
+altered, when she left this mysterious region of romance, life would
+become ordinary again, the strange golden light with which it was
+flooded would turn into the ordinary light of day, and she would find
+herself where she had been before. But it was not so. Here she was back
+again in the town she knew so well, driving towards her home--but the
+new, strange possession had not left her, the secret was hers still. It
+had all come so quickly that she had not realised what she felt. Was she
+"in love," the thing that she had taken for granted would happen to her
+some day, but that she had not yet longed for? Rachel, it must be
+confessed, had not been entirely given up to romance; she had not been
+waiting, watching for the fairy prince who should ride within her ken
+and transform existence for her. Her life had been too full of love of
+another kind. But now she had a sudden feeling of experience having been
+completed, something had come to her that she had wished for, longed
+for--how much, she had not known until it came. What would they say at
+home? What would her mother say? And gradually she realised, as she
+always ended by realising, that whatever the picture of life she was
+contemplating her mother was in the foreground of it. There was no doubt
+about that; her mother came first, her mother must come first. But
+nothing was quite clear in her mind at this moment. The past forty-eight
+hours, the sudden change of scene and of companionship, a possible
+alternative path suddenly presenting itself in an existence which had
+been peacefully following the same road, all this had been disturbing,
+bewildering even--and when the hansom drew up in Prince's Gate, Rachel
+felt an intense satisfaction at being back again in the haven, at the
+thought of the welcome she was going to find. And as on a summer's day
+to people sitting in a shaded room, the world beyond shut out, the
+opening of a door into the sunshine may reveal a sudden vista of light,
+of flowers shining in the sun, so to the two people who were awaiting
+Rachel's arrival she brought a sudden vision of youth, brightness,
+colour, hope, as she came swiftly in, smiling and confident, with the
+face and expression of one who had never come into the presence of
+either of these two companions without seeing her gladness reflected in
+the light of welcome that shone in their eyes.
+
+"Well, gadabout!" said her father as she turned to him after embracing
+her mother fondly.
+
+"I am very sorry," said Rachel, "I won't do it again."
+
+"And how did you enjoy yourself, my darling?" said Lady Gore.
+
+"Oh, very much," Rachel said. "It was delightful." The mother looked at
+her and tried to read into her face all that the words might mean.
+Rachel was in happy unconsciousness of how entirely the ground was
+prepared to receive her confidence.
+
+"Was there a large party?" said Sir William.
+
+"No," said Rachel, "a very small one." She was leaning back comfortably
+in the armchair, and deliberately taking off her gloves. "In fact, there
+were only two people beside myself, Sir Charles Miniver, and--Mr.
+Rendel." There was a pause.
+
+"Miniver!" said Sir William, "Still staying about! He appeared to me an
+old man when I was twenty-five." Rachel opened her eyes.
+
+"Did he?" she said. "That explains it. He is quite terribly old now,
+much, much older than other old people one sees," she said, with the
+conviction of her age, to which sixty and eighty appear pretty much the
+same. "You didn't mind," she went on to her mother hastily, somewhat
+transparently trying to avoid a discussion of the rest of the house
+party, "my staying till the afternoon train? Mrs. Feversham suggested
+boating this morning, and the day was so lovely, it was too tempting to
+refuse."
+
+"I didn't mind at all," said Lady Gore. "It must have been lovely in the
+boat. Did you all go?"
+
+"N--no, not all," replied Rachel. "Mrs. Feversham would have come, but
+she had some things to do at home, and Sir Charles Miniver was----"
+
+"Too old?" Lady Gore suggested.
+
+"I suppose so," said Rachel, "though he called it busy."
+
+"As you say," remarked Sir William, "that does not leave many people to
+go in the boat." Rachel looked at her father quickly, but with a
+pliability surprising in the male mind he managed to look unconscious.
+"Well, Elinor," he continued, "I think as you have a companion now, I
+shall go off for a bit. I shall be back presently. Let me implore you
+not to let me find too many bores at tea."
+
+"If Miss Tarlton comes," said Lady Gore, "I will have her automatically
+ejected." Sir William went out, smiling at her. The mother and
+daughter, both unconsciously to themselves, watched the door close, then
+Rachel got up, went to the glass over the chimneypiece and began
+deliberately taking off her veil.
+
+"I do look a sight," she said. "It is astonishing how dirty one's face
+gets in London, even in a drive across the Park."
+
+"Rachel!" her mother said. Rachel turned round and looked at her. Then
+she went quickly across the room and knelt down by her mother's couch.
+
+"Mother!" she said, "Mother dear! it is such a comfort that if I don't
+tell you things you don't mind. And why should you? It doesn't matter.
+It is just as if I had told you--you always know, you always
+understand."
+
+"Yes," said Lady Gore, "I think I understand. And you know," she added
+after a moment, "that I never want you to tell me more than you wish to
+tell. Only, very often"--and she tried to choose her words with anxious
+care, that not one of them might mean more, less, or other than she
+intended, "it sometimes helps younger people, if they talk to people who
+are older. You see, the mere fact of having been in the world longer,
+brings one something like more wisdom, one can judge of the proportion
+of things somehow, nothing seems quite so surprising, so
+extraordinary--or so impossible," she added with a faint smile, with the
+intuition of the point that Rachel had arrived at. And Rachel was ready
+to take perfectly for granted that she should have been so followed. Her
+absolute reliance on the wise and tender confidante by her side, the
+habit of placing her first and referring everything to her was stronger
+unconsciously to herself, than even the natural desire of her age to hug
+the secret she was carrying, to keep it jealously from any eyes but her
+own.
+
+"Of course, of course, I know that," she said without looking up, "and
+my first thought always is that I will tell you. In fact," she went on
+with a little laugh, "I never know what I think myself until I have told
+you, and heard what it sounds like when I am saying it to you, and seen
+what you look like when you listen--only----" she stopped again.
+
+"Darling," said Lady Gore, "never feel that you must tell me a word more
+than you wish to say."
+
+"Well," said Rachel hesitating, "the only thing is that to-day I
+must--perhaps--you would know something about it presently in any
+case...." And she stopped again.
+
+"Presently? why?" said Lady Gore. Rachel made no answer.
+
+"Is Mr. Rendel coming here to-day?" said Lady Gore, trying to speak in
+her ordinary voice.
+
+"Yes," said Rachel, "he is coming to see you."
+
+"I shall be very glad to see him," said Lady Gore. "I always am."
+
+"I know, yes," said Rachel. Then with a sudden effort, "It is no use,
+mother, I must tell you; you must know first." Then she paused again.
+"This morning we went out in the boat----" she stopped.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Gore, "and Sir Charles Miniver was unfortunately too
+old to go with you--or fortunately, perhaps?"
+
+"I am not sure which," said Rachel. "I am not sure," she repeated
+slowly.
+
+"Rachel, did Francis Rendel...."
+
+"Yes," said Rachel, "he asked me to marry him."
+
+Lady Gore laid her hand on her daughter's. "What did you say to him?"
+
+Rachel looked up quickly. "Surely you know. I told him it would be
+impossible."
+
+"Impossible?" her mother repeated.
+
+"Of course, impossible," Rachel said. "We needn't discuss it, mother
+dear," she went on with an effort. "You know I could not go away from
+you; you could not do without me. You could not, could you?" she went on
+imploringly. "I should be dreadfully saddened if you could."
+
+"I should have to do without you," Lady Gore said. "I could not let you
+give up your happiness to mine."
+
+"It would not be giving up my happiness to stay with you, you know that
+quite well," Rachel said. "On the contrary, I simply could not be happy
+if I felt that you needed me and that I had left you."
+
+"Rachel, do you care for him?"
+
+"Do I, I wonder?" Rachel said, half thinking aloud and letting herself
+go as one does who, having overcome the first difficulty of speech,
+welcomes the rapturous belief of pouring out her heart to the right
+listener. "I believe," she said, "that I care for him as much as I could
+for any one, in that way, but"--and she shook her head--"I know all the
+time that you come first, and that you always, always will."
+
+"Oh, but that is not right," said Lady Gore. "That is not natural."
+
+"Not natural," Rachel said, "that I should care for my mother most?"
+
+"No," Lady Gore said, "not in the long run. Of course," she went on with
+a smile, "to say a thing is not 'natural' is simply begging the
+question, and sounds as if one were dismissing a very complicated
+problem with a commonplace formula, but it has truth in it all the same.
+It is difficult enough to fashion existence in the right way, even with
+the help of others, but to do it single-handed is a task few people are
+qualified to achieve. I am quite sure that a woman has more chance of
+happiness if she marries than if she remains alone. It is right that
+people should renew their stock of affection, should see that their hold
+on the world, on life, is renewed, should feel that fresh claims, for
+that is a part, and a great part, of happiness, are ready at hand when
+the old ones disappear. All this is what means happiness, and you know
+that the one thing I want in the world is that you should be happy. I
+was thinking to-day," she went on, with a slight tremor in her voice,
+"that if I were quite sure that your life were happily settled, that you
+were beginning one of your own not wholly dependent on those behind
+you, I should not mind very much if mine were to come to an end."
+
+"To an end?" said Rachel, startled. "Don't say that--don't talk about
+that."
+
+"I do not talk about it often," Lady Gore said; "but this is a moment
+when it must be said, because, remember, when you talk of sacrificing
+your life to me----"
+
+"Sacrificing!" interjected Rachel.
+
+"Well, of devoting it to me," Lady Gore went on; "and putting aside
+those things that might make a beautiful life of your own, you must
+remember one thing, that I may not be there always. In fact," she
+corrected herself with a smile, "to say _may_ not is taking a
+rose-coloured view, that I _shall_ not be there always. And who knows?
+The moment of our separation may not be so far off."
+
+Rachel looked up hurriedly, much perturbed.
+
+"Why are you saying this now?" she said. "You have seemed so much better
+lately. You are very well, aren't you, mother? You are looking very
+well."
+
+Lady Gore had a moment of wondering whether she should tell her daughter
+what she knew, what she expected herself, but she looked at Rachel's
+anxious, quivering face and refrained.
+
+"It is something that ought to be said at this moment," she answered.
+"You have come to a parting of the ways. This is the moment to show you
+the signposts, to help you to choose the best road."
+
+"Listen, mother," said Rachel earnestly. "In this case I am sure I know
+by myself which is the best road to choose. I am perfectly clear that as
+long as I have you I shall stay with you. That I mean to do," she
+continued with unwonted decision. "And besides, if--if you were no
+longer there, how could I leave my father?"
+
+"Ah," said Lady Gore, "I wanted to say that to you. Now, as we are
+speaking of it, let us talk it out, let us look at it in the face.
+Consider the possibility, Rachel, the probability that I may be taken
+from you; my dream would be that you should make your own life with some
+one that you care about, and yet not part it entirely from your
+father's, that while he is there he should not be left. If I thought
+that, do you know, it would be a very great help to me," she said,
+forcing herself to speak steadily, but unable to hide entirely the
+wistful anxiety in her tone.
+
+"I will never, never leave him," Rachel said. "I promise you that I
+never will."
+
+"Then I can look forward," her mother said, "as peacefully, I don't say
+as joyfully, as I look back. Twenty-four years, nearly twenty-five," she
+went on, half to herself and looking dreamily upwards, "we have been
+married. You don't know what those years mean, but some day I hope you
+will. I pray that you may know how the lives and souls of two people who
+care for one another absolutely grow together during such a time."
+
+"It is beautiful," Rachel said softly, "to know that there is such
+happiness in the world," and her own new happiness leapt to meet the
+assurance of the years.
+
+"It is beautiful indeed," Lady Gore said. "It means a constant abiding
+sense of a strange other self sharing one's own interests--of a close
+companionship, an unquestioning approval which makes one almost
+independent of opinions outside."
+
+"Some people," said Rachel, pressing her mother's hand, "have the
+outside affection and approval too."
+
+"Yes, the world has been very kind to me," Lady Gore said, "and all that
+is delightful. But it is the big thing that matters. Do you remember
+that there was some famous Greek who said when his chosen friend and
+companion died, 'The theatre of my actions has fallen'?" Rachel's face
+lighted up in quick response. "When I am gone," her mother went on,
+"don't let your father feel that the theatre of _his_ actions has
+fallen--take my place, surround him with love and sympathy."
+
+"I will, indeed I will," said Rachel.
+
+"What a man needs," said Lady Gore, "is some one to believe in him."
+
+"My father will never be in want of that," said Rachel, with heartfelt
+conviction. "Mother," she added, "I never will forget what I am saying
+now, and you may believe it and you may be happy about it. I won't leave
+my father; he shall come first, I promise, whatever happens."
+
+"First?" said Lady Gore gently. "No, Rachel, not that; it is right that
+your husband should come first."
+
+"The people," said Rachel smiling, "whose husbands come first have not
+had a father and mother like mine."
+
+There was a knock at the house door. Rachel sprang hurriedly to her
+feet, the colour flying into her cheeks. Lady Gore looked at her. She
+had never before seen in Rachel's face what she saw there now.
+
+"I must take off my things," the girl said, catching up her gloves and
+veil.
+
+"Don't be very long," said her mother.
+
+"I'll--I'll--see," Rachel said, and she suddenly bent over her mother
+and kissed her, then went quickly out by one door as the other was
+thrown open to admit a visitor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Francis Rendel came into the room with his usual air of ceremony,
+amounting almost to stiffness. Then, as he realised that his hostess was
+alone, his face lighted up and he came eagerly towards her.
+
+"This _is_ a piece of good fortune, to find you alone," he said. "I was
+afraid I should find you surrounded."
+
+"It is early yet," Lady Gore said, with a smile.
+
+"I know, yes," Rendel said. "I must apologise for coming at this time,
+but I wanted very much to see you----" He paused.
+
+"I am delighted to see you at any time," Lady Gore said.
+
+"It is so good of you," he answered, in the tone of one who is thinking
+of the next thing he is going to say. There was a silence.
+
+"I hope you enjoyed yourself at Maidenhead?" said Lady Gore.
+
+"Very, very much," Rendel answered with an air of penetrated conviction.
+There was another pause. Then he suddenly said, "Lady Gore----" and
+stopped.
+
+She waited a moment, then said gently, "Yes, I know. Rachel has been
+telling me."
+
+"She has! Oh, I am so glad," Rendel said. Then he added, finding
+apparently an extreme difficulty in speaking at all, "And--and--do you
+mind?"
+
+"That is a modest way of putting it," said Lady Gore, smiling. "No, I
+don't mind. I am glad."
+
+"Are you really?" said Rendel, looking as if his life depended on the
+answer. "Do you mean that you really think you--you--could be on my
+side? Then it will come all right."
+
+"I will be on your side, certainly," said Lady Gore; "but I don't know
+that that is the essential thing. I am not, after all, the person whose
+consent matters most."
+
+"Do you know, I believe you are," Rendel said. "I verily believe that at
+this moment you come before any one else in the world." There was no
+need to say in whose estimation, or to mention Rachel's name.
+
+"Well, perhaps at this moment, as you say," said Lady Gore, "it is
+possible, but there is no reason why it should go on always."
+
+"She is absolutely devoted to you," Rendel said.
+
+"Rachel has a fund," her mother said, "of loyal devotion, of unswerving
+affection, which makes her a very precious possession."
+
+"I have seen it," said Rendel. "Her devotion to you and her father is
+one of the most beautiful things in the world, even though...."
+
+"Even...?" said Lady Gore, with a smile.
+
+"Did she tell you what she said to me this morning?"
+
+"I gathered, yes," Lady Gore replied, "both what you had said and her
+answer."
+
+"I didn't take it as an answer," said Rendel. "I thought that I would
+come straight to you and ask you to help me, and that you would
+understand, as you always do, in the way that nobody else does."
+
+"Take care," said Lady Gore smiling, "that you don't blindly accept
+Rachel's view of her surroundings."
+
+"Oh, it is not only Rachel who has taught me that," said Rendel, his
+heart very full. "It is you yourself, and your sympathy. I wonder," he
+went on quickly, "if you know what it has meant to me? You see, it is
+not as if I had ever known anything of the sort before. To have had it
+all one's life, as your daughter has, must be something very wonderful.
+I don't wonder she does not want to give it up."
+
+Lady Gore tried to speak more lightly than she felt. "She need not give
+it up," she said, with a somewhat quivering smile. "And you need not
+thank me any more," she went on. "I should like you to know what a great
+interest and a great pleasure it has been to me that you should have
+cared to come and see me as you have done, and to take me into your
+life." Rendel was going to speak, but she went on. "I have never had a
+son of my own. It was a great disappointment to me at first; I was very
+anxious to have one. I used to think how he and I would have planned out
+his life together, and that he might perhaps do some of the things in
+the world that are worth doing. You see how foolish I was," she ended,
+with a tremulous little smile.
+
+Rendel, in spite of his gravity, experience and intuitive understanding,
+had a sudden and almost bewildering sense of a change of mental focus as
+he heard the wise, gentle adviser confiding in her turn, and confessing
+to foolish and unfulfilled illusions. He felt a passionate desire to be
+of use to her.
+
+"I should have been quite content if he had been like you," she said,
+and she held out her hand, which he instinctively raised to his lips.
+
+"You make me very happy," he said. "You make me hope."
+
+"But," she said, trying to speak in her ordinary voice, "--perhaps I
+ought to have begun by saying this--I wonder if Rachel is the right sort
+of wife for a rising politician?"
+
+"She is the right sort of wife for me," said Rendel. "That is all that
+matters."
+
+"I'm afraid," Lady Gore said, "she isn't ambitious."
+
+"Afraid!" said Rendel.
+
+"She has no ardent political convictions."
+
+"I have enough for both," said Rendel.
+
+"And--and--such as she has are naturally her father's, and therefore
+opposed to yours."
+
+"Then we won't talk about politics," Rendel said, "and that will be a
+welcome relief."
+
+"I'm afraid also," the mother went on, smiling, "that she is not abreast
+of the age--that she doesn't write, doesn't belong to a club, doesn't
+even bicycle, and can't take photographs."
+
+"Oh, what a perfect woman!" ejaculated Rendel.
+
+"In fact I must admit that she has no bread-winning talent, and that in
+case of need she could not earn her own livelihood."
+
+"If she had anything to do with me," said Rendel, "I should be ashamed
+if she tried."
+
+"She is not as clever as you are."
+
+"But even supposing that to be true," said Rendel, "isn't that a state
+of things that makes for happiness?"
+
+"Well," replied Lady Gore, "I believe that as far as women are concerned
+you are behind the age too."
+
+"I am quite certain of it," Rendel said, "and it is therefore to be
+rejoiced over that the only woman I have ever thought of wanting should
+not insist on being in front of it."
+
+"The only woman? Is that so?" Lady Gore asked.
+
+"It is indeed," he said, with conviction.
+
+"And you are--how old?"
+
+"Thirty-two."
+
+"It sounds as if this were the real thing, I must say," she said, with a
+smile.
+
+"There is not much doubt of that," said he quietly. "There never was any
+one more certain than I am of what I want."
+
+"That is a step towards getting it," Lady Gore said.
+
+"I believe it is," he said fervently. "You have told me all the things
+your daughter has not--that I am thankful she hasn't--but I know,
+besides, the things she has that go to make her the only woman I want to
+pass my life with--she is everything a woman ought to be--she really
+is."
+
+"My dear young friend," said Lady Gore, with a shallow pretence of
+laughing at his enthusiasm, "you really are rather far gone!"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "there is no doubt about that. I have not, by the
+way, attempted to tell you about things that are supposed to matter more
+than those we have been talking about, but that don't matter really
+nearly so much--I mean my income and prospects, and all that sort of
+thing. But perhaps I had better tell Sir William all that."
+
+"You can tell him about your income," said Lady Gore, "if you like."
+
+"I have enough to live upon," the young man said. "I don't think that on
+that score Sir William can raise any objection."
+
+"Let us hope he won't on any other," she replied. "We must tell him what
+he is to think."
+
+"And my chances of getting on, though it sounds absurd to say so, are
+rather good," he went on. "Lord Stamfordham will, I know, help me
+whenever he can; and I mean to go into the House, and then--oh, then it
+will be all right, really."
+
+At this moment the door opened and Sir William came in.
+
+"You are the very person we wanted," his wife said.
+
+"You want to apologise to me for the conduct of your party, I suppose,"
+said Gore to Rendel, half in jest, half in earnest, as he shook hands.
+
+"I'm very sorry, Sir William," said Rendel, "if we've displeased you.
+Pray don't hold me responsible."
+
+"Oh yes," said Lady Gore lightly, to give Rendel time, "one always holds
+one's political adversary responsible for anything that happens to
+displease one in the conduct of the universe."
+
+"I hope," said Rendel, trying to hide his real anxiety, "that Sir
+William will try to forgive me for the action of my party, and
+everything else. Pray feel kindly towards me to-day."
+
+Sir William looked at him inquiringly, affecting perhaps a more
+unsuspecting innocence than he was feeling. Rendel went on, speaking
+quickly and feeling suddenly unaccountably nervous.
+
+"I have come here to tell you--to ask you----" He stopped, then went on
+abruptly, "This morning, at Maidenhead, I asked your daughter to marry
+me."
+
+"What, already?" said Sir William involuntarily. "That was very prompt.
+And what did she say?"
+
+"She said it was impossible," Rendel answered, encouraged more by
+Gore's manner and his general reception of the news than by his actual
+words.
+
+"Impossible, did she say?" said Sir William. "And what did you say to
+that?"
+
+"That I should come here this afternoon," Rendel replied.
+
+Sir William smiled.
+
+"That was prompter still," he said. "It looks as if you knew your own
+mind at any rate."
+
+"I do indeed, if ever a man did," said Rendel confidently. "And I really
+do believe that it was because she was a good daughter she said it was
+impossible."
+
+"Well, if it was, that's the kind that often makes an uncommonly good
+wife," Sir William said.
+
+"I don't doubt it," Rendel said, with conviction. "And I feel that if
+only you and Lady Gore----"
+
+He stopped, as the door opened gently, and Rachel appeared, in a fresh
+white summer gown. She stood looking from one to the other, arrested on
+the threshold by that strange consciousness of being under discussion
+which is transmitted to one as through a material medium. Then what
+seemed to her the full horror of being so discussed swept over her. Was
+it possible that already the beautiful dream that had surrounded her,
+that wonderful secret that she had hardly yet whispered to herself, was
+having the light of day let in upon it, was being handled, discussed, as
+though it were possible that others might share in it too?
+
+Rendel read in her face what she was going through. He went forward
+quickly to meet her.
+
+"I am afraid," he said, putting his thoughts into words more literally
+than he meant, "that I have come too soon. I hope you will forgive me?"
+
+"It is rather soon," Rachel answered, not quite knowing what she was
+saying.
+
+"But you don't say whether you forgive him or not, Rachel," said Sir
+William, whose idea of carrying off the situation was to indulge in the
+time-honoured banter suitable to those about to become engaged.
+
+"Don't ask her to say too much at once," Lady Gore said quickly,
+realising far better than Rachel's father did what was passing in the
+girl's mind.
+
+"I'm afraid I can't say very much yet," Rachel said hesitatingly.
+
+"I don't want you to say very much," said Rendel, "or indeed anything if
+you don't want to," he ended somewhat lamely and entreatingly.
+
+"Miss Tarlton!" announced the servant, throwing the door open.
+
+The four people in the room looked at each other in consternation.
+Events had succeeded each other so quickly that no one had thought of
+providing against the contingency of inopportune visitors by saying Lady
+Gore was not at home. It was too late to do anything now. Miss Tarlton
+happily had no misgivings about her reception. It never crossed her mind
+that she could be unwelcome, especially to-day that she had brought with
+her some photographs taken from the Gores' own balcony some weeks
+before, on the occasion of some troops having passed along Prince's
+Gate. She had half suggested on that occasion that she should come, in
+order that she might have a post of vantage from which to take some of
+the worst photographs in London, and the Gores had not had the heart to
+refuse her. If she had had any doubt, however--which she had not--about
+her hosts' feelings in the matter, she would have felt that she had now
+made up for everything by bringing them the result of her labours, and
+that nothing could be more opportune or more agreeable than her entrance
+on this particular occasion.
+
+Miss Tarlton was a single woman of independent means living alone, a
+destiny which makes it almost inevitable that there should be a
+luxuriant growth of individual peculiarities which have never needed to
+accommodate themselves to the pressure of circumstances or of
+companionship. She was perfectly content with her life, and none the
+less so although those to whom she recounted the various phases of it
+were not so content at second hand with hearing the recital of it. She
+was one of those fortunate persons who have a hobby which takes the
+place of parents, husband, children, relations--a hobby, moreover, which
+appears to afford a delight quite independent of the varying degrees of
+success with which it is pursued. Unhappily the joy of those who thus
+pursue a much-loved occupation is bound to overflow in words; and if
+they have no daily auditor within their own four walls, they are driven
+by circumstances to choose their confidants haphazard when they go out.
+Miss Tarlton's confidences, however, were all of an optimistic
+character: she inflicted on her hearers no grievances against destiny.
+She recorded her vote, so to speak, in favour of content, and thereby
+established a claim to be heard.
+
+To see her starting on one of her photographing expeditions was to be
+convinced that she considered the scheme of the universe satisfactory,
+as she went off with her felt hat jammed on to her head, with an air,
+not of radiant pleasure perhaps, but of faith in her occupation of
+unflinching purpose. With her camera slung on to her bicycle and her fat
+little feet working the pedals, she had the air of being the forerunner
+of a corps of small cyclist photographers. Life appealed to Miss Tarlton
+according to its adaptability to photography. For this reason she was
+not preoccupied with the complications of sentiment or of the softer
+emotions which not even the Röntgen rays have yet been able to reproduce
+with a camera.
+
+"How do you do, Lady Gore?" she said as she came in. "I am later than I
+meant to be. I was so afraid I should not get here to-day, but I knew
+how anxious you would be to see the photographs."
+
+"How kind of you!" Lady Gore said vaguely, for the moment entirely
+forgetting what the photographs were.
+
+Miss Tarlton, after greeting the other members of the party, and making
+acquaintance with Rendel, all on her part with the demeanour of one who
+quickly despatches preliminaries before proceeding to really important
+business, drew off her gloves, displaying strangely variegated fingers,
+and proceeded to take from the case she was carrying photographs in
+various stages of their existence.
+
+"I have brought you the negatives of one or two," she said, holding one
+after another up to the light, "as I didn't wait to print them all. Ah,
+here is one. This is how you must hold it, look."
+
+Lady Gore tried to look at it as though it were really the photograph,
+and not the equilibrium of a most difficult situation, that she was
+trying to poise. Sir William was about to propose to Rendel to come down
+with him to his study, but Miss Tarlton obligingly included everybody at
+once in the concentration upon her photographs which she felt the
+situation demanded.
+
+"Look, Sir William," she said. "I am sure you will be interested in this
+one. That is Lord X. He is a little blurred, perhaps; still, when one
+knows who it is, it is a very interesting memento, really. Look, Miss
+Gore, this is the one I did when we were standing together. Do you
+remember?"
+
+"Oh! yes, of course," Rachel said. She did, as a matter of fact, very
+well remember the occasion, the length of time that had been necessary
+to adjust the legs of the camera, which appeared to have a miraculous
+power of interweaving themselves into the legs of the spectators; the
+piercing cry from Miss Tarlton at the feather of another lady's hat
+coming across the field of vision just as the troops came within focus;
+and a general sense of agitation which had prevented any one in the
+photographer's immediate surroundings from contemplating with a detached
+mind the military spectacle passing at their feet.
+
+"These plates are really too small," said Miss Tarlton; "I have been
+wishing ever since that I had brought my larger machine that day." Her
+hearers did not find it in their hearts to echo this wish. "Of course,
+though, a small machine is most delightfully convenient. It is so
+portable, one need never be without it. I am told there is quite a tiny
+one to be had now. Have you seen it, Sir William?"
+
+"No, I haven't," said Sir William, in an entirely final and decided
+manner. Miss Tarlton turned to Rendel as though to ask him, but saw that
+he was standing apart with Rachel, apparently deep in conversation. She
+felt that it was rather hard on Rachel to be called away when she might
+have been enjoying the photographs.
+
+"Do you know whether Mr. Rendel photographs?" she said to Lady Gore, in
+a more subdued tone.
+
+"I really don't know; I think not," Lady Gore said, amused in spite of
+herself at her husband's rising exasperation, although she was conscious
+of sharing it.
+
+"Rendel," said Sir William, obliged to let his feelings find vent in
+speech at the expense of his discretion, "Miss Tarlton is asking whether
+you photograph?"
+
+"I'm afraid I don't," said Rendel.
+
+"Ah, I thought not," said Sir William, giving a sort of grunt of
+satisfaction.
+
+"It is only..." said Miss Tarlton, who had relapsed into her photographs
+again, and was therefore constrained to speak in the sort of absent,
+maundering tone of people who try to frame consecutive sentences while
+they are looking over photographs or reading letters--"ah--this is the
+one I wanted you to see, Lady Gore----"
+
+"Oh! yes, I see," said Lady Gore, mendaciously as to the spirit, if not
+to the letter, for she certainly did not see in the negative held up by
+Miss Tarlton, which appeared to the untutored mind a square piece of
+grey dirty glass with confused black smudges on it, all that Miss
+Tarlton wished her to behold there. Then she became aware of a welcome
+interruption.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Wentworth?" she said, putting down the photograph
+with inward relief, as a tall young man with a fair moustache and merry
+blue eyes came into the room.
+
+"Photographs?" he said, after exchanging greetings with his host and
+hostess, nodding to Rendel and bowing to Rachel.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Gore. "Now you shall give your opinion."
+
+"I shall be delighted," he said. "I have got heaps of opinions."
+
+"Do you photograph?" said Miss Tarlton, with a spark of renewed hope.
+
+"I am sorry to say I don't," answered Wentworth. "I believe it is a
+charming pursuit."
+
+"It is an inexhaustible pleasure," said Miss Tarlton, with conviction.
+
+"I congratulate you," said Wentworth, "on possessing it."
+
+"Yes," said Miss Tarlton solemnly, "I lead an extremely happy life. I
+take out my camera every day on my bicycle, and I photograph. When I get
+home I develop the photographs. I spend hours in my dark room."
+
+"It is indeed a happy temperament," said Wentworth, "that can find
+pleasure in spending hours in a dark room."
+
+"Have you ever tried it?" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Certainly," said Wentworth. "In London in the winter, when it is foggy,
+you know."
+
+"Oh," said Miss Tarlton, again with unflinching gravity. "I don't think
+you quite understand what I mean. I mean in a photographic dark room,
+developing, you know."
+
+"I see," said Wentworth. "When I am in a dark room in the winter I
+generally develop theories."
+
+"Develop what?" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Theories, about smuts and smoke, you know; things people write to the
+papers about in the winter," said Wentworth, whose idea of conversation
+was to endeavour to coruscate the whole time. It is not to be wondered
+at, therefore, if the spark was less powerful on some occasions than on
+others.
+
+"Oh," said Miss Tarlton, not in the least entertained.
+
+Wentworth, a little discomfited, could for once think of nothing to say.
+
+"I suppose," said Miss Tarlton, still patiently pursuing her
+investigations in the same hopeless quarter, "you don't know the name of
+that quite, quite new and tiny machine?"
+
+"Machine? What sort of machine?" said Wentworth.
+
+"A camera," said Miss Tarlton, with an inflection in her tone which
+entirely eliminated any other possibility.
+
+"No, I'm afraid I don't," said Wentworth. "I don't know the name of any
+cameras, except that their family name is legion."
+
+"What?" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Legion," said Wentworth again, crestfallen.
+
+"Oh," said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Pateley would be the man to ask," said Wentworth, desperately trying to
+put his head above the surface.
+
+"Pateley? Is that a shop?" said Miss Tarlton eagerly. "Where?"
+
+"A shop!" said Sir William, laughing. "I should like to see Pateley's
+face"--but the door opened before he completed his sentence, and his
+wish, presumably not formed upon æsthetic grounds, was fulfilled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Robert Pateley was a journalist, and a successful man. Some people
+succeed in life because they have certain qualities which enlist the
+sympathy and co-operation of their fellow-creatures; others, without
+such qualities, yet succeed by having a dogged determination and power
+of push which make them independent of that sympathy and co-operation.
+Robert Pateley was one of the latter. When he was discussed by two
+people who felt they ought to like him, they said to one another, "What
+is it about Pateley that puts people off, I wonder? Why can't one like
+him more?" and then they would think it over and come to no conclusion.
+Perhaps it was that his journalism was of the very newest kind. He was
+certainly extremely able, although his somewhat boisterous personality
+and entirely non-committal conversation did not give at the first
+meeting with him the impression of his being the sagacious and
+keen-witted politician that he really was. Was it his laugh that people
+disliked? Was it his voice? It could not have been his intelligence,
+which was excellent, nor yet his moral character, which was blameless.
+In fact, in a quiet way, Pateley had been a hero, for he had been left,
+through his father's mismanagement of the family affairs, with two
+sisters absolutely on his hands, and he had never, since undertaking the
+whole charge of them, for one instant put his own welfare, advancement
+or interest before theirs. Absorbed in his resolute purpose, he had
+coolness of head and determination enough to govern his ambitions
+instead of letting himself be governed by them. The son of a solicitor
+in a country town, he had made up his mind that, as he put it to
+himself, he would be "somebody" some day. He had got to the top of the
+local grammar school, and tasted the delights of success, and he
+determined that he would continue them in a larger sphere. It is not
+always easy to draw the line between conspicuousness and distinction.
+Pateley, who went along the path of life like a metaphorical
+fire-engine, had very early become conspicuous; he had gone steadily on,
+calling to his fellow-creatures to get out of his way, until now, as
+steerer of the _Arbiter_, a dashing little paper that under his guidance
+had made a sudden leap into fame and influence, he was a personage to be
+reckoned with, and it was evident enough in his bearing that he was
+conscious of the fact.
+
+Such was the person who, almost as his name was on Sir William Gore's
+lips, came cheerfully, loudly, briskly into the room, including
+everybody in the heartiest of greetings, stepping at once into the
+foreground of the picture, and filling it up.
+
+"Did I hear you say that you would like to see my face, Gore? How very
+polite of you! most gratifying!" he said with a loud laugh, which seemed
+to correspond to his big and burly person.
+
+"You did," said Sir William. "Wentworth says you know everything about
+photography."
+
+"Ah! now, that," said Pateley, galvanised into real eagerness and
+interest as he turned round after shaking hands with Lady Gore, "I
+really do know at this moment, as I have just come from the Photographic
+Exhibition."
+
+"Oh!" said Miss Tarlton with an irrepressible cry, the ordinary
+conventions of society abrogated by the enormous importance of the
+information which she felt was coming.
+
+"Let me introduce you to Miss Tarlton," said Sir William. Miss Tarlton
+bowed quickly, and then proceeded at once to business.
+
+"Do you know the name of a quite tiny camera?" she said; "the very
+newest?"
+
+"I do," said Pateley. "It is the 'Viator,' and I have just seen it." A
+sort of audible murmur of relief ran through the company at this burning
+question having been answered at last. "And it is only by a special
+grace of Providence," Pateley went on, "assisted by my high principles,
+that that machine is not in my pocket at this moment."
+
+"Oh! I wish it were!" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"I'm afraid it may be before many days are over," said Pateley. "I
+never saw anything so perfect. And do you know, it takes a snapshot in a
+room even just as well as in the open air. If I had it in my hand I
+could snap any one of you here, at this moment, almost without your
+knowing anything about it."
+
+"I am so glad you haven't," Lady Gore couldn't help ejaculating.
+
+"The man who was showing it took one of me as I turned to look at it. It
+is perfectly wonderful."
+
+"And that in a room?" Miss Tarlton said, more and more awestruck. "And
+simply a snapshot, not a time exposure at all?"
+
+"Precisely," Pateley said.
+
+"I shall go and see it," Miss Tarlton said, and, notebook in hand, she
+continued with a businesslike air to write down the particulars
+communicated by Pateley.
+
+"I am quite out of my depth," Lady Gore said to Wentworth. "What does a
+'time exposure' mean?"
+
+"Heaven knows," said Wentworth. "Something about seconds and things, I
+suppose."
+
+"I can never judge of how many seconds a thing takes," said Lady Gore.
+
+"I'm sure I can't," Wentworth replied. "The other day I thought we had
+been three-quarters of an hour in a tunnel and we had only been two
+minutes and a half."
+
+"Now then," Pateley said with a satisfied air, turning to Sir William,
+"I have cheered Miss Tarlton on to a piece of extravagance." Sir
+William felt a distinct sense of pleasure. "I have persuaded her to buy
+a new machine."
+
+"The thing that amuses me," said Sir William with some scorn, having
+apparently forgotten which of his pet aversions had been the subject of
+the conversation, "is people's theory that when once you have bought a
+bicycle it costs you nothing afterwards."
+
+"It is not a bicycle, Sir William, it is a camera," said Miss Tarlton,
+with some asperity.
+
+"Oh, well, it is the same thing," Sir William said.
+
+"_The same thing?_" Miss Tarlton repeated, with the accent of one who
+feels an immeasurable mental gulf between herself and her interlocutor.
+
+"As to results, I mean," he said. Arrived at this point Miss Tarlton
+felt she need no longer listen, she simply noted with pitying tolerance
+the random utterance. "A camera costs very nearly as much to keep as a
+horse, what with films and bottles of stuff, and all the other
+accessories. And as for a bicycle, I am quite sure that you have to
+count as much for mending it as you do for a horse's keep."
+
+"The really expensive thing, though, is a motor," said Wentworth. "Lots
+of men nowadays don't marry because they can't afford to keep a wife as
+well as a motor."
+
+Rendel, who was standing by Rachel's side at the tea-table, caught this
+sentence. He looked up at her with a smile. She blushed.
+
+"I have no intention of keeping a motor," he said. Rachel said nothing.
+
+"Are you very angry with me?" Rendel said.
+
+"I am not sure," she answered. "I think I am."
+
+"You mustn't be--after saving my life, too, this morning, in the boat."
+
+"Saving your life?" said Rachel, surprised.
+
+"Yes," Rendel said. "By not steering me into any of the things we met on
+the Thames."
+
+"Oh!" said Rachel, smiling, "I am afraid even that was more your doing
+than mine, as you kept calling out to me which string to pull."
+
+"Perhaps. But the extraordinary thing was that when you were told you
+did pull it," said Rendel.
+
+"Oh, any one can do that," replied Rachel.
+
+"I beg your pardon, it is not so simple," Rendel answered, thinking to
+himself, though he had the good sense at that moment not to formulate
+it, what an adorable quality it would be in a wife that she should
+always pull exactly the string she was told to pull.
+
+"I've been asking Sir William if I may come and speak to him...." he
+said in a lower tone. "He said I might." Rachel was silent. "You don't
+mind, do you?" he said, looking at her anxiously.
+
+"I--I--don't know," Rachel said. "I feel as if I were not sure about
+anything--you have done it all so quickly--I can't realise----"
+
+"Yes," he said penitently, "I have done it all very quickly, I know, but
+I won't hurry you to give me any answer. My chief's going away
+to-morrow for ten days, and I am afraid I must go too, but may I come as
+soon as I am back again?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel shyly.
+
+"And perhaps by that time," he said, "you will know the answer. Do you
+think you will?" Rachel looked at him as her hand lay in his.
+
+"Yes, by that time I shall know," she said.
+
+As Rendel went out a few minutes later he was dimly conscious of meeting
+an agitated little figure which hurried past him into the room. Miss
+Judd was a lady who contrived to reduce as many of her fellow-creatures
+to a state of mild exasperation during the day as any female enthusiast
+in London, by her constant haste to overtake her manifold duties towards
+the human race. Those duties were still further complicated by the fact
+that she had a special gift for forgetting more things in one afternoon
+than most people are capable of remembering in a week.
+
+"My dear Jane, how do you do?" said Lady Gore. "We have not seen you for
+an age."
+
+"No, Cousin Elinor, no," said Miss Judd, who always spoke in little
+gasps as if she had run all the way from her last stopping-place. "I
+have been so frightfully busy. Oh, thank you, William, thank you; but do
+you know, that tea looks dreadfully strong. In fact, I think I had
+really better not have any. I wonder if I might have some hot water
+instead? Thank you so much. Thank you, dear Rachel--simply water,
+nothing else."
+
+"That doesn't sound a very reviving beverage," said Lady Gore.
+
+"Oh, but it is, I assure you," said Miss Judd. "It is wonderful. And,
+you see, I had tea for luncheon, and I don't like to have it too often."
+
+"Tea for luncheon?" said Sir William.
+
+"Yes, at an Aërated Bread place," she replied, "near Victoria. I have
+been leaving the canvassing papers for the School Board election, and I
+had not time to go home."
+
+"What it is to be such a pillar of the country!" said Lady Gore
+laughing.
+
+"You may laugh, Cousin Elinor," Miss Judd said, drinking her hot water
+in quick, hurried sips, "but I assure you it is very hard work. You see,
+whatever the question is that I am canvassing for, I always feel bound
+to explain it to the voters at every place I go to, for fear they should
+vote the wrong way: and sometimes that is very hard work. At the last
+General Election, for instance, I lunched off buns and tea for a
+fortnight."
+
+"Good Lord!" said Sir William to Pateley as they stood a little apart.
+"Imagine public opinion being expounded by people who lunch off buns!"
+
+"And the awful thing, do you know," said Pateley laughing, "is that I
+believe those people do make a difference."
+
+"It is horrible to reflect upon," said Sir William.
+
+"By the way," said Pateley, with a laugh, "your side is going in for the
+sex too, I see. Is it true that you are going to have a Women's Peace
+Crusade?"
+
+"Yes," said Sir William with an expression of disgust, "I believe that
+it is so. _My_ womenkind are not going to have anything to do with it, I
+am thankful to say."
+
+"Oh, yes, I saw about that Crusade," said Wentworth, joining them, "in
+the _Torch_."
+
+"Don't believe too firmly what the _Torch_ says--or indeed any
+newspaper--ha, ha!" said Pateley.
+
+"I should be glad not to believe all that I see in the _Arbiter_, this
+morning," Sir William said. "Upon my word, Pateley, that paper of yours
+is becoming incendiary."
+
+"I don't know that we are being particularly incendiary," said Pateley,
+with the comfortable air of one disposing of the subject. "It is only
+that the world is rather inflammable at this moment."
+
+"Well, we have had conflagrations enough at the present," said Sir
+William. "We want the country to quiet down a bit."
+
+"Oh! it will do that all in good time," said Pateley. "I am bound to say
+things are rather jumpy just now. By the way, Sir William, I wonder if
+you know of any investment you could recommend?"
+
+Wentworth discreetly turned away and strolled back to Lady Gore's sofa.
+
+"I rather want to know of a good thing for my two sisters who are living
+together at Lowbridge. I have got a modest sum to invest that my father
+left them, and I should like to put it into something that is pretty
+certain, but, if possible, that will give them more than 2-1/2 per
+cent."
+
+"Why," said Sir William, "I believe I may know of the very thing. Only
+it is a dead secret as yet."
+
+"Hullo!" said Pateley, pricking up his ears. "That sounds promising. For
+how long?"
+
+"Just for the moment," said Sir William. "But of necessity the whole
+world must know of it before very long."
+
+"Well, if it really is a good thing let us have a day or two's start,"
+said Pateley laughing.
+
+"All right, you shall," said Sir William. "You shall hear from me in a
+day or two."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The days had passed. The great scheme of "The Equator, Ltd.," was before
+the world, which had received it in a manner exceeding Fred Anderson's
+most sanguine expectations. The possibilities and chances of the mine,
+as set forth by the experts, appeared to be such as to rouse the hopes
+of even the wary and experienced, and Anderson had no difficulty of
+forming a Board of Directors most eminently calculated to inspire
+confidence in the public--none the less that they were presided over by
+a man who, if not possessed of special business qualifications, was of
+good social position and bore an honourable name. Sir William Gore, the
+Chairman of the company, was well pleased. He invested largely in the
+undertaking. The savings of the Miss Pateleys, under the direction of
+their brother, had gone the same way. The _Arbiter_ had indeed reason to
+cheer on the Cape to Cairo railway, which day by day seemed more likely
+of accomplishment.
+
+Sir William, on the afternoon of the day when the success of the company
+was absolutely an assured fact, came back to his house from the city,
+satisfied with the prospects of the "Equator," with himself, and with
+the world at large. He put his latchkey into the door and looked round
+him a moment before he went in with a sense of well-being, of rejoicing
+in the summer day. Then as he stepped into the house he became conscious
+that Rachel was standing in the hall waiting for him, with an expression
+of dread anxiety on her face. The transition of feeling was so sudden
+that for a moment he hardly realised what he saw--then quick as
+lightning his thoughts flew to meet that one misfortune that of all
+others would assail them both most cruelly.
+
+"Rachel!" he said. "Is your mother ill?"
+
+"Yes," the girl answered. "Oh, father, wait," she said, as Sir William
+was rushing past her, and she tried to steady her quivering lips. "Dr.
+Morgan is there."
+
+"Morgan--you sent for him...." said Gore, pausing, hardly knowing what
+he was saying. "Rachel... tell me...?"
+
+"She fainted," the girl said, "an hour ago. And we couldn't get her
+round again. I sent--ah! there he is coming down." And a steady, slow
+step, sounding to the two listeners like the footfall of Fate, was heard
+coming down from above. Sir William went to meet the doctor, knowing
+already what he was going to hear.
+
+Lady Gore died that night, without regaining consciousness. Hers had
+been the unspeakable privilege of leaving life swiftly and painlessly
+without knowing that the moment had come. She had passed unconsciously
+into that awful gulf, without having had to stand for a moment
+shuddering on the brink. She had never dreaded death itself, but she had
+dreaded intensely the thought of old age, of a lingering illness and its
+attendant horrors. But none of these she had been called upon to endure:
+even while those around her were looking at the beautiful aspect of life
+that she presented to them the darkness fell, leaving them the memory
+only of that bright image. Her daughter's last recollection of her had
+been the caressing endearment with which Lady Gore had deprecated
+Rachel's remaining with her till Sir William's return--how thankful the
+girl was to have remained!--her husband's last vision of her, the
+smiling farewell with which she had sped him on his way in the morning,
+with a caution as to prudence in his undertakings. As he came back he
+had found himself telling her already in his mind, before he was
+actually in her presence, of what he had done. That was the thing which
+gave an edge to every action, to each fresh development of existence.
+Life was lived through again for her, and acquired a fresh aspect from
+her interest and sympathy, from her keen, humorous insight and
+far-seeing wisdom. But now, what would his life be without that light
+that had always shone on his path? He did not, he could not, begin to
+think about the future. He knew only that the present had crumbled into
+ruins around him. That, he realised the next morning when, after some
+snatches of uneasy sleep, he suddenly wakened with a sense of absolute
+horror upon him, before he remembered shuddering what that horror was.
+He had wanted to tell her about yesterday, about the "Equator," he said
+to himself with a dull aching pain almost like resentment--he wanted to
+have her approval, to have the sense that for her what he did was right,
+was wise. But he knew now in his heart, as he really had known all the
+time, that it was she who had been the wise one. And part of the horror,
+as the time went on, would be to realise that when she had gone out of
+the world something had gone out of himself too, which she had told him
+was there. And he had dreamt that it was true. But that would come when
+the details of misery were realised by him one by one, as after some
+hideous explosion it is not possible to see at once in the wreck made by
+the catastrophe all the ghastly confirmations of disaster that come to
+light with the days. The first days were not the worst, either for him
+or for Rachel, as each one of them afterwards secretly found. For though
+life had come to a standstill, had stopped dead, with a sudden shock
+that had thrown everything in it out of gear, there were at first new
+and strange duties to be accomplished that filled up the hours and kept
+the standards of ordinary existence at bay. There were letters of
+condolence to be answered, tributes of flowers to be acknowledged, sent
+by well-meaning friends moved by some impotent impulse of consolation,
+until the air became heavy with the scent of camellias and lilies.
+Rachel moved about in the darkened rooms, feeling as if the faint,
+sweet, overpowering perfume were a kind of anodyne, that was mercifully,
+during those early days, lulling her senses into lethargy. To the end of
+her days the scent of the white lily would bring back to her the feeling
+of actually living again through that first time of numbing grief. How
+many hours, how many days and nights she and her father had lived within
+that quiet sanctuary they could not have told--lived in the dark
+stillness, with one room, the stillest of all, containing the beloved
+something strangely aloof all that was left of the thing that had been
+their very life. Then out of that quiet hallowed darkness they came one
+dreadful day into the brilliant sunlight, a day that was lived through
+with the acutest pain of all, of which every detail seemed to have been
+arranged by a horrible cruel convention of custom in order to intensify
+the pangs of it. They drove at a foot's pace through the crowded, sunlit
+streets, with a shrinking agony of self-consciousness as one and another
+passer-by looked up for a moment at what was passing. "Look, Jim, 'ere's
+a funeral!" one small boy called to another--and Rachel, shuddering,
+buried her face in her hands and could have cried out aloud. Some men,
+not all, lifted their hats; two gaily-dressed women who were just going
+to cross stopped as a matter of course on the pavement and waited
+indifferently, hardly seeing what it was, until the obstruction had gone
+by, as they would have done had it been anything else. Rachel, leaning
+back by her father, trying to hide herself, yet felt as if she could
+not help seeing everything they met. Every step of the way was a slow
+torture. And oh, the return home! that drive, at a brisk trot this time,
+through the same crowded, unfeeling streets, which still retained the
+association of the former progress through them, the sense that now, as
+the coachman whipped up his horses, for every one save for the two
+desolate people who sat silently together inside the carriage, life
+might--indeed, would--throw off that aspect of gloom and go on as
+before! And then the worst moment of all, the finding on their return
+that the house had taken on a ghastly semblance of its usual aspect,
+that the blinds were up, the windows open, the sun streaming in
+everywhere--the hard, cruel light, as it seemed to Rachel, shining into
+the rooms that were for evermore to be different.
+
+Then followed the time which is incomparably the worst after a great
+loss, the time when, ordinary life being taken up again, the sufferer
+has the additional trial of too large an amount of leisure on his
+hands--the horror of all those new spare hours that used to be passed in
+a companionship that is gone, that must be filled up with something
+fresh unless they are to stand in wide, horrible emptiness, to assail
+recollection with unendurable grief. And especially in that house were
+they empty, where the existence of both father and daughter had revolved
+round that of another to a greater extent than that of most people. The
+problem of how to readjust the daily conditions was a hard, hard one to
+solve, harder obviously for Sir William than it was for Rachel. The
+girl was uplifted in those days by the sense that, however difficult she
+might find it to carry out in detail, the general scheme of her life lay
+clear before her. She was going to devote it to her father, she was
+going to carry out that unmade promise, which she now considered more
+binding on her than ever, although her mother had warned her against
+making it, the promise that her father should come first. But the
+warning at the moment it was made had not been accepted by Rachel, and
+in the exaltation of her self-sacrifice it was forgotten now. She saw
+her way, as she conceived, plainly in front of her. Rendel, with his
+usual understanding and wisdom, did not obtrude himself on her during
+those days. He had quite made up his mind not to ask for her decision
+until there might be some hope of its being made in his favour. He had
+felt Lady Gore's death as acutely as though he had the right of kinship
+to grieve for her. He was miserably conscious that something inestimably
+precious had gone out of his life, almost before he had had time to
+realise his happiness in possessing it. But neither he nor Rachel
+understood what Lady Gore's death had meant to Sir William. And the poor
+little Rachel, rudderless, bewildered, tried to do the best she could
+for her father's life by planning her own with absolute reference to it,
+by putting at his disposal all the bare, empty hours available for
+companionship which up to now had been so straitly, so tenderly, so
+happily filled. And he on his side, conscious of some of her purpose,
+but unaware of the extent to which she carried her deliberate intention
+of consecrating herself to him, of bearing the burden of his destiny,
+believed that he had to bear the overwhelming burthen of guiding hers.
+Instead of going in the late afternoon hours of those summer days to his
+club, where he would have found some companionship that was not
+associated with his grief, and passing an hour agreeably, he wistfully
+went home, feeling that Rachel would be expecting him. And Rachel on her
+side felt it a duty to put away any regular occupation that might have
+proved engrossing, and so to ordain her life that she should be always
+ready and at her father's orders if he should appear. And, thus
+deliberately cutting themselves loose from such minor anchorages as they
+might have had, they tried to delude themselves into the belief that not
+only was such makeshift companionship a solace, but that it actually was
+able to replace that other all-satisfying companionship they had lost.
+But they knew in their hearts, each of them, that it was not so. And Sir
+William realised, more perhaps than Rachel did, that it never could be.
+The relation between a father and daughter, when most successful, is
+formed of delightful discrepancies and differences, supplementing one
+another in the things that are not of each age. It means a protecting
+care on the side of the father, an amused tender pride in seeing the
+younger creature developing an individuality which, however, is hardly
+in the secret soul of the elder one quite realised or believed in. The
+experience of the man in such a relation has mainly been derived from
+women of his own standing; his judgment of his daughter is apt to be a
+good deal guesswork. The daughter, on the other hand, brings to the
+relation elements necessarily and absolutely absent on the other side.
+If she cares for her father as he does for her, she looks up to him, she
+admires him, she accepts from him numberless prejudices and rules about
+the government of life, and acts upon them, taking for granted all the
+time that he cannot understand her own point of view. And yet, even so
+constituted, it can be one of the most beautiful and even satisfying
+combinations of affection the world has to show, provided the father has
+not known what it is to have the fulness of joy in his companionship
+with his wife, in that equal experience, mutual reliance, understanding
+of hopes and fears, which is impossible when the understanding is being
+interpreted through the imagination only, by one standing on a different
+plane of life. Neither Rachel nor her father had realised all this; but
+the mother with her acuter sensibilities had known, and had so
+deliberately set herself to fulfil her task that they had all these
+years been interpreted to one another, as it were, by that other
+influence that had surrounded them, that atmosphere through which
+everything was seen aright and in its most beautiful aspect. And the
+time came when Sir William suddenly grasped with a burning, startling
+vividness the fact that his life could not be the same again, that he
+must henceforth take it on a lower plane. The day was fine and
+bright--too warm, too bright; the hopeful light of spring had given
+place to the steady glare of summer. He had been used before to go out
+riding with Rachel in the early morning, in order to be back by the time
+Lady Gore was ready to begin her day. They had tacitly abandoned this
+habit now. Then one day it occurred to Sir William that it might be a
+good thing for Rachel to resume it. He proposed to her that they should
+go out as they used. She, in her inmost heart shrinking from it, but
+thinking it would be a satisfaction to him, agreed. He, shrinking from
+it as much as she did, thought to please her. And so they went out and
+rode silently side by side, overpowered by mute comparison of this day
+with days that had been. And when they got home they went each their own
+way, and made no attempt at exchanging words. Sir William went miserably
+to his study, his heart aching with a rush of almost unbearable sorrow
+as he thought of the bright little room upstairs to which he had been
+wont to hurry for the welcome that always awaited him. What should he do
+with his life? How should he fill it? he asked himself in a burst of
+grief, as he shut himself in. And so much had the theory, firmly
+believed in by himself and his wife, that he had by his own free will,
+and in order to devote his life to her, abandoned any quest of a public
+career become an absolute conviction in his mind, that he felt a dull
+resentment at having been so noble. He recognised now that it had been
+quixotic. He had let the time pass. Fifty-five! To be sure, in these
+days it is not old age; it may, indeed, under certain circumstances be
+the prime of life, for a man who has begun his career early, political
+or otherwise. Had this been Sir William's lot he could have sought some
+consolation, or at any rate alleviation, in his misfortune, by turning
+at once to his work and plunging into it more strenuously than before.
+But even that mitigation, for so much as it might be worth, was denied
+to him. And he sat there, trying to face the fact that seemed almost
+incredible to a man of what seemed to him his aptitudes and capacity,
+the awful fact that he had not enough to do to fill up his life. He did
+not state this pitiless truth to himself explicitly, but it was
+beginning to loom from behind a veil, and he would some day be forced to
+look at it. He could not start anything fresh. He had not the requisite
+impulse. He could have continued, he could not begin; the theatre of his
+actions, as Lady Gore had foreseen, had indeed fallen when she fell, and
+without it he could initiate no fresh achievements. Oh, to have had
+something definite to turn to in those days, something that called for
+instant completion! To have had some inexorable daily task, some duty
+for which he was paid, in a government office, or in some private
+undertaking of his own, for which he would have been obliged, like so
+many other men, to leave his house at a fixed hour, and to be absorbed
+in other preoccupations till his return. What a physical, material
+relief he would have found in such a claim! Round most men of his age
+life has woven many interests, many ties, many calls, on their time and
+energies from outside as well as from those near to them, but all those
+spare, available energies of his had been absorbed and appropriated,
+filled up, nearer home, and so completely that he had never needed
+anything else. And now, whither should he turn? What should he do? Then
+he remembered his Book, the Book his wife and he had been accustomed to
+talk of with such confidence, such certainty--he now realised how
+very little there was of it done, or how much of what might be fruitful
+in the conception was owing to the way that she, in their talking over
+it, had held it up to him, so that now one light played round it, now
+another. Well he remembered how, only two days before she was taken ill,
+they had talked of it for a long time until she, with an enthusiasm that
+made it seem already a completed masterpiece, had said with a smile,
+"Now then, all that remains is to write it!" And he had almost believed,
+as he left her, that it would spring into life some day, that it would
+not only hold the place in his life of the Great Possibility that is
+necessary to us all, but that he would actually put his fate to the
+proof by carrying it into execution. He took out the portfolio in which
+were the notes he had made about it now and again. They bore the seared
+outward aspect of an entirely different mental condition from that with
+which they came in contact now. What is that subtle, mocking change that
+comes over even the inanimate things that we have not seen since we
+were happy, and now meet again in grief? It is like a horrible inversion
+of the golden touch given to Midas. To Gore, during those days, the
+darkness fell upon every fresh thing to which he went back. The
+impression was so strong on him as he turned over the manuscript, that
+he shuddered. What was the use of all this? What was it worth? He knew
+in his heart that the person of all others to whom it had been of most
+worth was gone--he would not be doing good to himself or to any one else
+by going on with it. He would be defrauding no one by letting the
+darkness cover it for ever. And another reason yet lay like cold lead at
+the bottom of his heart--the real, cruel, crushing reason--he could not
+write the book, he was not capable of writing it. That was the truth.
+And he desperately thrust the stray leaves into the cover, and the whole
+thing away from him, hopelessly, finally; there was nothing that would
+help him. That curtain would never lift again. And he covered his face
+with his hands as though trying to shut out the deadly knowledge.
+
+But of all this Rachel, as she sat waiting for her father at breakfast,
+was utterly unconscious. She did not realise the unendurable
+complications that had piled one misery on another to him. To her the
+wound had been terrible, but clean. The greatest loss she could conceive
+had stricken her life, but there were no secondary personal problems to
+add to it, no preoccupations of self apart from the one great
+desolation.
+
+Sir William turned over his letters listlessly as he sat down, opened
+them, and looked through them.
+
+"What am I to say to that?" he said, throwing one over to Rachel.
+
+The colour came into her cheeks as she saw that it was from Rendel.
+
+"I have one from him too," she said.
+
+"Oh! well, I don't ask to see that," Sir William said, with an attempt
+at cheerfulness. "I know better."
+
+"I would rather you saw it, really, father," and she handed him Rendel's
+letter to herself--a straightforward, dignified, considerate letter, in
+which he assured her that he did not mean to intrude himself upon her
+until she allowed him to come, and that all he asked was that she should
+understand that he was waiting, and would be content to wait, as long as
+there was a chance of hope.
+
+"Well, when am I to tell him to come?" Sir William said.
+
+"Father, what he wants cannot be," Rachel said.
+
+"Cannot be?" said Sir William. "Why not?"
+
+"Oh!" Rachel said, trying to command her voice, "I could not at this
+moment think of anything of that kind."
+
+"At this moment, perhaps," Sir William said. "But you see he is not in a
+hurry. He says so, at any rate, though I am not sure that it is very
+convincing."
+
+"How would it be possible," said Rachel, "that I should go away? What
+would you do if I left you alone?"
+
+"Well, as to that," Sir William replied, speaking slowly in order that
+he might appear to be speaking calmly, "I don't know, in any case, what
+I shall do." And his face looked grey and worn, conveying to Rachel, as
+she looked across at him, an impression of helpless old age in the
+father who had hitherto been to her a type of everything that was
+capable and well preserved. She sprang up and went to him.
+
+"Father, dear father," she cried amidst her sobs, as she hid her face on
+his shoulder. "You know that you are more to me than any one else in the
+world. Let me help you--let me try, do let me try." And at the sound of
+the words Gore became again conscious of the immeasurable, dark gulf
+there was between what one human being had been able to do for him and
+what any other in the world could try to do. And his own sorrow rose
+darkly before him and swept away everything else--even the sorrow of his
+child. It was almost bitterly that he said, as if the words were wrung
+from him involuntarily--
+
+"Nobody can help me now."
+
+"Oh, father!" Rachel cried again miserably. "Let me try."
+
+"Darling, I know," he said, recollecting himself at the sight of her
+distress, "and you know what my little girl is to me; but there are some
+things that even a daughter cannot do. And," he went on, "it would
+really be a comfort to me, I think, if"--he was going to say, "if you
+were married," but he altered it as he saw a swift change pass over
+Rachel's face--"if I knew you were happy; if you had a home of your own
+and were provided for."
+
+"Do you think that would be a comfort to you?" asked Rachel, trying to
+speak in an almost indifferent tone. "That you would be glad if I were
+to go away from you to a home of my own?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I think it would." And as he spoke he felt that the
+burden of giving Rachel companionship and trying to help her to bear her
+grief would be removed from him. "Besides," he went on, with an attempt
+at a smile, "it is not as if you would go far away from me altogether;
+you will only be a few streets off, after all. I could come to you
+whenever I wanted, and even--who knows?--I might sometimes ask you for
+your hospitality."
+
+"If I thought _that_----" Rachel said, and caught herself up.
+
+"You know," her father said more seriously, "we have been discussing
+this from one point of view only, from mine; but you are the person most
+concerned, and I am taking for granted that, from your point of view, it
+would be the best thing to do--that you would be happy."
+
+"If I only thought," Rachel said, her face answering his last question,
+if her words did not, "that you would come to me--that you would be
+with me altogether----"
+
+"I have no doubt that you would find that I came to you very often,"
+said Sir William, with again a desolate sense of having no definite
+reason for being anywhere.
+
+There was a pause before he said, "Then I'll tell him to come and see
+me, and perhaps he can see you afterwards."
+
+"Oh," said Rachel, shrinking, "it is not possible yet."
+
+"Well," said Sir William, "I will tell him so. We will explain to him
+that, since he is willing to wait, for the moment he must wait."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+And Rendel waited--through the autumn, through the winter--but not
+without seeing Rachel again. On the contrary, every week that passed
+during that time was bringing him nearer to his goal. After the first
+visit was over, that first meeting under the now maimed and altered
+conditions of life, the insensible relief afforded to both father and
+daughter by his companionship, his unselfish devotion and helpfulness,
+his unfailing readiness to be a companion to Sir William, to come and
+play chess with him, or to sit up and do intricate patiences through the
+small hours of the morning, all this gradually made him insensibly slide
+into the position of a son of the house. And Rachel, convinced that she
+was doing the best thing for her father and admitting in her secret
+heart that for herself she was doing the thing that of all others would
+make her happy, yielded at last. They were married in April, and went
+away for a fortnight to a shooting-box lent them by Lord Stamfordham in
+the West of Scotland, leaving Sir William for the first time alone in
+the big, empty house. It was with many, many misgivings that Rachel had
+agreed to go; but her father had insisted on her doing so. He had
+vaguely thought that perhaps it would be a relief to him to be alone,
+but he found the solitude unbearable. Those acquaintances of Gore's who
+saw him at the club expressed in suitably tempered tones their pleasure
+at seeing him again, and, thinking he would rather be left alone,
+discreetly refrained from thrusting their society upon him when in
+reality he most needed it, remarking to one another that poor old Gore
+had gone to pieces dreadfully since his wife died. A great many people
+knew him, and liked him well enough, but he had no intimate friends.
+Pateley occasionally dropped in; but Pateley was too full of business to
+have leisure to help to fill up anybody else's time, and Sir William
+found the blank in his own house, the unchanging loneliness, almost
+unbearable.
+
+In the meantime Rendel and his wife were beginning that page of the book
+of life which Sir William had closed for ever. At last, that vision of
+the future to which Rendel had clung with such steadfast hope, with such
+unswerving purpose, had been fulfilled: Rachel was his wife. It was an
+unending joy to him to remember that she was there; to watch for her
+coming and going; to see the dainty grace of movement and demeanour, the
+sweet, soft smile--her mother's smile--with which she listened as he
+talked. And during those days he poured himself out in speech as he had
+never been able to do before. It was a relief that was almost ecstasy to
+the man who had been made reserved by loneliness to have such a
+listener, and the sense of exquisite joy and repose which he felt in her
+society deepened as the days went on. To Rachel, too, when once she had
+made up her mind to leave her father, these days were filled with an
+undreamt-of happiness. She was beginning to recover from the actual
+shock of her mother's death, although, even as her life opened to all
+the new impressions that surrounded her, she felt daily afresh the want
+of the tender sympathy and guidance that had been her stay; but another
+great love had happily come into her life at the moment she needed it
+most, and a love that was far from wishing to supplant the other. The
+memory of Lady Gore was almost as hallowed to Rendel as it was to his
+wife: it was another bond between them. They talked of her constantly,
+their reverent recollection kept alive the sense of her abiding,
+gracious influence.
+
+It was a new and wonderful experience to Rachel to have the burden of
+daily life lifted from her. She had been loved in her home, it is true,
+as much as the most exacting heart might demand, but since she was
+seventeen it was she who had had to take thought for others, to surround
+them with loving care and protection; she had always been conscious,
+even though not feeling its weight, of bearing the burden of some one
+else's responsibilities. And now it was all different. In the first
+rebound of her youth she seemed to be discovering for the first time
+during those days how young she was, in the companionship of one whose
+tender care and loving protection smoothed every difficulty, every
+obstacle out of her path. And all too fast the perfumed days of spring
+glided away, a spring which, on that side of Scotland, was balmy and
+caressing. Day after day the sun shone, the mist remained in the
+distance, making that distance more beautiful still; and everything
+within and without was irradiated, and like motes in the sunshine Rendel
+saw the golden possibilities of his life dancing in the light of his
+hopes and illuminating the path that lay before him.
+
+Rachel wrote to her father constantly, tenderly, solicitously; and Sir
+William, reading of her happiness, did not write back to tell her what
+those same days meant to him. For in London the sky was grey and heavy,
+and it was through a haze the colour of lead that he saw the years to
+come. The dark and cheerless winter had given place to a cold and
+cheerless spring.
+
+It was a rainy afternoon that the young couple returned to London; but
+the gloomy look of the streets outside did but enhance the brightness of
+the little house in Cosmo Place, Knightsbridge, with its open, square
+hall, in which a bright fire was blazing. Light and warmth shone
+everywhere. Rachel drew a long breath of satisfaction, then her eyes
+filled with tears. The very sight of London brought back the past. Could
+it be possible that her mother was not there to welcome her? She had
+thought her father might be awaiting her at Cosmo Place; but as he was
+not, she went off instantly to Prince's Gate. How big and lonely the
+house looked with its gaunt, ugly portico, its tall, narrow hall and
+endless stairs! The drawing-rooms were closed: Sir William was sitting
+in his study, a chess-board in front of him, on which he was working out
+a problem.
+
+Rachel was terribly perturbed at the change in his appearance--a
+something, she did not quite know in what it lay, that betokened some
+absolute change of outlook, of attitude. He had the listless,
+indifferent air of one who lets himself be drifted here and there rather
+than of one who moves securely along, strong enough to hold his own way
+in spite of any opposing elements. This fortnight of solitude, in which
+he had been face to face with his own life and his prospects, had
+suddenly, roughly, pitilessly graven on his face the lines that with
+other men successive experiences accumulate there gently and almost
+insensibly. He had taken a sudden leap into old age, as sometimes
+happens to men of his standing, who, as long as their life is smooth,
+uneventful, and prosperous, succeed in keeping an aspect of youth.
+Rachel's heart smote her at having left him; it reproached her with
+having known something like happiness in these days, and her old sense
+of troubled, anxious responsibility came back. She begged him to come
+and dine with them that evening. He demurred at first at making a third
+on their first night in their own house. Rachel protested, and overruled
+all his objections. She arrived at home just in time to dress for
+dinner, finding her husband surprised and somewhat discomfited at her
+prolonged absence. He had wanted to go proudly all over the house with
+her, and see their new domain. But as he saw her come up the stairs, he
+realised that black care had sprung up behind her again, that this was
+not the confiding, naïvely happy Rachel who had walked with him on the
+moors.
+
+"There you are!" he said. "I was just wondering what had become of you."
+
+"I was with my father," Rachel said, in a tone in which there was a
+tinge of unconscious surprise at what his tone had conveyed. "And,
+Francis, he looks so dreadfully ill!"
+
+"Does he?" said Rendel, concerned. "I am sorry."
+
+"He looks really broken down," she said, "and oh, so much older. I am
+sure it has been bad for him being alone all this time. I ought not to
+have stayed away so long."
+
+"Well, it has not been very long," said Rendel with a natural feeling
+that two weeks had not been an unreasonable extension of their wedding
+tour.
+
+"He looks as if he had felt it so," she answered. "But at any rate, I
+have persuaded him to come to dinner with us to-night; I am sure it will
+be good for him."
+
+"To-night?" said Rendel, again with a lurking surprise that for this
+first night their privacy should not have been respected.
+
+"Yes," said Rachel. "You don't mind, do you?"
+
+"Oh, of course not," he replied, again stifling a misgiving.
+
+"You see," said Rachel, "I thought it might amuse him, and be a change
+for him, and then you might play a game of chess with him after dinner,
+perhaps."
+
+"Of course, of course," Rendel answered. But the misgiving remained.
+
+When, however, Sir William appeared, Rendel's heart almost smote him as
+Rachel's had done, he seemed so curiously broken down and dispirited.
+They talked of their Scotch experiences, they spoke a little of the
+affairs of the day, but, as Rendel knew of old, this was a dangerous
+topic, which, hitherto, he had succeeded either in avoiding altogether
+or in treating with a studied moderation which might so far as possible
+prevent Sir William's susceptibilities from being offended. Rachel sat
+with them after dinner while they smoked, then they all went upstairs.
+
+"Now then, father dear, where would you like to be?" she said, looking
+round the room for the most comfortable chair. "Here, this looks a very
+special corner," and she drew forward an armchair that certainly was in
+a most delightful place, looking as if it were destined for the master
+of the house, or, at any rate, the most privileged person in it, a
+comfortable armchair, with the slanting back that a man loves, and by
+it a table with a lamp at exactly the right height. "There," she said,
+pushing her father gently into it, "isn't that a comfortable corner?"
+
+"Very," Sir William said, looking up at her with a smile. It truly was a
+delight to be tended and fussed over again.
+
+"And now you must have a table in front of you," she said, looking
+round. "Let me see--Frank, which shall the chess-table be? Is there a
+folding table? Yes, of course there is--that little one that we bought
+at Guildford. That one!"--and she clapped her hands with childish
+delight as she pointed to it.
+
+Rendel brought forward the little table and opened it.
+
+"Oh, that is exactly the thing," she cried. "See, father, it will just
+hold the chess-board. Now then, this is where it shall always
+stand--your own table, and your own chair by it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+It is difficult to judge of any course of conduct entirely on its own
+merits, when it has a reflex action on ourselves. When Rendel before his
+marriage used to go to Prince's Gate and to see Rachel, absolutely
+oblivious of herself, hovering tenderly round her mother, watching to
+see that her father's wishes were fulfilled, that unselfish devotion and
+absorption in filial duty seemed to him the most entirely beautiful
+thing on this earth. But when, instead of being the spectator of the
+situation, he became an active participator in it, when the stream of
+Rachel's filial devotion was diverted from that of her conjugal duties,
+it unconsciously assumed another aspect in his eyes. But not for worlds
+would he have put into words the annoyance he could not help feeling,
+and Rachel was entirely unconscious of his attitude. The devoted,
+uncritical affection for her father which had grown up with her life was
+in her mind so absolutely taken for granted as one of the foundations of
+existence, that it did not even occur to her that Rendel might possibly
+not look at it in the same light. She took for granted that he would
+share her attitude towards her father as he had shared her adoration for
+her mother. It was all part of her entire trust in Rendel, and the
+simple directness with which she approached the problems of life. She
+had, before her marriage, expressed an earnest wish, which Rendel
+understood as a condition, that even if her father did not wish to live
+with them, she might share in his life and watch over him, and Rendel
+had accepted the condition and promised that it should be as she wished.
+But it is obviously not the actual making of a promise that is the
+difficulty. If it were possible when we pledge ourselves to a given
+course for our imagination to show us in a vision of the future the
+innumerable occasions on which we should be called upon to redeem, each
+time by a conscious separate effort, that lightly given pledge of an
+instant, the stoutest-hearted of us would quail at the prospect. Rendel
+looked back with a sigh to those days, that seemed already to have
+receded into a luminous distance, when Rachel, alone with him in
+Scotland, with no divided allegiance, had given herself up, heart and
+mind, to the new happiness, the new existence, that was opening before
+her.
+
+The danger of pouring life while it is still fluid into the wrong mould,
+of letting it drift and harden into the wrong shape, is an insidious
+peril which is not sufficiently guarded against. It is easy enough to
+say, Begin as you mean to go on; but the difficulty is to know exactly
+the moment when you begin, and when the point of going on has been
+arrived at; and of drifting gradually into some irremediable course of
+action from which it is almost impossible to turn back without
+difficulty and struggle. There had been a feeling that everything was
+somehow temporary during those first days at Cosmo Place, which extended
+into the weeks. Sir William held as a principle, and was quite genuine
+in his intention when he said it, that young people ought to be left to
+themselves. He would not, therefore, take up his abode under their roof,
+but still that he should do so eventually was felt by all concerned as a
+vague possibility which prevented in the young household a sense of
+having finally and comfortably settled down. Indeed, as it was, it was
+perhaps more unsettling to Rachel, and therefore to her husband, to have
+Sir William coming and going than it would have been to have him
+actually under the same roof. If he had been living with them his
+presence would have been a matter of course, and less constant
+companionship and diversion would probably have been considered
+necessary for him than they were when he dropped in at odd times. The
+advancing season and the grey dark mornings made the early rides
+impossible. Rachel in her secret soul did not regret them. Sir William
+had taken the habit of looking in at Cosmo Place on his way to Pall Mall
+and further eastward, and it always gave Rachel a pang of remorse if she
+found that by an unlucky chance she had been out of the way when he
+came. He would also sometimes come in on his way back, as has been
+said, in the obvious expectation of having a game of chess, of which
+Rendel, if he were at home, had not the heart to disappoint him. In
+these days there was not much occupation for him in the City. The
+excitement of starting and floating the "Equator" Company and the
+allotting of the shares to the eager band of subscribers had been
+accomplished some time since. The "Equator's" hour, however, had not
+come yet. The outlook in the City was not encouraging for those who knew
+how to read the weather chart of the coming days. The heart of the
+country was still beating fast and tumultuously after the emotions of
+the past two years; it needed a period of assured quiet to regain its
+normal condition. In the meantime the storm seemed to be subsiding. The
+great railway laying its iron grip on the heart of Africa was advancing
+steadily from the north as well as from the south: it was nearing the
+Equator. The country, its imagination profoundly stirred by the
+enterprise, watched it in suspense. But until the meeting of the two
+giant highways was effected, everything depended upon an equable balance
+of forces, of which a touch might destroy the equilibrium. German
+possessions and German forces lay perilously near the meeting of the two
+lines. At any moment a spark from some other part of the world might be
+wafted to Africa and set the fierce flame of war ablaze in the centre of
+the continent.
+
+The General Election was coming within measurable distance; the Liberal
+Peace Crusade was strenuously canvassing the country in favour of
+coming to a definite understanding with certain foreign powers.
+
+At the house in Cosmo Place it was no longer always possible, as on that
+first evening, to avoid the subject of politics.
+
+"I must say," said Rendel one night with enthusiasm--Stamfordham had
+made a big speech the day before of which the papers were
+full--"Stamfordham is a great speaker, and a great man to boot."
+
+"A great speaker, perhaps," Sir William said. "I don't know that that is
+entirely what you want from the man at the helm."
+
+"Well, proverbially it isn't," said Rendel, with a smile, determined to
+be good-humoured.
+
+"As to being a great man," continued Sir William, "anybody who knocks
+down everything that comes in his way and stands upon it looks rather
+big."
+
+"Even admitting that," said Rendel, "it seems to me that the
+determination and courage necessary to knock down what is in your way,
+when it can't be got out by any other method, is part of what makes a
+great statesman."
+
+"You speak," said Sir William, "as if he were a savage potentate."
+
+"In some respects," said Rendel, "the savage potentate and civilised
+ruler are inevitably alike. The ultimate ground, the ultimate arbiter of
+their empire, is force."
+
+"Empire!" said Sir William. "That is the cry! In your greed for empire
+you lose sight of everything but the aggrandisement of a dominion
+already so immense as to be unwieldy."
+
+"Still," said Rendel, "as we have this big thing in our hands, it is
+better to keep it there than let it drop and break to pieces."
+
+"I don't wish to let it drop," said Gore. "I wish to be content to
+increase it by friendly intercourse with the world, by the arts of peace
+and civilisation, and not by destruction and bloodshed."
+
+"I am afraid," said Rendel, "that the savage, which, as you say too
+truly, still lurks in the majority of civilised beings, will not be
+content to see the world governed on those amiable lines."
+
+"There I must beg leave to differ from you," said Sir William, "I
+believe that the majority of civilised human beings will, when it has
+been put before them, be on the side of peace."
+
+"We shall see," Rendel said, with a smile which was perhaps not as
+conciliatory as he intended it to be.
+
+"Yes, you will see when the General Election comes," said Gore. "And if
+it goes for us, and we have a Cabinet composed of men who are not the
+mere puppets in the hands of an autocrat, the destinies of the world
+will be altered."
+
+"Father," said Rachel, "do you really think that is how the General
+Election will go?"
+
+"Quite possibly," Gore said, with decision. Rendel said nothing.
+
+"Oh, father!" said Rachel. "I wish that you were in Parliament! Suppose
+you were in the Government!"
+
+"Ah, well, my life as you know, was otherwise filled up," said Sir
+William, with a sigh; "but in that case the Imperialists perhaps might
+not have found everything such plain sailing." And so much had he
+penetrated himself with the conviction of what he was saying, that he
+felt himself, as he sat there opposite Rendel, whose wisdom and sagacity
+in reality so far exceeded his own, to be in the position of the older,
+wiser man of great influence and many opportunities condescending to
+explain his own career to an obscure novice.
+
+Rendel looked across at Rachel sitting opposite to him, listening to
+what her father said with her customary air of sweet and gentle
+deference, and then smiling at himself; and again he inwardly vowed
+that, for her sake, he would endure the daily pinpricks that are almost
+as difficult to bear in the end as one good sword-thrust.
+
+"I must say it will be interesting to see who goes out as Governor of
+British Zambesiland," he said presently, looking up from the paper.
+"That will be a big job if you like."
+
+"Let's hope they will find a big man to do it," said Sir William.
+
+"I heard to-day," said Rendel, "that it would probably be Belmont."
+
+"Well, he'll be a firebrand Governor after Stamfordham's own heart,"
+said Gore. "It's absurd sending all these young men out to these
+important posts."
+
+"That is rather Stamfordham's theory," said Rendel--"to have youngish
+men, I mean."
+
+"If he would confine himself to theories," said Sir William, "it would
+be better for England at this moment."
+
+"It might, however, interfere with his practical use as a Foreign
+Secretary," Rendel was about to say, but he checked the words on his
+tongue.
+
+After dinner that evening he remained downstairs under pretext of
+writing some letters, while Rachel proposed to her father to give her a
+lesson in chess.
+
+Rendel turned on the electric light in his study, shut the door, stood
+in front of the fire and looked round him with a delightful sense of
+possession, of privacy, of well-being. His new house--indeed, one might
+almost have said his new life--was still so recent a possession as to
+have lost none of its preciousness. He still felt a childish joy in all
+its details. The house was one of those built within the last decade
+which seem to have made a struggle to escape the uniformity of the older
+streets. The front door opened into a square hall, from the left side of
+which opened the dining-room, from the right the study, both of these
+rooms having bow windows, built with that broad sweep of curve which
+makes for beauty instead of vulgarity. The house, Rendel had told his
+wife with a smile when they came to it, he had furnished for her, with
+the exception of one room in it; the study he had arranged for himself.
+And it certainly was a room in which, to judge by appearances, a worker
+need never be stopped in his work by the paltry need of any necessary
+tool. Rendel was a man of almost exaggerated precision and order.
+Everything lay ready to his hand in the place where he expected to find
+it. A glance at his well-appointed writing-table gave evidence of it.
+The back wall of the study, opposite the window, was lined with books.
+On the wall over the fireplace hung a large map of Africa. Rendel looked
+intently at it as he thought of the stirring pages of history that were
+in the making on that huge, misshapen continent, of the field that it
+was going to be for the statesmen and administrators of the future: he
+thought of Lord Belmont, only two years older than himself, with whom he
+had been at Eton and at Oxford, and wondered what it felt like to be in
+his place and have the ball at one's feet. For Rendel in his heart was
+burning with ambition of no ignoble kind. He was burning to do, to act,
+and not to watch only; to take his part in shaping the destinies of his
+fellow-men, to help the world into what he believed to be the right
+path; and he would do it yet. In his mind that evening, as he stood
+upright, intent, looking on into the future, there was not the shadow of
+a doubt that he would carry out his purpose. He had come downstairs
+smarting under the impression of Sir William's last words when they were
+discussing the new Governor. Then he recovered, and reminded himself of
+the obvious truism that the man occupied with politics must school
+himself to have his opinions contradicted by his opponents, and must
+make up his mind that there are as many people opposed to his way of
+thinking in the world as agreeing with it. But it is one thing to engage
+in a free fight in the open field, and another to keep parrying the
+petty blows dealt by a persecuting antagonist. Day by day, hour by hour,
+as the time went on, Rendel had to make a conscious effort to keep to
+the line he had traced out for himself; he had to tighten his
+resolution, to readjust his burden. The yoke of even a beloved
+companionship may be willingly borne, but it is a yoke and a restraint
+for all that. But Rendel would not have forgotten it. He accepted the
+lot he had chosen, unspeakably grateful to Rachel for having bestowed
+such happiness on him, ready and determined to fulfil his part of the
+compact, to carry out, even at the cost of a daily and hourly sacrifice,
+the bargain he had made. And, after all, as long as he made up his mind
+that it did not signify, he could well afford, in the great happiness
+that had fallen to his lot, to disregard the minor annoyances. His life,
+his standards, should be arranged on a scale that would enable him to
+disregard them. If one is only moving along swiftly enough, one has
+impetus to glide over minor impediments without being stopped or turned
+aside by them. For Rachel's sake all would be possible, it would be
+almost easy. At any rate, it should be done. Rendel's will felt braced
+and strengthened by his resolve, and he knew that he would be master of
+his fate. There are certain moments in our lives when we stop at a
+turning, it may be, to take stock of our situation, when we look back
+along the road we have come--how interminable it seemed as we began
+it!--and look along the one we are going to travel, prepared to start
+onward again with a fresh impulse of purpose and energy. That night, as
+Rendel looked on into the future, he felt like the knight who, lance in
+rest but ready to his hand, rides out into the world ready to embrace
+the opportunity that shall come to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The opportunity that came that night was ushered in somewhat
+prosaically, not by the sound of a foeman's horn being wound in the
+distance, but by the postman's knock. There was only one letter, but
+that was an important looking one addressed to Rendel, in a big, square
+envelope with an official signature in the corner. It was, however,
+marked "private and confidential," and was not written in an official
+capacity. Rendel as he looked at it, saw that the signature was
+"Belmont." In an instant as he unfolded the page his hopes leapt to meet
+the words he would find there. Yes, Lord Belmont was going to be
+Governor of Zambesiland; that was the beginning. And what was this that
+followed? He asked Rendel whether, if offered the post of Governor's
+Secretary, practically the second in command, he would accept it and go
+out to Africa with him. The offer, which meant a five years'
+appointment, was flatteringly worded, with a mention of Lord
+Stamfordham's strong recommendation which had prompted it, and wound up
+with an earnestly expressed hope that Rendel would not at any rate
+refuse without having deeply considered it. Belmont, however, asked for
+a reply as soon as was consistent with the serious reflection necessary
+before taking the step. Rendel looked at the clock. It was half-past
+nine. He need not write by post that night, he would send round the
+first thing in the morning. That would do as well. At this particular
+moment he need do nothing but look the thing in the face. Serious
+consideration it should have, undoubtedly, though that was not needed in
+order to come to a decision. He was not afraid of gazing at this new
+possibility that had just swum into his ken. The moment that comes to
+those who are going to achieve, when the door in the wall, showing that
+glorious vista beyond, suddenly opens to them, is fraught with an
+excited joy which partakes at once of anticipation and of fulfilment,
+and is probably never surpassed when in the fulness of time the
+opportunities come even too fast on each other's heels, and it has
+become a foregone conclusion to take advantage of them. There is no
+moment of outlook that has the charm of that first gaze from afar, when
+the deep blue distances cloak what is lovely and unlovely alike and
+merge them all into one harmonious and inviting mystery. Rendel was in
+no hurry for that curtain of mysterious distance to lift: possibility
+and success lay behind it. He relished with an exquisite pleasure the
+sense of having a dream fulfilled. The crucial moment that comes to
+nearly all of us of having to compare the place that others assign to
+us in life with that which we imagined we were entitled to occupy, is to
+some fraught with the bitterest disappointment. The sense of having
+cleared successfully that great gulf which lies between one's own
+appreciation of oneself and that of other people is one of rapture.
+Rendel had been so short a time married, and had had so few
+opportunities during that time of being called upon for any decision,
+that it was an entirely new sensation to him to remember suddenly that
+this was a thing which concerned somebody else as well as it did
+himself. But the thought was nothing but sweet; it meant that there was
+somebody now by his side, there always would be, to care for the things
+that happened to him; and Rachel, too, would be borne up on the wave of
+excitement and rejoicing that was shaking Rendel, to his own surprise,
+so strangely out of his usual reserved composure. He sat down
+mechanically at his writing-table and drew a sheet of writing-paper idly
+towards him, wondering how he should formulate his reply. To his great
+surprise and somewhat shamefaced amusement, he found that his hand was
+shaking so that he could not control the pen. He would go up before
+writing and tell Rachel. Then, as he went upstairs, he was conscious of
+a secret annoyance that a third person should just at this moment be
+between them.
+
+A profound silence reigned as he opened the drawing-room door. Rachel
+and her father were poring intently over the chess-board. Rachel looked
+up eagerly as her husband came in.
+
+"Oh, Francis," she said, "I am so glad. Do come and tell me what to do."
+
+"Yes, I wish you would," Sir William said, with some impatience. "Look
+what she is doing with her queen."
+
+"Is that a letter you want to show me?" said Rachel, looking at the
+envelope in Rendel's hand.
+
+"All right. It will keep," he said quietly, putting it back in his
+breast pocket.
+
+Sir William kept his eyes intently fixed upon the board. He would not
+countenance any diversion of fixed and rigid attention from the game in
+hand.
+
+"That is what I should do," said Rendel, moving one of Rachel's pawns on
+to the back line.
+
+"Oh! how splendid!" said Rachel. "I believe I have a chance after all."
+
+Sir William gave a grunt of satisfaction. "That's more like it," he
+said. "If you had come up a little sooner we might have had a decent
+game."
+
+Rendel made no comment. The game ended in the most auspicious way
+possible. Rachel, backed by Rendel's advice, showed fight a little
+longer and left the victory to Sir William in the end after a desperate
+struggle. The hour of departure came. Rachel and her husband both went
+downstairs with Sir William. They opened the door. It was a bright,
+starlight night. Sir William announced his intention of walking to a
+cab, and with his coat buttoned up against the east wind, started off
+along the pavement. Rachel turned back into the house with a sigh as she
+saw him go.
+
+"He is getting to look much older, isn't he?" she said. "Poor dear, it
+is hard on him to have to turn out at this time of night."
+
+Rendel vaguely heard and barely took in the meaning of what she was
+saying. His one idea was that now he would be able to tell her his news.
+
+"Come in here," he said, drawing her into the study. "I want to tell you
+something." And he made her sit down in his own comfortable chair. "I
+have had a letter this evening," he said.
+
+"Have you?" said Rachel, looking up at him in surprise at the unusual
+note of joyousness, almost of exultation, in his tone. "What is it
+about?"
+
+"You shall read it," he said, giving it to her. Her colour rose as she
+read on.
+
+"Oh, what an opportunity!" she said, and a tinge of regret crept
+strangely into her voice. "What a pity!"
+
+"A pity?" said Rendel, looking at her.
+
+"Yes," she said. "It would have been so delightful."
+
+"Would have been?" said Rendel, still amazed. "Why don't you say 'will
+be'? Do you mean to say you don't want to go?"
+
+"I don't think _I_ could go," Rachel said, with a slight surprise in her
+voice. "How could I?"
+
+Rendel said nothing, but still looked at her as though finding it
+difficult to realise her point of view.
+
+"How could I leave my father?" she said, putting into words the thing
+that seemed to her so absolutely obvious that she had hardly thought it
+necessary to speak it.
+
+"Do you think you couldn't?" Rendel said slowly.
+
+"Oh, Frank, how would it be possible?" she said. "We could not leave him
+alone here, and it would be much, much too far for him to go."
+
+"Of course. I had not thought of his attempting it," said Rendel,
+truthfully enough, with a sinking dread at his heart that perhaps after
+all the fair prospect he had been gazing upon was going to prove nothing
+but a mirage.
+
+"You do agree, don't you?" she said, looking at him anxiously. "You do
+see?"
+
+"I am trying to see," Rendel said quietly. For a moment neither spoke.
+
+"Oh, I couldn't," Rachel said. "I simply couldn't!" in a heartfelt tone
+that told of the unalterable conviction that lay behind it. There was
+another silence. Rendel stood looking straight before him, Rachel
+watching him timidly. Rendel made as though to speak, then he checked
+himself.
+
+"Oh, isn't it a pity it was suggested!" Rachel cried involuntarily.
+Rendel gave a little laugh. It was deplorable, truly, that such an
+opportunity should have come to a man who was not going to use it.
+
+"But could not _you_----" she began, then stopped. "How long would it be
+for?"
+
+"Oh, about five years, I suppose," said Rendel, with a sort of aloofness
+of tone with which people on such occasions consent to diverge for the
+moment from the main issue.
+
+"Five years," she repeated. "That would be too long."
+
+"Yes, five years seems a long time, I daresay," said Rendel, "as one
+looks on to it."
+
+"I was wondering," she said hesitatingly, "if it wouldn't have been
+better that you should have gone."
+
+"I? Without you, do you mean?" Rendel said. "No, certainly not. That I
+am quite clear about."
+
+"Oh, Frank, I should not like it if you did," she said, looking up at
+him.
+
+"I need not say that I should not." There was another silence.
+
+"Should you like it very, very much?" she said.
+
+"Like what?" said Rendel, coming back with an effort.
+
+"Going to Africa."
+
+There had been a moment when Rendel had told Lady Gore how glad he was
+that Rachel had no ambitions, as producing the ideal character. No doubt
+that lack has its advantages--but the world we live in is not, alas,
+exclusively a world of ideals.
+
+"Yes, I should like it," he replied quietly. "If you went too, that
+is--I should not like it without you."
+
+"Oh, Frank, it _is_ a pity," she said, looking up at him wistfully. But
+there was evidently not in her mind the shadow of a possibility that the
+question could be decided other than in one way.
+
+"Come, it is getting late," Rendel said. And they left the room with the
+outward air of having postponed the decision till the morning. But the
+decision was not postponed; that Rachel took for granted, and Rendel had
+made up his mind. This was, after all, not a new sacrifice he was called
+upon to make: it was part of the same, of that sacrifice which he had
+recognised that he was willing to make in order to marry Rachel, and
+which was so much less than that other great and impossible sacrifice of
+giving her up.
+
+He came down early the next morning and wrote to Lord Belmont, meaning
+when Rachel came down to breakfast to show her the letter, in which he
+had most gratefully but quite decisively declined the honour that had
+been done him. He read the letter over feeling as if he were in a dream,
+and almost smiled to himself at the incredible thought that here was the
+first big opportunity of his life and that he was calmly putting it away
+from him. Perhaps when he came to talk it over with Rachel again she
+might see it differently. Might she? No. He knew in his heart that she
+would not. It was probable that Rendel's ambition, his determined
+purpose, would always be hampered by his old-fashioned, almost quixotic
+ideas of loyalty, his conception of the seemliness, the dignity of the
+relations between husband and wife. In a matter that he felt was a
+question of right or wrong he would probably without hesitation have
+used his authority and decided inflexibly that such and such a course
+was the one to pursue; but here he felt it was impossible. It would not
+be consistent with his dignity to use his authority to insist upon a
+course which, though it might be to his own advantage, was undeniably an
+infringement of the tacit compact that he had accepted when he married.
+With the letter in his hand he went slowly out of the study. Rachel was
+coming swiftly down the stairs into the hall, dressed for walking,
+looking perturbed and anxious.
+
+"Frank," she said hurriedly, "I have just had a message from Prince's
+Gate, my father is ill."
+
+"I am very sorry," Rendel said with concern.
+
+"I must go there directly," she said.
+
+"Have you breakfasted?" asked Rendel.
+
+"Yes," she said. "At least I have had a cup of tea--quite enough."
+
+"No," said Rendel, "that isn't enough. Come, it's absurd that you should
+go out without breakfasting."
+
+"I couldn't really," Rachel said entreatingly. "I must go."
+
+"Nonsense!" Rendel said decidedly. "You are not to go till you have had
+some breakfast." And he took her into the dining-room and made her eat.
+But this, as he felt, was not the moment for further discussion of his
+own plans. He saw how absolutely they had faded away from her view.
+
+"I shall follow you shortly," he said, "to know how Sir William is."
+
+"Oh, do," she said. "You can't come now, I suppose?"
+
+"I have a letter to write first. I must write to Lord Belmont."
+
+"Oh yes, of course," she said, with a sympathetic inflection in her
+voice. "Oh, Frank, how terrible it would have been if you had been going
+away now!" And she drew close to him as though seeking shelter against
+the anxieties and troubles of the world.
+
+"But I am not," said Rendel quietly. And she looked back at him as she
+drove off with a smile flickering over her troubled face.
+
+Rendel turned back into the house. There was nothing more to do, that
+was quite evident. He fastened up the letter to Belmont and sent it
+round to his house, also writing to Stamfordham a brief letter of thanks
+for his good offices and regrets at not being able to avail himself of
+them.
+
+Later he went to Prince's Gate. Sir William was a little better. It was
+a sharp, feverish attack brought on by a chill the night before. It
+lasted several days, during which time Rachel was constantly backwards
+and forwards at Prince's Gate, and at the end of which she proposed to
+Rendel that her father should, for the moment, as she put it, come to
+them to Cosmo Place.
+
+In the meantime Stamfordham, surprised at Rendel's refusal of the
+opportunity he had put in his way, had sent for him to urge him to
+re-consider his decision while there was yet time. Rendel found it very
+hard to explain his reasons in such a way that they should seem in the
+least valid to his interlocutor. Stamfordham, although he was well aware
+that Rendel had married during the spring, had but dimly realised the
+practical difference that this change of condition might bring into the
+young man's life and into the code by which his actions were governed.
+He himself had not married. He had had, report said, one passing fancy
+and then another, but they had never amounted to more than an impulse
+which had set him further on his way; there had never been an attraction
+strong enough to deflect him from his orbit. With such, he was quite
+clear, the statesman should have nothing to do.
+
+"Of course," he said, after listening to what Rendel had to say, "I
+should be the last person to wish to persuade you to take a course
+contrary to Mrs. Rendel's wishes, but still such an opportunity as this
+does not come to every man."
+
+"I know," said Rendel.
+
+"I never was married," Stamfordham went on, "but I have not understood
+that matrimony need necessarily be a bar to a successful career."
+
+"Nor have I," Rendel said, with a smile.
+
+"Let's see. How long have you been married?"
+
+"Four months," Rendel replied.
+
+"As I told you, I am inexperienced in these matters," Stamfordham said,
+"but perhaps while one still counts by months it is more difficult to
+assert one's authority."
+
+"My wife," said Rendel, "does not wish to leave her father, who is in
+delicate health. Sir William Gore, you know."
+
+"Oh, Sir William Gore, yes," said Stamfordham, with an inflection which
+implied that Sir William Gore was not worth sacrificing any possible
+advantages for.
+
+"I am very, very sorry," Rendel said gravely. "I would have given a
+great deal to have been going to Africa just now."
+
+"Yes, indeed. There will be infinite possibilities over there as soon as
+things have settled down," said Stamfordham. And he looked at a table
+that was covered with papers of different kinds, among them some notes
+in his own handwriting, and said, "Pity my unfortunate secretaries! I
+don't think I have ever had any one who knew how to read those
+impossible hieroglyphics as you did."
+
+"I don't know whether I ought to say I am glad or sorry to hear that,"
+said Rendel, as he went towards the door.
+
+"What are you going to do if you don't go to Africa?" Stamfordham said.
+
+"Something else, I hope," said Rendel, with a look and an accent that
+carried conviction.
+
+"Shan't you go into the House?" said Stamfordham.
+
+"I mean to try," Rendel said. Then as he went out he turned round and
+said, "I daresay, sir, there are still possibilities in Europe, after
+all."
+
+"Very likely," said Stamfordham; and they parted.
+
+One of the most difficult tasks of the philosopher is not to regret his
+decisions. The mind that has been disciplined to determine quickly and
+to abide by its determination is one of the most valuable instruments of
+human equipment. But it certainly needed some philosophy on Rendel's
+part, during the period that elapsed between his refusal of Lord
+Belmont's offer and the departure of the newly appointed governor, not
+to regret that he himself was remaining behind. Day by day the papers
+were full of the administrators who were going out, of their
+qualifications, of their responsibilities. Day by day Rendel looked at
+the map hanging in his study and wondered what transformations the
+shifting of circumstances would bring to it.
+
+Sir William Gore, in the meantime, had got better. He had slowly thrown
+off the fever that had prostrated him, although he was not able to
+resume his ordinary life. He had demurred a little at first to the
+proposal that he should take up his abode at Cosmo Place, then, not
+unwillingly, had yielded. In his ordinary state of health he would have
+been alive to the proverbial drawbacks of a joint household, but in his
+present state of weakness and depression he felt he could not be alone,
+and in his secret heart it was almost a relief to be away from Prince's
+Gate, its memories and associations. It had been in one of these moments
+of insight, of revelation almost, that suddenly, like a blinding flash
+of light shows us in pitiless details the conditions that surround us,
+that with intense self-pity he had said to himself that there was
+actually no one in this whole world with whom he was entitled to come
+first. Rachel's solicitude certainly went far to persuade him of the
+contrary; but in his secret soul he bitterly resented the fact that
+there should now be someone to share Rachel's allegiance, although
+Rendel might well have contended that he was divided in Sir William's
+favour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The Miss Pateleys, sisters of Robert Pateley, lived together. The death
+of their parents, as we have said, had taken place when their brother
+was already launched on his successful career as a journalist. They had
+at first gone on living in the little country town in which their father
+had been a solicitor. It had not occurred to them to do anything else.
+They were surrounded there by people who knew them, who considered them,
+towards whom their social position needed no explaining and by whom it
+was taken for granted. When they went shopping, the tradespeople would
+reply in a friendly way, "Yes, Miss Pateley,--No, Miss Jane. This is the
+stocking you generally prefer"; or, "These were the pens you had last
+time," with an intimate understanding of the needs of their customers,
+forming a most pleasing contrast to the detached attitude of the staff
+of big shops. The sisters had a very small income between them, eked out
+by skilful management, and also, it must be said, by constant help from
+their brother, who represented to them the moving principle of the
+universe embodied in a visible form. He it was who knew things the
+female mind cannot grasp, how to read the gas meter, what to do when the
+cistern was blocked, or when the landlord said it was not his business
+to mend the roof. These things which appeared so preoccupying to Anna
+and Jane seemed to sit very lightly on their brother Robert, and when
+they saw him shoulder each detail and deal with it with instant and
+consummate ease they admired him as much as they did when they saw him
+carrying upstairs his own big portmanteau which the united female
+strength of the house was powerless to deal with. After a time Robert,
+devoted brother though he was, found that it complicated existence to
+have to settle these matters by correspondence, still more to have
+suddenly to take a journey of several hours from London in order to deal
+with them on the spot. He proposed to his sisters that they should come
+and live in London. With many misgivings, and yet not without some
+secret excitement, they assented, and for a few months before our story
+begins they had been established in the same house as their brother, on
+the floor above the lodgings he inhabited in Vernon Street, Bloomsbury.
+Vernon Street, Bloomsbury, was perhaps a fortunate place for them to
+begin their London life in, if London life, except as a geographical
+term, it can be called, for two poor little ladies living more
+absolutely outside what is commonly described by that name it would be
+hard to find. Indeed, if it had not been for the courage and
+adventurous spirit of Jane, the younger of the two, their hearts might
+well have failed them during those first months in which the autumn days
+shortened over the district of Bloomsbury. Since they knew no one, they
+had nobody to visit, and nobody came to see them. They were still not a
+little bewildered by London. There were, it was true, a great many
+sights of an inanimate kind; but how to get at them? They did not
+consider themselves justified in taking cabs, and omnibuses were at
+first, to two people who had lived all their lives in a tramless town, a
+disconcerting and complicated means of locomotion. However, as the time
+went on they shook down, they found their little niche in existence;
+they made acquaintance with the clergyman's wife and some of the
+district visitors, and when the first summer of their London life came
+round, the summer following Rachel's marriage, everything seemed to them
+more possible. London was bright, sunshiny, and welcoming, instead of
+being austere and repellent. Pateley had succeeded in obtaining a key of
+the square close to which they lived, and they sat there and revelled in
+the summer weather. The mere fact of having him so near them, of knowing
+that at any moment in the day he might come in with the loud voice and
+heartiness of manner which always cheered and uplifted them, albeit some
+of his acquaintances ventured to find it too audible, gave them a fresh
+sense of being in touch with all the great things happening in the
+world. Then came a moment in which, indeed, the larger issues of life
+seemed to present themselves to be dealt with. Pateley, under whose
+auspices the _Arbiter_ had prospered exceedingly, and who had an
+interest in it from the point of view of a commercial enterprise as well
+as of a political organ, found himself one day the possessor of a larger
+sum of ready money than he had expected. He made up his mind that some
+of it should be given to his sisters, and that the rest should join
+their own savings invested in the "Equator," which seemed to present
+every prospect of succeeding when once the moment should come to work
+it. Pateley was altogether in a high state of jubilation in those days.
+The Cape to Cairo railway was actually on the verge of being completed.
+In a week more the gigantic scheme would be an accomplished fact. The
+excitement in London respecting it was immense. A small piece of German
+territory still remained to be crossed, but if no unforeseen incident
+arose to jeopardise the situation at the last moment all would yet be
+well. The rejoicings of Englishmen commonly take a sturdy and obvious
+form, and two days after the great junction was expected to take place,
+the _Arbiter_ was to give a dinner at the Colossus Hotel in the Strand
+to the representatives of the Cape to Cairo Railway in London, after
+which the Hotel would be illuminated on all sides, and fireworks over
+the river were to proclaim to the whole town that Africa had been
+spanned. Pateley was to take the chair at the dinner. He had some shares
+in the railway himself, although the rush upon it had been too great
+for him to secure any large amount of them. He had golden hopes,
+however, in the future of the "Equator," when once the railway was at
+its doors. Anderson had gone back again to Africa, this time with an
+eager staff of companions, and was only waiting for his time to come.
+
+"Now then," Pateley said jovially, one evening, as he went into the
+lodgings in Vernon Street and found his sisters sitting over their
+somewhat inadequate evening meal, "Times are looking up, I must tell
+you. I shouldn't wonder if you were better off before long. When the
+railway's finished, and if the "Equator" mine is all we believe it to
+be, you ought to get something handsome out of it--and I have got
+something for you to go on with which will keep you going in the
+meantime. So now I hope you will think yourselves justified in sitting
+down to a decent dinner every evening, instead of that kind of thing,"
+and he pointed, with his loud, jovial laugh, to the cocoa and eggs on
+the rather dingily appointed table.
+
+Jane's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed with an incredulous joy.
+Anna's breath came quickly. What a fairy prince of a brother this was!
+
+"But, Robert, we had better not make much difference in our way of
+living at first, had we?" Anna said, timidly, calling to mind the
+instances in fiction of imprudent persons who had launched out wildly on
+an accession of fortune and then been overtaken by ruin.
+
+"Well, I don't suppose you are either of you likely to want to cut a big
+dash," he said with another loud laugh. "At least, I don't see you doing
+it."
+
+"It is a great responsibility," Anna said timidly. "I hope we shall use
+it the right way."
+
+"Right way!" said Pateley. "Of course you will. Go to the play with it,
+get yourself a fur cloak, have a fire in your bedroom----"
+
+"Oh!" said Jane.
+
+"But, Robert," Anna said, "I don't feel it is sent to us for that."
+
+"Sent!" said Pateley. "Well, that is one way of putting it."
+
+But he did not enlarge upon the point. He accepted his sisters just as
+they were, with their limitations, their principles, and everything. He
+was not particularly susceptible to beauty and distinction, in the sense
+of these qualities being necessary to his belongings, and perhaps it was
+as well. Anna and Jane, though they looked undeniably like gentlewomen,
+had nothing else about them that was particularly agreeable to look
+upon. Nor were they either of them very strikingly ugly, or, indeed,
+strikingly anything. Jane was the better looking of the two. It was,
+perhaps, a rather heartless freak of destiny that life should have
+ordained her to live with somebody who was like a parody of herself,
+older, rounder, thicker, plainer. Living apart they might each have
+passed muster; living together they somehow made their ugliness, like
+their income, go further. But in the composite photograph it was Anna
+who predominated. It was a pity, for she was the stumpier of the two.
+
+Long and earnest were the discussions the little sisters had that night
+after their splendid brother had departed, until by the time they went
+to bed they were prepared, or so it seemed to them, to launch their
+existence on a dizzy career of extravagance. They were going, as they
+expressed it, to put their establishment on another footing, which meant
+that instead of being attended by an inexperienced young person of
+eighteen they were to have an arrogant one of twenty-five. Their own
+elderly servant had declined to face the temptations of London, and had
+remained behind, living close to their old home. And, greatest event of
+all, they had at length--it was now summer, but that didn't matter, furs
+were cheaper--yielded to the thought which they had been alternately
+caressing and dismissing for months, and they were each going to buy a
+Fur Cloak. The days in which this all important purchase was being
+considered were to the Miss Pateleys days of pure enjoyment. Days of
+walks along Oxford Street, no longer so bewildered by the noise of
+London traffic, the discovery of some shop in an out of the way place
+whose wares were about half the price of the more fashionable quarters.
+The days were full of glorious possibilities.
+
+It was two days after that evening visit of Pateley's to his sisters,
+which had so gilded and transformed their existence, that sinister
+rumours began to float over London, bringing deadly anxiety in their
+wake. Telegrams kept pouring in, and were posted all over the town,
+becoming more and more serious as the day went on: "Disturbances in
+South Africa. Hostile encounter between English and Germans. Cape to
+Cairo Railway stopped. Collapse of the 'Equator, Ltd.,'" until by
+nightfall the whole of England knew the pitifully unimportant incidents
+from which such tragic consequences were springing--that a group of
+travelling missionaries, halting unawares on German territory and
+chanting their evening hymns, had been disturbed by a rough fellow who
+came jeering into their midst, that one of the devout group had finally
+ejected him, with such force that he had rolled over with his head on a
+stone and died then and there; and that the Germans were insisting upon
+having vengeance. As for the "Equator, Ltd.," nobody knew exactly in
+what the collapse consisted. The wildest reports were circulated
+respecting it; one saying that it was in the hands of the Germans,
+another that they had destroyed the plant that was ready to work it,
+another again, and it was the one that gained the most credence, that
+there was no gold in the mine at all, and that the whole thing was a
+swindle. The offices of the "Equator" were closed for the night. They
+would probably be besieged the next morning by an angry crowd eager to
+sell out, but the shares would now be hardly worth the paper they were
+written upon. Pateley, in a frenzy of anxiety, in whichever direction
+he looked--for his sisters, for himself, for his party, for the Cape to
+Cairo Railway--spent the night at his office to see which way events
+were going to turn. In his unreasoning anger, as the day of misfortune
+dawned next morning, against destiny, against the far-away unknown
+missionaries, against all the adverse forces that were standing in the
+way of his wishes, there was one concrete figure in the foreground upon
+whom he could justifiably pour out his wrath: Sir William Gore, the
+Chairman of the "Equator," who, in the public opinion, was responsible
+for the undertaking. He would go to see Sir William that very day as
+soon as it was possible. In the meantime he would go round to his
+sisters to try to prepare them for the unfavourable turn that their
+circumstances after all might possibly take. As, sorely troubled at what
+he had to say, he came up into their little sitting-room, he found it
+bright with flowers; the fragrance of sweet peas filled the air. Anna,
+who had longed for flowers all her life and had welcomed with tremulous
+gratitude the rare opportunities that had come in her way of receiving
+any, had suddenly realised that it might not be sinful to buy them. The
+joy that she had in the handful bought from a street vendor was cheap,
+after all, at the price that might have seemed exorbitant if it had been
+spent on the flowers alone.
+
+"Robert," said Jane, almost before he was inside the room, "guess what
+we are going to do?"
+
+"Something very naughty, I'm afraid," Anna said, excited and shy at the
+same time. She was generally less able than Jane to overcome the awe
+that they both felt of a relation so great and so beneficent, so
+altogether perfect, as their brother Robert, but at this moment she was
+intoxicated by the possession of wealth, by the sense of luxury, of
+well-being, by that fragrance of the spirit her imagination added to the
+fragrance of the flowers that stood near her. "We're each going to buy a
+fur cloak like that, look!" And she held out to him proudly the picture
+in the inside cover of the _Realm of Fashion_, representing a tall,
+slender, undulating lady, about as unlike herself as could well have
+been imagined, wrapped in a beautiful clinging garment of which the
+lining, turned back, displayed an exquisite fur. Pateley, as we have
+said, was not as a rule given to an excess of sensibility. He did not
+ridicule sentiment in others, but neither did he share it; that point of
+view was simply not visible to him. Suddenly, however, on this evening
+he had a moment of what felt to himself a most inconvenient access of
+emotion. There was a plain and obvious pathos in this particular
+situation that it needed no very fine sensibilities to grasp, in the
+sight of his sister, her small, thickset little figure encased in her
+ugly little gown, looking up appealingly to him over her spectacles with
+the joy of a child in the toy she was going to buy. It was probably the
+first, the very first time in her life, that she had had that particular
+experience. Added to the joy of getting the thing she coveted was the
+sense of having looked a conscientious scruple in the face, and seen it
+fly before her like an evil spirit before a spell. She had routed the
+enemy, pushed aside the obstacle in front of her, and, excited, and
+flushed with victory, was looking round on a bigger world and a fairer
+view. Pateley, to his own surprise, found himself absolutely incapable
+of putting into words what he had come to say, not a thing that often
+happened to him. In wonder at his not answering at once, Anna,
+misinterpreting his very slight pause, caught herself up quickly and
+said anxiously--
+
+"That is what you suggested, isn't it, Robert? You are quite sure you
+approve of it?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I approve," he said heartily, recovering himself. "Of course.
+Go ahead."
+
+"You must not think," she went on, reassured, "that we mean to spend all
+our money in things like this, but of course a fur cloak is useful; it
+is a possession, isn't it? and it is, after all, one's duty to keep
+one's health."
+
+"Of course it is," Pateley said. "No need of any further argument."
+
+"I am so glad," she said, "so glad you approve!" and she smiled again
+with delight.
+
+Again Pateley felt an unreasoning fury rising in his mind that people
+who were so easily satisfied should not be allowed to have their heart's
+desire. Perhaps after all, it was not true about the "Equator"; perhaps
+things might be better than they seemed. At any rate, he would not say
+anything to his sisters until he had seen Gore. And with some hurried
+explanation of the number of engagements that obliged him to leave them,
+he strode out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+In the meantime Lord Stamfordham, watching the situation, felt there was
+not a single instant to lose. There is one moment in the life of a
+conflagration when it can be stamped out: that moment passed, no power
+can stop it. Stamfordham, his head clear, his determination strong and
+ready, resolved to act without hesitating on his own responsibility. He
+sent a letter round to Prince Bergowitz, the German Ambassador, begging
+him to come and see him. Prince Bergowitz was laid up with an attack of
+gout which unfortunately prevented his coming, but he would be glad to
+receive Lord Stamfordham if he would come to see him.
+
+It was a little later in the same day that Rendel, alone in his study,
+was standing, newspaper in hand, in front of the map of Africa looking
+to see the exact localities where the events were happening which might
+have such dire consequences. At that moment Wentworth, passing through
+Cosmo Place, looked through the window and saw him thus engaged. He
+knocked at the hall door, and, after being admitted, walked into the
+study without waiting to be announced.
+
+"Looking at the map of Africa, and I don't wonder," he said. "Isn't it
+awful?"
+
+"It's terrible," said Rendel, "about as bad as it can be."
+
+"Look here, why aren't you over there to help to settle it?" said
+Wentworth.
+
+"Well, I should not have been there, in any case," said Rendel. "That is
+where I should have been--look," with something like a sigh.
+
+"You would have been nearer than you are now," said Wentworth. "Upon my
+word, I haven't patience with you. The idea of throwing up such a chance
+as you have had!"
+
+"How do you know about it?" Rendel said.
+
+"How do I know?" said Wentworth. "Everybody knows that you were offered
+it and refused."
+
+"After all," said Rendel, "there are some things one leaves undone in
+this world. It does not follow that because people are offered a thing
+they must necessarily accept it."
+
+"I don't say I am not in favour of leaving things undone," Wentworth
+said, "on occasion."
+
+"So I have observed," said Rendel.
+
+"But really, you know," Wentworth went on, "this is too much. What do
+you intend to do?"
+
+"What do I intend to do?" Rendel said, with a half smile, then
+unconsciously imparting a greater steadfastness into his expression,
+"broadly speaking, I intend to do--everything."
+
+"Oh! well, there's hope for you still," Wentworth said, "if that is your
+intention. It's rather a large order, though."
+
+"Well, as I have told you before," Rendel said, "I don't see why there
+should be any limit to one's intentions. The man who intends little is
+not likely to achieve much."
+
+"That's all very well, and plausible enough, I dare say," said
+Wentworth, "but the way to achieve is not to begin by refusing all your
+chances."
+
+"This is too delightful from you," said Rendel, "who never do anything
+at all."
+
+"Not at all," said Wentworth. "It is on principle that I do nothing, in
+order to protest against other people doing too much. I wish to have an
+eight hours' day of elegant leisure, and to go about the world as an
+example of it. It would be just as inconsistent of me to accept a
+regular occupation as it is of you to refuse it."
+
+"I have a very simple reason for refusing this," said Rendel more
+seriously, and he paused. "I am a married man."
+
+"To be sure, my dear fellow," said Wentworth, "I have noticed it."
+
+"My wife didn't want to go to Africa," said Rendel, "and there was an
+end of it."
+
+"Oh, that was the end of it?" said Wentworth.
+
+"Absolutely," said Rendel. "She did not want to leave her father."
+
+"Ah, is that it?" said Wentworth, feeling that he could not decently
+advance an urgent plea against Sir William. "Poor old man! I know he's
+gone to pieces frightfully since his wife died--still, couldn't some one
+have been found to take care of him?"
+
+"Hardly any one like Rachel," Rendel said.
+
+"Naturally," said Wentworth.
+
+"You know he is living with us?" Rendel said.
+
+"Is he?" said Wentworth surprised. "Upon my word, Frank, you are a good
+son-in-law."
+
+Rendel ignored the tone of Wentworth's last remark and said quite
+simply--
+
+"Oh! well, there was nothing else to be done. He's been ill, you know,
+really rather bad; first he had a chill, and then influenza on the top
+of it. He's frightfully low altogether."
+
+"But I rather wonder," said Wentworth, "as Mrs. Rendel had her father
+with her, that you didn't go to Africa without her. Wouldn't that have
+been possible?"
+
+"No," said Rendel decidedly. "Quite impossible."
+
+"I should have thought," said Wentworth, "that in these enlightened days
+a husband who could not do without his wife was rather a mistake."
+
+"That may be," said Rendel. "But I think on the whole that the husband
+who can do without her is a greater mistake still."
+
+"It is a great pity you were not born five hundred years ago," said
+Wentworth.
+
+"I should have disliked it particularly," said Rendel. "I should have
+been fighting at Flodden, or Crécy, or somewhere, and I should have
+been too old to marry Rachel, even in these days of well-preserved
+centenarians. It is no good, Jack; I am afraid you must leave me to my
+folly."
+
+"Well, well," said Wentworth, agreeing with the word, and thinking to
+himself that even the wisest of men looks foolish at times when he has
+the yoke of matrimony across his shoulders; "after all there is to be
+said--if we are going to have another war on our hands in Africa, which
+Heaven forfend, the time of the statesmen over there is hardly come
+yet."
+
+At this moment the door opened and the two men turned round quickly as
+Rachel came in.
+
+"Frank," said Rachel. "Should you mind----" Then she stopped as she saw
+Wentworth. "Oh, how do you do, Mr. Wentworth? I didn't know you were
+here. Don't let me interrupt you."
+
+"On the contrary," said Wentworth, "it is I who am interrupting your
+husband."
+
+"I only came to see, Frank, if you were very busy," she said.
+
+"I am not at this moment. Do you want me to do anything?"
+
+"Well, presently, would you play one game of chess with my father? I am
+not really good enough to be of much use; it doesn't amuse him to play
+with me."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel. "I have just got one or two letters to write and
+then I'll come."
+
+"I think it would really be better," said Rachel, "if he came in here.
+It is rather a change for him, you know, to come into a different room
+after having been in the house all day."
+
+"Just as you like," said Rendel, without much enthusiasm, but also
+without any noticeable want of it.
+
+"Well," said Wentworth, "I'm not going to keep you any longer, Frank. I
+just came in to--give you my views about things in general."
+
+"Thank you," said Rendel, with a smile. "I am much beholden to you for
+them."
+
+"Perhaps you would come up and see my father, Mr. Wentworth," said
+Rachel, "before you go away?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," Wentworth said. His feeling towards Sir William
+Gore was kindly on the whole, and the kindliness was intensified at this
+moment by compassion, although he could not help resenting a little that
+Gore should have been an indirect cause of Rendel's refusing what
+Wentworth considered was the chance of his friend's life. He shook hands
+with Rendel and prepared to follow Rachel. At this moment a loud, double
+knock resounded upon the hall door with a peremptoriness which must have
+induced an unusual and startling rapidity in the movements of Thacker,
+Rendel's butler, for almost instantly afterwards he threw open the study
+door with a visible perturbation and excitement in his demeanour,
+saying--
+
+"It's Lord Stamfordham, sir, who wants particularly to see you." And to
+Rendel's amazement Lord Stamfordham appeared in the doorway. He bowed
+to Wentworth, whom he knew slightly, and shook hands with Rachel. She
+then went straight out, followed by Wentworth. As the door closed behind
+them, Stamfordham, answering Rendel's look of inquiry and without
+waiting for any interchange of greetings, said hurriedly--
+
+"Rendel, I want you to do me a service."
+
+"Please command me," Rendel said quickly, looking straight at him. He
+felt his heart beat as Stamfordham paused, put his hat down on the
+table, took his pocket-book out of his breast pocket and a folded paper
+out of it.
+
+"I want you," he said, "to transcribe some pencil notes of mine."
+
+"You want _me_ to transcribe them?" said Rendel, with an involuntary
+inflection of surprise in his tone.
+
+"Yes, if you will," said Stamfordham. "The fact is, Marchmont, the only
+man I have had since you left me who can read my writing when I take
+rough pencil notes in a hurry, has collapsed just to-day, out of sheer
+excitement I believe, and because he sat up for one night writing."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Rendel, half to himself.
+
+"Yes," said Stamfordham drily; and then he went on, as one who knows
+that he must leave the sick and wounded behind without waiting to pity
+them. "These," unfolding the paper, "are notes of a conversation that I
+have just had at the German Embassy with Bergowitz." Rendel's quick
+movement as he heard the name showed that he realised what that
+juxtaposition meant at such a moment. "Every moment is precious,"
+Stamfordham went on, "and it suddenly dawned on me as I left the Embassy
+that you were close at hand and might be willing to do it."
+
+The German Embassy was at the moment, during some building operations,
+occupying temporary premises near Belgrave Square.
+
+"I should think so indeed," Rendel said eagerly.
+
+"The notes are very short, as you see," said Stamfordham. "You know, of
+course, what has been happening. I needn't go into that." And as he
+spoke a boy passed under the windows crying the evening papers, and they
+distinctly heard "Panic on the Stock Exchange." The two men's eyes met.
+
+"Yes, there is a panic on the Stock Exchange," Stamfordham said,
+"because every one thinks there will be war--but there probably won't."
+
+"Not?" said Rendel. "Can it be stopped?"
+
+Stamfordham answered him by unfolding the piece of paper and laying it
+down before him on the table. It was a map of Africa, roughly outlined,
+but still clearly enough to show unmistakably what it was intended to
+convey, for all down the map from north to south there was a thick line
+drawn to the west of the Cape to Cairo Railway--the latter being
+indicated, but more faintly, in pencil--starting at Alexandria and
+running down through the whole of the continent, bending slightly to the
+southward between Bechuanaland and Namaqualand, and ending at the
+Orange River. East of that line was written ENGLAND, west of it GERMANY,
+and below it some lines of almost illegible writing in pencil.
+
+Rendel almost gasped.
+
+"What?" he said; "a partition of Africa?"
+
+"Yes," said Stamfordham. Then he said with a sort of half smile, "The
+partition, that is to say, so far as it is in our own hands. But,"
+speaking rapidly, "I will just put you in possession of the facts of the
+case and give you the clue. We abandon to Germany everything that we
+have a claim to west of this line. It does not come to very much," in
+answer to an involuntary movement on Rendel's part; and he swept his
+hand across the coast of the Gulf of Guinea as though wiping out of
+existence the Gold Coast, Ashanti, Sierra Leone, and all that had
+mattered before. "Germany abandons to us everything that she lays claim
+to on the east of it, including therefore the whole course of the Cape
+to Cairo Railway."
+
+"But has Germany agreed?" said Rendel, stupefied with surprise.
+
+"Germany has agreed," said Stamfordham. "We have just heard from
+Berlin."
+
+Rendel felt as if his breath were taken away by the rapid motion of the
+events.
+
+"That means peace, then?" he said.
+
+"Yes," Stamfordham said; "peace."
+
+"Then when is this going to be given to the world?" said Rendel.
+
+"Some of it possibly to-morrow," said Stamfordham. "The Cabinet Council
+will meet this evening, and the King's formal sanction obtained. Of
+course," he went on, "the broad outlines only will be published--the
+fact of the understanding at any rate, not necessarily the terms of the
+partition. But it is important for financial reasons that the country
+should know as soon as possible that war is averted."
+
+"Of course, of course," said Rendel. "Immeasurably important."
+
+Stamfordham took up his hat and held out his hand with his air of
+courtly politeness as he turned towards the door.
+
+"I may count upon you to do this for me immediately?"
+
+"This instant," said Rendel, taking up the papers. "Shall I take them to
+your house as soon as they are done?"
+
+"Please," said Stamfordham. "No, stay--I am going back to the German
+Embassy now, then probably to the Foreign Office. You had better simply
+send a messenger you can rely upon, and tell him to wait at my house to
+give them into my own hand, as I am not sure where I shall be for the
+next hour. Rendel, I must ask you by all you hold sacred to take care of
+those papers. If that map were to be caught sight of before the
+time----"
+
+Rendel involuntarily held it tighter at the thought of such a
+catastrophe.
+
+"Good Heavens!--yes," he said. "But that shan't happen. Look," and he
+dropped the paper through the slit in the closed revolving corner of
+his large writing-table, a cover that was solidly locked with his own
+key so that, though papers could be put in through the slit, it was
+impossible to take them out again without unlocking the cover and
+lifting it up. "This is the only key," he said, showing his bunch. "Now
+then, they are perfectly safe while I go across the hall with you."
+
+Stamfordham nodded.
+
+"By the way," he said, pausing, "you are married now, Rendel...."
+
+"I am, yes, I am glad to say," Rendel replied.
+
+"To be sure," said Stamfordham, with a little bow conveying discreet
+congratulation. "But--remember that a married man sometimes tells
+secrets to his wife."
+
+"Does he, sir?" said Rendel, with an air of assumed innocence.
+
+"I believe I have heard so," said Stamfordham.
+
+"On the other hand," said Rendel, "I also have heard that a married man
+sometimes keeps secrets from his wife."
+
+"Oh well, that is better," said Stamfordham.
+
+"From some points of view, perhaps," said Rendel. Then he added more
+seriously, "You may be quite sure, sir, that no one--_no one_--in this
+house shall know about those papers. I would give you my word of honour,
+but I don't suppose it would make my assertion any stronger."
+
+"If you said nothing," said Stamfordham, "it would be enough;" and
+Rendel's heart glowed within him as their eyes met and the compact was
+ratified. "By the way, Rendel, there was one thing more I wanted to say
+to you. There will probably be a vacancy at Stoke Newton before long;
+aren't you going into the House?"
+
+"Some time," said Rendel. "When I get a chance."
+
+"Well, there is going to be a chance now," said Stamfordham. "Old
+Crawley is going to resign. I hear it from private sources; the world
+doesn't know it yet. It is a safe Imperialist seat, and in our part of
+the world."
+
+"I should like very much to try," said Rendel, forcing himself to speak
+quietly.
+
+"Suppose you write to our committee down there?" said Stamfordham. "That
+is, when you have done your more pressing business--I mean mine."
+
+"That shall come before everything else," Rendel said. "I will do it at
+this moment."
+
+He turned quickly back into his study after Stamfordham had left him,
+and unlocked and threw up the revolving cover of the writing-table
+hastily, for fear that something should have happened to the paper on
+which the destinies of the civilised world were hanging. There it was,
+safe in his keeping, his and nobody else's. He took it in his hand and
+for a moment walked up and down the room, unable to control himself,
+trying to realise the tremendous change in the aspect of his fortunes
+that had taken place in the last half-hour. Then he had seemed to
+himself in the backwater, out of the throng of existence. He had been
+trying to reconcile himself to the idea that he was "out of it," as he
+had put it to himself--left behind. And now he shared with the two great
+potentates of the world the knowledge of what was going to take place;
+it was his hand that should transcribe the words that had decided it; he
+was a witness, and so far the only one. Then with an effort he forced
+himself to be calm. Every minute was of importance. He sat down at the
+writing-table, took up the paper, and pored over it to try to
+disentangle the strange dots, scratches, and lines which, flowing from
+Stamfordham's pen, took the place of handwriting. Some ill-natured
+people said that Stamfordham was quite conscious of the advantage of
+having writing which could not be read without a close scrutiny. It was
+no doubt possible. However, having the clue to what the contents of the
+paper were, Rendel, to his immense relief, found that he could decipher
+it. As he was writing the first word of the fair copy the door of the
+study opened slowly, and Sir William Gore appeared on the threshold, a
+newspaper in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Sir William, who had not been able to come downstairs for a month, may
+be forgiven for unconsciously feeling that the occasion was one which
+demanded from his son-in-law a semblance of cordial welcome at any rate,
+if not of glad surprise. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to
+learn that we are not looking each of us at the same aspect of life as
+our neighbour, especially our neighbour of a different time of life from
+ourselves. We appeal to him as a matter of course, and say, "Look! see
+how life appears to me to-day! see what existence is like in relation to
+myself!" But unfortunately the neighbour, who is standing on the outside
+of that particular circle, and not in its centre, does not see what we
+mean. Sir William had been shut up for a month in the room that he
+inhabited on the drawing-room floor of the house in Cosmo Place. He had
+simply not had mental energy to care about what was happening beyond the
+four walls of that room. If he had been asked at that moment what the
+universe was, he would have said that it was a succession of days and
+nights in which the important things of life were the hours and
+compositions of his meals, the probable hour of the doctor's visit, and
+the steps to be made each day towards recovery and the resumption of
+ordinary habits.
+
+Rachel had of course devoted herself to him. It was she who went up with
+his breakfast, who read to him during the morning, who tried to remember
+everything that happened out of doors to tell him on her return; it was
+she who had done many hundreds of patiences in the days when he was not
+well enough to play at chess. He was hardly well enough now, but he had
+set his heart upon the first day when he should come down and play chess
+with Rendel as a sort of pivot in his miserable existence. And now the
+moment had come. How should he know that for all practical purposes his
+son-in-law was a different being from the young man who had come
+upstairs to see him the day before? For yesterday Rendel had come up and
+talked to him about indifferent things, not telling him, lest he should
+be excited, of the evil rumours that were filling the air, and had gone
+downstairs again himself with a miserably unoccupied day in front of
+him--a day in which to remember and overcome the fact that, instead of
+being in the arena of which the echoes reached him, he was doomed to be
+a spectator from afar, who could take no part in the fray. But so much
+Sir William had not known. How should we any of us know what the inward
+counterpart is to the outward manifestation? know that the person who
+comes into the room may be, although appearing the same, different from
+the one who went out? He knew only that the Rendel of this morning had
+said with a smile, "I am looking forward to the moment when you will
+checkmate me again." And Sir William had a right to expect that, that
+moment having come, Rendel should feel the importance and pleasure of it
+as much as he did himself. But it was not the same Rendel who sat there,
+it was not the unoccupied spectator ready to join his leisure to that of
+another; it was a resolute combatant who had been suddenly called into a
+front post, and for whom the whole aspect of the world had changed. It
+was an absolute physical effort to Rendel, as the door opened and he saw
+Sir William, to bring his mind back to the conditions of a few hours
+before. The fact of any one coming in at that moment called him back to
+earth again, turned him violently about to face the commonplace
+importunities of existence. Sir William had probably not formulated to
+himself what he had vaguely expected, but it certainly was not the
+puzzled, half-questioning look, the indescribable air of being taken
+aback, altered at once by a quick impulse into something that tried not
+to look forbidding, and more strange and tell-tale than all the quick
+movement by which Rendel drew a large sheet of blotting-paper over what
+he was writing. Sir William's whole being was jarred, his rejoicing in
+the small occasion of being on another stage towards recovery was gone;
+nobody cared, not one. Rachel was not in the house, and who else was
+there to care? Nobody: there never would be again. Could it be possible
+that for the rest of his life he was doomed to be in a world so arranged
+that his comings and goings were not the most important of all? He stood
+still a moment, then tried to speak in his usual voice.
+
+"I am not in your way, am I, Rendel?"
+
+Rendel also made a conscious effort as he replied, rising from his chair
+as he spoke--
+
+"Oh no, Sir William, please come in. I have some writing to finish, if
+you don't mind."
+
+"Pray go on," said Sir William; "I won't disturb you. I'll sit down here
+and read the paper till you are ready"; and he sat down with his back to
+the writing-table and the window, in the big chair which Rendel drew
+forward.
+
+"Thank you," Sir William said. "I took the liberty of bringing in your
+afternoon paper which was outside."
+
+"Certainly," Rendel replied, too absorbed for the moment in the thing
+his own attention was concentrated upon to realise the bearing of what
+Gore was saying. "Of course," and went back to his writing.
+
+Gore leant back, idly turning over the pages of the _Mayfair Gazette_;
+then he started as his eye fell on the alarmist announcements. What was
+this? What incredible things were these that he saw? The letters were
+swimming before him; he could only vaguely distinguish the black
+capitals and the headlines; the rest was a blur. All that stood out
+clearly was: "Cape to Cairo Railway in Danger," and then beneath it:
+"Sinister Rumours about the 'Equator, Ltd.'"
+
+"Rendel!" he said, half starting up. Rendel turned round with a start,
+dragging his mind from the thing it was bent upon. "How awful this is!"
+said Sir William, holding up the paper with a shaking hand. Rendel began
+to understand. But, that he should have to look up for one moment, for
+the fraction of a second, from those words that he was transcribing!
+
+"Yes, yes, it is terrible," he said, and bent over his writing again.
+Sir William tried to go on reading. What was this about Germany? War
+would mean the collapse of everything--private schemes as well as all
+others.
+
+"War! Do you think it can possibly mean war?" he said. "Can't Germany be
+squared?"
+
+"War!" said Rendel without looking up. "Who can tell?" And again he felt
+the supreme excitement of standing unseen at the right hand of the man
+who was driving the ship through the storm. Sir William laid down the
+paper on his knee and tried to think, but all he could do was to close
+his eyes and keep perfectly still. Everything was vague ... and the
+worst of it--or was it the best of it?--was that nothing seemed to
+matter.
+
+At the same moment a brief colloquy was being exchanged outside the hall
+door. Stamfordham's brougham had drawn up again, and Thacker, who was
+standing hanging about the hall with a secret intention of being on the
+spot if tremendous things were going to happen, had instantly rushed
+out.
+
+"Is Mr. Rendel in?" said Lord Stamfordham hurriedly as Thacker stood at
+the door of the brougham.
+
+"Yes, my lord."
+
+"Ask him to come and speak to me."
+
+Thacker was shaken into unwonted excitement; he opened the door of the
+study quickly and went in. Sir William started violently. Any sudden
+noise in the present state of his nerves threw him completely off his
+balance.
+
+"Can you come and speak to Lord Stamfordham, sir?"
+
+Rendel sprang up; then with a sudden thought turned back and pulled down
+the top of his writing-table, which shut with a spring, and rushed out
+without seeing that Sir William had begun raising himself laboriously
+from his chair as he said--
+
+"Don't let me be in your way, Rendel."
+
+"His lordship is not coming in, Sir William," said Thacker.
+
+Sir William sank back into his chair. Thacker, after waiting an instant
+as though to see whether Gore had any orders for him, went quietly out,
+closing the door after him.
+
+Rendel had madly caught up a hat as he passed, and flown down the steps,
+not seeing in his haste a burly personage who was coming along the
+pavement dressed in the ordinary garb of the English citizen, with
+nothing about him to show that his glowing right hand held the
+thunderbolts which he was going to hurl at the head of Gore. It is
+unnecessary to say that Robert Pateley knew Stamfordham's carriage well
+by sight; and it was with pleasure and satisfaction that he found that
+Providence had brought him on to the pavement at Cosmo Place in time to
+see one of the moves in the great game which the world was playing that
+day. It was better on the whole that he should not accost Rendel. There
+was no need at that moment for Stamfordham to be aware of his presence,
+although, after all, there was no reason why he should not be. But
+seeing Rendel standing speaking to Stamfordham at the door of the
+brougham he conceived that he was probably coming in again directly, and
+made up his mind to go in and see Gore at any rate if possible. He went
+up the steps, therefore, and into the house, the front door being open.
+It happened neither Rendel nor Stamfordham saw him enter, the former
+having his back turned and blocking the view of the latter. Thacker,
+with intense interest, was watching the development of affairs from the
+dining-room window, and did not see Pateley go in either.
+
+"Have you done the thing?" said Stamfordham quickly.
+
+"All but," Rendel said.
+
+"Well, I want you to add this," said Stamfordham. "Get in and drive back
+with me, will you? I have so little time."
+
+Rendel jumped in, and the brougham moved past the window just as Sir
+William Gore, who had painfully pulled himself out of his chair, looked
+out, petrified with surprise at the unexplained crisis that seemed to
+have come upon the household. "Stamfordham!" he said to himself, "and
+Frank! What are the Imperialists hatching now, I wonder?" and he
+mechanically looked round him at Rendel's writing-table. It was,
+however, closed and forbidding, save for a little corner of white paper
+that was sticking out under the revolving flap. By one of those strange,
+almost unconscious impulses which may suddenly overtake the best of us
+at times, Gore put out his hand and pulled out the paper. It was quite
+loose and came away in his hand. What was it? He looked at it vaguely.
+Then gradually it became clear. A map?... yes, it was a rough map, with
+a thick line drawn from the top to the bottom down the middle of it;
+names to the right and the left. England? Germany? And what were those
+words written underneath? _What?_ Was that how Germany was going to be
+'squared?' And sheer excitement gave him strength to grasp more or less
+the meaning of what he saw. If Africa were going to be divided, if
+Germany and England were agreeing to that division, it meant Peace.
+There was no doubt of it. But had the Imperialists suddenly gone on to
+the side of peace? Had they snatched that trump card from their
+adversaries and were they going to play it? Sir William stood gazing at
+the paper. Then as he heard some one at the door of the room he
+suddenly realised what he had done. He instinctively clutched the paper
+in the hand which held the _Mayfair Gazette_, the newspaper concealing
+it. As he turned and looked towards the door an unexpected sight greeted
+his eyes--no other than Pateley, who, finding himself in the hall
+unheralded, had made up his mind to come into Rendel's study and there
+ring the bell for some one who should bring word to Sir William Gore of
+his presence. But he was surprised to find Sir William downstairs
+instead of in his room as he had expected. He paused for a moment,
+shocked at the change in Gore's appearance. He looked thin, listless,
+bent: his upright figure, his spring, his energy were gone. Pateley's
+heart smote him for a moment. Would it be possible to call this feeble,
+suffering creature to account? Then his heart hardened again as he
+thought of his sisters.
+
+"Pateley!" said Gore, advancing with the remains of his usual manner,
+but curiously shaken for the moment, as Pateley said to himself, out of
+his usual self-confidence.
+
+The state of nervousness of the older man was painfully perceptible.
+Added to his general weakness, which made the mere fact of seeing some
+one unexpectedly a sudden shock to him, he had besides at that moment an
+additional and very definite reason for uneasiness in the thing which he
+held in his hand. He endeavoured, however, to pull himself together as
+he shook hands with Pateley.
+
+"I have not seen you for a long time," he said, pointing to a chair and
+sinking back into his own.
+
+"No," Pateley replied. "I was very sorry to hear that you had been ill.
+You are looking rather bad still."
+
+"And feeling so," Sir William said wearily. "The worst of influenza is
+that one feels just as bad when one is supposed to be getting better as
+when one is supposed to be getting worse. It is a most annoying form of
+complaint."
+
+"So I have understood," said Pateley, "though I have not learnt it by
+personal experience."
+
+"No, you don't look as though you suffered from weakness," said Sir
+William, with a faint smile and a consciousness that this was not a
+person from whom it would be very easy to extract sympathy for his own
+condition.
+
+Pateley paused. He felt curiously uncomfortable and hesitating, a
+sensation somewhat novel to him. Sir William leant back in his chair,
+trying to control the trembling of his hands, of which one held the
+_Mayfair Gazette_, the smaller paper still concealed underneath it.
+
+"I see," Pateley said, "you are reading the evening paper. Not very good
+reading, is it? Things look pretty bad."
+
+"They do indeed," said Sir William.
+
+"It looks uncommonly like war with Germany," Pateley said; "prices are
+tumbling down headlong on the Stock Exchange. I believe there is going
+to be something very like a panic."
+
+"Is there?" said Gore uneasily; "that's bad."
+
+"Yes, it is very bad," Pateley went on. "I suppose you have heard that
+there are ugly rumours about the 'Equator.'"
+
+"I saw something," Sir William said, forcing himself to speak. "What is
+it exactly that they say?"
+
+"Well, the last thing they say," Pateley replied with a harder ring in
+his voice, "is that it is not a gold mine at all."
+
+"What?" said Sir William, grasping the arms of his chair.
+
+"And that the whole thing, therefore, is going to pieces with every
+penny invested in it."
+
+"Is it--is it as bad as that?" said the other, tremulously. "No, no, it
+can't be. Surely it can't be."
+
+"Do you mean to say you don't know?" said Pateley.
+
+"I know nothing," said Sir William. "I have heard nothing about it, up
+to this moment."
+
+"One can't help wondering," said Pateley, "that a man in your
+responsible position towards it," the words struck Sir William like a
+blow, "should not have known, should not have inquired----"
+
+"I have been ill, you know," Sir William said nervously, "I have not
+been able to look into or understand anything. I have not been out of
+the house yet. I could not go to the City or do any business."
+
+"Yes, I see that," said Pateley, "and I am sorry to be obliged to
+thrust a business discussion upon you now----"
+
+Sir William looked up at him quickly, anxiously.
+
+"But the fact is, at this moment the business won't wait. If you
+remember, when the 'Equator' Company was first started, I, like many
+others, invested in it, having asked your opinion of it first, and
+having heard from you that you were going to be the Chairman of the
+Board of Directors."
+
+"I believed in it, you know," Sir William said, with eagerness; "I put a
+lot of money into it myself."
+
+"I know you did, yes," said Pateley, "but _you_ fortunately had a lot to
+do it with, and also a lot of money to keep out of it. Every one is not
+so happily situated. I blame myself, I need not say, acutely, as well as
+others." And as Sir William looked at him sitting there in his
+relentless strength, he felt that there was small mercy to be expected
+at his hands.
+
+"I don't know," Sir William said, trying to speak with dignity, "that I
+was to blame. I believed in it, as others did."
+
+"No doubt," Pateley said. "But I am afraid that will hardly be a
+satisfactory explanation for the shareholders. The shares at this moment
+are absolutely worthless."
+
+"But what can I do?" said Sir William. "What would you have me do?"
+
+"It seems to me there is a rather obvious thing to be done," said
+Pateley. "It is to help to make good the losses of the people who,
+through you, will be"--and he paused--"ruined."
+
+"Ruined!" Sir William repeated, "No, no--it cannot be as bad as that. It
+is terrible," he muttered to himself. "It is terrible."
+
+"Yes, it is terrible," said Pateley, "and even something uglier."
+
+"But," Sir William said miserably, "I don't know that I can be blamed
+for it. Anderson, who is absolutely honest, reported on the thing, and
+believed in it to the extent of spending all he had in getting the
+rights to work it."
+
+"That is possible," Pateley said, "but Anderson was not the chairman of
+the company. You are."
+
+"Worse luck," Sir William said bitterly.
+
+"Yes, worse luck," Pateley said. "Your name up to now has been an
+honourable one." Sir William started and looked at him again. "I am
+afraid," Pateley went on, "after this it may have," and he spoke as if
+weighing his words, "a different reputation."
+
+Sir William cleared his throat and spoke with an effort.
+
+"Pateley," he said, "you won't let _that_ happen? You will make it
+clear...? You have influence in the Press----"
+
+"I am afraid," Pateley said, "that my influence, such as it is, must on
+this occasion be exerted the other way. Of course there is a good deal
+at stake for me here," he went on, in a matter of fact tone which
+carried more conviction than an outburst of emotion would have done. "I
+care for my sisters, and I am afraid I can't sit down and see
+them--swindled, or something very like it."
+
+"Not, swindled!" said Gore angrily.
+
+"Well," Pateley said, "that is really what it looks like to the
+outsider, and that is what, as a matter of fact, it comes to."
+
+"Heaven knows I would make it right if I could," said Sir William, "but
+how can I?"
+
+"Well, of course, on occasions of this kind," Pateley said, still in the
+same everyday manner, as though judicially dealing with a fact which did
+not specially concern him, "it is sometimes done by the simple process
+of the person responsible for the losses making them good--making
+restitution, in fact."
+
+"I have told you," said Sir William, "that I'm afraid that is
+impossible."
+
+"Ah then, I am sorry," Pateley said, in the tone of one determining, as
+Sir William dimly felt, on some course of action. "I thought some
+possible course might have suggested itself to you."
+
+"No, I can suggest nothing," Sir William said, leaning back in his
+chair, and feeling that neither mind nor body could respond at that
+moment to anything that called for fresh initiative.
+
+"I thought that you might have other possibilities on the Stock Exchange
+even," said Pateley, "though I must say I don't see in what direction.
+There is bound to be a panic the moment war is declared."
+
+There was a pause. Sir William lay back in his chair looking vaguely in
+front of him. Pateley sat waiting. Then Gore felt a strange flutter at
+his heart as the full bearing of Pateley's last sentence dawned upon
+him.
+
+"Supposing," he said, trying to speak steadily, "there were no war?"
+
+"That is hardly worth discussing," said Pateley briefly, as he got up.
+"War, I am afraid, is practically certain. Then do I understand, Sir
+William," he continued, "that you can do nothing to help me in this
+matter? If so, I am sorry. I had hoped I might have spared you some
+discomfort, but since you can do nothing----" He broke off and looked
+quickly out of the window, then said in explanation, "It is only a
+hansom stopping next door; I thought it might be Rendel coming back. But
+I was mistaken."
+
+Sir William realised that every instant was precious.
+
+"Pateley," he said, "look here. If you could wait a day or two
+longer...."
+
+"Do you mean," said Pateley, "that if I were to wait there would be a
+chance of your being able to do something?"
+
+"I don't know," said Sir William, "I am not sure, but there might be a
+turn in public affairs; the panic might be over, there might be a chance
+of peace."
+
+"If that is all," Pateley said quite definitely, "I am afraid that
+prospect is not enough to build upon. I can't afford to wait on that
+security."
+
+Sir William got up and spoke quickly with a visible effort.
+
+"Look here, listen... I have a reason for thinking that is the way
+things may be turning."
+
+"A reason?" said Pateley, turning round upon him.
+
+"Yes," said Sir William.
+
+"What is it?" said Pateley.
+
+Sir William felt his courage failing him in the desperate game he had
+begun to play. It was no good pausing now. He stood facing Pateley,
+holding a folded paper in his hand, no longer hidden by the newspaper
+which had slid from his grasp on to the ground. He looked at the paper
+in his hand mechanically. Mechanically Pateley's eye followed his. The
+conviction suddenly came to him that Gore was not speaking at random.
+
+"Sir William," he said, "time presses," and unconsciously they both
+looked towards the window into the street. At any moment Rendel might
+draw up again. "If you have any reason for what you are saying, tell
+me--if not, I must leave you to see what can be done."
+
+"I have a reason," said Sir William, "the strongest, for believing that
+there will be peace."
+
+Pateley looked at him. "Give me a proof?" he said, with the accent of a
+man who is wasting no words, no intentions.
+
+Sir William's hand tightened over the paper. "If I gave you a proof," he
+said, "would you swear not to take any proceedings against the 'Equator'
+Company?"
+
+"If you gave me a proof, yes--I would swear," said Pateley.
+
+"And you will keep the things out of the papers," Sir William went on
+hurriedly, "till I have had time to see my way?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley again.
+
+"And my name shall not appear in the matter?"
+
+"No--no," Pateley said, in spite of himself breathlessly and hurriedly,
+more excited than he wished to show. Sir William paused and looked
+towards the window. "All right," said Pateley, "you have time. Quick!
+What is it?"
+
+"There is going," Sir William said, "I am almost certain, to be an
+understanding, an agreement between England and Germany about this
+business in Africa."
+
+"Impossible!" said Pateley.
+
+"Yes," said Sir William, hardly audibly.
+
+"Give me the proof," Pateley said, coming close to him and in his
+excitement making a movement as though to take the paper out of Gore's
+hand.
+
+"Wait, wait!" Sir William said. "No, you mustn't do that!" and he
+staggered and leant back against the chimneypiece. Pateley had no time
+to waste in sympathy.
+
+"Look here, if you don't give it to me, show me what it is."
+
+"Yes, yes, I will show it you," Sir William said, "only you are not to
+take it, you are not to touch it."
+
+Pateley signed assent, and Sir William unfolded the map of Africa and
+held it up with a trembling hand.
+
+"What!" said Pateley, at first hardly grasping what he saw. Then its
+full significance began to dawn upon him. "Africa--a partition of Africa
+between Germany and England! Do you mean to say that is it?"
+
+"Yes," Sir William said. "But for Heaven's sake don't touch it, don't
+take it out of my hand," he said again, nervously conscious that his own
+strength was ebbing at every moment, and that if the resolute, dominant
+figure before him had chosen to seize on the paper, nothing could have
+prevented his doing so.
+
+"Well, at any rate, let me have a good look at it," Pateley said, "the
+coast is still clear," and as he went to the window to give another look
+out, he took something out of his breast pocket. "Now then," he said,
+turning back to Sir William, "hold it up in the light so that I can have
+a good look at it;" and as Sir William held it in the light of the
+window, Pateley, as quick as lightning, drew his tiny camera out of his
+pocket. There was a click, and the map of Africa had been photographed.
+Pateley unconsciously drew a quick breath of relief as he put the
+machine back. Sir William, as white as a sheet, dropped his hands in
+dismay.
+
+"Good Heavens! What have you done? Have you photographed it?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, trying to control his own excitement, and
+recovering his usual tone with an effort. "That's all, thank you. It is
+much the simplest form of illustration."
+
+"Illustration! What are you going to do with it?" Sir William said,
+aghast.
+
+"That depends," said Pateley. "I must see how and when I can use it to
+the best advantage."
+
+"You have sworn," Sir William said tremulously, "that you won't say
+where you got it from."
+
+"Of course I won't," Pateley said, gradually returning to his usual
+burly heartiness. "Now, may I ask where _you_ got it from?"
+
+"I got it out of there," Sir William said, pointing to the table. "A
+corner of it was sticking out."
+
+"Might I suggest that you should put it back again?" said Pateley.
+
+"Good Heavens, yes!" said Gore. "I had forgotten." And he nervously
+folded it up and dropped it through the slit of the table.
+
+"Ha, that's safer," said Pateley, with a short laugh. "You should not
+lose your head over these things," and he gave a swift look down the
+street again. "Now I must go. I am going straight to the City, and I'll
+tell you what I shall do," and his manner became more emphatic as he
+went on, as though answering some objection. "I'm going to buy up the
+whole of the 'Equator' shares on the chance of a rise, and perhaps some
+Cape to Cairo too, and then we'll see. Now, can't I do something for you
+too? Won't you buy something on the chance of a rise?"
+
+Sir William had sunk into a chair. He shook his head.
+
+"I am too tired to think," he said. "I don't know."
+
+"Well, you leave it to me," Pateley said, "and I'll do something for
+you--and if things go as we think, by next week you will be in a
+position to make good the losses of all London two or three times over.
+I'll let you know what happens, and what I've been able to do."
+
+"Thank you," Sir William said again feebly.
+
+"The news will soon pick you up," said Pateley heartily, as he shook him
+by the hand. "No, don't get up; I can find my way out. Goodbye." And a
+moment later he passed the window, striding away towards Knightsbridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Sir William remained lying back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling,
+too much exhausted by the excitement of the last few minutes to realise
+entirely what had happened, but with a vague, agonised consciousness
+that he had done something irrevocable, something that mattered
+supremely. But to try even to conceive what might be the consequence of
+it so made his heart throb and his head whirl that all he could do was
+to put it away from him with as much effort as he had strength to make.
+It was so that Rachel found him, when she came gaily in a few minutes
+later from a shopping expedition in Sloane Street, eager to tell him of
+all her little doings, and of some acquaintances she had met in the
+street. He looked at her and tried to smile.
+
+"Father--father--dear father!" she said in consternation. "What is it?
+Are you not so well?"
+
+"Yes, yes," he said nervously, trying to speak in something like his
+ordinary voice. "I am--tired, that's all."
+
+"You have been up too long," she said anxiously.
+
+"I don't think it's that," he said.
+
+"But where is Frank?" asked Rachel. "I thought, of course, that he was
+with you. That was why I went out. I had no idea you would be alone."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham came," said Sir William, feeling like one who is
+forced to approach something that horrifies him, and who dares not look
+it in the face. "Frank went out with him."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham! Again!" said Rachel amazed.
+
+"Yes," said Sir William, leaning back with his eyes closed, as though
+unable to expend any of his feeble strength on surprise or wonder, much
+less on attempts at explanation. And as Rachel looked at him her
+solicitude overcame every other thought.
+
+"Darling," she said, "do come back to your own room. Let's go upstairs
+now."
+
+"No, no," said Sir William quickly, feeling, even though he thought of
+Rendel's return with absolute terror, that it would be better to know
+the worst at once without waiting in suspense for the blow to fall.
+"I'll wait till Rendel comes in."
+
+"But he shall go up to you at once," Rachel urged. "Do come up now, dear
+father."
+
+At that moment, however, the question of whether they should wait or not
+for Rendel's return was settled for them, for his latchkey was heard
+turning in the front door. He came into the room with such an air as a
+winged messenger of victory might wear, unconscious of his surroundings
+and of the road he traverses as he speeds along. Rachel looked at him,
+and forbore to utter either the inquiry that sprang to her lips or any
+appeal for sympathy about her father's condition.
+
+"I've got to finish some writing," Rendel said, bringing back his
+thoughts with visible effort. And he went quickly to the writing-table,
+opening it with the key of his watch-chain. Sir William dared not look.
+He tried to remember what had happened when he so hurriedly put the
+paper back; he wondered whether it had stuck in the slit, or if it had
+gone properly through and fallen straight among the others. There was a
+pause during which he sat up and gripped the arms of his chair,
+listening as if for life. Nothing had happened apparently. Rendel had
+drawn up his chair and was writing again busily. Sir William fell back
+again and closed his eyes as a flood of relief swept over him, Rachel
+sitting by him quietly, her hand laid gently on his. Rendel went on
+writing, transcribing from some more rough pencil notes he had brought
+in in his hand, then, having quickly rung the bell, he proceeded to do
+the whole thing up in a packet and seal it securely.
+
+"I want this taken to Lord Stamfordham at once," he said, as the servant
+came into the room. "And, Thacker, I should like you to go with it
+yourself, please. It's very important, and I want it to be given into
+his own hand. If he isn't in, please wait."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Thacker, taking the precious packet and departing, with
+a secret thrill of wondering excitement.
+
+Rendel pulled down the lid of the table, drawing a sort of long breath
+as he did so, like one who has cleared the big fence immediately in
+front of him, and is ready for the next. Sir William's breath was coming
+and going quickly.
+
+"I'm afraid you don't look very fit for chess, Sir William," he said
+kindly, struck with his father-in-law's look of haggard anxiety and
+illness.
+
+"No," Sir William said feebly, "not to-day, I'm afraid."
+
+"I'm sorry to see you like this," Rendel said. "Let me help you
+upstairs. What have you been doing with yourself since I left you? You
+don't look nearly so well as when you came down."
+
+"I feel a little faint," Sir William said. "It would be better for me to
+go and rest now, perhaps." And leaning on Rendel's arm, and followed
+solicitously by Rachel, he went upstairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+The night passed slowly and restlessly for Sir William Gore, although he
+slept from sheer exhaustion, and even when he was not sleeping was in a
+state of semi-coma, without any clear perception of what had happened.
+But in his dreams he lived through one quarter of an hour of the day
+before, over and over and over again, always with the same result,
+always with the same sense of some unexpected, horrible, shameful
+catastrophe, that was to lead to his utter humiliation. That was the
+impression that still remained when at last the morning came, and he
+finally awoke to the life of another day. Over and over again he went
+over the situation as he lay there, Pateley's words ringing in his ears,
+his looks present before him. Again he felt the sensation of absolute
+sickness at his heart that had gripped him at the moment he had realised
+that the map had been photographed, passing as much out of his own power
+as though he had given it to a man in the street. Does any one really
+acknowledge in his inmost soul that he has on a given occasion done
+"wrong," without an immeasurable qualifying of that word, without a
+covert resentment at the way other people may label his action? There is
+but one person in the world who even approximates to knowing the history
+of any given deed. The very fact of snatching it from its context puts
+it into the wrong proportion, the fact of contemplating it as though it
+were something deliberate, separate, complete in itself, apart from all
+that has led up to it, apart from the complication and pressure of
+circumstance. Sir William went over and over again in his mind all that
+had happened the day before, trying to realise under what aspect his
+actions would appear to others--over and over again, until everything
+became blurred and he hardly knew under what aspect they appeared to
+himself. He felt helplessly indignant with Fate, with Chance, that had
+with such dire results made him the plaything of a passing impulse. Then
+with the necessity of finding an object for his anger, his thoughts
+turned first to Rendel, who had primarily put him in the position of
+gaining the knowledge he had used to such disastrous effect, and then to
+Pateley, who had taken it from him.
+
+It is unpleasant enough for a child, at a time of life generally
+familiar with humiliation and chastisement, to see the moment nearing
+when his guilt will be discovered: but it is horrible for a man who is
+approaching old age, who is dignified and respected, suddenly to find
+himself in the position of having something to conceal, of being
+actually afraid of facing the judgment and incurring the censure of a
+younger man. And at that moment Gore felt as if he almost hated the man
+whose hand could hurl such a thunderbolt. Then his thoughts turned to
+Pateley, to the probable result of his operations in the City. In the
+other greater anxiety which he himself had suddenly imported into his
+life, that first care, which yet was important enough, of the "Equator,"
+had almost sunk out of sight. Would the mine turn out to be a gold mine
+after all? What would Pateley be able to do? Would he be able to make
+enough to cover his liabilities? and his head swam as he tried to
+remember what these might amount to.
+
+In the meantime Rendel, in a very different frame of mind from that of
+his father-in-law, or, indeed, from that of his own of the night before,
+filled with a buoyant thrill of expectation, with the sense that
+something was going to happen, that everything might be going to happen,
+was looking out into life as one who looks from a watch tower waiting on
+fortune and circumstances, waiting confident and well-equipped without a
+misgiving. The day was big with fate: a day on which new developments
+might continue for himself, the thrill of excitement of the night
+before, the sense of being in the foreground, of being actually hurried
+along in the front between the two giants who were leading the way. The
+dining-room was ablaze with sunshine as he came into it, and in the
+morning light sat Rachel, looking up at him with a smile when he came
+into the room.
+
+"What an excellent world it is, truly!" said Rendel, as he came across
+the room.
+
+"I am glad it is to your liking," she answered.
+
+"You look very well this morning," said Rendel, looking at her, "which
+means very pretty."
+
+"I don't feel so especially pretty," said Rachel, with something between
+a smile and a sigh.
+
+"Don't you? Don't have any illusions about your appearance," said
+Rendel. "Don't suppose yourself to be plain, please."
+
+"I am not so sure," said Rachel, as she began pouring out the tea.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" said Rendel. "What fault do you find with
+the world, and your appearance?"
+
+"I am perturbed about my father," she said, her voice telling of the
+very real anxiety that lay behind the words. "I don't think he is as
+well as he was yesterday."
+
+"Don't you?" said Rendel, more gravely. "I am very sorry. What is the
+matter?"
+
+"I can't think," Rachel answered. "He may have done too much yesterday
+afternoon."
+
+"He certainly looked terribly tired," said Rendel.
+
+"Terribly," said Rachel, "but I can't imagine why. He had been so
+absolutely quiet all the afternoon."
+
+"Well, you take care of him to-day," said Rendel, unable to eliminate
+the cheerful confidence from his voice.
+
+"I shall indeed," said Rachel.
+
+"Oh, he'll come all right again, never fear," said Rendel. "You mustn't
+take too gloomy a view."
+
+"You certainly seem inclined to take a cheerful one this morning," said
+Rachel, half convinced in spite of herself that all was well.
+
+"Well, I do," said Rendel. "I must say that in spite of the prevalent
+opinion to the contrary, I feel inclined this morning to say that the
+scheme of the universe is entirely right; it is just to my liking. The
+sunshine, and my breakfast, and my wife----"
+
+"I am glad I am included," she said.
+
+"And the day to live through. What can a man wish for more?"
+
+"It sounds as though you had everything you could possibly want,
+certainly," said Rachel, smiling at him.
+
+"I don't know," said Rendel, reflecting, "if it is that quite. The real
+happiness is to want everything you can possibly get. That is the best
+thing of all."
+
+"And not so difficult, I should think," said Rachel.
+
+"I am not sure," said Rendel. "I am not sure that it is quite an easy
+thing to have an ardent hold on life. Some people keep letting it down
+with a flop. But I feel as if I could hold it tight this morning at any
+rate. I do not believe there is a creature in the wide world that I
+would change places with at this moment," he went on, the force of his
+ardent hope and purpose breaking down his usual reserve.
+
+"You are very enthusiastic to-day, Frank," she said.
+
+"Well, one can't do much without enthusiasm," said Rendel, continuing
+his breakfast with a satisfied air, "but with it one can move the
+world."
+
+"Is that what you are going to do?" said Rachel.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel nodding.
+
+"Frank, I wonder if you will be a great man?"
+
+"Can you doubt it?" said Rendel.
+
+"Supposing," she said, "some day you were a sort of Lord Stamfordham."
+
+"That is rather a far cry," he replied. "By the way, I wonder where the
+papers are this morning? Why are they so late?"
+
+"They will come directly," Rachel said. "It is a very good thing they're
+late, you can eat your breakfast in peace for once without knowing what
+has happened."
+
+"That is not the proper spirit," said Rendel smiling, "for the wife of a
+future great man."
+
+"The only thing is," said Rachel, "that if you did become a great man, I
+don't think I should be the sort of wife for you. I am very stupid about
+politics, don't you think so? I don't understand things properly."
+
+"I think you are exactly the sort of wife I want," said Rendel, "and
+that is enough for me. That is the only thing necessary for you to
+understand. I don't believe you do understand it really."
+
+"Then are you quite sure," she said, half laughing and half in earnest,
+"that you don't like politics better than you do me?"
+
+"Absolutely certain," said Rendel, with a slight change of tone that
+told his passionate conviction. "I wish you could grasp that in
+comparison with you, nothing matters to me."
+
+"Nothing?" she repeated.
+
+"There is nothing," said Rendel, looking at her, "that I would not
+sacrifice to you--my career, my ambitions, anything you asked for."
+
+"I am glad," she said, "that you like me so much, but I don't want you
+to make sacrifices," and she spoke in all unconsciousness of the number
+of small sacrifices, of an unheroic aspect perhaps, that Rendel was
+daily called upon to make for her sake.
+
+At this moment Thacker came in with the morning papers, which he laid on
+the table at Rendel's elbow.
+
+"Now then you are happy," said Rachel lightly. "Now you can bury
+yourself in the papers and not listen to anything I say."
+
+"I wonder if there is anything about Stoke Newton and old Crawley's
+resignation," said Rendel, quite prepared to follow her advice. "I don't
+suppose he takes a very jovial view of life just now, poor old boy. Oh,
+how I should hate to be on the shelf!"
+
+"I don't think you are likely to be, for the present," said Rachel.
+
+And then Rendel, pushing his chair a little away from the table, opened
+the papers wide, and began scanning them one after another, with the
+mild and pleasurable excitement of the man who feels confidently abreast
+of circumstances. Then, as he took up the _Arbiter_, his eye suddenly
+fell upon a heading that took his breath away. What was this? He dropped
+the paper with a cry.
+
+"What is it, Frank?" said Rachel startled.
+
+"Good Heavens! what have they done that for?" he said, springing to his
+feet in uncontrollable excitement.
+
+"Done what?" said Rachel.
+
+"Why, they have announced--they have put in something that Lord
+Stamfordham----" He snatched up the paper again and looked at it
+eagerly. "It is incredible! and the map too, the very map, at this
+stage! Well, upon my word, he has made a mistake this time, I do
+believe." And he still gazed at the paper as though trying to fathom the
+whole hearing of what he saw.
+
+At this moment the door opened, and Thacker came in.
+
+"Sir William wished me to ask you for some foolscap paper, ma'am,
+please," he said, "with lines on it."
+
+"Foolscap paper? What is he doing?" said Rachel anxiously.
+
+"He is writing, ma'am," said Thacker. "He seems to be doing accounts."
+
+"Oh, I wish he wouldn't!" Rachel said. "I must go and see. I'll bring
+the foolscap paper myself, Thacker. Frank, there is some in your study,
+isn't there?"
+
+"What?" said Rendel, who, still absorbed in what he had just seen, had
+only dimly heard their colloquy.
+
+"Some foolscap paper," she repeated. "There is some in your study?"
+
+"Yes, yes, in my writing-table," he said absently.
+
+Rachel went quickly out of the room. At that moment the hall door bell
+rang violently. Rendel started and went to the window. In the phase of
+acute tension in which he found himself, every unexpected sound carried
+an untold significance, but he was not prepared for what this one
+betokened: Lord Stamfordham in the street, dismounting from his horse.
+Stamfordham was accustomed to ride every morning from eight till nine,
+alone and unattended. Thacker hurried out to hold the horse. Rendel
+followed him and met Stamfordham on the doorstep. He led the way quickly
+across the hall into his study and shut the door. They both felt
+instinctively that greetings were superfluous.
+
+"Have you seen the _Arbiter_?" Stamfordham said.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, looking him straight in the face with eager
+expectation.
+
+"So have I," said Stamfordham, "at the German Embassy. I had not seen it
+before leaving home, but I saw a poster at the corner, and I went
+straight to Bergowitz to ask him what it meant; he is as much in the
+dark as I am."
+
+"In the dark!" said Rendel, looking at him amazed. "What! but--was it
+not you who published it?"
+
+"_I_ publish it?" said Stamfordham. "Do you mean to say you thought I
+had?"
+
+"Of course I did! who else?" said Rendel.
+
+"Who else?" Stamfordham repeated. "I have come here to ask you that."
+
+"To ask _me_?" said Rendel, bewildered. "How should I know? I have not
+seen those papers since I gave the packet sealed to Thacker to take it
+to you."
+
+"And I received it," said Stamfordham, "sealed and untampered with, and
+opened it myself, and it has not been out of my keeping since."
+
+"But at the German Embassy," said Rendel, "since it was telegraphed...?"
+
+"The substance of the interview was telegraphed," said Stamfordham, "but
+not the map--_not the map_," he said emphatically. "That map no one has
+seen besides Bergowitz, you, and myself. Bergowitz it would be quite
+absurd to suspect, he is as genuinely taken back as I am--I know that it
+didn't get out through me, and therefore----" he paused and looked
+Rendel in the face.
+
+"What!" said Rendel, with a sort of cry. A horrible light, an incredible
+interpretation was beginning to dawn upon him. "You can't think it was
+through _me_?"
+
+"What else can I think?" said Stamfordham--Rendel still looked at him
+aghast--"since the papers after I gave them into your keeping were
+apparently not out of it until they passed into mine again? I brought
+them to you here myself. Of course I see now I ought not to have done
+so, but how could I have imagined----"
+
+Rendel hurriedly interrupted him.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham, not a soul but myself can have had access to those
+papers. I went out of the room, it is true," and he went rapidly over in
+his mind the sequence of events the day before, "for a short half-hour
+perhaps, when you came back here and I went out with you, but before
+leaving the room I remember distinctly that I shut the cover of my
+writing-table down with the spring, and tried it to see that it was
+shut, and then unlocked it myself when I came back."
+
+"Was any one else in the room?" said Stamfordham.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, and a sudden idea occurred to him, to be dismissed
+as soon as entertained, "Sir William Gore."
+
+"Gore?" said Stamfordham, looking at Rendel, but forbearing any comment
+on his father-in-law.
+
+"It was quite impossible," Rendel said decidedly, answering
+Stamfordham's unspoken words, "that he could have got at the papers;
+for, as I told you, when I came back again they were exactly where I had
+left them, and the thing locked with this very complicated key, and he
+showed it hanging on his chain."
+
+"It is evident," Stamfordham repeated inflexibly, "that some one must
+have got hold of it with or without your knowledge. I warned you
+yesterday, you remember, about taking your--any one in your household
+into your confidence."
+
+"And I did not," Rendel said, grasping his meaning. "My wife did not
+even know that I had the papers to transcribe. She does not know it
+now."
+
+Stamfordham paused a moment. He could not in words accuse Rendel's wife,
+whatever his silence might imply. Then he spoke with emphatic sternness.
+
+"Rendel," he said, "by whatever means the thing happened, we must know
+how. I must have an explanation."
+
+Rendel was powerless to speak.
+
+"For you must see," Stamfordham went on, "what a terrible catastrophe
+this might have been--the danger is not over yet, in fact, although I
+may be strong enough for my colleagues to condone the fact that the
+public has been told of this before themselves, and the country may be
+strong enough for foreign Powers to do the same. But, as a personal
+matter, I must know how it got out, and I repeat, I must have an
+explanation. For your own sake you must explain."
+
+Rendel felt as if the ground were reeling under his feet.
+
+"I will try," he said, still feeling as if he were in some wild dream.
+
+"When you have made inquiries," Stamfordham said, still speaking in a
+brief tone of command, "you had better come and tell me the result. I
+shall be at the Foreign Office till twelve."
+
+"Till twelve. Very well," said Rendel, feeling as if there was a dark
+chasm between himself and that moment. Mechanically he let Lord
+Stamfordham out, and stood as the latter mounted and rode away. Then he
+turned back into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+He went into the dining-room first--Rachel was still upstairs--and
+picked up the _Arbiter_ again, looking at it with this new, terrible
+interpretation of what he saw in it. There it was, as damning evidence
+as ever a man was convicted upon, the map that no one but himself and
+the two principals had seen, reproduced, roughly it is true, but still
+unmistakably, from the paper that he alone in the house had had in his
+possession. He turned hurriedly to the brief but guarded commentary
+evolved at a venture by Pateley, but nevertheless very near the truth.
+Pateley had played a bold game indeed, but he was playing it as
+skilfully and watchfully as was his wont. Rendel threw down the paper
+with a gesture of despair, then clenched his hands. If he had been a
+woman he would have wept from sheer misery and agitation. But it was of
+no good to clench his hands in despair; every moment that passed ought
+to be used to find out the truth of what had happened, to clear himself
+from that nightmare of suspicion.
+
+He went hurriedly across the hall to his study with the instinct of one
+who feels that on the spot itself there may be some suggestion to help
+discovery. His writing-table was locked. He tried it, shook it. The key,
+one of a peculiar make, hung always on his watch-chain. It was quite
+impossible that, save by one who had the key, the table should have been
+opened. What had he done yesterday? What had happened? And he sat down
+and buried his face in his hands, concentrating his thoughts, trying to
+recall every incident. The first time that Stamfordham had come in and
+given him the rough notes and the map, he, Rendel, had been alone. There
+was no doubt of that. After that who came in? Rachel? No, Rachel had not
+been in the room with the papers except just at the end when Rendel was
+sealing up the packet. Besides, if Rachel had had a hundred secrets in
+her possession, they would have been as safe as in his own. Then he
+caught himself up--in his own! after all, he was suspected--so the
+impossible idea, apparently, could be entertained. Then the thought of
+Sir William Gore came into his mind, but only to be instantly dismissed,
+for since the papers were locked up in Rendel's writing-table they must
+have been as inaccessible to Sir William as though they had been
+separated from him by the walls of several apartments. And there was one
+thing pretty certain: Gore, supposing him to be capable of using it, had
+not got a duplicate key. "Even he," Rendel found himself thinking,
+"would not do that." He heard Rachel's step swiftly descend the stairs
+and go into the dining-room, then she came quickly across the hall to
+the study.
+
+"Oh, there you are, Frank," she said. "My father is----" then she broke
+off as she saw that he was apparently buried in painful thought from
+which he roused himself with a start as she spoke. "Is anything the
+matter?"
+
+"I will tell you," said Rendel, speaking with an effort.
+
+"May I just ask you something first?" said Rachel hurriedly. "I want
+some foolscap paper for my father. He is so restless this morning, so
+impatient."
+
+"It is in there--I told you, didn't I?" said Rendel, turning round and
+pointing to one of the drawers at the side of his table.
+
+"In that drawer!" said Rachel. "How very stupid of me! I didn't think of
+that. I thought it was in the top part, and I could only get one sheet
+out of there."
+
+"The top? Wasn't the top locked?" said Rendel quickly, his whole thought
+concentrated on the problem before him, and the part of the table must
+have played in the drama that affected him so nearly.
+
+"Yes, it was," said Rachel smiling, "and I couldn't open it, but there
+was a little tiny corner of ruled paper sticking out, so I pulled it,
+and out it came."
+
+Rendel started and looked at her.
+
+"It is sweetly simple," she added.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, with an energy that surprised her. "It would come
+out quite easily, of course."
+
+"Frank," she said, surprised, "what is it? You didn't mind my pulling it
+out, did you?"
+
+"Of course not; I don't mind your doing anything--only--I didn't realise
+that things could be got out of my writing-table in that way."
+
+"Well, you must be sure to poke them in further next time," Rachel said
+lightly, shutting again the side drawer to which she had been directed,
+and out of which she had got some sheets of foolscap. "I will be back
+directly."
+
+"Wait one moment," said Rendel. "Lord Stamfordham has been here."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham! Since I went upstairs?" said Rachel, standing still
+in sheer surprise.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel. "Some secret information that--I knew about, has got
+into the paper and is published this morning."
+
+"Oh, Frank, how terrible!" said Rachel. "How did it happen? Do they
+mind?"
+
+"Yes, they mind," Rendel said.
+
+"Was that what you saw in the paper," Rachel said, "that excited you so
+much?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel.
+
+"I don't wonder," Rachel said, standing with her hand on the handle of
+the door, an attitude of all others least inviting of confidence. "Who
+let it out?"
+
+"That is what we want to know," said Rendel. "That is what Lord
+Stamfordham came here to ask."
+
+"Well, he doesn't think it was you, I suppose," said Rachel, smiling at
+the absurd suggestion.
+
+"It is quite possible," Rendel said, with a dim idea that he would lead
+up to the statement, "that he might--that he does."
+
+"What!" said Rachel, opening her eyes wide. "Frank! how absurd!"
+
+"So it seems to me," said Rendel sombrely.
+
+"Too ridiculous!--I'll come down in one moment," Rachel said
+apologetically. "I don't want to keep my father waiting."
+
+"Don't say anything to him," said Rendel, "of what I have just been
+saying to you."
+
+"Oh, no, I won't indeed," Rachel said. "He ought not to have anything to
+excite him to-day," and she went rapidly upstairs.
+
+Rendel, as the door closed behind her, felt for the moment like a man
+who, shipwrecked alone, has seen a vessel draw near to him and then pass
+gaily on its way without bringing him help. What was to be done? Again
+he took hold of the situation and looked it in the face. But now a new
+light had been thrown upon it by Rachel. If a paper could be taken out
+in the way that she had shown him, it was possible that Gore might have
+obtained the map in the same way, though it still seemed to Rendel
+exceedingly unlikely that, granted he had done so, he would have been
+able, given the condition he was in, to act upon it soon enough for it
+to appear this morning. He hesitated a moment, then he made up his mind
+to wait no longer. He took up the _Arbiter_ and went upstairs to Sir
+William's room. He met Rachel coming out.
+
+"Oh, thank you," she said, as she saw the paper. "I was just coming down
+to fetch that. Father would like to see it."
+
+"I thought I would bring it up," Rendel said. "I want to speak to him a
+moment."
+
+Rachel looked alarmed.
+
+"Frank, you will be careful, won't you?" she said. "He really is not in
+a fit state to discuss anything this morning."
+
+"I am afraid what I have to say won't wait," Rendel said. "I think I had
+better speak to him alone." And he quite unmistakably waited for Rachel
+to go her way before he went into Sir William's room and shut the door.
+Sir William, wrapped in his dressing-gown, was sitting up in an easy
+chair. On the table near him were sheets of foolscap paper covered with
+figures, and lying beside them a letter with a bold, splotchy writing,
+which he quickly moved out of sight as Rendel came in, a letter that had
+told him of certain successful financial operations undertaken in the
+City on his behalf. His face was pale and haggard. He looked up, as he
+saw Rendel come into the room, with an expression almost of terror,
+dashed however with resentment. In his mind at that moment, his
+son-in-law was the embodiment of the fate that, in some incredible way,
+had, as it were, turned him, Sir William Gore, who had hitherto spent
+his life in the sunshine of position, of dignity, of the deserved
+respect of his fellow-creatures, out into a chill storm of
+circumstances, absolutely alone, into some terrible world where, instead
+of walking upright among his fellow-men, he was, by no fault of his own,
+he kept repeating to himself, hurrying along with a burden on his back,
+crouching, fearing observation, fearing detection. That burden was
+almost intolerable. He had been trying to distract his thoughts and seek
+some cold comfort by making calculations based upon the letter he had
+received from Pateley, but all the time, behind it lay ice-cold and
+immovable the thought of the price at which Pateley's co-operation had
+been bought, of the moment of reckoning with Rendel that must come when
+the sands should have run out their appointed time. So much had he
+suffered, so much had he been dominated by this thought, that when the
+door opened and Rendel finally came in, the moment brought a sort of
+relief. Rendel, on the other hand, when he saw Sir William looking so
+old, so white and feeble, suddenly felt his purpose arrested. It was
+impossible, surely, that this old man, with the worn, handsome face and
+pathetically anxious expression, could have had a hand in a diabolical
+machination, and the thought that it was unlikely came to him with a
+gleam of comfort. Then as quick as lightning came a reaction of
+wonderment as to what hypothesis was to take the place of this one. At
+any rate, there was only one thing to be done: to tell Gore the story
+without a moment's further delay.
+
+"Good morning, Sir William," he said. "I am sorry to hear you are not
+well this morning."
+
+"Not very," Gore said, trying to speak calmly, and involuntarily looking
+at the newspaper in Rendel's hand.
+
+"I hear you were asking for the _Arbiter_," Rendel said.
+
+"Yes, I should like to see it," Gore replied, "when you have done with
+it."
+
+"I want you to see it," Rendel said. "There is something in it which
+matters a great deal." Gore felt a sudden grip at his heart. He said
+nothing. "Here it is," said Rendel, and he handed him the paper, folded
+so as to show the startling headings in big letters and the rough
+facsimile of the map. Gore looked at it. The whole thing swam before his
+eyes; he held it for a moment, trying desperately to think what he had
+better say, but he could find no anchorage anywhere.
+
+"That is very surprising," he said finally. "As far as I can see,
+it's--it's a partition of Africa between England and Germany? Is that
+it? I can't see very well this morning."
+
+"That is it," said Rendel.
+
+"Yes, that is very important," Gore said, leaning back and letting the
+paper slide from his grasp. "Most important," and he was silent again,
+waiting in an agony of suspense for what Rendel's next words would be.
+Rendel, scarcely less agitated, was trying to choose them carefully.
+
+"I am very sorry," he began, "to have to tire and worry you about this
+when you are not well, but I have a particular reason for talking to you
+about it."
+
+"Pray go on," Gore managed to say under his breath.
+
+"I have a special reason," said Rendel, "for wanting to remember what
+happened in my study yesterday afternoon."
+
+"Yesterday afternoon?" said Gore. "Did anything particular happen?"
+
+"That is what I want to know," said Rendel, trying to speak calmly and
+quietly. "You will oblige me very much if you will try to remember
+exactly what happened all the time, from the moment you came into the
+room until you left it."
+
+Gore made an effort to pull himself together. There was no difficulty,
+alas! for him in remembering every single thing that had taken
+place--the difficulty was not to show that he remembered too well.
+
+"When I came in," he said, endeavouring to speak in an ordinary tone,
+"you were at your writing-table."
+
+"I was," said Rendel, watching him.
+
+"And then I sat down in an armchair and read the _Mayfair Gazette_----"
+and he stopped.
+
+"Yes. All that," Rendel said, "I remember, of course. Thacker came in
+telling me Lord Stamfordham was there, and I rushed out, shutting the
+roller top of my writing-table, which closes with a spring. I was
+especially careful to shut it, as it had valuable papers in it."
+
+"Indeed?" said Sir William, almost inaudibly.
+
+"Yes, and among them," Rendel said, watching the effect of his words, "a
+map--that map of Africa which is reproduced this morning in the
+_Arbiter_."
+
+"In your writing-table?" Gore said, with quivering lips.
+
+"Yes, in my writing-table, out of which it must have been taken."
+
+"That is very serious," Gore forced himself to say.
+
+"It is very serious," said Rendel, "as you will see. When I came back
+and had finished my work on the papers I did them up myself in a packet
+and sent them to Lord Stamfordham."
+
+"Your messenger was not trustworthy, apparently," said Gore, recovering
+himself.
+
+"My messenger was Thacker," Rendel said, "who is absolutely trustworthy.
+Lord Stamfordham himself told me that he had received the packet with my
+seal intact."
+
+"Still," said Gore, "servants have been known to sell State secrets
+before now."
+
+"But not Thacker," said Rendel. "However, of course I shall ask him; I
+must ask every one in the house, for it must have been by some one here
+that the thing was done, that the map was got out."
+
+"I thought you said the table was locked?"
+
+"It was locked, yes," said Rendel, "but I have learnt this morning that
+papers can be pulled out from under the lid. Rachel got a piece of
+foolscap paper for you in that way."
+
+"Did she?" said Gore, feeling that he had unwittingly supplied one link
+in the chain of evidence.
+
+"There was only one person, so far as I know," said Rendel, "in the room
+while that paper was in my desk, who could have pulled it out and looked
+at it, and apparently made an unwarrantable use of it." The question
+that he expected to hear from Gore did not follow. Rendel waited, then
+he went on, "That person was--you."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Gore, sitting up, his colour going and coming
+quickly.
+
+"My words, I think, are quite plain," Rendel said. "I mean that all the
+evidence, circumstantial, I grant, points--you must forgive me if I am
+wronging you--to your having taken out the map."
+
+"Will you please give me your reasons for this extraordinary
+accusation?" said Gore.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "I will." And he spoke more and more rapidly as, his
+self-control at length utterly broken down, and his emotion having
+gained entire possession of him, he felt the fierce joy of those who,
+habitually watchful of their words, yield once or twice in their lives
+to the impulse of letting them flow out unchecked in an overwhelming
+flood. "You alone were in the room with the papers; your prepossessions
+are all against us; you spoke yourself just now of the value of a State
+secret sold in the proper quarter; things are looking ugly about the
+'Equator.'"
+
+"Do you mean to hint----" said Gore.
+
+Rendel interrupted him quickly. "No, not to hint," he said; "hinting is
+not in my line. I dare to say it out. I dare to say that in one of those
+moments of aberration, of deviation, whatever you choose to call it,
+that sometimes descend upon the most unlikely people, you pulled that
+paper out, from idle curiosity, I daresay, and finding out what it was
+you sent it to the _Arbiter_."
+
+"You did well," said Gore bitterly, "to keep your wife out of the room
+while you were accusing me. I am old and defenceless," he said, with
+lips trembling, and again an immense self-pity rushing over him. "I
+can't answer; I can't reply to a young man's violence."
+
+"I have no intention," Rendel said, still speaking with a passion which
+intoxicated him, "of being violent, but I must go on with this, for Lord
+Stamfordham won't rest until it is sifted to the bottom, and he is not a
+man to be trifled with. And as to your being defenceless, good God! your
+best defence is Rachel's trust in you and devotion to you. It is because
+of it that I wanted to spare her the knowledge of what we have been
+saying. Her faith in your infallibility has always seemed to me so
+touching that for her sake I have respected it. I have tried--Heaven
+knows I have tried!--all this time to be to you what she wished me to
+be." Gore stirred; he was quite incapable of speaking. "This is not the
+moment," Rendel went on, almost unconscious of his words, which poured
+out in a flood, "to keep up a hollow mockery of trust and friendship,
+and it is more honest to tell you fairly that I have not entirely
+shared her faith in you. I have always thought that, like the rest of us
+after all, you were neither better nor worse than most other fallible
+people in this world, and that you may be, as I daresay we all are,
+fashioned by circumstances, or even by temptation. And I tell you
+frankly that I believe that you did this thing that I accuse you of.
+How, I demand to know. That, at any rate, is not more than one man may
+ask of another."
+
+Sir William winced and writhed helplessly under Rendel's words. The
+intolerable discomfort and misery that he felt as the moment of
+discovery drew near had given place gradually to a furious resentment at
+what he was being made to endure at the hands of one who ought not to
+have presumed to criticise him. As Rendel stood there, his clearly cut
+face hard and stern, pouring out accusations and reproach, Gore felt as
+if the younger man embodied all the adverse influences of his own life.
+It was through Rendel that the fatal opportunity had come of his getting
+himself into this terrible strait, Rendel: who, most unjustly in the
+scheme of things, was daring to tax Gore with it. It was too horrible to
+bear longer. He too felt that the time had come when that with which his
+heart and soul were overflowing must find vent in speech. As he heard
+Rendel's words of stern impeachment ringing in his ears, "I tell you
+frankly that I believe that you did this thing," he rose desperately to
+his feet.
+
+"Well," he said, casting with a kind of horrible relief all restraints
+and prudence to the winds, "what if I had?"
+
+Rendel turned pale.
+
+"If you had?" he said. "You did it, then?"
+
+"If I had," Gore went on quickly, "it wouldn't have been a crime. You
+can't know how easy it was for the thing to happen. I am not going to
+tell you--I am not going to justify myself----" And he went on with a
+passionate need of self-vindication, drawing from his own words the
+conviction that he had hardly been at fault.
+
+"Sir William," Rendel said hurriedly, "tell me----"
+
+"It is easy enough," said Gore, "for you to talk of faith and trust. You
+need not grudge my child's faith in me. I have nothing else left now."
+And as the two men looked at each other each in his soul had a vision of
+the gracious presence that had always been by Sir William's side: of one
+who would have believed in him, justified him, if the whole world had
+accused him. Rendel suddenly paused as he was going to speak.
+
+"Life is very easy for you," Gore went on in a rapid, trembling voice.
+Oh, the relief of saying it all!
+
+"It is all quite plain sailing for you, you with whom everything
+succeeds, you who are young and have your life before you. You have time
+for the things that happen to you to be made right."
+
+"Don't let us discuss all that now," said Rendel, with an effort. "We
+are talking of something else that matters more than I can say. You
+only can tell me----"
+
+"I will tell you nothing," said Gore loudly, excited and breathless,
+speaking in gasps. "One day when you are old and alone--and both of
+these things may come to you as well as to other people--you will
+understand what all this means to me."
+
+"Father, dear father!" cried Rachel, coming in hurriedly. Anxious and
+wretched at Rendel's interview with her father being so unduly
+prolonged, she had wandered upstairs again, and when she heard the
+excited and angry voices she could bear the suspense no longer. "What is
+it?"
+
+Gore sank back trembling into his chair as she came in, making signs to
+her that for the moment he was unable to speak. A glance at him was
+enough to show that it actually was so.
+
+"Oh, Frank!" she cried, "what have you done? I asked you not to excite
+him."
+
+"Wait, Rachel, wait!" said Rendel, trying to speak calmly, feeling that
+everything was at stake. "Sir William, can you not tell me----?"
+
+Gore feebly shook his head.
+
+"Frank!" cried Rachel, amazed at his persistence. "Oh, don't! Let me
+implore you not to ask him anything more. Frank! do you mind leaving him
+now? Oh, you must, you must, really. Look at him!"
+
+Sir William, white and exhausted, was leaning back in his chair with his
+eyes closed. Rendel looked at her face of quivering anxiety as it bent
+over her father, then turned slowly and left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Rendel came downstairs, hardly conscious of what he was doing, a wild
+conflict of emotion raging in his mind. He shut himself into his study,
+and tried to distinguish clearly the threads of motive and conduct that
+had become so hideously entangled. It sounds a simple thing, doubtless,
+as well as a praiseworthy one, to discover the doer of an evil deed, to
+convict him, to bring home to him what he has done, and to prove the
+innocence of any other who may be suspected. Such a course, when spoken
+of in general terms, gives a praiseworthy and sustaining sense of a duty
+accomplished towards society. But it is in reality a much more
+complicated operation than we are apt to think. The evildoer,
+unfortunately for our sense of righteousness in prosecuting him, is not
+always one who has unmixed evil instincts, and nearly every contingency
+of human conduct becomes, as we contemplate it, many-sided enough to be
+very confusing. And it was beginning to dawn upon Rendel that, although
+it may fulfil the ends of abstract justice that the guilty should be
+exposed and the innocent acquitted, such an act takes an ugly aspect
+when the eager pursuer is himself the innocent man who is to be
+vindicated, and the guilty one a weaker and defenceless person who is to
+be put in his place. "And yet," he said to himself bitterly, as he tried
+to think of it impartially, "if it were a question of any one else's
+reputation and not of my own I should be bound to say who the guilty man
+was." What was he to do? What could he do? He did not know how long he
+had been sitting there when Rachel came quickly in.
+
+"Oh! Frank," she said, with a face of alarm, "he's very ill. I'm sure he
+is. I've sent for Dr. Morgan to come at once. He fainted after you left,
+and he's only just come round again. Oh! I am terribly anxious," and she
+looked at him, her lips quivering, then put her hands before her eyes
+and burst into tears.
+
+Rendel's heart smote him. Everything else, as he looked at her, faded
+into the background. The thing that mattered was Rachel was the woman he
+loved. It was he who had brought this grief upon her.
+
+"Darling," he said, "I'm so sorry."
+
+She shook her head and tried to smile.
+
+"Oh," she said, trying to suppress her tears, "I ought not to have left
+him. I daresay you didn't know, but it has done him the most terrible
+harm. Did you tell him, then, about--about--the thing you told me of,
+that you had been suspected--of telling something--what was it?" and she
+passed her hand over her forehead as if unable to think.
+
+"No," said Rendel, "I didn't tell him that _I_ had been accused of it. I
+daresay he guessed I had. I told him it had happened."
+
+"But, Frank, why did you?" she said. "I implored you not."
+
+"Rachel," he said, "do you realise what it means to me that I should be
+accused of a thing like this?"
+
+"Of course, yes, of course," she said, evidently still listening for any
+sound from upstairs. "But still a thing like that, that can be put right
+in a few minutes, cannot matter so much as life and death...."
+
+And again her voice became almost inaudible.
+
+"There are some things," said Rendel in a low voice, "that matter more
+to a man than life and death."
+
+"Do you mean to say," said Rachel, "that it matters more that you should
+be supposed to have done something that you have not done, than that my
+father should not get well?"
+
+"Supposing your father had been wrongfully accused of something
+underhand and dishonourable," said Rendel, "would not that matter more
+to him than--than--anything else?"
+
+Rachel put up her hands with a cry as if to ward off a blow.
+
+"My father!" she said, drawing away from Rendel. "You must not say such
+a thing. How could it be said?"
+
+"You endure," said Rendel, "that it should be said about me."
+
+"About you! That is different," she said, unable in the tension of her
+overwrought nerves to choose her words. "You are young, you can defend
+yourself; but it is cruel, cruel of you to say that it might happen to
+my father. You don't realise what my father is to me or you couldn't say
+such things even without meaning them. No, you can't know, you can't
+understand, or you couldn't, just for your own sake, have gone to him
+to-day when he is so ill and told him things that excited him."
+
+"I think I do understand," Rendel said, forcing himself to speak calmly.
+"Of course I know, I have always known, perhaps not quite so clearly as
+to-day, that--that--he must come first with you."
+
+"Oh! in some ways he must, he must," Rachel said, half entreatingly, yet
+with a ring of determination in her voice. "I promised my mother that I
+would, as far as I could, take her place, and while he lives I must.
+Frank, I would give up my life to save him suffering, as she would have
+done. Ah! there is Doctor Morgan," and she left the room hastily as a
+doctor's brougham stopped at the door.
+
+Rendel stood perfectly still, looking straight before him, seeing
+nothing, but gazing with his mind's eye on a universe absolutely
+transformed--the bright, dancing lights had gone, it was overspread by a
+dark, settled gloom. There were sounds outside. He was mechanically
+conscious of Rachel's hurried colloquy with the doctor in the hall, of
+their footsteps going upstairs. Then he roused himself. What would the
+doctor's verdict be? But he could not remain now, he must hear it on his
+return from the Foreign Office, he must now go as agreed to Lord
+Stamfordham. But first, for form's sake, he rang for Thacker and
+questioned him, and through him the rest of the household, without
+result, except renewed and somewhat offended assurances from Thacker
+that the packet had been given by himself into Stamfordham's own hands
+and that, to his knowledge, no one but Sir William Gore had been in the
+study during Rendel's absence. But Rendel knew in his heart that there
+was no need to question any one further, and no advantage in doing so,
+since he knew also that he could not use his knowledge.
+
+He drove rapidly along in a hansom, unconscious of the streets he passed
+through. Wherever he went he saw only Rachel's face of misery, heard the
+words, "just for your own sake," that had cut into him as deeply as his
+own into Gore. Was that it? he asked himself, was it just for his own
+sake, to clear himself, that he had accused Gore? Well, why else? Once
+Stamfordham knew that the thing had been done, the secret revealed, the
+name of the actual culprit would make no real difference. It would make
+things neither easier nor more difficult for Stamfordham to know that it
+had been done, not by himself, but by Sir William Gore. But there was
+one person besides himself and Gore for whom everything hung in the
+balance, and it was still with Rachel's face before him and her words in
+his ears, that he went into Lord Stamfordham's private room.
+
+Lord Stamfordham had been writing with a secretary, who got up and went
+out as Rendel came in. How familiar the room was to Rendel! how
+incredible it was that day after day he should have come there--was it
+in some former state of existence?--valued, welcome.
+
+"Well, what have you to tell me?" Stamfordham said quickly.
+
+Rendel's lips felt dry and parched; he spoke with an effort.
+
+"I am afraid," he said in a voice that sounded to him strangely unlike
+his own, "that I have ... nothing."
+
+"What?" said Stamfordham. "Have you not made any inquiries? Haven't you
+asked every one in your house?"
+
+"I have made inquiries, yes," said Rendel.
+
+"And do you mean to say that there is nothing that can throw any light
+upon it, no possible solution?"
+
+"I can throw no light," said Rendel.
+
+"But...." said Stamfordham. "Is this all you are going to say? Have you
+thought of no possibility? Have you no suggestion to offer?"
+
+"I am afraid," said Rendel again, "that I can offer none."
+
+Lord Stamfordham sat silent for a moment, absolutely bewildered. Part of
+his exceptional administrative ability was the almost unerring judgment
+he displayed in choosing those he employed about him, and it was an
+entirely new experience to him to have to suspect one of them, or to
+impugn the ordinary code of honourable conduct. He found it extremely
+difficult, autocrat as he was, to put it into words. He was sore and
+angry at the grave indiscretion, if not something worse, that had been
+committed, most of all that it should have been himself, the great
+officer of state, in whom it was unpardonable to choose the wrong tool,
+who had put that immeasurably important secret into the hands of a man
+who had somehow or other let it escape from them; so much could not be
+denied. It certainly seemed difficult to conceive that it should be
+Rendel himself who had betrayed it, or that if he had betrayed it he
+would not admit the fact. And yet--could it be?--there was something in
+Rendel's demeanour now that made it more possible than it had been an
+hour ago to credit him with the shameful possibility. The pause during
+which all this had rushed through Stamfordham's mind seemed to Rendel to
+have lasted through untold ages of time, when Stamfordham at last spoke
+again.
+
+"Rendel," he said, "I have a right to demand that you should give me
+more satisfaction than this. You say you have learnt nothing, and can
+tell me nothing, but this I find impossible to believe." Rendel made a
+movement. "I am sorry, but I say this advisedly, since this disclosure
+_must_ have taken place in your house," and he underlined the words
+emphatically. "I can't think it possible that a man of your intelligence
+should not have found some clue, some possible suggestion."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Rendel. "I'm afraid I have not."
+
+"Then, of course, it is obvious what conclusion I must come to," said
+Lord Stamfordham. "That it is not that you cannot give any explanation,
+but that you decline to give it."
+
+Rendel, to his intense mortification, felt that he was changing colour.
+Stamfordham, looking at him earnestly, felt absolutely certain that he
+knew.
+
+"Rendel," he said, gravely, "take my advice before it is too late. Don't
+let a wish to screen some one else prevent you from speaking. If you
+have had the misfortune to--let the secret escape you, don't, to shelter
+the person who published it, withhold the truth now. But I must remind
+you also," and his words fell like strokes from a hammer, "that I am
+asking it for my own sake as well as yours. When I brought you those
+papers, I trusted you fully and unreservedly, and now that this
+catastrophe has happened in consequence of my confidence in you I am
+entitled to know what has happened."
+
+"Yes," Rendel said. "I quite see your position, and I know that you have
+a right to resent mine, but all I can say is that--" he stopped, then
+went on again with firmer accents, "I don't suppose I can expect you to
+believe me, but as a matter of fact I can't begin to conceive the
+possibility of knowingly handing on to some one else such a secret as
+that."
+
+"Knowingly," said Stamfordham, "perhaps not," and he waited, to give
+Rendel one more chance of speaking. But Rendel was silent. Then
+Stamfordham went on in a different tone and with a perceptibly harsher
+note in his voice. "My time is so precious that I am afraid if you have
+nothing further to tell me there is no good in prolonging the
+interview."
+
+"Perhaps not," said Rendel, who was deadly white, and he made a motion
+as though to go.
+
+"Do you realise," said Stamfordham, "what this will mean to you?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "I do."
+
+"Of course," said Stamfordham, "what I ought to do is to insist on the
+inquiry being continued until the matter is cleared up and brought to
+light."
+
+A strange expression passed over Rendel's face as there rose in his mind
+a feeling that he instantly thrust out of sight again, that
+supposing--supposing--Stamfordham himself investigated to the bottom all
+that had happened, and that without any doing of his, Rendel's, the
+truth were discovered? Then with horror he put the idea away. Rachel! it
+would give Rachel just as great a pang, of course, whoever found it out.
+The flash of impulse and recoil had passed swiftly through his mind
+before he woke up, as it were, to find Stamfordham continuing--
+
+"But I am willing for your sake to stop here."
+
+Rendel tried to make some acknowledgment, but no words that he could
+speak came to his lips.
+
+"It might, as I told you before," Stamfordham went on, standing up as
+though to show that the interview was over, "have been a national
+disaster. That, however, has, I hope, been averted, and we shall simply
+have done now something we meant to do a few days hence. But that does
+not affect the point we have been discussing," and he looked at Rendel
+as though with a forlorn hope that at the last moment he might speak.
+But Rendel was silent still. "You understand, then," Stamfordham said,
+looking him straight in the face, an embodiment of inexorable justice,
+"what this means to a man in your position?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel again.
+
+"I owe my colleagues an explanation," said Stamfordham. "Since one is
+not to be had, I must repeat to them what has passed between us."
+
+"Of course," said Rendel. And he went towards the door.
+
+"There is another thing I must ask you," Stamfordham said, speaking with
+cold courtesy. "I have a letter here about Stoke Newton. It will have to
+be settled." And he waited for Rendel to answer the question which had
+not been explicitly asked.
+
+"I shall not stand," said Rendel.
+
+"That is best," said Stamfordham quietly. "Will you telegraph to the
+Committee, then?"
+
+"I will," said Rendel, and with an inclination of the head, to which
+Lord Stamfordham responded, he went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Rendel up to this moment had been accustomed, unconsciously to himself
+perhaps, to live, as most men of keen intelligence and aspirations do
+live, in the future. The possibilities of to-day had always had an added
+zest from the sense of there being a long, magnificent expanse
+stretching away indefinitely in front of him, in which to achieve what
+he would. In his moments of despondency he had been able to conceive
+disaster possible, but it was always, after all, such disaster as a man
+might encounter, and then, surmounting, turn afresh to life. But of all
+possible forms of disaster that would have occurred to him as being
+likely to come near himself, there was one that he would have known
+could not approach him: there was one form of misery from which, so far
+as human probabilities could be gauged, he was safe. He had never
+imagined that he could in his own experience learn what it meant,
+according to the customary phrase, to "go under" because he could not
+hold his head up: to disappear from among the honourable and the
+strenuous, to be dragged down by the weight of some shameful deed which
+would make him unfit to consort with people of his own kind. As he
+walked home he was not conscious, perhaps, of trying to look his
+situation in the face, of trying to adjust himself to it. And yet
+insensibly things began falling into shape, as particles of sand
+gradually subside after a whirlwind and settle into a definite form.
+Then Stamfordham's words rang in his ears: "I must tell my colleagues."
+It was a small fraction of the world in number, perhaps, that would thus
+know how it happened, but they were, to Rendel, the only people who
+mattered--the people, practically, in whose hands his own future lay. He
+realised now as he had never done before in what calm confidence he had
+in his inmost heart looked on that future, and most of all how much, how
+entirely he had always counted on Lord Stamfordham's good opinion of his
+integrity and worth. It was all gone. What should he do? How should he
+take hold of life now?
+
+As he waited at a corner to cross the road, he saw big newspaper boards
+stuck up. The second edition of the other morning papers was coming out
+with the news eagerly caught up from the _Arbiter_. There it was in big
+letters, people stopping to read it as they passed: "Startling
+Disclosure. Unexpected Action of the Government." No power on earth
+could stop that knowledge from spreading now. How it would turn the
+country upside down--what a fever of conjecture, what storms of
+disapproval from some, of jubilation from others. What frantic
+excitement was in store for the few who, with vigilance strained to the
+utmost, were steering warily through such a storm! Rendel involuntarily
+stopped and read with the others.
+
+Some people he knew drove by in a victoria, two exquisitely dressed
+women who smiled and bowed to him as they passed--chance acquaintances
+whom he met in society, and to whom under ordinary circumstances he
+would have been profoundly indifferent.
+
+Rendel could almost have stood still in sheer terror at realising some
+numbing sense that was stealing over him, some horrible change in his
+view of things that was already beginning. For as they bowed to him with
+unimpaired friendliness, he felt conscious of a distinct sensation of
+relief, almost of gratitude, that in spite of what had happened they
+should still be willing to greet him. Good God! was _that_ what his view
+of life, and of his relations with his kind was going to be? No! no!
+anything but that. He would go away somewhere, he would disappear...
+yes, of course, that was what "they" all did. He remembered with a
+shudder a man he had known, Bob Galloway, who, beginning life under the
+most prosperous auspices, had been convicted of cheating at cards. He
+recalled the look of the man who knew his company would be tolerated
+only by those beneath him. He realised now part of what Galloway must
+have gone through before he went out of England and took to frequenting
+second-rate people abroad.
+
+He looked up and found that he had mechanically walked back to Cosmo
+Place. He was recalled from his absorption to a more pressing calamity,
+as he recognised, with an acute pang of self-reproach, the doctor's
+brougham still standing before the door. He entered the house quickly.
+There was a sense of that strange emptiness, of the ordinary living
+rooms of the house being deserted, that gives one an almost physical
+sense that life is being lived through with stress and terrible
+earnestness somewhere else. He heard some words being exchanged in a low
+tone on the upper landing, and then a door shutting as Rachel turned
+back into her father's room. Rendel met Doctor Morgan as he came down
+the stairs. Morgan's face assumed an air of grave concern as he saw Sir
+William's son-in-law coming towards him, and Rendel read in his face
+what he had to tell. There are moments in which the intensity of nervous
+strain seems to make every sense trebly acute, in which, without knowing
+it, we are aware of every detail of sight and sound that forms the
+material setting for a moment of great emotion. As he looked at Doctor
+Morgan coming towards him, Rendel, without knowing it, was conscious of
+every detail that formed the background to that figure of foreboding: of
+the sunlight glancing on the glass of a picture, of its reflection in
+the brass of a loose stair rod that had escaped from its fastenings, and
+of which, even in that moment, Rendel's methodical mind automatically
+made a note.
+
+"I am afraid I can't give you a very good account," he said in answer
+to Rendel's hurried inquiries. "He has had another and more prolonged
+fainting fit, and I think it possible that his heart may be affected."
+
+"Do you mean, then," said Rendel, "that--that--you are really anxious
+about the ultimate issue?" and he tried to veil the thing he was
+designating, as men instinctively do when it is near at hand.
+
+"Yes, I am," Doctor Morgan answered. "Unless there is a great change in
+the next few hours, there certainly will be cause for the gravest
+anxiety."
+
+Rendel was silent, his thoughts chasing each other tumultuously through
+his brain.
+
+"Does my wife know?" he said.
+
+"I think she does," Morgan said. "I have not told her quite as clearly
+as I have said it to you, but she knows how much care he needs and how
+absolutely essential it is that he should be quiet. It is his one
+chance. No talk, no news, no excitement."
+
+"What has brought on this attack, do you think?" said Rendel, feeling as
+if he were driven to ask the question.
+
+"I can't tell," said Morgan. "He looked to me like a man who had been
+excited about something. Do you know whether that is so?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel; "he got excited this morning about something that
+was in the paper."
+
+"Ah! by the way, yes, I don't wonder," said Morgan, who was an ardent
+politician. "It was a most astonishing piece of news, certainly."
+
+"It was, indeed," said Rendel, brought back for a moment to the
+unendurable burthen he had been carrying about with him.
+
+"The Imperialists are safe now to get in," said Morgan. "We look to you
+to do great things some day," and without waiting for the polite
+disclaimer which he took for granted would be Rendel's reply to his
+remark, without seeing the swift look of keen suffering that swept over
+Rendel's face, he hurried away.
+
+Rendel was bowed down by an intolerable self-reproach. He could have
+smiled at the thought that he had actually been seeking solace in the
+idea that he had, at any rate, done a fine, a noble thing, that he had
+done it for Rachel, that, if she ever knew it, she would know he had
+sacrificed everything for her. And now, instead, how did his conduct
+appear? How would it appear to her, since she knew but the outward
+aspect of it? To her? Why, to himself, even, it almost appeared that
+wishing to insist on screening himself at the expense of some one else,
+he had, in defiance of her entreaties, appealed to her father, and
+brought on an attack that might probably cause his death.
+
+He stood for a moment as the door closed behind Morgan, and waited
+irresolutely, with a half hope that Rachel would come downstairs to him.
+But all was silent, desolate, forlorn; it was behind the shut door
+upstairs that the strenuous issues were being fought out which were to
+decide, in all probability, other fates than that of the chief sufferer
+who lay there waiting for death. The chief sufferer? No. Rendel, as he
+turned back sick at heart, after a moment, into his own study, thought
+bitterly within himself that death to the man who has so little to
+expect from life is surely a less trial than dying to all that is worth
+having while one is still alive. That was how he saw his own life as he
+looked on into the future, or rather, as he contemplated it in the
+present--for the future was gone, it was blotted out. That was the
+thought that ever and anon would come to the surface, would come in
+spite of his efforts to the contrary, before every other. Then the
+thought of Rachel's face of misery rose before him, haunted him with an
+additional anguish. With an effort he pulled himself together, sat down
+to the table, and wrote a letter to the committee of Stoke Newton,
+stating briefly that he had relinquished his intention of standing,
+directed it, and closed the envelope with a heavy sigh. One by one he
+was throwing overboard his most precious possessions to appease the
+Fates that were pursuing him. Where would it end? What would be left to
+him? The one precious possession, the turning-point of his existence
+still remained: Rachel, his love for her, their life together. But,
+after all, those great goods he had meant to have in any case, and the
+rest besides. The door opened. It was the servant come to tell him that
+luncheon was ready; the ordinary bell was not rung for fear of
+disturbing Sir William. Luncheon? Could the routine of life be going on
+just in the same way? Was it possible that a morning had been enough to
+do all this? He went listlessly into the dining-room. Rachel was not
+there. He went upstairs, and as he went up met her coming out of her
+father's room. Her startled and almost alarmed look, as at the first
+moment she thought that he was going back into her father's room, smote
+him to the heart.
+
+"You had better not go in, Frank," she said hurriedly. "The doctor said
+he was to be quite quiet. Please don't go in again," and the intonation
+of the words told him how much lay at his door already.
+
+"I was not going in," he said quietly. "I was coming to fetch you to
+have some luncheon."
+
+"I don't think I could eat anything," she said.
+
+"You must try, darling," he said gently. "It is no good your being
+knocked up at this stage. You look pretty well worn out already."
+
+And indeed she did. The last twenty-four hours had made her look as
+though she herself had been through an illness, and the nervous strain
+added to her own condition made her appear, Rendel felt as he looked at
+her, quite alarmingly ill. She suffered herself to be persuaded to eat
+something, then wandered wretchedly back to her father's room to remain
+there for the rest of the day.
+
+Rendel did not leave the house again. He sat downstairs alone, trying to
+realise what this world was that he was contemplating, this landscape
+painted in shades of black and grey. Was this the prospect flooded with
+sunshine that he had looked upon that very morning? The afternoon went
+on: the streets of London were full of a gay and hurrying crowd. Was it
+Rendel's imagination, the tense state of his nerves, that made him feel
+in the very air as it streamed in at his window the electric disturbance
+that was agitating the destinies of the country? Everyone looked as they
+passed as though something had happened; men were talking eagerly and
+intently. The afternoon papers were being hawked in the streets. One of
+them actually had the map, all had the news, given with the same
+comments of amazement, and, on the part of the Imperialists, of
+admiration at the feat that had been so cleverly performed. So the day
+wore on, the long summer's day, till all London had grasped what had
+happened--while the man through whom London knew was sitting alone, an
+outcast, with Grief and Anxiety hovering by him.
+
+These two same dread companions, seen under another aspect, were with
+Rachel as she sat through the afternoon hours in her father's darkened
+room, listening to his breathing, with all her senses on the alert for
+any sound, for any movement.
+
+Sir William moved and opened his eyes; then, looking at Rachel, who was
+anxiously bending over him, he rapidly poured out a succession of words
+and phrases of which only a word here and there was intelligible.
+"Frank," he said once or twice, then "Pateley," but Rachel had not the
+clue that would have told her what the words meant. She tried in vain to
+quiet him: he was not conscious of her presence. Then suddenly his
+voice subsided to a whisper, and a strange look came over his face. An
+uncontrollable terror seized upon Rachel. She ran out on to the stairs;
+and as, unsteady, quivering, she rushed down, meaning to call her
+husband, she caught her foot on the loose stair-rod and fell forward,
+striking her head with violence as she reached the bottom. It was there
+that Rendel, aghast, found her lying unconscious as he hurried out of
+his study to see what had happened. The sickening horror of that first
+moment, when he believed she was dead, swallowed up every other thought.
+It made the time that followed, when Doctor Morgan, instantly sent for,
+had pronounced that she had concussion of the brain, from which she
+would recover if kept absolutely quiet, a period almost of relief.
+
+And so Rachel was spared the actual moment of the parting she had been
+trying to face. For though Sir William rallied again from the crisis
+which had so alarmed her, he sank gradually into a state of coma from
+which he was destined never to wake, and from which, almost
+imperceptibly, he passed during the evening of the next day.
+
+Rendel, tossed on a wild storm of clashing emotions, the great anxiety
+caused by Rachel's accident and possible peril added to all he had gone
+through, had in truth little actual sorrow to spare for the loss of Sir
+William Gore. But Gore's death meant in one direction the death of all
+his own remaining hopes. When he knew the end had come, and that he
+would have to tell Rachel, when she was able to bear it, that her father
+was dead, he then began to realise how, unconsciously to himself almost,
+he had built upon some possibility of Sir William doing something to put
+things right. What, he had not formulated to himself; but he had had
+vague visions of a possible admission of some sort, of an attempted
+reconciliation, atonement, confession, such as he had read of in
+fiction, by which means the truth would have come out, and he would have
+been absolved without any effort on his own part. But those
+half-formulated dreams had vanished almost before he had realised them.
+Sir William Gore had gone to his eternal rest, and, as far as Rendel
+knew, no one but himself knew exactly what had happened. And now there
+was nothing in front of him but that miserable blank.
+
+Rachel was not told of what had happened until two days after her
+father's funeral. She received the news as though stunned, bewildered;
+as if it were too terrible for her to grasp. Gradually she came back to
+life again, but she was not the same as before. Her recovery would be,
+the doctor explained, a question of time. The accident that had befallen
+her, following the great strain and anxiety she had gone through, had
+completely upset her nervous system, and appeared--a not uncommon result
+after such an accident--to have completely obliterated the time
+immediately preceding her fall. The moment when Rendel, seeing her
+gradually recovering, first ventured on some allusion to Stamfordham
+and to what had taken place the day her father was taken ill, he saw a
+puzzled, bewildered look in her face, as though she had no idea of what
+he was saying, and he was seized by a fear almost too ghastly to be
+endurable.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham?" she said, puzzled. "When? I don't know about it."
+
+But the doctor reassured him, and told him that all would come right:
+she would be herself again, even if she never regained the memory of
+what had happened before her fall.
+
+"It is a common result of an accident of this kind," he said, "and need
+give you no special cause for anxiety. I have known two or three cases
+in which men who have completely recovered in other respects have never
+regained the memory of what immediately preceded the accident. That girl
+who was thrown in the Park a month ago, you remember--her horse ran away
+and threw her over the railings--although she got absolutely right, does
+not remember what she did that morning, or even the night before. And
+after all," he added, "it does not seem to me so very desirable that
+Mrs. Rendel should remember those two particular days she may have
+lost."
+
+Rendel gave an inward shudder. If he could but have forgotten them too!
+
+"They were full, as I understand, of anxiety and grief about her
+father's condition."
+
+"They were," said Rendel. "It would be much better if she did not
+remember them."
+
+"That's right, keep your heart up, then," said Morgan, all
+unconsciously; "and above all, no excitement for her, no anxiety, no
+irritation. Change of scene would be good for her, perhaps, and seeing
+one or two people. If I were you, I should take her to some German
+baths. On every ground I should think that would be the best thing for
+her."
+
+See people? Rendel felt, with the sense of having received a blow, what
+sort of aspect social intercourse presented to him now. But as the days
+went on Doctor Morgan insisted more strongly on the necessity that
+Rachel should go for a definite 'cure' somewhere, and recommended a
+special place, Bad-Schleppenheim.
+
+"Bad-Schleppenheim," he said, "is on the whole as good a place as you
+could go to."
+
+"But isn't it thronged with English people?" said Rendel.
+
+"Not unduly," said Morgan. "At any rate, I think it is worth trying."
+
+"I wonder if my wife would like it," said Rendel doubtfully.
+
+"I wouldn't tell her," said the doctor, "till it's all settled. That's
+the way to deal with wives, I assure you."
+
+And with a cheery laugh, Dr. Morgan, who had no wife, went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Rachel, however, even after the move abroad so strongly recommended by
+her doctor had been made, did not all at once regain her normal
+condition. She appeared to be better in health; she was calmer, her
+nerves seemed quieter; but a strange dull veil still hung between her
+mind and the days immediately preceding the great catastrophe. To what
+had happened the day before her father's death she never referred; she
+had not asked Rendel anything more about the accusation brought against
+him. Once or twice she had spoken of her father as if he were still
+there, then caught herself up, realising that he was gone. Was this how
+it was always going to be? Rendel asked himself. Would he not again be
+able to share with her, as far as one human being can share with
+another, his hopes and his fears, or rather his renunciations? Would she
+never be able to take part in his life with the sweet, smiling sympathy
+which had always been so ineffably precious to him? Those days that she
+had lost were just those that had branded themselves indelibly into his
+consciousness: the afternoon that Stamfordham had come with the map,
+the morning following when it had appeared in the newspaper, the scenes
+with Gore, with Stamfordham,--all those days he lived over and over
+again, and lived them alone. There was some solace in the thought that
+if that time were to be to Rachel for ever blurred, she would never be
+able to recall what had passed between herself and her husband after
+Rendel had brought on Gore's illness by taxing him with what he had
+done. And while he struggled with his memories--would he always have to
+live in the past now instead of in the future?--Rachel, who had been
+told to be a great deal in the fresh air, passed her time quietly,
+peacefully, languidly, lying out of doors. They had deemed themselves
+fortunate in securing in the overcrowded town a somewhat primitive
+little pavilion belonging to one of the big hotels, of which the charm
+to Rachel was that it had a shady garden. Rendel, whose time even during
+the period in which he had had no regular occupation had always been
+fully occupied, reading several hours a day, making notes on certain
+subjects about which he meant to write later, became conscious for the
+first time in his life that the hours hung heavy on his hands. It was
+with a blank surprise that he realised that such a misfortune, which he
+had always thought vaguely could befall only the idlers and desultory of
+this world, should attack himself. Life is always laying these snares
+for us, putting in our way suddenly and unexpectedly some form of
+unpleasantness by which we may have seen others attacked, but from
+which unconsciously we have felt that we ourselves should be preserved
+by our own merits,--just as when we are in good health we hear of
+sciatica, lumbago, or gout, and accept them without concern as part of
+the composition of the universe, until one day one of these
+disagreeables attacks ourselves, and stands out quite disproportionately
+as something that after all is of more consequence than we thought. It
+unfortunately nearly always happens that we have to face the mental
+crises of life inadequately prepared. We think we have pictured them
+beforehand, and according to that picture we are ready, in imagination,
+with a sufficient equipment of fortitude and decision to enable us to
+encounter them. In reality we mostly do no better than a traveller who
+going to an unknown land and climate, guesses for himself beforehand
+what his outfit had better be, and then finds it deplorably inadequate
+when he gets there. Rendel, during those days of lonely agony in London
+that followed the revelations sprung on the public by the _Arbiter_, had
+endeavoured to school himself to face what the future might have in
+store for him; but he had thought that while he was abroad, at any rate,
+the horror that pursued him now would be in abeyance. He had never been
+to German baths, he had never been to a fashionable resort of the kind;
+he had no idea what it meant. All that he had vaguely pictured was that
+it would be some sort of respite from the thing that dogged him now, the
+fear--for there was no doubt that as the days went on it grew into a
+fear--of coming suddenly upon some one he knew, who would look him in
+the face and then turn away. And now that they were at the term of their
+journey, installed in their little foreign pavilion, he had become aware
+that at a stone's throw from him was a numerous cosmopolitan society,
+among whom was probably a large contingent from London. He did not try
+to learn their names; he would jealously keep aloof from them. Rachel
+had been advised to stay here for four weeks at least. Four weeks, no
+doubt, is not very long under ordinary circumstances: he had not
+imagined that it might seem almost unendurably long to a man who had
+been married less than a year to a wife that he loved. And yet, before
+he had been there three days, he was conscious that each separate hour
+had to be encountered, wrestled with, conquered, before going on to the
+next. He had meant to write: there was a point of administration upon
+which he had intended to say his say in one of the Reviews. But somehow
+in that sitting-room, with the windows opening down to the garden, the
+steady work, which in his own study would have been a matter of course,
+seemed almost impossible. Then he thought he would read. He read aloud
+to Rachel for part of the day; but he did not dare to choose anything
+that was much good to himself, as he had been told that the more
+inactive her mind was the better. Something he would have to do; he
+would have to organise his daily life in some way that would make the
+burden of it endurable. He made up his mind to take long walks--the
+hotel and pavilion lay on the outskirts of the town--to go into the
+outlying country and explore it on foot. But in the evenings when Rachel
+was gone to bed, and when, alone at last, he would try to concentrate
+his mind on the study or the writing to which he had been used so
+eagerly to turn, another thought that he had been keeping at bay by a
+conscious effort would rush at him again and overwhelm him.
+
+In the meantime, at the other side of Bad-Schleppenheim, the hours were
+flying fast and gaily. From the moment when the visitors met together at
+an early hour in the morning to drink their glasses of Schleppenheim
+water, and onwards through the luncheon parties, excursions, walking up
+and down, listening to the band, seeing theatricals, or playing Bridge
+in the evening, there was never a moment in which they were not
+industriously engaged in the pursuit of something. It was mostly
+pleasure, though many of them imagined it was health. Many of the people
+who in London constituted Society were here, in an inner and hallowed
+circle, in the centre of which were many minor and a few major royalties
+out of every country in Europe; and revolving round them in wider
+circles outside, many other people who, at home just on the verge of
+being in Society, revelled in the thought that here, under altered
+conditions, and in the enforced juxtapositions of life in a
+watering-place, a special talent for tennis, a gift for Bridge, better
+clothes than other people, or a talent for private theatricals, would
+help them to be on the right side of the line they were so anxious to
+cross. Add to these, numbers of pretty girls anxious only to enjoy
+themselves, and swarms of young men who had come for the same reason,
+and it will be imagined that the atmosphere reigning in the brilliantly
+lighted Casino, in and around which the joyous spent their evenings
+singing, dancing, wandering in the grounds, was singularly different
+from that of the little isolated pavilion where Rendel sat trying to
+fashion the picture of his life into something that he could look upon
+without a shudder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The walls of the little town were placarded with the announcement of a
+great bazaar to be held for the benefit of the English Church in
+Bad-Schleppenheim. The economics of a fashionable bazaar are evidently
+governed by certain obscure laws, of which the knowledge is yet in
+infancy; for the ordinary laws of commerce are on these occasions
+completely suspended. That of supply and demand becomes inverted, since
+the vendors are seemingly eager to sell all that the buyers least want:
+the cost of production, of which statistics are not obtainable, the
+expenditure of money, time, and energy required to furnish the stalls is
+not taken into account at all. Loss and profit appear to be inextricably
+mingled; however much unsold merchandise remains on the stall at the end
+of the bazaar the seller is expected to hand over a substantial sum to
+the good object for which she is supposed to have been working. And yet
+there must be some advantage in this method of raising money, or even
+the female mind would presumably not at once turn to it as the simplest
+and most obvious way of obtaining funds for a given purpose.
+
+These problems, however, did not exist for Lady Chaloner, one of the
+leaders of English Society in Schleppenheim. She took bazaars for
+granted, as she did everything else. She was one of the very pillars of
+the social fabric of her country. She was of noble blood, she was
+portly, she was decidedly middle-aged. She had been recommended to diet
+herself and to drink the waters of Schleppenheim, and as she did so in
+company with half the distinguished people in Europe, she was quite
+content to follow the course prescribed. In these days when everything
+is called into question, when social codes alter, and an undesirable
+fusion of human beings takes place in so many directions, it was
+positively refreshing to turn to Lady Chaloner, who not only did not
+know, but could not conceive that it mattered, what other people did in
+any layer of existence beneath her own. She had not at any time a keen
+eye to discrimination of character. Her judgment of those
+fellow-creatures whom she naturally frequented was based in the first
+instance on their degree of blood relationship with herself, then on
+their social standing: but she was but vaguely aware of the difference
+between the men and women, especially the women, who did not belong to
+that inner circle, and knew as little about them as a looker-on leaning
+from a window in a foreign town knows about the people who pass beneath
+him in the street. But there were times when she entirely recognised
+the usefulness in the scheme of creation of those motley crowds of
+well-dressed persons, even though they bore names she had never heard
+before. During her preparation for the bazaar, for instance, which she
+was getting up in the single-minded conviction that nothing better could
+be done for the institution she was trying to befriend, she had been
+more than willing to co-operate with Mrs. Birkett, the wife of the
+chaplain, and even to ask some of Mrs. Birkett's friends for their help.
+Mrs. Birkett, who approached the bazaar from the point of view from
+which she had artlessly imagined it was being undertaken, that of
+ensuring some sort of provision for the expenses of the chaplain who
+undertook the summer duty of Schleppenheim, received a series of shocks
+as she came face to face with the different points of view of the
+various stall-holders with whom she was successively brought into
+contact. Lady Chaloner--she looked on this as a great achievement--had
+succeeded in enrolling among the bazaar-workers the young Princess
+Hohenschreien, on the ground of her being a staunch Protestant. The
+Princess was half-English, half-German. Her mother had been a distant
+connection of Lady Chaloner. This relationship in some strange way
+entirely condoned in Lady Chaloner's eyes the fact that the Princess
+Hohenschreien had a good deal of paint on her face, and a good deal of
+paint in her manner, and that the loudness of her laugh and the boldness
+of her bearing were more pronounced than would have been permitted of
+the well-behaved ladies brought up within the walls of Castle Chaloner.
+However, Lady Chaloner's daughters were married to husbands of an
+excellent and irreproachable kind, and were out in the world; and Lady
+Chaloner felt no kind of responsibility about Madeline Hohenschreien,
+"Maddy," as she was called by her intimates. She expressed distinct
+approval of her, in fact, in the words, "Maddy has such a lot of go
+about her, hasn't she? It does one good to hear her laughin'." So when
+"Maddy" instantly and light-heartedly undertook to help the bazaar by
+performing at the Café Chantant, that was to go on at stated times all
+through the evening, Lady Chaloner felt that she was doing a distinctly
+good work. It was no small undertaking, however, marshalling her forces
+and trying to arrange that every one of the stallholders should not be
+selling exactly the same thing--namely, the small carved wooden objects,
+the staple commodity of Schleppenheim, made by the surrounding
+peasantry.
+
+The bazaar was drawing near, and Lady Chaloner was very busy indeed.
+Indefatigably did she send for Mrs. Birkett several times every day,
+begging her to bring a pencil and paper that they might make lists. Mrs.
+Birkett's experience, however, was limited to sales of work under
+somewhat different conditions in England, and she was not of very much
+use, except as a moral support and outward material embodiment of the
+cause for which the bazaar was being undertaken. She sought comfort in
+her inmost soul in the thought of all the money that must surely flow
+into the coffers of the Church after this magnificent undertaking; but
+she was secretly out of her element and ill at ease, when Lady Chaloner
+pounced upon her to talk of the bazaar, at an hour when the most
+fashionable people in Europe, with their best clothes on, were walking
+up and down while the band was playing, or established at little tables
+exchanging intimate pleasantries with one another and greetings with the
+people that passed.
+
+She was sitting by Lady Chaloner, in compulsory attendance upon that
+benefactress of the Church, a few days before the bazaar was to come
+off.
+
+"Now, let me see," said Lady Chaloner, "what are you goin' to have on
+your stall?"
+
+"On mine?" said Mrs. Birkett, rather taken aback.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Chaloner, "aren't you goin' to have a stall?"
+
+"You see," said Mrs. Birkett, "I have not any of the things here
+that--er--I generally use for the purpose," and she thought regretfully
+of a big box at home which contained a sort of rolling stock of hideous
+articles that travelled, so to speak, between herself and her friends
+from one bazaar to another, and reappeared, a sort of symbolical
+merchandise, a currency in a nightmare, at all the fancy sales held in
+the neighbourhood of Leighton Ham.
+
+"The only thing is," said Lady Chaloner, "it is rather a pity, because,
+bein' for the Church, people will expect you to sell, you know. Perhaps
+you could sell at somebody else's stall. Mine's full, I think," she
+added prudently. "Let me see," and her ladyship ran quickly over the
+names of the half a dozen young women who, in the most beguiling of
+costumes, were going to trip about and sell buttonholes to their
+partners of the evening before. Lady Chaloner's solid good sense and
+long habit of the world kept things that should be separate perfectly
+distinct; she did not for a moment contemplate Mrs. Birkett tripping
+about and selling buttonholes. "Perhaps Mrs. Samuels hasn't got her
+number complete," she said, not realising this time, the thing being a
+little more out of her field of vision, that Mrs. Samuels, who had been
+spending her time, energy, and even money, in trying to be friends with
+Lady Chaloner, might quite possibly be in the same attitude towards Mrs.
+Birkett, if thrust upon her, as Lady Chaloner was to herself.
+
+"I daresay, yes," said Mrs. Birkett, with some misgiving, as she saw
+Mrs. Samuels further down the alley, standing with a London manager in
+the centre of a group who were laughing and talking round them.
+
+"Let me see, Mrs. Samuels is goin' to have the tea, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes, the refreshment stall," said Mrs. Birkett, referring to her list.
+
+"And Lady Adela Prestige the fortune tellin'--and Princess
+Hohenschreien, what did she say she would do? Oh! I remember, the Café
+Chantant. What has she done about it, I wonder? Do you know anything
+about that?"
+
+"I am afraid I don't," said Mrs. Birkett. This, indeed, was quite beyond
+her competence.
+
+"I wonder if she has got people enough. Ah! here she is. Madeline!
+Maddy!" she called out, as Princess Hohenschreien appeared at the end of
+the walk, a parasol lined with pink behind her, and her head thrown back
+as she laughed loud and heartily at something her companion had said.
+
+"Yes, dear Lady Chaloner? Were you calling me?"
+
+"I wanted to speak to you about the bazaar," said Lady Chaloner. "How do
+you do, M. de Moricourt," to the Princess's companion.
+
+"The bazaar," said the young man in French, as he bowed, "what is that?"
+
+"What is that?" said the Princess, with another burst of laughter. "But,
+_mon cher_, you are impossible! We have been talking of nothing else all
+the way down the alley."
+
+"How?" said the young man. "I really beg your pardon, Princess, but I
+thought we were talking of the comedy we were going to act at the
+Casino."
+
+"And what do you suppose that comedy is for," said the Princess, "if not
+for the bazaar?"
+
+"How can I tell?" said Moricourt. "It might have been to please the
+public, or even to please the Princess Hohenschreien," with a little
+bow.
+
+"Of course we shall please both," said the Princess. "And a bazaar
+gives us a reason. A charity bazaar, isn't it?"
+
+"Ah! a charity bazaar," said Moricourt, "that is another thing. It
+doesn't matter how badly I shall act, then."
+
+"Perhaps that is as well," said the Princess.
+
+"Is it permitted to know the object of the charity we are going to
+assist so well?" said Moricourt.
+
+Lady Chaloner, dimly aware that Mrs. Birkett was becoming very
+uncomfortable, although she did not clearly distinguish whether the
+peculiar expression to be observed on the latter's face came from
+irritation or embarrassment, hastily said--
+
+"It is not a charity exactly. It is for the English Church at
+Schleppenheim. This is Mrs. Birkett, the wife of the clergyman,"
+indicating Mrs. Birkett.
+
+"Ah!" said Moricourt, "the English Church," and he bowed to Mrs. Birkett
+as though making the acquaintance of that honoured institution. Princess
+Hohenschreien also included herself in the introduction, and bowed with
+a good-natured smile of absolute indifference to Mrs. Birkett and to all
+that she represented.
+
+"Well, now then, seriously," said Lady Chaloner, "do you undertake the
+Café Chantant, Madeline?"
+
+"Not the whole of it, my dear lady," said the Princess. "That really is
+too much to ask. M. Moricourt and I will act a play."
+
+"How long does the play last?" said Lady Chaloner.
+
+"How long did we say it took?" said the Princess to her companion. "It
+depends upon how often Moricourt forgets his part. When we rehearsed it
+last night he waited quite ten minutes in the middle of it."
+
+"I must remind you," said Moricourt, "that I was pausing to admire ...
+the beautiful feathers in your hat."
+
+"Oh! well, that is different," said the Princess. "I think that
+explanation is satisfactory--but otherwise----" And she filled up the
+sentence with a telling glance, to which Moricourt replied with a look
+of fervent admiration.
+
+"Well, how long does it take, then?" said Lady Chaloner, with a smile of
+strange indulgence, Mrs. Birkett thought, for a lady so highly placed,
+and of such solid dignity.
+
+"Oh! about half an hour," said Moricourt; "perhaps three-quarters."
+
+"Is that all?" said Lady Chaloner, in some consternation. "The Café
+Chantant goes on for how long did you say, Mrs. Birkett?"
+
+This piece of statistics Mrs. Birkett was able to furnish.
+
+"From six till ten, I think you said, Lady Chaloner," she said, reading
+from her list.
+
+"Heavens!" said the Princess, "you don't expect us, I hope, to go on
+from six till ten. We had better do the Nibelungen Ring at once. I will
+be Brünnhilde--and I tell you what," turning to Moricourt, "you shall be
+the big lizard who comes in and says 'bow-wow,' or whatever it is. Mr.
+Wentworth!" and she called to Wentworth who was strolling along with an
+air of being at peace with himself and the universe. "What is it that
+lizards do?"
+
+"If they are small," said Wentworth, "they run up a wall in the sun, or
+they run over your feet, and if they are big----"
+
+"You fall over their feet, I suppose," said the Princess.
+
+"But a lizard at a Café Chantant," said Moricourt, "what does he do?"
+
+"At a Café Chantant? He sings, of course," said Wentworth.
+
+"No no," said the Princess, with again her resonant laugh. "I don't know
+much about botany, but I am sure lizards don't sing."
+
+"Then in that case," said Moricourt, "Wentworth must. He can sing; I
+have heard him."
+
+"Can you, Mr. Wentworth? How well can you sing?" said the Princess with
+artless candour.
+
+"Well," said Wentworth, "that is rather difficult to say. I don't sing
+quite as well as Mario perhaps, but a little better than ... a lizard."
+
+"Oh, that will do perfectly," said the Princess. "For a charity, people
+are not particular."
+
+"By the way, what is all this for?" said Wentworth.
+
+"For the English Church here, you remember," said Lady Chaloner.
+
+"Oh! to be sure, yes," said Wentworth. "I saw the placard."
+
+"This is Mrs. Birkett," said Lady Chaloner.
+
+Wentworth bowed and said politely, "I hope the bazaar will be a great
+success."
+
+"I hope so, thank you," Mrs. Birkett said, feeling that if the bazaar
+were not a great success, she would have gone through a good deal for a
+very little. She longed to be allowed to go away, but she was not quite
+sure whether she would not be jeopardising the success of the bazaar by
+leaving at this juncture. Visions of having promised to meet her
+reverend husband to go for a walk at a given moment were haunting her.
+Finally, with a desperate effort, she said--
+
+"I am afraid I have an appointment, Lady Chaloner, and must go now,
+unless there is anything more I can do."
+
+"Oh, must you go?" said Lady Chaloner, "we had better meet in the
+morning, I think, and make a final list of the stalls."
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Birkett, with a sigh of relief, and with a
+determined effort she tried to include the circle she was leaving in one
+salutation, and made away as fast as she could.
+
+"I hope," said the Princess, "the poor lady is not shocked at having a
+Café Chantant in her Church bazaar."
+
+"At any rate," said Wentworth, "she will be consoled when you hand over
+the results to her afterwards."
+
+"What is the name of the piece you are going to do?" said Lady Chaloner,
+pencil in hand.
+
+"_Une porte qui s'ouvre_," said Moricourt, with a glance at the
+Princess.
+
+"Oh! if you think we'll have that one!" said the Princess. "Would you
+believe, Lady Chaloner, that he wants me to be the maid in it instead of
+the leading lady, because he kisses the maid behind the door!"
+
+"My dear Maddy!" said Lady Chaloner, reprovingly.
+
+"Don't look so shocked at me, dear Lady Chaloner," she said. "I am sure
+I am as shocked myself at the suggestion, as----"
+
+"Mrs. Birkett," suggested Wentworth.
+
+"Precisely," said the Princess.
+
+"At any rate we'll put that piece on the list for the present," said
+Lady Chaloner. "Then there will be a song from Lady Adela----"
+
+"And a song from Mr. Wentworth," said Moricourt.
+
+"That's splendid," said Lady Chaloner. "The Café Chantant will do. The
+only thing I rather regret is about the stalls, that every one is goin'
+to sell the same thing."
+
+"And who is going to buy?" said the Princess.
+
+"That's another difficulty," said Lady Chaloner, "they'll all have to
+buy from one another."
+
+"We had better have some autographs," said the Princess, "they always
+sell."
+
+"Very good," said Lady Chaloner, putting it down on the list. "You had
+better get some."
+
+"All right," said the Princess. "We'll have some of all kinds, I think.
+I will get some from those people too," nodding her head in the
+direction of the London manager.
+
+"Everybody considers himself an autograph in these days," said
+Wentworth; "it is terrible what a levelling age we live in."
+
+"We might sell photographs, of course," said the Princess, "instead of
+autographs."
+
+"Or both," said Lady Chaloner, earnestly and anxiously, as though
+contemplating all sources of revenue. "Signed photographs."
+
+"Excellent," said Wentworth.
+
+"There ought to be people enough to buy, if they would only come," said
+Lady Chaloner, taking up a Visitors' List that lay beside her. "People
+like the Francis Rendels, for instance," putting her finger on the name,
+"or----"
+
+"The Rendels? Are they here?" said Wentworth, with much interest.
+
+"So it says here. What is she like?" said Lady Chaloner. "Would she
+help?"
+
+"I am not sure," said Wentworth. "She's in mourning, and very quiet--but
+very charming."
+
+"Thank you," said the Princess with a gay laugh. "I am sure that is a
+compliment _à mon adresse_. I know what you mean when you say that very
+quiet women are charming. Let us go away, Moricourt; we are too noisy
+for Mr. Wentworth."
+
+"You are too bad, Maddy, really," said Lady Chaloner, smiling at this
+brilliant sally.
+
+"_Ich bitte sehr_," said Wentworth to the Princess, with a little bow,
+as he took up the paper and looked for the address of the Rendels.
+"Pavillon du Jardin, Hôtel de Londres--I must go and look them up," he
+said.
+
+"You might beat them up to come and buy, at any rate," said Lady
+Chaloner, "if they can't do anything else."
+
+"I will do what I can," said Wentworth with a smile, reflecting as he
+walked off what a strange blurring of the focus of life there is when,
+everything being concentrated on to one particular purpose, whether it
+be a bazaar, an election, or the giving of a ball, all the human beings
+one encounters are considered from the point of view of their fitness to
+one particular end--in the aspect of a buyer or seller, as a voter, as a
+partner, as the case may be. There was no doubt that at this moment the
+whole of mankind were expected to fit somehow into Lady Chaloner's
+pattern: to be useful for the bazaar, or to be thrown away as useless.
+
+As Wentworth turned away he exchanged greetings with a jovial
+important-looking personage coming in the other direction, no other than
+Mr. Pateley, exhaling prosperity as he came. The completion of the Cape
+to Cairo railway, and the reinstatement in public opinion of the
+'Equator' Mine, proved to be of gold after all--let alone certain
+fortunate pecuniary transactions connected with that reinstatement--had
+given Pateley both political and material satisfaction. The _Arbiter_
+was advancing more triumphantly than ever, and its editor was a person
+of increasing consideration and influence.
+
+"You seem very busy, Lady Chaloner," he said, as he looked at the sheets
+of paper on the table by her.
+
+"We are gettin' up a bazaar," Lady Chaloner said. "Will you help us?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," said Pateley obviously. "What do you want me to
+do?"
+
+"Give us your autograph," said the Princess promptly, "and we will sell
+it for large sums of gold."
+
+She had certainly chosen a skilful way of enlisting Pateley's
+co-operation. He revelled in the joy of being a political potentate, and
+every fresh proof that he received of the fact was another delight to
+him.
+
+"I shall be greatly honoured," he said.
+
+"We are going to have autographs of all the distinguished people we can
+find," said the Princess, continuing her system of ingratiation.
+
+"I can tell you of an autograph who has just arrived," said Pateley. "I
+have just seen him driving up from the station; a very expensive
+autograph indeed--Lord Stamfordham."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham?" said Lady Chaloner, the Foreign Secretary, like the
+rest of the world, falling instantly into his place in her kaleidescope.
+"Certainly, if he would give us a dozen autographs we should do an
+excellent business with them."
+
+"You had better make Adela Prestige ask him, then," said the Princess
+with a laugh.
+
+"I wonder where Adela is?" said Lady Chaloner, considering the question
+entirely on its merits.
+
+"That depends upon where Lord Stamfordham is," murmured the Princess to
+her companion. "By the way, Lady Chaloner, before we part, it is
+Tuesday, isn't it, that we make our expedition to Waldlust to lunch in
+the wood?"
+
+"Tuesday?--let me see, this is Thursday. Yes, I think so," said Lady
+Chaloner. Then she gave a cry of dismay. "Oh! no, Maddy, Tuesday is the
+bazaar; that will never do."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Princess, "all the better. The bazaar doesn't open
+till half-past five after all, and we can lunch at half-past twelve. It
+will do us good to be in the fresh air before our labours begin; we
+shall look all the better for it."
+
+"Very well," said Lady Chaloner dubiously. "But then what about the
+arrangements?"
+
+"Can't those be made on Monday?" said the Princess; "and if there are
+any finishing touches required, Mrs. Birkett and her friends can do them
+on Tuesday. They won't want to look their best, I daresay," and she
+laughed again.
+
+"Very well," said Lady Chaloner. "Tuesday, then, for Waldlust. I will
+ask Lord Stamfordham to come."
+
+"And I will ask Adela," said the Princess.
+
+"Come then, Moricourt," said the Princess, "if you want to rehearse that
+play before we act it."
+
+"Pray do," said Lady Chaloner anxiously. "I am sure people who act
+always rehearse first."
+
+"I am more than willing," said M. de Moricourt, throwing an infinity of
+expression into his voice and glance as he looked at the Princess.
+
+"Some parts especially will require a great deal of rehearsing." And
+they departed together.
+
+"She is so amusin'," said Lady Chaloner to Pateley. "I really don't know
+anybody that can be more amusin' when she likes."
+
+Pateley gave a round, sonorous laugh of agreement, tantamount to a smile
+of assent in any one else. He wisely did not commit himself to any
+expression of opinion as to the accomplished wit of the Princess, which
+at all events as far as he had had opportunity of observing it, did not
+strike him as being of a very subtle character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The echoes of the band which was enlivening the promenade we have just
+left penetrated to the pavilion where Rachel and her husband were
+sitting alone. A little path ran from the back of the pavilion straight
+up into the woods. At certain hours, when the fashionable world met to
+drink the waters, to listen to the band, or to talk at the Casino, the
+woodland path was almost deserted. At no time was it very crowded, as it
+was a short and rather steep short cut to a walk through the wood which
+could be reached by a more convenient access from the principal street
+in the town.
+
+Rendel, although it had not occurred to him to look at a Visitors' List,
+and although he did not realise yet how many people he knew were at
+Schleppenheim, still had a strange, unpleasant feeling, horribly new to
+him, of shrinking from meeting any one he had ever seen before. He had
+seen the woodland path, and was wondering if he should go and explore it
+at this hour when presumably every one was listening to the band, of
+which the incessant strains heard in the distance were beginning to be
+maddening. As he looked up vaguely, the little door into the garden
+opened, and he saw the familiar figure of Wentworth appear. His heart
+stood still. Did Wentworth know? Was he coming out of compassion? And at
+the same moment that he thought it, further back somewhere in his mind
+he was conscious of the absurdity of Wentworth having become suddenly so
+important--Wentworth's opinion, his personality mattering, his
+representing one of the instruments of Fate. He stood, therefore, to
+Wentworth's surprise, absolutely still, waiting to see what his friend's
+attitude would be. But there was no mistake about that, about the
+unaffected heartiness and rejoicing with which Wentworth met him, in
+absolute unconsciousness of any possible cloud between them, any
+possible reason why Rendel should not be as glad to see him as he had
+been at any time since they had been at Oxford together.
+
+"Frank!" he said, as he came forward, "what's all this about? Why are
+you hiding yourself here?" And he stopped in surprise at seeing as he
+spoke the words something in Rendel's whole bearing that made him feel
+as if he were speaking the truth in jest, as if the man before him
+really were hiding, really had something to conceal.
+
+Then, after that first moment, Rendel realised that Wentworth knew
+nothing. That, at any rate, for the moment was to the good, and with an
+abounding sense of relief he held out his hand.
+
+"Don't you like these quarters?" he said. "We think they are perfectly
+delightful."
+
+"So do I," Wentworth said, "so do I. They are so quiet."
+
+"My wife wants to be quiet," said Rendel, half indicating Rachel, who
+was lying back in a garden chair, some knitting in her hands.
+
+"How are you, Mrs. Rendel?" said Wentworth, and he hastened forward to
+greet her.
+
+She put out her hand with a smile and shook hands with him, apparently
+not surprised at seeing him, or particularly interested.
+
+"You are certainly most delightfully cool here in the shade," he said.
+"It is awfully hot in that promenade."
+
+"It must be," said Rachel.
+
+"How long have you been here?" Wentworth went on, sitting down.
+
+"How long is it?" said Rachel, with a slightly puzzled look, looking at
+Rendel. "Only a few days, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, not quite a week. My wife has not been well. We were recommended
+here that she might do the cure."
+
+"I see," Wentworth said, somewhat relieved at finding himself on the way
+to an explanation. "Well, this is a splendid place, I believe, for the
+people that it cures," he added sapiently.
+
+"No doubt," Rendel said.
+
+There was another pause.
+
+"Then that is why we have not seen you at the Casino," Wentworth said.
+"One can't avoid running up against people one knows at every turn
+here."
+
+"Is that so?" said Rendel, a note of anxiety in his voice. "We have not
+run up against any one yet."
+
+"Oh! dear me, yes," said Wentworth, unconscious that each of the names
+he might enumerate would represent to Rendel a possible inexorable
+judge. "Half London is here: Lady Chaloner, Pateley--all sorts of
+people."
+
+"Pateley?" said Rendel, the blood rushing to his face at the association
+of ideas called up in his mind by that name.
+
+"Of course," said Wentworth. "Pateley, flourishing like the bay-tree.
+They say he is making thousands, and he looks as if he were."
+
+"Out of the _Arbiter_?" asked Rendel.
+
+"The _Arbiter_, I suppose, or something else. But I have no doubt he
+would tell you if you asked him. He does not impress me as being one of
+the very reserved kind."
+
+"I don't know," said Rendel. "I don't suppose Pateley ever says more
+than he means to say, with all his air of hearty communicativeness."
+
+"Well, I daresay not," said Wentworth. "The man's very good company
+after all; and as long as none of our secrets are in his keeping, it
+doesn't matter particularly."
+
+Rendel said nothing. He felt he could not meet Pateley face to face at
+this moment.
+
+"What do you do, then, all day here," said Wentworth, "if you don't
+drink the waters, and don't go to the Casino, and don't play Bridge?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't do very much," said Rendel, with an involuntary
+accent in the words that made Wentworth ponder over the undesirability
+of marrying a wife who is in mourning and depressed.
+
+"You should go into the wood," said Wentworth, "as the Germans do. We
+found a lot of them the other day singing part-songs out of little
+books. There is a band of them here called the Society of the United
+Thrushes, composed of the most respectable and most middle-aged ladies
+of the district."
+
+"That sounds charming," said Rendel.
+
+"Look here," said Wentworth, "if you don't care to walk alone, do let's
+walk together. One can go up here and along the wood for miles. We'll
+have good long stretches as we used to at Oxford. What do you think,
+Mrs. Rendel? Don't you think it would be a good thing for him?"
+
+"Very," said Rachel with a smile. "I think he ought to go and walk."
+
+"That's capital," said Wentworth. "Let's do that to-morrow, shall we?"
+
+"I should like it very much," said Rendel.
+
+But the next day the weather broke, and was unsettled for three days. On
+the Tuesday morning, happily for the bazaar and the big tent in the
+grounds of the Casino, the sun shone out again, and everything was
+radiant as before. Wentworth turned up at the pavilion in the forenoon
+and persuaded Rendel to make a day of it. The two started off together
+through the wood, the scented air floating round them, and bringing to
+Rendel, as he strode along with a congenial companion, a sense of mental
+and physical relief as though the atmosphere of both kinds that he was
+breathing were as different from that which had weighed him down a
+fortnight ago as the scent of the aromatic pines was from the air of the
+London streets. Wentworth was full of talk, of a kind it must be
+confessed which left his hearer at the end without any very distinct
+impression of what it had been about, although it passed the time
+agreeably and genially. He had his usual detached air, which Rendel had
+always been accustomed to find a relief as opposed to his own strenuous
+attitude, of standing aloof as an amused spectator of human
+contingencies.
+
+"I haven't seen you for ever so long," Wentworth was saying. "What
+became of you at the end of the season? You vanished somehow, didn't
+you?"
+
+"We were in mourning, you know," Rendel replied.
+
+"Ah, to be sure, yes, Sir William Gore died," said Wentworth, attuning
+his voice to what he considered a suitable key, on the assumption that
+Rendel would feel still more bound to be loyal to his father-in-law now
+than when, as he put it to himself, the "old humbug" was alive. "Poor
+Mrs. Rendel, she looks as if it had been a great blow to her."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "it was; and she has been ill besides." And he told
+Wentworth briefly of what had happened to Rachel, and the condition she
+was in, and the reassuring hopes held out by the doctors that she would
+almost certainly recover her normal state.
+
+"I am very glad to hear that," said Wentworth cheerily. "Then you must
+come to London and start life again, Rendel, now you are free. Sir
+William Gore was rather a responsibility, I daresay."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "he was."
+
+"Let me see," said Wentworth, "it was just about when he died, I
+suppose, that Stamfordham published that sensational agreement with
+Germany?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "it was the day before he died."
+
+"Ah," said Wentworth, "the day before? Then of course you didn't realise
+the excitement it was. By Jove! of course you know I'm not 'in' all that
+sort of thing myself, but I must say I never saw such a fuss and fizz as
+it was. The way it was sprung on people too! It was an awfully bold
+thing to do, you know; but it turned up trumps after all, that's the
+point. Stamfordham isn't like any body else, and that's the fact."
+
+"What's that place we are coming to through the trees?" said Rendel.
+
+"Why, that's it," said Wentworth. "That's where we shall get luncheon.
+They always have something ready for people who drop in."
+
+"It isn't crowded, is it?" said Rendel.
+
+"My dear fellow," replied Wentworth, "there is never anybody. I have
+been there twice since I came; once there was a German doctor, and once
+there was nobody."
+
+"All right," said Rendel.
+
+"You are sure to get veal," Wentworth said. "In Germany, whatever else
+is wanting, you can always get a veal cutlet to slake your thirst with,
+after the longest and hottest walk."
+
+"I shall be quite content," said Rendel.
+
+They went on across the hollow, and up a slight ascent. They strolled
+idly round the woodland house, and saw, as they expected, in the
+agreeable little garden behind, a long table all ready for luncheon.
+
+"This is capital," said Wentworth. "You see, as I told you, they always
+expect people," and a waiting maid appearing at that moment, Wentworth
+proceeded to order luncheon for himself and Rendel in the best German he
+could muster. Unfortunately, however, the proprietor of the
+establishment was engaged in his cellar on important business, and the
+dialect spoken by the red-handed and red-cheeked maiden who received
+them was not very intelligible. However, by dint of nodding of heads and
+pointing out items on the bill of fare, they came to an understanding,
+Wentworth taking for granted that something quite unintelligible that
+she had said about the table was an inquiry as to whether they would
+sit at it, which indeed it was. But it was further an inquiry as to
+whether they were of the party that was coming to sit at it, which he
+also quite cheerfully and unsuspectingly answered in the affirmative. He
+then pulled out his watch, and pointing to a given time at which he
+would return, he and Rendel went further away into the wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+When they returned, half an hour later, the little garden was no longer
+empty. People were coming and going, the table was covered with food;
+Lady Chaloner was seated at it, and at a little distance from her
+Princess Hohenschreien, with M. de Moricourt inevitably in her wake.
+Lady Chaloner's readiness in the German tongue was not equal at this
+moment to her sense of injury. It was Princess Hohenschreien, therefore,
+who was charged with the negotiations, and who was discussing in voluble
+and amused German with the inn-keeper the heinousness of his crime in
+having promised two unknown pedestrians a seat at that very select
+table. The inn-keeper was full of apologies. Not having a nice
+discrimination of the laws that govern the social relations of our
+country, he had thought that if the strangers were English they were
+entitled to sit down with the others.
+
+"What does he say, Maddy?" said Lady Chaloner. "Ask him if he can't put
+them somewhere else. Good Heavens! here they are!" she said _sotto voce_
+as two people came through the trees at the bottom of the garden, and
+then stopped in surprise at seeing how populous it had become. Then, as
+Lady Chaloner looked at them, she suddenly realised with relief that she
+knew them.
+
+"What!" she cried, "is it you? Are you the two people who came in here
+and ordered luncheon in the middle of our party?"
+
+"I am afraid we are, do you know," said Wentworth, as he came forward.
+"We didn't know how indiscreet we were being. We'll go somewhere else."
+
+"Not at all, not at all," said Lady Chaloner. "How do you do, Mr.
+Rendel? I have not seen you for a long time. Of course you must lunch
+with us, so it all ends happily. Maddy, this is Mr. Francis
+Rendel--Princess Hohenschreien."
+
+Rendel bowed. He had had one moment, as they came up into the garden and
+saw there were other people there, before Lady Chaloner had recognised
+them, to make up his mind as to what he would do. Then he had said to
+himself desperately that he would risk it. After all, he might be
+exaggerating the whole thing; Wentworth did not know, and so the others
+might not. Rendel had felt during the last hour one of those strange
+sudden lightenings of the burden of existence that for some unexplained
+reason come to our help without our knowing why. He was almost beginning
+to think life would be possible again. At any rate, here, at the present
+moment, he would not try to remember or realise what it was going to be,
+what it must be. He would sit here on this peerless day with these
+pleasant friendly people, and this one hour at any rate the sun should
+shine within and without.
+
+"That's right," said Lady Chaloner, pointing to two places some way down
+the table at her left; "sit anywhere."
+
+As Wentworth and Rendel stood opposite to the Princess and her attendant
+cavalier, the door of the house, which faced them, opened, and Lady
+Adela Prestige appeared in the doorway, with some more people behind
+her.
+
+"How delightful this is!" Lady Adela cried, as she stepped out into the
+garden.
+
+"Isn't it?" said Lady Chaloner. "Look how amusin'," she continued. "Mr.
+Wentworth and Mr. Rendel have come to luncheon too, quite by chance."
+
+Lady Adela nodded to Wentworth, whom she was seeing every day, and bowed
+to Rendel, whom she knew slightly. Then, as Rendel looked beyond her, he
+saw who was coming out of the house in her wake--Lord Stamfordham,
+followed by Philip Marchmont. Stamfordham, coming out into the dazzling
+sunlight, did not at first see who was there. In that hurried, almost
+imperceptible interval, Rendel had time to grasp that here was the
+horrible reality upon him in the worst form in which it could have come.
+He had wild visions of saying something, doing something, he knew not
+what, instantly repressed by the Englishman's repugnance to a scene.
+Then he pulled himself together, and simply stood and waited. And as he
+waited he saw Stamfordham come up to the table with a pleased smile,
+prepared to sit down on Lady Chaloner's right hand, next the seat into
+which Lady Adela had dropped. Then Stamfordham suddenly saw the two men
+still standing on the other side of the table, and recognised in one of
+them Francis Rendel. A swift extraordinary change came over his face.
+The genial content of the man who, having deliberately put all his usual
+cares and preoccupations behind him was now, under the most favourable
+conditions, prepared to enjoy a holiday in genial society, suddenly
+disappeared. He involuntarily drew himself up, his face became hard and
+stern; he again looked as Rendel had seen him look the last time they
+had met. The mental agony of the younger man during that moment was
+almost unendurable. What was going to happen next? As in a dream he
+heard the comfortable voice of Lady Chaloner, who had never in her life,
+probably, spoken with any misgivings, whose calm confidence in the
+bending of contingency to her desires nothing had ever occurred to
+shake.
+
+"Will you sit down there, Lord Stamfordham? We have two new recruits to
+our party, you see. I don't think I need introduce either of them."
+
+Stamfordham remained standing for a moment; then he said quietly, but
+very distinctly--
+
+"I am afraid, Lady Chaloner, that I can't sit down at this table."
+
+A sort of electric shock ran through the careless happy people who were
+surrounding him. Rendel turned livid. Then he tried to speak. But no
+words could come; mentally and physically alike he could not frame them.
+He pushed his chair away from the table, and moved out behind it; then
+with his hands grasping the back of it, he bowed to Lady Chaloner
+without speaking, turned and went away by the little opening in the wood
+from which he and Wentworth had come. Wentworth, ready and light-hearted
+as he generally was, was for one moment also absolutely paralysed with
+amazement and concern, then saying hurriedly, "Forgive me, Lady
+Chaloner, I must go and see what has happened," he quickly followed.
+Lord Stamfordham drew up his chair to the table and sat down. His
+urbane, genial manner had returned, and he spoke as though nothing had
+happened; the rest instantly took their cue from him.
+
+"What delightful quarters you have found for us, Lady Chaloner," he
+said. "I don't think I made acquaintance with this place when I was at
+Schleppenheim last year."
+
+"Charmin', isn't it?" said Lady Chaloner. And quite imperturbably, at
+first with an effort, which became easier as the meal went on, the whole
+party went on talking and laughing as usual, with, perhaps, if the truth
+were known, an added zest of excitement, certainly on the part of some
+of its members, at "something" having happened. The two extra places
+that had been put were taken away again, and the rank closed up
+indifferently and gaily round the table, as ranks do close up when
+comrades disappear by the way.
+
+In the meantime Rendel was madly hurrying away through the wood, going
+straight in front of him, not knowing what he was doing, what he
+proposed to do--his one idea being to get away, away, away from those
+smiling, distinguished indifferent people, hitherto his own associates,
+who now all knew the horrible fate that had overtaken him, who would
+from henceforth turn their backs upon him too. The thought of that
+moment when he had been face to face with Stamfordham, of those
+distinct, inexorable tones, of the words which judged and for ever
+condemned him, burnt like a physical, horrible flame from which he could
+not escape. He flung himself down at last, and buried his face in his
+hands, trying to shut out everything, as a frightened child pulls the
+clothes over its head in the darkness. Then, to his terror, he heard
+footsteps in the wood. Who was it? Was this some one else who knew?
+Would he have to go through it all over again? And he lifted his head in
+anguish as the steps drew nearer. The sight of the newcomer brought him
+no relief. It was Wentworth, who, anxious and bewildered, came stumbling
+along, having by some strange chance come in the direction that brought
+him to the person he was seeking. Rendel looked at him.
+
+"Well?" he said, in a strained voice, as though demanding an explanation
+of Wentworth's intrusion.
+
+The sight of his face completely bewildered Wentworth.
+
+"Good God, Rendel!" he said, "what is it? What has happened?"
+
+There was a pause. Then Rendel said, trying with very indifferent
+success to speak in a voice that sounded something like his own--
+
+"Didn't you see what happened?"
+
+"I saw that--that--Stamfordham----" Wentworth began, then he stopped.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel curtly, "you saw it--you saw what Stamfordham did?
+Well, there's an end of it," and he looked miserably around him as
+though hemmed in by the powers of earth and heaven.
+
+"But, Frank," Wentworth said, still feeling as if all this were some
+frightful dream, one of those dreams so vivid that they live with the
+dreamer for weeks afterwards, and sometimes actually go to make his
+waking opinion of the persons who have appeared in them, "tell
+me--what----"
+
+"Jack," said Rendel, "it's no good talking about it. I'll tell you
+another time, I daresay, if I can. Leave me alone now, there's a good
+fellow--that's all I want."
+
+"Look here, Frank," said Wentworth; "if it's anything--anything that
+Stamfordham thinks you've done--that--that you oughtn't to have
+done--well, I don't believe it, that's all!"
+
+"You are a good friend, old Jack," said Rendel, looking at him. "I might
+have known you wouldn't believe it."
+
+"Of course I don't," said Wentworth stoutly. "I don't know what it is,
+but I don't believe it all the same."
+
+"Well," said Rendel slowly, "I'll tell you this for your comfort--you
+needn't believe it."
+
+"Of course not," said Wentworth heartily, "and I don't care what it is,
+of course you didn't do it. And what's more, I know you can't have done
+anything to be ashamed of, and of course other people will know it too,"
+he said sanguinely, carried along by his zealous friendship.
+
+Rendel's face turned dark red again. "No," he said, "other people won't.
+Of course other people will think I have done it. Don't let's talk about
+it now. The fact is," mastering his voice with an effort, "I can't,
+Jack. Just go away, and leave me alone. I'll come back some time."
+
+"But what are you going to do? You're not going to sit here all day, I
+suppose."
+
+"I'll come later," Rendel said. "You must find your way back without me,
+there's a good fellow. By the way," he added, "I'm sorry to have spoilt
+your day; I'm afraid you've had no luncheon. But you'll be back in
+Schleppenheim in time to get some. Look here, would you mind saying to
+my wife that--that I've walked a little further than you cared to go, or
+something of that sort, and that I'll be back at dinner time?"
+
+"Very well," said Wentworth, hesitatingly. "She is not likely to be
+anxious, is she?" he said dubiously. "I mean, at your being away so
+long. She won't be alarmed, will she?"
+
+"Oh no," said Rendel. "That is to say, if you don't alarm her." And then
+looking up and seeing Wentworth's anxious expression, so very unlike the
+usual one, "And you needn't be alarmed yourself, Jack; I'm not going to
+do anything desperate," he said, forcing a smile; "that's not in my
+line."
+
+"No, no, of course not," Wentworth said, with a sort of air of being
+entirely at his ease. And then reading in Rendel's face how the one
+thing he longed for was to be alone, he said abruptly, "All right, then,
+we shall meet later," and strode off the way he had come.
+
+What a solution it would have been, Rendel felt, if he had indeed been
+able to make up his mind to the step that Wentworth evidently thought he
+might be contemplating--what an answer to everything! and as again that
+burning recollection came over him he felt that, in spite of the courage
+required for suicide, it would have required less courage to put himself
+out of the world, beyond the possibility of its ever happening again,
+than to remain in it and face what other agony of humiliation Fate might
+have in store for him. But he was not alone, unfortunately; his own
+destiny was not the only one in question. And if his words, his
+intention, his faith in the future had meant anything at all when he
+told Rachel that there was no sacrifice he would not be ready to make
+for her, he was bound to go on doggedly and meet the worst. He walked
+aimlessly through the wood, higher and higher, until he reached a sort
+of clearing from which he could see, far below him, the white road
+winding back again to Schleppenheim, and presently as he looked he saw
+driving rapidly back in the direction of the town the open carriages
+containing the people he had just left. Stamfordham must be in one of
+them. What were they saying about him, those people? Or, if not saying,
+what were they thinking? Could he ever look one of them in the face
+again? Not one. And again he had a wild moment of thinking that it would
+be possible to put the thing right, to establish his innocence, to
+insist upon knowing how it was that Sir William Gore had given the
+information to the _Arbiter_, on knowing what the arrangement was with
+Pateley on which that _coup de théâtre_ had depended, and he sprang to
+his feet with the determination that he would go straight back into
+Schleppenheim, seek out Pateley and insist upon knowing what had
+happened. Then, just as before, the revulsion came. The principal thing,
+he had no need to ask Pateley. He knew, and that was the thing other
+people might not know. In a little while, he was told, Rachel would be
+herself again, and perhaps able to remember: she must not come back to
+the knowledge of something that must be such a cruel blow to her faith
+in her father, her adoring love for him. And yet as he turned downwards
+and strode hurriedly back along the woodland paths, across the shafts of
+sunlight which were growing longer as the day wore on, he felt how
+absurdly, horribly unequal the two things were that were at stake. On
+the one hand his own future, his success, his whole life, all the
+possibilities he had dreamt of; on the other, reprobation falling on one
+who was beyond the reach of it, one who had no longer any possibilities,
+who had nothing to lose, whose hopes and fears of worldly success, whose
+agitations had been for ever stilled by the hand of death. And Rachel?
+Would the suffering of knowing that her father's memory was attacked, of
+being rudely awakened from her illusions to find that in the eyes of the
+world he was not, and did not deserve to be, what he had been in hers,
+would that suffering be equal to that which he himself was encountering
+now? But even as he argued with himself, as he tried to prove that his
+own salvation was possible, he knew that when it came to the point he
+could do nothing. If it had been a question of another man, whom he
+himself could have saved by bringing the accusation home to the right
+quarter, he would have done it, he would have felt bound to do it: but
+as it was, he knew perfectly well that the thing was impossible. The
+fact is that, whether guided by supernatural standards or by those of
+instinct and tradition, there are very few of the contingencies in life
+in which the man accustomed to act honestly up to his own code is really
+in doubt as to what, by that code, he ought to do: and by the time that
+Rendel reached the little garden again which he had left in the company
+of Wentworth a few hours before, he knew quite well that he was going to
+do nothing, that he might do nothing, that he must simply again wait.
+Wait for what? There was nothing to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Two of the occupants of the carriages that Rendel had seen going rapidly
+along the road knew the meaning of the scene that had taken place under
+their eyes; the others were in a state of simmering curiosity.
+
+"I should be glad," said Stamfordham, as they approached Schleppenheim,
+"if nothing could be said about what happened."
+
+He was sitting opposite to Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela in a landau.
+There was no need, of course, to explain to what he was referring.
+
+"Of course, of course," said Lady Chaloner, not quite knowing what to
+say.
+
+In the meantime Wentworth had got back, had been to see Rachel, and had
+told her that Rendel was going to extend his walk a little further and
+that he would be back without fail in time for dinner. He himself, he
+added, had been obliged to come back for an engagement. Rachel accepted
+quite placidly the fact that her husband would return later than she
+expected; she thanked Wentworth with the same sweet smile of old, asked
+where they had been, said the woods must have been delightful. Then,
+feeling that he could do nothing, Wentworth, with some misgiving, left
+her.
+
+Rachel still felt the languor which succeeds illness,--not an unpleasant
+condition when there is no call for activity,--a physical languor which
+made her quite content to sit or lie out of doors most of the day,
+sometimes walk a little way, and then come back to rest again. She had
+accepted Rendel's unceasing solicitude for her with love and gratitude,
+she clung to his presence more than ever now that both her parents being
+gone she felt herself entirely alone: but for the rest she was strangely
+content to let the days go by in a sort of luxury of sorrow, while she
+recalled the happy time passed with those other two beloved ones who had
+made up her life. But there was no bitterness in the recollection; there
+was a sort of tender mystery over it still. At times she felt as if
+there were something more; she had some dim, confused recollection of
+her husband being connected with it all, and with Gore's illness; how,
+she could not remember. And she did not try. Deep down in her mind was
+the feeling that with a great effort it might all come back to her; but
+she shrank from making the effort.
+
+After Wentworth left her, it had occurred to her that, since Rendel was
+not coming back again, she would venture outside the limits of their
+garden and go to where the band was playing. She did not at all realise
+what the surroundings of that band would be. The kind of life that she
+had led before, when they had come abroad with Lady Gore, had not been
+the sort of existence reigning at Schleppenheim. She strolled out,
+feeling that everything was very strange and new, in the direction of
+the music, following without knowing it a path which brought her into
+the very middle of the promenade into the centre of a gaily dressed
+throng of people, somewhat bewildering to one accustomed to pass all her
+days in solitude. Shrinking back a little she turned out of the stream,
+and, finding an unoccupied chair under a tree, sat down, looking timidly
+about her. Then finding that no one was paying any attention to her, or
+appeared to be conscious of the fact that she was venturing out alone,
+she gradually became amused at watching all that was going on round her.
+Presently two well-dressed women she did not know, an older and a
+younger one, Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela Prestige in fact, on their way
+to their bazaar, came along deep in talk, the older one stopping to
+speak with some emphasis whenever the interest of the conversation
+demanded it. One of these halts was made close by Rachel.
+
+"I should like to know what it was," Lady Adela was saying.
+
+"You may depend upon it," said Lady Chaloner, "that it was something
+very bad. He is not the man to do that sort of thing for nothing."
+
+"I am quite sure of it," Lady Adela replied, with a little tremor of
+excitement. "One can't help feeling that it's something really bad; that
+it was not only that he had run away with his neighbour's wife or
+something of that kind. He must have done something that can't be
+condoned."
+
+"I am sure of it," Lady Chaloner said seriously. "There is no doubt
+about that."
+
+"Poor creature!" said Lady Adela. "Didn't he look awful?"
+
+"Perfectly fearful!" said Lady Chaloner. "He looked like the villain in
+a play, who is found out--the man who has cheated at cards, or something
+of that sort."
+
+"Perhaps that was it."
+
+"I daresay," said Lady Chaloner. "I wonder if he has been playing
+Bridge?"
+
+"Dear me, I wish I knew!" said Lady Adela.
+
+This sounded very interesting, Rachel thought--exactly the kind of thing
+that happened in books at smart watering-places.
+
+"Ah, there is Maddy," said Lady Adela. "I do wonder what she thought."
+
+"By the way," said Lady Chaloner, "we must tell her not to say anything
+about it."
+
+But the Princess had driven back in the company of M. de Moricourt and
+Mr. Marchmont, and had, therefore, not heard the warning given by
+Stamfordham to his companions in the other landau.
+
+"Well," said the Princess eagerly, coming up to the others, "what did
+you think of that? Wasn't it amazing?"
+
+"Yes," said Lady Adela. "What do you think it was, Maddy?"
+
+"Something awful, you may depend upon it," said the Princess; "and I am
+sure little Marchmont knows. We tried to make him tell us on the way
+back, but he wouldn't. But I gathered somehow that Lord Stamfordham
+couldn't have done anything else."
+
+Lord Stamfordham! Did they say Stamfordham? Rachel thought to herself
+wonderingly. Was he here? And she had some kind of queer, puzzled
+feeling that he was connected in her mind with something that had
+happened lately. What was it?
+
+"And Pateley doesn't know anything about it either," said the Princess.
+"I met him just now and asked him."
+
+"Did you?" said Lady Chaloner. "I don't think you ought to have done
+that. I was going to tell you that Stamfordham said it was not to be
+mentioned."
+
+"Did he?" said the Princess, somewhat taken aback. "I asked Mr. Pateley
+because I thought he would be sure to know. But I made him promise not
+to tell anybody."
+
+"I believe he did know, though," said Moricourt, who, though he spoke
+his own language, understood perfectly everything that was said in
+English. "I wonder what the quiet and charming wife that Wentworth
+admires so much thinks?"
+
+"Poor thing!" said Lady Chaloner gravely.
+
+"By the way," said Lady Adela with a sudden idea, "Wentworth was with
+him. Wentworth must know all about it, of course. He is sure to come to
+the bazaar. We'll ask him."
+
+"Wentworth was with him?" said Rachel to herself with an involuntary
+movement, rising from her seat. Of whom were they speaking? What was it
+all about? She was unconscious that she was standing scrutinising the
+faces of the group near her as though trying to gather from them what
+their words might mean. They, deep in their conversation, did not notice
+her. Then, with a feeling of extraordinary relief--she hardly knew
+why--she saw a familiar, substantial person coming along the promenade
+with a sort of friendly swagger. She went forward to meet him, still
+feeling as though she were walking in her sleep.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel!" said Pateley in his usual hearty tone, in which there was
+now an inflection of surprise and almost of anxiety.
+
+Pateley had not met either of the Rendels since the day of his last
+interview with Sir William Gore, and he had carefully not investigated
+further the incident which had been of such great advantage to himself.
+But in the last half-hour, since, under the seal of profound secrecy, it
+had been confided to him what had happened at the luncheon, and he had
+been anxiously asked what was the cloud hanging over Rendel, he had
+pieced things together in a way which brought him pretty near the truth.
+It was beginning to be clear to him that Stamfordham had somehow visited
+upon Rendel the treachery into which he himself had practically led
+Gore. Stamfordham had asked Pateley at the time of the disclosure how
+the _Arbiter_ had become possessed of the information. Pateley had
+apologetically declined to give an explanation. But the ardent support
+given by the _Arbiter_ to Stamfordham's action in the matter and to all
+his subsequent policy had made it tolerably certain that Stamfordham
+would not bear him much malice. And, as a matter of fact, the whole
+affair had added to Stamfordham's reputation. The masterly way in which
+he had caught up the situation and dealt with it after the premature
+disclosure of the Agreement had added a fresh laurel to his crown.
+
+As Pateley uttered the words, "Mrs. Rendel," the whole of the group who
+were standing near turned with a common impulse as if a thunderbolt had
+fallen into their midst, and he grasped at once that they had been
+talking within earshot of her of something she ought not to have heard.
+Lady Adela was the first to recover her presence of mind.
+
+"Come," she said; "we must go and take our places. I mean to have some
+tea if we can get it before the opening," and she made a move in which
+the others joined.
+
+Pateley, remaining by Rachel, lifted his hat to them as they strolled
+away. "How long have you been at Schleppenheim?" he asked. "I had no
+idea you were here."
+
+"We have been here," said Rachel--"let me see--about a week."
+
+She looked anxious and disturbed.
+
+"And where are you staying?" said Pateley.
+
+"In the little pavilion behind the Hôtel de Londres," and she pointed.
+
+"Charming place," said Pateley. "And how is your husband?"
+
+"He is very well, thank you," said Rachel. "He has been out for a long
+walk to-day; he went for an expedition to the woods with Mr. Wentworth."
+
+And she looked as if something else that she did not say were on the tip
+of her tongue.
+
+"It must have been delightful in the woods to-day," said Pateley, hardly
+knowing what he answered. He also was preoccupied by the story he had
+heard and wondering how much she knew of it. "Are you going home now?"
+he said, as Rachel turned away from the promenade in the direction she
+had pointed out.
+
+"I think so. I am a little tired," said Rachel, holding out her hand.
+
+"May I come and see you?" Pateley said.
+
+"Please do," said Rachel.
+
+"I certainly shall," Pateley said. "It will be delightful to get away
+for a little while from this seething mass of humanity."
+
+And he again gave one of his loud laughs as he also went towards the
+tent, to plunge with the greatest zest into the seething mass whose
+company he had been contemning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Rachel turned in the other direction and walked slowly back to the
+pavilion. What had happened? What had she been hearing? The slightest
+mental exertion still made her head ache, but she was conscious that if
+she once let herself go and made the effort it would be possible for her
+to understand. But that moment had not come yet.
+
+She had not been many minutes in her quiet shady garden when the little
+gate at the bottom of it was thrown open, and her husband came quickly
+in, looking round him with an anxious, hurried glance as though not
+knowing what he might find. What had he expected? He could hardly have
+told. But as he drew nearer and nearer he had been gradually nerving
+himself for the worst. He had been dreading to find he knew not what.
+Wentworth might be sitting with Rachel, the faces of both telling that
+Wentworth's would-be explanations had been of no avail; or Rachel
+herself might have been absent--she might have strolled out into the
+crowd and there unawares heard rumours of what he felt convinced must by
+this time be in every one's mind, on every one's lips. It was therefore
+for the moment an unmeasured relief to find that all seemed as usual,
+that Rachel was sitting there quiet and cool before her little
+tea-table.
+
+"Ah!" he almost gasped, with a long sigh, as he sank into a chair and
+leant his head against the back of it with a weary, hunted look.
+
+"Frank!" said Rachel anxiously, "what is the matter? What has happened?"
+
+"What do you mean?" he said, sitting up, with again the startled,
+haggard expression on his face. "What should have happened?"
+
+"I don't know," Rachel said, startled too at his look and manner. "You
+look so tired, so ill."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," he said, taking up and drinking eagerly the cup of
+tea that almost mechanically she had poured out and pushed towards him,
+and as he did so he realised that he had had no food since the morning.
+He ate and drank and then again lay back in his chair and was silent. As
+Rachel looked at him the absolute conviction swept over her--she knew
+not why--that he had been concerned in the terrible catastrophe of which
+she had heard the broken accounts. It began to dawn upon her that in
+some inconceivable way the thing had happened to him; that it was of him
+those women were speaking. She still heard Lady Adela saying: "Did you
+ever see any one look so awful?" And yet what could it be? What horrible
+misunderstanding was it? What horrible mistake could have been made?
+
+She sat and waited. Not the least of her charms was that she knew, what
+many women do not know, how to sit absolutely quiet. She knew when to
+refrain from questioning, how to sit by her companion in so peaceful, so
+final a manner, as it were, that he did not feel that she was simply
+waiting for what he would do next.
+
+The band blared out again with renewed vigour. Rendel leant his elbows
+on his knees, his face between his hands.
+
+"Oh! that miserable noise!" he said. "Will it never leave off? The
+hideousness of it all!--those people, that band! Oh! to get away from it
+all!" he muttered half to himself.
+
+"Frank," said Rachel entreatingly, touching his arm, "if you don't like
+it why shouldn't we go away from it? I think it is horrible, too. I went
+out of the garden to-day to where the people were walking."
+
+Rendel looked up quickly.
+
+"Did you? Did you see any one you knew?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel; "I saw Mr. Pateley."
+
+"Pateley!" said her husband. "Did you have any talk with him? What did
+he say?"
+
+"Hardly anything," said Rachel. "He was surprised to see me, and asked
+how long we had been here, and if he might come and see us. That was
+all."
+
+"That was all," echoed Rendel, again with an inward shiver. "Coming to
+see us, is he?"
+
+That encounter for the moment he must at any cost avoid.
+
+"Frank, I wonder if we must go on staying here?" Rachel said.
+
+"Of course we must," Rendel replied, trying to pull himself together
+again. "Dr. Morgan said that this was the very best place for you to
+come to, and that the waters would do you all the good in the world."
+
+"I wonder if we need," said Rachel. "I am sure it is the kind of thing
+you hate."
+
+"It is not for very long, after all," said Rendel, trying to smile.
+
+He was gradually regaining possession of himself, but was still afraid
+to trust himself to utter any but the most commonplace and ordinary
+sentences.
+
+"The moment I have done the cure," said Rachel, "we'll go back to
+London, won't we? And you can begin your work again, and do all the
+things you like. And then," she went on with an attempt at lightness of
+tone, "you can go back to your beloved politics, and think of nothing
+else all day." And she went on talking of their house, of their arrival,
+of what they would do, in a forlorn little attempt to show him that she
+meant to try to shoulder life valiantly, although it had been so
+altered. "You will stand for somewhere. You will go into the House."
+
+Rendel thought of what the life might have been that she was sketching,
+and what it was going to be now. What he had gone through that day was
+an earnest probably of what awaited him many a time if he should try to
+lead his life as he used to lead it, among the people who were congenial
+to him.
+
+"No," he said, "I'm not going to stand. I'm not going into the House. I
+shan't have anything to do with politics."
+
+"What?" said Rachel, looking at him startled.
+
+"All that, is at an end," he said firmly. Then with the relief of
+speaking, came the irresistible desire to go on, to tell her something
+at least of what his fate was, although he might not tell the thing that
+mattered most.
+
+"Do you remember," he said, "something that I told you had happened----"
+he broke off, then began again. "Tell me," he said, impelled to ask,
+"how much you remember, if you remember anything, of those days when
+your father was so ill, at the end, just before he died, or is it still
+a blank to you?"
+
+Rachel shuddered.
+
+"No, I can't remember," she said. "The last thing I remember clearly is
+one afternoon when he was beginning to be worse and had to go upstairs
+again; and I remember nothing more after that till," and her voice
+trembled, "till--a day that I woke up in bed and wanted to go to him,
+and you told me that--that he was dead. The rest of that time is a
+blank."
+
+"How extraordinary it is!" muttered Rendel to himself.
+
+"I did not even know," said Rachel, "that I had fallen on the stairs,
+until the doctor told me days afterwards that I had caught my foot as I
+was running downstairs. He told me then it was no use trying to
+remember the time just before," she went on in a low, anxious voice,
+something stirring uneasily within her: "that it might not come back at
+all. It seems it doesn't sometimes to people who have that sort of
+accident."
+
+Rendel, his eyes fixed on the ground, had been listening; he took in the
+meaning of her words and tried to realise their bearing on himself, but
+he was too far gone on the slope to stop. It was clear that she would
+not know what had happened, unless she were told by himself... and yet,
+who could tell how the awakening would come? it might even be in a worse
+form when she was able once more to mix with her kind.
+
+"Rachel," he said. "I want to tell you something that happened the day
+before your father became worse, the day before you had that accident,
+the last day, in fact, that you remember." She looked at him with
+anxious eagerness. "Something tremendously important happened. Lord
+Stamfordham brought me some private notes of his own to decipher and
+copy."
+
+"Of course," said Rachel, "that I remember. In your study downstairs."
+
+"You remember?" said Rendel eagerly. Then instantly conscious, alas,
+that the evidence could do him no kind of good, "that I gave some papers
+to Thacker to take to Stamfordham?"
+
+"Stop a minute," said Rachel. "Yes, I remember that too. My father
+wanted to play chess afterwards, but he was too tired."
+
+"In those papers," said Rendel, "there was a very important secret,
+though it didn't remain a secret," he added, with a bitter little laugh,
+"for twenty-four hours. Those papers contained the notes of a
+conversation at the German Embassy at which that agreement was decided
+upon by which Germany and England divided Africa between them. It was
+_I_ copied those papers from Stamfordham's notes. I copied the map of
+Africa with a line down the middle of it. The next morning, no one knew
+how or why, that map appeared in the _Arbiter_."
+
+Rachel looked at him, still not understanding all that was implied.
+
+"Do you see what that means for me?" Rendel said. "It was not
+Stamfordham published it, he did not mean to do so until the moment
+should come, and since I was the person who had had the original notes,
+he thought that I had published it; that I had let it out, somehow."
+
+"You!" said Rachel, with wide-open eyes.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel shortly. "That I had betrayed the great secret
+entrusted to me."
+
+"Frank!" she cried. "But of course you didn't!"
+
+"Of course I didn't," Rendel said quietly.
+
+"And--then----?" said Rachel breathlessly.
+
+"Then," Rendel said, shrinking at the very recollection, "Stamfordham
+told me he believed I had done it. Then of course,"--and the words came
+with an effort--"there was an end of everything, and I knew that there
+was nothing left for me to do but to go under, to throw everything up. I
+knew that people would turn their backs upon me, and I didn't see
+Stamfordham again until--until to-day. And to-day Wentworth and I went
+up to that place in the woods to lunch, and by chance, by the most
+horrible, evil fortune, we came upon a luncheon party at which
+Stamfordham was, and--and," he said trying to speak calmly, "when he saw
+me he refused to sit down at the same table with me." And as he spoke
+Rachel felt that things were becoming clear to her and that she was
+beginning to understand. The comments of the people who had stood by her
+and discussed the scene they had witnessed still rang in her ears, and
+she realised what the horror of that scene must have been.
+
+"Frank!" she cried, with her tears falling. And she went to him and took
+his hand, then drew his head against her bosom as though to give him
+sanctuary. "Imagine believing that you, _you_ of all people..." and the
+broken words of comfort and faith in him, of love and belief again gave
+him a moment of feeling that rehabilitation might be possible.
+
+"Frank!" Rachel went on, "tell me this. Did my father know?"
+
+"Know what?" Rendel said, starting up, the iron reality again facing
+him.
+
+"That you were accused? That they could believe that you had done such a
+shameful thing?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel slowly. "At least he knew what had
+happened--and--and--he guessed that the suspicion would fall upon me."
+
+"Oh!" cried Rachel, hiding her face in her hands and trying to steady
+her voice. "I am sorry he knew just at the end. I wonder if he
+realised?"
+
+Rendel said nothing. Even now was Sir William Gore to stand between
+them?
+
+"Perhaps he didn't," Rachel said, almost entreatingly, "as he was so
+ill. Because think what it would have been to him! Of course he would
+have known it was not true, but he was so fastidious, so terribly
+sensitive, the mere thought that you could have been suspected of such a
+thing even would have preyed upon him so terribly."
+
+"Well," said Rendel, in a low voice--the last possibility of clearing
+himself was put behind him, and the darkness fell again--"he is beyond
+reach of it. It is I who must suffer now."
+
+Rachel had walked to the other side of the garden, pressing her
+handkerchief to her eyes and trying to control herself. Now she came
+swiftly back, a sudden determination in her heart.
+
+"Frank," she cried, "why must you suffer? We must find out who really
+did it."
+
+"I can't," said Rendel.
+
+"But have you tried?"
+
+"Yes," he said. "As much as was possible."
+
+"But it must be possible," she cried. And she came to him, her eyes and
+face glowing with resolve. "If the whole world came to me and said that
+you had done this I should not believe it. I remember so well my mother
+saying, the day that I came back from Maidenhead," and their eyes met in
+the recollection of that happy, cloudless time, "'what a man needs is
+some one to believe in him,' and I thought to myself that when--if--I
+married I would believe in my husband as she believed in my father."
+
+At this moment one of the Swiss waiters came quickly through the
+pavilion into the garden.
+
+"Monsieur Pateley," he said, "wishes to know if Madame is at home."
+Rachel and her husband looked at each other in consternation.
+
+"I can't see him at this moment," Rendel said, going to the gate.
+
+"Can't we send him away?" said Rachel, anxiously.
+
+"Where is he?" addressing the waiter. But it was too late. The question
+answered itself, as Pateley's large form appeared behind that of the
+waiter, distinctly seen on every side of it. Rachel, trying to control
+her face into a smile of welcome, went forward to meet him as Rendel
+disappeared amongst the trees, from whence he could get round into the
+house another way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+We do not move unfortunately all in one piece. It would be much simpler
+if we did, and if our actions could be accounted for by saying, "He did
+this, being a generous man, or a forgiving man, or a curious man, or a
+remorseful man." Unhappily, and it makes our actions more difficult to
+account for, we are more complicated than this, and Pateley, when he
+finally felt impelled to make his way into Rachel's presence so soon
+after parting from her in the promenade, could not probably have said
+exactly what motive prompted him to seek her. To Rachel he arrived as
+the complement, the consolidation, of the resolve that she had made. She
+hardly tried to conceal her agitation as she shook hands with him and
+looked in his face. Her own wore an expression that had not been there
+an hour ago. Something new had come to life in it. So conscious were
+they both of something abnormal, overmastering, between them that there
+did not seem anything strange in the fact that for a moment, after the
+first greeting, they stood without thinking of any of the commonplaces
+of intercourse. Then Pateley, more accustomed to overlay the realities
+of life by the conventional outside, recovered himself and said in an
+ordinary tone, looking round him--
+
+"What a delightful oasis! What charming quarters you are in here!"
+
+"Yes, we like them very much," said Rachel, recovering herself; and they
+went towards the little table and sat down.
+
+"No tea for me, thank you," said Pateley. "I have just been made to
+drink a liquid distantly resembling it at the bazaar."
+
+"At the bazaar?" said Rachel. "It was German tea, I suppose?"
+
+"I imagine so. It has been well said," said Pateley, "that no nation has
+yet been known great enough to produce two equally good forms of
+national beverage. We have good tea, but our coffee is abominable: the
+Germans have good coffee, but their tea is poison. The Spaniards, I
+believe, have good chocolate, but that I have to take on hearsay. I have
+never been to Spain. I mean to go some day, though."
+
+"Do you?" Rachel said, dimly hearing his flow of words while she made up
+her mind what her own were to be. She had had so little time to form her
+plan of action, to piece together all that she had been hearing during
+the afternoon, that it was not yet clear to her that from the
+circumstances of the case Pateley must necessarily be concerned in it;
+and at the moment she began to speak she simply looked upon him as some
+one who knew Rendel in London, who had known her father and mother, who
+had a general air of bluff and hearty serviceability, and had presented
+himself at a moment when she had no one else to turn to.
+
+"Mr. Pateley," she said, and at the sudden ring of resolution in her
+tone Pateley's face changed and his smiling flow of chatter about
+nothing came to a pause. "There is something I want very much to ask you
+about," she went on, "something I want your help in."
+
+"I am at your orders," said Pateley, with a smile and bow that concealed
+his surprise.
+
+"It is something that matters very, very much," Rachel went on.
+"Something you could find out for me."
+
+Pateley said nothing.
+
+"I don't know if you know," she went on hurriedly--"if you heard, of
+what happened to me in London just before my father died? I had an
+accident. It seemed a slight one at the time. I fell down on the stairs
+one evening that he was worse when I ran down quickly to fetch my
+husband, and I had concussion of the brain afterwards and was
+unconscious for forty-eight hours. And since, I have not been able to
+remember anything of what happened during those days."
+
+Pateley made a sort of sympathetic sound and gesture.
+
+"But," Rachel said, "I have heard to-day--not until to-day--of something
+that happened during that time, something terrible. I am going to tell
+it to you, in the greatest confidence. You will see when I tell you
+that it matters very, very much. First of all,--this I remember--on the
+day my father began to be worse, Lord Stamfordham brought my husband
+some papers to copy for him in which was the Agreement with Germany, and
+told him no one was to know about them, and my husband told no one, and
+sent them back, when they were done, to Stamfordham, in a sealed
+packet."
+
+Pateley, as he listened, sat absolutely impenetrable, with his eyes
+fixed on the ground.
+
+"But somebody got hold of them," she went on--"somebody must have stolen
+them, because they were published the next morning in the paper, in the
+_Arbiter_." And as the words left her lips she suddenly realised that
+the man in front of her was the one of all others in the world who must
+know what had happened. The _Arbiter_ was embodied in Pateley, it was
+Pateley: that, everybody knew, everybody repeated. Pateley would, he
+must, be able to tell her.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "the _Arbiter_ is your paper!"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, looking at her.
+
+"Then," she said, "you know--you must know."
+
+"Know what?" he said calmly.
+
+"You must know," she said, "who it was told the _Arbiter_ what was in
+those papers."
+
+Pateley sat silent a moment. Then he said--
+
+"It can and does happen occasionally that things are brought to the
+_Arbiter_ of which I don't know the origin, in fact of which the origin
+is purposely kept a secret."
+
+She waited for him to add something to this sentence, to add a _but_ to
+it, but he remained silent. Being unversed in diplomatic evasions, she
+accepted his words as a disclaimer.
+
+"But still," she said, "even if you don't know this you could find it
+out. It matters terribly. I don't want to say to any one else, it is not
+a thing to be told, how horribly it matters, but I must tell _you_, that
+you may see. Lord Stamfordham thought that my husband had betrayed the
+secret--he told him so then. And to-day--it was too terrible!--he was at
+a luncheon to which Frank and Mr. Wentworth went, not knowing----" A
+sudden involuntary change in Pateley's face made her stop and say, "But
+perhaps you were there? Were you at the luncheon?"
+
+"No," said Pateley. "I was not there."
+
+"But you heard about it?" she said.
+
+"Yes," he said after a pause. "I heard about it."
+
+"It's too horrible!" said Rachel, covering her face with her hands. "Of
+course you heard about it--everybody will hear about it: how Lord
+Stamfordham insulted him and refused to sit down with him, because of
+the unjust accusation that was brought against him. Now do you see," she
+said excitedly, and Pateley, as he looked at her, was amazed at the fire
+that shone from her eyes, at the glow of excitement in her whole
+being--"now do you see how much it matters? how if we don't find out the
+truth, if we don't get to know who did it, this is the kind of thing
+that will happen to him? You see now, don't you? You will help me?"
+
+Pateley had got up and restlessly paced to the end of the garden and
+back, his eyes fixed on the ground, Rachel breathlessly watching him. He
+was moved at her distress, he felt the stirrings of something like
+remorse at the fate that had overtaken Rendel. But in Pateley's
+Juggernaut-like progress through the world he did not, as a rule, stop
+to see who were the victims that were left gasping by the roadside. As
+long as the author of the mischief drives on rapidly enough, the evil he
+has left behind him is not brought home to him so acutely as if he is
+compelled to stop and bend over the sufferer. But a brief moment of
+reflection made him pretty clear that neither himself nor the _Arbiter_
+had anything to fear from the disclosure. He had nothing particularly
+heroic in his composition; he would not have felt called upon for the
+sake of Francis Rendel, or even for the sake of Rendel's wife, to
+sacrifice his own destiny and possibilities if it had been a question of
+choosing between his own and theirs; but fortunately this choice would
+not be thrust upon him. He looked up and met Rachel's eyes fixed upon
+him.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I will help you."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she cried, her heart swelling with relief. "Will you,
+can you find out about it?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley again. He paused a moment, then came back and stood
+in front of her. "I have no need to find out," he said slowly. "I know
+who did it."
+
+Rachel sprang up.
+
+"What?" she cried, quivering with anxiety. "Do you mean that you know
+now, that you can tell Frank, that you can tell Lord Stamfordham? Oh,
+why didn't you say so?"
+
+Pateley paused.
+
+"I didn't know," he said, "that Stamfordham had accused your husband of
+it, and so I kept--I was rather bound to keep--the other man's secret."
+
+"The other man?" Rachel repeated, looking at him.
+
+"Yes," said Pateley. "The man who did it."
+
+Rachel started. Of course, yes--if her husband had not done it some one
+else had, they were shifting the horrible burden on to another. But that
+other deserved it, since he was the guilty man.
+
+"Yes," she said lower, "of course I know there is some one else!--it is
+very terrible--but--but--it's right, isn't it, that the man who has done
+it should be accused and not one who is innocent?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, "it is right."
+
+"You must tell me," she said, "you must!--you must tell me everything
+now, as I have told you. Is it some one to whom it will matter very
+much?"
+
+Pateley waited.
+
+"No," he said at length, "it won't matter to him."
+
+Rachel looked at him, not understanding.
+
+He went on, "Nothing will ever matter to him again. He is dead."
+
+"Dead, is he?" said Rachel, but even in the horror-struck tone there
+rang an accent of glad relief. "Then it can't matter to him. And it is
+right, after all, that people should know what he did. It is right, it
+is justice, isn't it?" she repeated, as though trying to reassure
+herself, "not only because of Frank?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, "I believe that it is right, that it is justice."
+Then as he looked at her he suddenly became conscious of an unwonted
+difficulty of speech, of an almost unknown wave of emotion rising within
+him, of shrinking from the words he was now clear had to be said.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel," he said at last, "I am afraid it will be very painful to
+you to hear what I am going to say."
+
+She looked at him bewildered. He waited one moment, almost hoping that
+the truth might dawn upon her before he spoke, but she was a thousand
+miles from being anywhere near it. "Those papers which I published in
+the _Arbiter_ the next morning were shown to me on the afternoon your
+husband had them to copy, by--" again the strange unfamiliar
+perturbation stopped him, and he felt he had to make a distinct effort
+to bring the name out--"your father, Sir William Gore."
+
+Rachel said absolutely nothing. She looked at him with dilated eyes,
+incredulous amazement and then horror in her face, as she saw in his
+that he was telling her the truth.
+
+"My father?" she said at last, with trembling lips.
+
+"Yes," Pateley said. The worst was over now, he felt, and he had
+recovered possession of himself.
+
+"No, no, it can't be!" she said miserably. "It's not possible...."
+
+"I fear it is," said Pateley. "They were shown to myself, you see, so it
+is an absolute certainty."
+
+"But when was it?" said Rachel, bewildered. "When did he have them?"
+
+"They were left," Pateley said, "in the study where he was, when your
+husband went down to speak to Lord Stamfordham. During that time I
+happened to go in."
+
+And as Rachel listened to his brief account of what had taken place she
+knew that there was no longer any doubt as to the culprit. For the
+moment, as the idol of her life fell before her in ruins the discovery
+she had made swallowed up everything else. Pateley made a move.
+
+"Wait, wait!" she said. "Don't go away. Only wait till I see what I must
+do. It is all so horrible! I see nothing clearly yet."
+
+He walked away to the other end of the little garden.
+
+She leant back in her chair, her eyes fixed, seeing nothing, trying to
+make up her mind. Gradually what she must do became more and more
+distinct to her, more and more inevitable. The sheer force of her
+agitation and emotion were carrying her own. If she acted at once,
+within the next half-hour, anything, everything might be possible. She
+would not wait to think, she would do it now, while it was still
+possible to pronounce the name, the dear name that she had hardly been
+able to bring to her lips during these last weeks in which every day,
+every hour, she had been conscious of her loss. She would go to the
+person who must be told, and who alone could remedy the great evil that
+had been done. She got up, a despairing determination in her face.
+
+Pateley looked at her, his face asking the question which he did not put
+in words.
+
+"I am going to Lord Stamfordham," she said. "I am going to tell him."
+
+"You?" said Pateley. "Are you going to tell him yourself?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "it is I who must tell him. I have quite made up my
+mind." She turned to him appealingly as though taking for granted he
+would help her. "I want to go now, while I feel I can, and before Frank
+knows anything about it. Can you help me--would you help me to find Lord
+Stamfordham?"
+
+"Certainly," said Pateley, with a new admiration for Rachel rising
+within him, but with some misgivings, however, as to the possibility or
+the desirability of running Stamfordham to earth among his present
+surroundings.
+
+"Do you know where he is?" Rachel said.
+
+"I should think probably at the bazaar," said Pateley, and as he
+reflected on the scene he had just left, Stamfordham surrounded by a
+bevy of attractive ladies beseeching him to give them an autograph, to
+buy a buttonhole, to drink their tea, to put into their raffles, and to
+have his fortune told, he felt still more dubious as to the mission he
+was engaged upon. Fortunately Rachel realised none of these things.
+
+"Come, then, let us go," she said, with a vibrating anxiety and
+excitement, at strange variance with the usual atmosphere that
+surrounded her, and he followed her out of the garden in the direction
+of the Casino.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Pateley, who had been caught up in some measure into the excitement of
+Rachel's emotion, was brought back to earth again with a run, as he
+passed with her through the brightly coloured hangings which drooped
+over the portals of the bazaar and found themselves in the gay crowd
+within. His misgivings grew as he felt more and more the incongruity of
+the errand they were bent upon to the preoccupations of the people who
+surrounded them. There was no doubt that, whatever the ultimate result
+as far as Mrs. Birkett and the needs she represented were concerned, the
+bazaar, that subsidiary consideration apart, was being very successful
+indeed. The sound of voices and laughter filled the air, and the gloomy
+previsions Lady Chaloner had felt as to the lack of buyers were
+apparently not realised, since the whole of the available space
+surrounded by the stalls was filled with people engaged in some sort of
+very active and voluble commercial transactions with one another which,
+financial result or not, were of a most enjoyable kind, to judge by the
+bursts of laughter they necessitated. Rachel, pale, strung up, with the
+look of determination in her face called up in the usually timid by an
+unwonted resolve, was making her way, or rather trying to do so, in
+Pateley's wake, bewildered by the sights and sounds around her. Pateley
+at each step was beset by some laughing vendor from whom he had much ado
+to escape, and indeed in most cases did not succeed in doing so without
+having paid toll. By the time he had gone half along the room he was the
+possessor of three tickets for raffles, for each of which he had paid a
+sum he would have grudged for the unneeded article that was being
+raffled. He had bought several single flowers, each one on terms which
+should have commanded an armful of roses, and he had had three dips into
+a bag from which fortunately he had emerged with nothing more permanent
+than sawdust. Rachel also had been accosted by a vendor as soon as she
+came in, a moment of poignant embarrassment for all parties
+concerned--herself, her escort, and the fascinating seller who had
+offered her wares, for Rachel, looking at her with startled eyes, felt
+in her pocket as though at last seeing what was wanted of her, and then
+stammered, "I'm so sorry, I have no money with me." Pateley knew the
+vendor; it was no other than Mrs. Samuels, who had emerged from behind
+her stall, and was making the round of the bazaar with a basket of most
+attractive-looking cakes. His eye met hers in hurried and involuntary
+misgiving, mutely telling her that Rachel was not a suitable customer,
+and that she had better carry her wares elsewhere. She at once responded
+to the unconscious confidence and returned to himself.
+
+"Now, Mr. Pateley," she said ingratiatingly, "you, I know, never refuse
+a cake. Look, these are what you had when you came to tea with me the
+other day. Now, I'll choose you the very best."
+
+"Of course, if you will choose one for me," said Pateley gallantly.
+
+"Oh, but one is not enough," she said, "you must have two--you really
+must. Five marks. Thank you so much!" and she tripped off.
+
+Pateley, who had already, as we have seen, spent a good deal of time and
+of the money which is supposed to be its equivalent in the bazaar before
+going to see Rachel, began to be conscious that before he got round it
+again he would have spent a sum large enough to have kept him another
+week in Schleppenheim. "However," he said to himself with a sigh, "it is
+all part of the story, I suppose." In his inmost soul he felt the
+conviction that he was altogether, in his strange progress through the
+joyous crowd with that pale, anxious companion, going through a
+sufficient penance to make amends for the misfortune of which he was the
+primary cause.
+
+"Where is Lord Stamfordham?" whispered Rachel anxiously. "Do you see
+him?"
+
+"Not at this moment," said Pateley, looking vainly in every direction.
+The difficulties of his quest, and the still worse difficulties that
+would certainly face him when the object of that quest should be
+attained, loomed with increased terror before him.
+
+The names of the stallholders, of the performers, waved above their
+respective quarters. In the corner of the great tent was a
+mysterious-looking enclosure, of which the entrance was closed by a
+curtain, and above which hung the legend, "Oriental Fortune-telling.
+Lady Adela Prestige." Lady Adela Prestige! That was probably the most
+likely place to try for. "I think he may be over there," he said, and
+without a word, hardly conscious of the people who were passing through,
+Rachel followed him.
+
+"Hallo, Pateley, is that you?" said a cheery voice. He turned round and
+saw Wentworth, a packet of tickets in his hand. "Would you like to have
+a ticket for the performing dog?" said Wentworth, not seeing who
+Pateley's companion was.
+
+"No," said Pateley, almost savagely, thankful to be accosted by some one
+whom he need not answer by a smile and a compliment. "I don't want any
+fooling of that sort now."
+
+"My dear fellow," said Wentworth, amazed, "what have you come here for,
+then?" and as he spoke he saw Rachel behind Pateley, and realised that
+something was happening that had no connection with the business of the
+bazaar.
+
+"Look here," Pateley said aside to him, "do you know where Stamfordham
+is?"
+
+"Over there," said Wentworth, with some inward wonder, pointing towards
+Lady Adela's corner. "I saw him there just now."
+
+"Ah!" said Pateley, "all right," hardly knowing if he was relieved or
+not, but desperately threading his way in the direction indicated, still
+followed by Rachel.
+
+Wentworth looked after them in surprise.
+
+"What is that you are saying, Mr. Wentworth?" said a voice in his ear,
+and he turned quickly and found himself face to face with Mrs. Samuels.
+"A performing dog? Where? I am quite sure it must be performing better
+than Princess Hohenschreien."
+
+Wentworth replied by eagerly offering a ticket.
+
+"Let me offer you a ticket, Mrs. Samuels, and then you shall see for
+yourself."
+
+"Well, I will take a ticket," she said, "on condition that you will tell
+me honestly what the performance is."
+
+"Certainly," said Wentworth, with a bow, offering the ticket and
+receiving a gold piece in exchange. "It is Lady Chaloner's Aberdeen
+terrier. He sits up and begs with a piece of biscuit on his nose while
+somebody says 'Trust!' and 'Paid for!'"
+
+"That is a most extraordinary and novel trick," said Mrs. Samuels
+gravely.
+
+"It is unique," said Wentworth; "and sometimes he tosses the biscuit in
+the air when they say 'Trust,' sometimes when they say 'Paid for,' but
+generally he drops on all fours and eats it before they have begun."
+
+"Thank you," said Mrs. Samuels. "I am afraid Princess Hohenschreien's
+performance will be best after all." Then Wentworth suddenly saw from
+her face that some other attraction was approaching from behind him, and
+turned quickly round as Mrs. Samuels, with her most beguiling air,
+advanced and offered her basket of cakes to Lord Stamfordham.
+
+"Now, milord," she said. "I am sure you must be hungry."
+
+"And what makes you think that?" said Stamfordham, whose air of willing
+response and admiration made it quite evident that Mrs. Samuels's
+blandishments were not usually exercised in vain. "Do I look pale, or
+haggard, or weary?"
+
+"None of these," said Mrs. Samuels; "but I am sure it is a long time
+since I had the privilege of offering you a cup of tea at my stall.
+Quite half an hour, I should think."
+
+"Quite possible," said Stamfordham. "All I can say is that it seems to
+me an eternity since I last had the pleasure of receiving anything at
+your hands. Pray give me a bag of those cakes. You baked them yourself,
+of course?"
+
+"Of course," Mrs. Samuels said, with a little rippling laugh. And then
+in answer to Stamfordham's smile of incredulity, "All is fair in ...
+bazaars and war, you know."
+
+In the meantime, Wentworth, enlisted, he himself did not understand how
+or why, in the anxious quest in which he saw Pateley and Rachel engaged,
+had hurried after Pateley, whose broad back he saw disappearing, to tell
+him of Lord Stamfordham's whereabouts. Pateley turned quickly round.
+Lord Stamfordham was coming towards them, with Mrs. Samuels, wreathed in
+smiles, at his side.
+
+"I think," she was saying, "when you have eaten those cakes you can
+drink some more tea, don't you think so?"
+
+"It is not improbable," Stamfordham replied. "But was our bargain that I
+was to eat them all myself?"
+
+"Certainly," Mrs. Samuels replied.
+
+"My dear lady," Stamfordham said, "I will engage to eat every one of
+them that you have baked, I can't say more. And in the meantime I am
+bound on a very foolish errand. I have sworn to go and have my fortune
+told," and as Mrs. Samuels's eye, with a careless and ingenuous air,
+rested upon Lady Adela's name above the tent, she smiled inwardly at the
+thought that what that astute lady might possibly prophesy would also
+perhaps come true if, as well as prophesying, she eventually brought her
+intelligence to bear upon its accomplishment.
+
+"Wait one moment," Pateley said, almost nervously, to Rachel. "There is
+Stamfordham, he is coming this way," and as Stamfordham drew near the
+door of the tent Pateley accosted him.
+
+Lady Adela, it may be presumed, had some occult means of discovering
+from inside who was drawing near her fateful quarters, or else she had
+the simpler methods more usually employed by mortals, of looking to
+see. At all events, as Stamfordham came towards her enclosure, she
+appeared on the threshold and winningly lifted the mysterious curtain,
+burlesquing a low curtsey in reply to Stamfordham's bow.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham!" Pateley said hurriedly. Stamfordham, in some
+surprise, looked round. He had been seeing Pateley on and off during the
+day. Why did he accost him in this way? But the urgent note in his voice
+arrested his attention. Then, as he looked up, he saw an anxious
+pale-faced, girlish figure standing by Pateley, looking at him with
+large brown eyes filled with indescribable anxiety. It was a face that
+he knew, that he had seen somewhere. Who was it? For one puzzled moment
+he tried to remember. Pateley took the bull by the horns.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham," he said, "Mrs. Rendel wants to speak to you."
+
+Mrs. Rendel! Of course it was Mrs. Rendel. He had last seen her that day
+at Cosmo Place. Again a wave of indignation rushed over him. Rachel
+advanced desperately, looking as though she were going to speak.
+Stamfordham, involuntarily looking round him at the crowd of observers
+and listeners, said quickly in a low voice, "I am very sorry, it is no
+good. It is impossible." And then to Pateley, "It is no good, I can't do
+anything. You must tell her so," and he passed through the curtain which
+Lady Adela let drop behind him. Rachel looked at Pateley, then to his
+amazement and also to his involuntary admiration she lifted the curtain
+and passed in too.
+
+The two people inside stood aghast at her appearance. She had followed
+so quickly upon Stamfordham's steps that he was still standing looking
+round him at his strange surroundings, Lady Adela facing him with a
+smile of welcome. The apparatus of the fortune-teller apparently
+consisted in certain cabalistic properties--wands, dials with signs upon
+them, and the like--arranged round a table. Stamfordham spoke first. He
+was absolutely convinced that Rachel had come to appeal to him for
+mercy, and was as absolutely clear that it was an appeal to which he
+could not listen.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel," he said, "I am afraid I am obliged to tell you that I
+cannot listen to anything you may have to say. I can guess, of course,
+why you have come here, and I am sorry for _you_," he said, leaning on
+the pronoun. "But I can do nothing," and he spoke slowly and inexorably,
+"I can do nothing for either you or your husband." But Rachel had now
+lost all fear, all misgiving.
+
+"I don't think," she said, unconsciously drawing herself up and looking
+straight at him, "you know what I have come to say, and I must ask you
+to listen for a moment."
+
+"I think I do know," Stamfordham said sternly, and she saw he meant to
+go out.
+
+"I have come to tell you," she said, quickly standing between him and
+the door, "that my husband was wrongfully accused of the thing that you
+believed he did." Stamfordham shook his head: this was what he expected
+to hear. "I know who did it, I have found out to-day," and she grew more
+and more assured as she went on. Stamfordham started, then looked
+incredulous again. "I have come to tell you who did it, that you may
+know my husband is innocent." Then she became aware of Lady Adela, who,
+having at first been much annoyed at her brusque intrusion, was now
+suddenly roused to interest, even to sympathy. Rachel turned to her. "I
+must say this," she said. "Don't you see, don't you understand, what it
+is to me?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you must," the other woman said, with a sudden impulse of
+help and sympathy. "Go on," and she went outside. Stamfordham felt a
+slight accession of annoyance as Lady Adela passed out; he felt it was
+going to be very difficult for him to deal as cruelly as he was bound to
+do with the anxious, quivering wife before him. He stood silent and
+absolutely impenetrable. Rachel went on quickly in broken sentences.
+
+"I didn't know about this at the time. I have been ill since. I could
+not remember. You brought some papers for my husband to copy, and he
+locked them up so that no one should see them, and while he went down to
+speak to you they were pulled out of his writing-table from outside, by
+somebody else who was there, and who showed them to Mr. Pateley. Mr.
+Pateley came in and went out again. Frank didn't know he had been
+there." Stamfordham stopped her.
+
+"They were taken out by 'somebody,' you say; do you mean--in fact I must
+gather from your words--that it was--do you mean by yourself?"
+
+"Oh no, no," Rachel cried, as it dawned upon her what interpretation
+might be put upon her words. "Oh no, not myself! I wish it had been, I
+wish it had!"
+
+"You wish it had?" Stamfordham said, surprised. "Who was it, then? Who
+was it?" he said again, in the tone of one who must have an answer. "Who
+got the paper out and showed it to Pateley?"
+
+Rachel forced herself to speak.
+
+"It was--my father," she said, "Sir William Gore." And with an immense
+effort she prevented herself from bursting into tears.
+
+"Sir William Gore!" said Stamfordham, "did _he_ do it?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel; "I only knew it to-day, and I am telling you to
+prove to you that it wasn't my husband."
+
+Stamfordham stood for a moment trying to recall Rendel's attitude at the
+time, and then, as he did so, he made up his mind that Rendel must have
+known.
+
+"But," he said, after a moment, still somewhat perplexed, "you say you
+didn't know about this?"
+
+"No," said Rachel, "I didn't. My father," and again her lips quivered
+and told Stamfordham what that father and his good name probably were to
+her, "was taken very ill, and I had an accident at the time and did not
+know anything that had happened. Frank told me nothing. Then my father
+died, and I was ill, and we came here and I did not know it at all till
+my husband came in and told me"--and her eyes blazed at the
+thought--"told me what had happened to-day..." She stopped. Stamfordham
+felt a stab as he thought of it.
+
+"But," he said, "did he know? Did he tell you then? Did he know that it
+was Sir William Gore?"
+
+"Oh no, no," Rachel said; "it was Mr. Pateley, and he brought me here to
+tell you that you might know." Then Stamfordham began to understand.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel," he said, with a change of voice and manner that made her
+heart leap within her. "Where is your husband?"
+
+"He is at our house, the little pavilion behind the Casino garden."
+
+"Will you take me to him?" Stamfordham said.
+
+Rachel looked at him, unable to speak, her face illuminated with
+hope--then she covered her face in her hands, saying through the tears
+she could no longer restrain, "Oh, thank you, thank you!"
+
+"Come," said Stamfordham gently, but with decision. "You must dry your
+tears," he added with a smile, "or people will think I have been
+ill-treating you." And to the speechless amazement of Lady Adela, who
+was standing outside the curtain waiting until, as she expressed it to
+herself, she too should have her "innings," Stamfordham passed out
+before her eyes with Rachel, saying to Lady Adela as he passed, "Will
+you forgive me? I am going to take Mrs. Rendel back." Then looking round
+him at the jostling crowd he said to Rachel, offering her his arm, "Will
+you think me very old-fashioned if I ask you to take my arm to get
+through the crowd?" And, leaning on his arm, hardly daring to believe
+what had happened or might be going to happen, Rachel passed back along
+the room through which she had just come with Pateley, the crowd this
+time opening before them with some indescribable tacit understanding
+that something had happened concerned with the incident which, as Rendel
+had foreseen, nearly everybody at the bazaar had heard of. They did not
+speak again until they reached the pavilion.
+
+Latchkeys were unknown at Schleppenheim, and the inhabitants of the
+little summer abodes walked in by the simple process of turning the
+handle of the front door. Rachel and Stamfordham went straight in out of
+the sunlight into the cool little room into which, in long low rays, the
+setting sun was sending its beams. Rendel had been trying to read: the
+book that lay beside him on the floor showed that the attempt had been
+in vain. He looked up, still with that strange, hunted expression that
+had come into his face since the morning--the expression of the man to
+whom every door opening, every figure that comes in may mean some fresh
+cause of apprehension. Rachel came into the room without speaking,
+something that he could not read in the least in her face, then his
+heart stood still within him as he saw Stamfordham behind her. What,
+again? What new ordeal awaited him? He made no sign of recognition, but
+stood up and looked Stamfordham straight in the face. Stamfordham came
+forward and spoke.
+
+"I have come," he said, "to apologise to you for what took place to-day,
+to beg you to forgive me." Rendel was so utterly astounded that he
+simply looked from one to the other of the people standing before him
+without uttering a sound.
+
+"I have just learnt," Stamfordham went on, "the name of the person who
+did the thing of which I wrongfully accused you." Rendel made a hurried
+movement forward as if to stop him.
+
+"Wait, wait one moment!" he cried, "don't say it before my wife--she
+doesn't know." In that moment Rachel realised what he had done for her.
+
+"Do you know?" asked Stamfordham.
+
+"Yes," Rendel answered.
+
+With the old friendliness, and something deeper, in his face and voice,
+Stamfordham said--
+
+"Mrs. Rendel knows also. It was she told me."
+
+"Rachel!" cried Rendel, turning to her. "Do you know?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel, trying to command her voice. "I know--now--that it
+was--my father," and the eyes of the two met.
+
+Stamfordham advanced to Rendel.
+
+"Will you forgive me," he said again, "and shake hands?" Rendel held out
+his hand and pressed Stamfordham's in a close and tremulous grasp, which
+the other returned. "I must see you," he said. "Will you come to my
+rooms some time? I shall be here for a week longer." He held out his
+hand to Rachel. "Thank you," he said, "for what you have done." And he
+went out.
+
+Rendel turned towards Rachel, his arms outstretched, his face
+transformed by the knowledge of the great love she had shown him. His
+heart was too full for speech: in the closer union of silence that new
+precious compact was made. The veil that had hung between them so long
+was lifted for ever.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+The author's name on the original title page was "Mrs. Hugh Bell".
+Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
+inconsistencies. Typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes
+and the like) have been fixed. Text that has been changed to correct an
+obvious error by the publisher is noted below:
+
+page 125: "Rendal" corrected to "Rendel"
+
+  "Of course," he said, after listening to what Rendal[Rendel] had to say
+
+page 303: "toward's" corrected to "towards"
+
+  Wentworth, with some inward wonder, pointing toward's[towards] Lady
+  Adela's corner.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 24794-8.txt or 24794-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/9/24794/
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/24794-8.zip b/24794-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3205921
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-8.zip
diff --git a/24794-h.zip b/24794-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2f2b4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-h.zip
diff --git a/24794-h/24794-h.htm b/24794-h/24794-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2380d0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-h/24794-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,8930 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         text-indent: 2em;
+         }
+
+    p.noindent  {text-indent: 0em;}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    .trans_note       {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em; border: solid 2px;
+                       padding-bottom: .2em; padding-top: .2em;
+                       padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+
+    .bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+    .bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+    .bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+    .br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+    .bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;
+               text-indent: 0em;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+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: The Arbiter
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+Release Date: March 10, 2008 [EBook #24794]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>THE ARBITER</h1>
+
+<h2><i>A NOVEL</i></h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>LADY F. E. E. BELL</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><small>AUTHOR OF THE "STORY OF URSULA," "MISS TOD AND THE PROPHETS,"<br />
+"FAIRY-TALE PLAYS," ETC., ETC.</small><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">LONDON<br />
+EDWARD ARNOLD<br />
+37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND<br />
+1901
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>THE ARBITER</h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>"It is a great mistake," said Miss Martin emphatically, "for any
+sensible woman to show a husband she adores him."</p>
+
+<p>"Even her own, Aunt Anna?" said Lady Gore, with a contented smile which
+Aunt Anna felt to be ignoble.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I meant her own," she said stiffly. "I should hardly have
+thought, Elinor, that after being married so many years you would have
+made jokes of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just it," said Lady Gore, still annoyingly pleased with
+herself. "After adoring my husband for twenty-four years, it seems to me
+that I am an authority on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is a great mistake," repeated Miss Martin firmly, as she got
+up, feeling that the repetition notably strengthened her position. "As I
+said before, no sensible woman should do it."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore began to feel a little annoyed. It is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>fatiguing to hear one's
+aunt say the same thing twice. The burden of conversation is unequally
+distributed if one has to think of two answers to each one remark of
+one's interlocutor.</p>
+
+<p>"And you are bringing up Rachel to do the same thing, you know," the old
+lady went on, roused to fresh indignation at the thought of her
+great-niece, and she pulled her little cloth jacket down, and generally
+shook herself together. Crabbed age and jackets should not live
+together. Age should be wrapped in the ample and tolerant cloak, hider
+of frailties. It was not Aunt Anna's fault, however, if her garments
+were uncompromising and scanty of outline. Predestination reigns nowhere
+more strongly than in clothes, and it would have been inconceivable that
+either Miss Martin's body or her mind should have assimilated the
+harmonious fluid adaptability of the draperies that framed and
+surrounded Lady Gore as she lay on her couch.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it does her much harm," said Lady Gore, a good deal
+understating her conviction of her daughter's perfections.</p>
+
+<p>"That's as may be," said Miss Martin encouragingly. "Where is she
+to-day, by the way?" she said, stopping on her way to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"For a wonder she is not at home," Lady Gore said. "She has gone to stay
+away from me for the first time in her life; she is at Mrs. Feversham's,
+at Maidenhead, for the night."</p>
+
+<p>"How girls do gad nowadays, to be sure!" said Miss Martin.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think that can be said of Rachel," said Lady Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"Whether Rachel does or not, my dear Elinor, girls do gad&mdash;there is no
+doubt about that. I'm sorry I have not seen William. He is too busy, I
+suppose," with a slightly ironical intonation. "Goodbye!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you find your way out?" said Lady Gore, ringing a hand-bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, yes," said Miss Martin. "Goodbye," and out she went.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore leant back with a sigh of relief. A companion like Miss Martin
+makes a most excellent foil to solitude, and after she had departed,
+Lady Gore lay for a while in a state of pleasant quiescence. Why, she
+wondered, even supposing she herself did think too well of her husband,
+should Miss Martin object? Why do onlookers appear to resent the
+spectacle of a too united family? There is, no doubt, something
+exasperating in an excess of indiscriminating kindliness. But it is an
+amiable fault after all; and, besides, more discrimination may sometimes
+be required to discover the hidden good lurking in a fellow-creature
+than to perceive and deride his more obvious absurdities and defects. It
+would no doubt be a very great misfortune to see our belongings as they
+appear to the world at large, and the fay who should "gie us that
+giftie" ought indeed to be banished from every christening. Let us
+console ourselves: she commonly is.</p>
+
+<p>But poor Miss Martin had no adoring belongings to shed the genial light
+of affection on her doings, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>to give her even mistaken admiration,
+better than none at all. Life had dealt but bleakly with her; she had
+always been in the shadow: small wonder then if her nature was blighted
+and her view of life soured. Lady Gore smiled to herself, a little
+wistfully perhaps, as she tried to put herself in Miss Martin's
+place&mdash;of all mental operations one of the most difficult to achieve
+successfully. Lady Gore's sheer power of sympathy might enable her to
+get nearer to it than many people, but still she inevitably reckoned up
+the balance, after the fashion of our kind, seeing only one side of the
+scale and not knowing what was in the other, and as she did so, it
+seemed to her still possible that Miss Martin might have the best of it,
+or at any rate might not fall so short of the best as at first appeared.
+For in spite of her age she still had the great inestimable boon of
+health; she was well, she was independent, she could, when it seemed
+good to her, get up and go out and join in the life of other people.
+While as for herself ... and again the feeling of impotent misery, of
+rebellion against her own destiny, came over Lady Gore like a wave whose
+strength she was powerless to resist. For since the rheumatic fever
+which five years ago had left her practically an incurable invalid, the
+effort to accept her fate still needed to be constantly renewed; an
+effort that had to be made alone, for the acceptance of such a fate by
+those who surround the sufferer is generally made, more or less, once
+for all in a moment of emotion, and then gradually becomes part of the
+habitual <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>circumstance of daily life. Mercifully she did not realise all
+at once the thing that had happened to her. In the first days when she
+was returning to health&mdash;she who up to the time of her illness had been
+so full of life and energy&mdash;the mere pleasure in existence, the mere joy
+of the summer's day in which she could lie near an open window, look out
+on the world and the people in it, was enough; she was too languid to
+want to do more. Then her strength slowly returned, and with it the
+desire to resume her ordinary life. But weeks passed in which she still
+remained at the same stage, they lengthened into months, and brought her
+gradually a horrible misgiving. Then, at last, despairingly she faced
+the truth, and knew that from all she had been in the habit of doing,
+from all that she had meant to do, she was cut off for ever. She began
+to realise then, as people do who, unable to carry their treasures with
+them, look over them despairingly before they cast them away one by one,
+all that her ambitions had been. She smiled bitterly to herself during
+the hours in which she lay there looking her fate in the face and trying
+to encounter it with becoming courage, as she realised how, with more
+than half of her life, at the best, behind her, she had up to this
+moment been spending the rest of it still looking onward, still living
+in the future. She had dreamt of the time when, helped by her, her
+husband should go forward in his career, when, steered under her
+guidance, Rachel would go along the smiling path to happiness. And now,
+instead, she was to be to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>husband and daughter but the constant object
+of care and solicitude and pity. Yes, pity&mdash;that was the worst of it.
+"An invalid," she repeated to herself, and felt that at last she knew
+what that word meant that she had heard all her life, that she had
+applied unconcernedly to one fellow-creature or another without
+realising all that it means of tragedy, of startled, growing dread,
+followed by hopeless and despairing acceptance. Then there came a day
+when, calling all her courage to her help, she made up her mind bravely
+to begin life afresh, to sketch her destiny from another point of view,
+and yet to make a success of the picture. The battle had to be fought
+out alone. Sir William, after the agony of thinking he was going to lose
+her, after the rapture of joy at knowing that the parting was not to be
+yet, had insensibly become accustomed, as one does become accustomed to
+the trials of another, to the altered conditions of their lives, and it
+was even unconsciously a sort of agreeable certainty that whatever the
+weather, whatever the claims of the day, she would every afternoon be
+found in the same place, never away, never occupied about the house,
+always ready to listen, to sympathise. She had made up her mind that
+since now she was debarred from active participation in the lives of her
+husband and daughter, she would by unceasing, strenuous daily effort
+keep abreast of their daily interests, and be by her sympathy as much a
+part of their existence as though she had been, as before, their
+constant companion.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The smallness of such a family circle may act in two ways: it may either
+send the members of it in different directions, or it may draw them
+together in an intense concentration of interests and sympathy. This
+latter was happily the condition of the Gores. The varying degrees of
+their strength and weaknesses had been so mercifully adjusted by destiny
+that each could find in the other some support&mdash;whether real or fancied
+does not matter. For illusions, if they last, form as good a working
+basis for life as reality, and in the Gore household, whether by
+imagination or not, the equipoise of life had been most skilfully
+adjusted. The amount of shining phantasies that had interwoven
+themselves into the woof of the family destiny had become so much a part
+of the real fabric that they were indistinguishable from it.</p>
+
+<p>As far as Sir William's career, if we may give it that name, was
+concerned, the calamity which had fallen upon his wife had in some
+strange manner explained and justified it. The younger son of a country
+gentleman of good family, he had, by the death of his elder brother,
+come into the title, the estate, and the sufficient means bequeathed by
+his father. Elinor Calthorpe, the daughter of a neighbouring squire, had
+been ever since her childhood on terms of intimate friendship with the
+Gore boys; as far back as she could remember, William Gore, big, strong,
+full of life and spirits, a striking contrast to his delicate elder
+brother, had been her ideal of everything that was manly and splendid:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+and when after his brother's death he asked her to marry him, she felt
+that life had nothing more to offer. In that belief she had never
+wavered. Sir William, by nature estimable and from circumstances
+irreproachable, made an excellent husband; that is to say, that during
+nearly a quarter of a century of marriage he had never wavered either in
+his allegiance to his wife or in his undivided acceptance of her
+allegiance, and hers alone. She on her side had never once during all
+those years realised that the light which shone round her idol came from
+the lamp she herself kept alive before the shrine, nor even that it was
+her more acute intelligence, blind in one direction only, which
+suggested the opinion or course of action that he quite unconsciously
+afterwards offered to the world as his own. It was she who infused into
+his life every possibility beyond the obvious. It was her keenness, her
+ardent interest in those possibilities, that urged him on. When she
+finally persuaded him to stand for Parliament as member for their county
+town, it was in a great measure her popularity that won him the seat.</p>
+
+<p>He was in the House without making any special mark for two years, with
+a comfortable sense, not clearly stated perhaps even to himself, that
+there was time before him. Men go long in harness in these days; some
+day for certain that mark would be made. Then his party went out, and in
+spite of another unsuccessful attempt in his own constituency, and then
+in one further afield, he was left <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>by the roadside, while the tide of
+politics swept on. His wife consoled herself by thinking that at the
+next opportunity he would surely get in. But when the opportunity came,
+she was so ill that he could not leave her, and the moment passed. Then
+when they began to realise what her ultimate condition might be, and she
+was recommended to take some special German waters which might work a
+cure, he and Rachel went with her. Sir William, when the necessity of
+going abroad first presented itself to him&mdash;a heroic necessity for the
+ordinary stay-at-home Englishman&mdash;had felt the not unpleasant stimulus,
+the tightening of the threads of life, which the need for a given
+unexpected course of action presents to the not very much occupied
+person. Then came those months away from his own country and his own
+surroundings&mdash;months in which he acquired the habit of reading an
+English newspaper two days old and being quite satisfied with it, when
+everything else also had two days' less importance than it would at
+home, and gradually he tasted the delights of the detached onlooker who
+need do nothing but warn, criticise, prophesy, protest. With absolute
+sincerity to himself he attributed this attitude which Fate had assigned
+to him as entirely owing to his having had to leave England on his
+wife's account. He had quite easily, quite calmly drifted into a
+conviction that for his wife's sake he had chivalrously renounced his
+chances of distinction. Lady Gore on her side&mdash;it was another bitterness
+added to the rest&mdash;did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>for a moment doubt that it was her condition
+and the sacrifice that her husband had made of his life to her which had
+ruined his political career. And they both of them gradually succeeded
+in forgetting that the alternative had not been a certainty. They
+believed, they knew, they even said openly, that if it had not been for
+his incessant attendance on her he would have gone into the House, he
+would have taken office, and eventually have been one of the shapers of
+his country's destiny. The phraseology of their current talk to one
+another and to outsiders reflected this belief. "If I had continued in
+the House," Sir William would say, with a manner and inflection which
+conveyed that he had left it of his own free will and not attempted to
+return to it, "I should have&mdash;&mdash;" or, "If I had taken office&mdash;&mdash;" or
+even sometimes, "If I were leading the Liberal party&mdash;&mdash;" and no one,
+indeed, was in a position to affirm that these things might not have
+been. If a man's capacities are hinted at or even stated by himself to
+his fellow-creatures with a certain amount of discretion, and if he does
+not court failure by putting them to the proof, it does not occur to
+most people to contradict him, and the possible truth of the
+contradiction soon sinks out of sight. So Sir William sat on the brink
+of the river and watched the others plunging into the waves, diving,
+rising, breasting the current, and was agreeably supported by the
+consciousness that if Fate had so ordained it, he himself would have
+been capable of performing all these feats just as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>creditably. No need
+now to stifle a misgiving that in the old days would occasionally
+obtrude itself into the glowing views of the future, that he was
+possibly not of a stature to play the great parts for which he might be
+cast. On the contrary, what now remained was the blessed peace brought
+by renunciation, the calm renunciation of prospects that in the light of
+ceasing to try to attain them seemed absolutely certain. No one now
+could ever say that he had failed. He had been prevented by
+circumstances from achieving any success of a definite and conspicuous
+kind, although the position he had attained, the consideration nearly
+always accorded to the ordinary prosperous middle-aged Englishman of the
+upper classes who has done nothing to forfeit his claim to it, and more
+than all, the plenitude of assurance which he received of his deserts
+from his immediate surroundings, might well have been considered success
+enough. And on his return to England, after eighteen months of
+wandering, although he was no longer in Parliament and had no actual
+voice in deciding the politics of his country, it pleased him to think
+that if he chose he could still take an active line, that he could
+belong to the volunteer army of orators who make speeches at other
+people's elections and who write letters to the newspaper that the world
+may know their views on a given situation.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of which we speak political parties in England were trying
+in vain to re-adjust an equable balance. Conservatives and Unionists,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>almost indistinguishable, were waving the Imperialist banner in the
+face of the world. The Liberals, once the advanced and subversive party,
+were now raising their voices in protest, tentatively advocating the
+claims of what they considered the oppressed races. Derisive epithets
+were hurled at them by their enemies; the Pro-Boers, the Little
+Englanders took the place of the Home Rulers of the past. Sir William
+was by tradition a Liberal. Inspired by that tradition he wrote an
+article on the "Attitude of England," which appeared in a Liberal
+Review. Thrilled by the sight of his utterances in print, he determined
+in his secret soul to expand that article into a book. The secret was of
+course shared by his wife, who fervently believed in the yet unwritten
+masterpiece. The fact that in spite of the dearth of prominent men in
+his party, of men who had in them the stuff of a leader, that party had
+not turned to Gore in its need, aroused no surprise, no misgiving, in
+either his mind or that of his wife. It was simply in their eyes another
+step in that path of voluntary renunciation which he was treading for
+her sake.</p>
+
+<p>With this possible interpretation of all missed opportunities entirely
+taken for granted, Sir William's existence flowed peacefully and
+prosperously on. It was with an agreeable consciousness of his dignity
+and prestige that he sat once or twice in the week at the board meetings
+of one or two governing bodies to which he belonged. They figured in his
+scheme of existence as his hours of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>work, the sterner, more serious
+occupation which justified his hours of leisure. The rest of that
+leisure was spent in happy, congenial uniformity: a morning ride,
+followed by some time in his comfortable study, during which he might be
+supposed to be writing his book; an hour or two at his club; a game or
+two of chess, a pastime in which he excelled; and behind all this a
+beautiful background, the deep and enduring affection of his wife, whose
+companionship, and needs, and admiration for himself filled up all the
+vacant spaces in his life. He would, however, have been genuinely
+surprised if he had realised that it was by a constant, deliberate
+intention that she succeeded in entertaining him, in amusing him, as
+much as she did her friends and acquaintances; if he had thought that
+she had made up her mind that never, while she had power to prevent it,
+should he come into his own house and find it dull. And he never did.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>To be a popular invalid is in itself a career: it blesses those that
+call and those that receive. The visitors who used day by day to go and
+see Lady Gore used to congratulate themselves as they stood on her
+doorstep on the knowledge that they would find her within, and glad&mdash;or
+so each one individually thought&mdash;to see them. She was an attractive
+person, certainly, as she lay on her sofa. Her hair had turned white
+prematurely early, it enhanced the effect of the delicate faded
+colouring and the soft brown eyes. The sweet brightness of her manner
+was mingled with dignity, with the comprehensive sympathy and pliability
+of a woman of the world; an innate distinction of mind and person
+radiated from her looks. Those who watched the general grace and repose
+of her demeanour and surroundings involuntarily felt that there might be
+advantages in a condition of life which prevented the mere thought of
+being hot, untidy, hurried, like some of the ardent ladies who used to
+rush into her room between a committee meeting and a tea-party and tell
+her breathlessly of their flustered doings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Rachel had inherited
+something of her mother's dainty charm. She had the same brown eyes and
+delicate features, framed by bright brown hair. It was certainly
+encouraging to those who looked upon the daughter to see in the mother
+what effect the course of the years was likely to have on such a
+personality. There was not much dread in the future when confronted with
+such a picture. But in truth, as far as most of the spectators who
+frequented the house were concerned, Rachel's personality had been
+merged in her mother's, and any comparison between the two was perhaps
+more likely to be in the direction of wondering whether Rachel in the
+course of years would, as time went on, become so absolutely delightful
+a human product as Lady Gore. Rachel's own attitude on this score was
+entirely consonant with that of others. Her mother was the centre of her
+life, the object of her passionate devotion, her guide, her ideal. It
+was when Rachel was seventeen that Lady Gore became helpless and
+dependent, and the girl suddenly found that their positions were in some
+ways reversed; it was she who had to take care of her mother, to
+inculcate prudence upon her, to minister incessantly to her daily wants;
+there was added to the daughter's love the yearning care that a loving
+woman feels for a helpless charge, and there was hardly room for
+anything else in her life. Rachel, fortunately for herself and for
+others, had no startling originality; no burning desire, arrived at
+womanhood, to strike out a path for herself. She was unmoved by the
+conviction which possesses <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>most of her young contemporaries that the
+obvious road cannot be the one to follow. Lady Gore's perceptions, far
+more acute as regarded her daughter than her husband, and rendered more
+vivid still by the whole concentration of her maternal being in Rachel,
+had entirely realised, while she wondered at it, the complete lack in
+her child of the modern ferment that seethes in the female mind of our
+days. But she had finally come to see that if Rachel was entirely happy
+and contented with her life it was a result to rejoice over rather than
+be discontented with, even though her horizon did not extend much beyond
+her own home. Besides, it is always well to rejoice over a result we
+cannot modify. Needless to say that the girl, who blindly accepted her
+mother's opinion even on indifferent subjects, was, biassed by her own
+affection, more than ready to endow her father with all the qualities
+Lady Gore believed him to possess. She had arrived at the age of
+twenty-two without realising that there could be for her any claims in
+the world that would be paramount to these, anything that could possibly
+come before her allegiance to her parents.</p>
+
+<p>One of the bitterest pangs of Lady Gore's bitter renunciation was the
+moment when she realised that she could not be the one to guide Rachel's
+first steps in a wider world than that of her home, that all her plans
+and theories about the moment when the girl should grow up, when her
+mother would accompany her, steer her, help her at every step, must
+necessarily be brought to nought. And this mother, alas!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> had been so
+full of plans; she had so anxiously watched other people and their
+daughters, so carefully accumulated from her observation the many
+warnings and the few examples which constitute what is called the
+teaching of experience. But when the time came the lesson had been
+learnt in vain. Rachel's eighteenth and nineteenth years were spent in
+anxious preoccupations about her mother's health, in solicitous care of
+her father and the household, and the girl had glided gently from
+childhood into womanhood with nothing but increased responsibility,
+instead of more numerous pleasures, to mark the passage. But the result
+was something very attractively unlike the ordinary product of the age.
+She had had, from the conditions of her life, no very intimate and
+confidential girl friends by whose point of view to readjust and
+possibly lower her own, and with whom to compare every fleeting
+manifestation of thought and feeling. She remained unconsciously
+surrounded by an atmosphere of reticence and reserve, a certain shy
+aloofness, mingled with a direct simple dignity, that gave to her
+bearing an ineffable grace and charm. The mothers of more dashing
+damsels were wont to say that she was not "effective" in a ballroom. It
+was true that she had nothing particularly accentuated in demeanour or
+appearance which would at once arrest attention, an inadequate
+equipment, perhaps, in the opinion of those who hold that it is better
+to produce a bad effect than none at all.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Feversham, of Bruton Street, was an old <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>friend of Lady Gore's,
+whose junior she was by a few years. She had no daughters of her own,
+and had in consequence an immense amount of undisciplined energy at the
+service of those of other people. She was not a lady whose views were
+apt to be matured in silence; she was ardently concerned about Rachel's
+future, and she was constantly imparting new projects to Lady Gore, who
+received them with smiling equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>It was at an "At Home" given by Mrs. Feversham one evening early in the
+season, when the rooms were full of hot people talking at the top of
+their voices, that the hostess, looking round her with a comprehensive
+glance, saw Rachel standing alone. There was, however, in the girl's
+demeanour none of that air of aggressive solitude sometimes assumed by
+the neglected. The eye fell upon Rachel with a sense of rest, looking on
+one who did not wish to go anywhere or to do anything, who was standing
+with unconscious grace an entirely contented spectator of what was
+passing before her. Mrs. Feversham's one idea, however, as she perceived
+her was instantly to suggest that she should do something else, that at
+any price some one should take her to have some tea, or make her eat or
+walk, or do anything, in fact, but stand still. Rachel, however, at the
+moment she was swooped down upon, was well amused; a smile was
+unconsciously playing on her lips as she listened to an absurd
+conversation going on between a young man and a girl just in front of
+her.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"By George!" said the boy, "it is hot. Let's go and have ices."</p>
+
+<p>"Ices? Right you are," the girl replied, and attempted to follow her
+gallant cavalier, who had started off, trying to make for himself a path
+through the serried hot crowd, leaving the lady he was supposed to be
+convoying to follow him as near as she might.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" he said suddenly. "There's Billy Crowther. Do you mind if I go
+and slap him on the back?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, buck up, then, and slap him on the back," replied the fair
+one. "I'll go on." Thus gracefully encouraged, the youth flung himself
+in another direction, and almost overturned his hostess, who was coming
+towards Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry," he said, apparently not at all discomposed, and continued his
+wild career.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! the young men of the present day!..." said Mrs. Feversham, as she
+joined Rachel; then suddenly remembering that a wholesale condemnation
+was not the attitude she wished to inculcate in her present hearer, she
+went on: "Not that they are all alike, of course; some of them are&mdash;are
+different," she supplemented luminously. "Now, my child, have you had
+anything to eat?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I want anything, thank you," said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense!" said Mrs. Feversham. "You must." And, looking round for
+the necessary escort, she saw a new arrival coming up the stairs. "The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>very man!" she said to herself, but fortunately not aloud, as "Mr.
+Rendel!" was announced. A young man of apparently a little over thirty,
+with deep-set, far-apart eyes and clear-cut features, came up and took
+her outstretched hand with a little air of formal politeness refreshing
+after the manifestations she had been deploring.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad to see you," she said cordially. Rendel greeted her with a
+smile. "Do you know Miss Gore?" Rendel and Rachel bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have met Sir William Gore more than once," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"She is dying for something to eat," said Mrs. Feversham, to Rachel's
+great astonishment. "Do take her downstairs, Mr. Rendel." The young
+people obediently went down together.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not really dying for something to eat," Rachel said, as soon as
+they were out of hearing of their hostess. "In fact, I am not sure that
+I want anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't you?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Two hours ago I was still dining, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Rendel, "so was I." They both laughed. They went on
+nevertheless to the door of the room from whence the clatter of glass
+and china was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, are you sure you won't be 'tempted,' according to the received
+expression?" said Rendel, as a hot waiter hurried past them with some
+dirty plates and glasses on a tray.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am afraid I am not at all tempted," said Rachel.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us look for a cooler place," said Rendel. What a soothing
+companion this was he had found, who did not want him to fight for an
+ice or a sandwich! They went up again to a little recess on the landing
+by an open window. The roar of tongues came down to them from the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Just listen to those people," said Rendel. A sort of wild, continuous
+howl filled the air, as though bursting from a company of the condemned
+immured in an eternal prison, instead of from a gathering of peaceable
+citizens met together for their diversion. "Isn't it dreadful to realise
+what our natural note is like?" he added. "It is hideous."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't pretty, certainly," said Rachel, unable to help smiling at his
+face of disgust. The roar seemed to grow louder as it went on.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pity we can't chirp and twitter like birds," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that that would be very much better," said Rachel. "Have
+you ever been in a room with a canary singing? Think of a room with as
+many canaries in it as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I daresay&mdash;it might have been nearly as bad," Rendel said; "though
+if we were canaries we should be nicer to look at perhaps," and his eye
+fell on an unprepossessing elderly couple who were descending the stairs
+with none of the winsomeness of singing birds. "Have you read
+Maeterlinck's 'Life of the Bees'?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," Rachel answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with him," Rendel said, "that it would be just as difficult to
+get any idea of what human beings are about by looking down on them from
+a height, as it is for us to discover what insects are doing when we
+look down on them."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, imagine looking at that," said Rachel, pointing towards the
+drawing-room. "You would see people walking up and down and in and out
+for no reason, and jostling each other round and round."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel. "How aimless it would look! Not more aimless than it
+is, after all," he added.</p>
+
+<p>"It amuses me, all the same," said Rachel, rather deprecatingly. "I
+mean, to come to a party of this kind every now and then; perhaps
+because I don't do it very often."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, don't you go out every night of your life in the season?" said
+Rendel; "I thought all young ladies did."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't," she said. "It isn't quite the same for me as it is for other
+people&mdash;at least, I mean that I have only my father to go out with;" and
+then, seeing in his face the interpretation he put on her words, she
+added, "my mother is an invalid, and we do not like to leave her too
+often."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but she is alive still," said Rendel, with a tone that sounded as
+if he understood what the contrary might have meant.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," said Rachel quickly. "Yes, yes, indeed she is alive," in a
+voice that told the proportion that fact assumed in existence.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My mother died long years ago," said Rendel, in a lower voice. "Not so
+long, though, that I did not understand." Rachel looked at him with a
+soft light of pity flooding her face, and drawing the words out of him,
+he knew not how. "My father married again," he said, "while I was still
+a child&mdash;while I needed looking after, at least."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Rachel, "you had a stepmother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I had a stepmother," and his face involuntarily became
+harder as he recalled that long stretch of loveless years&mdash;the father
+had never quite understood the shy and sensitive child&mdash;during which he
+had been neglected, suppressed, lonely, with no one to care that he did
+well at school and college, and that later he was getting on in the
+world, with no place in the world that was really his home. Then he went
+on after a moment: "And now my father is dead, too, so I am pretty much
+alone, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"How terrible it must be!" said Rachel softly. "How extraordinary! I
+can't quite imagine what it is like."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is not very pleasant," said Rendel looking up, and again
+penetrated by the sweet compassion in Rachel's face. "You can't think
+how strange it is&mdash;&mdash;" He broke off and got up as Sir William Gore came
+downstairs towards them. Sir William, with the true instinct of a
+father, had chosen this moment to wonder whether Rachel was being
+sufficiently amused, and was bearing down upon her and her companion
+with an air of cheerful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>virtue which proclaimed that her conversation
+with Rendel was at an end. Sir William's political principles did not
+permit him to think very much of Rendel, since he was private secretary
+to a man whose policy Sir William cordially detested, Lord Stamfordham,
+the Foreign Minister, whose acute and wide-reaching sagacity inspired
+his followers with a blind confidence to himself and his methods. Lord
+Stamfordham had soon discovered the practical aptitude, the political
+capacity, the determined, honourable ambition that lay behind Francis
+Rendel's grave exterior, and had made up his mind, as indeed had others,
+that the young man had a distinguished future before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Rendel, how are you?" said Gore. "What is your Chief going to do
+next, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I can't tell you, Sir William," said Rendel with a half
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the people round him ought to put the brake on," said Gore, "or I
+don't know where the country will be."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it is a brake I am not strong enough to work," said Rendel;
+"like Archimedes, I have not a lever powerful enough to move the
+universe."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Sir William, with a sort of snort. There are fortunately
+still some sounds left in our vocabulary which convey primeval emotions
+without the limitations of words. "Come, Rachel, it is time for us to be
+going."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mrs. Feversham's watchful eye had managed to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>observe what appeared to
+be the sufficiently satisfactory sequel to the introduction she had
+made. She was not a woman to let such a seed die for want of planting
+and watering. She asked Rendel to dinner to meet the Gores, she talked
+to Lady Gore about him, she it was who somehow arranged that he should
+go to call at Prince's Gate, and he finally grew into a habit of finding
+his way there with a frequency that surprised himself. Lady Gore
+subjugated him entirely by her sweet kindly welcome, and the interest
+with which she listened to him, until he found himself to his own
+astonishment telling her, as he sat by her sofa, of his hopes and fears
+and plans for the future.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually new possibilities seemed to come into his life, or rather the
+old possibilities were seen in a new light shed by the womanly sympathy
+which up to now he had never known. He came away from each visit with
+some fresh spurt of purpose, some new impulse to achievement. Lady Gore,
+on her side, had been more favourably impressed by Rendel than by any of
+the young men she had seen, until she realised that here at last was a
+possible husband who might be worthy of Rachel. But with her customary
+wisdom she tried not to formulate it even to herself: she did not
+believe in these things being helped on otherwise than by opportunity
+for intercourse being given. But where Mrs. Feversham was, opportunity
+was sure to follow. Lady Gore one morning had an eager letter from her
+friend saying, "I know that you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>and Rachel make it a rule of life that
+she can never go away from home. But you must let her come to me next
+Thursday for the night. I shall have"&mdash;and she underlined this
+significantly without going into more details&mdash;"<i>just the right people
+to meet her</i>." And for once, as Lady Gore folded up the letter, she too
+was seized with an ardour of matchmaking. She had a real affection for
+Rendel, and the devotion of the young man to herself touched and pleased
+her. His probably brilliant future and comfortable means were not the
+principal factors in the situation, but there was no doubt that they
+helped to make everything else easy. So it was that, to Rachel's great
+surprise, the day after the party at Bruton Street, her mother having
+told her without showing her the letter of Mrs. Feversham's invitation,
+advised her to accept it, and, to the mother's still greater surprise,
+the daughter, in her turn, after a slight protest, agreed to do so,
+stipulating, however, that she should not be away more than twenty-four
+hours. The accusation that Rachel "gadded" as much as other girls of her
+age was obviously an unmerited one.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Alone?" said Sir William, as he came into the room. "Thank Heaven! Have
+you had no one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Anna," Lady Gore replied, in a tone which was comment on the
+statement.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Anna? What did she come again for?" said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know," Lady Gore said. "I think to-day it was to tell me
+that Rachel and I ought not to worship you as we do."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what she means," said Sir William, standing from force of
+habit comfortably in front of the fireplace as though there were a fire
+in the grate. "I should have thought it was Rachel and I who adored
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"She would like that better," Lady Gore replied. "But, oh dear, what a
+weary woman she is!"</p>
+
+<p>"She has tired you out," Sir William said. "It really is not a good plan
+that your door should be open to every bore who chooses to come and call
+upon you. One ought to be able to keep people of that sort, at any rate,
+out of one's house."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore heaved a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is rather difficult and invidious too," she said, "to try to
+keep certain people out when one is not sure who is coming&mdash;and it is
+rather dull not to see any one," with a little quiver of the lip which
+Sir William did not perceive. Then speaking more lightly, "It is a pity
+we can't have some kind of automatic arrangement at our front doors,
+like the thing for testing sovereigns at the Mint, by which the heavy,
+tiresome people would be shot back into the street, and the light,
+amusing ones shot into the hall."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite agreeable," said Sir William, "as long as Aunt Anna is shot
+back into the street."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, how delightful it would be!" said Lady Gore longingly.</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Tarlton too, please," said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear William," Lady Gore said, "Miss Tarlton is quite harmless."</p>
+
+<p>"Harmless?" repeated Sir William; "I don't know what you call harmless.
+The very thought of her fills me with impotent rage. A woman who talks
+of nothing but photography and bicycling, and goes about with her
+fingers pea-green and her legs in gaiters! It's an outrage on society. I
+am thankful that Rachel has never gone in for any nonsense of that
+sort&mdash;nor ever shall, while I can prevent it."</p>
+
+<p>"My good friend," said Lady Gore, "you may not find that so easy."</p>
+
+<p>"I will prevent it as long as she is under my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>roof," replied Sir
+William. "I suppose if she marries a husband with any fads of that sort,
+she will have to share them."</p>
+
+<p>"But"&mdash;Lady Gore checked herself on the verge of saying, "I don't think
+he has," as she suddenly realised what image was called up by the
+mention of Rachel's possible husband&mdash;"but she might marry some one who
+hasn't," she ended lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear me, yes," said Sir William, "there is time enough for that; she
+is very young after all."</p>
+
+<p>"She is twenty-two," said Lady Gore. "Perhaps that is young in these
+days when women don't seem to marry until they are nearly thirty. But I
+don't think it is a good plan to wait so long."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it's a bad one," said Sir William; "they know their own
+minds at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"They have known half a dozen of their own minds," said Lady Gore. "I
+think it is much better for a girl to marry before she knows that there
+is an alternative to the mind she has got, such as it is."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William smiled, but did not think it worth while to argue the point.
+It was not his province, but her mother's, to guide Rachel's career, and
+he was content to remain in comfortable ignorance of the complications
+of the female heart of a younger generation. However, he was not allowed
+to remain in that detached attitude, for Lady Gore, with the subject
+uppermost in her mind preoccupying her to the exclusion of everything
+else, could not help <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>adding, "You often see Mr. Rendel at parties, when
+you and Rachel go out, I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel? Yes," said Gore indifferently. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore did not explain. "I like him," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, so do I," said Gore, without enthusiasm. "I don't agree with
+him, of course. I asked him one day what his Chief was about, and told
+him he ought to put the brake on."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he seem pleased at that?" said Lady Gore, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"He will have to hear it, I'm afraid," said Gore, "whether it pleases
+him or not."</p>
+
+<p>"I must say," said Lady Gore, "I can't help admiring Lord Stamfordham. I
+do like a man who is strong, and this man is head and shoulders above
+other people."</p>
+
+<p>"Head and shoulders above little people perhaps," said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rendel says that when once one is caught up in Lord Stamfordham's
+train, it is impossible not to follow him."</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel!" said Sir William. "Oh, of course, if you're going to listen to
+what Stamfordham's hangers-on say...."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, William, please!" said Lady Gore. "Don't say that sort of thing
+about Mr. Rendel."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" said Sir William, amazed. "Why am I to speak of Rendel with bated
+breath?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because ... suppose&mdash;suppose he were to be your son-in-law some day?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Sir William, staring at her, "is that what you are thinking
+of?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mind&mdash;mind you don't say it," cried Lady Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> shan't say it, certainly," cried Sir William, still bewildered;
+"but has he said it? That's more to the point."</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't yet," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he never struck me in that light, I must say," said Sir William.
+"I always thought it was you he adored."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Cela n'emp&ecirc;che pas</i>," said Lady Gore, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay he would do very well," said Sir William, who, as he further
+considered the question, was by no means insensible to the advantages of
+the suggestion put before him; "it is only his politics that are against
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," said Lady Gore, "that Rachel would always think her
+father knew best."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid!" said Sir William, "what more would you have?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear William," said his wife, smiling at him, "she might think her
+husband knew best, that is what some people do."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right," said Sir William, looking at her fondly, but believing
+with entire conviction in the truth of what he was lightly saying.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the door opened and a footman came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Young Mr. Anderson is downstairs, Sir William."</p>
+
+<p>"Young Mr. Anderson?" said Sir William, looking at him with some
+surprise.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Sir William&mdash;Mr. Fred," the man replied, evidently somewhat
+doubtful as to whether he was right in using the honorific.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred Anderson back again!" said Sir William to his wife. "All right,
+James, I'll come directly." "I wonder if his rushing back to England so
+soon," he said, as the door closed upon the servant, "means that that
+boy has come to grief."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hope that it means the reverse," said his wife, "and that he has
+come back to ask you to be chairman of his company&mdash;as you promised, do
+you remember, when he went away?"</p>
+
+<p>"So I did, yes, to be sure," said Sir William, laughing at the
+recollection. "Upon my word, that lad won't fail for want of assurance.
+We shall see what he has got to say." And he went out.</p>
+
+<p>The Andersons had been small farmers on the Gore estate for some
+generations. Fred Anderson, the second son of the present farmer, a
+youth of energy and enterprise, had determined to seek his fortune
+further afield. Mainly by the kind offices of the Gores, he had been
+started in life as a mining engineer, and had, eighteen months before
+his present reappearance, been sent with some others to examine and
+report on a large mine lately discovered on British territory near the
+Equator. The result of their investigations proved that it was actually
+and most unexpectedly a gold mine, promising untold treasure, but at the
+same time, from its geographical situation, almost valueless, since it
+was so far from any lines of communication <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>as to make the working of it
+practically impossible. The young, however, are sanguine; undaunted by
+difficulties, Fred Anderson, in spite of the discouragement and dropping
+off of his companions, remained full of faith in the future of the mine,
+and of something turning up which would make it possible to work it; in
+fact, he had actually gone so far as to obtain for himself a grant of
+the mining rights from the British Government. It was for this purpose
+that, giving a brief outline of the situation, he had written to Sir
+William some time before to ask him for the sum necessary to obtain the
+concession. Sir William had advanced it to him. It was when, two years
+before, the boy of nineteen was leaving home for the first time that he
+had half jestingly asked Sir William whether, if he and his companions
+found a gold mine and started a company to work it, he would be their
+chairman, and Sir William, to whom it had seemed about as likely that
+Fred Anderson would become Prime Minister as succeed in such an
+undertaking, had given him his hand on the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my boy," said Sir William, and the very sound of his voice seemed
+to Fred Anderson to put him back two years&mdash;the two years that appeared
+to him to contain his life. "How is it you have hurried back to England
+so quickly?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you all about it, Sir William," said the boy. "I thought it
+best to come over and get everything into shape myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to be embarking on very adventurous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>schemes," said Sir
+William, feeling as he looked at the boy's bright, open face, full of
+alert intelligence, that it was not impossible that the schemes might be
+carried through.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will say so, sir, when you have heard what I have to tell
+you," said Anderson, resolutely keeping down his excitement in a way
+that boded well for his powers of self-control.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be much interested," said Sir William. "Now, what about those
+mining rights? Do I understand that you are the proprietor of a mine on
+the Equator, a thousand miles from anywhere?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and no," said Anderson. "At least, yes to the first question; no
+to the second."</p>
+
+<p>"What," said Sir William, still speaking lightly, "has the mine come
+nearer since we first heard of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, practically it has," said Anderson, looking Gore in the face.
+Then, unrolling the paper which he held in his hand and rolling it the
+other way that it might remain open, he laid it carefully out on the
+table before Sir William. "I have brought you the map with all the
+indications on it, that you may see for yourself." Sir William adjusted
+an eyeglass and bent over the map, roused to more curiosity than he
+showed.</p>
+
+<p>"This," said the young man, pointing to a large tract in pink, "is
+British territory; that is Uganda; here is the Congo Free State. There,
+you see, are the Germans where the map is marked in orange.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> There is
+the Equator, and <i>there</i> is the mine. Look, marked in blue."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a pretty God-forsaken place, I must say," remarked Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," said Fred. "That thin, dotted ink line running north and
+south from the top of Africa to the bottom is the Cape to Cairo Railway,
+of which the route has now been determined on, and this," with a ringing
+accent of triumph, bringing his hand down on to the map, "is the place
+where the railway will pass within a few miles of us."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Sir William, starting.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there it is, quite close," Anderson answered. "When once it is
+there, all our difficulties of transport are over."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William recovered himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Cape to Cairo!" he said. "You had better wait till you see the line
+made, my boy."</p>
+
+<p>"That won't be so very long, Sir William, I assure you," said the young
+man. "This cross in ink marks where the line has got to from the
+northern end, and this one," pointing to another, "from the south, and
+they have already got telegraph poles a good bit further."</p>
+
+<p>"Before the two ends have joined hands," said Sir William, "another
+Government may be in which won't be so keen on that mad enterprise. As
+if we hadn't railways enough on our hands already."</p>
+
+<p>"Not many railways like this one," said the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>young man. "Did you see an
+article in the <i>Arbiter</i> about it this morning? It is going to be the
+most tremendous thing that ever was done."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course, yes," said Sir William with an accent of scorn in his
+tone. "Just the kind of thing that the <i>Arbiter</i> would have a good
+flare-up about. I have no doubt that the scheme is magnificent on paper.
+However, time will show," he added, with a kinder note in his voice. He
+liked the boy and his faith in achieving the impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"It will indeed," said Anderson. "Only, you see, we can't afford to wait
+till time shows&mdash;we must take it by the forelock now, I'm afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what do you propose to do next?" said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to form a company," said the boy, his colour rising. "We
+are going to have everything ready, and the moment the railway is
+finished we are ready to work the mine, and our fortune is made."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to form a company?" said Sir William, incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Anderson replied. "In a week we shall have the whole thing in
+shape, and I hope that when the mine and its possibilities are made
+public, we shan't have any difficulty in getting the shares taken up."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am sure I hope you won't," said Sir William. "I'll take some
+shares in it if you can <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>show me a reasonable prospect of its coming to
+anything. But I should like to hear something more about it first."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall, of course," said Anderson, as he took up his map again. "But
+it was not about taking shares I came to ask you, Sir William."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it, then?" said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"You said," the boy replied, with an embarrassed little laugh, looking
+him straight in the face, "that you would be the chairman of the first
+company I floated."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, so I did!" said Sir William. "Upon my word, it was rather a
+rash promise to make."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it was, I assure you," the boy said earnestly; "this
+thing really is going to turn up trumps."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let's hope it is, for all concerned," said Sir William. "And what
+are you going to call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we are going to call it," said Fred, "simply 'The Equator,
+Limited.'"</p>
+
+<p>"The Equator! Upon my word! Why not the Universe?" said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"That will come next," said the boy, with a happy laugh of sheer
+jubilation. "Then, Sir William, will you&mdash;you will be our chairman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," said Sir William. "A promise is a promise. But mind, I shall
+be a very inefficient one. I don't suppose you could find any one who
+knew less about that sort of thing than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will be all right, Sir William," the boy said quickly. "There
+will be lots of people con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>cerned who know all about it. Now that the
+mine is going to be accessible, the right people will be more than ready
+to take it up. I just wanted to have you there as the nominal head to
+it, because you have always been so good to me, and you have brought me
+luck since the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Sir William. "You'll have only yourself to thank, my
+boy, when you get on."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know better than that," said Anderson. Something very like tears
+came into his eyes as he took the hand Sir William held out to him, and
+then left the room as happy a youth of twenty-one as could be found in
+London that day.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>There was another young creature, at that moment driving across London
+to Prince's Gate, to whom the world looked very beautiful that day.
+Rachel was still in a sort of rapturous bewilderment. The wonderful new
+experience that had come to her, that she was contemplating for the
+first time, seemed, as she saw it in the company of familiar
+surroundings, more marvellous yet. At Maidenhead everything had been
+unwonted. The new experience of going away alone, the enchanting repose
+of the hot sunny days on the river, the look of the boughs as they
+dipped lazily into the water, and the light dancing and dazzling on the
+ripples of the stream&mdash;all had been part of the setting of the new
+aspect of things, part of that great secret that she was beginning to
+learn. Yet all the time she had had a feeling that when the setting was
+altered, when she left this mysterious region of romance, life would
+become ordinary again, the strange golden light with which it was
+flooded would turn into the ordinary light of day, and she would find
+herself where she had been before. But it was not so.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> Here she was back
+again in the town she knew so well, driving towards her home&mdash;but the
+new, strange possession had not left her, the secret was hers still. It
+had all come so quickly that she had not realised what she felt. Was she
+"in love," the thing that she had taken for granted would happen to her
+some day, but that she had not yet longed for? Rachel, it must be
+confessed, had not been entirely given up to romance; she had not been
+waiting, watching for the fairy prince who should ride within her ken
+and transform existence for her. Her life had been too full of love of
+another kind. But now she had a sudden feeling of experience having been
+completed, something had come to her that she had wished for, longed
+for&mdash;how much, she had not known until it came. What would they say at
+home? What would her mother say? And gradually she realised, as she
+always ended by realising, that whatever the picture of life she was
+contemplating her mother was in the foreground of it. There was no doubt
+about that; her mother came first, her mother must come first. But
+nothing was quite clear in her mind at this moment. The past forty-eight
+hours, the sudden change of scene and of companionship, a possible
+alternative path suddenly presenting itself in an existence which had
+been peacefully following the same road, all this had been disturbing,
+bewildering even&mdash;and when the hansom drew up in Prince's Gate, Rachel
+felt an intense satisfaction at being back again in the haven, at the
+thought of the welcome she was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>going to find. And as on a summer's day
+to people sitting in a shaded room, the world beyond shut out, the
+opening of a door into the sunshine may reveal a sudden vista of light,
+of flowers shining in the sun, so to the two people who were awaiting
+Rachel's arrival she brought a sudden vision of youth, brightness,
+colour, hope, as she came swiftly in, smiling and confident, with the
+face and expression of one who had never come into the presence of
+either of these two companions without seeing her gladness reflected in
+the light of welcome that shone in their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gadabout!" said her father as she turned to him after embracing
+her mother fondly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," said Rachel, "I won't do it again."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did you enjoy yourself, my darling?" said Lady Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very much," Rachel said. "It was delightful." The mother looked at
+her and tried to read into her face all that the words might mean.
+Rachel was in happy unconsciousness of how entirely the ground was
+prepared to receive her confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Was there a large party?" said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Rachel, "a very small one." She was leaning back comfortably
+in the armchair, and deliberately taking off her gloves. "In fact, there
+were only two people beside myself, Sir Charles Miniver, and&mdash;Mr.
+Rendel." There was a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Miniver!" said Sir William, "Still staying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>about! He appeared to me an
+old man when I was twenty-five." Rachel opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Did he?" she said. "That explains it. He is quite terribly old now,
+much, much older than other old people one sees," she said, with the
+conviction of her age, to which sixty and eighty appear pretty much the
+same. "You didn't mind," she went on to her mother hastily, somewhat
+transparently trying to avoid a discussion of the rest of the house
+party, "my staying till the afternoon train? Mrs. Feversham suggested
+boating this morning, and the day was so lovely, it was too tempting to
+refuse."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mind at all," said Lady Gore. "It must have been lovely in the
+boat. Did you all go?"</p>
+
+<p>"N&mdash;no, not all," replied Rachel. "Mrs. Feversham would have come, but
+she had some things to do at home, and Sir Charles Miniver was&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Too old?" Lady Gore suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," said Rachel, "though he called it busy."</p>
+
+<p>"As you say," remarked Sir William, "that does not leave many people to
+go in the boat." Rachel looked at her father quickly, but with a
+pliability surprising in the male mind he managed to look unconscious.
+"Well, Elinor," he continued, "I think as you have a companion now, I
+shall go off for a bit. I shall be back presently. Let me implore you
+not to let me find too many bores at tea."</p>
+
+<p>"If Miss Tarlton comes," said Lady Gore, "I will have her automatically
+ejected." Sir William <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>went out, smiling at her. The mother and
+daughter, both unconsciously to themselves, watched the door close, then
+Rachel got up, went to the glass over the chimneypiece and began
+deliberately taking off her veil.</p>
+
+<p>"I do look a sight," she said. "It is astonishing how dirty one's face
+gets in London, even in a drive across the Park."</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel!" her mother said. Rachel turned round and looked at her. Then
+she went quickly across the room and knelt down by her mother's couch.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother!" she said, "Mother dear! it is such a comfort that if I don't
+tell you things you don't mind. And why should you? It doesn't matter.
+It is just as if I had told you&mdash;you always know, you always
+understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lady Gore, "I think I understand. And you know," she added
+after a moment, "that I never want you to tell me more than you wish to
+tell. Only, very often"&mdash;and she tried to choose her words with anxious
+care, that not one of them might mean more, less, or other than she
+intended, "it sometimes helps younger people, if they talk to people who
+are older. You see, the mere fact of having been in the world longer,
+brings one something like more wisdom, one can judge of the proportion
+of things somehow, nothing seems quite so surprising, so
+extraordinary&mdash;or so impossible," she added with a faint smile, with the
+intuition of the point that Rachel had arrived at. And Rachel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>was ready
+to take perfectly for granted that she should have been so followed. Her
+absolute reliance on the wise and tender confidante by her side, the
+habit of placing her first and referring everything to her was stronger
+unconsciously to herself, than even the natural desire of her age to hug
+the secret she was carrying, to keep it jealously from any eyes but her
+own.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course, I know that," she said without looking up, "and
+my first thought always is that I will tell you. In fact," she went on
+with a little laugh, "I never know what I think myself until I have told
+you, and heard what it sounds like when I am saying it to you, and seen
+what you look like when you listen&mdash;only&mdash;&mdash;" she stopped again.</p>
+
+<p>"Darling," said Lady Gore, "never feel that you must tell me a word more
+than you wish to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Rachel hesitating, "the only thing is that to-day I
+must&mdash;perhaps&mdash;you would know something about it presently in any
+case...." And she stopped again.</p>
+
+<p>"Presently? why?" said Lady Gore. Rachel made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Rendel coming here to-day?" said Lady Gore, trying to speak in
+her ordinary voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel, "he is coming to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be very glad to see him," said Lady Gore. "I always am."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, yes," said Rachel. Then with a sudden effort, "It is no use,
+mother, I must tell you; you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>must know first." Then she paused again.
+"This morning we went out in the boat&mdash;&mdash;" she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lady Gore, "and Sir Charles Miniver was unfortunately too
+old to go with you&mdash;or fortunately, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure which," said Rachel. "I am not sure," she repeated
+slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel, did Francis Rendel...."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel, "he asked me to marry him."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore laid her hand on her daughter's. "What did you say to him?"</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked up quickly. "Surely you know. I told him it would be
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible?" her mother repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, impossible," Rachel said. "We needn't discuss it, mother
+dear," she went on with an effort. "You know I could not go away from
+you; you could not do without me. You could not, could you?" she went on
+imploringly. "I should be dreadfully saddened if you could."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have to do without you," Lady Gore said. "I could not let you
+give up your happiness to mine."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be giving up my happiness to stay with you, you know that
+quite well," Rachel said. "On the contrary, I simply could not be happy
+if I felt that you needed me and that I had left you."</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel, do you care for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do I, I wonder?" Rachel said, half thinking aloud and letting herself
+go as one does who, having overcome the first difficulty of speech,
+welcomes the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>rapturous belief of pouring out her heart to the right
+listener. "I believe," she said, "that I care for him as much as I could
+for any one, in that way, but"&mdash;and she shook her head&mdash;"I know all the
+time that you come first, and that you always, always will."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but that is not right," said Lady Gore. "That is not natural."</p>
+
+<p>"Not natural," Rachel said, "that I should care for my mother most?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," Lady Gore said, "not in the long run. Of course," she went on with
+a smile, "to say a thing is not 'natural' is simply begging the
+question, and sounds as if one were dismissing a very complicated
+problem with a commonplace formula, but it has truth in it all the same.
+It is difficult enough to fashion existence in the right way, even with
+the help of others, but to do it single-handed is a task few people are
+qualified to achieve. I am quite sure that a woman has more chance of
+happiness if she marries than if she remains alone. It is right that
+people should renew their stock of affection, should see that their hold
+on the world, on life, is renewed, should feel that fresh claims, for
+that is a part, and a great part, of happiness, are ready at hand when
+the old ones disappear. All this is what means happiness, and you know
+that the one thing I want in the world is that you should be happy. I
+was thinking to-day," she went on, with a slight tremor in her voice,
+"that if I were quite sure that your life were happily settled, that you
+were beginning one of your own not wholly dependent on those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>behind
+you, I should not mind very much if mine were to come to an end."</p>
+
+<p>"To an end?" said Rachel, startled. "Don't say that&mdash;don't talk about
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not talk about it often," Lady Gore said; "but this is a moment
+when it must be said, because, remember, when you talk of sacrificing
+your life to me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sacrificing!" interjected Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of devoting it to me," Lady Gore went on; "and putting aside
+those things that might make a beautiful life of your own, you must
+remember one thing, that I may not be there always. In fact," she
+corrected herself with a smile, "to say <i>may</i> not is taking a
+rose-coloured view, that I <i>shall</i> not be there always. And who knows?
+The moment of our separation may not be so far off."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked up hurriedly, much perturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you saying this now?" she said. "You have seemed so much better
+lately. You are very well, aren't you, mother? You are looking very
+well."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore had a moment of wondering whether she should tell her daughter
+what she knew, what she expected herself, but she looked at Rachel's
+anxious, quivering face and refrained.</p>
+
+<p>"It is something that ought to be said at this moment," she answered.
+"You have come to a parting of the ways. This is the moment to show you
+the signposts, to help you to choose the best road."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Listen, mother," said Rachel earnestly. "In this case I am sure I know
+by myself which is the best road to choose. I am perfectly clear that as
+long as I have you I shall stay with you. That I mean to do," she
+continued with unwonted decision. "And besides, if&mdash;if you were no
+longer there, how could I leave my father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Lady Gore, "I wanted to say that to you. Now, as we are
+speaking of it, let us talk it out, let us look at it in the face.
+Consider the possibility, Rachel, the probability that I may be taken
+from you; my dream would be that you should make your own life with some
+one that you care about, and yet not part it entirely from your
+father's, that while he is there he should not be left. If I thought
+that, do you know, it would be a very great help to me," she said,
+forcing herself to speak steadily, but unable to hide entirely the
+wistful anxiety in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never, never leave him," Rachel said. "I promise you that I
+never will."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can look forward," her mother said, "as peacefully, I don't say
+as joyfully, as I look back. Twenty-four years, nearly twenty-five," she
+went on, half to herself and looking dreamily upwards, "we have been
+married. You don't know what those years mean, but some day I hope you
+will. I pray that you may know how the lives and souls of two people who
+care for one another absolutely grow together during such a time."</p>
+
+<p>"It is beautiful," Rachel said softly, "to know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>that there is such
+happiness in the world," and her own new happiness leapt to meet the
+assurance of the years.</p>
+
+<p>"It is beautiful indeed," Lady Gore said. "It means a constant abiding
+sense of a strange other self sharing one's own interests&mdash;of a close
+companionship, an unquestioning approval which makes one almost
+independent of opinions outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Some people," said Rachel, pressing her mother's hand, "have the
+outside affection and approval too."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the world has been very kind to me," Lady Gore said, "and all that
+is delightful. But it is the big thing that matters. Do you remember
+that there was some famous Greek who said when his chosen friend and
+companion died, 'The theatre of my actions has fallen'?" Rachel's face
+lighted up in quick response. "When I am gone," her mother went on,
+"don't let your father feel that the theatre of <i>his</i> actions has
+fallen&mdash;take my place, surround him with love and sympathy."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, indeed I will," said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"What a man needs," said Lady Gore, "is some one to believe in him."</p>
+
+<p>"My father will never be in want of that," said Rachel, with heartfelt
+conviction. "Mother," she added, "I never will forget what I am saying
+now, and you may believe it and you may be happy about it. I won't leave
+my father; he shall come first, I promise, whatever happens."</p>
+
+<p>"First?" said Lady Gore gently. "No, Rachel, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>not that; it is right that
+your husband should come first."</p>
+
+<p>"The people," said Rachel smiling, "whose husbands come first have not
+had a father and mother like mine."</p>
+
+<p>There was a knock at the house door. Rachel sprang hurriedly to her
+feet, the colour flying into her cheeks. Lady Gore looked at her. She
+had never before seen in Rachel's face what she saw there now.</p>
+
+<p>"I must take off my things," the girl said, catching up her gloves and
+veil.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be very long," said her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll&mdash;I'll&mdash;see," Rachel said, and she suddenly bent over her mother
+and kissed her, then went quickly out by one door as the other was
+thrown open to admit a visitor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>Francis Rendel came into the room with his usual air of ceremony,
+amounting almost to stiffness. Then, as he realised that his hostess was
+alone, his face lighted up and he came eagerly towards her.</p>
+
+<p>"This <i>is</i> a piece of good fortune, to find you alone," he said. "I was
+afraid I should find you surrounded."</p>
+
+<p>"It is early yet," Lady Gore said, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, yes," Rendel said. "I must apologise for coming at this time,
+but I wanted very much to see you&mdash;&mdash;" He paused.</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to see you at any time," Lady Gore said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so good of you," he answered, in the tone of one who is thinking
+of the next thing he is going to say. There was a silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you enjoyed yourself at Maidenhead?" said Lady Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"Very, very much," Rendel answered with an air of penetrated conviction.
+There was another pause. Then he suddenly said, "Lady Gore&mdash;&mdash;" and
+stopped.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She waited a moment, then said gently, "Yes, I know. Rachel has been
+telling me."</p>
+
+<p>"She has! Oh, I am so glad," Rendel said. Then he added, finding
+apparently an extreme difficulty in speaking at all, "And&mdash;and&mdash;do you
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a modest way of putting it," said Lady Gore, smiling. "No, I
+don't mind. I am glad."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you really?" said Rendel, looking as if his life depended on the
+answer. "Do you mean that you really think you&mdash;you&mdash;could be on my
+side? Then it will come all right."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be on your side, certainly," said Lady Gore; "but I don't know
+that that is the essential thing. I am not, after all, the person whose
+consent matters most."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, I believe you are," Rendel said. "I verily believe that at
+this moment you come before any one else in the world." There was no
+need to say in whose estimation, or to mention Rachel's name.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps at this moment, as you say," said Lady Gore, "it is
+possible, but there is no reason why it should go on always."</p>
+
+<p>"She is absolutely devoted to you," Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel has a fund," her mother said, "of loyal devotion, of unswerving
+affection, which makes her a very precious possession."</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen it," said Rendel. "Her devotion to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>you and her father is
+one of the most beautiful things in the world, even though...."</p>
+
+<p>"Even...?" said Lady Gore, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she tell you what she said to me this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"I gathered, yes," Lady Gore replied, "both what you had said and her
+answer."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't take it as an answer," said Rendel. "I thought that I would
+come straight to you and ask you to help me, and that you would
+understand, as you always do, in the way that nobody else does."</p>
+
+<p>"Take care," said Lady Gore smiling, "that you don't blindly accept
+Rachel's view of her surroundings."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is not only Rachel who has taught me that," said Rendel, his
+heart very full. "It is you yourself, and your sympathy. I wonder," he
+went on quickly, "if you know what it has meant to me? You see, it is
+not as if I had ever known anything of the sort before. To have had it
+all one's life, as your daughter has, must be something very wonderful.
+I don't wonder she does not want to give it up."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore tried to speak more lightly than she felt. "She need not give
+it up," she said, with a somewhat quivering smile. "And you need not
+thank me any more," she went on. "I should like you to know what a great
+interest and a great pleasure it has been to me that you should have
+cared to come and see me as you have done, and to take me into your
+life." Rendel was going to speak, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>but she went on. "I have never had a
+son of my own. It was a great disappointment to me at first; I was very
+anxious to have one. I used to think how he and I would have planned out
+his life together, and that he might perhaps do some of the things in
+the world that are worth doing. You see how foolish I was," she ended,
+with a tremulous little smile.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, in spite of his gravity, experience and intuitive understanding,
+had a sudden and almost bewildering sense of a change of mental focus as
+he heard the wise, gentle adviser confiding in her turn, and confessing
+to foolish and unfulfilled illusions. He felt a passionate desire to be
+of use to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have been quite content if he had been like you," she said,
+and she held out her hand, which he instinctively raised to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You make me very happy," he said. "You make me hope."</p>
+
+<p>"But," she said, trying to speak in her ordinary voice, "&mdash;perhaps I
+ought to have begun by saying this&mdash;I wonder if Rachel is the right sort
+of wife for a rising politician?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is the right sort of wife for me," said Rendel. "That is all that
+matters."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid," Lady Gore said, "she isn't ambitious."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid!" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"She has no ardent political convictions."</p>
+
+<p>"I have enough for both," said Rendel.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and&mdash;such as she has are naturally her father's, and therefore
+opposed to yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we won't talk about politics," Rendel said, "and that will be a
+welcome relief."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid also," the mother went on, smiling, "that she is not abreast
+of the age&mdash;that she doesn't write, doesn't belong to a club, doesn't
+even bicycle, and can't take photographs."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a perfect woman!" ejaculated Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"In fact I must admit that she has no bread-winning talent, and that in
+case of need she could not earn her own livelihood."</p>
+
+<p>"If she had anything to do with me," said Rendel, "I should be ashamed
+if she tried."</p>
+
+<p>"She is not as clever as you are."</p>
+
+<p>"But even supposing that to be true," said Rendel, "isn't that a state
+of things that makes for happiness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied Lady Gore, "I believe that as far as women are concerned
+you are behind the age too."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite certain of it," Rendel said, "and it is therefore to be
+rejoiced over that the only woman I have ever thought of wanting should
+not insist on being in front of it."</p>
+
+<p>"The only woman? Is that so?" Lady Gore asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed," he said, with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"And you are&mdash;how old?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-two."</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds as if this were the real thing, I must say," she said, with a
+smile.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There is not much doubt of that," said he quietly. "There never was any
+one more certain than I am of what I want."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a step towards getting it," Lady Gore said.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it is," he said fervently. "You have told me all the things
+your daughter has not&mdash;that I am thankful she hasn't&mdash;but I know,
+besides, the things she has that go to make her the only woman I want to
+pass my life with&mdash;she is everything a woman ought to be&mdash;she really
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young friend," said Lady Gore, with a shallow pretence of
+laughing at his enthusiasm, "you really are rather far gone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, "there is no doubt about that. I have not, by the
+way, attempted to tell you about things that are supposed to matter more
+than those we have been talking about, but that don't matter really
+nearly so much&mdash;I mean my income and prospects, and all that sort of
+thing. But perhaps I had better tell Sir William all that."</p>
+
+<p>"You can tell him about your income," said Lady Gore, "if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"I have enough to live upon," the young man said. "I don't think that on
+that score Sir William can raise any objection."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hope he won't on any other," she replied. "We must tell him what
+he is to think."</p>
+
+<p>"And my chances of getting on, though it sounds absurd to say so, are
+rather good," he went on. "Lord Stamfordham will, I know, help me
+when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>ever he can; and I mean to go into the House, and then&mdash;oh, then it
+will be all right, really."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the door opened and Sir William came in.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the very person we wanted," his wife said.</p>
+
+<p>"You want to apologise to me for the conduct of your party, I suppose,"
+said Gore to Rendel, half in jest, half in earnest, as he shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very sorry, Sir William," said Rendel, "if we've displeased you.
+Pray don't hold me responsible."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," said Lady Gore lightly, to give Rendel time, "one always holds
+one's political adversary responsible for anything that happens to
+displease one in the conduct of the universe."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Rendel, trying to hide his real anxiety, "that Sir
+William will try to forgive me for the action of my party, and
+everything else. Pray feel kindly towards me to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William looked at him inquiringly, affecting perhaps a more
+unsuspecting innocence than he was feeling. Rendel went on, speaking
+quickly and feeling suddenly unaccountably nervous.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come here to tell you&mdash;to ask you&mdash;&mdash;" He stopped, then went on
+abruptly, "This morning, at Maidenhead, I asked your daughter to marry
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"What, already?" said Sir William involuntarily. "That was very prompt.
+And what did she say?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said it was impossible," Rendel answered, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>encouraged more by
+Gore's manner and his general reception of the news than by his actual
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible, did she say?" said Sir William. "And what did you say to
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I should come here this afternoon," Rendel replied.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"That was prompter still," he said. "It looks as if you knew your own
+mind at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed, if ever a man did," said Rendel confidently. "And I really
+do believe that it was because she was a good daughter she said it was
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if it was, that's the kind that often makes an uncommonly good
+wife," Sir William said.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't doubt it," Rendel said, with conviction. "And I feel that if
+only you and Lady Gore&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, as the door opened gently, and Rachel appeared, in a fresh
+white summer gown. She stood looking from one to the other, arrested on
+the threshold by that strange consciousness of being under discussion
+which is transmitted to one as through a material medium. Then what
+seemed to her the full horror of being so discussed swept over her. Was
+it possible that already the beautiful dream that had surrounded her,
+that wonderful secret that she had hardly yet whispered to herself, was
+having the light of day let in upon it, was being handled, discussed, as
+though it were possible that others might share in it too?</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rendel read in her face what she was going through. He went forward
+quickly to meet her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," he said, putting his thoughts into words more literally
+than he meant, "that I have come too soon. I hope you will forgive me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather soon," Rachel answered, not quite knowing what she was
+saying.</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't say whether you forgive him or not, Rachel," said Sir
+William, whose idea of carrying off the situation was to indulge in the
+time-honoured banter suitable to those about to become engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask her to say too much at once," Lady Gore said quickly,
+realising far better than Rachel's father did what was passing in the
+girl's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I can't say very much yet," Rachel said hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want you to say very much," said Rendel, "or indeed anything if
+you don't want to," he ended somewhat lamely and entreatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Tarlton!" announced the servant, throwing the door open.</p>
+
+<p>The four people in the room looked at each other in consternation.
+Events had succeeded each other so quickly that no one had thought of
+providing against the contingency of inopportune visitors by saying Lady
+Gore was not at home. It was too late to do anything now. Miss Tarlton
+happily had no misgivings about her reception. It never crossed her mind
+that she could be unwelcome, especially to-day that she had brought with
+her some photo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>graphs taken from the Gores' own balcony some weeks
+before, on the occasion of some troops having passed along Prince's
+Gate. She had half suggested on that occasion that she should come, in
+order that she might have a post of vantage from which to take some of
+the worst photographs in London, and the Gores had not had the heart to
+refuse her. If she had had any doubt, however&mdash;which she had not&mdash;about
+her hosts' feelings in the matter, she would have felt that she had now
+made up for everything by bringing them the result of her labours, and
+that nothing could be more opportune or more agreeable than her entrance
+on this particular occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Tarlton was a single woman of independent means living alone, a
+destiny which makes it almost inevitable that there should be a
+luxuriant growth of individual peculiarities which have never needed to
+accommodate themselves to the pressure of circumstances or of
+companionship. She was perfectly content with her life, and none the
+less so although those to whom she recounted the various phases of it
+were not so content at second hand with hearing the recital of it. She
+was one of those fortunate persons who have a hobby which takes the
+place of parents, husband, children, relations&mdash;a hobby, moreover, which
+appears to afford a delight quite independent of the varying degrees of
+success with which it is pursued. Unhappily the joy of those who thus
+pursue a much-loved occupation is bound to overflow in words; and if
+they have no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>daily auditor within their own four walls, they are driven
+by circumstances to choose their confidants haphazard when they go out.
+Miss Tarlton's confidences, however, were all of an optimistic
+character: she inflicted on her hearers no grievances against destiny.
+She recorded her vote, so to speak, in favour of content, and thereby
+established a claim to be heard.</p>
+
+<p>To see her starting on one of her photographing expeditions was to be
+convinced that she considered the scheme of the universe satisfactory,
+as she went off with her felt hat jammed on to her head, with an air,
+not of radiant pleasure perhaps, but of faith in her occupation of
+unflinching purpose. With her camera slung on to her bicycle and her fat
+little feet working the pedals, she had the air of being the forerunner
+of a corps of small cyclist photographers. Life appealed to Miss Tarlton
+according to its adaptability to photography. For this reason she was
+not preoccupied with the complications of sentiment or of the softer
+emotions which not even the R&ouml;ntgen rays have yet been able to reproduce
+with a camera.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Lady Gore?" she said as she came in. "I am later than I
+meant to be. I was so afraid I should not get here to-day, but I knew
+how anxious you would be to see the photographs."</p>
+
+<p>"How kind of you!" Lady Gore said vaguely, for the moment entirely
+forgetting what the photographs were.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Tarlton, after greeting the other members <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>of the party, and making
+acquaintance with Rendel, all on her part with the demeanour of one who
+quickly despatches preliminaries before proceeding to really important
+business, drew off her gloves, displaying strangely variegated fingers,
+and proceeded to take from the case she was carrying photographs in
+various stages of their existence.</p>
+
+<p>"I have brought you the negatives of one or two," she said, holding one
+after another up to the light, "as I didn't wait to print them all. Ah,
+here is one. This is how you must hold it, look."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore tried to look at it as though it were really the photograph,
+and not the equilibrium of a most difficult situation, that she was
+trying to poise. Sir William was about to propose to Rendel to come down
+with him to his study, but Miss Tarlton obligingly included everybody at
+once in the concentration upon her photographs which she felt the
+situation demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Sir William," she said. "I am sure you will be interested in this
+one. That is Lord X. He is a little blurred, perhaps; still, when one
+knows who it is, it is a very interesting memento, really. Look, Miss
+Gore, this is the one I did when we were standing together. Do you
+remember?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes, of course," Rachel said. She did, as a matter of fact, very
+well remember the occasion, the length of time that had been necessary
+to adjust the legs of the camera, which appeared to have a miraculous
+power of interweaving themselves into the legs of the spectators; the
+piercing cry from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> Miss Tarlton at the feather of another lady's hat
+coming across the field of vision just as the troops came within focus;
+and a general sense of agitation which had prevented any one in the
+photographer's immediate surroundings from contemplating with a detached
+mind the military spectacle passing at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>"These plates are really too small," said Miss Tarlton; "I have been
+wishing ever since that I had brought my larger machine that day." Her
+hearers did not find it in their hearts to echo this wish. "Of course,
+though, a small machine is most delightfully convenient. It is so
+portable, one need never be without it. I am told there is quite a tiny
+one to be had now. Have you seen it, Sir William?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I haven't," said Sir William, in an entirely final and decided
+manner. Miss Tarlton turned to Rendel as though to ask him, but saw that
+he was standing apart with Rachel, apparently deep in conversation. She
+felt that it was rather hard on Rachel to be called away when she might
+have been enjoying the photographs.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know whether Mr. Rendel photographs?" she said to Lady Gore, in
+a more subdued tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know; I think not," Lady Gore said, amused in spite of
+herself at her husband's rising exasperation, although she was conscious
+of sharing it.</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel," said Sir William, obliged to let his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>feelings find vent in
+speech at the expense of his discretion, "Miss Tarlton is asking whether
+you photograph?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I don't," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I thought not," said Sir William, giving a sort of grunt of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"It is only..." said Miss Tarlton, who had relapsed into her photographs
+again, and was therefore constrained to speak in the sort of absent,
+maundering tone of people who try to frame consecutive sentences while
+they are looking over photographs or reading letters&mdash;"ah&mdash;this is the
+one I wanted you to see, Lady Gore&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes, I see," said Lady Gore, mendaciously as to the spirit, if not
+to the letter, for she certainly did not see in the negative held up by
+Miss Tarlton, which appeared to the untutored mind a square piece of
+grey dirty glass with confused black smudges on it, all that Miss
+Tarlton wished her to behold there. Then she became aware of a welcome
+interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Mr. Wentworth?" she said, putting down the photograph
+with inward relief, as a tall young man with a fair moustache and merry
+blue eyes came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Photographs?" he said, after exchanging greetings with his host and
+hostess, nodding to Rendel and bowing to Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lady Gore. "Now you shall give your opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted," he said. "I have got heaps of opinions."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you photograph?" said Miss Tarlton, with a spark of renewed hope.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say I don't," answered Wentworth. "I believe it is a
+charming pursuit."</p>
+
+<p>"It is an inexhaustible pleasure," said Miss Tarlton, with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you," said Wentworth, "on possessing it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Miss Tarlton solemnly, "I lead an extremely happy life. I
+take out my camera every day on my bicycle, and I photograph. When I get
+home I develop the photographs. I spend hours in my dark room."</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed a happy temperament," said Wentworth, "that can find
+pleasure in spending hours in a dark room."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever tried it?" said Miss Tarlton.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Wentworth. "In London in the winter, when it is foggy,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Miss Tarlton, again with unflinching gravity. "I don't think
+you quite understand what I mean. I mean in a photographic dark room,
+developing, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Wentworth. "When I am in a dark room in the winter I
+generally develop theories."</p>
+
+<p>"Develop what?" said Miss Tarlton.</p>
+
+<p>"Theories, about smuts and smoke, you know; things people write to the
+papers about in the winter," said Wentworth, whose idea of conversation
+was to endeavour to coruscate the whole time. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>is not to be wondered
+at, therefore, if the spark was less powerful on some occasions than on
+others.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Miss Tarlton, not in the least entertained.</p>
+
+<p>Wentworth, a little discomfited, could for once think of nothing to say.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said Miss Tarlton, still patiently pursuing her
+investigations in the same hopeless quarter, "you don't know the name of
+that quite, quite new and tiny machine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Machine? What sort of machine?" said Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"A camera," said Miss Tarlton, with an inflection in her tone which
+entirely eliminated any other possibility.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm afraid I don't," said Wentworth. "I don't know the name of any
+cameras, except that their family name is legion."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Miss Tarlton.</p>
+
+<p>"Legion," said Wentworth again, crestfallen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Miss Tarlton.</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley would be the man to ask," said Wentworth, desperately trying to
+put his head above the surface.</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley? Is that a shop?" said Miss Tarlton eagerly. "Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"A shop!" said Sir William, laughing. "I should like to see Pateley's
+face"&mdash;but the door opened before he completed his sentence, and his
+wish, presumably not formed upon &aelig;sthetic grounds, was fulfilled.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Robert Pateley was a journalist, and a successful man. Some people
+succeed in life because they have certain qualities which enlist the
+sympathy and co-operation of their fellow-creatures; others, without
+such qualities, yet succeed by having a dogged determination and power
+of push which make them independent of that sympathy and co-operation.
+Robert Pateley was one of the latter. When he was discussed by two
+people who felt they ought to like him, they said to one another, "What
+is it about Pateley that puts people off, I wonder? Why can't one like
+him more?" and then they would think it over and come to no conclusion.
+Perhaps it was that his journalism was of the very newest kind. He was
+certainly extremely able, although his somewhat boisterous personality
+and entirely non-committal conversation did not give at the first
+meeting with him the impression of his being the sagacious and
+keen-witted politician that he really was. Was it his laugh that people
+disliked? Was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>it his voice? It could not have been his intelligence,
+which was excellent, nor yet his moral character, which was blameless.
+In fact, in a quiet way, Pateley had been a hero, for he had been left,
+through his father's mismanagement of the family affairs, with two
+sisters absolutely on his hands, and he had never, since undertaking the
+whole charge of them, for one instant put his own welfare, advancement
+or interest before theirs. Absorbed in his resolute purpose, he had
+coolness of head and determination enough to govern his ambitions
+instead of letting himself be governed by them. The son of a solicitor
+in a country town, he had made up his mind that, as he put it to
+himself, he would be "somebody" some day. He had got to the top of the
+local grammar school, and tasted the delights of success, and he
+determined that he would continue them in a larger sphere. It is not
+always easy to draw the line between conspicuousness and distinction.
+Pateley, who went along the path of life like a metaphorical
+fire-engine, had very early become conspicuous; he had gone steadily on,
+calling to his fellow-creatures to get out of his way, until now, as
+steerer of the <i>Arbiter</i>, a dashing little paper that under his guidance
+had made a sudden leap into fame and influence, he was a personage to be
+reckoned with, and it was evident enough in his bearing that he was
+conscious of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the person who, almost as his name was on Sir William Gore's
+lips, came cheerfully, loudly, briskly into the room, including
+everybody in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>heartiest of greetings, stepping at once into the
+foreground of the picture, and filling it up.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I hear you say that you would like to see my face, Gore? How very
+polite of you! most gratifying!" he said with a loud laugh, which seemed
+to correspond to his big and burly person.</p>
+
+<p>"You did," said Sir William. "Wentworth says you know everything about
+photography."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! now, that," said Pateley, galvanised into real eagerness and
+interest as he turned round after shaking hands with Lady Gore, "I
+really do know at this moment, as I have just come from the Photographic
+Exhibition."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Miss Tarlton with an irrepressible cry, the ordinary
+conventions of society abrogated by the enormous importance of the
+information which she felt was coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me introduce you to Miss Tarlton," said Sir William. Miss Tarlton
+bowed quickly, and then proceeded at once to business.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know the name of a quite tiny camera?" she said; "the very
+newest?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said Pateley. "It is the 'Viator,' and I have just seen it." A
+sort of audible murmur of relief ran through the company at this burning
+question having been answered at last. "And it is only by a special
+grace of Providence," Pateley went on, "assisted by my high principles,
+that that machine is not in my pocket at this moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I wish it were!" said Miss Tarlton.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it may be before many days are over,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> said Pateley. "I
+never saw anything so perfect. And do you know, it takes a snapshot in a
+room even just as well as in the open air. If I had it in my hand I
+could snap any one of you here, at this moment, almost without your
+knowing anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad you haven't," Lady Gore couldn't help ejaculating.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who was showing it took one of me as I turned to look at it. It
+is perfectly wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>"And that in a room?" Miss Tarlton said, more and more awestruck. "And
+simply a snapshot, not a time exposure at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," Pateley said.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go and see it," Miss Tarlton said, and, notebook in hand, she
+continued with a businesslike air to write down the particulars
+communicated by Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite out of my depth," Lady Gore said to Wentworth. "What does a
+'time exposure' mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven knows," said Wentworth. "Something about seconds and things, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"I can never judge of how many seconds a thing takes," said Lady Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I can't," Wentworth replied. "The other day I thought we had
+been three-quarters of an hour in a tunnel and we had only been two
+minutes and a half."</p>
+
+<p>"Now then," Pateley said with a satisfied air, turning to Sir William,
+"I have cheered Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Tarlton on to a piece of extravagance." Sir
+William felt a distinct sense of pleasure. "I have persuaded her to buy
+a new machine."</p>
+
+<p>"The thing that amuses me," said Sir William with some scorn, having
+apparently forgotten which of his pet aversions had been the subject of
+the conversation, "is people's theory that when once you have bought a
+bicycle it costs you nothing afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a bicycle, Sir William, it is a camera," said Miss Tarlton,
+with some asperity.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, it is the same thing," Sir William said.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>The same thing?</i>" Miss Tarlton repeated, with the accent of one who
+feels an immeasurable mental gulf between herself and her interlocutor.</p>
+
+<p>"As to results, I mean," he said. Arrived at this point Miss Tarlton
+felt she need no longer listen, she simply noted with pitying tolerance
+the random utterance. "A camera costs very nearly as much to keep as a
+horse, what with films and bottles of stuff, and all the other
+accessories. And as for a bicycle, I am quite sure that you have to
+count as much for mending it as you do for a horse's keep."</p>
+
+<p>"The really expensive thing, though, is a motor," said Wentworth. "Lots
+of men nowadays don't marry because they can't afford to keep a wife as
+well as a motor."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, who was standing by Rachel's side at the tea-table, caught this
+sentence. He looked up at her with a smile. She blushed.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have no intention of keeping a motor," he said. Rachel said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you very angry with me?" Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure," she answered. "I think I am."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't be&mdash;after saving my life, too, this morning, in the boat."</p>
+
+<p>"Saving your life?" said Rachel, surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Rendel said. "By not steering me into any of the things we met on
+the Thames."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Rachel, smiling, "I am afraid even that was more your doing
+than mine, as you kept calling out to me which string to pull."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. But the extraordinary thing was that when you were told you
+did pull it," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, any one can do that," replied Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, it is not so simple," Rendel answered, thinking to
+himself, though he had the good sense at that moment not to formulate
+it, what an adorable quality it would be in a wife that she should
+always pull exactly the string she was told to pull.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been asking Sir William if I may come and speak to him...." he
+said in a lower tone. "He said I might." Rachel was silent. "You don't
+mind, do you?" he said, looking at her anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;don't know," Rachel said. "I feel as if I were not sure about
+anything&mdash;you have done it all so quickly&mdash;I can't realise&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said penitently, "I have done it all very quickly, I know, but
+I won't hurry you to give me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>any answer. My chief's going away
+to-morrow for ten days, and I am afraid I must go too, but may I come as
+soon as I am back again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel shyly.</p>
+
+<p>"And perhaps by that time," he said, "you will know the answer. Do you
+think you will?" Rachel looked at him as her hand lay in his.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, by that time I shall know," she said.</p>
+
+<p>As Rendel went out a few minutes later he was dimly conscious of meeting
+an agitated little figure which hurried past him into the room. Miss
+Judd was a lady who contrived to reduce as many of her fellow-creatures
+to a state of mild exasperation during the day as any female enthusiast
+in London, by her constant haste to overtake her manifold duties towards
+the human race. Those duties were still further complicated by the fact
+that she had a special gift for forgetting more things in one afternoon
+than most people are capable of remembering in a week.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Jane, how do you do?" said Lady Gore. "We have not seen you for
+an age."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Cousin Elinor, no," said Miss Judd, who always spoke in little
+gasps as if she had run all the way from her last stopping-place. "I
+have been so frightfully busy. Oh, thank you, William, thank you; but do
+you know, that tea looks dreadfully strong. In fact, I think I had
+really better not have any. I wonder if I might have some hot water
+instead? Thank you so much. Thank you, dear Rachel&mdash;simply water,
+nothing else."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't sound a very reviving beverage," said Lady Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but it is, I assure you," said Miss Judd. "It is wonderful. And,
+you see, I had tea for luncheon, and I don't like to have it too often."</p>
+
+<p>"Tea for luncheon?" said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, at an A&euml;rated Bread place," she replied, "near Victoria. I have
+been leaving the canvassing papers for the School Board election, and I
+had not time to go home."</p>
+
+<p>"What it is to be such a pillar of the country!" said Lady Gore
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"You may laugh, Cousin Elinor," Miss Judd said, drinking her hot water
+in quick, hurried sips, "but I assure you it is very hard work. You see,
+whatever the question is that I am canvassing for, I always feel bound
+to explain it to the voters at every place I go to, for fear they should
+vote the wrong way: and sometimes that is very hard work. At the last
+General Election, for instance, I lunched off buns and tea for a
+fortnight."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord!" said Sir William to Pateley as they stood a little apart.
+"Imagine public opinion being expounded by people who lunch off buns!"</p>
+
+<p>"And the awful thing, do you know," said Pateley laughing, "is that I
+believe those people do make a difference."</p>
+
+<p>"It is horrible to reflect upon," said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," said Pateley, with a laugh, "your side is going in for the
+sex too, I see. Is it true that you are going to have a Women's Peace
+Crusade?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sir William with an expression of disgust, "I believe that
+it is so. <i>My</i> womenkind are not going to have anything to do with it, I
+am thankful to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I saw about that Crusade," said Wentworth, joining them, "in
+the <i>Torch</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't believe too firmly what the <i>Torch</i> says&mdash;or indeed any
+newspaper&mdash;ha, ha!" said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad not to believe all that I see in the <i>Arbiter</i>, this
+morning," Sir William said. "Upon my word, Pateley, that paper of yours
+is becoming incendiary."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that we are being particularly incendiary," said Pateley,
+with the comfortable air of one disposing of the subject. "It is only
+that the world is rather inflammable at this moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we have had conflagrations enough at the present," said Sir
+William. "We want the country to quiet down a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it will do that all in good time," said Pateley. "I am bound to say
+things are rather jumpy just now. By the way, Sir William, I wonder if
+you know of any investment you could recommend?"</p>
+
+<p>Wentworth discreetly turned away and strolled back to Lady Gore's sofa.</p>
+
+<p>"I rather want to know of a good thing for my two sisters who are living
+together at Lowbridge. I have got a modest sum to invest that my father
+left them, and I should like to put it into something that is pretty
+certain, but, if possible, that will give them more than 2&nbsp;½ per
+cent."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why," said Sir William, "I believe I may know of the very thing. Only
+it is a dead secret as yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!" said Pateley, pricking up his ears. "That sounds promising. For
+how long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just for the moment," said Sir William. "But of necessity the whole
+world must know of it before very long."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if it really is a good thing let us have a day or two's start,"
+said Pateley laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, you shall," said Sir William. "You shall hear from me in a
+day or two."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>The days had passed. The great scheme of "The Equator, Ltd.," was before
+the world, which had received it in a manner exceeding Fred Anderson's
+most sanguine expectations. The possibilities and chances of the mine,
+as set forth by the experts, appeared to be such as to rouse the hopes
+of even the wary and experienced, and Anderson had no difficulty of
+forming a Board of Directors most eminently calculated to inspire
+confidence in the public&mdash;none the less that they were presided over by
+a man who, if not possessed of special business qualifications, was of
+good social position and bore an honourable name. Sir William Gore, the
+Chairman of the company, was well pleased. He invested largely in the
+undertaking. The savings of the Miss Pateleys, under the direction of
+their brother, had gone the same way. The <i>Arbiter</i> had indeed reason to
+cheer on the Cape to Cairo railway, which day by day seemed more likely
+of accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William, on the afternoon of the day when the success of the company
+was absolutely an assured fact, came back to his house from the city,
+satisfied <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>with the prospects of the "Equator," with himself, and with
+the world at large. He put his latchkey into the door and looked round
+him a moment before he went in with a sense of well-being, of rejoicing
+in the summer day. Then as he stepped into the house he became conscious
+that Rachel was standing in the hall waiting for him, with an expression
+of dread anxiety on her face. The transition of feeling was so sudden
+that for a moment he hardly realised what he saw&mdash;then quick as
+lightning his thoughts flew to meet that one misfortune that of all
+others would assail them both most cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel!" he said. "Is your mother ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the girl answered. "Oh, father, wait," she said, as Sir William
+was rushing past her, and she tried to steady her quivering lips. "Dr.
+Morgan is there."</p>
+
+<p>"Morgan&mdash;you sent for him...." said Gore, pausing, hardly knowing what
+he was saying. "Rachel ... tell me...?"</p>
+
+<p>"She fainted," the girl said, "an hour ago. And we couldn't get her
+round again. I sent&mdash;ah! there he is coming down." And a steady, slow
+step, sounding to the two listeners like the footfall of Fate, was heard
+coming down from above. Sir William went to meet the doctor, knowing
+already what he was going to hear.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Gore died that night, without regaining consciousness. Hers had
+been the unspeakable privilege of leaving life swiftly and painlessly
+without knowing that the moment had come. She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>had passed unconsciously
+into that awful gulf, without having had to stand for a moment
+shuddering on the brink. She had never dreaded death itself, but she had
+dreaded intensely the thought of old age, of a lingering illness and its
+attendant horrors. But none of these she had been called upon to endure:
+even while those around her were looking at the beautiful aspect of life
+that she presented to them the darkness fell, leaving them the memory
+only of that bright image. Her daughter's last recollection of her had
+been the caressing endearment with which Lady Gore had deprecated
+Rachel's remaining with her till Sir William's return&mdash;how thankful the
+girl was to have remained!&mdash;her husband's last vision of her, the
+smiling farewell with which she had sped him on his way in the morning,
+with a caution as to prudence in his undertakings. As he came back he
+had found himself telling her already in his mind, before he was
+actually in her presence, of what he had done. That was the thing which
+gave an edge to every action, to each fresh development of existence.
+Life was lived through again for her, and acquired a fresh aspect from
+her interest and sympathy, from her keen, humorous insight and
+far-seeing wisdom. But now, what would his life be without that light
+that had always shone on his path? He did not, he could not, begin to
+think about the future. He knew only that the present had crumbled into
+ruins around him. That, he realised the next morning when, after some
+snatches of uneasy sleep, he suddenly wakened with a sense of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>absolute
+horror upon him, before he remembered shuddering what that horror was.
+He had wanted to tell her about yesterday, about the "Equator," he said
+to himself with a dull aching pain almost like resentment&mdash;he wanted to
+have her approval, to have the sense that for her what he did was right,
+was wise. But he knew now in his heart, as he really had known all the
+time, that it was she who had been the wise one. And part of the horror,
+as the time went on, would be to realise that when she had gone out of
+the world something had gone out of himself too, which she had told him
+was there. And he had dreamt that it was true. But that would come when
+the details of misery were realised by him one by one, as after some
+hideous explosion it is not possible to see at once in the wreck made by
+the catastrophe all the ghastly confirmations of disaster that come to
+light with the days. The first days were not the worst, either for him
+or for Rachel, as each one of them afterwards secretly found. For though
+life had come to a standstill, had stopped dead, with a sudden shock
+that had thrown everything in it out of gear, there were at first new
+and strange duties to be accomplished that filled up the hours and kept
+the standards of ordinary existence at bay. There were letters of
+condolence to be answered, tributes of flowers to be acknowledged, sent
+by well-meaning friends moved by some impotent impulse of consolation,
+until the air became heavy with the scent of camellias and lilies.
+Rachel moved about in the darkened rooms, feeling as if the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>faint,
+sweet, overpowering perfume were a kind of anodyne, that was mercifully,
+during those early days, lulling her senses into lethargy. To the end of
+her days the scent of the white lily would bring back to her the feeling
+of actually living again through that first time of numbing grief. How
+many hours, how many days and nights she and her father had lived within
+that quiet sanctuary they could not have told&mdash;lived in the dark
+stillness, with one room, the stillest of all, containing the beloved
+something strangely aloof all that was left of the thing that had been
+their very life. Then out of that quiet hallowed darkness they came one
+dreadful day into the brilliant sunlight, a day that was lived through
+with the acutest pain of all, of which every detail seemed to have been
+arranged by a horrible cruel convention of custom in order to intensify
+the pangs of it. They drove at a foot's pace through the crowded, sunlit
+streets, with a shrinking agony of self-consciousness as one and another
+passer-by looked up for a moment at what was passing. "Look, Jim, 'ere's
+a funeral!" one small boy called to another&mdash;and Rachel, shuddering,
+buried her face in her hands and could have cried out aloud. Some men,
+not all, lifted their hats; two gaily-dressed women who were just going
+to cross stopped as a matter of course on the pavement and waited
+indifferently, hardly seeing what it was, until the obstruction had gone
+by, as they would have done had it been anything else. Rachel, leaning
+back by her father, trying to hide herself, yet felt as if she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>could
+not help seeing everything they met. Every step of the way was a slow
+torture. And oh, the return home! that drive, at a brisk trot this time,
+through the same crowded, unfeeling streets, which still retained the
+association of the former progress through them, the sense that now, as
+the coachman whipped up his horses, for every one save for the two
+desolate people who sat silently together inside the carriage, life
+might&mdash;indeed, would&mdash;throw off that aspect of gloom and go on as
+before! And then the worst moment of all, the finding on their return
+that the house had taken on a ghastly semblance of its usual aspect,
+that the blinds were up, the windows open, the sun streaming in
+everywhere&mdash;the hard, cruel light, as it seemed to Rachel, shining into
+the rooms that were for evermore to be different.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the time which is incomparably the worst after a great
+loss, the time when, ordinary life being taken up again, the sufferer
+has the additional trial of too large an amount of leisure on his
+hands&mdash;the horror of all those new spare hours that used to be passed in
+a companionship that is gone, that must be filled up with something
+fresh unless they are to stand in wide, horrible emptiness, to assail
+recollection with unendurable grief. And especially in that house were
+they empty, where the existence of both father and daughter had revolved
+round that of another to a greater extent than that of most people. The
+problem of how to readjust the daily conditions was a hard, hard one to
+solve, harder obviously for Sir William than it was for Rachel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> The
+girl was uplifted in those days by the sense that, however difficult she
+might find it to carry out in detail, the general scheme of her life lay
+clear before her. She was going to devote it to her father, she was
+going to carry out that unmade promise, which she now considered more
+binding on her than ever, although her mother had warned her against
+making it, the promise that her father should come first. But the
+warning at the moment it was made had not been accepted by Rachel, and
+in the exaltation of her self-sacrifice it was forgotten now. She saw
+her way, as she conceived, plainly in front of her. Rendel, with his
+usual understanding and wisdom, did not obtrude himself on her during
+those days. He had quite made up his mind not to ask for her decision
+until there might be some hope of its being made in his favour. He had
+felt Lady Gore's death as acutely as though he had the right of kinship
+to grieve for her. He was miserably conscious that something inestimably
+precious had gone out of his life, almost before he had had time to
+realise his happiness in possessing it. But neither he nor Rachel
+understood what Lady Gore's death had meant to Sir William. And the poor
+little Rachel, rudderless, bewildered, tried to do the best she could
+for her father's life by planning her own with absolute reference to it,
+by putting at his disposal all the bare, empty hours available for
+companionship which up to now had been so straitly, so tenderly, so
+happily filled. And he on his side, conscious of some of her purpose,
+but unaware of the extent to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>which she carried her deliberate intention
+of consecrating herself to him, of bearing the burden of his destiny,
+believed that he had to bear the overwhelming burthen of guiding hers.
+Instead of going in the late afternoon hours of those summer days to his
+club, where he would have found some companionship that was not
+associated with his grief, and passing an hour agreeably, he wistfully
+went home, feeling that Rachel would be expecting him. And Rachel on her
+side felt it a duty to put away any regular occupation that might have
+proved engrossing, and so to ordain her life that she should be always
+ready and at her father's orders if he should appear. And, thus
+deliberately cutting themselves loose from such minor anchorages as they
+might have had, they tried to delude themselves into the belief that not
+only was such makeshift companionship a solace, but that it actually was
+able to replace that other all-satisfying companionship they had lost.
+But they knew in their hearts, each of them, that it was not so. And Sir
+William realised, more perhaps than Rachel did, that it never could be.
+The relation between a father and daughter, when most successful, is
+formed of delightful discrepancies and differences, supplementing one
+another in the things that are not of each age. It means a protecting
+care on the side of the father, an amused tender pride in seeing the
+younger creature developing an individuality which, however, is hardly
+in the secret soul of the elder one quite realised or believed in. The
+expe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>rience of the man in such a relation has mainly been derived from
+women of his own standing; his judgment of his daughter is apt to be a
+good deal guesswork. The daughter, on the other hand, brings to the
+relation elements necessarily and absolutely absent on the other side.
+If she cares for her father as he does for her, she looks up to him, she
+admires him, she accepts from him numberless prejudices and rules about
+the government of life, and acts upon them, taking for granted all the
+time that he cannot understand her own point of view. And yet, even so
+constituted, it can be one of the most beautiful and even satisfying
+combinations of affection the world has to show, provided the father has
+not known what it is to have the fulness of joy in his companionship
+with his wife, in that equal experience, mutual reliance, understanding
+of hopes and fears, which is impossible when the understanding is being
+interpreted through the imagination only, by one standing on a different
+plane of life. Neither Rachel nor her father had realised all this; but
+the mother with her acuter sensibilities had known, and had so
+deliberately set herself to fulfil her task that they had all these
+years been interpreted to one another, as it were, by that other
+influence that had surrounded them, that atmosphere through which
+everything was seen aright and in its most beautiful aspect. And the
+time came when Sir William suddenly grasped with a burning, startling
+vividness the fact that his life could not be the same again, that he
+must henceforth take it on a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>lower plane. The day was fine and
+bright&mdash;too warm, too bright; the hopeful light of spring had given
+place to the steady glare of summer. He had been used before to go out
+riding with Rachel in the early morning, in order to be back by the time
+Lady Gore was ready to begin her day. They had tacitly abandoned this
+habit now. Then one day it occurred to Sir William that it might be a
+good thing for Rachel to resume it. He proposed to her that they should
+go out as they used. She, in her inmost heart shrinking from it, but
+thinking it would be a satisfaction to him, agreed. He, shrinking from
+it as much as she did, thought to please her. And so they went out and
+rode silently side by side, overpowered by mute comparison of this day
+with days that had been. And when they got home they went each their own
+way, and made no attempt at exchanging words. Sir William went miserably
+to his study, his heart aching with a rush of almost unbearable sorrow
+as he thought of the bright little room upstairs to which he had been
+wont to hurry for the welcome that always awaited him. What should he do
+with his life? How should he fill it? he asked himself in a burst of
+grief, as he shut himself in. And so much had the theory, firmly
+believed in by himself and his wife, that he had by his own free will,
+and in order to devote his life to her, abandoned any quest of a public
+career become an absolute conviction in his mind, that he felt a dull
+resentment at having been so noble. He recognised now that it had been
+quixotic. He had let the time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>pass. Fifty-five! To be sure, in these
+days it is not old age; it may, indeed, under certain circumstances be
+the prime of life, for a man who has begun his career early, political
+or otherwise. Had this been Sir William's lot he could have sought some
+consolation, or at any rate alleviation, in his misfortune, by turning
+at once to his work and plunging into it more strenuously than before.
+But even that mitigation, for so much as it might be worth, was denied
+to him. And he sat there, trying to face the fact that seemed almost
+incredible to a man of what seemed to him his aptitudes and capacity,
+the awful fact that he had not enough to do to fill up his life. He did
+not state this pitiless truth to himself explicitly, but it was
+beginning to loom from behind a veil, and he would some day be forced to
+look at it. He could not start anything fresh. He had not the requisite
+impulse. He could have continued, he could not begin; the theatre of his
+actions, as Lady Gore had foreseen, had indeed fallen when she fell, and
+without it he could initiate no fresh achievements. Oh, to have had
+something definite to turn to in those days, something that called for
+instant completion! To have had some inexorable daily task, some duty
+for which he was paid, in a government office, or in some private
+undertaking of his own, for which he would have been obliged, like so
+many other men, to leave his house at a fixed hour, and to be absorbed
+in other preoccupations till his return. What a physical, material
+relief he would have found in such a claim!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> Round most men of his age
+life has woven many interests, many ties, many calls, on their time and
+energies from outside as well as from those near to them, but all those
+spare, available energies of his had been absorbed and appropriated,
+filled up, nearer home, and so completely that he had never needed
+anything else. And now, whither should he turn? What should he do? Then
+he remembered his Book, the Book his wife and he had been accustomed to
+talk of with such confidence, such certainty&mdash;he now realised how
+very little there was of it done, or how much of what might be fruitful
+in the conception was owing to the way that she, in their talking over
+it, had held it up to him, so that now one light played round it, now
+another. Well he remembered how, only two days before she was taken ill,
+they had talked of it for a long time until she, with an enthusiasm that
+made it seem already a completed masterpiece, had said with a smile,
+"Now then, all that remains is to write it!" And he had almost believed,
+as he left her, that it would spring into life some day, that it would
+not only hold the place in his life of the Great Possibility that is
+necessary to us all, but that he would actually put his fate to the
+proof by carrying it into execution. He took out the portfolio in which
+were the notes he had made about it now and again. They bore the seared
+outward aspect of an entirely different mental condition from that with
+which they came in contact now. What is that subtle, mocking change that
+comes over even the inanimate things <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>that we have not seen since we
+were happy, and now meet again in grief? It is like a horrible inversion
+of the golden touch given to Midas. To Gore, during those days, the
+darkness fell upon every fresh thing to which he went back. The
+impression was so strong on him as he turned over the manuscript, that
+he shuddered. What was the use of all this? What was it worth? He knew
+in his heart that the person of all others to whom it had been of most
+worth was gone&mdash;he would not be doing good to himself or to any one else
+by going on with it. He would be defrauding no one by letting the
+darkness cover it for ever. And another reason yet lay like cold lead at
+the bottom of his heart&mdash;the real, cruel, crushing reason&mdash;he could not
+write the book, he was not capable of writing it. That was the truth.
+And he desperately thrust the stray leaves into the cover, and the whole
+thing away from him, hopelessly, finally; there was nothing that would
+help him. That curtain would never lift again. And he covered his face
+with his hands as though trying to shut out the deadly knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>But of all this Rachel, as she sat waiting for her father at breakfast,
+was utterly unconscious. She did not realise the unendurable
+complications that had piled one misery on another to him. To her the
+wound had been terrible, but clean. The greatest loss she could conceive
+had stricken her life, but there were no secondary personal problems to
+add to it, no preoccupations of self apart from the one great
+desolation.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sir William turned over his letters listlessly as he sat down, opened
+them, and looked through them.</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to say to that?" he said, throwing one over to Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>The colour came into her cheeks as she saw that it was from Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"I have one from him too," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! well, I don't ask to see that," Sir William said, with an attempt
+at cheerfulness. "I know better."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather you saw it, really, father," and she handed him Rendel's
+letter to herself&mdash;a straightforward, dignified, considerate letter, in
+which he assured her that he did not mean to intrude himself upon her
+until she allowed him to come, and that all he asked was that she should
+understand that he was waiting, and would be content to wait, as long as
+there was a chance of hope.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when am I to tell him to come?" Sir William said.</p>
+
+<p>"Father, what he wants cannot be," Rachel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot be?" said Sir William. "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Rachel said, trying to command her voice, "I could not at this
+moment think of anything of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"At this moment, perhaps," Sir William said. "But you see he is not in a
+hurry. He says so, at any rate, though I am not sure that it is very
+convincing."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How would it be possible," said Rachel, "that I should go away? What
+would you do if I left you alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as to that," Sir William replied, speaking slowly in order that
+he might appear to be speaking calmly, "I don't know, in any case, what
+I shall do." And his face looked grey and worn, conveying to Rachel, as
+she looked across at him, an impression of helpless old age in the
+father who had hitherto been to her a type of everything that was
+capable and well preserved. She sprang up and went to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Father, dear father," she cried amidst her sobs, as she hid her face on
+his shoulder. "You know that you are more to me than any one else in the
+world. Let me help you&mdash;let me try, do let me try." And at the sound of
+the words Gore became again conscious of the immeasurable, dark gulf
+there was between what one human being had been able to do for him and
+what any other in the world could try to do. And his own sorrow rose
+darkly before him and swept away everything else&mdash;even the sorrow of his
+child. It was almost bitterly that he said, as if the words were wrung
+from him involuntarily&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody can help me now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father!" Rachel cried again miserably. "Let me try."</p>
+
+<p>"Darling, I know," he said, recollecting himself at the sight of her
+distress, "and you know what my little girl is to me; but there are some
+things <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>that even a daughter cannot do. And," he went on, "it would
+really be a comfort to me, I think, if"&mdash;he was going to say, "if you
+were married," but he altered it as he saw a swift change pass over
+Rachel's face&mdash;"if I knew you were happy; if you had a home of your own
+and were provided for."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that would be a comfort to you?" asked Rachel, trying to
+speak in an almost indifferent tone. "That you would be glad if I were
+to go away from you to a home of my own?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I think it would." And as he spoke he felt that the
+burden of giving Rachel companionship and trying to help her to bear her
+grief would be removed from him. "Besides," he went on, with an attempt
+at a smile, "it is not as if you would go far away from me altogether;
+you will only be a few streets off, after all. I could come to you
+whenever I wanted, and even&mdash;who knows?&mdash;I might sometimes ask you for
+your hospitality."</p>
+
+<p>"If I thought <i>that</i>&mdash;&mdash;" Rachel said, and caught herself up.</p>
+
+<p>"You know," her father said more seriously, "we have been discussing
+this from one point of view only, from mine; but you are the person most
+concerned, and I am taking for granted that, from your point of view, it
+would be the best thing to do&mdash;that you would be happy."</p>
+
+<p>"If I only thought," Rachel said, her face answering his last question,
+if her words did not,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> "that you would come to me&mdash;that you would be
+with me altogether&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt that you would find that I came to you very often,"
+said Sir William, with again a desolate sense of having no definite
+reason for being anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause before he said, "Then I'll tell him to come and see
+me, and perhaps he can see you afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Rachel, shrinking, "it is not possible yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Sir William, "I will tell him so. We will explain to him
+that, since he is willing to wait, for the moment he must wait."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>And Rendel waited&mdash;through the autumn, through the winter&mdash;but not
+without seeing Rachel again. On the contrary, every week that passed
+during that time was bringing him nearer to his goal. After the first
+visit was over, that first meeting under the now maimed and altered
+conditions of life, the insensible relief afforded to both father and
+daughter by his companionship, his unselfish devotion and helpfulness,
+his unfailing readiness to be a companion to Sir William, to come and
+play chess with him, or to sit up and do intricate patiences through the
+small hours of the morning, all this gradually made him insensibly slide
+into the position of a son of the house. And Rachel, convinced that she
+was doing the best thing for her father and admitting in her secret
+heart that for herself she was doing the thing that of all others would
+make her happy, yielded at last. They were married in April, and went
+away for a fortnight to a shooting-box lent them by Lord Stamfordham in
+the West of Scotland, leaving Sir William for the first time alone in
+the big, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>empty house. It was with many, many misgivings that Rachel had
+agreed to go; but her father had insisted on her doing so. He had
+vaguely thought that perhaps it would be a relief to him to be alone,
+but he found the solitude unbearable. Those acquaintances of Gore's who
+saw him at the club expressed in suitably tempered tones their pleasure
+at seeing him again, and, thinking he would rather be left alone,
+discreetly refrained from thrusting their society upon him when in
+reality he most needed it, remarking to one another that poor old Gore
+had gone to pieces dreadfully since his wife died. A great many people
+knew him, and liked him well enough, but he had no intimate friends.
+Pateley occasionally dropped in; but Pateley was too full of business to
+have leisure to help to fill up anybody else's time, and Sir William
+found the blank in his own house, the unchanging loneliness, almost
+unbearable.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Rendel and his wife were beginning that page of the book
+of life which Sir William had closed for ever. At last, that vision of
+the future to which Rendel had clung with such steadfast hope, with such
+unswerving purpose, had been fulfilled: Rachel was his wife. It was an
+unending joy to him to remember that she was there; to watch for her
+coming and going; to see the dainty grace of movement and demeanour, the
+sweet, soft smile&mdash;her mother's smile&mdash;with which she listened as he
+talked. And during those days he poured himself out in speech as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>he had
+never been able to do before. It was a relief that was almost ecstasy to
+the man who had been made reserved by loneliness to have such a
+listener, and the sense of exquisite joy and repose which he felt in her
+society deepened as the days went on. To Rachel, too, when once she had
+made up her mind to leave her father, these days were filled with an
+undreamt-of happiness. She was beginning to recover from the actual
+shock of her mother's death, although, even as her life opened to all
+the new impressions that surrounded her, she felt daily afresh the want
+of the tender sympathy and guidance that had been her stay; but another
+great love had happily come into her life at the moment she needed it
+most, and a love that was far from wishing to supplant the other. The
+memory of Lady Gore was almost as hallowed to Rendel as it was to his
+wife: it was another bond between them. They talked of her constantly,
+their reverent recollection kept alive the sense of her abiding,
+gracious influence.</p>
+
+<p>It was a new and wonderful experience to Rachel to have the burden of
+daily life lifted from her. She had been loved in her home, it is true,
+as much as the most exacting heart might demand, but since she was
+seventeen it was she who had had to take thought for others, to surround
+them with loving care and protection; she had always been conscious,
+even though not feeling its weight, of bearing the burden of some one
+else's responsibilities. And now it was all different. In the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>first
+rebound of her youth she seemed to be discovering for the first time
+during those days how young she was, in the companionship of one whose
+tender care and loving protection smoothed every difficulty, every
+obstacle out of her path. And all too fast the perfumed days of spring
+glided away, a spring which, on that side of Scotland, was balmy and
+caressing. Day after day the sun shone, the mist remained in the
+distance, making that distance more beautiful still; and everything
+within and without was irradiated, and like motes in the sunshine Rendel
+saw the golden possibilities of his life dancing in the light of his
+hopes and illuminating the path that lay before him.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel wrote to her father constantly, tenderly, solicitously; and Sir
+William, reading of her happiness, did not write back to tell her what
+those same days meant to him. For in London the sky was grey and heavy,
+and it was through a haze the colour of lead that he saw the years to
+come. The dark and cheerless winter had given place to a cold and
+cheerless spring.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rainy afternoon that the young couple returned to London; but
+the gloomy look of the streets outside did but enhance the brightness of
+the little house in Cosmo Place, Knightsbridge, with its open, square
+hall, in which a bright fire was blazing. Light and warmth shone
+everywhere. Rachel drew a long breath of satisfaction, then her eyes
+filled with tears. The very sight of London brought back the past. Could
+it be possible that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>her mother was not there to welcome her? She had
+thought her father might be awaiting her at Cosmo Place; but as he was
+not, she went off instantly to Prince's Gate. How big and lonely the
+house looked with its gaunt, ugly portico, its tall, narrow hall and
+endless stairs! The drawing-rooms were closed: Sir William was sitting
+in his study, a chess-board in front of him, on which he was working out
+a problem.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel was terribly perturbed at the change in his appearance&mdash;a
+something, she did not quite know in what it lay, that betokened some
+absolute change of outlook, of attitude. He had the listless,
+indifferent air of one who lets himself be drifted here and there rather
+than of one who moves securely along, strong enough to hold his own way
+in spite of any opposing elements. This fortnight of solitude, in which
+he had been face to face with his own life and his prospects, had
+suddenly, roughly, pitilessly graven on his face the lines that with
+other men successive experiences accumulate there gently and almost
+insensibly. He had taken a sudden leap into old age, as sometimes
+happens to men of his standing, who, as long as their life is smooth,
+uneventful, and prosperous, succeed in keeping an aspect of youth.
+Rachel's heart smote her at having left him; it reproached her with
+having known something like happiness in these days, and her old sense
+of troubled, anxious responsibility came back. She begged him to come
+and dine with them that evening. He demurred at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>first at making a third
+on their first night in their own house. Rachel protested, and overruled
+all his objections. She arrived at home just in time to dress for
+dinner, finding her husband surprised and somewhat discomfited at her
+prolonged absence. He had wanted to go proudly all over the house with
+her, and see their new domain. But as he saw her come up the stairs, he
+realised that black care had sprung up behind her again, that this was
+not the confiding, na&iuml;vely happy Rachel who had walked with him on the
+moors.</p>
+
+<p>"There you are!" he said. "I was just wondering what had become of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I was with my father," Rachel said, in a tone in which there was a
+tinge of unconscious surprise at what his tone had conveyed. "And,
+Francis, he looks so dreadfully ill!"</p>
+
+<p>"Does he?" said Rendel, concerned. "I am sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"He looks really broken down," she said, "and oh, so much older. I am
+sure it has been bad for him being alone all this time. I ought not to
+have stayed away so long."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it has not been very long," said Rendel with a natural feeling
+that two weeks had not been an unreasonable extension of their wedding
+tour.</p>
+
+<p>"He looks as if he had felt it so," she answered. "But at any rate, I
+have persuaded him to come to dinner with us to-night; I am sure it will
+be good for him."</p>
+
+<p>"To-night?" said Rendel, again with a lurking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>surprise that for this
+first night their privacy should not have been respected.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel. "You don't mind, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course not," he replied, again stifling a misgiving.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said Rachel, "I thought it might amuse him, and be a change
+for him, and then you might play a game of chess with him after dinner,
+perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," Rendel answered. But the misgiving remained.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, Sir William appeared, Rendel's heart almost smote him as
+Rachel's had done, he seemed so curiously broken down and dispirited.
+They talked of their Scotch experiences, they spoke a little of the
+affairs of the day, but, as Rendel knew of old, this was a dangerous
+topic, which, hitherto, he had succeeded either in avoiding altogether
+or in treating with a studied moderation which might so far as possible
+prevent Sir William's susceptibilities from being offended. Rachel sat
+with them after dinner while they smoked, then they all went upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then, father dear, where would you like to be?" she said, looking
+round the room for the most comfortable chair. "Here, this looks a very
+special corner," and she drew forward an armchair that certainly was in
+a most delightful place, looking as if it were destined for the master
+of the house, or, at any rate, the most privileged person in it, a
+comfortable armchair, with the slanting back that a man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>loves, and by
+it a table with a lamp at exactly the right height. "There," she said,
+pushing her father gently into it, "isn't that a comfortable corner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very," Sir William said, looking up at her with a smile. It truly was a
+delight to be tended and fussed over again.</p>
+
+<p>"And now you must have a table in front of you," she said, looking
+round. "Let me see&mdash;Frank, which shall the chess-table be? Is there a
+folding table? Yes, of course there is&mdash;that little one that we bought
+at Guildford. That one!"&mdash;and she clapped her hands with childish
+delight as she pointed to it.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel brought forward the little table and opened it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is exactly the thing," she cried. "See, father, it will just
+hold the chess-board. Now then, this is where it shall always
+stand&mdash;your own table, and your own chair by it."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is difficult to judge of any course of conduct entirely on its own
+merits, when it has a reflex action on ourselves. When Rendel before his
+marriage used to go to Prince's Gate and to see Rachel, absolutely
+oblivious of herself, hovering tenderly round her mother, watching to
+see that her father's wishes were fulfilled, that unselfish devotion and
+absorption in filial duty seemed to him the most entirely beautiful
+thing on this earth. But when, instead of being the spectator of the
+situation, he became an active participator in it, when the stream of
+Rachel's filial devotion was diverted from that of her conjugal duties,
+it unconsciously assumed another aspect in his eyes. But not for worlds
+would he have put into words the annoyance he could not help feeling,
+and Rachel was entirely unconscious of his attitude. The devoted,
+uncritical affection for her father which had grown up with her life was
+in her mind so absolutely taken for granted as one of the foundations of
+existence, that it did not even occur to her that Rendel might possibly
+not look at it in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>same light. She took for granted that he would
+share her attitude towards her father as he had shared her adoration for
+her mother. It was all part of her entire trust in Rendel, and the
+simple directness with which she approached the problems of life. She
+had, before her marriage, expressed an earnest wish, which Rendel
+understood as a condition, that even if her father did not wish to live
+with them, she might share in his life and watch over him, and Rendel
+had accepted the condition and promised that it should be as she wished.
+But it is obviously not the actual making of a promise that is the
+difficulty. If it were possible when we pledge ourselves to a given
+course for our imagination to show us in a vision of the future the
+innumerable occasions on which we should be called upon to redeem, each
+time by a conscious separate effort, that lightly given pledge of an
+instant, the stoutest-hearted of us would quail at the prospect. Rendel
+looked back with a sigh to those days, that seemed already to have
+receded into a luminous distance, when Rachel, alone with him in
+Scotland, with no divided allegiance, had given herself up, heart and
+mind, to the new happiness, the new existence, that was opening before
+her.</p>
+
+<p>The danger of pouring life while it is still fluid into the wrong mould,
+of letting it drift and harden into the wrong shape, is an insidious
+peril which is not sufficiently guarded against. It is easy enough to
+say, Begin as you mean to go on; but the difficulty is to know exactly
+the moment when you begin, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>when the point of going on has been
+arrived at; and of drifting gradually into some irremediable course of
+action from which it is almost impossible to turn back without
+difficulty and struggle. There had been a feeling that everything was
+somehow temporary during those first days at Cosmo Place, which extended
+into the weeks. Sir William held as a principle, and was quite genuine
+in his intention when he said it, that young people ought to be left to
+themselves. He would not, therefore, take up his abode under their roof,
+but still that he should do so eventually was felt by all concerned as a
+vague possibility which prevented in the young household a sense of
+having finally and comfortably settled down. Indeed, as it was, it was
+perhaps more unsettling to Rachel, and therefore to her husband, to have
+Sir William coming and going than it would have been to have him
+actually under the same roof. If he had been living with them his
+presence would have been a matter of course, and less constant
+companionship and diversion would probably have been considered
+necessary for him than they were when he dropped in at odd times. The
+advancing season and the grey dark mornings made the early rides
+impossible. Rachel in her secret soul did not regret them. Sir William
+had taken the habit of looking in at Cosmo Place on his way to Pall Mall
+and further eastward, and it always gave Rachel a pang of remorse if she
+found that by an unlucky chance she had been out of the way when he
+came. He would also sometimes come in on his way back, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>as has been
+said, in the obvious expectation of having a game of chess, of which
+Rendel, if he were at home, had not the heart to disappoint him. In
+these days there was not much occupation for him in the City. The
+excitement of starting and floating the "Equator" Company and the
+allotting of the shares to the eager band of subscribers had been
+accomplished some time since. The "Equator's" hour, however, had not
+come yet. The outlook in the City was not encouraging for those who knew
+how to read the weather chart of the coming days. The heart of the
+country was still beating fast and tumultuously after the emotions of
+the past two years; it needed a period of assured quiet to regain its
+normal condition. In the meantime the storm seemed to be subsiding. The
+great railway laying its iron grip on the heart of Africa was advancing
+steadily from the north as well as from the south: it was nearing the
+Equator. The country, its imagination profoundly stirred by the
+enterprise, watched it in suspense. But until the meeting of the two
+giant highways was effected, everything depended upon an equable balance
+of forces, of which a touch might destroy the equilibrium. German
+possessions and German forces lay perilously near the meeting of the two
+lines. At any moment a spark from some other part of the world might be
+wafted to Africa and set the fierce flame of war ablaze in the centre of
+the continent.</p>
+
+<p>The General Election was coming within measurable distance; the Liberal
+Peace Crusade was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>strenuously canvassing the country in favour of
+coming to a definite understanding with certain foreign powers.</p>
+
+<p>At the house in Cosmo Place it was no longer always possible, as on that
+first evening, to avoid the subject of politics.</p>
+
+<p>"I must say," said Rendel one night with enthusiasm&mdash;Stamfordham had
+made a big speech the day before of which the papers were
+full&mdash;"Stamfordham is a great speaker, and a great man to boot."</p>
+
+<p>"A great speaker, perhaps," Sir William said. "I don't know that that is
+entirely what you want from the man at the helm."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, proverbially it isn't," said Rendel, with a smile, determined to
+be good-humoured.</p>
+
+<p>"As to being a great man," continued Sir William, "anybody who knocks
+down everything that comes in his way and stands upon it looks rather
+big."</p>
+
+<p>"Even admitting that," said Rendel, "it seems to me that the
+determination and courage necessary to knock down what is in your way,
+when it can't be got out by any other method, is part of what makes a
+great statesman."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak," said Sir William, "as if he were a savage potentate."</p>
+
+<p>"In some respects," said Rendel, "the savage potentate and civilised
+ruler are inevitably alike. The ultimate ground, the ultimate arbiter of
+their empire, is force."</p>
+
+<p>"Empire!" said Sir William. "That is the cry!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> In your greed for empire
+you lose sight of everything but the aggrandisement of a dominion
+already so immense as to be unwieldy."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said Rendel, "as we have this big thing in our hands, it is
+better to keep it there than let it drop and break to pieces."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wish to let it drop," said Gore. "I wish to be content to
+increase it by friendly intercourse with the world, by the arts of peace
+and civilisation, and not by destruction and bloodshed."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," said Rendel, "that the savage, which, as you say too
+truly, still lurks in the majority of civilised beings, will not be
+content to see the world governed on those amiable lines."</p>
+
+<p>"There I must beg leave to differ from you," said Sir William, "I
+believe that the majority of civilised human beings will, when it has
+been put before them, be on the side of peace."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," Rendel said, with a smile which was perhaps not as
+conciliatory as he intended it to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you will see when the General Election comes," said Gore. "And if
+it goes for us, and we have a Cabinet composed of men who are not the
+mere puppets in the hands of an autocrat, the destinies of the world
+will be altered."</p>
+
+<p>"Father," said Rachel, "do you really think that is how the General
+Election will go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite possibly," Gore said, with decision. Rendel said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father!" said Rachel. "I wish that you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>were in Parliament! Suppose
+you were in the Government!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, my life as you know, was otherwise filled up," said Sir
+William, with a sigh; "but in that case the Imperialists perhaps might
+not have found everything such plain sailing." And so much had he
+penetrated himself with the conviction of what he was saying, that he
+felt himself, as he sat there opposite Rendel, whose wisdom and sagacity
+in reality so far exceeded his own, to be in the position of the older,
+wiser man of great influence and many opportunities condescending to
+explain his own career to an obscure novice.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel looked across at Rachel sitting opposite to him, listening to
+what her father said with her customary air of sweet and gentle
+deference, and then smiling at himself; and again he inwardly vowed
+that, for her sake, he would endure the daily pinpricks that are almost
+as difficult to bear in the end as one good sword-thrust.</p>
+
+<p>"I must say it will be interesting to see who goes out as Governor of
+British Zambesiland," he said presently, looking up from the paper.
+"That will be a big job if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hope they will find a big man to do it," said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard to-day," said Rendel, "that it would probably be Belmont."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he'll be a firebrand Governor after Stamfordham's own heart,"
+said Gore. "It's absurd sending all these young men out to these
+important posts."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is rather Stamfordham's theory," said Rendel&mdash;"to have youngish
+men, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"If he would confine himself to theories," said Sir William, "it would
+be better for England at this moment."</p>
+
+<p>"It might, however, interfere with his practical use as a Foreign
+Secretary," Rendel was about to say, but he checked the words on his
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner that evening he remained downstairs under pretext of
+writing some letters, while Rachel proposed to her father to give her a
+lesson in chess.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel turned on the electric light in his study, shut the door, stood
+in front of the fire and looked round him with a delightful sense of
+possession, of privacy, of well-being. His new house&mdash;indeed, one might
+almost have said his new life&mdash;was still so recent a possession as to
+have lost none of its preciousness. He still felt a childish joy in all
+its details. The house was one of those built within the last decade
+which seem to have made a struggle to escape the uniformity of the older
+streets. The front door opened into a square hall, from the left side of
+which opened the dining-room, from the right the study, both of these
+rooms having bow windows, built with that broad sweep of curve which
+makes for beauty instead of vulgarity. The house, Rendel had told his
+wife with a smile when they came to it, he had furnished for her, with
+the exception of one room in it; the study he had arranged for himself.
+And it certainly was a room in which, to judge by appearances, a worker
+need never be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>stopped in his work by the paltry need of any necessary
+tool. Rendel was a man of almost exaggerated precision and order.
+Everything lay ready to his hand in the place where he expected to find
+it. A glance at his well-appointed writing-table gave evidence of it.
+The back wall of the study, opposite the window, was lined with books.
+On the wall over the fireplace hung a large map of Africa. Rendel looked
+intently at it as he thought of the stirring pages of history that were
+in the making on that huge, misshapen continent, of the field that it
+was going to be for the statesmen and administrators of the future: he
+thought of Lord Belmont, only two years older than himself, with whom he
+had been at Eton and at Oxford, and wondered what it felt like to be in
+his place and have the ball at one's feet. For Rendel in his heart was
+burning with ambition of no ignoble kind. He was burning to do, to act,
+and not to watch only; to take his part in shaping the destinies of his
+fellow-men, to help the world into what he believed to be the right
+path; and he would do it yet. In his mind that evening, as he stood
+upright, intent, looking on into the future, there was not the shadow of
+a doubt that he would carry out his purpose. He had come downstairs
+smarting under the impression of Sir William's last words when they were
+discussing the new Governor. Then he recovered, and reminded himself of
+the obvious truism that the man occupied with politics must school
+himself to have his opinions contradicted by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>his opponents, and must
+make up his mind that there are as many people opposed to his way of
+thinking in the world as agreeing with it. But it is one thing to engage
+in a free fight in the open field, and another to keep parrying the
+petty blows dealt by a persecuting antagonist. Day by day, hour by hour,
+as the time went on, Rendel had to make a conscious effort to keep to
+the line he had traced out for himself; he had to tighten his
+resolution, to readjust his burden. The yoke of even a beloved
+companionship may be willingly borne, but it is a yoke and a restraint
+for all that. But Rendel would not have forgotten it. He accepted the
+lot he had chosen, unspeakably grateful to Rachel for having bestowed
+such happiness on him, ready and determined to fulfil his part of the
+compact, to carry out, even at the cost of a daily and hourly sacrifice,
+the bargain he had made. And, after all, as long as he made up his mind
+that it did not signify, he could well afford, in the great happiness
+that had fallen to his lot, to disregard the minor annoyances. His life,
+his standards, should be arranged on a scale that would enable him to
+disregard them. If one is only moving along swiftly enough, one has
+impetus to glide over minor impediments without being stopped or turned
+aside by them. For Rachel's sake all would be possible, it would be
+almost easy. At any rate, it should be done. Rendel's will felt braced
+and strengthened by his resolve, and he knew that he would be master of
+his fate. There are certain moments in our lives <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>when we stop at a
+turning, it may be, to take stock of our situation, when we look back
+along the road we have come&mdash;how interminable it seemed as we began
+it!&mdash;and look along the one we are going to travel, prepared to start
+onward again with a fresh impulse of purpose and energy. That night, as
+Rendel looked on into the future, he felt like the knight who, lance in
+rest but ready to his hand, rides out into the world ready to embrace
+the opportunity that shall come to him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>The opportunity that came that night was ushered in somewhat
+prosaically, not by the sound of a foeman's horn being wound in the
+distance, but by the postman's knock. There was only one letter, but
+that was an important looking one addressed to Rendel, in a big, square
+envelope with an official signature in the corner. It was, however,
+marked "private and confidential," and was not written in an official
+capacity. Rendel as he looked at it, saw that the signature was
+"Belmont." In an instant as he unfolded the page his hopes leapt to meet
+the words he would find there. Yes, Lord Belmont was going to be
+Governor of Zambesiland; that was the beginning. And what was this that
+followed? He asked Rendel whether, if offered the post of Governor's
+Secretary, practically the second in command, he would accept it and go
+out to Africa with him. The offer, which meant a five years'
+appointment, was flatteringly worded, with a mention of Lord
+Stamfordham's strong recommendation which had prompted it, and wound up
+with an earnestly expressed hope that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> Rendel would not at any rate
+refuse without having deeply considered it. Belmont, however, asked for
+a reply as soon as was consistent with the serious reflection necessary
+before taking the step. Rendel looked at the clock. It was half-past
+nine. He need not write by post that night, he would send round the
+first thing in the morning. That would do as well. At this particular
+moment he need do nothing but look the thing in the face. Serious
+consideration it should have, undoubtedly, though that was not needed in
+order to come to a decision. He was not afraid of gazing at this new
+possibility that had just swum into his ken. The moment that comes to
+those who are going to achieve, when the door in the wall, showing that
+glorious vista beyond, suddenly opens to them, is fraught with an
+excited joy which partakes at once of anticipation and of fulfilment,
+and is probably never surpassed when in the fulness of time the
+opportunities come even too fast on each other's heels, and it has
+become a foregone conclusion to take advantage of them. There is no
+moment of outlook that has the charm of that first gaze from afar, when
+the deep blue distances cloak what is lovely and unlovely alike and
+merge them all into one harmonious and inviting mystery. Rendel was in
+no hurry for that curtain of mysterious distance to lift: possibility
+and success lay behind it. He relished with an exquisite pleasure the
+sense of having a dream fulfilled. The crucial moment that comes to
+nearly all of us of having to compare the place that others <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>assign to
+us in life with that which we imagined we were entitled to occupy, is to
+some fraught with the bitterest disappointment. The sense of having
+cleared successfully that great gulf which lies between one's own
+appreciation of oneself and that of other people is one of rapture.
+Rendel had been so short a time married, and had had so few
+opportunities during that time of being called upon for any decision,
+that it was an entirely new sensation to him to remember suddenly that
+this was a thing which concerned somebody else as well as it did
+himself. But the thought was nothing but sweet; it meant that there was
+somebody now by his side, there always would be, to care for the things
+that happened to him; and Rachel, too, would be borne up on the wave of
+excitement and rejoicing that was shaking Rendel, to his own surprise,
+so strangely out of his usual reserved composure. He sat down
+mechanically at his writing-table and drew a sheet of writing-paper idly
+towards him, wondering how he should formulate his reply. To his great
+surprise and somewhat shamefaced amusement, he found that his hand was
+shaking so that he could not control the pen. He would go up before
+writing and tell Rachel. Then, as he went upstairs, he was conscious of
+a secret annoyance that a third person should just at this moment be
+between them.</p>
+
+<p>A profound silence reigned as he opened the drawing-room door. Rachel
+and her father were poring intently over the chess-board. Rachel looked
+up eagerly as her husband came in.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Francis," she said, "I am so glad. Do come and tell me what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I wish you would," Sir William said, with some impatience. "Look
+what she is doing with her queen."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that a letter you want to show me?" said Rachel, looking at the
+envelope in Rendel's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. It will keep," he said quietly, putting it back in his
+breast pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William kept his eyes intently fixed upon the board. He would not
+countenance any diversion of fixed and rigid attention from the game in
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I should do," said Rendel, moving one of Rachel's pawns on
+to the back line.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! how splendid!" said Rachel. "I believe I have a chance after all."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William gave a grunt of satisfaction. "That's more like it," he
+said. "If you had come up a little sooner we might have had a decent
+game."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel made no comment. The game ended in the most auspicious way
+possible. Rachel, backed by Rendel's advice, showed fight a little
+longer and left the victory to Sir William in the end after a desperate
+struggle. The hour of departure came. Rachel and her husband both went
+downstairs with Sir William. They opened the door. It was a bright,
+starlight night. Sir William announced his intention of walking to a
+cab, and with his coat buttoned up against the east wind, started off
+along the pavement. Rachel turned back into the house with a sigh as she
+saw him go.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He is getting to look much older, isn't he?" she said. "Poor dear, it
+is hard on him to have to turn out at this time of night."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel vaguely heard and barely took in the meaning of what she was
+saying. His one idea was that now he would be able to tell her his news.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in here," he said, drawing her into the study. "I want to tell you
+something." And he made her sit down in his own comfortable chair. "I
+have had a letter this evening," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you?" said Rachel, looking up at him in surprise at the unusual
+note of joyousness, almost of exultation, in his tone. "What is it
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall read it," he said, giving it to her. Her colour rose as she
+read on.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what an opportunity!" she said, and a tinge of regret crept
+strangely into her voice. "What a pity!"</p>
+
+<p>"A pity?" said Rendel, looking at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said. "It would have been so delightful."</p>
+
+<p>"Would have been?" said Rendel, still amazed. "Why don't you say 'will
+be'? Do you mean to say you don't want to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think <i>I</i> could go," Rachel said, with a slight surprise in her
+voice. "How could I?"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel said nothing, but still looked at her as though finding it
+difficult to realise her point of view.</p>
+
+<p>"How could I leave my father?" she said, putting into words the thing
+that seemed to her so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>absolutely obvious that she had hardly thought it
+necessary to speak it.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you couldn't?" Rendel said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank, how would it be possible?" she said. "We could not leave him
+alone here, and it would be much, much too far for him to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. I had not thought of his attempting it," said Rendel,
+truthfully enough, with a sinking dread at his heart that perhaps after
+all the fair prospect he had been gazing upon was going to prove nothing
+but a mirage.</p>
+
+<p>"You do agree, don't you?" she said, looking at him anxiously. "You do
+see?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am trying to see," Rendel said quietly. For a moment neither spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I couldn't," Rachel said. "I simply couldn't!" in a heartfelt tone
+that told of the unalterable conviction that lay behind it. There was
+another silence. Rendel stood looking straight before him, Rachel
+watching him timidly. Rendel made as though to speak, then he checked
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, isn't it a pity it was suggested!" Rachel cried involuntarily.
+Rendel gave a little laugh. It was deplorable, truly, that such an
+opportunity should have come to a man who was not going to use it.</p>
+
+<p>"But could not <i>you</i>&mdash;&mdash;" she began, then stopped. "How long would it be
+for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, about five years, I suppose," said Rendel, with a sort of aloofness
+of tone with which people <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>on such occasions consent to diverge for the
+moment from the main issue.</p>
+
+<p>"Five years," she repeated. "That would be too long."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, five years seems a long time, I daresay," said Rendel, "as one
+looks on to it."</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering," she said hesitatingly, "if it wouldn't have been
+better that you should have gone."</p>
+
+<p>"I? Without you, do you mean?" Rendel said. "No, certainly not. That I
+am quite clear about."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank, I should not like it if you did," she said, looking up at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I need not say that I should not." There was another silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Should you like it very, very much?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Like what?" said Rendel, coming back with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Going to Africa."</p>
+
+<p>There had been a moment when Rendel had told Lady Gore how glad he was
+that Rachel had no ambitions, as producing the ideal character. No doubt
+that lack has its advantages&mdash;but the world we live in is not, alas,
+exclusively a world of ideals.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I should like it," he replied quietly. "If you went too, that
+is&mdash;I should not like it without you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank, it <i>is</i> a pity," she said, looking up at him wistfully. But
+there was evidently not in her mind the shadow of a possibility that the
+question could be decided other than in one way.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come, it is getting late," Rendel said. And they left the room with the
+outward air of having postponed the decision till the morning. But the
+decision was not postponed; that Rachel took for granted, and Rendel had
+made up his mind. This was, after all, not a new sacrifice he was called
+upon to make: it was part of the same, of that sacrifice which he had
+recognised that he was willing to make in order to marry Rachel, and
+which was so much less than that other great and impossible sacrifice of
+giving her up.</p>
+
+<p>He came down early the next morning and wrote to Lord Belmont, meaning
+when Rachel came down to breakfast to show her the letter, in which he
+had most gratefully but quite decisively declined the honour that had
+been done him. He read the letter over feeling as if he were in a dream,
+and almost smiled to himself at the incredible thought that here was the
+first big opportunity of his life and that he was calmly putting it away
+from him. Perhaps when he came to talk it over with Rachel again she
+might see it differently. Might she? No. He knew in his heart that she
+would not. It was probable that Rendel's ambition, his determined
+purpose, would always be hampered by his old-fashioned, almost quixotic
+ideas of loyalty, his conception of the seemliness, the dignity of the
+relations between husband and wife. In a matter that he felt was a
+question of right or wrong he would probably without hesitation have
+used his authority and decided inflexibly that such and such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>a course
+was the one to pursue; but here he felt it was impossible. It would not
+be consistent with his dignity to use his authority to insist upon a
+course which, though it might be to his own advantage, was undeniably an
+infringement of the tacit compact that he had accepted when he married.
+With the letter in his hand he went slowly out of the study. Rachel was
+coming swiftly down the stairs into the hall, dressed for walking,
+looking perturbed and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," she said hurriedly, "I have just had a message from Prince's
+Gate, my father is ill."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," Rendel said with concern.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go there directly," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you breakfasted?" asked Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said. "At least I have had a cup of tea&mdash;quite enough."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Rendel, "that isn't enough. Come, it's absurd that you should
+go out without breakfasting."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't really," Rachel said entreatingly. "I must go."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" Rendel said decidedly. "You are not to go till you have had
+some breakfast." And he took her into the dining-room and made her eat.
+But this, as he felt, was not the moment for further discussion of his
+own plans. He saw how absolutely they had faded away from her view.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall follow you shortly," he said, "to know how Sir William is."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do," she said. "You can't come now, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a letter to write first. I must write to Lord Belmont."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, of course," she said, with a sympathetic inflection in her
+voice. "Oh, Frank, how terrible it would have been if you had been going
+away now!" And she drew close to him as though seeking shelter against
+the anxieties and troubles of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am not," said Rendel quietly. And she looked back at him as she
+drove off with a smile flickering over her troubled face.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel turned back into the house. There was nothing more to do, that
+was quite evident. He fastened up the letter to Belmont and sent it
+round to his house, also writing to Stamfordham a brief letter of thanks
+for his good offices and regrets at not being able to avail himself of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Later he went to Prince's Gate. Sir William was a little better. It was
+a sharp, feverish attack brought on by a chill the night before. It
+lasted several days, during which time Rachel was constantly backwards
+and forwards at Prince's Gate, and at the end of which she proposed to
+Rendel that her father should, for the moment, as she put it, come to
+them to Cosmo Place.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Stamfordham, surprised at Rendel's refusal of the
+opportunity he had put in his way, had sent for him to urge him to
+re-consider his decision while there was yet time. Rendel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>found it very
+hard to explain his reasons in such a way that they should seem in the
+least valid to his interlocutor. Stamfordham, although he was well aware
+that Rendel had married during the spring, had but dimly realised the
+practical difference that this change of condition might bring into the
+young man's life and into the code by which his actions were governed.
+He himself had not married. He had had, report said, one passing fancy
+and then another, but they had never amounted to more than an impulse
+which had set him further on his way; there had never been an attraction
+strong enough to deflect him from his orbit. With such, he was quite
+clear, the statesman should have nothing to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said, after listening to what Rendel had to say, "I
+should be the last person to wish to persuade you to take a course
+contrary to Mrs. Rendel's wishes, but still such an opportunity as this
+does not come to every man."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"I never was married," Stamfordham went on, "but I have not understood
+that matrimony need necessarily be a bar to a successful career."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor have I," Rendel said, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see. How long have you been married?"</p>
+
+<p>"Four months," Rendel replied.</p>
+
+<p>"As I told you, I am inexperienced in these matters," Stamfordham said,
+"but perhaps while one still counts by months it is more difficult to
+assert one's authority."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My wife," said Rendel, "does not wish to leave her father, who is in
+delicate health. Sir William Gore, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sir William Gore, yes," said Stamfordham, with an inflection which
+implied that Sir William Gore was not worth sacrificing any possible
+advantages for.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very, very sorry," Rendel said gravely. "I would have given a
+great deal to have been going to Africa just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. There will be infinite possibilities over there as soon as
+things have settled down," said Stamfordham. And he looked at a table
+that was covered with papers of different kinds, among them some notes
+in his own handwriting, and said, "Pity my unfortunate secretaries! I
+don't think I have ever had any one who knew how to read those
+impossible hieroglyphics as you did."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether I ought to say I am glad or sorry to hear that,"
+said Rendel, as he went towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do if you don't go to Africa?" Stamfordham said.</p>
+
+<p>"Something else, I hope," said Rendel, with a look and an accent that
+carried conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't you go into the House?" said Stamfordham.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to try," Rendel said. Then as he went out he turned round and
+said, "I daresay, sir, there are still possibilities in Europe, after
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely," said Stamfordham; and they parted.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One of the most difficult tasks of the philosopher is not to regret his
+decisions. The mind that has been disciplined to determine quickly and
+to abide by its determination is one of the most valuable instruments of
+human equipment. But it certainly needed some philosophy on Rendel's
+part, during the period that elapsed between his refusal of Lord
+Belmont's offer and the departure of the newly appointed governor, not
+to regret that he himself was remaining behind. Day by day the papers
+were full of the administrators who were going out, of their
+qualifications, of their responsibilities. Day by day Rendel looked at
+the map hanging in his study and wondered what transformations the
+shifting of circumstances would bring to it.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William Gore, in the meantime, had got better. He had slowly thrown
+off the fever that had prostrated him, although he was not able to
+resume his ordinary life. He had demurred a little at first to the
+proposal that he should take up his abode at Cosmo Place, then, not
+unwillingly, had yielded. In his ordinary state of health he would have
+been alive to the proverbial drawbacks of a joint household, but in his
+present state of weakness and depression he felt he could not be alone,
+and in his secret heart it was almost a relief to be away from Prince's
+Gate, its memories and associations. It had been in one of these moments
+of insight, of revelation almost, that suddenly, like a blinding flash
+of light shows us in pitiless details the conditions that surround us,
+that with intense self-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>pity he had said to himself that there was
+actually no one in this whole world with whom he was entitled to come
+first. Rachel's solicitude certainly went far to persuade him of the
+contrary; but in his secret soul he bitterly resented the fact that
+there should now be someone to share Rachel's allegiance, although
+Rendel might well have contended that he was divided in Sir William's
+favour.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Miss Pateleys, sisters of Robert Pateley, lived together. The death
+of their parents, as we have said, had taken place when their brother
+was already launched on his successful career as a journalist. They had
+at first gone on living in the little country town in which their father
+had been a solicitor. It had not occurred to them to do anything else.
+They were surrounded there by people who knew them, who considered them,
+towards whom their social position needed no explaining and by whom it
+was taken for granted. When they went shopping, the tradespeople would
+reply in a friendly way, "Yes, Miss Pateley,&mdash;No, Miss Jane. This is the
+stocking you generally prefer"; or, "These were the pens you had last
+time," with an intimate understanding of the needs of their customers,
+forming a most pleasing contrast to the detached attitude of the staff
+of big shops. The sisters had a very small income between them, eked out
+by skilful management, and also, it must be said, by constant help from
+their brother, who represented to them the moving principle of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>universe embodied in a visible form. He it was who knew things the
+female mind cannot grasp, how to read the gas meter, what to do when the
+cistern was blocked, or when the landlord said it was not his business
+to mend the roof. These things which appeared so preoccupying to Anna
+and Jane seemed to sit very lightly on their brother Robert, and when
+they saw him shoulder each detail and deal with it with instant and
+consummate ease they admired him as much as they did when they saw him
+carrying upstairs his own big portmanteau which the united female
+strength of the house was powerless to deal with. After a time Robert,
+devoted brother though he was, found that it complicated existence to
+have to settle these matters by correspondence, still more to have
+suddenly to take a journey of several hours from London in order to deal
+with them on the spot. He proposed to his sisters that they should come
+and live in London. With many misgivings, and yet not without some
+secret excitement, they assented, and for a few months before our story
+begins they had been established in the same house as their brother, on
+the floor above the lodgings he inhabited in Vernon Street, Bloomsbury.
+Vernon Street, Bloomsbury, was perhaps a fortunate place for them to
+begin their London life in, if London life, except as a geographical
+term, it can be called, for two poor little ladies living more
+absolutely outside what is commonly described by that name it would be
+hard to find. Indeed, if it had not been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>for the courage and
+adventurous spirit of Jane, the younger of the two, their hearts might
+well have failed them during those first months in which the autumn days
+shortened over the district of Bloomsbury. Since they knew no one, they
+had nobody to visit, and nobody came to see them. They were still not a
+little bewildered by London. There were, it was true, a great many
+sights of an inanimate kind; but how to get at them? They did not
+consider themselves justified in taking cabs, and omnibuses were at
+first, to two people who had lived all their lives in a tramless town, a
+disconcerting and complicated means of locomotion. However, as the time
+went on they shook down, they found their little niche in existence;
+they made acquaintance with the clergyman's wife and some of the
+district visitors, and when the first summer of their London life came
+round, the summer following Rachel's marriage, everything seemed to them
+more possible. London was bright, sunshiny, and welcoming, instead of
+being austere and repellent. Pateley had succeeded in obtaining a key of
+the square close to which they lived, and they sat there and revelled in
+the summer weather. The mere fact of having him so near them, of knowing
+that at any moment in the day he might come in with the loud voice and
+heartiness of manner which always cheered and uplifted them, albeit some
+of his acquaintances ventured to find it too audible, gave them a fresh
+sense of being in touch with all the great things happening in the
+world. Then came <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>a moment in which, indeed, the larger issues of life
+seemed to present themselves to be dealt with. Pateley, under whose
+auspices the <i>Arbiter</i> had prospered exceedingly, and who had an
+interest in it from the point of view of a commercial enterprise as well
+as of a political organ, found himself one day the possessor of a larger
+sum of ready money than he had expected. He made up his mind that some
+of it should be given to his sisters, and that the rest should join
+their own savings invested in the "Equator," which seemed to present
+every prospect of succeeding when once the moment should come to work
+it. Pateley was altogether in a high state of jubilation in those days.
+The Cape to Cairo railway was actually on the verge of being completed.
+In a week more the gigantic scheme would be an accomplished fact. The
+excitement in London respecting it was immense. A small piece of German
+territory still remained to be crossed, but if no unforeseen incident
+arose to jeopardise the situation at the last moment all would yet be
+well. The rejoicings of Englishmen commonly take a sturdy and obvious
+form, and two days after the great junction was expected to take place,
+the <i>Arbiter</i> was to give a dinner at the Colossus Hotel in the Strand
+to the representatives of the Cape to Cairo Railway in London, after
+which the Hotel would be illuminated on all sides, and fireworks over
+the river were to proclaim to the whole town that Africa had been
+spanned. Pateley was to take the chair at the dinner. He had some shares
+in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>railway himself, although the rush upon it had been too great
+for him to secure any large amount of them. He had golden hopes,
+however, in the future of the "Equator," when once the railway was at
+its doors. Anderson had gone back again to Africa, this time with an
+eager staff of companions, and was only waiting for his time to come.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then," Pateley said jovially, one evening, as he went into the
+lodgings in Vernon Street and found his sisters sitting over their
+somewhat inadequate evening meal, "Times are looking up, I must tell
+you. I shouldn't wonder if you were better off before long. When the
+railway's finished, and if the "Equator" mine is all we believe it to
+be, you ought to get something handsome out of it&mdash;and I have got
+something for you to go on with which will keep you going in the
+meantime. So now I hope you will think yourselves justified in sitting
+down to a decent dinner every evening, instead of that kind of thing,"
+and he pointed, with his loud, jovial laugh, to the cocoa and eggs on
+the rather dingily appointed table.</p>
+
+<p>Jane's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed with an incredulous joy.
+Anna's breath came quickly. What a fairy prince of a brother this was!</p>
+
+<p>"But, Robert, we had better not make much difference in our way of
+living at first, had we?" Anna said, timidly, calling to mind the
+instances in fiction of imprudent persons who had launched out wildly on
+an accession of fortune and then been overtaken by ruin.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't suppose you are either of you likely to want to cut a big
+dash," he said with another loud laugh. "At least, I don't see you doing
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great responsibility," Anna said timidly. "I hope we shall use
+it the right way."</p>
+
+<p>"Right way!" said Pateley. "Of course you will. Go to the play with it,
+get yourself a fur cloak, have a fire in your bedroom&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Jane.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Robert," Anna said, "I don't feel it is sent to us for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Sent!" said Pateley. "Well, that is one way of putting it."</p>
+
+<p>But he did not enlarge upon the point. He accepted his sisters just as
+they were, with their limitations, their principles, and everything. He
+was not particularly susceptible to beauty and distinction, in the sense
+of these qualities being necessary to his belongings, and perhaps it was
+as well. Anna and Jane, though they looked undeniably like gentlewomen,
+had nothing else about them that was particularly agreeable to look
+upon. Nor were they either of them very strikingly ugly, or, indeed,
+strikingly anything. Jane was the better looking of the two. It was,
+perhaps, a rather heartless freak of destiny that life should have
+ordained her to live with somebody who was like a parody of herself,
+older, rounder, thicker, plainer. Living apart they might each have
+passed muster; living together they somehow made their ugliness, like
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>their income, go further. But in the composite photograph it was Anna
+who predominated. It was a pity, for she was the stumpier of the two.</p>
+
+<p>Long and earnest were the discussions the little sisters had that night
+after their splendid brother had departed, until by the time they went
+to bed they were prepared, or so it seemed to them, to launch their
+existence on a dizzy career of extravagance. They were going, as they
+expressed it, to put their establishment on another footing, which meant
+that instead of being attended by an inexperienced young person of
+eighteen they were to have an arrogant one of twenty-five. Their own
+elderly servant had declined to face the temptations of London, and had
+remained behind, living close to their old home. And, greatest event of
+all, they had at length&mdash;it was now summer, but that didn't matter, furs
+were cheaper&mdash;yielded to the thought which they had been alternately
+caressing and dismissing for months, and they were each going to buy a
+Fur Cloak. The days in which this all important purchase was being
+considered were to the Miss Pateleys days of pure enjoyment. Days of
+walks along Oxford Street, no longer so bewildered by the noise of
+London traffic, the discovery of some shop in an out of the way place
+whose wares were about half the price of the more fashionable quarters.
+The days were full of glorious possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>It was two days after that evening visit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> Pateley's to his sisters,
+which had so gilded and transformed their existence, that sinister
+rumours began to float over London, bringing deadly anxiety in their
+wake. Telegrams kept pouring in, and were posted all over the town,
+becoming more and more serious as the day went on: "Disturbances in
+South Africa. Hostile encounter between English and Germans. Cape to
+Cairo Railway stopped. Collapse of the 'Equator, Ltd.,'" until by
+nightfall the whole of England knew the pitifully unimportant incidents
+from which such tragic consequences were springing&mdash;that a group of
+travelling missionaries, halting unawares on German territory and
+chanting their evening hymns, had been disturbed by a rough fellow who
+came jeering into their midst, that one of the devout group had finally
+ejected him, with such force that he had rolled over with his head on a
+stone and died then and there; and that the Germans were insisting upon
+having vengeance. As for the "Equator, Ltd.," nobody knew exactly in
+what the collapse consisted. The wildest reports were circulated
+respecting it; one saying that it was in the hands of the Germans,
+another that they had destroyed the plant that was ready to work it,
+another again, and it was the one that gained the most credence, that
+there was no gold in the mine at all, and that the whole thing was a
+swindle. The offices of the "Equator" were closed for the night. They
+would probably be besieged the next morning by an angry crowd eager to
+sell out, but the shares would now be hardly worth the paper they were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>written upon. Pateley, in a frenzy of anxiety, in whichever direction
+he looked&mdash;for his sisters, for himself, for his party, for the Cape to
+Cairo Railway&mdash;spent the night at his office to see which way events
+were going to turn. In his unreasoning anger, as the day of misfortune
+dawned next morning, against destiny, against the far-away unknown
+missionaries, against all the adverse forces that were standing in the
+way of his wishes, there was one concrete figure in the foreground upon
+whom he could justifiably pour out his wrath: Sir William Gore, the
+Chairman of the "Equator," who, in the public opinion, was responsible
+for the undertaking. He would go to see Sir William that very day as
+soon as it was possible. In the meantime he would go round to his
+sisters to try to prepare them for the unfavourable turn that their
+circumstances after all might possibly take. As, sorely troubled at what
+he had to say, he came up into their little sitting-room, he found it
+bright with flowers; the fragrance of sweet peas filled the air. Anna,
+who had longed for flowers all her life and had welcomed with tremulous
+gratitude the rare opportunities that had come in her way of receiving
+any, had suddenly realised that it might not be sinful to buy them. The
+joy that she had in the handful bought from a street vendor was cheap,
+after all, at the price that might have seemed exorbitant if it had been
+spent on the flowers alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Robert," said Jane, almost before he was inside the room, "guess what
+we are going to do?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Something very naughty, I'm afraid," Anna said, excited and shy at the
+same time. She was generally less able than Jane to overcome the awe
+that they both felt of a relation so great and so beneficent, so
+altogether perfect, as their brother Robert, but at this moment she was
+intoxicated by the possession of wealth, by the sense of luxury, of
+well-being, by that fragrance of the spirit her imagination added to the
+fragrance of the flowers that stood near her. "We're each going to buy a
+fur cloak like that, look!" And she held out to him proudly the picture
+in the inside cover of the <i>Realm of Fashion</i>, representing a tall,
+slender, undulating lady, about as unlike herself as could well have
+been imagined, wrapped in a beautiful clinging garment of which the
+lining, turned back, displayed an exquisite fur. Pateley, as we have
+said, was not as a rule given to an excess of sensibility. He did not
+ridicule sentiment in others, but neither did he share it; that point of
+view was simply not visible to him. Suddenly, however, on this evening
+he had a moment of what felt to himself a most inconvenient access of
+emotion. There was a plain and obvious pathos in this particular
+situation that it needed no very fine sensibilities to grasp, in the
+sight of his sister, her small, thickset little figure encased in her
+ugly little gown, looking up appealingly to him over her spectacles with
+the joy of a child in the toy she was going to buy. It was probably the
+first, the very first time in her life, that she had had that particular
+experience. Added to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>the joy of getting the thing she coveted was the
+sense of having looked a conscientious scruple in the face, and seen it
+fly before her like an evil spirit before a spell. She had routed the
+enemy, pushed aside the obstacle in front of her, and, excited, and
+flushed with victory, was looking round on a bigger world and a fairer
+view. Pateley, to his own surprise, found himself absolutely incapable
+of putting into words what he had come to say, not a thing that often
+happened to him. In wonder at his not answering at once, Anna,
+misinterpreting his very slight pause, caught herself up quickly and
+said anxiously&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That is what you suggested, isn't it, Robert? You are quite sure you
+approve of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, I approve," he said heartily, recovering himself. "Of course.
+Go ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"You must not think," she went on, reassured, "that we mean to spend all
+our money in things like this, but of course a fur cloak is useful; it
+is a possession, isn't it? and it is, after all, one's duty to keep
+one's health."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is," Pateley said. "No need of any further argument."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad," she said, "so glad you approve!" and she smiled again
+with delight.</p>
+
+<p>Again Pateley felt an unreasoning fury rising in his mind that people
+who were so easily satisfied should not be allowed to have their heart's
+desire. Perhaps after all, it was not true about the "Equator"; perhaps
+things might be better than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>they seemed. At any rate, he would not say
+anything to his sisters until he had seen Gore. And with some hurried
+explanation of the number of engagements that obliged him to leave them,
+he strode out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the meantime Lord Stamfordham, watching the situation, felt there was
+not a single instant to lose. There is one moment in the life of a
+conflagration when it can be stamped out: that moment passed, no power
+can stop it. Stamfordham, his head clear, his determination strong and
+ready, resolved to act without hesitating on his own responsibility. He
+sent a letter round to Prince Bergowitz, the German Ambassador, begging
+him to come and see him. Prince Bergowitz was laid up with an attack of
+gout which unfortunately prevented his coming, but he would be glad to
+receive Lord Stamfordham if he would come to see him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little later in the same day that Rendel, alone in his study,
+was standing, newspaper in hand, in front of the map of Africa looking
+to see the exact localities where the events were happening which might
+have such dire consequences. At that moment Wentworth, passing through
+Cosmo Place, looked through the window and saw him thus engaged. He
+knocked at the hall door, and, after <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>being admitted, walked into the
+study without waiting to be announced.</p>
+
+<p>"Looking at the map of Africa, and I don't wonder," he said. "Isn't it
+awful?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's terrible," said Rendel, "about as bad as it can be."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, why aren't you over there to help to settle it?" said
+Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I should not have been there, in any case," said Rendel. "That is
+where I should have been&mdash;look," with something like a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"You would have been nearer than you are now," said Wentworth. "Upon my
+word, I haven't patience with you. The idea of throwing up such a chance
+as you have had!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know about it?" Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know?" said Wentworth. "Everybody knows that you were offered
+it and refused."</p>
+
+<p>"After all," said Rendel, "there are some things one leaves undone in
+this world. It does not follow that because people are offered a thing
+they must necessarily accept it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say I am not in favour of leaving things undone," Wentworth
+said, "on occasion."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have observed," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"But really, you know," Wentworth went on, "this is too much. What do
+you intend to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I intend to do?" Rendel said, with a half smile, then
+unconsciously imparting a greater steadfastness into his expression,
+"broadly speaking, I intend to do&mdash;everything."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! well, there's hope for you still," Wentworth said, "if that is your
+intention. It's rather a large order, though."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as I have told you before," Rendel said, "I don't see why there
+should be any limit to one's intentions. The man who intends little is
+not likely to achieve much."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well, and plausible enough, I dare say," said
+Wentworth, "but the way to achieve is not to begin by refusing all your
+chances."</p>
+
+<p>"This is too delightful from you," said Rendel, "who never do anything
+at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said Wentworth. "It is on principle that I do nothing, in
+order to protest against other people doing too much. I wish to have an
+eight hours' day of elegant leisure, and to go about the world as an
+example of it. It would be just as inconsistent of me to accept a
+regular occupation as it is of you to refuse it."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a very simple reason for refusing this," said Rendel more
+seriously, and he paused. "I am a married man."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, my dear fellow," said Wentworth, "I have noticed it."</p>
+
+<p>"My wife didn't want to go to Africa," said Rendel, "and there was an
+end of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that was the end of it?" said Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely," said Rendel. "She did not want to leave her father."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, is that it?" said Wentworth, feeling that he could not decently
+advance an urgent plea <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>against Sir William. "Poor old man! I know he's
+gone to pieces frightfully since his wife died&mdash;still, couldn't some one
+have been found to take care of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly any one like Rachel," Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally," said Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"You know he is living with us?" Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he?" said Wentworth surprised. "Upon my word, Frank, you are a good
+son-in-law."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel ignored the tone of Wentworth's last remark and said quite
+simply&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! well, there was nothing else to be done. He's been ill, you know,
+really rather bad; first he had a chill, and then influenza on the top
+of it. He's frightfully low altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"But I rather wonder," said Wentworth, "as Mrs. Rendel had her father
+with her, that you didn't go to Africa without her. Wouldn't that have
+been possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Rendel decidedly. "Quite impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought," said Wentworth, "that in these enlightened days
+a husband who could not do without his wife was rather a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"That may be," said Rendel. "But I think on the whole that the husband
+who can do without her is a greater mistake still."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great pity you were not born five hundred years ago," said
+Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have disliked it particularly," said Rendel. "I should have
+been fighting at Flodden, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>or Cr&eacute;cy, or somewhere, and I should have
+been too old to marry Rachel, even in these days of well-preserved
+centenarians. It is no good, Jack; I am afraid you must leave me to my
+folly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said Wentworth, agreeing with the word, and thinking to
+himself that even the wisest of men looks foolish at times when he has
+the yoke of matrimony across his shoulders; "after all there is to be
+said&mdash;if we are going to have another war on our hands in Africa, which
+Heaven forfend, the time of the statesmen over there is hardly come
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the door opened and the two men turned round quickly as
+Rachel came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," said Rachel. "Should you mind&mdash;&mdash;" Then she stopped as she saw
+Wentworth. "Oh, how do you do, Mr. Wentworth? I didn't know you were
+here. Don't let me interrupt you."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said Wentworth, "it is I who am interrupting your
+husband."</p>
+
+<p>"I only came to see, Frank, if you were very busy," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not at this moment. Do you want me to do anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, presently, would you play one game of chess with my father? I am
+not really good enough to be of much use; it doesn't amuse him to play
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel. "I have just got one or two letters to write and
+then I'll come."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would really be better," said Rachel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> "if he came in here.
+It is rather a change for him, you know, to come into a different room
+after having been in the house all day."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you like," said Rendel, without much enthusiasm, but also
+without any noticeable want of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Wentworth, "I'm not going to keep you any longer, Frank. I
+just came in to&mdash;give you my views about things in general."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Rendel, with a smile. "I am much beholden to you for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you would come up and see my father, Mr. Wentworth," said
+Rachel, "before you go away?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted," Wentworth said. His feeling towards Sir William
+Gore was kindly on the whole, and the kindliness was intensified at this
+moment by compassion, although he could not help resenting a little that
+Gore should have been an indirect cause of Rendel's refusing what
+Wentworth considered was the chance of his friend's life. He shook hands
+with Rendel and prepared to follow Rachel. At this moment a loud, double
+knock resounded upon the hall door with a peremptoriness which must have
+induced an unusual and startling rapidity in the movements of Thacker,
+Rendel's butler, for almost instantly afterwards he threw open the study
+door with a visible perturbation and excitement in his demeanour,
+saying&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It's Lord Stamfordham, sir, who wants particularly to see you." And to
+Rendel's amazement Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> Stamfordham appeared in the doorway. He bowed
+to Wentworth, whom he knew slightly, and shook hands with Rachel. She
+then went straight out, followed by Wentworth. As the door closed behind
+them, Stamfordham, answering Rendel's look of inquiry and without
+waiting for any interchange of greetings, said hurriedly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel, I want you to do me a service."</p>
+
+<p>"Please command me," Rendel said quickly, looking straight at him. He
+felt his heart beat as Stamfordham paused, put his hat down on the
+table, took his pocket-book out of his breast pocket and a folded paper
+out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," he said, "to transcribe some pencil notes of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"You want <i>me</i> to transcribe them?" said Rendel, with an involuntary
+inflection of surprise in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you will," said Stamfordham. "The fact is, Marchmont, the only
+man I have had since you left me who can read my writing when I take
+rough pencil notes in a hurry, has collapsed just to-day, out of sheer
+excitement I believe, and because he sat up for one night writing."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow!" said Rendel, half to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Stamfordham drily; and then he went on, as one who knows
+that he must leave the sick and wounded behind without waiting to pity
+them. "These," unfolding the paper, "are notes of a conversation that I
+have just had at the German Embassy with Bergowitz." Rendel's quick
+movement as he heard the name showed that he realised <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>what that
+juxtaposition meant at such a moment. "Every moment is precious,"
+Stamfordham went on, "and it suddenly dawned on me as I left the Embassy
+that you were close at hand and might be willing to do it."</p>
+
+<p>The German Embassy was at the moment, during some building operations,
+occupying temporary premises near Belgrave Square.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so indeed," Rendel said eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"The notes are very short, as you see," said Stamfordham. "You know, of
+course, what has been happening. I needn't go into that." And as he
+spoke a boy passed under the windows crying the evening papers, and they
+distinctly heard "Panic on the Stock Exchange." The two men's eyes met.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is a panic on the Stock Exchange," Stamfordham said,
+"because every one thinks there will be war&mdash;but there probably won't."</p>
+
+<p>"Not?" said Rendel. "Can it be stopped?"</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham answered him by unfolding the piece of paper and laying it
+down before him on the table. It was a map of Africa, roughly outlined,
+but still clearly enough to show unmistakably what it was intended to
+convey, for all down the map from north to south there was a thick line
+drawn to the west of the Cape to Cairo Railway&mdash;the latter being
+indicated, but more faintly, in pencil&mdash;starting at Alexandria and
+running down through the whole of the continent, bending slightly to the
+southward between Bechuanaland and Namaqualand, and end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>ing at the
+Orange River. East of that line was written <span class="smcap">ENGLAND</span>, west of it <span class="smcap">GERMANY</span>,
+and below it some lines of almost illegible writing in pencil.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel almost gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he said; "a partition of Africa?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Stamfordham. Then he said with a sort of half smile, "The
+partition, that is to say, so far as it is in our own hands. But,"
+speaking rapidly, "I will just put you in possession of the facts of the
+case and give you the clue. We abandon to Germany everything that we
+have a claim to west of this line. It does not come to very much," in
+answer to an involuntary movement on Rendel's part; and he swept his
+hand across the coast of the Gulf of Guinea as though wiping out of
+existence the Gold Coast, Ashanti, Sierra Leone, and all that had
+mattered before. "Germany abandons to us everything that she lays claim
+to on the east of it, including therefore the whole course of the Cape
+to Cairo Railway."</p>
+
+<p>"But has Germany agreed?" said Rendel, stupefied with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Germany has agreed," said Stamfordham. "We have just heard from
+Berlin."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel felt as if his breath were taken away by the rapid motion of the
+events.</p>
+
+<p>"That means peace, then?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Stamfordham said; "peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Then when is this going to be given to the world?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of it possibly to-morrow," said Stamford<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>ham. "The Cabinet Council
+will meet this evening, and the King's formal sanction obtained. Of
+course," he went on, "the broad outlines only will be published&mdash;the
+fact of the understanding at any rate, not necessarily the terms of the
+partition. But it is important for financial reasons that the country
+should know as soon as possible that war is averted."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," said Rendel. "Immeasurably important."</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham took up his hat and held out his hand with his air of
+courtly politeness as he turned towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I may count upon you to do this for me immediately?"</p>
+
+<p>"This instant," said Rendel, taking up the papers. "Shall I take them to
+your house as soon as they are done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please," said Stamfordham. "No, stay&mdash;I am going back to the German
+Embassy now, then probably to the Foreign Office. You had better simply
+send a messenger you can rely upon, and tell him to wait at my house to
+give them into my own hand, as I am not sure where I shall be for the
+next hour. Rendel, I must ask you by all you hold sacred to take care of
+those papers. If that map were to be caught sight of before the
+time&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel involuntarily held it tighter at the thought of such a
+catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens!&mdash;yes," he said. "But that shan't happen. Look," and he
+dropped the paper <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>through the slit in the closed revolving corner of
+his large writing-table, a cover that was solidly locked with his own
+key so that, though papers could be put in through the slit, it was
+impossible to take them out again without unlocking the cover and
+lifting it up. "This is the only key," he said, showing his bunch. "Now
+then, they are perfectly safe while I go across the hall with you."</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," he said, pausing, "you are married now, Rendel...."</p>
+
+<p>"I am, yes, I am glad to say," Rendel replied.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," said Stamfordham, with a little bow conveying discreet
+congratulation. "But&mdash;remember that a married man sometimes tells
+secrets to his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he, sir?" said Rendel, with an air of assumed innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I have heard so," said Stamfordham.</p>
+
+<p>"On the other hand," said Rendel, "I also have heard that a married man
+sometimes keeps secrets from his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh well, that is better," said Stamfordham.</p>
+
+<p>"From some points of view, perhaps," said Rendel. Then he added more
+seriously, "You may be quite sure, sir, that no one&mdash;<i>no one</i>&mdash;in this
+house shall know about those papers. I would give you my word of honour,
+but I don't suppose it would make my assertion any stronger."</p>
+
+<p>"If you said nothing," said Stamfordham, "it would be enough;" and
+Rendel's heart glowed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>within him as their eyes met and the compact was
+ratified. "By the way, Rendel, there was one thing more I wanted to say
+to you. There will probably be a vacancy at Stoke Newton before long;
+aren't you going into the House?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some time," said Rendel. "When I get a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is going to be a chance now," said Stamfordham. "Old
+Crawley is going to resign. I hear it from private sources; the world
+doesn't know it yet. It is a safe Imperialist seat, and in our part of
+the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like very much to try," said Rendel, forcing himself to speak
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you write to our committee down there?" said Stamfordham. "That
+is, when you have done your more pressing business&mdash;I mean mine."</p>
+
+<p>"That shall come before everything else," Rendel said. "I will do it at
+this moment."</p>
+
+<p>He turned quickly back into his study after Stamfordham had left him,
+and unlocked and threw up the revolving cover of the writing-table
+hastily, for fear that something should have happened to the paper on
+which the destinies of the civilised world were hanging. There it was,
+safe in his keeping, his and nobody else's. He took it in his hand and
+for a moment walked up and down the room, unable to control himself,
+trying to realise the tremendous change in the aspect of his fortunes
+that had taken place in the last half-hour. Then he had seemed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>to
+himself in the backwater, out of the throng of existence. He had been
+trying to reconcile himself to the idea that he was "out of it," as he
+had put it to himself&mdash;left behind. And now he shared with the two great
+potentates of the world the knowledge of what was going to take place;
+it was his hand that should transcribe the words that had decided it; he
+was a witness, and so far the only one. Then with an effort he forced
+himself to be calm. Every minute was of importance. He sat down at the
+writing-table, took up the paper, and pored over it to try to
+disentangle the strange dots, scratches, and lines which, flowing from
+Stamfordham's pen, took the place of handwriting. Some ill-natured
+people said that Stamfordham was quite conscious of the advantage of
+having writing which could not be read without a close scrutiny. It was
+no doubt possible. However, having the clue to what the contents of the
+paper were, Rendel, to his immense relief, found that he could decipher
+it. As he was writing the first word of the fair copy the door of the
+study opened slowly, and Sir William Gore appeared on the threshold, a
+newspaper in his hand.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Sir William, who had not been able to come downstairs for a month, may
+be forgiven for unconsciously feeling that the occasion was one which
+demanded from his son-in-law a semblance of cordial welcome at any rate,
+if not of glad surprise. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to
+learn that we are not looking each of us at the same aspect of life as
+our neighbour, especially our neighbour of a different time of life from
+ourselves. We appeal to him as a matter of course, and say, "Look! see
+how life appears to me to-day! see what existence is like in relation to
+myself!" But unfortunately the neighbour, who is standing on the outside
+of that particular circle, and not in its centre, does not see what we
+mean. Sir William had been shut up for a month in the room that he
+inhabited on the drawing-room floor of the house in Cosmo Place. He had
+simply not had mental energy to care about what was happening beyond the
+four walls of that room. If he had been asked at that moment what the
+universe was, he would have said that it was a succession of days and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>nights in which the important things of life were the hours and
+compositions of his meals, the probable hour of the doctor's visit, and
+the steps to be made each day towards recovery and the resumption of
+ordinary habits.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel had of course devoted herself to him. It was she who went up with
+his breakfast, who read to him during the morning, who tried to remember
+everything that happened out of doors to tell him on her return; it was
+she who had done many hundreds of patiences in the days when he was not
+well enough to play at chess. He was hardly well enough now, but he had
+set his heart upon the first day when he should come down and play chess
+with Rendel as a sort of pivot in his miserable existence. And now the
+moment had come. How should he know that for all practical purposes his
+son-in-law was a different being from the young man who had come
+upstairs to see him the day before? For yesterday Rendel had come up and
+talked to him about indifferent things, not telling him, lest he should
+be excited, of the evil rumours that were filling the air, and had gone
+downstairs again himself with a miserably unoccupied day in front of
+him&mdash;a day in which to remember and overcome the fact that, instead of
+being in the arena of which the echoes reached him, he was doomed to be
+a spectator from afar, who could take no part in the fray. But so much
+Sir William had not known. How should we any of us know what the inward
+counterpart is to the outward mani<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>festation? know that the person who
+comes into the room may be, although appearing the same, different from
+the one who went out? He knew only that the Rendel of this morning had
+said with a smile, "I am looking forward to the moment when you will
+checkmate me again." And Sir William had a right to expect that, that
+moment having come, Rendel should feel the importance and pleasure of it
+as much as he did himself. But it was not the same Rendel who sat there,
+it was not the unoccupied spectator ready to join his leisure to that of
+another; it was a resolute combatant who had been suddenly called into a
+front post, and for whom the whole aspect of the world had changed. It
+was an absolute physical effort to Rendel, as the door opened and he saw
+Sir William, to bring his mind back to the conditions of a few hours
+before. The fact of any one coming in at that moment called him back to
+earth again, turned him violently about to face the commonplace
+importunities of existence. Sir William had probably not formulated to
+himself what he had vaguely expected, but it certainly was not the
+puzzled, half-questioning look, the indescribable air of being taken
+aback, altered at once by a quick impulse into something that tried not
+to look forbidding, and more strange and tell-tale than all the quick
+movement by which Rendel drew a large sheet of blotting-paper over what
+he was writing. Sir William's whole being was jarred, his rejoicing in
+the small occasion of being on another stage towards recovery was gone;
+nobody <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>cared, not one. Rachel was not in the house, and who else was
+there to care? Nobody: there never would be again. Could it be possible
+that for the rest of his life he was doomed to be in a world so arranged
+that his comings and goings were not the most important of all? He stood
+still a moment, then tried to speak in his usual voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not in your way, am I, Rendel?"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel also made a conscious effort as he replied, rising from his chair
+as he spoke&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, Sir William, please come in. I have some writing to finish, if
+you don't mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray go on," said Sir William; "I won't disturb you. I'll sit down here
+and read the paper till you are ready"; and he sat down with his back to
+the writing-table and the window, in the big chair which Rendel drew
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," Sir William said. "I took the liberty of bringing in your
+afternoon paper which was outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," Rendel replied, too absorbed for the moment in the thing
+his own attention was concentrated upon to realise the bearing of what
+Gore was saying. "Of course," and went back to his writing.</p>
+
+<p>Gore leant back, idly turning over the pages of the <i>Mayfair Gazette</i>;
+then he started as his eye fell on the alarmist announcements. What was
+this? What incredible things were these that he saw? The letters were
+swimming before him; he could only vaguely distinguish the black
+capitals and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>headlines; the rest was a blur. All that stood out
+clearly was: "Cape to Cairo Railway in Danger," and then beneath it:
+"Sinister Rumours about the 'Equator, Ltd.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel!" he said, half starting up. Rendel turned round with a start,
+dragging his mind from the thing it was bent upon. "How awful this is!"
+said Sir William, holding up the paper with a shaking hand. Rendel began
+to understand. But, that he should have to look up for one moment, for
+the fraction of a second, from those words that he was transcribing!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, it is terrible," he said, and bent over his writing again.
+Sir William tried to go on reading. What was this about Germany? War
+would mean the collapse of everything&mdash;private schemes as well as all
+others.</p>
+
+<p>"War! Do you think it can possibly mean war?" he said. "Can't Germany be
+squared?"</p>
+
+<p>"War!" said Rendel without looking up. "Who can tell?" And again he felt
+the supreme excitement of standing unseen at the right hand of the man
+who was driving the ship through the storm. Sir William laid down the
+paper on his knee and tried to think, but all he could do was to close
+his eyes and keep perfectly still. Everything was vague ... and the
+worst of it&mdash;or was it the best of it?&mdash;was that nothing seemed to
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment a brief colloquy was being exchanged outside the hall
+door. Stamfordham's brougham had drawn up again, and Thacker, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>was
+standing hanging about the hall with a secret intention of being on the
+spot if tremendous things were going to happen, had instantly rushed
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Rendel in?" said Lord Stamfordham hurriedly as Thacker stood at
+the door of the brougham.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him to come and speak to me."</p>
+
+<p>Thacker was shaken into unwonted excitement; he opened the door of the
+study quickly and went in. Sir William started violently. Any sudden
+noise in the present state of his nerves threw him completely off his
+balance.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you come and speak to Lord Stamfordham, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel sprang up; then with a sudden thought turned back and pulled down
+the top of his writing-table, which shut with a spring, and rushed out
+without seeing that Sir William had begun raising himself laboriously
+from his chair as he said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let me be in your way, Rendel."</p>
+
+<p>"His lordship is not coming in, Sir William," said Thacker.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William sank back into his chair. Thacker, after waiting an instant
+as though to see whether Gore had any orders for him, went quietly out,
+closing the door after him.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel had madly caught up a hat as he passed, and flown down the steps,
+not seeing in his haste a burly personage who was coming along the
+pavement dressed in the ordinary garb of the English <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>citizen, with
+nothing about him to show that his glowing right hand held the
+thunderbolts which he was going to hurl at the head of Gore. It is
+unnecessary to say that Robert Pateley knew Stamfordham's carriage well
+by sight; and it was with pleasure and satisfaction that he found that
+Providence had brought him on to the pavement at Cosmo Place in time to
+see one of the moves in the great game which the world was playing that
+day. It was better on the whole that he should not accost Rendel. There
+was no need at that moment for Stamfordham to be aware of his presence,
+although, after all, there was no reason why he should not be. But
+seeing Rendel standing speaking to Stamfordham at the door of the
+brougham he conceived that he was probably coming in again directly, and
+made up his mind to go in and see Gore at any rate if possible. He went
+up the steps, therefore, and into the house, the front door being open.
+It happened neither Rendel nor Stamfordham saw him enter, the former
+having his back turned and blocking the view of the latter. Thacker,
+with intense interest, was watching the development of affairs from the
+dining-room window, and did not see Pateley go in either.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you done the thing?" said Stamfordham quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"All but," Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I want you to add this," said Stamfordham. "Get in and drive back
+with me, will you? I have so little time."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rendel jumped in, and the brougham moved past the window just as Sir
+William Gore, who had painfully pulled himself out of his chair, looked
+out, petrified with surprise at the unexplained crisis that seemed to
+have come upon the household. "Stamfordham!" he said to himself, "and
+Frank! What are the Imperialists hatching now, I wonder?" and he
+mechanically looked round him at Rendel's writing-table. It was,
+however, closed and forbidding, save for a little corner of white paper
+that was sticking out under the revolving flap. By one of those strange,
+almost unconscious impulses which may suddenly overtake the best of us
+at times, Gore put out his hand and pulled out the paper. It was quite
+loose and came away in his hand. What was it? He looked at it vaguely.
+Then gradually it became clear. A map?... yes, it was a rough map, with
+a thick line drawn from the top to the bottom down the middle of it;
+names to the right and the left. England? Germany? And what were those
+words written underneath? <i>What?</i> Was that how Germany was going to be
+'squared?' And sheer excitement gave him strength to grasp more or less
+the meaning of what he saw. If Africa were going to be divided, if
+Germany and England were agreeing to that division, it meant Peace.
+There was no doubt of it. But had the Imperialists suddenly gone on to
+the side of peace? Had they snatched that trump card from their
+adversaries and were they going to play it? Sir William stood gazing at
+the paper. Then as he heard some one at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>the door of the room he
+suddenly realised what he had done. He instinctively clutched the paper
+in the hand which held the <i>Mayfair Gazette</i>, the newspaper concealing
+it. As he turned and looked towards the door an unexpected sight greeted
+his eyes&mdash;no other than Pateley, who, finding himself in the hall
+unheralded, had made up his mind to come into Rendel's study and there
+ring the bell for some one who should bring word to Sir William Gore of
+his presence. But he was surprised to find Sir William downstairs
+instead of in his room as he had expected. He paused for a moment,
+shocked at the change in Gore's appearance. He looked thin, listless,
+bent: his upright figure, his spring, his energy were gone. Pateley's
+heart smote him for a moment. Would it be possible to call this feeble,
+suffering creature to account? Then his heart hardened again as he
+thought of his sisters.</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley!" said Gore, advancing with the remains of his usual manner,
+but curiously shaken for the moment, as Pateley said to himself, out of
+his usual self-confidence.</p>
+
+<p>The state of nervousness of the older man was painfully perceptible.
+Added to his general weakness, which made the mere fact of seeing some
+one unexpectedly a sudden shock to him, he had besides at that moment an
+additional and very definite reason for uneasiness in the thing which he
+held in his hand. He endeavoured, however, to pull himself together as
+he shook hands with Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen you for a long time," he said, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>pointing to a chair and
+sinking back into his own.</p>
+
+<p>"No," Pateley replied. "I was very sorry to hear that you had been ill.
+You are looking rather bad still."</p>
+
+<p>"And feeling so," Sir William said wearily. "The worst of influenza is
+that one feels just as bad when one is supposed to be getting better as
+when one is supposed to be getting worse. It is a most annoying form of
+complaint."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have understood," said Pateley, "though I have not learnt it by
+personal experience."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't look as though you suffered from weakness," said Sir
+William, with a faint smile and a consciousness that this was not a
+person from whom it would be very easy to extract sympathy for his own
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>Pateley paused. He felt curiously uncomfortable and hesitating, a
+sensation somewhat novel to him. Sir William leant back in his chair,
+trying to control the trembling of his hands, of which one held the
+<i>Mayfair Gazette</i>, the smaller paper still concealed underneath it.</p>
+
+<p>"I see," Pateley said, "you are reading the evening paper. Not very good
+reading, is it? Things look pretty bad."</p>
+
+<p>"They do indeed," said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks uncommonly like war with Germany," Pateley said; "prices are
+tumbling down headlong on the Stock Exchange. I believe there is going
+to be something very like a panic."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is there?" said Gore uneasily; "that's bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is very bad," Pateley went on. "I suppose you have heard that
+there are ugly rumours about the 'Equator.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw something," Sir William said, forcing himself to speak. "What is
+it exactly that they say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the last thing they say," Pateley replied with a harder ring in
+his voice, "is that it is not a gold mine at all."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Sir William, grasping the arms of his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"And that the whole thing, therefore, is going to pieces with every
+penny invested in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it&mdash;is it as bad as that?" said the other, tremulously. "No, no, it
+can't be. Surely it can't be."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say you don't know?" said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing," said Sir William. "I have heard nothing about it, up
+to this moment."</p>
+
+<p>"One can't help wondering," said Pateley, "that a man in your
+responsible position towards it," the words struck Sir William like a
+blow, "should not have known, should not have inquired&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been ill, you know," Sir William said nervously, "I have not
+been able to look into or understand anything. I have not been out of
+the house yet. I could not go to the City or do any business."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I see that," said Pateley, "and I am sorry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>to be obliged to
+thrust a business discussion upon you now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sir William looked up at him quickly, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"But the fact is, at this moment the business won't wait. If you
+remember, when the 'Equator' Company was first started, I, like many
+others, invested in it, having asked your opinion of it first, and
+having heard from you that you were going to be the Chairman of the
+Board of Directors."</p>
+
+<p>"I believed in it, you know," Sir William said, with eagerness; "I put a
+lot of money into it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you did, yes," said Pateley, "but <i>you</i> fortunately had a lot to
+do it with, and also a lot of money to keep out of it. Every one is not
+so happily situated. I blame myself, I need not say, acutely, as well as
+others." And as Sir William looked at him sitting there in his
+relentless strength, he felt that there was small mercy to be expected
+at his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Sir William said, trying to speak with dignity, "that I
+was to blame. I believed in it, as others did."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt," Pateley said. "But I am afraid that will hardly be a
+satisfactory explanation for the shareholders. The shares at this moment
+are absolutely worthless."</p>
+
+<p>"But what can I do?" said Sir William. "What would you have me do?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me there is a rather obvious thing to be done," said
+Pateley. "It is to help to make <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>good the losses of the people who,
+through you, will be"&mdash;and he paused&mdash;"ruined."</p>
+
+<p>"Ruined!" Sir William repeated, "No, no&mdash;it cannot be as bad as that. It
+is terrible," he muttered to himself. "It is terrible."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is terrible," said Pateley, "and even something uglier."</p>
+
+<p>"But," Sir William said miserably, "I don't know that I can be blamed
+for it. Anderson, who is absolutely honest, reported on the thing, and
+believed in it to the extent of spending all he had in getting the
+rights to work it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is possible," Pateley said, "but Anderson was not the chairman of
+the company. You are."</p>
+
+<p>"Worse luck," Sir William said bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, worse luck," Pateley said. "Your name up to now has been an
+honourable one." Sir William started and looked at him again. "I am
+afraid," Pateley went on, "after this it may have," and he spoke as if
+weighing his words, "a different reputation."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William cleared his throat and spoke with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley," he said, "you won't let <i>that</i> happen? You will make it
+clear...? You have influence in the Press&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," Pateley said, "that my influence, such as it is, must on
+this occasion be exerted the other way. Of course there is a good deal
+at stake for me here," he went on, in a matter of fact tone which
+carried more conviction than an outburst of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>emotion would have done. "I
+care for my sisters, and I am afraid I can't sit down and see
+them&mdash;swindled, or something very like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Not, swindled!" said Gore angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Pateley said, "that is really what it looks like to the
+outsider, and that is what, as a matter of fact, it comes to."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven knows I would make it right if I could," said Sir William, "but
+how can I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course, on occasions of this kind," Pateley said, still in the
+same everyday manner, as though judicially dealing with a fact which did
+not specially concern him, "it is sometimes done by the simple process
+of the person responsible for the losses making them good&mdash;making
+restitution, in fact."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you," said Sir William, "that I'm afraid that is
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah then, I am sorry," Pateley said, in the tone of one determining, as
+Sir William dimly felt, on some course of action. "I thought some
+possible course might have suggested itself to you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can suggest nothing," Sir William said, leaning back in his
+chair, and feeling that neither mind nor body could respond at that
+moment to anything that called for fresh initiative.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought that you might have other possibilities on the Stock Exchange
+even," said Pateley, "though I must say I don't see in what direction.
+There is bound to be a panic the moment war is declared."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause. Sir William lay back in his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>chair looking vaguely in
+front of him. Pateley sat waiting. Then Gore felt a strange flutter at
+his heart as the full bearing of Pateley's last sentence dawned upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Supposing," he said, trying to speak steadily, "there were no war?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is hardly worth discussing," said Pateley briefly, as he got up.
+"War, I am afraid, is practically certain. Then do I understand, Sir
+William," he continued, "that you can do nothing to help me in this
+matter? If so, I am sorry. I had hoped I might have spared you some
+discomfort, but since you can do nothing&mdash;&mdash;" He broke off and looked
+quickly out of the window, then said in explanation, "It is only a
+hansom stopping next door; I thought it might be Rendel coming back. But
+I was mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William realised that every instant was precious.</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley," he said, "look here. If you could wait a day or two
+longer...."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean," said Pateley, "that if I were to wait there would be a
+chance of your being able to do something?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Sir William, "I am not sure, but there might be a
+turn in public affairs; the panic might be over, there might be a chance
+of peace."</p>
+
+<p>"If that is all," Pateley said quite definitely, "I am afraid that
+prospect is not enough to build upon. I can't afford to wait on that
+security."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sir William got up and spoke quickly with a visible effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, listen... I have a reason for thinking that is the way
+things may be turning."</p>
+
+<p>"A reason?" said Pateley, turning round upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William felt his courage failing him in the desperate game he had
+begun to play. It was no good pausing now. He stood facing Pateley,
+holding a folded paper in his hand, no longer hidden by the newspaper
+which had slid from his grasp on to the ground. He looked at the paper
+in his hand mechanically. Mechanically Pateley's eye followed his. The
+conviction suddenly came to him that Gore was not speaking at random.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir William," he said, "time presses," and unconsciously they both
+looked towards the window into the street. At any moment Rendel might
+draw up again. "If you have any reason for what you are saying, tell
+me&mdash;if not, I must leave you to see what can be done."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a reason," said Sir William, "the strongest, for believing that
+there will be peace."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley looked at him. "Give me a proof?" he said, with the accent of a
+man who is wasting no words, no intentions.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William's hand tightened over the paper. "If I gave you a proof," he
+said, "would you swear not to take any proceedings against the 'Equator'
+Company?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If you gave me a proof, yes&mdash;I would swear," said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"And you will keep the things out of the papers," Sir William went on
+hurriedly, "till I have had time to see my way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley again.</p>
+
+<p>"And my name shall not appear in the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no," Pateley said, in spite of himself breathlessly and hurriedly,
+more excited than he wished to show. Sir William paused and looked
+towards the window. "All right," said Pateley, "you have time. Quick!
+What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is going," Sir William said, "I am almost certain, to be an
+understanding, an agreement between England and Germany about this
+business in Africa."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sir William, hardly audibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the proof," Pateley said, coming close to him and in his
+excitement making a movement as though to take the paper out of Gore's
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait!" Sir William said. "No, you mustn't do that!" and he
+staggered and leant back against the chimneypiece. Pateley had no time
+to waste in sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, if you don't give it to me, show me what it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, I will show it you," Sir William said, "only you are not to
+take it, you are not to touch it."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley signed assent, and Sir William unfolded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>the map of Africa and
+held it up with a trembling hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said Pateley, at first hardly grasping what he saw. Then its
+full significance began to dawn upon him. "Africa&mdash;a partition of Africa
+between Germany and England! Do you mean to say that is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Sir William said. "But for Heaven's sake don't touch it, don't
+take it out of my hand," he said again, nervously conscious that his own
+strength was ebbing at every moment, and that if the resolute, dominant
+figure before him had chosen to seize on the paper, nothing could have
+prevented his doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, at any rate, let me have a good look at it," Pateley said, "the
+coast is still clear," and as he went to the window to give another look
+out, he took something out of his breast pocket. "Now then," he said,
+turning back to Sir William, "hold it up in the light so that I can have
+a good look at it;" and as Sir William held it in the light of the
+window, Pateley, as quick as lightning, drew his tiny camera out of his
+pocket. There was a click, and the map of Africa had been photographed.
+Pateley unconsciously drew a quick breath of relief as he put the
+machine back. Sir William, as white as a sheet, dropped his hands in
+dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens! What have you done? Have you photographed it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley, trying to control his own excitement, and
+recovering his usual tone with an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>effort. "That's all, thank you. It is
+much the simplest form of illustration."</p>
+
+<p>"Illustration! What are you going to do with it?" Sir William said,
+aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends," said Pateley. "I must see how and when I can use it to
+the best advantage."</p>
+
+<p>"You have sworn," Sir William said tremulously, "that you won't say
+where you got it from."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I won't," Pateley said, gradually returning to his usual
+burly heartiness. "Now, may I ask where <i>you</i> got it from?"</p>
+
+<p>"I got it out of there," Sir William said, pointing to the table. "A
+corner of it was sticking out."</p>
+
+<p>"Might I suggest that you should put it back again?" said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens, yes!" said Gore. "I had forgotten." And he nervously
+folded it up and dropped it through the slit of the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, that's safer," said Pateley, with a short laugh. "You should not
+lose your head over these things," and he gave a swift look down the
+street again. "Now I must go. I am going straight to the City, and I'll
+tell you what I shall do," and his manner became more emphatic as he
+went on, as though answering some objection. "I'm going to buy up the
+whole of the 'Equator' shares on the chance of a rise, and perhaps some
+Cape to Cairo too, and then we'll see. Now, can't I do something for you
+too? Won't you buy something on the chance of a rise?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sir William had sunk into a chair. He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I am too tired to think," he said. "I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you leave it to me," Pateley said, "and I'll do something for
+you&mdash;and if things go as we think, by next week you will be in a
+position to make good the losses of all London two or three times over.
+I'll let you know what happens, and what I've been able to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," Sir William said again feebly.</p>
+
+<p>"The news will soon pick you up," said Pateley heartily, as he shook him
+by the hand. "No, don't get up; I can find my way out. Goodbye." And a
+moment later he passed the window, striding away towards Knightsbridge.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+
+<p>Sir William remained lying back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling,
+too much exhausted by the excitement of the last few minutes to realise
+entirely what had happened, but with a vague, agonised consciousness
+that he had done something irrevocable, something that mattered
+supremely. But to try even to conceive what might be the consequence of
+it so made his heart throb and his head whirl that all he could do was
+to put it away from him with as much effort as he had strength to make.
+It was so that Rachel found him, when she came gaily in a few minutes
+later from a shopping expedition in Sloane Street, eager to tell him of
+all her little doings, and of some acquaintances she had met in the
+street. He looked at her and tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Father&mdash;father&mdash;dear father!" she said in consternation. "What is it?
+Are you not so well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," he said nervously, trying to speak in something like his
+ordinary voice. "I am&mdash;tired, that's all."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You have been up too long," she said anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it's that," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"But where is Frank?" asked Rachel. "I thought, of course, that he was
+with you. That was why I went out. I had no idea you would be alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham came," said Sir William, feeling like one who is
+forced to approach something that horrifies him, and who dares not look
+it in the face. "Frank went out with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham! Again!" said Rachel amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sir William, leaning back with his eyes closed, as though
+unable to expend any of his feeble strength on surprise or wonder, much
+less on attempts at explanation. And as Rachel looked at him her
+solicitude overcame every other thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Darling," she said, "do come back to your own room. Let's go upstairs
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Sir William quickly, feeling, even though he thought of
+Rendel's return with absolute terror, that it would be better to know
+the worst at once without waiting in suspense for the blow to fall.
+"I'll wait till Rendel comes in."</p>
+
+<p>"But he shall go up to you at once," Rachel urged. "Do come up now, dear
+father."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, however, the question of whether they should wait or not
+for Rendel's return was settled for them, for his latchkey was heard
+turning in the front door. He came into the room <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>with such an air as a
+winged messenger of victory might wear, unconscious of his surroundings
+and of the road he traverses as he speeds along. Rachel looked at him,
+and forbore to utter either the inquiry that sprang to her lips or any
+appeal for sympathy about her father's condition.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got to finish some writing," Rendel said, bringing back his
+thoughts with visible effort. And he went quickly to the writing-table,
+opening it with the key of his watch-chain. Sir William dared not look.
+He tried to remember what had happened when he so hurriedly put the
+paper back; he wondered whether it had stuck in the slit, or if it had
+gone properly through and fallen straight among the others. There was a
+pause during which he sat up and gripped the arms of his chair,
+listening as if for life. Nothing had happened apparently. Rendel had
+drawn up his chair and was writing again busily. Sir William fell back
+again and closed his eyes as a flood of relief swept over him, Rachel
+sitting by him quietly, her hand laid gently on his. Rendel went on
+writing, transcribing from some more rough pencil notes he had brought
+in in his hand, then, having quickly rung the bell, he proceeded to do
+the whole thing up in a packet and seal it securely.</p>
+
+<p>"I want this taken to Lord Stamfordham at once," he said, as the servant
+came into the room. "And, Thacker, I should like you to go with it
+yourself, please. It's very important, and I want it to be given into
+his own hand. If he isn't in, please wait."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said Thacker, taking the precious packet and departing, with
+a secret thrill of wondering excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel pulled down the lid of the table, drawing a sort of long breath
+as he did so, like one who has cleared the big fence immediately in
+front of him, and is ready for the next. Sir William's breath was coming
+and going quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you don't look very fit for chess, Sir William," he said
+kindly, struck with his father-in-law's look of haggard anxiety and
+illness.</p>
+
+<p>"No," Sir William said feebly, "not to-day, I'm afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to see you like this," Rendel said. "Let me help you
+upstairs. What have you been doing with yourself since I left you? You
+don't look nearly so well as when you came down."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel a little faint," Sir William said. "It would be better for me to
+go and rest now, perhaps." And leaning on Rendel's arm, and followed
+solicitously by Rachel, he went upstairs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+
+<p>The night passed slowly and restlessly for Sir William Gore, although he
+slept from sheer exhaustion, and even when he was not sleeping was in a
+state of semi-coma, without any clear perception of what had happened.
+But in his dreams he lived through one quarter of an hour of the day
+before, over and over and over again, always with the same result,
+always with the same sense of some unexpected, horrible, shameful
+catastrophe, that was to lead to his utter humiliation. That was the
+impression that still remained when at last the morning came, and he
+finally awoke to the life of another day. Over and over again he went
+over the situation as he lay there, Pateley's words ringing in his ears,
+his looks present before him. Again he felt the sensation of absolute
+sickness at his heart that had gripped him at the moment he had realised
+that the map had been photographed, passing as much out of his own power
+as though he had given it to a man in the street. Does any one really
+acknowledge in his inmost soul that he has on a given occasion done
+"wrong," without an im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>measurable qualifying of that word, without a
+covert resentment at the way other people may label his action? There is
+but one person in the world who even approximates to knowing the history
+of any given deed. The very fact of snatching it from its context puts
+it into the wrong proportion, the fact of contemplating it as though it
+were something deliberate, separate, complete in itself, apart from all
+that has led up to it, apart from the complication and pressure of
+circumstance. Sir William went over and over again in his mind all that
+had happened the day before, trying to realise under what aspect his
+actions would appear to others&mdash;over and over again, until everything
+became blurred and he hardly knew under what aspect they appeared to
+himself. He felt helplessly indignant with Fate, with Chance, that had
+with such dire results made him the plaything of a passing impulse. Then
+with the necessity of finding an object for his anger, his thoughts
+turned first to Rendel, who had primarily put him in the position of
+gaining the knowledge he had used to such disastrous effect, and then to
+Pateley, who had taken it from him.</p>
+
+<p>It is unpleasant enough for a child, at a time of life generally
+familiar with humiliation and chastisement, to see the moment nearing
+when his guilt will be discovered: but it is horrible for a man who is
+approaching old age, who is dignified and respected, suddenly to find
+himself in the position of having something to conceal, of being
+actually afraid of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>facing the judgment and incurring the censure of a
+younger man. And at that moment Gore felt as if he almost hated the man
+whose hand could hurl such a thunderbolt. Then his thoughts turned to
+Pateley, to the probable result of his operations in the City. In the
+other greater anxiety which he himself had suddenly imported into his
+life, that first care, which yet was important enough, of the "Equator,"
+had almost sunk out of sight. Would the mine turn out to be a gold mine
+after all? What would Pateley be able to do? Would he be able to make
+enough to cover his liabilities? and his head swam as he tried to
+remember what these might amount to.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Rendel, in a very different frame of mind from that of
+his father-in-law, or, indeed, from that of his own of the night before,
+filled with a buoyant thrill of expectation, with the sense that
+something was going to happen, that everything might be going to happen,
+was looking out into life as one who looks from a watch tower waiting on
+fortune and circumstances, waiting confident and well-equipped without a
+misgiving. The day was big with fate: a day on which new developments
+might continue for himself, the thrill of excitement of the night
+before, the sense of being in the foreground, of being actually hurried
+along in the front between the two giants who were leading the way. The
+dining-room was ablaze with sunshine as he came into it, and in the
+morning light sat Rachel, looking up at him with a smile when he came
+into the room.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What an excellent world it is, truly!" said Rendel, as he came across
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad it is to your liking," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You look very well this morning," said Rendel, looking at her, "which
+means very pretty."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel so especially pretty," said Rachel, with something between
+a smile and a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you? Don't have any illusions about your appearance," said
+Rendel. "Don't suppose yourself to be plain, please."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure," said Rachel, as she began pouring out the tea.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with you?" said Rendel. "What fault do you find with
+the world, and your appearance?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am perturbed about my father," she said, her voice telling of the
+very real anxiety that lay behind the words. "I don't think he is as
+well as he was yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you?" said Rendel, more gravely. "I am very sorry. What is the
+matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think," Rachel answered. "He may have done too much yesterday
+afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"He certainly looked terribly tired," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Terribly," said Rachel, "but I can't imagine why. He had been so
+absolutely quiet all the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you take care of him to-day," said Rendel, unable to eliminate
+the cheerful confidence from his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall indeed," said Rachel.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'll come all right again, never fear," said Rendel. "You mustn't
+take too gloomy a view."</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly seem inclined to take a cheerful one this morning," said
+Rachel, half convinced in spite of herself that all was well.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do," said Rendel. "I must say that in spite of the prevalent
+opinion to the contrary, I feel inclined this morning to say that the
+scheme of the universe is entirely right; it is just to my liking. The
+sunshine, and my breakfast, and my wife&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad I am included," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And the day to live through. What can a man wish for more?"</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds as though you had everything you could possibly want,
+certainly," said Rachel, smiling at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Rendel, reflecting, "if it is that quite. The real
+happiness is to want everything you can possibly get. That is the best
+thing of all."</p>
+
+<p>"And not so difficult, I should think," said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure," said Rendel. "I am not sure that it is quite an easy
+thing to have an ardent hold on life. Some people keep letting it down
+with a flop. But I feel as if I could hold it tight this morning at any
+rate. I do not believe there is a creature in the wide world that I
+would change places with at this moment," he went on, the force of his
+ardent hope and purpose breaking down his usual reserve.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are very enthusiastic to-day, Frank," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, one can't do much without enthusiasm," said Rendel, continuing
+his breakfast with a satisfied air, "but with it one can move the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what you are going to do?" said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel nodding.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, I wonder if you will be a great man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you doubt it?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Supposing," she said, "some day you were a sort of Lord Stamfordham."</p>
+
+<p>"That is rather a far cry," he replied. "By the way, I wonder where the
+papers are this morning? Why are they so late?"</p>
+
+<p>"They will come directly," Rachel said. "It is a very good thing they're
+late, you can eat your breakfast in peace for once without knowing what
+has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not the proper spirit," said Rendel smiling, "for the wife of a
+future great man."</p>
+
+<p>"The only thing is," said Rachel, "that if you did become a great man, I
+don't think I should be the sort of wife for you. I am very stupid about
+politics, don't you think so? I don't understand things properly."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are exactly the sort of wife I want," said Rendel, "and
+that is enough for me. That is the only thing necessary for you to
+understand. I don't believe you do understand it really."</p>
+
+<p>"Then are you quite sure," she said, half laughing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>and half in earnest,
+"that you don't like politics better than you do me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely certain," said Rendel, with a slight change of tone that
+told his passionate conviction. "I wish you could grasp that in
+comparison with you, nothing matters to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing?" she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing," said Rendel, looking at her, "that I would not
+sacrifice to you&mdash;my career, my ambitions, anything you asked for."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," she said, "that you like me so much, but I don't want you
+to make sacrifices," and she spoke in all unconsciousness of the number
+of small sacrifices, of an unheroic aspect perhaps, that Rendel was
+daily called upon to make for her sake.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Thacker came in with the morning papers, which he laid on
+the table at Rendel's elbow.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then you are happy," said Rachel lightly. "Now you can bury
+yourself in the papers and not listen to anything I say."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if there is anything about Stoke Newton and old Crawley's
+resignation," said Rendel, quite prepared to follow her advice. "I don't
+suppose he takes a very jovial view of life just now, poor old boy. Oh,
+how I should hate to be on the shelf!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you are likely to be, for the present," said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>And then Rendel, pushing his chair a little away from the table, opened
+the papers wide, and began <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>scanning them one after another, with the
+mild and pleasurable excitement of the man who feels confidently abreast
+of circumstances. Then, as he took up the <i>Arbiter</i>, his eye suddenly
+fell upon a heading that took his breath away. What was this? He dropped
+the paper with a cry.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Frank?" said Rachel startled.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens! what have they done that for?" he said, springing to his
+feet in uncontrollable excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Done what?" said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they have announced&mdash;they have put in something that Lord
+Stamfordham&mdash;&mdash;" He snatched up the paper again and looked at it
+eagerly. "It is incredible! and the map too, the very map, at this
+stage! Well, upon my word, he has made a mistake this time, I do
+believe." And he still gazed at the paper as though trying to fathom the
+whole hearing of what he saw.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the door opened, and Thacker came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir William wished me to ask you for some foolscap paper, ma'am,
+please," he said, "with lines on it."</p>
+
+<p>"Foolscap paper? What is he doing?" said Rachel anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"He is writing, ma'am," said Thacker. "He seems to be doing accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish he wouldn't!" Rachel said. "I must go and see. I'll bring
+the foolscap paper myself, Thacker. Frank, there is some in your study,
+isn't there?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Rendel, who, still absorbed in what he had just seen, had
+only dimly heard their colloquy.</p>
+
+<p>"Some foolscap paper," she repeated. "There is some in your study?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, in my writing-table," he said absently.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel went quickly out of the room. At that moment the hall door bell
+rang violently. Rendel started and went to the window. In the phase of
+acute tension in which he found himself, every unexpected sound carried
+an untold significance, but he was not prepared for what this one
+betokened: Lord Stamfordham in the street, dismounting from his horse.
+Stamfordham was accustomed to ride every morning from eight till nine,
+alone and unattended. Thacker hurried out to hold the horse. Rendel
+followed him and met Stamfordham on the doorstep. He led the way quickly
+across the hall into his study and shut the door. They both felt
+instinctively that greetings were superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen the <i>Arbiter</i>?" Stamfordham said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, looking him straight in the face with eager
+expectation.</p>
+
+<p>"So have I," said Stamfordham, "at the German Embassy. I had not seen it
+before leaving home, but I saw a poster at the corner, and I went
+straight to Bergowitz to ask him what it meant; he is as much in the
+dark as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"In the dark!" said Rendel, looking at him amazed. "What! but&mdash;was it
+not you who published it?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> publish it?" said Stamfordham. "Do you mean to say you thought I
+had?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I did! who else?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Who else?" Stamfordham repeated. "I have come here to ask you that."</p>
+
+<p>"To ask <i>me</i>?" said Rendel, bewildered. "How should I know? I have not
+seen those papers since I gave the packet sealed to Thacker to take it
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>"And I received it," said Stamfordham, "sealed and untampered with, and
+opened it myself, and it has not been out of my keeping since."</p>
+
+<p>"But at the German Embassy," said Rendel, "since it was telegraphed...?"</p>
+
+<p>"The substance of the interview was telegraphed," said Stamfordham, "but
+not the map&mdash;<i>not the map</i>," he said emphatically. "That map no one has
+seen besides Bergowitz, you, and myself. Bergowitz it would be quite
+absurd to suspect, he is as genuinely taken back as I am&mdash;I know that it
+didn't get out through me, and therefore&mdash;&mdash;" he paused and looked
+Rendel in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said Rendel, with a sort of cry. A horrible light, an incredible
+interpretation was beginning to dawn upon him. "You can't think it was
+through <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"What else can I think?" said Stamfordham&mdash;Rendel still looked at him
+aghast&mdash;"since the papers after I gave them into your keeping were
+apparently not out of it until they passed into mine again? I brought
+them to you here myself. Of course I see <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>now I ought not to have done
+so, but how could I have imagined&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel hurriedly interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham, not a soul but myself can have had access to those
+papers. I went out of the room, it is true," and he went rapidly over in
+his mind the sequence of events the day before, "for a short half-hour
+perhaps, when you came back here and I went out with you, but before
+leaving the room I remember distinctly that I shut the cover of my
+writing-table down with the spring, and tried it to see that it was
+shut, and then unlocked it myself when I came back."</p>
+
+<p>"Was any one else in the room?" said Stamfordham.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, and a sudden idea occurred to him, to be dismissed
+as soon as entertained, "Sir William Gore."</p>
+
+<p>"Gore?" said Stamfordham, looking at Rendel, but forbearing any comment
+on his father-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>"It was quite impossible," Rendel said decidedly, answering
+Stamfordham's unspoken words, "that he could have got at the papers;
+for, as I told you, when I came back again they were exactly where I had
+left them, and the thing locked with this very complicated key, and he
+showed it hanging on his chain."</p>
+
+<p>"It is evident," Stamfordham repeated inflexibly, "that some one must
+have got hold of it with or without your knowledge. I warned you
+yesterday, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>you remember, about taking your&mdash;any one in your household
+into your confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"And I did not," Rendel said, grasping his meaning. "My wife did not
+even know that I had the papers to transcribe. She does not know it
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham paused a moment. He could not in words accuse Rendel's wife,
+whatever his silence might imply. Then he spoke with emphatic sternness.</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel," he said, "by whatever means the thing happened, we must know
+how. I must have an explanation."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel was powerless to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"For you must see," Stamfordham went on, "what a terrible catastrophe
+this might have been&mdash;the danger is not over yet, in fact, although I
+may be strong enough for my colleagues to condone the fact that the
+public has been told of this before themselves, and the country may be
+strong enough for foreign Powers to do the same. But, as a personal
+matter, I must know how it got out, and I repeat, I must have an
+explanation. For your own sake you must explain."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel felt as if the ground were reeling under his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I will try," he said, still feeling as if he were in some wild dream.</p>
+
+<p>"When you have made inquiries," Stamfordham said, still speaking in a
+brief tone of command, "you had better come and tell me the result. I
+shall be at the Foreign Office till twelve."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Till twelve. Very well," said Rendel, feeling as if there was a dark
+chasm between himself and that moment. Mechanically he let Lord
+Stamfordham out, and stood as the latter mounted and rode away. Then he
+turned back into the house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+
+<p>He went into the dining-room first&mdash;Rachel was still upstairs&mdash;and
+picked up the <i>Arbiter</i> again, looking at it with this new, terrible
+interpretation of what he saw in it. There it was, as damning evidence
+as ever a man was convicted upon, the map that no one but himself and
+the two principals had seen, reproduced, roughly it is true, but still
+unmistakably, from the paper that he alone in the house had had in his
+possession. He turned hurriedly to the brief but guarded commentary
+evolved at a venture by Pateley, but nevertheless very near the truth.
+Pateley had played a bold game indeed, but he was playing it as
+skilfully and watchfully as was his wont. Rendel threw down the paper
+with a gesture of despair, then clenched his hands. If he had been a
+woman he would have wept from sheer misery and agitation. But it was of
+no good to clench his hands in despair; every moment that passed ought
+to be used to find out the truth of what had happened, to clear himself
+from that nightmare of suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>He went hurriedly across the hall to his study <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>with the instinct of one
+who feels that on the spot itself there may be some suggestion to help
+discovery. His writing-table was locked. He tried it, shook it. The key,
+one of a peculiar make, hung always on his watch-chain. It was quite
+impossible that, save by one who had the key, the table should have been
+opened. What had he done yesterday? What had happened? And he sat down
+and buried his face in his hands, concentrating his thoughts, trying to
+recall every incident. The first time that Stamfordham had come in and
+given him the rough notes and the map, he, Rendel, had been alone. There
+was no doubt of that. After that who came in? Rachel? No, Rachel had not
+been in the room with the papers except just at the end when Rendel was
+sealing up the packet. Besides, if Rachel had had a hundred secrets in
+her possession, they would have been as safe as in his own. Then he
+caught himself up&mdash;in his own! after all, he was suspected&mdash;so the
+impossible idea, apparently, could be entertained. Then the thought of
+Sir William Gore came into his mind, but only to be instantly dismissed,
+for since the papers were locked up in Rendel's writing-table they must
+have been as inaccessible to Sir William as though they had been
+separated from him by the walls of several apartments. And there was one
+thing pretty certain: Gore, supposing him to be capable of using it, had
+not got a duplicate key. "Even he," Rendel found himself thinking,
+"would not do that." He heard Rachel's step swiftly descend the stairs
+and go into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>the dining-room, then she came quickly across the hall to
+the study.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there you are, Frank," she said. "My father is&mdash;&mdash;" then she broke
+off as she saw that he was apparently buried in painful thought from
+which he roused himself with a start as she spoke. "Is anything the
+matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you," said Rendel, speaking with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"May I just ask you something first?" said Rachel hurriedly. "I want
+some foolscap paper for my father. He is so restless this morning, so
+impatient."</p>
+
+<p>"It is in there&mdash;I told you, didn't I?" said Rendel, turning round and
+pointing to one of the drawers at the side of his table.</p>
+
+<p>"In that drawer!" said Rachel. "How very stupid of me! I didn't think of
+that. I thought it was in the top part, and I could only get one sheet
+out of there."</p>
+
+<p>"The top? Wasn't the top locked?" said Rendel quickly, his whole thought
+concentrated on the problem before him, and the part of the table must
+have played in the drama that affected him so nearly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was," said Rachel smiling, "and I couldn't open it, but there
+was a little tiny corner of ruled paper sticking out, so I pulled it,
+and out it came."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel started and looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is sweetly simple," she added.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, with an energy that surprised her. "It would come
+out quite easily, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," she said, surprised, "what is it? You didn't mind my pulling it
+out, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not; I don't mind your doing anything&mdash;only&mdash;I didn't realise
+that things could be got out of my writing-table in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you must be sure to poke them in further next time," Rachel said
+lightly, shutting again the side drawer to which she had been directed,
+and out of which she had got some sheets of foolscap. "I will be back
+directly."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait one moment," said Rendel. "Lord Stamfordham has been here."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham! Since I went upstairs?" said Rachel, standing still
+in sheer surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel. "Some secret information that&mdash;I knew about, has got
+into the paper and is published this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank, how terrible!" said Rachel. "How did it happen? Do they
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they mind," Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Was that what you saw in the paper," Rachel said, "that excited you so
+much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wonder," Rachel said, standing with her hand on the handle of
+the door, an attitude of all others least inviting of confidence. "Who
+let it out?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what we want to know," said Rendel. "That is what Lord
+Stamfordham came here to ask."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, he doesn't think it was you, I suppose," said Rachel, smiling at
+the absurd suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite possible," Rendel said, with a dim idea that he would lead
+up to the statement, "that he might&mdash;that he does."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said Rachel, opening her eyes wide. "Frank! how absurd!"</p>
+
+<p>"So it seems to me," said Rendel sombrely.</p>
+
+<p>"Too ridiculous!&mdash;I'll come down in one moment," Rachel said
+apologetically. "I don't want to keep my father waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say anything to him," said Rendel, "of what I have just been
+saying to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I won't indeed," Rachel said. "He ought not to have anything to
+excite him to-day," and she went rapidly upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, as the door closed behind her, felt for the moment like a man
+who, shipwrecked alone, has seen a vessel draw near to him and then pass
+gaily on its way without bringing him help. What was to be done? Again
+he took hold of the situation and looked it in the face. But now a new
+light had been thrown upon it by Rachel. If a paper could be taken out
+in the way that she had shown him, it was possible that Gore might have
+obtained the map in the same way, though it still seemed to Rendel
+exceedingly unlikely that, granted he had done so, he would have been
+able, given the condition he was in, to act upon it soon enough for it
+to appear this morning. He hesitated a moment, then he made up his mind
+to wait no longer. He took up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>the <i>Arbiter</i> and went upstairs to Sir
+William's room. He met Rachel coming out.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you," she said, as she saw the paper. "I was just coming down
+to fetch that. Father would like to see it."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I would bring it up," Rendel said. "I want to speak to him a
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, you will be careful, won't you?" she said. "He really is not in
+a fit state to discuss anything this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid what I have to say won't wait," Rendel said. "I think I had
+better speak to him alone." And he quite unmistakably waited for Rachel
+to go her way before he went into Sir William's room and shut the door.
+Sir William, wrapped in his dressing-gown, was sitting up in an easy
+chair. On the table near him were sheets of foolscap paper covered with
+figures, and lying beside them a letter with a bold, splotchy writing,
+which he quickly moved out of sight as Rendel came in, a letter that had
+told him of certain successful financial operations undertaken in the
+City on his behalf. His face was pale and haggard. He looked up, as he
+saw Rendel come into the room, with an expression almost of terror,
+dashed however with resentment. In his mind at that moment, his
+son-in-law was the embodiment of the fate that, in some incredible way,
+had, as it were, turned him, Sir William Gore, who had hitherto spent
+his life in the sunshine of position, of dignity, of the deserved
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>respect of his fellow-creatures, out into a chill storm of
+circumstances, absolutely alone, into some terrible world where, instead
+of walking upright among his fellow-men, he was, by no fault of his own,
+he kept repeating to himself, hurrying along with a burden on his back,
+crouching, fearing observation, fearing detection. That burden was
+almost intolerable. He had been trying to distract his thoughts and seek
+some cold comfort by making calculations based upon the letter he had
+received from Pateley, but all the time, behind it lay ice-cold and
+immovable the thought of the price at which Pateley's co-operation had
+been bought, of the moment of reckoning with Rendel that must come when
+the sands should have run out their appointed time. So much had he
+suffered, so much had he been dominated by this thought, that when the
+door opened and Rendel finally came in, the moment brought a sort of
+relief. Rendel, on the other hand, when he saw Sir William looking so
+old, so white and feeble, suddenly felt his purpose arrested. It was
+impossible, surely, that this old man, with the worn, handsome face and
+pathetically anxious expression, could have had a hand in a diabolical
+machination, and the thought that it was unlikely came to him with a
+gleam of comfort. Then as quick as lightning came a reaction of
+wonderment as to what hypothesis was to take the place of this one. At
+any rate, there was only one thing to be done: to tell Gore the story
+without a moment's further delay.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Sir William," he said. "I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>am sorry to hear you are not
+well this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Not very," Gore said, trying to speak calmly, and involuntarily looking
+at the newspaper in Rendel's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you were asking for the <i>Arbiter</i>," Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I should like to see it," Gore replied, "when you have done with
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to see it," Rendel said. "There is something in it which
+matters a great deal." Gore felt a sudden grip at his heart. He said
+nothing. "Here it is," said Rendel, and he handed him the paper, folded
+so as to show the startling headings in big letters and the rough
+facsimile of the map. Gore looked at it. The whole thing swam before his
+eyes; he held it for a moment, trying desperately to think what he had
+better say, but he could find no anchorage anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"That is very surprising," he said finally. "As far as I can see,
+it's&mdash;it's a partition of Africa between England and Germany? Is that
+it? I can't see very well this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"That is it," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is very important," Gore said, leaning back and letting the
+paper slide from his grasp. "Most important," and he was silent again,
+waiting in an agony of suspense for what Rendel's next words would be.
+Rendel, scarcely less agitated, was trying to choose them carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," he began, "to have to tire and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>worry you about this
+when you are not well, but I have a particular reason for talking to you
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray go on," Gore managed to say under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a special reason," said Rendel, "for wanting to remember what
+happened in my study yesterday afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday afternoon?" said Gore. "Did anything particular happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I want to know," said Rendel, trying to speak calmly and
+quietly. "You will oblige me very much if you will try to remember
+exactly what happened all the time, from the moment you came into the
+room until you left it."</p>
+
+<p>Gore made an effort to pull himself together. There was no difficulty,
+alas! for him in remembering every single thing that had taken
+place&mdash;the difficulty was not to show that he remembered too well.</p>
+
+<p>"When I came in," he said, endeavouring to speak in an ordinary tone,
+"you were at your writing-table."</p>
+
+<p>"I was," said Rendel, watching him.</p>
+
+<p>"And then I sat down in an armchair and read the <i>Mayfair Gazette</i>&mdash;&mdash;"
+and he stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. All that," Rendel said, "I remember, of course. Thacker came in
+telling me Lord Stamfordham was there, and I rushed out, shutting the
+roller top of my writing-table, which closes with a spring. I was
+especially careful to shut it, as it had valuable papers in it."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" said Sir William, almost inaudibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and among them," Rendel said, watching the effect of his words, "a
+map&mdash;that map of Africa which is reproduced this morning in the
+<i>Arbiter</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"In your writing-table?" Gore said, with quivering lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in my writing-table, out of which it must have been taken."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very serious," Gore forced himself to say.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very serious," said Rendel, "as you will see. When I came back
+and had finished my work on the papers I did them up myself in a packet
+and sent them to Lord Stamfordham."</p>
+
+<p>"Your messenger was not trustworthy, apparently," said Gore, recovering
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"My messenger was Thacker," Rendel said, "who is absolutely trustworthy.
+Lord Stamfordham himself told me that he had received the packet with my
+seal intact."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said Gore, "servants have been known to sell State secrets
+before now."</p>
+
+<p>"But not Thacker," said Rendel. "However, of course I shall ask him; I
+must ask every one in the house, for it must have been by some one here
+that the thing was done, that the map was got out."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you said the table was locked?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was locked, yes," said Rendel, "but I have learnt this morning that
+papers can be pulled out from under the lid. Rachel got a piece of
+foolscap paper for you in that way."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did she?" said Gore, feeling that he had unwittingly supplied one link
+in the chain of evidence.</p>
+
+<p>"There was only one person, so far as I know," said Rendel, "in the room
+while that paper was in my desk, who could have pulled it out and looked
+at it, and apparently made an unwarrantable use of it." The question
+that he expected to hear from Gore did not follow. Rendel waited, then
+he went on, "That person was&mdash;you."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" said Gore, sitting up, his colour going and coming
+quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"My words, I think, are quite plain," Rendel said. "I mean that all the
+evidence, circumstantial, I grant, points&mdash;you must forgive me if I am
+wronging you&mdash;to your having taken out the map."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you please give me your reasons for this extraordinary
+accusation?" said Gore.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, "I will." And he spoke more and more rapidly as, his
+self-control at length utterly broken down, and his emotion having
+gained entire possession of him, he felt the fierce joy of those who,
+habitually watchful of their words, yield once or twice in their lives
+to the impulse of letting them flow out unchecked in an overwhelming
+flood. "You alone were in the room with the papers; your prepossessions
+are all against us; you spoke yourself just now of the value of a State
+secret sold in the proper quarter; things are looking ugly about the
+'Equator.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to hint&mdash;&mdash;" said Gore.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel interrupted him quickly. "No, not to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>hint," he said; "hinting is
+not in my line. I dare to say it out. I dare to say that in one of those
+moments of aberration, of deviation, whatever you choose to call it,
+that sometimes descend upon the most unlikely people, you pulled that
+paper out, from idle curiosity, I daresay, and finding out what it was
+you sent it to the <i>Arbiter</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"You did well," said Gore bitterly, "to keep your wife out of the room
+while you were accusing me. I am old and defenceless," he said, with
+lips trembling, and again an immense self-pity rushing over him. "I
+can't answer; I can't reply to a young man's violence."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no intention," Rendel said, still speaking with a passion which
+intoxicated him, "of being violent, but I must go on with this, for Lord
+Stamfordham won't rest until it is sifted to the bottom, and he is not a
+man to be trifled with. And as to your being defenceless, good God! your
+best defence is Rachel's trust in you and devotion to you. It is because
+of it that I wanted to spare her the knowledge of what we have been
+saying. Her faith in your infallibility has always seemed to me so
+touching that for her sake I have respected it. I have tried&mdash;Heaven
+knows I have tried!&mdash;all this time to be to you what she wished me to
+be." Gore stirred; he was quite incapable of speaking. "This is not the
+moment," Rendel went on, almost unconscious of his words, which poured
+out in a flood, "to keep up a hollow mockery of trust and friendship,
+and it is more honest to tell you fairly that I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>have not entirely
+shared her faith in you. I have always thought that, like the rest of us
+after all, you were neither better nor worse than most other fallible
+people in this world, and that you may be, as I daresay we all are,
+fashioned by circumstances, or even by temptation. And I tell you
+frankly that I believe that you did this thing that I accuse you of.
+How, I demand to know. That, at any rate, is not more than one man may
+ask of another."</p>
+
+<p>Sir William winced and writhed helplessly under Rendel's words. The
+intolerable discomfort and misery that he felt as the moment of
+discovery drew near had given place gradually to a furious resentment at
+what he was being made to endure at the hands of one who ought not to
+have presumed to criticise him. As Rendel stood there, his clearly cut
+face hard and stern, pouring out accusations and reproach, Gore felt as
+if the younger man embodied all the adverse influences of his own life.
+It was through Rendel that the fatal opportunity had come of his getting
+himself into this terrible strait, Rendel: who, most unjustly in the
+scheme of things, was daring to tax Gore with it. It was too horrible to
+bear longer. He too felt that the time had come when that with which his
+heart and soul were overflowing must find vent in speech. As he heard
+Rendel's words of stern impeachment ringing in his ears, "I tell you
+frankly that I believe that you did this thing," he rose desperately to
+his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, casting with a kind of horrible <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>relief all restraints
+and prudence to the winds, "what if I had?"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel turned pale.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had?" he said. "You did it, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I had," Gore went on quickly, "it wouldn't have been a crime. You
+can't know how easy it was for the thing to happen. I am not going to
+tell you&mdash;I am not going to justify myself&mdash;&mdash;" And he went on with a
+passionate need of self-vindication, drawing from his own words the
+conviction that he had hardly been at fault.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir William," Rendel said hurriedly, "tell me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy enough," said Gore, "for you to talk of faith and trust. You
+need not grudge my child's faith in me. I have nothing else left now."
+And as the two men looked at each other each in his soul had a vision of
+the gracious presence that had always been by Sir William's side: of one
+who would have believed in him, justified him, if the whole world had
+accused him. Rendel suddenly paused as he was going to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Life is very easy for you," Gore went on in a rapid, trembling voice.
+Oh, the relief of saying it all!</p>
+
+<p>"It is all quite plain sailing for you, you with whom everything
+succeeds, you who are young and have your life before you. You have time
+for the things that happen to you to be made right."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let us discuss all that now," said Rendel, with an effort. "We
+are talking of something else <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>that matters more than I can say. You
+only can tell me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you nothing," said Gore loudly, excited and breathless,
+speaking in gasps. "One day when you are old and alone&mdash;and both of
+these things may come to you as well as to other people&mdash;you will
+understand what all this means to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Father, dear father!" cried Rachel, coming in hurriedly. Anxious and
+wretched at Rendel's interview with her father being so unduly
+prolonged, she had wandered upstairs again, and when she heard the
+excited and angry voices she could bear the suspense no longer. "What is
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>Gore sank back trembling into his chair as she came in, making signs to
+her that for the moment he was unable to speak. A glance at him was
+enough to show that it actually was so.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank!" she cried, "what have you done? I asked you not to excite
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Rachel, wait!" said Rendel, trying to speak calmly, feeling that
+everything was at stake. "Sir William, can you not tell me&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>Gore feebly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" cried Rachel, amazed at his persistence. "Oh, don't! Let me
+implore you not to ask him anything more. Frank! do you mind leaving him
+now? Oh, you must, you must, really. Look at him!"</p>
+
+<p>Sir William, white and exhausted, was leaning back in his chair with his
+eyes closed. Rendel looked at her face of quivering anxiety as it bent
+over her father, then turned slowly and left the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Rendel came downstairs, hardly conscious of what he was doing, a wild
+conflict of emotion raging in his mind. He shut himself into his study,
+and tried to distinguish clearly the threads of motive and conduct that
+had become so hideously entangled. It sounds a simple thing, doubtless,
+as well as a praiseworthy one, to discover the doer of an evil deed, to
+convict him, to bring home to him what he has done, and to prove the
+innocence of any other who may be suspected. Such a course, when spoken
+of in general terms, gives a praiseworthy and sustaining sense of a duty
+accomplished towards society. But it is in reality a much more
+complicated operation than we are apt to think. The evildoer,
+unfortunately for our sense of righteousness in prosecuting him, is not
+always one who has unmixed evil instincts, and nearly every contingency
+of human conduct becomes, as we contemplate it, many-sided enough to be
+very confusing. And it was beginning to dawn upon Rendel that, although
+it may fulfil the ends of abstract justice that the guilty should be
+exposed and the innocent acquitted, such an act <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>takes an ugly aspect
+when the eager pursuer is himself the innocent man who is to be
+vindicated, and the guilty one a weaker and defenceless person who is to
+be put in his place. "And yet," he said to himself bitterly, as he tried
+to think of it impartially, "if it were a question of any one else's
+reputation and not of my own I should be bound to say who the guilty man
+was." What was he to do? What could he do? He did not know how long he
+had been sitting there when Rachel came quickly in.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Frank," she said, with a face of alarm, "he's very ill. I'm sure he
+is. I've sent for Dr. Morgan to come at once. He fainted after you left,
+and he's only just come round again. Oh! I am terribly anxious," and she
+looked at him, her lips quivering, then put her hands before her eyes
+and burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel's heart smote him. Everything else, as he looked at her, faded
+into the background. The thing that mattered was Rachel was the woman he
+loved. It was he who had brought this grief upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"Darling," he said, "I'm so sorry."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head and tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, trying to suppress her tears, "I ought not to have left
+him. I daresay you didn't know, but it has done him the most terrible
+harm. Did you tell him, then, about&mdash;about&mdash;the thing you told me of,
+that you had been suspected&mdash;of telling something&mdash;what was it?" and she
+passed her hand over her forehead as if unable to think.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," said Rendel, "I didn't tell him that <i>I</i> had been accused of it. I
+daresay he guessed I had. I told him it had happened."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Frank, why did you?" she said. "I implored you not."</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel," he said, "do you realise what it means to me that I should be
+accused of a thing like this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, yes, of course," she said, evidently still listening for any
+sound from upstairs. "But still a thing like that, that can be put right
+in a few minutes, cannot matter so much as life and death...."</p>
+
+<p>And again her voice became almost inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>"There are some things," said Rendel in a low voice, "that matter more
+to a man than life and death."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say," said Rachel, "that it matters more that you should
+be supposed to have done something that you have not done, than that my
+father should not get well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Supposing your father had been wrongfully accused of something
+underhand and dishonourable," said Rendel, "would not that matter more
+to him than&mdash;than&mdash;anything else?"</p>
+
+<p>Rachel put up her hands with a cry as if to ward off a blow.</p>
+
+<p>"My father!" she said, drawing away from Rendel. "You must not say such
+a thing. How could it be said?"</p>
+
+<p>"You endure," said Rendel, "that it should be said about me."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"About you! That is different," she said, unable in the tension of her
+overwrought nerves to choose her words. "You are young, you can defend
+yourself; but it is cruel, cruel of you to say that it might happen to
+my father. You don't realise what my father is to me or you couldn't say
+such things even without meaning them. No, you can't know, you can't
+understand, or you couldn't, just for your own sake, have gone to him
+to-day when he is so ill and told him things that excited him."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do understand," Rendel said, forcing himself to speak calmly.
+"Of course I know, I have always known, perhaps not quite so clearly as
+to-day, that&mdash;that&mdash;he must come first with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! in some ways he must, he must," Rachel said, half entreatingly, yet
+with a ring of determination in her voice. "I promised my mother that I
+would, as far as I could, take her place, and while he lives I must.
+Frank, I would give up my life to save him suffering, as she would have
+done. Ah! there is Doctor Morgan," and she left the room hastily as a
+doctor's brougham stopped at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel stood perfectly still, looking straight before him, seeing
+nothing, but gazing with his mind's eye on a universe absolutely
+transformed&mdash;the bright, dancing lights had gone, it was overspread by a
+dark, settled gloom. There were sounds outside. He was mechanically
+conscious of Rachel's hurried colloquy with the doctor in the hall, of
+their footsteps going upstairs. Then he roused himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> What would the
+doctor's verdict be? But he could not remain now, he must hear it on his
+return from the Foreign Office, he must now go as agreed to Lord
+Stamfordham. But first, for form's sake, he rang for Thacker and
+questioned him, and through him the rest of the household, without
+result, except renewed and somewhat offended assurances from Thacker
+that the packet had been given by himself into Stamfordham's own hands
+and that, to his knowledge, no one but Sir William Gore had been in the
+study during Rendel's absence. But Rendel knew in his heart that there
+was no need to question any one further, and no advantage in doing so,
+since he knew also that he could not use his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>He drove rapidly along in a hansom, unconscious of the streets he passed
+through. Wherever he went he saw only Rachel's face of misery, heard the
+words, "just for your own sake," that had cut into him as deeply as his
+own into Gore. Was that it? he asked himself, was it just for his own
+sake, to clear himself, that he had accused Gore? Well, why else? Once
+Stamfordham knew that the thing had been done, the secret revealed, the
+name of the actual culprit would make no real difference. It would make
+things neither easier nor more difficult for Stamfordham to know that it
+had been done, not by himself, but by Sir William Gore. But there was
+one person besides himself and Gore for whom everything hung in the
+balance, and it was still with Rachel's face before him and her words in
+his ears, that he went into Lord Stamfordham's private room.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lord Stamfordham had been writing with a secretary, who got up and went
+out as Rendel came in. How familiar the room was to Rendel! how
+incredible it was that day after day he should have come there&mdash;was it
+in some former state of existence?&mdash;valued, welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what have you to tell me?" Stamfordham said quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel's lips felt dry and parched; he spoke with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," he said in a voice that sounded to him strangely unlike
+his own, "that I have ... nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Stamfordham. "Have you not made any inquiries? Haven't you
+asked every one in your house?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have made inquiries, yes," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you mean to say that there is nothing that can throw any light
+upon it, no possible solution?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can throw no light," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"But...." said Stamfordham. "Is this all you are going to say? Have you
+thought of no possibility? Have you no suggestion to offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," said Rendel again, "that I can offer none."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Stamfordham sat silent for a moment, absolutely bewildered. Part of
+his exceptional administrative ability was the almost unerring judgment
+he displayed in choosing those he employed about him, and it was an
+entirely new ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>perience to him to have to suspect one of them, or to
+impugn the ordinary code of honourable conduct. He found it extremely
+difficult, autocrat as he was, to put it into words. He was sore and
+angry at the grave indiscretion, if not something worse, that had been
+committed, most of all that it should have been himself, the great
+officer of state, in whom it was unpardonable to choose the wrong tool,
+who had put that immeasurably important secret into the hands of a man
+who had somehow or other let it escape from them; so much could not be
+denied. It certainly seemed difficult to conceive that it should be
+Rendel himself who had betrayed it, or that if he had betrayed it he
+would not admit the fact. And yet&mdash;could it be?&mdash;there was something in
+Rendel's demeanour now that made it more possible than it had been an
+hour ago to credit him with the shameful possibility. The pause during
+which all this had rushed through Stamfordham's mind seemed to Rendel to
+have lasted through untold ages of time, when Stamfordham at last spoke
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel," he said, "I have a right to demand that you should give me
+more satisfaction than this. You say you have learnt nothing, and can
+tell me nothing, but this I find impossible to believe." Rendel made a
+movement. "I am sorry, but I say this advisedly, since this disclosure
+<i>must</i> have taken place in your house," and he underlined the words
+emphatically. "I can't think it possible that a man of your intelligence
+should not have found some clue, some possible suggestion."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," said Rendel. "I'm afraid I have not."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, of course, it is obvious what conclusion I must come to," said
+Lord Stamfordham. "That it is not that you cannot give any explanation,
+but that you decline to give it."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, to his intense mortification, felt that he was changing colour.
+Stamfordham, looking at him earnestly, felt absolutely certain that he
+knew.</p>
+
+<p>"Rendel," he said, gravely, "take my advice before it is too late. Don't
+let a wish to screen some one else prevent you from speaking. If you
+have had the misfortune to&mdash;let the secret escape you, don't, to shelter
+the person who published it, withhold the truth now. But I must remind
+you also," and his words fell like strokes from a hammer, "that I am
+asking it for my own sake as well as yours. When I brought you those
+papers, I trusted you fully and unreservedly, and now that this
+catastrophe has happened in consequence of my confidence in you I am
+entitled to know what has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Rendel said. "I quite see your position, and I know that you have
+a right to resent mine, but all I can say is that&mdash;" he stopped, then
+went on again with firmer accents, "I don't suppose I can expect you to
+believe me, but as a matter of fact I can't begin to conceive the
+possibility of knowingly handing on to some one else such a secret as
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Knowingly," said Stamfordham, "perhaps not,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> and he waited, to give
+Rendel one more chance of speaking. But Rendel was silent. Then
+Stamfordham went on in a different tone and with a perceptibly harsher
+note in his voice. "My time is so precious that I am afraid if you have
+nothing further to tell me there is no good in prolonging the
+interview."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," said Rendel, who was deadly white, and he made a motion
+as though to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you realise," said Stamfordham, "what this will mean to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, "I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Stamfordham, "what I ought to do is to insist on the
+inquiry being continued until the matter is cleared up and brought to
+light."</p>
+
+<p>A strange expression passed over Rendel's face as there rose in his mind
+a feeling that he instantly thrust out of sight again, that
+supposing&mdash;supposing&mdash;Stamfordham himself investigated to the bottom all
+that had happened, and that without any doing of his, Rendel's, the
+truth were discovered? Then with horror he put the idea away. Rachel! it
+would give Rachel just as great a pang, of course, whoever found it out.
+The flash of impulse and recoil had passed swiftly through his mind
+before he woke up, as it were, to find Stamfordham continuing&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But I am willing for your sake to stop here."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel tried to make some acknowledgment, but no words that he could
+speak came to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"It might, as I told you before," Stamfordham went on, standing up as
+though to show that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>interview was over, "have been a national
+disaster. That, however, has, I hope, been averted, and we shall simply
+have done now something we meant to do a few days hence. But that does
+not affect the point we have been discussing," and he looked at Rendel
+as though with a forlorn hope that at the last moment he might speak.
+But Rendel was silent still. "You understand, then," Stamfordham said,
+looking him straight in the face, an embodiment of inexorable justice,
+"what this means to a man in your position?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel again.</p>
+
+<p>"I owe my colleagues an explanation," said Stamfordham. "Since one is
+not to be had, I must repeat to them what has passed between us."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Rendel. And he went towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another thing I must ask you," Stamfordham said, speaking with
+cold courtesy. "I have a letter here about Stoke Newton. It will have to
+be settled." And he waited for Rendel to answer the question which had
+not been explicitly asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not stand," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"That is best," said Stamfordham quietly. "Will you telegraph to the
+Committee, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Rendel, and with an inclination of the head, to which
+Lord Stamfordham responded, he went out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Rendel up to this moment had been accustomed, unconsciously to himself
+perhaps, to live, as most men of keen intelligence and aspirations do
+live, in the future. The possibilities of to-day had always had an added
+zest from the sense of there being a long, magnificent expanse
+stretching away indefinitely in front of him, in which to achieve what
+he would. In his moments of despondency he had been able to conceive
+disaster possible, but it was always, after all, such disaster as a man
+might encounter, and then, surmounting, turn afresh to life. But of all
+possible forms of disaster that would have occurred to him as being
+likely to come near himself, there was one that he would have known
+could not approach him: there was one form of misery from which, so far
+as human probabilities could be gauged, he was safe. He had never
+imagined that he could in his own experience learn what it meant,
+according to the customary phrase, to "go under" because he could not
+hold his head up: to disappear from among the honourable and the
+strenuous, to be dragged down by the weight <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>of some shameful deed which
+would make him unfit to consort with people of his own kind. As he
+walked home he was not conscious, perhaps, of trying to look his
+situation in the face, of trying to adjust himself to it. And yet
+insensibly things began falling into shape, as particles of sand
+gradually subside after a whirlwind and settle into a definite form.
+Then Stamfordham's words rang in his ears: "I must tell my colleagues."
+It was a small fraction of the world in number, perhaps, that would thus
+know how it happened, but they were, to Rendel, the only people who
+mattered&mdash;the people, practically, in whose hands his own future lay. He
+realised now as he had never done before in what calm confidence he had
+in his inmost heart looked on that future, and most of all how much, how
+entirely he had always counted on Lord Stamfordham's good opinion of his
+integrity and worth. It was all gone. What should he do? How should he
+take hold of life now?</p>
+
+<p>As he waited at a corner to cross the road, he saw big newspaper boards
+stuck up. The second edition of the other morning papers was coming out
+with the news eagerly caught up from the <i>Arbiter</i>. There it was in big
+letters, people stopping to read it as they passed: "Startling
+Disclosure. Unexpected Action of the Government." No power on earth
+could stop that knowledge from spreading now. How it would turn the
+country upside down&mdash;what a fever of conjecture, what storms of
+disapproval from some, of jubilation from others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> What frantic
+excitement was in store for the few who, with vigilance strained to the
+utmost, were steering warily through such a storm! Rendel involuntarily
+stopped and read with the others.</p>
+
+<p>Some people he knew drove by in a victoria, two exquisitely dressed
+women who smiled and bowed to him as they passed&mdash;chance acquaintances
+whom he met in society, and to whom under ordinary circumstances he
+would have been profoundly indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel could almost have stood still in sheer terror at realising some
+numbing sense that was stealing over him, some horrible change in his
+view of things that was already beginning. For as they bowed to him with
+unimpaired friendliness, he felt conscious of a distinct sensation of
+relief, almost of gratitude, that in spite of what had happened they
+should still be willing to greet him. Good God! was <i>that</i> what his view
+of life, and of his relations with his kind was going to be? No! no!
+anything but that. He would go away somewhere, he would disappear...
+yes, of course, that was what "they" all did. He remembered with a
+shudder a man he had known, Bob Galloway, who, beginning life under the
+most prosperous auspices, had been convicted of cheating at cards. He
+recalled the look of the man who knew his company would be tolerated
+only by those beneath him. He realised now part of what Galloway must
+have gone through before he went out of England and took to frequenting
+second-rate people abroad.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He looked up and found that he had mechanically walked back to Cosmo
+Place. He was recalled from his absorption to a more pressing calamity,
+as he recognised, with an acute pang of self-reproach, the doctor's
+brougham still standing before the door. He entered the house quickly.
+There was a sense of that strange emptiness, of the ordinary living
+rooms of the house being deserted, that gives one an almost physical
+sense that life is being lived through with stress and terrible
+earnestness somewhere else. He heard some words being exchanged in a low
+tone on the upper landing, and then a door shutting as Rachel turned
+back into her father's room. Rendel met Doctor Morgan as he came down
+the stairs. Morgan's face assumed an air of grave concern as he saw Sir
+William's son-in-law coming towards him, and Rendel read in his face
+what he had to tell. There are moments in which the intensity of nervous
+strain seems to make every sense trebly acute, in which, without knowing
+it, we are aware of every detail of sight and sound that forms the
+material setting for a moment of great emotion. As he looked at Doctor
+Morgan coming towards him, Rendel, without knowing it, was conscious of
+every detail that formed the background to that figure of foreboding: of
+the sunlight glancing on the glass of a picture, of its reflection in
+the brass of a loose stair rod that had escaped from its fastenings, and
+of which, even in that moment, Rendel's methodical mind automatically
+made a note.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I can't give you a very good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>account," he said in answer
+to Rendel's hurried inquiries. "He has had another and more prolonged
+fainting fit, and I think it possible that his heart may be affected."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean, then," said Rendel, "that&mdash;that&mdash;you are really anxious
+about the ultimate issue?" and he tried to veil the thing he was
+designating, as men instinctively do when it is near at hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am," Doctor Morgan answered. "Unless there is a great change in
+the next few hours, there certainly will be cause for the gravest
+anxiety."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel was silent, his thoughts chasing each other tumultuously through
+his brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Does my wife know?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I think she does," Morgan said. "I have not told her quite as clearly
+as I have said it to you, but she knows how much care he needs and how
+absolutely essential it is that he should be quiet. It is his one
+chance. No talk, no news, no excitement."</p>
+
+<p>"What has brought on this attack, do you think?" said Rendel, feeling as
+if he were driven to ask the question.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell," said Morgan. "He looked to me like a man who had been
+excited about something. Do you know whether that is so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel; "he got excited this morning about something that
+was in the paper."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! by the way, yes, I don't wonder," said Morgan, who was an ardent
+politician. "It was a most astonishing piece of news, certainly."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was, indeed," said Rendel, brought back for a moment to the
+unendurable burthen he had been carrying about with him.</p>
+
+<p>"The Imperialists are safe now to get in," said Morgan. "We look to you
+to do great things some day," and without waiting for the polite
+disclaimer which he took for granted would be Rendel's reply to his
+remark, without seeing the swift look of keen suffering that swept over
+Rendel's face, he hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel was bowed down by an intolerable self-reproach. He could have
+smiled at the thought that he had actually been seeking solace in the
+idea that he had, at any rate, done a fine, a noble thing, that he had
+done it for Rachel, that, if she ever knew it, she would know he had
+sacrificed everything for her. And now, instead, how did his conduct
+appear? How would it appear to her, since she knew but the outward
+aspect of it? To her? Why, to himself, even, it almost appeared that
+wishing to insist on screening himself at the expense of some one else,
+he had, in defiance of her entreaties, appealed to her father, and
+brought on an attack that might probably cause his death.</p>
+
+<p>He stood for a moment as the door closed behind Morgan, and waited
+irresolutely, with a half hope that Rachel would come downstairs to him.
+But all was silent, desolate, forlorn; it was behind the shut door
+upstairs that the strenuous issues were being fought out which were to
+decide, in all probability, other fates than that of the chief sufferer
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>who lay there waiting for death. The chief sufferer? No. Rendel, as he
+turned back sick at heart, after a moment, into his own study, thought
+bitterly within himself that death to the man who has so little to
+expect from life is surely a less trial than dying to all that is worth
+having while one is still alive. That was how he saw his own life as he
+looked on into the future, or rather, as he contemplated it in the
+present&mdash;for the future was gone, it was blotted out. That was the
+thought that ever and anon would come to the surface, would come in
+spite of his efforts to the contrary, before every other. Then the
+thought of Rachel's face of misery rose before him, haunted him with an
+additional anguish. With an effort he pulled himself together, sat down
+to the table, and wrote a letter to the committee of Stoke Newton,
+stating briefly that he had relinquished his intention of standing,
+directed it, and closed the envelope with a heavy sigh. One by one he
+was throwing overboard his most precious possessions to appease the
+Fates that were pursuing him. Where would it end? What would be left to
+him? The one precious possession, the turning-point of his existence
+still remained: Rachel, his love for her, their life together. But,
+after all, those great goods he had meant to have in any case, and the
+rest besides. The door opened. It was the servant come to tell him that
+luncheon was ready; the ordinary bell was not rung for fear of
+disturbing Sir William. Luncheon? Could the routine of life be going on
+just in the same way? Was it possible <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>that a morning had been enough to
+do all this? He went listlessly into the dining-room. Rachel was not
+there. He went upstairs, and as he went up met her coming out of her
+father's room. Her startled and almost alarmed look, as at the first
+moment she thought that he was going back into her father's room, smote
+him to the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better not go in, Frank," she said hurriedly. "The doctor said
+he was to be quite quiet. Please don't go in again," and the intonation
+of the words told him how much lay at his door already.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not going in," he said quietly. "I was coming to fetch you to
+have some luncheon."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I could eat anything," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You must try, darling," he said gently. "It is no good your being
+knocked up at this stage. You look pretty well worn out already."</p>
+
+<p>And indeed she did. The last twenty-four hours had made her look as
+though she herself had been through an illness, and the nervous strain
+added to her own condition made her appear, Rendel felt as he looked at
+her, quite alarmingly ill. She suffered herself to be persuaded to eat
+something, then wandered wretchedly back to her father's room to remain
+there for the rest of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel did not leave the house again. He sat downstairs alone, trying to
+realise what this world was that he was contemplating, this landscape
+painted in shades of black and grey. Was this the prospect flooded with
+sunshine that he had looked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>upon that very morning? The afternoon went
+on: the streets of London were full of a gay and hurrying crowd. Was it
+Rendel's imagination, the tense state of his nerves, that made him feel
+in the very air as it streamed in at his window the electric disturbance
+that was agitating the destinies of the country? Everyone looked as they
+passed as though something had happened; men were talking eagerly and
+intently. The afternoon papers were being hawked in the streets. One of
+them actually had the map, all had the news, given with the same
+comments of amazement, and, on the part of the Imperialists, of
+admiration at the feat that had been so cleverly performed. So the day
+wore on, the long summer's day, till all London had grasped what had
+happened&mdash;while the man through whom London knew was sitting alone, an
+outcast, with Grief and Anxiety hovering by him.</p>
+
+<p>These two same dread companions, seen under another aspect, were with
+Rachel as she sat through the afternoon hours in her father's darkened
+room, listening to his breathing, with all her senses on the alert for
+any sound, for any movement.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William moved and opened his eyes; then, looking at Rachel, who was
+anxiously bending over him, he rapidly poured out a succession of words
+and phrases of which only a word here and there was intelligible.
+"Frank," he said once or twice, then "Pateley," but Rachel had not the
+clue that would have told her what the words meant. She tried in vain to
+quiet him: he was not conscious of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>her presence. Then suddenly his
+voice subsided to a whisper, and a strange look came over his face. An
+uncontrollable terror seized upon Rachel. She ran out on to the stairs;
+and as, unsteady, quivering, she rushed down, meaning to call her
+husband, she caught her foot on the loose stair-rod and fell forward,
+striking her head with violence as she reached the bottom. It was there
+that Rendel, aghast, found her lying unconscious as he hurried out of
+his study to see what had happened. The sickening horror of that first
+moment, when he believed she was dead, swallowed up every other thought.
+It made the time that followed, when Doctor Morgan, instantly sent for,
+had pronounced that she had concussion of the brain, from which she
+would recover if kept absolutely quiet, a period almost of relief.</p>
+
+<p>And so Rachel was spared the actual moment of the parting she had been
+trying to face. For though Sir William rallied again from the crisis
+which had so alarmed her, he sank gradually into a state of coma from
+which he was destined never to wake, and from which, almost
+imperceptibly, he passed during the evening of the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, tossed on a wild storm of clashing emotions, the great anxiety
+caused by Rachel's accident and possible peril added to all he had gone
+through, had in truth little actual sorrow to spare for the loss of Sir
+William Gore. But Gore's death meant in one direction the death of all
+his own remaining hopes. When he knew the end had come, and that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>he
+would have to tell Rachel, when she was able to bear it, that her father
+was dead, he then began to realise how, unconsciously to himself almost,
+he had built upon some possibility of Sir William doing something to put
+things right. What, he had not formulated to himself; but he had had
+vague visions of a possible admission of some sort, of an attempted
+reconciliation, atonement, confession, such as he had read of in
+fiction, by which means the truth would have come out, and he would have
+been absolved without any effort on his own part. But those
+half-formulated dreams had vanished almost before he had realised them.
+Sir William Gore had gone to his eternal rest, and, as far as Rendel
+knew, no one but himself knew exactly what had happened. And now there
+was nothing in front of him but that miserable blank.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel was not told of what had happened until two days after her
+father's funeral. She received the news as though stunned, bewildered;
+as if it were too terrible for her to grasp. Gradually she came back to
+life again, but she was not the same as before. Her recovery would be,
+the doctor explained, a question of time. The accident that had befallen
+her, following the great strain and anxiety she had gone through, had
+completely upset her nervous system, and appeared&mdash;a not uncommon result
+after such an accident&mdash;to have completely obliterated the time
+immediately preceding her fall. The moment when Rendel, seeing her
+gradually recovering, first ventured on some allusion to Stam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>fordham
+and to what had taken place the day her father was taken ill, he saw a
+puzzled, bewildered look in her face, as though she had no idea of what
+he was saying, and he was seized by a fear almost too ghastly to be
+endurable.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham?" she said, puzzled. "When? I don't know about it."</p>
+
+<p>But the doctor reassured him, and told him that all would come right:
+she would be herself again, even if she never regained the memory of
+what had happened before her fall.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a common result of an accident of this kind," he said, "and need
+give you no special cause for anxiety. I have known two or three cases
+in which men who have completely recovered in other respects have never
+regained the memory of what immediately preceded the accident. That girl
+who was thrown in the Park a month ago, you remember&mdash;her horse ran away
+and threw her over the railings&mdash;although she got absolutely right, does
+not remember what she did that morning, or even the night before. And
+after all," he added, "it does not seem to me so very desirable that
+Mrs. Rendel should remember those two particular days she may have
+lost."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel gave an inward shudder. If he could but have forgotten them too!</p>
+
+<p>"They were full, as I understand, of anxiety and grief about her
+father's condition."</p>
+
+<p>"They were," said Rendel. "It would be much better if she did not
+remember them."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's right, keep your heart up, then," said Morgan, all
+unconsciously; "and above all, no excitement for her, no anxiety, no
+irritation. Change of scene would be good for her, perhaps, and seeing
+one or two people. If I were you, I should take her to some German
+baths. On every ground I should think that would be the best thing for
+her."</p>
+
+<p>See people? Rendel felt, with the sense of having received a blow, what
+sort of aspect social intercourse presented to him now. But as the days
+went on Doctor Morgan insisted more strongly on the necessity that
+Rachel should go for a definite 'cure' somewhere, and recommended a
+special place, Bad-Schleppenheim.</p>
+
+<p>"Bad-Schleppenheim," he said, "is on the whole as good a place as you
+could go to."</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't it thronged with English people?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Not unduly," said Morgan. "At any rate, I think it is worth trying."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if my wife would like it," said Rendel doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't tell her," said the doctor, "till it's all settled. That's
+the way to deal with wives, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>And with a cheery laugh, Dr. Morgan, who had no wife, went out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+
+<p>Rachel, however, even after the move abroad so strongly recommended by
+her doctor had been made, did not all at once regain her normal
+condition. She appeared to be better in health; she was calmer, her
+nerves seemed quieter; but a strange dull veil still hung between her
+mind and the days immediately preceding the great catastrophe. To what
+had happened the day before her father's death she never referred; she
+had not asked Rendel anything more about the accusation brought against
+him. Once or twice she had spoken of her father as if he were still
+there, then caught herself up, realising that he was gone. Was this how
+it was always going to be? Rendel asked himself. Would he not again be
+able to share with her, as far as one human being can share with
+another, his hopes and his fears, or rather his renunciations? Would she
+never be able to take part in his life with the sweet, smiling sympathy
+which had always been so ineffably precious to him? Those days that she
+had lost were just those that had branded themselves indelibly into his
+consciousness: the afternoon that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> Stamfordham had come with the map,
+the morning following when it had appeared in the newspaper, the scenes
+with Gore, with Stamfordham,&mdash;all those days he lived over and over
+again, and lived them alone. There was some solace in the thought that
+if that time were to be to Rachel for ever blurred, she would never be
+able to recall what had passed between herself and her husband after
+Rendel had brought on Gore's illness by taxing him with what he had
+done. And while he struggled with his memories&mdash;would he always have to
+live in the past now instead of in the future?&mdash;Rachel, who had been
+told to be a great deal in the fresh air, passed her time quietly,
+peacefully, languidly, lying out of doors. They had deemed themselves
+fortunate in securing in the overcrowded town a somewhat primitive
+little pavilion belonging to one of the big hotels, of which the charm
+to Rachel was that it had a shady garden. Rendel, whose time even during
+the period in which he had had no regular occupation had always been
+fully occupied, reading several hours a day, making notes on certain
+subjects about which he meant to write later, became conscious for the
+first time in his life that the hours hung heavy on his hands. It was
+with a blank surprise that he realised that such a misfortune, which he
+had always thought vaguely could befall only the idlers and desultory of
+this world, should attack himself. Life is always laying these snares
+for us, putting in our way suddenly and unexpectedly some form of
+unpleasantness by which we may have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>seen others attacked, but from
+which unconsciously we have felt that we ourselves should be preserved
+by our own merits,&mdash;just as when we are in good health we hear of
+sciatica, lumbago, or gout, and accept them without concern as part of
+the composition of the universe, until one day one of these
+disagreeables attacks ourselves, and stands out quite disproportionately
+as something that after all is of more consequence than we thought. It
+unfortunately nearly always happens that we have to face the mental
+crises of life inadequately prepared. We think we have pictured them
+beforehand, and according to that picture we are ready, in imagination,
+with a sufficient equipment of fortitude and decision to enable us to
+encounter them. In reality we mostly do no better than a traveller who
+going to an unknown land and climate, guesses for himself beforehand
+what his outfit had better be, and then finds it deplorably inadequate
+when he gets there. Rendel, during those days of lonely agony in London
+that followed the revelations sprung on the public by the <i>Arbiter</i>, had
+endeavoured to school himself to face what the future might have in
+store for him; but he had thought that while he was abroad, at any rate,
+the horror that pursued him now would be in abeyance. He had never been
+to German baths, he had never been to a fashionable resort of the kind;
+he had no idea what it meant. All that he had vaguely pictured was that
+it would be some sort of respite from the thing that dogged him now, the
+fear&mdash;for there was no doubt that as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>the days went on it grew into a
+fear&mdash;of coming suddenly upon some one he knew, who would look him in
+the face and then turn away. And now that they were at the term of their
+journey, installed in their little foreign pavilion, he had become aware
+that at a stone's throw from him was a numerous cosmopolitan society,
+among whom was probably a large contingent from London. He did not try
+to learn their names; he would jealously keep aloof from them. Rachel
+had been advised to stay here for four weeks at least. Four weeks, no
+doubt, is not very long under ordinary circumstances: he had not
+imagined that it might seem almost unendurably long to a man who had
+been married less than a year to a wife that he loved. And yet, before
+he had been there three days, he was conscious that each separate hour
+had to be encountered, wrestled with, conquered, before going on to the
+next. He had meant to write: there was a point of administration upon
+which he had intended to say his say in one of the Reviews. But somehow
+in that sitting-room, with the windows opening down to the garden, the
+steady work, which in his own study would have been a matter of course,
+seemed almost impossible. Then he thought he would read. He read aloud
+to Rachel for part of the day; but he did not dare to choose anything
+that was much good to himself, as he had been told that the more
+inactive her mind was the better. Something he would have to do; he
+would have to organise his daily life in some way that would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>make the
+burden of it endurable. He made up his mind to take long walks&mdash;the
+hotel and pavilion lay on the outskirts of the town&mdash;to go into the
+outlying country and explore it on foot. But in the evenings when Rachel
+was gone to bed, and when, alone at last, he would try to concentrate
+his mind on the study or the writing to which he had been used so
+eagerly to turn, another thought that he had been keeping at bay by a
+conscious effort would rush at him again and overwhelm him.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, at the other side of Bad-Schleppenheim, the hours were
+flying fast and gaily. From the moment when the visitors met together at
+an early hour in the morning to drink their glasses of Schleppenheim
+water, and onwards through the luncheon parties, excursions, walking up
+and down, listening to the band, seeing theatricals, or playing Bridge
+in the evening, there was never a moment in which they were not
+industriously engaged in the pursuit of something. It was mostly
+pleasure, though many of them imagined it was health. Many of the people
+who in London constituted Society were here, in an inner and hallowed
+circle, in the centre of which were many minor and a few major royalties
+out of every country in Europe; and revolving round them in wider
+circles outside, many other people who, at home just on the verge of
+being in Society, revelled in the thought that here, under altered
+conditions, and in the enforced juxtapositions of life in a
+watering-place, a special talent for tennis, a gift for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> Bridge, better
+clothes than other people, or a talent for private theatricals, would
+help them to be on the right side of the line they were so anxious to
+cross. Add to these, numbers of pretty girls anxious only to enjoy
+themselves, and swarms of young men who had come for the same reason,
+and it will be imagined that the atmosphere reigning in the brilliantly
+lighted Casino, in and around which the joyous spent their evenings
+singing, dancing, wandering in the grounds, was singularly different
+from that of the little isolated pavilion where Rendel sat trying to
+fashion the picture of his life into something that he could look upon
+without a shudder.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+
+<p>The walls of the little town were placarded with the announcement of a
+great bazaar to be held for the benefit of the English Church in
+Bad-Schleppenheim. The economics of a fashionable bazaar are evidently
+governed by certain obscure laws, of which the knowledge is yet in
+infancy; for the ordinary laws of commerce are on these occasions
+completely suspended. That of supply and demand becomes inverted, since
+the vendors are seemingly eager to sell all that the buyers least want:
+the cost of production, of which statistics are not obtainable, the
+expenditure of money, time, and energy required to furnish the stalls is
+not taken into account at all. Loss and profit appear to be inextricably
+mingled; however much unsold merchandise remains on the stall at the end
+of the bazaar the seller is expected to hand over a substantial sum to
+the good object for which she is supposed to have been working. And yet
+there must be some advantage in this method of raising money, or even
+the female mind would presumably <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>not at once turn to it as the simplest
+and most obvious way of obtaining funds for a given purpose.</p>
+
+<p>These problems, however, did not exist for Lady Chaloner, one of the
+leaders of English Society in Schleppenheim. She took bazaars for
+granted, as she did everything else. She was one of the very pillars of
+the social fabric of her country. She was of noble blood, she was
+portly, she was decidedly middle-aged. She had been recommended to diet
+herself and to drink the waters of Schleppenheim, and as she did so in
+company with half the distinguished people in Europe, she was quite
+content to follow the course prescribed. In these days when everything
+is called into question, when social codes alter, and an undesirable
+fusion of human beings takes place in so many directions, it was
+positively refreshing to turn to Lady Chaloner, who not only did not
+know, but could not conceive that it mattered, what other people did in
+any layer of existence beneath her own. She had not at any time a keen
+eye to discrimination of character. Her judgment of those
+fellow-creatures whom she naturally frequented was based in the first
+instance on their degree of blood relationship with herself, then on
+their social standing: but she was but vaguely aware of the difference
+between the men and women, especially the women, who did not belong to
+that inner circle, and knew as little about them as a looker-on leaning
+from a window in a foreign town knows about the people who pass beneath
+him in the street. But there were times <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>when she entirely recognised
+the usefulness in the scheme of creation of those motley crowds of
+well-dressed persons, even though they bore names she had never heard
+before. During her preparation for the bazaar, for instance, which she
+was getting up in the single-minded conviction that nothing better could
+be done for the institution she was trying to befriend, she had been
+more than willing to co-operate with Mrs. Birkett, the wife of the
+chaplain, and even to ask some of Mrs. Birkett's friends for their help.
+Mrs. Birkett, who approached the bazaar from the point of view from
+which she had artlessly imagined it was being undertaken, that of
+ensuring some sort of provision for the expenses of the chaplain who
+undertook the summer duty of Schleppenheim, received a series of shocks
+as she came face to face with the different points of view of the
+various stall-holders with whom she was successively brought into
+contact. Lady Chaloner&mdash;she looked on this as a great achievement&mdash;had
+succeeded in enrolling among the bazaar-workers the young Princess
+Hohenschreien, on the ground of her being a staunch Protestant. The
+Princess was half-English, half-German. Her mother had been a distant
+connection of Lady Chaloner. This relationship in some strange way
+entirely condoned in Lady Chaloner's eyes the fact that the Princess
+Hohenschreien had a good deal of paint on her face, and a good deal of
+paint in her manner, and that the loudness of her laugh and the boldness
+of her bearing were more pronounced than would have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>been permitted of
+the well-behaved ladies brought up within the walls of Castle Chaloner.
+However, Lady Chaloner's daughters were married to husbands of an
+excellent and irreproachable kind, and were out in the world; and Lady
+Chaloner felt no kind of responsibility about Madeline Hohenschreien,
+"Maddy," as she was called by her intimates. She expressed distinct
+approval of her, in fact, in the words, "Maddy has such a lot of go
+about her, hasn't she? It does one good to hear her laughin'." So when
+"Maddy" instantly and light-heartedly undertook to help the bazaar by
+performing at the Caf&eacute; Chantant, that was to go on at stated times all
+through the evening, Lady Chaloner felt that she was doing a distinctly
+good work. It was no small undertaking, however, marshalling her forces
+and trying to arrange that every one of the stallholders should not be
+selling exactly the same thing&mdash;namely, the small carved wooden objects,
+the staple commodity of Schleppenheim, made by the surrounding
+peasantry.</p>
+
+<p>The bazaar was drawing near, and Lady Chaloner was very busy indeed.
+Indefatigably did she send for Mrs. Birkett several times every day,
+begging her to bring a pencil and paper that they might make lists. Mrs.
+Birkett's experience, however, was limited to sales of work under
+somewhat different conditions in England, and she was not of very much
+use, except as a moral support and outward material embodiment of the
+cause for which the bazaar was being undertaken. She sought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>comfort in
+her inmost soul in the thought of all the money that must surely flow
+into the coffers of the Church after this magnificent undertaking; but
+she was secretly out of her element and ill at ease, when Lady Chaloner
+pounced upon her to talk of the bazaar, at an hour when the most
+fashionable people in Europe, with their best clothes on, were walking
+up and down while the band was playing, or established at little tables
+exchanging intimate pleasantries with one another and greetings with the
+people that passed.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting by Lady Chaloner, in compulsory attendance upon that
+benefactress of the Church, a few days before the bazaar was to come
+off.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let me see," said Lady Chaloner, "what are you goin' to have on
+your stall?"</p>
+
+<p>"On mine?" said Mrs. Birkett, rather taken aback.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lady Chaloner, "aren't you goin' to have a stall?"</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said Mrs. Birkett, "I have not any of the things here
+that&mdash;er&mdash;I generally use for the purpose," and she thought regretfully
+of a big box at home which contained a sort of rolling stock of hideous
+articles that travelled, so to speak, between herself and her friends
+from one bazaar to another, and reappeared, a sort of symbolical
+merchandise, a currency in a nightmare, at all the fancy sales held in
+the neighbourhood of Leighton Ham.</p>
+
+<p>"The only thing is," said Lady Chaloner, "it is rather a pity, because,
+bein' for the Church, people <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>will expect you to sell, you know. Perhaps
+you could sell at somebody else's stall. Mine's full, I think," she
+added prudently. "Let me see," and her ladyship ran quickly over the
+names of the half a dozen young women who, in the most beguiling of
+costumes, were going to trip about and sell buttonholes to their
+partners of the evening before. Lady Chaloner's solid good sense and
+long habit of the world kept things that should be separate perfectly
+distinct; she did not for a moment contemplate Mrs. Birkett tripping
+about and selling buttonholes. "Perhaps Mrs. Samuels hasn't got her
+number complete," she said, not realising this time, the thing being a
+little more out of her field of vision, that Mrs. Samuels, who had been
+spending her time, energy, and even money, in trying to be friends with
+Lady Chaloner, might quite possibly be in the same attitude towards Mrs.
+Birkett, if thrust upon her, as Lady Chaloner was to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay, yes," said Mrs. Birkett, with some misgiving, as she saw
+Mrs. Samuels further down the alley, standing with a London manager in
+the centre of a group who were laughing and talking round them.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see, Mrs. Samuels is goin' to have the tea, isn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the refreshment stall," said Mrs. Birkett, referring to her list.</p>
+
+<p>"And Lady Adela Prestige the fortune tellin'&mdash;and Princess
+Hohenschreien, what did she say she would do? Oh! I remember, the Caf&eacute;
+Chantant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> What has she done about it, I wonder? Do you know anything
+about that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I don't," said Mrs. Birkett. This, indeed, was quite beyond
+her competence.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if she has got people enough. Ah! here she is. Madeline!
+Maddy!" she called out, as Princess Hohenschreien appeared at the end of
+the walk, a parasol lined with pink behind her, and her head thrown back
+as she laughed loud and heartily at something her companion had said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear Lady Chaloner? Were you calling me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to speak to you about the bazaar," said Lady Chaloner. "How do
+you do, M. de Moricourt," to the Princess's companion.</p>
+
+<p>"The bazaar," said the young man in French, as he bowed, "what is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" said the Princess, with another burst of laughter. "But,
+<i>mon cher</i>, you are impossible! We have been talking of nothing else all
+the way down the alley."</p>
+
+<p>"How?" said the young man. "I really beg your pardon, Princess, but I
+thought we were talking of the comedy we were going to act at the
+Casino."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you suppose that comedy is for," said the Princess, "if not
+for the bazaar?"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I tell?" said Moricourt. "It might have been to please the
+public, or even to please the Princess Hohenschreien," with a little
+bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we shall please both," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> Princess. "And a bazaar
+gives us a reason. A charity bazaar, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! a charity bazaar," said Moricourt, "that is another thing. It
+doesn't matter how badly I shall act, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps that is as well," said the Princess.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it permitted to know the object of the charity we are going to
+assist so well?" said Moricourt.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Chaloner, dimly aware that Mrs. Birkett was becoming very
+uncomfortable, although she did not clearly distinguish whether the
+peculiar expression to be observed on the latter's face came from
+irritation or embarrassment, hastily said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a charity exactly. It is for the English Church at
+Schleppenheim. This is Mrs. Birkett, the wife of the clergyman,"
+indicating Mrs. Birkett.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Moricourt, "the English Church," and he bowed to Mrs. Birkett
+as though making the acquaintance of that honoured institution. Princess
+Hohenschreien also included herself in the introduction, and bowed with
+a good-natured smile of absolute indifference to Mrs. Birkett and to all
+that she represented.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now then, seriously," said Lady Chaloner, "do you undertake the
+Caf&eacute; Chantant, Madeline?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the whole of it, my dear lady," said the Princess. "That really is
+too much to ask. M. Moricourt and I will act a play."</p>
+
+<p>"How long does the play last?" said Lady Chaloner.</p>
+
+<p>"How long did we say it took?" said the Princess <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>to her companion. "It
+depends upon how often Moricourt forgets his part. When we rehearsed it
+last night he waited quite ten minutes in the middle of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I must remind you," said Moricourt, "that I was pausing to admire ...
+the beautiful feathers in your hat."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! well, that is different," said the Princess. "I think that
+explanation is satisfactory&mdash;but otherwise&mdash;&mdash;" And she filled up the
+sentence with a telling glance, to which Moricourt replied with a look
+of fervent admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how long does it take, then?" said Lady Chaloner, with a smile of
+strange indulgence, Mrs. Birkett thought, for a lady so highly placed,
+and of such solid dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! about half an hour," said Moricourt; "perhaps three-quarters."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" said Lady Chaloner, in some consternation. "The Caf&eacute;
+Chantant goes on for how long did you say, Mrs. Birkett?"</p>
+
+<p>This piece of statistics Mrs. Birkett was able to furnish.</p>
+
+<p>"From six till ten, I think you said, Lady Chaloner," she said, reading
+from her list.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens!" said the Princess, "you don't expect us, I hope, to go on
+from six till ten. We had better do the Nibelungen Ring at once. I will
+be Br&uuml;nnhilde&mdash;and I tell you what," turning to Moricourt, "you shall be
+the big lizard who comes in and says 'bow-wow,' or whatever it is. Mr.
+Wentworth!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> and she called to Wentworth who was strolling along with an
+air of being at peace with himself and the universe. "What is it that
+lizards do?"</p>
+
+<p>"If they are small," said Wentworth, "they run up a wall in the sun, or
+they run over your feet, and if they are big&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You fall over their feet, I suppose," said the Princess.</p>
+
+<p>"But a lizard at a Caf&eacute; Chantant," said Moricourt, "what does he do?"</p>
+
+<p>"At a Caf&eacute; Chantant? He sings, of course," said Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"No no," said the Princess, with again her resonant laugh. "I don't know
+much about botany, but I am sure lizards don't sing."</p>
+
+<p>"Then in that case," said Moricourt, "Wentworth must. He can sing; I
+have heard him."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you, Mr. Wentworth? How well can you sing?" said the Princess with
+artless candour.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Wentworth, "that is rather difficult to say. I don't sing
+quite as well as Mario perhaps, but a little better than ... a lizard."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will do perfectly," said the Princess. "For a charity, people
+are not particular."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, what is all this for?" said Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"For the English Church here, you remember," said Lady Chaloner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! to be sure, yes," said Wentworth. "I saw the placard."</p>
+
+<p>"This is Mrs. Birkett," said Lady Chaloner.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wentworth bowed and said politely, "I hope the bazaar will be a great
+success."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, thank you," Mrs. Birkett said, feeling that if the bazaar
+were not a great success, she would have gone through a good deal for a
+very little. She longed to be allowed to go away, but she was not quite
+sure whether she would not be jeopardising the success of the bazaar by
+leaving at this juncture. Visions of having promised to meet her
+reverend husband to go for a walk at a given moment were haunting her.
+Finally, with a desperate effort, she said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I have an appointment, Lady Chaloner, and must go now,
+unless there is anything more I can do."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, must you go?" said Lady Chaloner, "we had better meet in the
+morning, I think, and make a final list of the stalls."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Mrs. Birkett, with a sigh of relief, and with a
+determined effort she tried to include the circle she was leaving in one
+salutation, and made away as fast as she could.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said the Princess, "the poor lady is not shocked at having a
+Caf&eacute; Chantant in her Church bazaar."</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate," said Wentworth, "she will be consoled when you hand over
+the results to her afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the name of the piece you are going to do?" said Lady Chaloner,
+pencil in hand.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Une porte qui s'ouvre</i>," said Moricourt, with a glance at the
+Princess.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! if you think we'll have that one!" said the Princess. "Would you
+believe, Lady Chaloner, that he wants me to be the maid in it instead of
+the leading lady, because he kisses the maid behind the door!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Maddy!" said Lady Chaloner, reprovingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't look so shocked at me, dear Lady Chaloner," she said. "I am sure
+I am as shocked myself at the suggestion, as&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Birkett," suggested Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," said the Princess.</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate we'll put that piece on the list for the present," said
+Lady Chaloner. "Then there will be a song from Lady Adela&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And a song from Mr. Wentworth," said Moricourt.</p>
+
+<p>"That's splendid," said Lady Chaloner. "The Caf&eacute; Chantant will do. The
+only thing I rather regret is about the stalls, that every one is goin'
+to sell the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is going to buy?" said the Princess.</p>
+
+<p>"That's another difficulty," said Lady Chaloner, "they'll all have to
+buy from one another."</p>
+
+<p>"We had better have some autographs," said the Princess, "they always
+sell."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Lady Chaloner, putting it down on the list. "You had
+better get some."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the Princess. "We'll have some of all kinds, I think.
+I will get some from those people too," nodding her head in the
+direction of the London manager.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Everybody considers himself an autograph in these days," said
+Wentworth; "it is terrible what a levelling age we live in."</p>
+
+<p>"We might sell photographs, of course," said the Princess, "instead of
+autographs."</p>
+
+<p>"Or both," said Lady Chaloner, earnestly and anxiously, as though
+contemplating all sources of revenue. "Signed photographs."</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent," said Wentworth.</p>
+
+<p>"There ought to be people enough to buy, if they would only come," said
+Lady Chaloner, taking up a Visitors' List that lay beside her. "People
+like the Francis Rendels, for instance," putting her finger on the name,
+"or&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The Rendels? Are they here?" said Wentworth, with much interest.</p>
+
+<p>"So it says here. What is she like?" said Lady Chaloner. "Would she
+help?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure," said Wentworth. "She's in mourning, and very quiet&mdash;but
+very charming."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said the Princess with a gay laugh. "I am sure that is a
+compliment <i>&agrave; mon adresse</i>. I know what you mean when you say that very
+quiet women are charming. Let us go away, Moricourt; we are too noisy
+for Mr. Wentworth."</p>
+
+<p>"You are too bad, Maddy, really," said Lady Chaloner, smiling at this
+brilliant sally.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ich bitte sehr</i>," said Wentworth to the Princess, with a little bow,
+as he took up the paper and looked for the address of the Rendels.
+"Pavillon du Jardin, H&ocirc;tel de Londres&mdash;I must go and look them up," he
+said.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You might beat them up to come and buy, at any rate," said Lady
+Chaloner, "if they can't do anything else."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do what I can," said Wentworth with a smile, reflecting as he
+walked off what a strange blurring of the focus of life there is when,
+everything being concentrated on to one particular purpose, whether it
+be a bazaar, an election, or the giving of a ball, all the human beings
+one encounters are considered from the point of view of their fitness to
+one particular end&mdash;in the aspect of a buyer or seller, as a voter, as a
+partner, as the case may be. There was no doubt that at this moment the
+whole of mankind were expected to fit somehow into Lady Chaloner's
+pattern: to be useful for the bazaar, or to be thrown away as useless.</p>
+
+<p>As Wentworth turned away he exchanged greetings with a jovial
+important-looking personage coming in the other direction, no other than
+Mr. Pateley, exhaling prosperity as he came. The completion of the Cape
+to Cairo railway, and the reinstatement in public opinion of the
+'Equator' Mine, proved to be of gold after all&mdash;let alone certain
+fortunate pecuniary transactions connected with that reinstatement&mdash;had
+given Pateley both political and material satisfaction. The <i>Arbiter</i>
+was advancing more triumphantly than ever, and its editor was a person
+of increasing consideration and influence.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem very busy, Lady Chaloner," he said, as he looked at the sheets
+of paper on the table by her.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We are gettin' up a bazaar," Lady Chaloner said. "Will you help us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted," said Pateley obviously. "What do you want me to
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give us your autograph," said the Princess promptly, "and we will sell
+it for large sums of gold."</p>
+
+<p>She had certainly chosen a skilful way of enlisting Pateley's
+co-operation. He revelled in the joy of being a political potentate, and
+every fresh proof that he received of the fact was another delight to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be greatly honoured," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to have autographs of all the distinguished people we can
+find," said the Princess, continuing her system of ingratiation.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you of an autograph who has just arrived," said Pateley. "I
+have just seen him driving up from the station; a very expensive
+autograph indeed&mdash;Lord Stamfordham."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham?" said Lady Chaloner, the Foreign Secretary, like the
+rest of the world, falling instantly into his place in her kaleidescope.
+"Certainly, if he would give us a dozen autographs we should do an
+excellent business with them."</p>
+
+<p>"You had better make Adela Prestige ask him, then," said the Princess
+with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder where Adela is?" said Lady Chaloner, considering the question
+entirely on its merits.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends upon where Lord Stamfordham <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>is," murmured the Princess to
+her companion. "By the way, Lady Chaloner, before we part, it is
+Tuesday, isn't it, that we make our expedition to Waldlust to lunch in
+the wood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday?&mdash;let me see, this is Thursday. Yes, I think so," said Lady
+Chaloner. Then she gave a cry of dismay. "Oh! no, Maddy, Tuesday is the
+bazaar; that will never do."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said the Princess, "all the better. The bazaar doesn't open
+till half-past five after all, and we can lunch at half-past twelve. It
+will do us good to be in the fresh air before our labours begin; we
+shall look all the better for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Lady Chaloner dubiously. "But then what about the
+arrangements?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't those be made on Monday?" said the Princess; "and if there are
+any finishing touches required, Mrs. Birkett and her friends can do them
+on Tuesday. They won't want to look their best, I daresay," and she
+laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Lady Chaloner. "Tuesday, then, for Waldlust. I will
+ask Lord Stamfordham to come."</p>
+
+<p>"And I will ask Adela," said the Princess.</p>
+
+<p>"Come then, Moricourt," said the Princess, "if you want to rehearse that
+play before we act it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray do," said Lady Chaloner anxiously. "I am sure people who act
+always rehearse first."</p>
+
+<p>"I am more than willing," said M. de Moricourt, throwing an infinity of
+expression into his voice and glance as he looked at the Princess.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Some parts especially will require a great deal of rehearsing." And
+they departed together.</p>
+
+<p>"She is so amusin'," said Lady Chaloner to Pateley. "I really don't know
+anybody that can be more amusin' when she likes."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley gave a round, sonorous laugh of agreement, tantamount to a smile
+of assent in any one else. He wisely did not commit himself to any
+expression of opinion as to the accomplished wit of the Princess, which
+at all events as far as he had had opportunity of observing it, did not
+strike him as being of a very subtle character.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+
+<p>The echoes of the band which was enlivening the promenade we have just
+left penetrated to the pavilion where Rachel and her husband were
+sitting alone. A little path ran from the back of the pavilion straight
+up into the woods. At certain hours, when the fashionable world met to
+drink the waters, to listen to the band, or to talk at the Casino, the
+woodland path was almost deserted. At no time was it very crowded, as it
+was a short and rather steep short cut to a walk through the wood which
+could be reached by a more convenient access from the principal street
+in the town.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, although it had not occurred to him to look at a Visitors' List,
+and although he did not realise yet how many people he knew were at
+Schleppenheim, still had a strange, unpleasant feeling, horribly new to
+him, of shrinking from meeting any one he had ever seen before. He had
+seen the woodland path, and was wondering if he should go and explore it
+at this hour when presumably every one was listening to the band, of
+which the incessant strains heard in the distance were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>beginning to be
+maddening. As he looked up vaguely, the little door into the garden
+opened, and he saw the familiar figure of Wentworth appear. His heart
+stood still. Did Wentworth know? Was he coming out of compassion? And at
+the same moment that he thought it, further back somewhere in his mind
+he was conscious of the absurdity of Wentworth having become suddenly so
+important&mdash;Wentworth's opinion, his personality mattering, his
+representing one of the instruments of Fate. He stood, therefore, to
+Wentworth's surprise, absolutely still, waiting to see what his friend's
+attitude would be. But there was no mistake about that, about the
+unaffected heartiness and rejoicing with which Wentworth met him, in
+absolute unconsciousness of any possible cloud between them, any
+possible reason why Rendel should not be as glad to see him as he had
+been at any time since they had been at Oxford together.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" he said, as he came forward, "what's all this about? Why are
+you hiding yourself here?" And he stopped in surprise at seeing as he
+spoke the words something in Rendel's whole bearing that made him feel
+as if he were speaking the truth in jest, as if the man before him
+really were hiding, really had something to conceal.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after that first moment, Rendel realised that Wentworth knew
+nothing. That, at any rate, for the moment was to the good, and with an
+abounding sense of relief he held out his hand.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you like these quarters?" he said. "We think they are perfectly
+delightful."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," Wentworth said, "so do I. They are so quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"My wife wants to be quiet," said Rendel, half indicating Rachel, who
+was lying back in a garden chair, some knitting in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Mrs. Rendel?" said Wentworth, and he hastened forward to
+greet her.</p>
+
+<p>She put out her hand with a smile and shook hands with him, apparently
+not surprised at seeing him, or particularly interested.</p>
+
+<p>"You are certainly most delightfully cool here in the shade," he said.
+"It is awfully hot in that promenade."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be," said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"How long have you been here?" Wentworth went on, sitting down.</p>
+
+<p>"How long is it?" said Rachel, with a slightly puzzled look, looking at
+Rendel. "Only a few days, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, not quite a week. My wife has not been well. We were recommended
+here that she might do the cure."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," Wentworth said, somewhat relieved at finding himself on the way
+to an explanation. "Well, this is a splendid place, I believe, for the
+people that it cures," he added sapiently.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt," Rendel said.</p>
+
+<p>There was another pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Then that is why we have not seen you at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>the Casino," Wentworth said.
+"One can't avoid running up against people one knows at every turn
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so?" said Rendel, a note of anxiety in his voice. "We have not
+run up against any one yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! dear me, yes," said Wentworth, unconscious that each of the names
+he might enumerate would represent to Rendel a possible inexorable
+judge. "Half London is here: Lady Chaloner, Pateley&mdash;all sorts of
+people."</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley?" said Rendel, the blood rushing to his face at the association
+of ideas called up in his mind by that name.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Wentworth. "Pateley, flourishing like the bay-tree.
+They say he is making thousands, and he looks as if he were."</p>
+
+<p>"Out of the <i>Arbiter</i>?" asked Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Arbiter</i>, I suppose, or something else. But I have no doubt he
+would tell you if you asked him. He does not impress me as being one of
+the very reserved kind."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Rendel. "I don't suppose Pateley ever says more
+than he means to say, with all his air of hearty communicativeness."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I daresay not," said Wentworth. "The man's very good company
+after all; and as long as none of our secrets are in his keeping, it
+doesn't matter particularly."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel said nothing. He felt he could not meet Pateley face to face at
+this moment.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What do you do, then, all day here," said Wentworth, "if you don't
+drink the waters, and don't go to the Casino, and don't play Bridge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I don't do very much," said Rendel, with an involuntary
+accent in the words that made Wentworth ponder over the undesirability
+of marrying a wife who is in mourning and depressed.</p>
+
+<p>"You should go into the wood," said Wentworth, "as the Germans do. We
+found a lot of them the other day singing part-songs out of little
+books. There is a band of them here called the Society of the United
+Thrushes, composed of the most respectable and most middle-aged ladies
+of the district."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds charming," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said Wentworth, "if you don't care to walk alone, do let's
+walk together. One can go up here and along the wood for miles. We'll
+have good long stretches as we used to at Oxford. What do you think,
+Mrs. Rendel? Don't you think it would be a good thing for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very," said Rachel with a smile. "I think he ought to go and walk."</p>
+
+<p>"That's capital," said Wentworth. "Let's do that to-morrow, shall we?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like it very much," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>But the next day the weather broke, and was unsettled for three days. On
+the Tuesday morning, happily for the bazaar and the big tent in the
+grounds of the Casino, the sun shone out again, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>and everything was
+radiant as before. Wentworth turned up at the pavilion in the forenoon
+and persuaded Rendel to make a day of it. The two started off together
+through the wood, the scented air floating round them, and bringing to
+Rendel, as he strode along with a congenial companion, a sense of mental
+and physical relief as though the atmosphere of both kinds that he was
+breathing were as different from that which had weighed him down a
+fortnight ago as the scent of the aromatic pines was from the air of the
+London streets. Wentworth was full of talk, of a kind it must be
+confessed which left his hearer at the end without any very distinct
+impression of what it had been about, although it passed the time
+agreeably and genially. He had his usual detached air, which Rendel had
+always been accustomed to find a relief as opposed to his own strenuous
+attitude, of standing aloof as an amused spectator of human
+contingencies.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't seen you for ever so long," Wentworth was saying. "What
+became of you at the end of the season? You vanished somehow, didn't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were in mourning, you know," Rendel replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, to be sure, yes, Sir William Gore died," said Wentworth, attuning
+his voice to what he considered a suitable key, on the assumption that
+Rendel would feel still more bound to be loyal to his father-in-law now
+than when, as he put it to himself, the "old humbug" was alive. "Poor
+Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> Rendel, she looks as if it had been a great blow to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, "it was; and she has been ill besides." And he told
+Wentworth briefly of what had happened to Rachel, and the condition she
+was in, and the reassuring hopes held out by the doctors that she would
+almost certainly recover her normal state.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad to hear that," said Wentworth cheerily. "Then you must
+come to London and start life again, Rendel, now you are free. Sir
+William Gore was rather a responsibility, I daresay."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, "he was."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see," said Wentworth, "it was just about when he died, I
+suppose, that Stamfordham published that sensational agreement with
+Germany?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel, "it was the day before he died."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Wentworth, "the day before? Then of course you didn't realise
+the excitement it was. By Jove! of course you know I'm not 'in' all that
+sort of thing myself, but I must say I never saw such a fuss and fizz as
+it was. The way it was sprung on people too! It was an awfully bold
+thing to do, you know; but it turned up trumps after all, that's the
+point. Stamfordham isn't like any body else, and that's the fact."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that place we are coming to through the trees?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's it," said Wentworth. "That's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>where we shall get luncheon.
+They always have something ready for people who drop in."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't crowded, is it?" said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," replied Wentworth, "there is never anybody. I have
+been there twice since I came; once there was a German doctor, and once
+there was nobody."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure to get veal," Wentworth said. "In Germany, whatever else
+is wanting, you can always get a veal cutlet to slake your thirst with,
+after the longest and hottest walk."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be quite content," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>They went on across the hollow, and up a slight ascent. They strolled
+idly round the woodland house, and saw, as they expected, in the
+agreeable little garden behind, a long table all ready for luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>"This is capital," said Wentworth. "You see, as I told you, they always
+expect people," and a waiting maid appearing at that moment, Wentworth
+proceeded to order luncheon for himself and Rendel in the best German he
+could muster. Unfortunately, however, the proprietor of the
+establishment was engaged in his cellar on important business, and the
+dialect spoken by the red-handed and red-cheeked maiden who received
+them was not very intelligible. However, by dint of nodding of heads and
+pointing out items on the bill of fare, they came to an understanding,
+Wentworth taking for granted that something quite unintelligible that
+she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>had said about the table was an inquiry as to whether they would
+sit at it, which indeed it was. But it was further an inquiry as to
+whether they were of the party that was coming to sit at it, which he
+also quite cheerfully and unsuspectingly answered in the affirmative. He
+then pulled out his watch, and pointing to a given time at which he
+would return, he and Rendel went further away into the wood.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+
+<p>When they returned, half an hour later, the little garden was no longer
+empty. People were coming and going, the table was covered with food;
+Lady Chaloner was seated at it, and at a little distance from her
+Princess Hohenschreien, with M. de Moricourt inevitably in her wake.
+Lady Chaloner's readiness in the German tongue was not equal at this
+moment to her sense of injury. It was Princess Hohenschreien, therefore,
+who was charged with the negotiations, and who was discussing in voluble
+and amused German with the inn-keeper the heinousness of his crime in
+having promised two unknown pedestrians a seat at that very select
+table. The inn-keeper was full of apologies. Not having a nice
+discrimination of the laws that govern the social relations of our
+country, he had thought that if the strangers were English they were
+entitled to sit down with the others.</p>
+
+<p>"What does he say, Maddy?" said Lady Chaloner. "Ask him if he can't put
+them somewhere else. Good Heavens! here they are!" she said <i>sotto voce</i>
+as two people came through the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>trees at the bottom of the garden, and
+then stopped in surprise at seeing how populous it had become. Then, as
+Lady Chaloner looked at them, she suddenly realised with relief that she
+knew them.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" she cried, "is it you? Are you the two people who came in here
+and ordered luncheon in the middle of our party?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid we are, do you know," said Wentworth, as he came forward.
+"We didn't know how indiscreet we were being. We'll go somewhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, not at all," said Lady Chaloner. "How do you do, Mr.
+Rendel? I have not seen you for a long time. Of course you must lunch
+with us, so it all ends happily. Maddy, this is Mr. Francis
+Rendel&mdash;Princess Hohenschreien."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel bowed. He had had one moment, as they came up into the garden and
+saw there were other people there, before Lady Chaloner had recognised
+them, to make up his mind as to what he would do. Then he had said to
+himself desperately that he would risk it. After all, he might be
+exaggerating the whole thing; Wentworth did not know, and so the others
+might not. Rendel had felt during the last hour one of those strange
+sudden lightenings of the burden of existence that for some unexplained
+reason come to our help without our knowing why. He was almost beginning
+to think life would be possible again. At any rate, here, at the present
+moment, he would not try to remember or realise what it was going to be,
+what it must be. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>would sit here on this peerless day with these
+pleasant friendly people, and this one hour at any rate the sun should
+shine within and without.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," said Lady Chaloner, pointing to two places some way down
+the table at her left; "sit anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>As Wentworth and Rendel stood opposite to the Princess and her attendant
+cavalier, the door of the house, which faced them, opened, and Lady
+Adela Prestige appeared in the doorway, with some more people behind
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"How delightful this is!" Lady Adela cried, as she stepped out into the
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" said Lady Chaloner. "Look how amusin'," she continued. "Mr.
+Wentworth and Mr. Rendel have come to luncheon too, quite by chance."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Adela nodded to Wentworth, whom she was seeing every day, and bowed
+to Rendel, whom she knew slightly. Then, as Rendel looked beyond her, he
+saw who was coming out of the house in her wake&mdash;Lord Stamfordham,
+followed by Philip Marchmont. Stamfordham, coming out into the dazzling
+sunlight, did not at first see who was there. In that hurried, almost
+imperceptible interval, Rendel had time to grasp that here was the
+horrible reality upon him in the worst form in which it could have come.
+He had wild visions of saying something, doing something, he knew not
+what, instantly repressed by the Englishman's repugnance to a scene.
+Then he pulled himself together, and simply stood and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>waited. And as he
+waited he saw Stamfordham come up to the table with a pleased smile,
+prepared to sit down on Lady Chaloner's right hand, next the seat into
+which Lady Adela had dropped. Then Stamfordham suddenly saw the two men
+still standing on the other side of the table, and recognised in one of
+them Francis Rendel. A swift extraordinary change came over his face.
+The genial content of the man who, having deliberately put all his usual
+cares and preoccupations behind him was now, under the most favourable
+conditions, prepared to enjoy a holiday in genial society, suddenly
+disappeared. He involuntarily drew himself up, his face became hard and
+stern; he again looked as Rendel had seen him look the last time they
+had met. The mental agony of the younger man during that moment was
+almost unendurable. What was going to happen next? As in a dream he
+heard the comfortable voice of Lady Chaloner, who had never in her life,
+probably, spoken with any misgivings, whose calm confidence in the
+bending of contingency to her desires nothing had ever occurred to
+shake.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you sit down there, Lord Stamfordham? We have two new recruits to
+our party, you see. I don't think I need introduce either of them."</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham remained standing for a moment; then he said quietly, but
+very distinctly&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, Lady Chaloner, that I can't sit down at this table."</p>
+
+<p>A sort of electric shock ran through the careless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>happy people who were
+surrounding him. Rendel turned livid. Then he tried to speak. But no
+words could come; mentally and physically alike he could not frame them.
+He pushed his chair away from the table, and moved out behind it; then
+with his hands grasping the back of it, he bowed to Lady Chaloner
+without speaking, turned and went away by the little opening in the wood
+from which he and Wentworth had come. Wentworth, ready and light-hearted
+as he generally was, was for one moment also absolutely paralysed with
+amazement and concern, then saying hurriedly, "Forgive me, Lady
+Chaloner, I must go and see what has happened," he quickly followed.
+Lord Stamfordham drew up his chair to the table and sat down. His
+urbane, genial manner had returned, and he spoke as though nothing had
+happened; the rest instantly took their cue from him.</p>
+
+<p>"What delightful quarters you have found for us, Lady Chaloner," he
+said. "I don't think I made acquaintance with this place when I was at
+Schleppenheim last year."</p>
+
+<p>"Charmin', isn't it?" said Lady Chaloner. And quite imperturbably, at
+first with an effort, which became easier as the meal went on, the whole
+party went on talking and laughing as usual, with, perhaps, if the truth
+were known, an added zest of excitement, certainly on the part of some
+of its members, at "something" having happened. The two extra places
+that had been put were taken away again, and the rank closed up
+indifferently and gaily round <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>the table, as ranks do close up when
+comrades disappear by the way.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Rendel was madly hurrying away through the wood, going
+straight in front of him, not knowing what he was doing, what he
+proposed to do&mdash;his one idea being to get away, away, away from those
+smiling, distinguished indifferent people, hitherto his own associates,
+who now all knew the horrible fate that had overtaken him, who would
+from henceforth turn their backs upon him too. The thought of that
+moment when he had been face to face with Stamfordham, of those
+distinct, inexorable tones, of the words which judged and for ever
+condemned him, burnt like a physical, horrible flame from which he could
+not escape. He flung himself down at last, and buried his face in his
+hands, trying to shut out everything, as a frightened child pulls the
+clothes over its head in the darkness. Then, to his terror, he heard
+footsteps in the wood. Who was it? Was this some one else who knew?
+Would he have to go through it all over again? And he lifted his head in
+anguish as the steps drew nearer. The sight of the newcomer brought him
+no relief. It was Wentworth, who, anxious and bewildered, came stumbling
+along, having by some strange chance come in the direction that brought
+him to the person he was seeking. Rendel looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" he said, in a strained voice, as though demanding an explanation
+of Wentworth's intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of his face completely bewildered Wentworth.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Good God, Rendel!" he said, "what is it? What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause. Then Rendel said, trying with very indifferent
+success to speak in a voice that sounded something like his own&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you see what happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that&mdash;that&mdash;Stamfordham&mdash;&mdash;" Wentworth began, then he stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel curtly, "you saw it&mdash;you saw what Stamfordham did?
+Well, there's an end of it," and he looked miserably around him as
+though hemmed in by the powers of earth and heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Frank," Wentworth said, still feeling as if all this were some
+frightful dream, one of those dreams so vivid that they live with the
+dreamer for weeks afterwards, and sometimes actually go to make his
+waking opinion of the persons who have appeared in them, "tell
+me&mdash;what&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," said Rendel, "it's no good talking about it. I'll tell you
+another time, I daresay, if I can. Leave me alone now, there's a good
+fellow&mdash;that's all I want."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Frank," said Wentworth; "if it's anything&mdash;anything that
+Stamfordham thinks you've done&mdash;that&mdash;that you oughtn't to have
+done&mdash;well, I don't believe it, that's all!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good friend, old Jack," said Rendel, looking at him. "I might
+have known you wouldn't believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I don't," said Wentworth stoutly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> "I don't know what it is,
+but I don't believe it all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Rendel slowly, "I'll tell you this for your comfort&mdash;you
+needn't believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said Wentworth heartily, "and I don't care what it is,
+of course you didn't do it. And what's more, I know you can't have done
+anything to be ashamed of, and of course other people will know it too,"
+he said sanguinely, carried along by his zealous friendship.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel's face turned dark red again. "No," he said, "other people won't.
+Of course other people will think I have done it. Don't let's talk about
+it now. The fact is," mastering his voice with an effort, "I can't,
+Jack. Just go away, and leave me alone. I'll come back some time."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you going to do? You're not going to sit here all day, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll come later," Rendel said. "You must find your way back without me,
+there's a good fellow. By the way," he added, "I'm sorry to have spoilt
+your day; I'm afraid you've had no luncheon. But you'll be back in
+Schleppenheim in time to get some. Look here, would you mind saying to
+my wife that&mdash;that I've walked a little further than you cared to go, or
+something of that sort, and that I'll be back at dinner time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Wentworth, hesitatingly. "She is not likely to be
+anxious, is she?" he said dubiously. "I mean, at your being away so
+long. She won't be alarmed, will she?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," said Rendel. "That is to say, if you don't alarm her." And then
+looking up and seeing Wentworth's anxious expression, so very unlike the
+usual one, "And you needn't be alarmed yourself, Jack; I'm not going to
+do anything desperate," he said, forcing a smile; "that's not in my
+line."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, of course not," Wentworth said, with a sort of air of being
+entirely at his ease. And then reading in Rendel's face how the one
+thing he longed for was to be alone, he said abruptly, "All right, then,
+we shall meet later," and strode off the way he had come.</p>
+
+<p>What a solution it would have been, Rendel felt, if he had indeed been
+able to make up his mind to the step that Wentworth evidently thought he
+might be contemplating&mdash;what an answer to everything! and as again that
+burning recollection came over him he felt that, in spite of the courage
+required for suicide, it would have required less courage to put himself
+out of the world, beyond the possibility of its ever happening again,
+than to remain in it and face what other agony of humiliation Fate might
+have in store for him. But he was not alone, unfortunately; his own
+destiny was not the only one in question. And if his words, his
+intention, his faith in the future had meant anything at all when he
+told Rachel that there was no sacrifice he would not be ready to make
+for her, he was bound to go on doggedly and meet the worst. He walked
+aimlessly through the wood, higher and higher, until he reached a sort
+of clearing from which he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>could see, far below him, the white road
+winding back again to Schleppenheim, and presently as he looked he saw
+driving rapidly back in the direction of the town the open carriages
+containing the people he had just left. Stamfordham must be in one of
+them. What were they saying about him, those people? Or, if not saying,
+what were they thinking? Could he ever look one of them in the face
+again? Not one. And again he had a wild moment of thinking that it would
+be possible to put the thing right, to establish his innocence, to
+insist upon knowing how it was that Sir William Gore had given the
+information to the <i>Arbiter</i>, on knowing what the arrangement was with
+Pateley on which that <i>coup de th&eacute;&acirc;tre</i> had depended, and he sprang to
+his feet with the determination that he would go straight back into
+Schleppenheim, seek out Pateley and insist upon knowing what had
+happened. Then, just as before, the revulsion came. The principal thing,
+he had no need to ask Pateley. He knew, and that was the thing other
+people might not know. In a little while, he was told, Rachel would be
+herself again, and perhaps able to remember: she must not come back to
+the knowledge of something that must be such a cruel blow to her faith
+in her father, her adoring love for him. And yet as he turned downwards
+and strode hurriedly back along the woodland paths, across the shafts of
+sunlight which were growing longer as the day wore on, he felt how
+absurdly, horribly unequal the two things were that were at stake. On
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>one hand his own future, his success, his whole life, all the
+possibilities he had dreamt of; on the other, reprobation falling on one
+who was beyond the reach of it, one who had no longer any possibilities,
+who had nothing to lose, whose hopes and fears of worldly success, whose
+agitations had been for ever stilled by the hand of death. And Rachel?
+Would the suffering of knowing that her father's memory was attacked, of
+being rudely awakened from her illusions to find that in the eyes of the
+world he was not, and did not deserve to be, what he had been in hers,
+would that suffering be equal to that which he himself was encountering
+now? But even as he argued with himself, as he tried to prove that his
+own salvation was possible, he knew that when it came to the point he
+could do nothing. If it had been a question of another man, whom he
+himself could have saved by bringing the accusation home to the right
+quarter, he would have done it, he would have felt bound to do it: but
+as it was, he knew perfectly well that the thing was impossible. The
+fact is that, whether guided by supernatural standards or by those of
+instinct and tradition, there are very few of the contingencies in life
+in which the man accustomed to act honestly up to his own code is really
+in doubt as to what, by that code, he ought to do: and by the time that
+Rendel reached the little garden again which he had left in the company
+of Wentworth a few hours before, he knew quite well that he was going to
+do nothing, that he might do nothing, that he must simply again wait.
+Wait for what? There was nothing to come.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Two of the occupants of the carriages that Rendel had seen going rapidly
+along the road knew the meaning of the scene that had taken place under
+their eyes; the others were in a state of simmering curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad," said Stamfordham, as they approached Schleppenheim,
+"if nothing could be said about what happened."</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting opposite to Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela in a landau.
+There was no need, of course, to explain to what he was referring.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," said Lady Chaloner, not quite knowing what to
+say.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Wentworth had got back, had been to see Rachel, and had
+told her that Rendel was going to extend his walk a little further and
+that he would be back without fail in time for dinner. He himself, he
+added, had been obliged to come back for an engagement. Rachel accepted
+quite placidly the fact that her husband would return later than she
+expected; she thanked Wentworth with the same sweet smile of old, asked
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>where they had been, said the woods must have been delightful. Then,
+feeling that he could do nothing, Wentworth, with some misgiving, left
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel still felt the languor which succeeds illness,&mdash;not an unpleasant
+condition when there is no call for activity,&mdash;a physical languor which
+made her quite content to sit or lie out of doors most of the day,
+sometimes walk a little way, and then come back to rest again. She had
+accepted Rendel's unceasing solicitude for her with love and gratitude,
+she clung to his presence more than ever now that both her parents being
+gone she felt herself entirely alone: but for the rest she was strangely
+content to let the days go by in a sort of luxury of sorrow, while she
+recalled the happy time passed with those other two beloved ones who had
+made up her life. But there was no bitterness in the recollection; there
+was a sort of tender mystery over it still. At times she felt as if
+there were something more; she had some dim, confused recollection of
+her husband being connected with it all, and with Gore's illness; how,
+she could not remember. And she did not try. Deep down in her mind was
+the feeling that with a great effort it might all come back to her; but
+she shrank from making the effort.</p>
+
+<p>After Wentworth left her, it had occurred to her that, since Rendel was
+not coming back again, she would venture outside the limits of their
+garden and go to where the band was playing. She did not at all realise
+what the surroundings of that band would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>be. The kind of life that she
+had led before, when they had come abroad with Lady Gore, had not been
+the sort of existence reigning at Schleppenheim. She strolled out,
+feeling that everything was very strange and new, in the direction of
+the music, following without knowing it a path which brought her into
+the very middle of the promenade into the centre of a gaily dressed
+throng of people, somewhat bewildering to one accustomed to pass all her
+days in solitude. Shrinking back a little she turned out of the stream,
+and, finding an unoccupied chair under a tree, sat down, looking timidly
+about her. Then finding that no one was paying any attention to her, or
+appeared to be conscious of the fact that she was venturing out alone,
+she gradually became amused at watching all that was going on round her.
+Presently two well-dressed women she did not know, an older and a
+younger one, Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela Prestige in fact, on their way
+to their bazaar, came along deep in talk, the older one stopping to
+speak with some emphasis whenever the interest of the conversation
+demanded it. One of these halts was made close by Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know what it was," Lady Adela was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"You may depend upon it," said Lady Chaloner, "that it was something
+very bad. He is not the man to do that sort of thing for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure of it," Lady Adela replied, with a little tremor of
+excitement. "One can't help feeling that it's something really bad; that
+it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>not only that he had run away with his neighbour's wife or
+something of that kind. He must have done something that can't be
+condoned."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of it," Lady Chaloner said seriously. "There is no doubt
+about that."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor creature!" said Lady Adela. "Didn't he look awful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly fearful!" said Lady Chaloner. "He looked like the villain in
+a play, who is found out&mdash;the man who has cheated at cards, or something
+of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps that was it."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay," said Lady Chaloner. "I wonder if he has been playing
+Bridge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, I wish I knew!" said Lady Adela.</p>
+
+<p>This sounded very interesting, Rachel thought&mdash;exactly the kind of thing
+that happened in books at smart watering-places.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there is Maddy," said Lady Adela. "I do wonder what she thought."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," said Lady Chaloner, "we must tell her not to say anything
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>But the Princess had driven back in the company of M. de Moricourt and
+Mr. Marchmont, and had, therefore, not heard the warning given by
+Stamfordham to his companions in the other landau.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the Princess eagerly, coming up to the others, "what did
+you think of that? Wasn't it amazing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lady Adela. "What do you think it was, Maddy?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Something awful, you may depend upon it," said the Princess; "and I am
+sure little Marchmont knows. We tried to make him tell us on the way
+back, but he wouldn't. But I gathered somehow that Lord Stamfordham
+couldn't have done anything else."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Stamfordham! Did they say Stamfordham? Rachel thought to herself
+wonderingly. Was he here? And she had some kind of queer, puzzled
+feeling that he was connected in her mind with something that had
+happened lately. What was it?</p>
+
+<p>"And Pateley doesn't know anything about it either," said the Princess.
+"I met him just now and asked him."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you?" said Lady Chaloner. "I don't think you ought to have done
+that. I was going to tell you that Stamfordham said it was not to be
+mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he?" said the Princess, somewhat taken aback. "I asked Mr. Pateley
+because I thought he would be sure to know. But I made him promise not
+to tell anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe he did know, though," said Moricourt, who, though he spoke
+his own language, understood perfectly everything that was said in
+English. "I wonder what the quiet and charming wife that Wentworth
+admires so much thinks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor thing!" said Lady Chaloner gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way," said Lady Adela with a sudden idea, "Wentworth was with
+him. Wentworth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>must know all about it, of course. He is sure to come to
+the bazaar. We'll ask him."</p>
+
+<p>"Wentworth was with him?" said Rachel to herself with an involuntary
+movement, rising from her seat. Of whom were they speaking? What was it
+all about? She was unconscious that she was standing scrutinising the
+faces of the group near her as though trying to gather from them what
+their words might mean. They, deep in their conversation, did not notice
+her. Then, with a feeling of extraordinary relief&mdash;she hardly knew
+why&mdash;she saw a familiar, substantial person coming along the promenade
+with a sort of friendly swagger. She went forward to meet him, still
+feeling as though she were walking in her sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rendel!" said Pateley in his usual hearty tone, in which there was
+now an inflection of surprise and almost of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Pateley had not met either of the Rendels since the day of his last
+interview with Sir William Gore, and he had carefully not investigated
+further the incident which had been of such great advantage to himself.
+But in the last half-hour, since, under the seal of profound secrecy, it
+had been confided to him what had happened at the luncheon, and he had
+been anxiously asked what was the cloud hanging over Rendel, he had
+pieced things together in a way which brought him pretty near the truth.
+It was beginning to be clear to him that Stamfordham had somehow visited
+upon Rendel the treachery into which he himself had practically led
+Gore. Stam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>fordham had asked Pateley at the time of the disclosure how
+the <i>Arbiter</i> had become possessed of the information. Pateley had
+apologetically declined to give an explanation. But the ardent support
+given by the <i>Arbiter</i> to Stamfordham's action in the matter and to all
+his subsequent policy had made it tolerably certain that Stamfordham
+would not bear him much malice. And, as a matter of fact, the whole
+affair had added to Stamfordham's reputation. The masterly way in which
+he had caught up the situation and dealt with it after the premature
+disclosure of the Agreement had added a fresh laurel to his crown.</p>
+
+<p>As Pateley uttered the words, "Mrs. Rendel," the whole of the group who
+were standing near turned with a common impulse as if a thunderbolt had
+fallen into their midst, and he grasped at once that they had been
+talking within earshot of her of something she ought not to have heard.
+Lady Adela was the first to recover her presence of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she said; "we must go and take our places. I mean to have some
+tea if we can get it before the opening," and she made a move in which
+the others joined.</p>
+
+<p>Pateley, remaining by Rachel, lifted his hat to them as they strolled
+away. "How long have you been at Schleppenheim?" he asked. "I had no
+idea you were here."</p>
+
+<p>"We have been here," said Rachel&mdash;"let me see&mdash;about a week."</p>
+
+<p>She looked anxious and disturbed.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And where are you staying?" said Pateley.</p>
+
+<p>"In the little pavilion behind the H&ocirc;tel de Londres," and she pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"Charming place," said Pateley. "And how is your husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is very well, thank you," said Rachel. "He has been out for a long
+walk to-day; he went for an expedition to the woods with Mr. Wentworth."</p>
+
+<p>And she looked as if something else that she did not say were on the tip
+of her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been delightful in the woods to-day," said Pateley, hardly
+knowing what he answered. He also was preoccupied by the story he had
+heard and wondering how much she knew of it. "Are you going home now?"
+he said, as Rachel turned away from the promenade in the direction she
+had pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so. I am a little tired," said Rachel, holding out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come and see you?" Pateley said.</p>
+
+<p>"Please do," said Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall," Pateley said. "It will be delightful to get away
+for a little while from this seething mass of humanity."</p>
+
+<p>And he again gave one of his loud laughs as he also went towards the
+tent, to plunge with the greatest zest into the seething mass whose
+company he had been contemning.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+
+<p>Rachel turned in the other direction and walked slowly back to the
+pavilion. What had happened? What had she been hearing? The slightest
+mental exertion still made her head ache, but she was conscious that if
+she once let herself go and made the effort it would be possible for her
+to understand. But that moment had not come yet.</p>
+
+<p>She had not been many minutes in her quiet shady garden when the little
+gate at the bottom of it was thrown open, and her husband came quickly
+in, looking round him with an anxious, hurried glance as though not
+knowing what he might find. What had he expected? He could hardly have
+told. But as he drew nearer and nearer he had been gradually nerving
+himself for the worst. He had been dreading to find he knew not what.
+Wentworth might be sitting with Rachel, the faces of both telling that
+Wentworth's would-be explanations had been of no avail; or Rachel
+herself might have been absent&mdash;she might have strolled out into the
+crowd and there unawares heard rumours of what he felt convinced must by
+this time be in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>every one's mind, on every one's lips. It was therefore
+for the moment an unmeasured relief to find that all seemed as usual,
+that Rachel was sitting there quiet and cool before her little
+tea-table.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he almost gasped, with a long sigh, as he sank into a chair and
+leant his head against the back of it with a weary, hunted look.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" said Rachel anxiously, "what is the matter? What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" he said, sitting up, with again the startled,
+haggard expression on his face. "What should have happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Rachel said, startled too at his look and manner. "You
+look so tired, so ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm all right," he said, taking up and drinking eagerly the cup of
+tea that almost mechanically she had poured out and pushed towards him,
+and as he did so he realised that he had had no food since the morning.
+He ate and drank and then again lay back in his chair and was silent. As
+Rachel looked at him the absolute conviction swept over her&mdash;she knew
+not why&mdash;that he had been concerned in the terrible catastrophe of which
+she had heard the broken accounts. It began to dawn upon her that in
+some inconceivable way the thing had happened to him; that it was of him
+those women were speaking. She still heard Lady Adela saying: "Did you
+ever see any one look so awful?" And yet what could it be? What horrible
+misunderstanding was it? What horrible mistake could have been made?</p>
+
+<p>She sat and waited. Not the least of her charms <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>was that she knew, what
+many women do not know, how to sit absolutely quiet. She knew when to
+refrain from questioning, how to sit by her companion in so peaceful, so
+final a manner, as it were, that he did not feel that she was simply
+waiting for what he would do next.</p>
+
+<p>The band blared out again with renewed vigour. Rendel leant his elbows
+on his knees, his face between his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that miserable noise!" he said. "Will it never leave off? The
+hideousness of it all!&mdash;those people, that band! Oh! to get away from it
+all!" he muttered half to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," said Rachel entreatingly, touching his arm, "if you don't like
+it why shouldn't we go away from it? I think it is horrible, too. I went
+out of the garden to-day to where the people were walking."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel looked up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you? Did you see any one you knew?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel; "I saw Mr. Pateley."</p>
+
+<p>"Pateley!" said her husband. "Did you have any talk with him? What did
+he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly anything," said Rachel. "He was surprised to see me, and asked
+how long we had been here, and if he might come and see us. That was
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"That was all," echoed Rendel, again with an inward shiver. "Coming to
+see us, is he?"</p>
+
+<p>That encounter for the moment he must at any cost avoid.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, I wonder if we must go on staying here?" Rachel said.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course we must," Rendel replied, trying to pull himself together
+again. "Dr. Morgan said that this was the very best place for you to
+come to, and that the waters would do you all the good in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if we need," said Rachel. "I am sure it is the kind of thing
+you hate."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not for very long, after all," said Rendel, trying to smile.</p>
+
+<p>He was gradually regaining possession of himself, but was still afraid
+to trust himself to utter any but the most commonplace and ordinary
+sentences.</p>
+
+<p>"The moment I have done the cure," said Rachel, "we'll go back to
+London, won't we? And you can begin your work again, and do all the
+things you like. And then," she went on with an attempt at lightness of
+tone, "you can go back to your beloved politics, and think of nothing
+else all day." And she went on talking of their house, of their arrival,
+of what they would do, in a forlorn little attempt to show him that she
+meant to try to shoulder life valiantly, although it had been so
+altered. "You will stand for somewhere. You will go into the House."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel thought of what the life might have been that she was sketching,
+and what it was going to be now. What he had gone through that day was
+an earnest probably of what awaited him many a time if he should try to
+lead his life as he used to lead it, among the people who were congenial
+to him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "I'm not going to stand. I'm not going into the House. I
+shan't have anything to do with politics."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Rachel, looking at him startled.</p>
+
+<p>"All that, is at an end," he said firmly. Then with the relief of
+speaking, came the irresistible desire to go on, to tell her something
+at least of what his fate was, although he might not tell the thing that
+mattered most.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember," he said, "something that I told you had happened&mdash;&mdash;"
+he broke off, then began again. "Tell me," he said, impelled to ask,
+"how much you remember, if you remember anything, of those days when
+your father was so ill, at the end, just before he died, or is it still
+a blank to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Rachel shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't remember," she said. "The last thing I remember clearly is
+one afternoon when he was beginning to be worse and had to go upstairs
+again; and I remember nothing more after that till," and her voice
+trembled, "till&mdash;a day that I woke up in bed and wanted to go to him,
+and you told me that&mdash;that he was dead. The rest of that time is a
+blank."</p>
+
+<p>"How extraordinary it is!" muttered Rendel to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not even know," said Rachel, "that I had fallen on the stairs,
+until the doctor told me days afterwards that I had caught my foot as I
+was running downstairs. He told me then it was no use <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>trying to
+remember the time just before," she went on in a low, anxious voice,
+something stirring uneasily within her: "that it might not come back at
+all. It seems it doesn't sometimes to people who have that sort of
+accident."</p>
+
+<p>Rendel, his eyes fixed on the ground, had been listening; he took in the
+meaning of her words and tried to realise their bearing on himself, but
+he was too far gone on the slope to stop. It was clear that she would
+not know what had happened, unless she were told by himself... and yet,
+who could tell how the awakening would come? it might even be in a worse
+form when she was able once more to mix with her kind.</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel," he said. "I want to tell you something that happened the day
+before your father became worse, the day before you had that accident,
+the last day, in fact, that you remember." She looked at him with
+anxious eagerness. "Something tremendously important happened. Lord
+Stamfordham brought me some private notes of his own to decipher and
+copy."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Rachel, "that I remember. In your study downstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"You remember?" said Rendel eagerly. Then instantly conscious, alas,
+that the evidence could do him no kind of good, "that I gave some papers
+to Thacker to take to Stamfordham?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a minute," said Rachel. "Yes, I remember that too. My father
+wanted to play chess afterwards, but he was too tired."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In those papers," said Rendel, "there was a very important secret,
+though it didn't remain a secret," he added, with a bitter little laugh,
+"for twenty-four hours. Those papers contained the notes of a
+conversation at the German Embassy at which that agreement was decided
+upon by which Germany and England divided Africa between them. It was
+<i>I</i> copied those papers from Stamfordham's notes. I copied the map of
+Africa with a line down the middle of it. The next morning, no one knew
+how or why, that map appeared in the <i>Arbiter</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked at him, still not understanding all that was implied.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see what that means for me?" Rendel said. "It was not
+Stamfordham published it, he did not mean to do so until the moment
+should come, and since I was the person who had had the original notes,
+he thought that I had published it; that I had let it out, somehow."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" said Rachel, with wide-open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel shortly. "That I had betrayed the great secret
+entrusted to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" she cried. "But of course you didn't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I didn't," Rendel said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;then&mdash;&mdash;?" said Rachel breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," Rendel said, shrinking at the very recollection, "Stamfordham
+told me he believed I had done it. Then of course,"&mdash;and the words came
+with an effort&mdash;"there was an end of every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>thing, and I knew that there
+was nothing left for me to do but to go under, to throw everything up. I
+knew that people would turn their backs upon me, and I didn't see
+Stamfordham again until&mdash;until to-day. And to-day Wentworth and I went
+up to that place in the woods to lunch, and by chance, by the most
+horrible, evil fortune, we came upon a luncheon party at which
+Stamfordham was, and&mdash;and," he said trying to speak calmly, "when he saw
+me he refused to sit down at the same table with me." And as he spoke
+Rachel felt that things were becoming clear to her and that she was
+beginning to understand. The comments of the people who had stood by her
+and discussed the scene they had witnessed still rang in her ears, and
+she realised what the horror of that scene must have been.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" she cried, with her tears falling. And she went to him and took
+his hand, then drew his head against her bosom as though to give him
+sanctuary. "Imagine believing that you, <i>you</i> of all people..." and the
+broken words of comfort and faith in him, of love and belief again gave
+him a moment of feeling that rehabilitation might be possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" Rachel went on, "tell me this. Did my father know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Know what?" Rendel said, starting up, the iron reality again facing
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"That you were accused? That they could believe that you had done such a
+shameful thing?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rendel slowly. "At least he knew what had
+happened&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;he guessed that the suspicion would fall upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Rachel, hiding her face in her hands and trying to steady
+her voice. "I am sorry he knew just at the end. I wonder if he
+realised?"</p>
+
+<p>Rendel said nothing. Even now was Sir William Gore to stand between
+them?</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he didn't," Rachel said, almost entreatingly, "as he was so
+ill. Because think what it would have been to him! Of course he would
+have known it was not true, but he was so fastidious, so terribly
+sensitive, the mere thought that you could have been suspected of such a
+thing even would have preyed upon him so terribly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Rendel, in a low voice&mdash;the last possibility of clearing
+himself was put behind him, and the darkness fell again&mdash;"he is beyond
+reach of it. It is I who must suffer now."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel had walked to the other side of the garden, pressing her
+handkerchief to her eyes and trying to control herself. Now she came
+swiftly back, a sudden determination in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," she cried, "why must you suffer? We must find out who really
+did it."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't," said Rendel.</p>
+
+<p>"But have you tried?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "As much as was possible."</p>
+
+<p>"But it must be possible," she cried. And she came to him, her eyes and
+face glowing with resolve. "If the whole world came to me and said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>that
+you had done this I should not believe it. I remember so well my mother
+saying, the day that I came back from Maidenhead," and their eyes met in
+the recollection of that happy, cloudless time, "'what a man needs is
+some one to believe in him,' and I thought to myself that when&mdash;if&mdash;I
+married I would believe in my husband as she believed in my father."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment one of the Swiss waiters came quickly through the
+pavilion into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Pateley," he said, "wishes to know if Madame is at home."
+Rachel and her husband looked at each other in consternation.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't see him at this moment," Rendel said, going to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we send him away?" said Rachel, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" addressing the waiter. But it was too late. The question
+answered itself, as Pateley's large form appeared behind that of the
+waiter, distinctly seen on every side of it. Rachel, trying to control
+her face into a smile of welcome, went forward to meet him as Rendel
+disappeared amongst the trees, from whence he could get round into the
+house another way.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+
+<p>We do not move unfortunately all in one piece. It would be much simpler
+if we did, and if our actions could be accounted for by saying, "He did
+this, being a generous man, or a forgiving man, or a curious man, or a
+remorseful man." Unhappily, and it makes our actions more difficult to
+account for, we are more complicated than this, and Pateley, when he
+finally felt impelled to make his way into Rachel's presence so soon
+after parting from her in the promenade, could not probably have said
+exactly what motive prompted him to seek her. To Rachel he arrived as
+the complement, the consolidation, of the resolve that she had made. She
+hardly tried to conceal her agitation as she shook hands with him and
+looked in his face. Her own wore an expression that had not been there
+an hour ago. Something new had come to life in it. So conscious were
+they both of something abnormal, overmastering, between them that there
+did not seem anything strange in the fact that for a moment, after the
+first greeting, they stood without thinking of any of the commonplaces
+of intercourse. Then Pateley, more accus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>tomed to overlay the realities
+of life by the conventional outside, recovered himself and said in an
+ordinary tone, looking round him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What a delightful oasis! What charming quarters you are in here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we like them very much," said Rachel, recovering herself; and they
+went towards the little table and sat down.</p>
+
+<p>"No tea for me, thank you," said Pateley. "I have just been made to
+drink a liquid distantly resembling it at the bazaar."</p>
+
+<p>"At the bazaar?" said Rachel. "It was German tea, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I imagine so. It has been well said," said Pateley, "that no nation has
+yet been known great enough to produce two equally good forms of
+national beverage. We have good tea, but our coffee is abominable: the
+Germans have good coffee, but their tea is poison. The Spaniards, I
+believe, have good chocolate, but that I have to take on hearsay. I have
+never been to Spain. I mean to go some day, though."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" Rachel said, dimly hearing his flow of words while she made up
+her mind what her own were to be. She had had so little time to form her
+plan of action, to piece together all that she had been hearing during
+the afternoon, that it was not yet clear to her that from the
+circumstances of the case Pateley must necessarily be concerned in it;
+and at the moment she began to speak she simply looked upon him as some
+one who knew Rendel in London, who had known her father and mother, who
+had a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>general air of bluff and hearty serviceability, and had presented
+himself at a moment when she had no one else to turn to.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pateley," she said, and at the sudden ring of resolution in her
+tone Pateley's face changed and his smiling flow of chatter about
+nothing came to a pause. "There is something I want very much to ask you
+about," she went on, "something I want your help in."</p>
+
+<p>"I am at your orders," said Pateley, with a smile and bow that concealed
+his surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"It is something that matters very, very much," Rachel went on.
+"Something you could find out for me."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know if you know," she went on hurriedly&mdash;"if you heard, of
+what happened to me in London just before my father died? I had an
+accident. It seemed a slight one at the time. I fell down on the stairs
+one evening that he was worse when I ran down quickly to fetch my
+husband, and I had concussion of the brain afterwards and was
+unconscious for forty-eight hours. And since, I have not been able to
+remember anything of what happened during those days."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley made a sort of sympathetic sound and gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"But," Rachel said, "I have heard to-day&mdash;not until to-day&mdash;of something
+that happened during that time, something terrible. I am going to tell
+it to you, in the greatest confidence. You will see <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>when I tell you
+that it matters very, very much. First of all,&mdash;this I remember&mdash;on the
+day my father began to be worse, Lord Stamfordham brought my husband
+some papers to copy for him in which was the Agreement with Germany, and
+told him no one was to know about them, and my husband told no one, and
+sent them back, when they were done, to Stamfordham, in a sealed
+packet."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley, as he listened, sat absolutely impenetrable, with his eyes
+fixed on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"But somebody got hold of them," she went on&mdash;"somebody must have stolen
+them, because they were published the next morning in the paper, in the
+<i>Arbiter</i>." And as the words left her lips she suddenly realised that
+the man in front of her was the one of all others in the world who must
+know what had happened. The <i>Arbiter</i> was embodied in Pateley, it was
+Pateley: that, everybody knew, everybody repeated. Pateley would, he
+must, be able to tell her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried, "the <i>Arbiter</i> is your paper!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley, looking at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," she said, "you know&mdash;you must know."</p>
+
+<p>"Know what?" he said calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"You must know," she said, "who it was told the <i>Arbiter</i> what was in
+those papers."</p>
+
+<p>Pateley sat silent a moment. Then he said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It can and does happen occasionally that things are brought to the
+<i>Arbiter</i> of which I don't know the origin, in fact of which the origin
+is purposely kept a secret."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She waited for him to add something to this sentence, to add a <i>but</i> to
+it, but he remained silent. Being unversed in diplomatic evasions, she
+accepted his words as a disclaimer.</p>
+
+<p>"But still," she said, "even if you don't know this you could find it
+out. It matters terribly. I don't want to say to any one else, it is not
+a thing to be told, how horribly it matters, but I must tell <i>you</i>, that
+you may see. Lord Stamfordham thought that my husband had betrayed the
+secret&mdash;he told him so then. And to-day&mdash;it was too terrible!&mdash;he was at
+a luncheon to which Frank and Mr. Wentworth went, not knowing&mdash;&mdash;" A
+sudden involuntary change in Pateley's face made her stop and say, "But
+perhaps you were there? Were you at the luncheon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Pateley. "I was not there."</p>
+
+<p>"But you heard about it?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said after a pause. "I heard about it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's too horrible!" said Rachel, covering her face with her hands. "Of
+course you heard about it&mdash;everybody will hear about it: how Lord
+Stamfordham insulted him and refused to sit down with him, because of
+the unjust accusation that was brought against him. Now do you see," she
+said excitedly, and Pateley, as he looked at her, was amazed at the fire
+that shone from her eyes, at the glow of excitement in her whole
+being&mdash;"now do you see how much it matters? how if we don't find out the
+truth, if we don't get to know who did it, this is the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>kind of thing
+that will happen to him? You see now, don't you? You will help me?"</p>
+
+<p>Pateley had got up and restlessly paced to the end of the garden and
+back, his eyes fixed on the ground, Rachel breathlessly watching him. He
+was moved at her distress, he felt the stirrings of something like
+remorse at the fate that had overtaken Rendel. But in Pateley's
+Juggernaut-like progress through the world he did not, as a rule, stop
+to see who were the victims that were left gasping by the roadside. As
+long as the author of the mischief drives on rapidly enough, the evil he
+has left behind him is not brought home to him so acutely as if he is
+compelled to stop and bend over the sufferer. But a brief moment of
+reflection made him pretty clear that neither himself nor the <i>Arbiter</i>
+had anything to fear from the disclosure. He had nothing particularly
+heroic in his composition; he would not have felt called upon for the
+sake of Francis Rendel, or even for the sake of Rendel's wife, to
+sacrifice his own destiny and possibilities if it had been a question of
+choosing between his own and theirs; but fortunately this choice would
+not be thrust upon him. He looked up and met Rachel's eyes fixed upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "I will help you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you!" she cried, her heart swelling with relief. "Will you,
+can you find out about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley again. He paused a moment, then came back and stood
+in front of her. "I have no need to find out," he said slowly. "I know
+who did it."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rachel sprang up.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" she cried, quivering with anxiety. "Do you mean that you know
+now, that you can tell Frank, that you can tell Lord Stamfordham? Oh,
+why didn't you say so?"</p>
+
+<p>Pateley paused.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know," he said, "that Stamfordham had accused your husband of
+it, and so I kept&mdash;I was rather bound to keep&mdash;the other man's secret."</p>
+
+<p>"The other man?" Rachel repeated, looking at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley. "The man who did it."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel started. Of course, yes&mdash;if her husband had not done it some one
+else had, they were shifting the horrible burden on to another. But that
+other deserved it, since he was the guilty man.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said lower, "of course I know there is some one else!&mdash;it is
+very terrible&mdash;but&mdash;but&mdash;it's right, isn't it, that the man who has done
+it should be accused and not one who is innocent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley, "it is right."</p>
+
+<p>"You must tell me," she said, "you must!&mdash;you must tell me everything
+now, as I have told you. Is it some one to whom it will matter very
+much?"</p>
+
+<p>Pateley waited.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said at length, "it won't matter to him."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked at him, not understanding.</p>
+
+<p>He went on, "Nothing will ever matter to him again. He is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead, is he?" said Rachel, but even in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>horror-struck tone there
+rang an accent of glad relief. "Then it can't matter to him. And it is
+right, after all, that people should know what he did. It is right, it
+is justice, isn't it?" she repeated, as though trying to reassure
+herself, "not only because of Frank?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Pateley, "I believe that it is right, that it is justice."
+Then as he looked at her he suddenly became conscious of an unwonted
+difficulty of speech, of an almost unknown wave of emotion rising within
+him, of shrinking from the words he was now clear had to be said.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rendel," he said at last, "I am afraid it will be very painful to
+you to hear what I am going to say."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him bewildered. He waited one moment, almost hoping that
+the truth might dawn upon her before he spoke, but she was a thousand
+miles from being anywhere near it. "Those papers which I published in
+the <i>Arbiter</i> the next morning were shown to me on the afternoon your
+husband had them to copy, by&mdash;" again the strange unfamiliar
+perturbation stopped him, and he felt he had to make a distinct effort
+to bring the name out&mdash;"your father, Sir William Gore."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel said absolutely nothing. She looked at him with dilated eyes,
+incredulous amazement and then horror in her face, as she saw in his
+that he was telling her the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"My father?" she said at last, with trembling lips.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Pateley said. The worst was over now, he felt, and he had
+recovered possession of himself.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, it can't be!" she said miserably. "It's not possible...."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear it is," said Pateley. "They were shown to myself, you see, so it
+is an absolute certainty."</p>
+
+<p>"But when was it?" said Rachel, bewildered. "When did he have them?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were left," Pateley said, "in the study where he was, when your
+husband went down to speak to Lord Stamfordham. During that time I
+happened to go in."</p>
+
+<p>And as Rachel listened to his brief account of what had taken place she
+knew that there was no longer any doubt as to the culprit. For the
+moment, as the idol of her life fell before her in ruins the discovery
+she had made swallowed up everything else. Pateley made a move.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait!" she said. "Don't go away. Only wait till I see what I must
+do. It is all so horrible! I see nothing clearly yet."</p>
+
+<p>He walked away to the other end of the little garden.</p>
+
+<p>She leant back in her chair, her eyes fixed, seeing nothing, trying to
+make up her mind. Gradually what she must do became more and more
+distinct to her, more and more inevitable. The sheer force of her
+agitation and emotion were carrying her own. If she acted at once,
+within the next half-hour, anything, everything might be possible. She
+would not wait to think, she would do it now, while it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>still
+possible to pronounce the name, the dear name that she had hardly been
+able to bring to her lips during these last weeks in which every day,
+every hour, she had been conscious of her loss. She would go to the
+person who must be told, and who alone could remedy the great evil that
+had been done. She got up, a despairing determination in her face.</p>
+
+<p>Pateley looked at her, his face asking the question which he did not put
+in words.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Lord Stamfordham," she said. "I am going to tell him."</p>
+
+<p>"You?" said Pateley. "Are you going to tell him yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "it is I who must tell him. I have quite made up my
+mind." She turned to him appealingly as though taking for granted he
+would help her. "I want to go now, while I feel I can, and before Frank
+knows anything about it. Can you help me&mdash;would you help me to find Lord
+Stamfordham?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Pateley, with a new admiration for Rachel rising
+within him, but with some misgivings, however, as to the possibility or
+the desirability of running Stamfordham to earth among his present
+surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where he is?" Rachel said.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think probably at the bazaar," said Pateley, and as he
+reflected on the scene he had just left, Stamfordham surrounded by a
+bevy of attractive ladies beseeching him to give them an autograph, to
+buy a buttonhole, to drink their tea, to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>put into their raffles, and to
+have his fortune told, he felt still more dubious as to the mission he
+was engaged upon. Fortunately Rachel realised none of these things.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, then, let us go," she said, with a vibrating anxiety and
+excitement, at strange variance with the usual atmosphere that
+surrounded her, and he followed her out of the garden in the direction
+of the Casino.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Pateley, who had been caught up in some measure into the excitement of
+Rachel's emotion, was brought back to earth again with a run, as he
+passed with her through the brightly coloured hangings which drooped
+over the portals of the bazaar and found themselves in the gay crowd
+within. His misgivings grew as he felt more and more the incongruity of
+the errand they were bent upon to the preoccupations of the people who
+surrounded them. There was no doubt that, whatever the ultimate result
+as far as Mrs. Birkett and the needs she represented were concerned, the
+bazaar, that subsidiary consideration apart, was being very successful
+indeed. The sound of voices and laughter filled the air, and the gloomy
+previsions Lady Chaloner had felt as to the lack of buyers were
+apparently not realised, since the whole of the available space
+surrounded by the stalls was filled with people engaged in some sort of
+very active and voluble commercial transactions with one another which,
+financial result or not, were of a most enjoyable kind, to judge by the
+bursts of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>laughter they necessitated. Rachel, pale, strung up, with the
+look of determination in her face called up in the usually timid by an
+unwonted resolve, was making her way, or rather trying to do so, in
+Pateley's wake, bewildered by the sights and sounds around her. Pateley
+at each step was beset by some laughing vendor from whom he had much ado
+to escape, and indeed in most cases did not succeed in doing so without
+having paid toll. By the time he had gone half along the room he was the
+possessor of three tickets for raffles, for each of which he had paid a
+sum he would have grudged for the unneeded article that was being
+raffled. He had bought several single flowers, each one on terms which
+should have commanded an armful of roses, and he had had three dips into
+a bag from which fortunately he had emerged with nothing more permanent
+than sawdust. Rachel also had been accosted by a vendor as soon as she
+came in, a moment of poignant embarrassment for all parties
+concerned&mdash;herself, her escort, and the fascinating seller who had
+offered her wares, for Rachel, looking at her with startled eyes, felt
+in her pocket as though at last seeing what was wanted of her, and then
+stammered, "I'm so sorry, I have no money with me." Pateley knew the
+vendor; it was no other than Mrs. Samuels, who had emerged from behind
+her stall, and was making the round of the bazaar with a basket of most
+attractive-looking cakes. His eye met hers in hurried and involuntary
+misgiving, mutely telling her that Rachel was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>not a suitable customer,
+and that she had better carry her wares elsewhere. She at once responded
+to the unconscious confidence and returned to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Pateley," she said ingratiatingly, "you, I know, never refuse
+a cake. Look, these are what you had when you came to tea with me the
+other day. Now, I'll choose you the very best."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, if you will choose one for me," said Pateley gallantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but one is not enough," she said, "you must have two&mdash;you really
+must. Five marks. Thank you so much!" and she tripped off.</p>
+
+<p>Pateley, who had already, as we have seen, spent a good deal of time and
+of the money which is supposed to be its equivalent in the bazaar before
+going to see Rachel, began to be conscious that before he got round it
+again he would have spent a sum large enough to have kept him another
+week in Schleppenheim. "However," he said to himself with a sigh, "it is
+all part of the story, I suppose." In his inmost soul he felt the
+conviction that he was altogether, in his strange progress through the
+joyous crowd with that pale, anxious companion, going through a
+sufficient penance to make amends for the misfortune of which he was the
+primary cause.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Lord Stamfordham?" whispered Rachel anxiously. "Do you see
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at this moment," said Pateley, looking vainly in every direction.
+The difficulties of his quest, and the still worse difficulties that
+would certainly face <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>him when the object of that quest should be
+attained, loomed with increased terror before him.</p>
+
+<p>The names of the stallholders, of the performers, waved above their
+respective quarters. In the corner of the great tent was a
+mysterious-looking enclosure, of which the entrance was closed by a
+curtain, and above which hung the legend, "Oriental Fortune-telling.
+Lady Adela Prestige." Lady Adela Prestige! That was probably the most
+likely place to try for. "I think he may be over there," he said, and
+without a word, hardly conscious of the people who were passing through,
+Rachel followed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Pateley, is that you?" said a cheery voice. He turned round and
+saw Wentworth, a packet of tickets in his hand. "Would you like to have
+a ticket for the performing dog?" said Wentworth, not seeing who
+Pateley's companion was.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Pateley, almost savagely, thankful to be accosted by some one
+whom he need not answer by a smile and a compliment. "I don't want any
+fooling of that sort now."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," said Wentworth, amazed, "what have you come here for,
+then?" and as he spoke he saw Rachel behind Pateley, and realised that
+something was happening that had no connection with the business of the
+bazaar.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," Pateley said aside to him, "do you know where Stamfordham
+is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Over there," said Wentworth, with some inward <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>wonder, pointing towards
+Lady Adela's corner. "I saw him there just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Pateley, "all right," hardly knowing if he was relieved or
+not, but desperately threading his way in the direction indicated, still
+followed by Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>Wentworth looked after them in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that you are saying, Mr. Wentworth?" said a voice in his ear,
+and he turned quickly and found himself face to face with Mrs. Samuels.
+"A performing dog? Where? I am quite sure it must be performing better
+than Princess Hohenschreien."</p>
+
+<p>Wentworth replied by eagerly offering a ticket.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me offer you a ticket, Mrs. Samuels, and then you shall see for
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will take a ticket," she said, "on condition that you will tell
+me honestly what the performance is."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Wentworth, with a bow, offering the ticket and
+receiving a gold piece in exchange. "It is Lady Chaloner's Aberdeen
+terrier. He sits up and begs with a piece of biscuit on his nose while
+somebody says 'Trust!' and 'Paid for!'"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a most extraordinary and novel trick," said Mrs. Samuels
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"It is unique," said Wentworth; "and sometimes he tosses the biscuit in
+the air when they say 'Trust,' sometimes when they say 'Paid for,' but
+generally he drops on all fours and eats it before they have begun."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Mrs. Samuels. "I am afraid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> Princess Hohenschreien's
+performance will be best after all." Then Wentworth suddenly saw from
+her face that some other attraction was approaching from behind him, and
+turned quickly round as Mrs. Samuels, with her most beguiling air,
+advanced and offered her basket of cakes to Lord Stamfordham.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, milord," she said. "I am sure you must be hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"And what makes you think that?" said Stamfordham, whose air of willing
+response and admiration made it quite evident that Mrs. Samuels's
+blandishments were not usually exercised in vain. "Do I look pale, or
+haggard, or weary?"</p>
+
+<p>"None of these," said Mrs. Samuels; "but I am sure it is a long time
+since I had the privilege of offering you a cup of tea at my stall.
+Quite half an hour, I should think."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite possible," said Stamfordham. "All I can say is that it seems to
+me an eternity since I last had the pleasure of receiving anything at
+your hands. Pray give me a bag of those cakes. You baked them yourself,
+of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," Mrs. Samuels said, with a little rippling laugh. And then
+in answer to Stamfordham's smile of incredulity, "All is fair in ...
+bazaars and war, you know."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Wentworth, enlisted, he himself did not understand how
+or why, in the anxious quest in which he saw Pateley and Rachel engaged,
+had hurried after Pateley, whose broad back he saw disappearing, to tell
+him of Lord Stamfordham's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>whereabouts. Pateley turned quickly round.
+Lord Stamfordham was coming towards them, with Mrs. Samuels, wreathed in
+smiles, at his side.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she was saying, "when you have eaten those cakes you can
+drink some more tea, don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not improbable," Stamfordham replied. "But was our bargain that I
+was to eat them all myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," Mrs. Samuels replied.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear lady," Stamfordham said, "I will engage to eat every one of
+them that you have baked, I can't say more. And in the meantime I am
+bound on a very foolish errand. I have sworn to go and have my fortune
+told," and as Mrs. Samuels's eye, with a careless and ingenuous air,
+rested upon Lady Adela's name above the tent, she smiled inwardly at the
+thought that what that astute lady might possibly prophesy would also
+perhaps come true if, as well as prophesying, she eventually brought her
+intelligence to bear upon its accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait one moment," Pateley said, almost nervously, to Rachel. "There is
+Stamfordham, he is coming this way," and as Stamfordham drew near the
+door of the tent Pateley accosted him.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Adela, it may be presumed, had some occult means of discovering
+from inside who was drawing near her fateful quarters, or else she had
+the simpler methods more usually employed by mortals, of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>looking to
+see. At all events, as Stamfordham came towards her enclosure, she
+appeared on the threshold and winningly lifted the mysterious curtain,
+burlesquing a low curtsey in reply to Stamfordham's bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham!" Pateley said hurriedly. Stamfordham, in some
+surprise, looked round. He had been seeing Pateley on and off during the
+day. Why did he accost him in this way? But the urgent note in his voice
+arrested his attention. Then, as he looked up, he saw an anxious
+pale-faced, girlish figure standing by Pateley, looking at him with
+large brown eyes filled with indescribable anxiety. It was a face that
+he knew, that he had seen somewhere. Who was it? For one puzzled moment
+he tried to remember. Pateley took the bull by the horns.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Stamfordham," he said, "Mrs. Rendel wants to speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Rendel! Of course it was Mrs. Rendel. He had last seen her that day
+at Cosmo Place. Again a wave of indignation rushed over him. Rachel
+advanced desperately, looking as though she were going to speak.
+Stamfordham, involuntarily looking round him at the crowd of observers
+and listeners, said quickly in a low voice, "I am very sorry, it is no
+good. It is impossible." And then to Pateley, "It is no good, I can't do
+anything. You must tell her so," and he passed through the curtain which
+Lady Adela let drop behind him. Rachel looked at Pateley, then to his
+amazement <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>and also to his involuntary admiration she lifted the curtain
+and passed in too.</p>
+
+<p>The two people inside stood aghast at her appearance. She had followed
+so quickly upon Stamfordham's steps that he was still standing looking
+round him at his strange surroundings, Lady Adela facing him with a
+smile of welcome. The apparatus of the fortune-teller apparently
+consisted in certain cabalistic properties&mdash;wands, dials with signs upon
+them, and the like&mdash;arranged round a table. Stamfordham spoke first. He
+was absolutely convinced that Rachel had come to appeal to him for
+mercy, and was as absolutely clear that it was an appeal to which he
+could not listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rendel," he said, "I am afraid I am obliged to tell you that I
+cannot listen to anything you may have to say. I can guess, of course,
+why you have come here, and I am sorry for <i>you</i>," he said, leaning on
+the pronoun. "But I can do nothing," and he spoke slowly and inexorably,
+"I can do nothing for either you or your husband." But Rachel had now
+lost all fear, all misgiving.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think," she said, unconsciously drawing herself up and looking
+straight at him, "you know what I have come to say, and I must ask you
+to listen for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do know," Stamfordham said sternly, and she saw he meant to
+go out.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to tell you," she said, quickly standing between him and
+the door, "that my husband was wrongfully accused of the thing that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>you
+believed he did." Stamfordham shook his head: this was what he expected
+to hear. "I know who did it, I have found out to-day," and she grew more
+and more assured as she went on. Stamfordham started, then looked
+incredulous again. "I have come to tell you who did it, that you may
+know my husband is innocent." Then she became aware of Lady Adela, who,
+having at first been much annoyed at her brusque intrusion, was now
+suddenly roused to interest, even to sympathy. Rachel turned to her. "I
+must say this," she said. "Don't you see, don't you understand, what it
+is to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, you must," the other woman said, with a sudden impulse of
+help and sympathy. "Go on," and she went outside. Stamfordham felt a
+slight accession of annoyance as Lady Adela passed out; he felt it was
+going to be very difficult for him to deal as cruelly as he was bound to
+do with the anxious, quivering wife before him. He stood silent and
+absolutely impenetrable. Rachel went on quickly in broken sentences.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know about this at the time. I have been ill since. I could
+not remember. You brought some papers for my husband to copy, and he
+locked them up so that no one should see them, and while he went down to
+speak to you they were pulled out of his writing-table from outside, by
+somebody else who was there, and who showed them to Mr. Pateley. Mr.
+Pateley came in and went out again. Frank didn't know he had been
+there." Stamfordham stopped her.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They were taken out by 'somebody,' you say; do you mean&mdash;in fact I must
+gather from your words&mdash;that it was&mdash;do you mean by yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, no," Rachel cried, as it dawned upon her what interpretation
+might be put upon her words. "Oh no, not myself! I wish it had been, I
+wish it had!"</p>
+
+<p>"You wish it had?" Stamfordham said, surprised. "Who was it, then? Who
+was it?" he said again, in the tone of one who must have an answer. "Who
+got the paper out and showed it to Pateley?"</p>
+
+<p>Rachel forced herself to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"It was&mdash;my father," she said, "Sir William Gore." And with an immense
+effort she prevented herself from bursting into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir William Gore!" said Stamfordham, "did <i>he</i> do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel; "I only knew it to-day, and I am telling you to
+prove to you that it wasn't my husband."</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham stood for a moment trying to recall Rendel's attitude at the
+time, and then, as he did so, he made up his mind that Rendel must have
+known.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he said, after a moment, still somewhat perplexed, "you say you
+didn't know about this?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Rachel, "I didn't. My father," and again her lips quivered
+and told Stamfordham what that father and his good name probably were to
+her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> "was taken very ill, and I had an accident at the time and did not
+know anything that had happened. Frank told me nothing. Then my father
+died, and I was ill, and we came here and I did not know it at all till
+my husband came in and told me"&mdash;and her eyes blazed at the
+thought&mdash;"told me what had happened to-day..." She stopped. Stamfordham
+felt a stab as he thought of it.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he said, "did he know? Did he tell you then? Did he know that it
+was Sir William Gore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, no," Rachel said; "it was Mr. Pateley, and he brought me here to
+tell you that you might know." Then Stamfordham began to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rendel," he said, with a change of voice and manner that made her
+heart leap within her. "Where is your husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is at our house, the little pavilion behind the Casino garden."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take me to him?" Stamfordham said.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked at him, unable to speak, her face illuminated with
+hope&mdash;then she covered her face in her hands, saying through the tears
+she could no longer restrain, "Oh, thank you, thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Stamfordham gently, but with decision. "You must dry your
+tears," he added with a smile, "or people will think I have been
+ill-treating you." And to the speechless amazement of Lady Adela, who
+was standing outside the curtain waiting until, as she expressed it to
+herself, she too should have her "innings," Stamfordham passed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>out
+before her eyes with Rachel, saying to Lady Adela as he passed, "Will
+you forgive me? I am going to take Mrs. Rendel back." Then looking round
+him at the jostling crowd he said to Rachel, offering her his arm, "Will
+you think me very old-fashioned if I ask you to take my arm to get
+through the crowd?" And, leaning on his arm, hardly daring to believe
+what had happened or might be going to happen, Rachel passed back along
+the room through which she had just come with Pateley, the crowd this
+time opening before them with some indescribable tacit understanding
+that something had happened concerned with the incident which, as Rendel
+had foreseen, nearly everybody at the bazaar had heard of. They did not
+speak again until they reached the pavilion.</p>
+
+<p>Latchkeys were unknown at Schleppenheim, and the inhabitants of the
+little summer abodes walked in by the simple process of turning the
+handle of the front door. Rachel and Stamfordham went straight in out of
+the sunlight into the cool little room into which, in long low rays, the
+setting sun was sending its beams. Rendel had been trying to read: the
+book that lay beside him on the floor showed that the attempt had been
+in vain. He looked up, still with that strange, hunted expression that
+had come into his face since the morning&mdash;the expression of the man to
+whom every door opening, every figure that comes in may mean some fresh
+cause of apprehension. Rachel came into the room without <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>speaking,
+something that he could not read in the least in her face, then his
+heart stood still within him as he saw Stamfordham behind her. What,
+again? What new ordeal awaited him? He made no sign of recognition, but
+stood up and looked Stamfordham straight in the face. Stamfordham came
+forward and spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come," he said, "to apologise to you for what took place to-day,
+to beg you to forgive me." Rendel was so utterly astounded that he
+simply looked from one to the other of the people standing before him
+without uttering a sound.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just learnt," Stamfordham went on, "the name of the person who
+did the thing of which I wrongfully accused you." Rendel made a hurried
+movement forward as if to stop him.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait one moment!" he cried, "don't say it before my wife&mdash;she
+doesn't know." In that moment Rachel realised what he had done for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know?" asked Stamfordham.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Rendel answered.</p>
+
+<p>With the old friendliness, and something deeper, in his face and voice,
+Stamfordham said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rendel knows also. It was she told me."</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel!" cried Rendel, turning to her. "Do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rachel, trying to command her voice. "I know&mdash;now&mdash;that it
+was&mdash;my father," and the eyes of the two met.</p>
+
+<p>Stamfordham advanced to Rendel.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Will you forgive me," he said again, "and shake hands?" Rendel held out
+his hand and pressed Stamfordham's in a close and tremulous grasp, which
+the other returned. "I must see you," he said. "Will you come to my
+rooms some time? I shall be here for a week longer." He held out his
+hand to Rachel. "Thank you," he said, "for what you have done." And he
+went out.</p>
+
+<p>Rendel turned towards Rachel, his arms outstretched, his face
+transformed by the knowledge of the great love she had shown him. His
+heart was too full for speech: in the closer union of silence that new
+precious compact was made. The veil that had hung between them so long
+was lifted for ever.</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="trans_note">
+<p class="center"><big>Transcriber's Note</big></p>
+<p class="noindent">
+
+
+
+
+The author's name on the <a href="images/titlepage.png">original title page</a> was "Mrs. Hugh Bell". Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
+inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error by the publisher is noted below:
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<a href="#Page_123">page 123:</a> typo corrected: "Of course," he said, after listening to what Rendal[Rendel] had to say<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_303">page 303:</a> typo corrected: Wentworth, with some inward wonder, pointing toward's[towards] Lady Adela's corner.<br />
+<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 24794-h.htm or 24794-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/9/24794/
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/24794-h/images/titlepage.png b/24794-h/images/titlepage.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7877da7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-h/images/titlepage.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/f0001.png b/24794-page-images/f0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4f2640
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/f0001.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0001.png b/24794-page-images/p0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12bcc9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0001.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0002.png b/24794-page-images/p0002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..555527b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0002.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0003.png b/24794-page-images/p0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea076e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0003.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0004.png b/24794-page-images/p0004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7bf328c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0004.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0005.png b/24794-page-images/p0005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5496643
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0005.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0006.png b/24794-page-images/p0006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fa9e9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0006.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0007.png b/24794-page-images/p0007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae175b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0007.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0008.png b/24794-page-images/p0008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f951a44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0008.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0009.png b/24794-page-images/p0009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3ee327
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0009.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0010.png b/24794-page-images/p0010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9de94aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0010.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0011.png b/24794-page-images/p0011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae7b70a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0011.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0012.png b/24794-page-images/p0012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eef2e9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0012.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0013.png b/24794-page-images/p0013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4053d6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0013.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0014.png b/24794-page-images/p0014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ff8f70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0014.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0015.png b/24794-page-images/p0015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a33d298
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0015.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0016.png b/24794-page-images/p0016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c960e6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0016.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0017.png b/24794-page-images/p0017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6c1d82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0017.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0018.png b/24794-page-images/p0018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9413db8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0018.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0019.png b/24794-page-images/p0019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9e3a01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0019.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0020.png b/24794-page-images/p0020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5adf39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0020.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0021.png b/24794-page-images/p0021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d16daf8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0021.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0022.png b/24794-page-images/p0022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5110cce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0022.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0023.png b/24794-page-images/p0023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7863232
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0023.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0024.png b/24794-page-images/p0024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a437ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0024.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0025.png b/24794-page-images/p0025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7801c20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0025.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0026.png b/24794-page-images/p0026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e83d27b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0026.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0027.png b/24794-page-images/p0027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a25505
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0027.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0028.png b/24794-page-images/p0028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ead140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0028.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0029.png b/24794-page-images/p0029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f74bfe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0029.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0030.png b/24794-page-images/p0030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f667b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0030.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0031.png b/24794-page-images/p0031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5611b66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0031.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0032.png b/24794-page-images/p0032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f8c3c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0032.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0033.png b/24794-page-images/p0033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b17e8e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0033.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0034.png b/24794-page-images/p0034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9764df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0034.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0035.png b/24794-page-images/p0035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6999954
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0035.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0036.png b/24794-page-images/p0036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..596cf9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0036.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0037.png b/24794-page-images/p0037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2345aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0037.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0038.png b/24794-page-images/p0038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88df34e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0038.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0039.png b/24794-page-images/p0039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7519238
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0039.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0040.png b/24794-page-images/p0040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2fa6f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0040.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0041.png b/24794-page-images/p0041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f63951
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0041.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0042.png b/24794-page-images/p0042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fec0f41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0042.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0043.png b/24794-page-images/p0043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fec9468
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0043.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0044.png b/24794-page-images/p0044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c07156
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0044.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0045.png b/24794-page-images/p0045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a167931
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0045.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0046.png b/24794-page-images/p0046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7bab701
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0046.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0047.png b/24794-page-images/p0047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..968b496
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0047.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0048.png b/24794-page-images/p0048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a19808a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0048.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0049.png b/24794-page-images/p0049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4628c44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0049.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0050.png b/24794-page-images/p0050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df46bef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0050.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0051.png b/24794-page-images/p0051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b7f639
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0051.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0052.png b/24794-page-images/p0052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b9516c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0052.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0053.png b/24794-page-images/p0053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b968221
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0053.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0054.png b/24794-page-images/p0054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e029818
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0054.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0055.png b/24794-page-images/p0055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bf529b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0055.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0056.png b/24794-page-images/p0056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a17f321
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0056.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0057.png b/24794-page-images/p0057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00af753
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0057.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0058.png b/24794-page-images/p0058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f52b790
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0058.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0059.png b/24794-page-images/p0059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e38f68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0059.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0060.png b/24794-page-images/p0060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91128d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0060.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0061.png b/24794-page-images/p0061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbf1e93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0061.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0062.png b/24794-page-images/p0062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e340fbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0062.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0063.png b/24794-page-images/p0063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4d377a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0063.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0064.png b/24794-page-images/p0064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5b15fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0064.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0065.png b/24794-page-images/p0065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2bb2d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0065.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0066.png b/24794-page-images/p0066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5a43ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0066.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0067.png b/24794-page-images/p0067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c1797d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0067.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0068.png b/24794-page-images/p0068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cee7ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0068.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0069.png b/24794-page-images/p0069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0416d6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0069.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0070.png b/24794-page-images/p0070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f646bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0070.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0071.png b/24794-page-images/p0071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e92c6c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0071.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0072.png b/24794-page-images/p0072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8679695
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0072.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0073.png b/24794-page-images/p0073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ada1e06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0073.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0074.png b/24794-page-images/p0074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b119fb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0074.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0075.png b/24794-page-images/p0075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab039dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0075.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0076.png b/24794-page-images/p0076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a353ea9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0076.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0077.png b/24794-page-images/p0077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68d57c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0077.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0078.png b/24794-page-images/p0078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..320cbd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0078.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0079.png b/24794-page-images/p0079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bacb0ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0079.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0080.png b/24794-page-images/p0080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..daf58d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0080.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0081.png b/24794-page-images/p0081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d42f72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0081.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0082.png b/24794-page-images/p0082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae2862d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0082.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0083.png b/24794-page-images/p0083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9d651e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0083.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0084.png b/24794-page-images/p0084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fda815f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0084.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0085.png b/24794-page-images/p0085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bfc7a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0085.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0086.png b/24794-page-images/p0086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72dc159
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0086.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0087.png b/24794-page-images/p0087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e967484
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0087.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0088.png b/24794-page-images/p0088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54ba6e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0088.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0089.png b/24794-page-images/p0089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ece852e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0089.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0090.png b/24794-page-images/p0090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5cfb0f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0090.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0091.png b/24794-page-images/p0091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6b69ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0091.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0092.png b/24794-page-images/p0092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..837fb31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0092.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0093.png b/24794-page-images/p0093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3eef92f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0093.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0094.png b/24794-page-images/p0094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b92f642
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0094.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0095.png b/24794-page-images/p0095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94199c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0095.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0096.png b/24794-page-images/p0096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36f2fd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0096.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0097.png b/24794-page-images/p0097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c092cbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0097.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0098.png b/24794-page-images/p0098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ae944f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0098.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0099.png b/24794-page-images/p0099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb1b5cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0099.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0100.png b/24794-page-images/p0100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3959791
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0100.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0101.png b/24794-page-images/p0101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec9f64b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0101.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0102.png b/24794-page-images/p0102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d85af4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0102.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0103.png b/24794-page-images/p0103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b3c7d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0103.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0104.png b/24794-page-images/p0104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7324a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0104.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0105.png b/24794-page-images/p0105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3d627a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0105.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0106.png b/24794-page-images/p0106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..783f34b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0106.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0107.png b/24794-page-images/p0107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bbd6a34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0107.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0108.png b/24794-page-images/p0108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a1519a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0108.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0109.png b/24794-page-images/p0109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3af2b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0109.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0110.png b/24794-page-images/p0110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..461acea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0110.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0111.png b/24794-page-images/p0111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68c24d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0111.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0112.png b/24794-page-images/p0112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8de0863
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0112.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0113.png b/24794-page-images/p0113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b30e93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0113.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0114.png b/24794-page-images/p0114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..033c484
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0114.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0115.png b/24794-page-images/p0115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2964de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0115.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0116.png b/24794-page-images/p0116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6db2c8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0116.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0117.png b/24794-page-images/p0117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b0f6a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0117.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0118.png b/24794-page-images/p0118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..806cb6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0118.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0119.png b/24794-page-images/p0119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..953bc25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0119.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0120.png b/24794-page-images/p0120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f89a39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0120.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0121.png b/24794-page-images/p0121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38354ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0121.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0122.png b/24794-page-images/p0122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24bc194
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0122.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0123.png b/24794-page-images/p0123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa5541d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0123.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0124.png b/24794-page-images/p0124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ecd7c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0124.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0125.png b/24794-page-images/p0125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac8341b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0125.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0126.png b/24794-page-images/p0126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e9bb7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0126.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0127.png b/24794-page-images/p0127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7f30ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0127.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0128.png b/24794-page-images/p0128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..732d4f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0128.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0129.png b/24794-page-images/p0129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54cd1d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0129.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0130.png b/24794-page-images/p0130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..739d45f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0130.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0131.png b/24794-page-images/p0131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edaf809
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0131.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0132.png b/24794-page-images/p0132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1eed9f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0132.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0133.png b/24794-page-images/p0133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed576ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0133.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0134.png b/24794-page-images/p0134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8d7ea7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0134.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0135.png b/24794-page-images/p0135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b3e0dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0135.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0136.png b/24794-page-images/p0136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f12da41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0136.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0137.png b/24794-page-images/p0137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efedb20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0137.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0138.png b/24794-page-images/p0138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e1d55d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0138.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0139.png b/24794-page-images/p0139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e9ba26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0139.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0140.png b/24794-page-images/p0140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e8ff8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0140.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0141.png b/24794-page-images/p0141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..967b836
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0141.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0142.png b/24794-page-images/p0142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..407c012
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0142.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0143.png b/24794-page-images/p0143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c84b564
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0143.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0144.png b/24794-page-images/p0144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9db5ba8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0144.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0145.png b/24794-page-images/p0145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..784fabc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0145.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0146.png b/24794-page-images/p0146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9895f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0146.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0147.png b/24794-page-images/p0147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..feca8d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0147.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0148.png b/24794-page-images/p0148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50bb6ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0148.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0149.png b/24794-page-images/p0149.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93ce5a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0149.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0150.png b/24794-page-images/p0150.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c5840e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0150.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0151.png b/24794-page-images/p0151.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec02d84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0151.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0152.png b/24794-page-images/p0152.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1f1425
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0152.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0153.png b/24794-page-images/p0153.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e67467b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0153.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0154.png b/24794-page-images/p0154.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86bd8c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0154.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0155.png b/24794-page-images/p0155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90bf975
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0155.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0156.png b/24794-page-images/p0156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba3e643
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0156.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0157.png b/24794-page-images/p0157.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f0745a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0157.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0158.png b/24794-page-images/p0158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4b6c7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0158.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0159.png b/24794-page-images/p0159.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b8aece
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0159.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0160.png b/24794-page-images/p0160.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6e1406
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0160.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0161.png b/24794-page-images/p0161.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b405407
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0161.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0162.png b/24794-page-images/p0162.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce2c410
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0162.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0163.png b/24794-page-images/p0163.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0622fe4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0163.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0164.png b/24794-page-images/p0164.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f953794
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0164.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0165.png b/24794-page-images/p0165.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7cac76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0165.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0166.png b/24794-page-images/p0166.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60e5f21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0166.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0167.png b/24794-page-images/p0167.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf8c991
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0167.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0168.png b/24794-page-images/p0168.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e04f00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0168.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0169.png b/24794-page-images/p0169.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69885fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0169.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0170.png b/24794-page-images/p0170.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5822b7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0170.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0171.png b/24794-page-images/p0171.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a369c85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0171.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0172.png b/24794-page-images/p0172.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b97a90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0172.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0173.png b/24794-page-images/p0173.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06b241c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0173.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0174.png b/24794-page-images/p0174.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6bf5256
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0174.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0175.png b/24794-page-images/p0175.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..173dd30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0175.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0176.png b/24794-page-images/p0176.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b45936
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0176.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0177.png b/24794-page-images/p0177.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..318e2d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0177.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0178.png b/24794-page-images/p0178.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ad3f0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0178.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0179.png b/24794-page-images/p0179.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87a899c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0179.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0180.png b/24794-page-images/p0180.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce7e541
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0180.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0181.png b/24794-page-images/p0181.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89a05d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0181.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0182.png b/24794-page-images/p0182.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aabaf0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0182.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0183.png b/24794-page-images/p0183.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd88ebf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0183.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0184.png b/24794-page-images/p0184.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6c79ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0184.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0185.png b/24794-page-images/p0185.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6bc2fa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0185.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0186.png b/24794-page-images/p0186.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96283a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0186.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0187.png b/24794-page-images/p0187.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf3a362
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0187.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0188.png b/24794-page-images/p0188.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7b301a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0188.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0189.png b/24794-page-images/p0189.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85e9a7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0189.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0190.png b/24794-page-images/p0190.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d24c726
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0190.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0191.png b/24794-page-images/p0191.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8dba6bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0191.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0192.png b/24794-page-images/p0192.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16273e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0192.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0193.png b/24794-page-images/p0193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a42b17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0193.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0194.png b/24794-page-images/p0194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c84a381
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0194.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0195.png b/24794-page-images/p0195.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9c6d04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0195.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0196.png b/24794-page-images/p0196.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f348a70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0196.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0197.png b/24794-page-images/p0197.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..310ea64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0197.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0198.png b/24794-page-images/p0198.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3cab39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0198.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0199.png b/24794-page-images/p0199.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52471dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0199.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0200.png b/24794-page-images/p0200.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6132ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0200.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0201.png b/24794-page-images/p0201.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5753f56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0201.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0202.png b/24794-page-images/p0202.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..791be64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0202.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0203.png b/24794-page-images/p0203.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9188566
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0203.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0204.png b/24794-page-images/p0204.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..423fbdb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0204.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0205.png b/24794-page-images/p0205.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2616dd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0205.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0206.png b/24794-page-images/p0206.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..adf4eb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0206.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0207.png b/24794-page-images/p0207.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec9d67f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0207.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0208.png b/24794-page-images/p0208.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..925f390
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0208.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0209.png b/24794-page-images/p0209.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46ce67b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0209.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0210.png b/24794-page-images/p0210.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d58d1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0210.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0211.png b/24794-page-images/p0211.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79a16cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0211.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0212.png b/24794-page-images/p0212.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be6cbe0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0212.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0213.png b/24794-page-images/p0213.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1afeac8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0213.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0214.png b/24794-page-images/p0214.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59fec18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0214.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0215.png b/24794-page-images/p0215.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b47beca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0215.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0216.png b/24794-page-images/p0216.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e38be51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0216.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0217.png b/24794-page-images/p0217.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a521e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0217.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0218.png b/24794-page-images/p0218.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9833e25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0218.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0219.png b/24794-page-images/p0219.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9776dda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0219.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0220.png b/24794-page-images/p0220.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0739e99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0220.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0221.png b/24794-page-images/p0221.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85ca95f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0221.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0222.png b/24794-page-images/p0222.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8caab0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0222.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0223.png b/24794-page-images/p0223.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e21c7c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0223.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0224.png b/24794-page-images/p0224.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04e3818
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0224.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0225.png b/24794-page-images/p0225.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..215d30f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0225.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0226.png b/24794-page-images/p0226.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b20c8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0226.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0227.png b/24794-page-images/p0227.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c39ea4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0227.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0228.png b/24794-page-images/p0228.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6f9bbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0228.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0229.png b/24794-page-images/p0229.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0543a4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0229.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0230.png b/24794-page-images/p0230.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54448a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0230.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0231.png b/24794-page-images/p0231.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94ff630
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0231.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0232.png b/24794-page-images/p0232.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..892ab20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0232.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0233.png b/24794-page-images/p0233.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8706c02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0233.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0234.png b/24794-page-images/p0234.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e28b687
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0234.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0235.png b/24794-page-images/p0235.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a113ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0235.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0236.png b/24794-page-images/p0236.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b710448
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0236.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0237.png b/24794-page-images/p0237.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ac8806
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0237.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0238.png b/24794-page-images/p0238.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bb2337
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0238.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0239.png b/24794-page-images/p0239.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..578ff46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0239.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0240.png b/24794-page-images/p0240.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..694a7b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0240.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0241.png b/24794-page-images/p0241.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da6735a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0241.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0242.png b/24794-page-images/p0242.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c1c2ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0242.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0243.png b/24794-page-images/p0243.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ddc9b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0243.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0244.png b/24794-page-images/p0244.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db6ef8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0244.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0245.png b/24794-page-images/p0245.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3dfb234
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0245.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0246.png b/24794-page-images/p0246.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3278c0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0246.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0247.png b/24794-page-images/p0247.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57f7234
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0247.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0248.png b/24794-page-images/p0248.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d173ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0248.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0249.png b/24794-page-images/p0249.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..111ff14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0249.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0250.png b/24794-page-images/p0250.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21939a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0250.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0251.png b/24794-page-images/p0251.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc6f8d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0251.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0252.png b/24794-page-images/p0252.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d1db6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0252.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0253.png b/24794-page-images/p0253.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac6d217
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0253.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0254.png b/24794-page-images/p0254.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dba4e6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0254.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0255.png b/24794-page-images/p0255.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c96c02f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0255.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0256.png b/24794-page-images/p0256.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f66f70f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0256.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0257.png b/24794-page-images/p0257.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b70e640
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0257.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0258.png b/24794-page-images/p0258.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..014327c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0258.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0259.png b/24794-page-images/p0259.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..134aaac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0259.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0260.png b/24794-page-images/p0260.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc272da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0260.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0261.png b/24794-page-images/p0261.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6396f39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0261.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0262.png b/24794-page-images/p0262.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e56a32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0262.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0263.png b/24794-page-images/p0263.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b24333e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0263.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0264.png b/24794-page-images/p0264.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0672cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0264.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0265.png b/24794-page-images/p0265.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00c57da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0265.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0266.png b/24794-page-images/p0266.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..caea2ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0266.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0267.png b/24794-page-images/p0267.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..015294c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0267.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0268.png b/24794-page-images/p0268.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e233bda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0268.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0269.png b/24794-page-images/p0269.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eac6cb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0269.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0270.png b/24794-page-images/p0270.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4067338
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0270.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0271.png b/24794-page-images/p0271.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44ab61b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0271.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0272.png b/24794-page-images/p0272.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55a12ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0272.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0273.png b/24794-page-images/p0273.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de42b13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0273.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0274.png b/24794-page-images/p0274.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3eb28d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0274.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0275.png b/24794-page-images/p0275.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4872885
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0275.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0276.png b/24794-page-images/p0276.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d25522
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0276.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0277.png b/24794-page-images/p0277.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6aadbf2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0277.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0278.png b/24794-page-images/p0278.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74b8502
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0278.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0279.png b/24794-page-images/p0279.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c373d69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0279.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0280.png b/24794-page-images/p0280.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ff68d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0280.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0281.png b/24794-page-images/p0281.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca8413f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0281.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0282.png b/24794-page-images/p0282.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5202ab9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0282.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0283.png b/24794-page-images/p0283.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf354a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0283.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0284.png b/24794-page-images/p0284.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df0008e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0284.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0285.png b/24794-page-images/p0285.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ffd0d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0285.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0286.png b/24794-page-images/p0286.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5f705a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0286.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0287.png b/24794-page-images/p0287.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdb683f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0287.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0288.png b/24794-page-images/p0288.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a01a95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0288.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0289.png b/24794-page-images/p0289.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46a4754
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0289.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0290.png b/24794-page-images/p0290.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44eba9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0290.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0291.png b/24794-page-images/p0291.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dfb0ea0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0291.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0292.png b/24794-page-images/p0292.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b47a13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0292.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0293.png b/24794-page-images/p0293.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd9edd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0293.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0294.png b/24794-page-images/p0294.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dfaa43d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0294.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0295.png b/24794-page-images/p0295.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c452548
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0295.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0296.png b/24794-page-images/p0296.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc33a2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0296.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0297.png b/24794-page-images/p0297.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bdd5b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0297.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0298.png b/24794-page-images/p0298.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60f4c84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0298.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0299.png b/24794-page-images/p0299.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eeca5f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0299.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0300.png b/24794-page-images/p0300.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aff309c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0300.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0301.png b/24794-page-images/p0301.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb157b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0301.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0302.png b/24794-page-images/p0302.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..720c4c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0302.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0303.png b/24794-page-images/p0303.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c85b214
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0303.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0304.png b/24794-page-images/p0304.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ffa557
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0304.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0305.png b/24794-page-images/p0305.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df532c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0305.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0306.png b/24794-page-images/p0306.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c68c72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0306.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0307.png b/24794-page-images/p0307.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..64ed2ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0307.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0308.png b/24794-page-images/p0308.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eae50ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0308.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0309.png b/24794-page-images/p0309.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..570696e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0309.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0310.png b/24794-page-images/p0310.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..824777e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0310.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0311.png b/24794-page-images/p0311.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2d2ca9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0311.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0312.png b/24794-page-images/p0312.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bae2f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0312.png
diff --git a/24794-page-images/p0313.png b/24794-page-images/p0313.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbce7f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794-page-images/p0313.png
diff --git a/24794.txt b/24794.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b135a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8834 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+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: The Arbiter
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+Release Date: March 10, 2008 [EBook #24794]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ARBITER
+
+A NOVEL
+
+BY
+
+LADY F. E. E. BELL
+
+AUTHOR OF THE "STORY OF URSULA," "MISS TOD AND THE PROPHETS,"
+"FAIRY-TALE PLAYS," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+LONDON
+EDWARD ARNOLD
+37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
+1901
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE ARBITER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"It is a great mistake," said Miss Martin emphatically, "for any
+sensible woman to show a husband she adores him."
+
+"Even her own, Aunt Anna?" said Lady Gore, with a contented smile which
+Aunt Anna felt to be ignoble.
+
+"Of course I meant her own," she said stiffly. "I should hardly have
+thought, Elinor, that after being married so many years you would have
+made jokes of that sort."
+
+"That is just it," said Lady Gore, still annoyingly pleased with
+herself. "After adoring my husband for twenty-four years, it seems to me
+that I am an authority on the subject."
+
+"Well, it is a great mistake," repeated Miss Martin firmly, as she got
+up, feeling that the repetition notably strengthened her position. "As I
+said before, no sensible woman should do it."
+
+Lady Gore began to feel a little annoyed. It is fatiguing to hear one's
+aunt say the same thing twice. The burden of conversation is unequally
+distributed if one has to think of two answers to each one remark of
+one's interlocutor.
+
+"And you are bringing up Rachel to do the same thing, you know," the old
+lady went on, roused to fresh indignation at the thought of her
+great-niece, and she pulled her little cloth jacket down, and generally
+shook herself together. Crabbed age and jackets should not live
+together. Age should be wrapped in the ample and tolerant cloak, hider
+of frailties. It was not Aunt Anna's fault, however, if her garments
+were uncompromising and scanty of outline. Predestination reigns nowhere
+more strongly than in clothes, and it would have been inconceivable that
+either Miss Martin's body or her mind should have assimilated the
+harmonious fluid adaptability of the draperies that framed and
+surrounded Lady Gore as she lay on her couch.
+
+"I don't think it does her much harm," said Lady Gore, a good deal
+understating her conviction of her daughter's perfections.
+
+"That's as may be," said Miss Martin encouragingly. "Where is she
+to-day, by the way?" she said, stopping on her way to the door.
+
+"For a wonder she is not at home," Lady Gore said. "She has gone to stay
+away from me for the first time in her life; she is at Mrs. Feversham's,
+at Maidenhead, for the night."
+
+"How girls do gad nowadays, to be sure!" said Miss Martin.
+
+"I hardly think that can be said of Rachel," said Lady Gore.
+
+"Whether Rachel does or not, my dear Elinor, girls do gad--there is no
+doubt about that. I'm sorry I have not seen William. He is too busy, I
+suppose," with a slightly ironical intonation. "Goodbye!"
+
+"Can you find your way out?" said Lady Gore, ringing a hand-bell.
+
+"Oh dear, yes," said Miss Martin. "Goodbye," and out she went.
+
+Lady Gore leant back with a sigh of relief. A companion like Miss Martin
+makes a most excellent foil to solitude, and after she had departed,
+Lady Gore lay for a while in a state of pleasant quiescence. Why, she
+wondered, even supposing she herself did think too well of her husband,
+should Miss Martin object? Why do onlookers appear to resent the
+spectacle of a too united family? There is, no doubt, something
+exasperating in an excess of indiscriminating kindliness. But it is an
+amiable fault after all; and, besides, more discrimination may sometimes
+be required to discover the hidden good lurking in a fellow-creature
+than to perceive and deride his more obvious absurdities and defects. It
+would no doubt be a very great misfortune to see our belongings as they
+appear to the world at large, and the fay who should "gie us that
+giftie" ought indeed to be banished from every christening. Let us
+console ourselves: she commonly is.
+
+But poor Miss Martin had no adoring belongings to shed the genial light
+of affection on her doings, to give her even mistaken admiration,
+better than none at all. Life had dealt but bleakly with her; she had
+always been in the shadow: small wonder then if her nature was blighted
+and her view of life soured. Lady Gore smiled to herself, a little
+wistfully perhaps, as she tried to put herself in Miss Martin's
+place--of all mental operations one of the most difficult to achieve
+successfully. Lady Gore's sheer power of sympathy might enable her to
+get nearer to it than many people, but still she inevitably reckoned up
+the balance, after the fashion of our kind, seeing only one side of the
+scale and not knowing what was in the other, and as she did so, it
+seemed to her still possible that Miss Martin might have the best of it,
+or at any rate might not fall so short of the best as at first appeared.
+For in spite of her age she still had the great inestimable boon of
+health; she was well, she was independent, she could, when it seemed
+good to her, get up and go out and join in the life of other people.
+While as for herself ... and again the feeling of impotent misery, of
+rebellion against her own destiny, came over Lady Gore like a wave whose
+strength she was powerless to resist. For since the rheumatic fever
+which five years ago had left her practically an incurable invalid, the
+effort to accept her fate still needed to be constantly renewed; an
+effort that had to be made alone, for the acceptance of such a fate by
+those who surround the sufferer is generally made, more or less, once
+for all in a moment of emotion, and then gradually becomes part of the
+habitual circumstance of daily life. Mercifully she did not realise all
+at once the thing that had happened to her. In the first days when she
+was returning to health--she who up to the time of her illness had been
+so full of life and energy--the mere pleasure in existence, the mere joy
+of the summer's day in which she could lie near an open window, look out
+on the world and the people in it, was enough; she was too languid to
+want to do more. Then her strength slowly returned, and with it the
+desire to resume her ordinary life. But weeks passed in which she still
+remained at the same stage, they lengthened into months, and brought her
+gradually a horrible misgiving. Then, at last, despairingly she faced
+the truth, and knew that from all she had been in the habit of doing,
+from all that she had meant to do, she was cut off for ever. She began
+to realise then, as people do who, unable to carry their treasures with
+them, look over them despairingly before they cast them away one by one,
+all that her ambitions had been. She smiled bitterly to herself during
+the hours in which she lay there looking her fate in the face and trying
+to encounter it with becoming courage, as she realised how, with more
+than half of her life, at the best, behind her, she had up to this
+moment been spending the rest of it still looking onward, still living
+in the future. She had dreamt of the time when, helped by her, her
+husband should go forward in his career, when, steered under her
+guidance, Rachel would go along the smiling path to happiness. And now,
+instead, she was to be to husband and daughter but the constant object
+of care and solicitude and pity. Yes, pity--that was the worst of it.
+"An invalid," she repeated to herself, and felt that at last she knew
+what that word meant that she had heard all her life, that she had
+applied unconcernedly to one fellow-creature or another without
+realising all that it means of tragedy, of startled, growing dread,
+followed by hopeless and despairing acceptance. Then there came a day
+when, calling all her courage to her help, she made up her mind bravely
+to begin life afresh, to sketch her destiny from another point of view,
+and yet to make a success of the picture. The battle had to be fought
+out alone. Sir William, after the agony of thinking he was going to lose
+her, after the rapture of joy at knowing that the parting was not to be
+yet, had insensibly become accustomed, as one does become accustomed to
+the trials of another, to the altered conditions of their lives, and it
+was even unconsciously a sort of agreeable certainty that whatever the
+weather, whatever the claims of the day, she would every afternoon be
+found in the same place, never away, never occupied about the house,
+always ready to listen, to sympathise. She had made up her mind that
+since now she was debarred from active participation in the lives of her
+husband and daughter, she would by unceasing, strenuous daily effort
+keep abreast of their daily interests, and be by her sympathy as much a
+part of their existence as though she had been, as before, their
+constant companion.
+
+The smallness of such a family circle may act in two ways: it may either
+send the members of it in different directions, or it may draw them
+together in an intense concentration of interests and sympathy. This
+latter was happily the condition of the Gores. The varying degrees of
+their strength and weaknesses had been so mercifully adjusted by destiny
+that each could find in the other some support--whether real or fancied
+does not matter. For illusions, if they last, form as good a working
+basis for life as reality, and in the Gore household, whether by
+imagination or not, the equipoise of life had been most skilfully
+adjusted. The amount of shining phantasies that had interwoven
+themselves into the woof of the family destiny had become so much a part
+of the real fabric that they were indistinguishable from it.
+
+As far as Sir William's career, if we may give it that name, was
+concerned, the calamity which had fallen upon his wife had in some
+strange manner explained and justified it. The younger son of a country
+gentleman of good family, he had, by the death of his elder brother,
+come into the title, the estate, and the sufficient means bequeathed by
+his father. Elinor Calthorpe, the daughter of a neighbouring squire, had
+been ever since her childhood on terms of intimate friendship with the
+Gore boys; as far back as she could remember, William Gore, big, strong,
+full of life and spirits, a striking contrast to his delicate elder
+brother, had been her ideal of everything that was manly and splendid:
+and when after his brother's death he asked her to marry him, she felt
+that life had nothing more to offer. In that belief she had never
+wavered. Sir William, by nature estimable and from circumstances
+irreproachable, made an excellent husband; that is to say, that during
+nearly a quarter of a century of marriage he had never wavered either in
+his allegiance to his wife or in his undivided acceptance of her
+allegiance, and hers alone. She on her side had never once during all
+those years realised that the light which shone round her idol came from
+the lamp she herself kept alive before the shrine, nor even that it was
+her more acute intelligence, blind in one direction only, which
+suggested the opinion or course of action that he quite unconsciously
+afterwards offered to the world as his own. It was she who infused into
+his life every possibility beyond the obvious. It was her keenness, her
+ardent interest in those possibilities, that urged him on. When she
+finally persuaded him to stand for Parliament as member for their county
+town, it was in a great measure her popularity that won him the seat.
+
+He was in the House without making any special mark for two years, with
+a comfortable sense, not clearly stated perhaps even to himself, that
+there was time before him. Men go long in harness in these days; some
+day for certain that mark would be made. Then his party went out, and in
+spite of another unsuccessful attempt in his own constituency, and then
+in one further afield, he was left by the roadside, while the tide of
+politics swept on. His wife consoled herself by thinking that at the
+next opportunity he would surely get in. But when the opportunity came,
+she was so ill that he could not leave her, and the moment passed. Then
+when they began to realise what her ultimate condition might be, and she
+was recommended to take some special German waters which might work a
+cure, he and Rachel went with her. Sir William, when the necessity of
+going abroad first presented itself to him--a heroic necessity for the
+ordinary stay-at-home Englishman--had felt the not unpleasant stimulus,
+the tightening of the threads of life, which the need for a given
+unexpected course of action presents to the not very much occupied
+person. Then came those months away from his own country and his own
+surroundings--months in which he acquired the habit of reading an
+English newspaper two days old and being quite satisfied with it, when
+everything else also had two days' less importance than it would at
+home, and gradually he tasted the delights of the detached onlooker who
+need do nothing but warn, criticise, prophesy, protest. With absolute
+sincerity to himself he attributed this attitude which Fate had assigned
+to him as entirely owing to his having had to leave England on his
+wife's account. He had quite easily, quite calmly drifted into a
+conviction that for his wife's sake he had chivalrously renounced his
+chances of distinction. Lady Gore on her side--it was another bitterness
+added to the rest--did not for a moment doubt that it was her condition
+and the sacrifice that her husband had made of his life to her which had
+ruined his political career. And they both of them gradually succeeded
+in forgetting that the alternative had not been a certainty. They
+believed, they knew, they even said openly, that if it had not been for
+his incessant attendance on her he would have gone into the House, he
+would have taken office, and eventually have been one of the shapers of
+his country's destiny. The phraseology of their current talk to one
+another and to outsiders reflected this belief. "If I had continued in
+the House," Sir William would say, with a manner and inflection which
+conveyed that he had left it of his own free will and not attempted to
+return to it, "I should have----" or, "If I had taken office----" or
+even sometimes, "If I were leading the Liberal party----" and no one,
+indeed, was in a position to affirm that these things might not have
+been. If a man's capacities are hinted at or even stated by himself to
+his fellow-creatures with a certain amount of discretion, and if he does
+not court failure by putting them to the proof, it does not occur to
+most people to contradict him, and the possible truth of the
+contradiction soon sinks out of sight. So Sir William sat on the brink
+of the river and watched the others plunging into the waves, diving,
+rising, breasting the current, and was agreeably supported by the
+consciousness that if Fate had so ordained it, he himself would have
+been capable of performing all these feats just as creditably. No need
+now to stifle a misgiving that in the old days would occasionally
+obtrude itself into the glowing views of the future, that he was
+possibly not of a stature to play the great parts for which he might be
+cast. On the contrary, what now remained was the blessed peace brought
+by renunciation, the calm renunciation of prospects that in the light of
+ceasing to try to attain them seemed absolutely certain. No one now
+could ever say that he had failed. He had been prevented by
+circumstances from achieving any success of a definite and conspicuous
+kind, although the position he had attained, the consideration nearly
+always accorded to the ordinary prosperous middle-aged Englishman of the
+upper classes who has done nothing to forfeit his claim to it, and more
+than all, the plenitude of assurance which he received of his deserts
+from his immediate surroundings, might well have been considered success
+enough. And on his return to England, after eighteen months of
+wandering, although he was no longer in Parliament and had no actual
+voice in deciding the politics of his country, it pleased him to think
+that if he chose he could still take an active line, that he could
+belong to the volunteer army of orators who make speeches at other
+people's elections and who write letters to the newspaper that the world
+may know their views on a given situation.
+
+At the time of which we speak political parties in England were trying
+in vain to re-adjust an equable balance. Conservatives and Unionists,
+almost indistinguishable, were waving the Imperialist banner in the
+face of the world. The Liberals, once the advanced and subversive party,
+were now raising their voices in protest, tentatively advocating the
+claims of what they considered the oppressed races. Derisive epithets
+were hurled at them by their enemies; the Pro-Boers, the Little
+Englanders took the place of the Home Rulers of the past. Sir William
+was by tradition a Liberal. Inspired by that tradition he wrote an
+article on the "Attitude of England," which appeared in a Liberal
+Review. Thrilled by the sight of his utterances in print, he determined
+in his secret soul to expand that article into a book. The secret was of
+course shared by his wife, who fervently believed in the yet unwritten
+masterpiece. The fact that in spite of the dearth of prominent men in
+his party, of men who had in them the stuff of a leader, that party had
+not turned to Gore in its need, aroused no surprise, no misgiving, in
+either his mind or that of his wife. It was simply in their eyes another
+step in that path of voluntary renunciation which he was treading for
+her sake.
+
+With this possible interpretation of all missed opportunities entirely
+taken for granted, Sir William's existence flowed peacefully and
+prosperously on. It was with an agreeable consciousness of his dignity
+and prestige that he sat once or twice in the week at the board meetings
+of one or two governing bodies to which he belonged. They figured in his
+scheme of existence as his hours of work, the sterner, more serious
+occupation which justified his hours of leisure. The rest of that
+leisure was spent in happy, congenial uniformity: a morning ride,
+followed by some time in his comfortable study, during which he might be
+supposed to be writing his book; an hour or two at his club; a game or
+two of chess, a pastime in which he excelled; and behind all this a
+beautiful background, the deep and enduring affection of his wife, whose
+companionship, and needs, and admiration for himself filled up all the
+vacant spaces in his life. He would, however, have been genuinely
+surprised if he had realised that it was by a constant, deliberate
+intention that she succeeded in entertaining him, in amusing him, as
+much as she did her friends and acquaintances; if he had thought that
+she had made up her mind that never, while she had power to prevent it,
+should he come into his own house and find it dull. And he never did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+To be a popular invalid is in itself a career: it blesses those that
+call and those that receive. The visitors who used day by day to go and
+see Lady Gore used to congratulate themselves as they stood on her
+doorstep on the knowledge that they would find her within, and glad--or
+so each one individually thought--to see them. She was an attractive
+person, certainly, as she lay on her sofa. Her hair had turned white
+prematurely early, it enhanced the effect of the delicate faded
+colouring and the soft brown eyes. The sweet brightness of her manner
+was mingled with dignity, with the comprehensive sympathy and pliability
+of a woman of the world; an innate distinction of mind and person
+radiated from her looks. Those who watched the general grace and repose
+of her demeanour and surroundings involuntarily felt that there might be
+advantages in a condition of life which prevented the mere thought of
+being hot, untidy, hurried, like some of the ardent ladies who used to
+rush into her room between a committee meeting and a tea-party and tell
+her breathlessly of their flustered doings. Rachel had inherited
+something of her mother's dainty charm. She had the same brown eyes and
+delicate features, framed by bright brown hair. It was certainly
+encouraging to those who looked upon the daughter to see in the mother
+what effect the course of the years was likely to have on such a
+personality. There was not much dread in the future when confronted with
+such a picture. But in truth, as far as most of the spectators who
+frequented the house were concerned, Rachel's personality had been
+merged in her mother's, and any comparison between the two was perhaps
+more likely to be in the direction of wondering whether Rachel in the
+course of years would, as time went on, become so absolutely delightful
+a human product as Lady Gore. Rachel's own attitude on this score was
+entirely consonant with that of others. Her mother was the centre of her
+life, the object of her passionate devotion, her guide, her ideal. It
+was when Rachel was seventeen that Lady Gore became helpless and
+dependent, and the girl suddenly found that their positions were in some
+ways reversed; it was she who had to take care of her mother, to
+inculcate prudence upon her, to minister incessantly to her daily wants;
+there was added to the daughter's love the yearning care that a loving
+woman feels for a helpless charge, and there was hardly room for
+anything else in her life. Rachel, fortunately for herself and for
+others, had no startling originality; no burning desire, arrived at
+womanhood, to strike out a path for herself. She was unmoved by the
+conviction which possesses most of her young contemporaries that the
+obvious road cannot be the one to follow. Lady Gore's perceptions, far
+more acute as regarded her daughter than her husband, and rendered more
+vivid still by the whole concentration of her maternal being in Rachel,
+had entirely realised, while she wondered at it, the complete lack in
+her child of the modern ferment that seethes in the female mind of our
+days. But she had finally come to see that if Rachel was entirely happy
+and contented with her life it was a result to rejoice over rather than
+be discontented with, even though her horizon did not extend much beyond
+her own home. Besides, it is always well to rejoice over a result we
+cannot modify. Needless to say that the girl, who blindly accepted her
+mother's opinion even on indifferent subjects, was, biassed by her own
+affection, more than ready to endow her father with all the qualities
+Lady Gore believed him to possess. She had arrived at the age of
+twenty-two without realising that there could be for her any claims in
+the world that would be paramount to these, anything that could possibly
+come before her allegiance to her parents.
+
+One of the bitterest pangs of Lady Gore's bitter renunciation was the
+moment when she realised that she could not be the one to guide Rachel's
+first steps in a wider world than that of her home, that all her plans
+and theories about the moment when the girl should grow up, when her
+mother would accompany her, steer her, help her at every step, must
+necessarily be brought to nought. And this mother, alas! had been so
+full of plans; she had so anxiously watched other people and their
+daughters, so carefully accumulated from her observation the many
+warnings and the few examples which constitute what is called the
+teaching of experience. But when the time came the lesson had been
+learnt in vain. Rachel's eighteenth and nineteenth years were spent in
+anxious preoccupations about her mother's health, in solicitous care of
+her father and the household, and the girl had glided gently from
+childhood into womanhood with nothing but increased responsibility,
+instead of more numerous pleasures, to mark the passage. But the result
+was something very attractively unlike the ordinary product of the age.
+She had had, from the conditions of her life, no very intimate and
+confidential girl friends by whose point of view to readjust and
+possibly lower her own, and with whom to compare every fleeting
+manifestation of thought and feeling. She remained unconsciously
+surrounded by an atmosphere of reticence and reserve, a certain shy
+aloofness, mingled with a direct simple dignity, that gave to her
+bearing an ineffable grace and charm. The mothers of more dashing
+damsels were wont to say that she was not "effective" in a ballroom. It
+was true that she had nothing particularly accentuated in demeanour or
+appearance which would at once arrest attention, an inadequate
+equipment, perhaps, in the opinion of those who hold that it is better
+to produce a bad effect than none at all.
+
+Mrs. Feversham, of Bruton Street, was an old friend of Lady Gore's,
+whose junior she was by a few years. She had no daughters of her own,
+and had in consequence an immense amount of undisciplined energy at the
+service of those of other people. She was not a lady whose views were
+apt to be matured in silence; she was ardently concerned about Rachel's
+future, and she was constantly imparting new projects to Lady Gore, who
+received them with smiling equanimity.
+
+It was at an "At Home" given by Mrs. Feversham one evening early in the
+season, when the rooms were full of hot people talking at the top of
+their voices, that the hostess, looking round her with a comprehensive
+glance, saw Rachel standing alone. There was, however, in the girl's
+demeanour none of that air of aggressive solitude sometimes assumed by
+the neglected. The eye fell upon Rachel with a sense of rest, looking on
+one who did not wish to go anywhere or to do anything, who was standing
+with unconscious grace an entirely contented spectator of what was
+passing before her. Mrs. Feversham's one idea, however, as she perceived
+her was instantly to suggest that she should do something else, that at
+any price some one should take her to have some tea, or make her eat or
+walk, or do anything, in fact, but stand still. Rachel, however, at the
+moment she was swooped down upon, was well amused; a smile was
+unconsciously playing on her lips as she listened to an absurd
+conversation going on between a young man and a girl just in front of
+her.
+
+"By George!" said the boy, "it is hot. Let's go and have ices."
+
+"Ices? Right you are," the girl replied, and attempted to follow her
+gallant cavalier, who had started off, trying to make for himself a path
+through the serried hot crowd, leaving the lady he was supposed to be
+convoying to follow him as near as she might.
+
+"Hallo!" he said suddenly. "There's Billy Crowther. Do you mind if I go
+and slap him on the back?"
+
+"All right, buck up, then, and slap him on the back," replied the fair
+one. "I'll go on." Thus gracefully encouraged, the youth flung himself
+in another direction, and almost overturned his hostess, who was coming
+towards Rachel.
+
+"Sorry," he said, apparently not at all discomposed, and continued his
+wild career.
+
+"Well! the young men of the present day!..." said Mrs. Feversham, as she
+joined Rachel; then suddenly remembering that a wholesale condemnation
+was not the attitude she wished to inculcate in her present hearer, she
+went on: "Not that they are all alike, of course; some of them are--are
+different," she supplemented luminously. "Now, my child, have you had
+anything to eat?"
+
+"I don't think I want anything, thank you," said Rachel.
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" said Mrs. Feversham. "You must." And, looking round for
+the necessary escort, she saw a new arrival coming up the stairs. "The
+very man!" she said to herself, but fortunately not aloud, as "Mr.
+Rendel!" was announced. A young man of apparently a little over thirty,
+with deep-set, far-apart eyes and clear-cut features, came up and took
+her outstretched hand with a little air of formal politeness refreshing
+after the manifestations she had been deploring.
+
+"I am so glad to see you," she said cordially. Rendel greeted her with a
+smile. "Do you know Miss Gore?" Rendel and Rachel bowed.
+
+"I have met Sir William Gore more than once," he said.
+
+"She is dying for something to eat," said Mrs. Feversham, to Rachel's
+great astonishment. "Do take her downstairs, Mr. Rendel." The young
+people obediently went down together.
+
+"I am not really dying for something to eat," Rachel said, as soon as
+they were out of hearing of their hostess. "In fact, I am not sure that
+I want anything."
+
+"Oh, don't you?" said Rendel.
+
+"Two hours ago I was still dining, you see."
+
+"Of course," said Rendel, "so was I." They both laughed. They went on
+nevertheless to the door of the room from whence the clatter of glass
+and china was heard.
+
+"Now, are you sure you won't be 'tempted,' according to the received
+expression?" said Rendel, as a hot waiter hurried past them with some
+dirty plates and glasses on a tray.
+
+"No, I am afraid I am not at all tempted," said Rachel.
+
+"Well, let us look for a cooler place," said Rendel. What a soothing
+companion this was he had found, who did not want him to fight for an
+ice or a sandwich! They went up again to a little recess on the landing
+by an open window. The roar of tongues came down to them from the
+drawing-room.
+
+"Just listen to those people," said Rendel. A sort of wild, continuous
+howl filled the air, as though bursting from a company of the condemned
+immured in an eternal prison, instead of from a gathering of peaceable
+citizens met together for their diversion. "Isn't it dreadful to realise
+what our natural note is like?" he added. "It is hideous."
+
+"It isn't pretty, certainly," said Rachel, unable to help smiling at his
+face of disgust. The roar seemed to grow louder as it went on.
+
+"It is a pity we can't chirp and twitter like birds," said Rendel.
+
+"I don't know that that would be very much better," said Rachel. "Have
+you ever been in a room with a canary singing? Think of a room with as
+many canaries in it as this."
+
+"Yes, I daresay--it might have been nearly as bad," Rendel said; "though
+if we were canaries we should be nicer to look at perhaps," and his eye
+fell on an unprepossessing elderly couple who were descending the stairs
+with none of the winsomeness of singing birds. "Have you read
+Maeterlinck's 'Life of the Bees'?"
+
+"No," Rachel answered simply.
+
+"I agree with him," Rendel said, "that it would be just as difficult to
+get any idea of what human beings are about by looking down on them from
+a height, as it is for us to discover what insects are doing when we
+look down on them."
+
+"Yes, imagine looking at that," said Rachel, pointing towards the
+drawing-room. "You would see people walking up and down and in and out
+for no reason, and jostling each other round and round."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel. "How aimless it would look! Not more aimless than it
+is, after all," he added.
+
+"It amuses me, all the same," said Rachel, rather deprecatingly. "I
+mean, to come to a party of this kind every now and then; perhaps
+because I don't do it very often."
+
+"Why, don't you go out every night of your life in the season?" said
+Rendel; "I thought all young ladies did."
+
+"I don't," she said. "It isn't quite the same for me as it is for other
+people--at least, I mean that I have only my father to go out with;" and
+then, seeing in his face the interpretation he put on her words, she
+added, "my mother is an invalid, and we do not like to leave her too
+often."
+
+"Ah! but she is alive still," said Rendel, with a tone that sounded as
+if he understood what the contrary might have meant.
+
+"Oh yes," said Rachel quickly. "Yes, yes, indeed she is alive," in a
+voice that told the proportion that fact assumed in existence.
+
+"My mother died long years ago," said Rendel, in a lower voice. "Not so
+long, though, that I did not understand." Rachel looked at him with a
+soft light of pity flooding her face, and drawing the words out of him,
+he knew not how. "My father married again," he said, "while I was still
+a child--while I needed looking after, at least."
+
+"Oh," said Rachel, "you had a stepmother?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I had a stepmother," and his face involuntarily became
+harder as he recalled that long stretch of loveless years--the father
+had never quite understood the shy and sensitive child--during which he
+had been neglected, suppressed, lonely, with no one to care that he did
+well at school and college, and that later he was getting on in the
+world, with no place in the world that was really his home. Then he went
+on after a moment: "And now my father is dead, too, so I am pretty much
+alone, you see."
+
+"How terrible it must be!" said Rachel softly. "How extraordinary! I
+can't quite imagine what it is like."
+
+"Well, it is not very pleasant," said Rendel looking up, and again
+penetrated by the sweet compassion in Rachel's face. "You can't think
+how strange it is----" He broke off and got up as Sir William Gore came
+downstairs towards them. Sir William, with the true instinct of a
+father, had chosen this moment to wonder whether Rachel was being
+sufficiently amused, and was bearing down upon her and her companion
+with an air of cheerful virtue which proclaimed that her conversation
+with Rendel was at an end. Sir William's political principles did not
+permit him to think very much of Rendel, since he was private secretary
+to a man whose policy Sir William cordially detested, Lord Stamfordham,
+the Foreign Minister, whose acute and wide-reaching sagacity inspired
+his followers with a blind confidence to himself and his methods. Lord
+Stamfordham had soon discovered the practical aptitude, the political
+capacity, the determined, honourable ambition that lay behind Francis
+Rendel's grave exterior, and had made up his mind, as indeed had others,
+that the young man had a distinguished future before him.
+
+"Ah, Rendel, how are you?" said Gore. "What is your Chief going to do
+next, eh?"
+
+"I am afraid I can't tell you, Sir William," said Rendel with a half
+smile.
+
+"Well, the people round him ought to put the brake on," said Gore, "or I
+don't know where the country will be."
+
+"I am afraid it is a brake I am not strong enough to work," said Rendel;
+"like Archimedes, I have not a lever powerful enough to move the
+universe."
+
+"H'm!" said Sir William, with a sort of snort. There are fortunately
+still some sounds left in our vocabulary which convey primeval emotions
+without the limitations of words. "Come, Rachel, it is time for us to be
+going."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Feversham's watchful eye had managed to observe what appeared to
+be the sufficiently satisfactory sequel to the introduction she had
+made. She was not a woman to let such a seed die for want of planting
+and watering. She asked Rendel to dinner to meet the Gores, she talked
+to Lady Gore about him, she it was who somehow arranged that he should
+go to call at Prince's Gate, and he finally grew into a habit of finding
+his way there with a frequency that surprised himself. Lady Gore
+subjugated him entirely by her sweet kindly welcome, and the interest
+with which she listened to him, until he found himself to his own
+astonishment telling her, as he sat by her sofa, of his hopes and fears
+and plans for the future.
+
+Gradually new possibilities seemed to come into his life, or rather the
+old possibilities were seen in a new light shed by the womanly sympathy
+which up to now he had never known. He came away from each visit with
+some fresh spurt of purpose, some new impulse to achievement. Lady Gore,
+on her side, had been more favourably impressed by Rendel than by any of
+the young men she had seen, until she realised that here at last was a
+possible husband who might be worthy of Rachel. But with her customary
+wisdom she tried not to formulate it even to herself: she did not
+believe in these things being helped on otherwise than by opportunity
+for intercourse being given. But where Mrs. Feversham was, opportunity
+was sure to follow. Lady Gore one morning had an eager letter from her
+friend saying, "I know that you and Rachel make it a rule of life that
+she can never go away from home. But you must let her come to me next
+Thursday for the night. I shall have"--and she underlined this
+significantly without going into more details--"_just the right people
+to meet her_." And for once, as Lady Gore folded up the letter, she too
+was seized with an ardour of matchmaking. She had a real affection for
+Rendel, and the devotion of the young man to herself touched and pleased
+her. His probably brilliant future and comfortable means were not the
+principal factors in the situation, but there was no doubt that they
+helped to make everything else easy. So it was that, to Rachel's great
+surprise, the day after the party at Bruton Street, her mother having
+told her without showing her the letter of Mrs. Feversham's invitation,
+advised her to accept it, and, to the mother's still greater surprise,
+the daughter, in her turn, after a slight protest, agreed to do so,
+stipulating, however, that she should not be away more than twenty-four
+hours. The accusation that Rachel "gadded" as much as other girls of her
+age was obviously an unmerited one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+"Alone?" said Sir William, as he came into the room. "Thank Heaven! Have
+you had no one?"
+
+"Aunt Anna," Lady Gore replied, in a tone which was comment on the
+statement.
+
+"Aunt Anna? What did she come again for?" said Sir William.
+
+"I really don't know," Lady Gore said. "I think to-day it was to tell me
+that Rachel and I ought not to worship you as we do."
+
+"I don't know what she means," said Sir William, standing from force of
+habit comfortably in front of the fireplace as though there were a fire
+in the grate. "I should have thought it was Rachel and I who adored
+you."
+
+"She would like that better," Lady Gore replied. "But, oh dear, what a
+weary woman she is!"
+
+"She has tired you out," Sir William said. "It really is not a good plan
+that your door should be open to every bore who chooses to come and call
+upon you. One ought to be able to keep people of that sort, at any rate,
+out of one's house."
+
+Lady Gore heaved a sigh.
+
+"Well, it is rather difficult and invidious too," she said, "to try to
+keep certain people out when one is not sure who is coming--and it is
+rather dull not to see any one," with a little quiver of the lip which
+Sir William did not perceive. Then speaking more lightly, "It is a pity
+we can't have some kind of automatic arrangement at our front doors,
+like the thing for testing sovereigns at the Mint, by which the heavy,
+tiresome people would be shot back into the street, and the light,
+amusing ones shot into the hall."
+
+"I am quite agreeable," said Sir William, "as long as Aunt Anna is shot
+back into the street."
+
+"Ah, how delightful it would be!" said Lady Gore longingly.
+
+"And Miss Tarlton too, please," said Sir William.
+
+"My dear William," Lady Gore said, "Miss Tarlton is quite harmless."
+
+"Harmless?" repeated Sir William; "I don't know what you call harmless.
+The very thought of her fills me with impotent rage. A woman who talks
+of nothing but photography and bicycling, and goes about with her
+fingers pea-green and her legs in gaiters! It's an outrage on society. I
+am thankful that Rachel has never gone in for any nonsense of that
+sort--nor ever shall, while I can prevent it."
+
+"My good friend," said Lady Gore, "you may not find that so easy."
+
+"I will prevent it as long as she is under my roof," replied Sir
+William. "I suppose if she marries a husband with any fads of that sort,
+she will have to share them."
+
+"But"--Lady Gore checked herself on the verge of saying, "I don't think
+he has," as she suddenly realised what image was called up by the
+mention of Rachel's possible husband--"but she might marry some one who
+hasn't," she ended lamely.
+
+"Oh dear me, yes," said Sir William, "there is time enough for that; she
+is very young after all."
+
+"She is twenty-two," said Lady Gore. "Perhaps that is young in these
+days when women don't seem to marry until they are nearly thirty. But I
+don't think it is a good plan to wait so long."
+
+"I don't think it's a bad one," said Sir William; "they know their own
+minds at any rate."
+
+"They have known half a dozen of their own minds," said Lady Gore. "I
+think it is much better for a girl to marry before she knows that there
+is an alternative to the mind she has got, such as it is."
+
+Sir William smiled, but did not think it worth while to argue the point.
+It was not his province, but her mother's, to guide Rachel's career, and
+he was content to remain in comfortable ignorance of the complications
+of the female heart of a younger generation. However, he was not allowed
+to remain in that detached attitude, for Lady Gore, with the subject
+uppermost in her mind preoccupying her to the exclusion of everything
+else, could not help adding, "You often see Mr. Rendel at parties, when
+you and Rachel go out, I mean?"
+
+"Rendel? Yes," said Gore indifferently. "Why?"
+
+Lady Gore did not explain. "I like him," she said.
+
+"Oh yes, so do I," said Gore, without enthusiasm. "I don't agree with
+him, of course. I asked him one day what his Chief was about, and told
+him he ought to put the brake on."
+
+"Did he seem pleased at that?" said Lady Gore, smiling.
+
+"He will have to hear it, I'm afraid," said Gore, "whether it pleases
+him or not."
+
+"I must say," said Lady Gore, "I can't help admiring Lord Stamfordham. I
+do like a man who is strong, and this man is head and shoulders above
+other people."
+
+"Head and shoulders above little people perhaps," said Sir William.
+
+"Mr. Rendel says that when once one is caught up in Lord Stamfordham's
+train, it is impossible not to follow him."
+
+"Rendel!" said Sir William. "Oh, of course, if you're going to listen to
+what Stamfordham's hangers-on say...."
+
+"Oh, William, please!" said Lady Gore. "Don't say that sort of thing
+about Mr. Rendel."
+
+"Why?" said Sir William, amazed. "Why am I to speak of Rendel with bated
+breath?"
+
+"Because ... suppose--suppose he were to be your son-in-law some day?"
+
+"Oh," said Sir William, staring at her, "is that what you are thinking
+of?"
+
+"Mind--mind you don't say it," cried Lady Gore.
+
+"_I_ shan't say it, certainly," cried Sir William, still bewildered;
+"but has he said it? That's more to the point."
+
+"He hasn't yet," she admitted.
+
+"Well, he never struck me in that light, I must say," said Sir William.
+"I always thought it was you he adored."
+
+"_Cela n'empeche pas_," said Lady Gore, laughing.
+
+"I daresay he would do very well," said Sir William, who, as he further
+considered the question, was by no means insensible to the advantages of
+the suggestion put before him; "it is only his politics that are against
+him."
+
+"I am afraid," said Lady Gore, "that Rachel would always think her
+father knew best."
+
+"Afraid!" said Sir William, "what more would you have?"
+
+"My dear William," said his wife, smiling at him, "she might think her
+husband knew best, that is what some people do."
+
+"Quite right," said Sir William, looking at her fondly, but believing
+with entire conviction in the truth of what he was lightly saying.
+
+At this moment the door opened and a footman came in.
+
+"Young Mr. Anderson is downstairs, Sir William."
+
+"Young Mr. Anderson?" said Sir William, looking at him with some
+surprise.
+
+"Yes, Sir William--Mr. Fred," the man replied, evidently somewhat
+doubtful as to whether he was right in using the honorific.
+
+"Fred Anderson back again!" said Sir William to his wife. "All right,
+James, I'll come directly." "I wonder if his rushing back to England so
+soon," he said, as the door closed upon the servant, "means that that
+boy has come to grief."
+
+"Let us hope that it means the reverse," said his wife, "and that he has
+come back to ask you to be chairman of his company--as you promised, do
+you remember, when he went away?"
+
+"So I did, yes, to be sure," said Sir William, laughing at the
+recollection. "Upon my word, that lad won't fail for want of assurance.
+We shall see what he has got to say." And he went out.
+
+The Andersons had been small farmers on the Gore estate for some
+generations. Fred Anderson, the second son of the present farmer, a
+youth of energy and enterprise, had determined to seek his fortune
+further afield. Mainly by the kind offices of the Gores, he had been
+started in life as a mining engineer, and had, eighteen months before
+his present reappearance, been sent with some others to examine and
+report on a large mine lately discovered on British territory near the
+Equator. The result of their investigations proved that it was actually
+and most unexpectedly a gold mine, promising untold treasure, but at the
+same time, from its geographical situation, almost valueless, since it
+was so far from any lines of communication as to make the working of it
+practically impossible. The young, however, are sanguine; undaunted by
+difficulties, Fred Anderson, in spite of the discouragement and dropping
+off of his companions, remained full of faith in the future of the mine,
+and of something turning up which would make it possible to work it; in
+fact, he had actually gone so far as to obtain for himself a grant of
+the mining rights from the British Government. It was for this purpose
+that, giving a brief outline of the situation, he had written to Sir
+William some time before to ask him for the sum necessary to obtain the
+concession. Sir William had advanced it to him. It was when, two years
+before, the boy of nineteen was leaving home for the first time that he
+had half jestingly asked Sir William whether, if he and his companions
+found a gold mine and started a company to work it, he would be their
+chairman, and Sir William, to whom it had seemed about as likely that
+Fred Anderson would become Prime Minister as succeed in such an
+undertaking, had given him his hand on the bargain.
+
+"Well, my boy," said Sir William, and the very sound of his voice seemed
+to Fred Anderson to put him back two years--the two years that appeared
+to him to contain his life. "How is it you have hurried back to England
+so quickly?"
+
+"I will tell you all about it, Sir William," said the boy. "I thought it
+best to come over and get everything into shape myself."
+
+"You seem to be embarking on very adventurous schemes," said Sir
+William, feeling as he looked at the boy's bright, open face, full of
+alert intelligence, that it was not impossible that the schemes might be
+carried through.
+
+"I think you will say so, sir, when you have heard what I have to tell
+you," said Anderson, resolutely keeping down his excitement in a way
+that boded well for his powers of self-control.
+
+"I shall be much interested," said Sir William. "Now, what about those
+mining rights? Do I understand that you are the proprietor of a mine on
+the Equator, a thousand miles from anywhere?"
+
+"Yes, and no," said Anderson. "At least, yes to the first question; no
+to the second."
+
+"What," said Sir William, still speaking lightly, "has the mine come
+nearer since we first heard of it?"
+
+"Yes, practically it has," said Anderson, looking Gore in the face.
+Then, unrolling the paper which he held in his hand and rolling it the
+other way that it might remain open, he laid it carefully out on the
+table before Sir William. "I have brought you the map with all the
+indications on it, that you may see for yourself." Sir William adjusted
+an eyeglass and bent over the map, roused to more curiosity than he
+showed.
+
+"This," said the young man, pointing to a large tract in pink, "is
+British territory; that is Uganda; here is the Congo Free State. There,
+you see, are the Germans where the map is marked in orange. There is
+the Equator, and _there_ is the mine. Look, marked in blue."
+
+"That is a pretty God-forsaken place, I must say," remarked Sir William.
+
+"One moment," said Fred. "That thin, dotted ink line running north and
+south from the top of Africa to the bottom is the Cape to Cairo Railway,
+of which the route has now been determined on, and this," with a ringing
+accent of triumph, bringing his hand down on to the map, "is the place
+where the railway will pass within a few miles of us."
+
+"What?" said Sir William, starting.
+
+"Yes, there it is, quite close," Anderson answered. "When once it is
+there, all our difficulties of transport are over."
+
+Sir William recovered himself.
+
+"Cape to Cairo!" he said. "You had better wait till you see the line
+made, my boy."
+
+"That won't be so very long, Sir William, I assure you," said the young
+man. "This cross in ink marks where the line has got to from the
+northern end, and this one," pointing to another, "from the south, and
+they have already got telegraph poles a good bit further."
+
+"Before the two ends have joined hands," said Sir William, "another
+Government may be in which won't be so keen on that mad enterprise. As
+if we hadn't railways enough on our hands already."
+
+"Not many railways like this one," said the young man. "Did you see an
+article in the _Arbiter_ about it this morning? It is going to be the
+most tremendous thing that ever was done."
+
+"Oh, of course, yes," said Sir William with an accent of scorn in his
+tone. "Just the kind of thing that the _Arbiter_ would have a good
+flare-up about. I have no doubt that the scheme is magnificent on paper.
+However, time will show," he added, with a kinder note in his voice. He
+liked the boy and his faith in achieving the impossible.
+
+"It will indeed," said Anderson. "Only, you see, we can't afford to wait
+till time shows--we must take it by the forelock now, I'm afraid."
+
+"Then what do you propose to do next?" said Sir William.
+
+"We are going to form a company," said the boy, his colour rising. "We
+are going to have everything ready, and the moment the railway is
+finished we are ready to work the mine, and our fortune is made."
+
+"You are going to form a company?" said Sir William, incredulously.
+
+"Yes," Anderson replied. "In a week we shall have the whole thing in
+shape, and I hope that when the mine and its possibilities are made
+public, we shan't have any difficulty in getting the shares taken up."
+
+"Well, I am sure I hope you won't," said Sir William. "I'll take some
+shares in it if you can show me a reasonable prospect of its coming to
+anything. But I should like to hear something more about it first."
+
+"You shall, of course," said Anderson, as he took up his map again. "But
+it was not about taking shares I came to ask you, Sir William."
+
+"What was it, then?" said Sir William.
+
+"You said," the boy replied, with an embarrassed little laugh, looking
+him straight in the face, "that you would be the chairman of the first
+company I floated."
+
+"By Jove, so I did!" said Sir William. "Upon my word, it was rather a
+rash promise to make."
+
+"I don't think it was, I assure you," the boy said earnestly; "this
+thing really is going to turn up trumps."
+
+"Well, let's hope it is, for all concerned," said Sir William. "And what
+are you going to call it?"
+
+"Oh, we are going to call it," said Fred, "simply 'The Equator,
+Limited.'"
+
+"The Equator! Upon my word! Why not the Universe?" said Sir William.
+
+"That will come next," said the boy, with a happy laugh of sheer
+jubilation. "Then, Sir William, will you--you will be our chairman?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Sir William. "A promise is a promise. But mind, I shall
+be a very inefficient one. I don't suppose you could find any one who
+knew less about that sort of thing than I do."
+
+"Oh, that will be all right, Sir William," the boy said quickly. "There
+will be lots of people concerned who know all about it. Now that the
+mine is going to be accessible, the right people will be more than ready
+to take it up. I just wanted to have you there as the nominal head to
+it, because you have always been so good to me, and you have brought me
+luck since the beginning."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Sir William. "You'll have only yourself to thank, my
+boy, when you get on."
+
+"Oh, I know better than that," said Anderson. Something very like tears
+came into his eyes as he took the hand Sir William held out to him, and
+then left the room as happy a youth of twenty-one as could be found in
+London that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+There was another young creature, at that moment driving across London
+to Prince's Gate, to whom the world looked very beautiful that day.
+Rachel was still in a sort of rapturous bewilderment. The wonderful new
+experience that had come to her, that she was contemplating for the
+first time, seemed, as she saw it in the company of familiar
+surroundings, more marvellous yet. At Maidenhead everything had been
+unwonted. The new experience of going away alone, the enchanting repose
+of the hot sunny days on the river, the look of the boughs as they
+dipped lazily into the water, and the light dancing and dazzling on the
+ripples of the stream--all had been part of the setting of the new
+aspect of things, part of that great secret that she was beginning to
+learn. Yet all the time she had had a feeling that when the setting was
+altered, when she left this mysterious region of romance, life would
+become ordinary again, the strange golden light with which it was
+flooded would turn into the ordinary light of day, and she would find
+herself where she had been before. But it was not so. Here she was back
+again in the town she knew so well, driving towards her home--but the
+new, strange possession had not left her, the secret was hers still. It
+had all come so quickly that she had not realised what she felt. Was she
+"in love," the thing that she had taken for granted would happen to her
+some day, but that she had not yet longed for? Rachel, it must be
+confessed, had not been entirely given up to romance; she had not been
+waiting, watching for the fairy prince who should ride within her ken
+and transform existence for her. Her life had been too full of love of
+another kind. But now she had a sudden feeling of experience having been
+completed, something had come to her that she had wished for, longed
+for--how much, she had not known until it came. What would they say at
+home? What would her mother say? And gradually she realised, as she
+always ended by realising, that whatever the picture of life she was
+contemplating her mother was in the foreground of it. There was no doubt
+about that; her mother came first, her mother must come first. But
+nothing was quite clear in her mind at this moment. The past forty-eight
+hours, the sudden change of scene and of companionship, a possible
+alternative path suddenly presenting itself in an existence which had
+been peacefully following the same road, all this had been disturbing,
+bewildering even--and when the hansom drew up in Prince's Gate, Rachel
+felt an intense satisfaction at being back again in the haven, at the
+thought of the welcome she was going to find. And as on a summer's day
+to people sitting in a shaded room, the world beyond shut out, the
+opening of a door into the sunshine may reveal a sudden vista of light,
+of flowers shining in the sun, so to the two people who were awaiting
+Rachel's arrival she brought a sudden vision of youth, brightness,
+colour, hope, as she came swiftly in, smiling and confident, with the
+face and expression of one who had never come into the presence of
+either of these two companions without seeing her gladness reflected in
+the light of welcome that shone in their eyes.
+
+"Well, gadabout!" said her father as she turned to him after embracing
+her mother fondly.
+
+"I am very sorry," said Rachel, "I won't do it again."
+
+"And how did you enjoy yourself, my darling?" said Lady Gore.
+
+"Oh, very much," Rachel said. "It was delightful." The mother looked at
+her and tried to read into her face all that the words might mean.
+Rachel was in happy unconsciousness of how entirely the ground was
+prepared to receive her confidence.
+
+"Was there a large party?" said Sir William.
+
+"No," said Rachel, "a very small one." She was leaning back comfortably
+in the armchair, and deliberately taking off her gloves. "In fact, there
+were only two people beside myself, Sir Charles Miniver, and--Mr.
+Rendel." There was a pause.
+
+"Miniver!" said Sir William, "Still staying about! He appeared to me an
+old man when I was twenty-five." Rachel opened her eyes.
+
+"Did he?" she said. "That explains it. He is quite terribly old now,
+much, much older than other old people one sees," she said, with the
+conviction of her age, to which sixty and eighty appear pretty much the
+same. "You didn't mind," she went on to her mother hastily, somewhat
+transparently trying to avoid a discussion of the rest of the house
+party, "my staying till the afternoon train? Mrs. Feversham suggested
+boating this morning, and the day was so lovely, it was too tempting to
+refuse."
+
+"I didn't mind at all," said Lady Gore. "It must have been lovely in the
+boat. Did you all go?"
+
+"N--no, not all," replied Rachel. "Mrs. Feversham would have come, but
+she had some things to do at home, and Sir Charles Miniver was----"
+
+"Too old?" Lady Gore suggested.
+
+"I suppose so," said Rachel, "though he called it busy."
+
+"As you say," remarked Sir William, "that does not leave many people to
+go in the boat." Rachel looked at her father quickly, but with a
+pliability surprising in the male mind he managed to look unconscious.
+"Well, Elinor," he continued, "I think as you have a companion now, I
+shall go off for a bit. I shall be back presently. Let me implore you
+not to let me find too many bores at tea."
+
+"If Miss Tarlton comes," said Lady Gore, "I will have her automatically
+ejected." Sir William went out, smiling at her. The mother and
+daughter, both unconsciously to themselves, watched the door close, then
+Rachel got up, went to the glass over the chimneypiece and began
+deliberately taking off her veil.
+
+"I do look a sight," she said. "It is astonishing how dirty one's face
+gets in London, even in a drive across the Park."
+
+"Rachel!" her mother said. Rachel turned round and looked at her. Then
+she went quickly across the room and knelt down by her mother's couch.
+
+"Mother!" she said, "Mother dear! it is such a comfort that if I don't
+tell you things you don't mind. And why should you? It doesn't matter.
+It is just as if I had told you--you always know, you always
+understand."
+
+"Yes," said Lady Gore, "I think I understand. And you know," she added
+after a moment, "that I never want you to tell me more than you wish to
+tell. Only, very often"--and she tried to choose her words with anxious
+care, that not one of them might mean more, less, or other than she
+intended, "it sometimes helps younger people, if they talk to people who
+are older. You see, the mere fact of having been in the world longer,
+brings one something like more wisdom, one can judge of the proportion
+of things somehow, nothing seems quite so surprising, so
+extraordinary--or so impossible," she added with a faint smile, with the
+intuition of the point that Rachel had arrived at. And Rachel was ready
+to take perfectly for granted that she should have been so followed. Her
+absolute reliance on the wise and tender confidante by her side, the
+habit of placing her first and referring everything to her was stronger
+unconsciously to herself, than even the natural desire of her age to hug
+the secret she was carrying, to keep it jealously from any eyes but her
+own.
+
+"Of course, of course, I know that," she said without looking up, "and
+my first thought always is that I will tell you. In fact," she went on
+with a little laugh, "I never know what I think myself until I have told
+you, and heard what it sounds like when I am saying it to you, and seen
+what you look like when you listen--only----" she stopped again.
+
+"Darling," said Lady Gore, "never feel that you must tell me a word more
+than you wish to say."
+
+"Well," said Rachel hesitating, "the only thing is that to-day I
+must--perhaps--you would know something about it presently in any
+case...." And she stopped again.
+
+"Presently? why?" said Lady Gore. Rachel made no answer.
+
+"Is Mr. Rendel coming here to-day?" said Lady Gore, trying to speak in
+her ordinary voice.
+
+"Yes," said Rachel, "he is coming to see you."
+
+"I shall be very glad to see him," said Lady Gore. "I always am."
+
+"I know, yes," said Rachel. Then with a sudden effort, "It is no use,
+mother, I must tell you; you must know first." Then she paused again.
+"This morning we went out in the boat----" she stopped.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Gore, "and Sir Charles Miniver was unfortunately too
+old to go with you--or fortunately, perhaps?"
+
+"I am not sure which," said Rachel. "I am not sure," she repeated
+slowly.
+
+"Rachel, did Francis Rendel...."
+
+"Yes," said Rachel, "he asked me to marry him."
+
+Lady Gore laid her hand on her daughter's. "What did you say to him?"
+
+Rachel looked up quickly. "Surely you know. I told him it would be
+impossible."
+
+"Impossible?" her mother repeated.
+
+"Of course, impossible," Rachel said. "We needn't discuss it, mother
+dear," she went on with an effort. "You know I could not go away from
+you; you could not do without me. You could not, could you?" she went on
+imploringly. "I should be dreadfully saddened if you could."
+
+"I should have to do without you," Lady Gore said. "I could not let you
+give up your happiness to mine."
+
+"It would not be giving up my happiness to stay with you, you know that
+quite well," Rachel said. "On the contrary, I simply could not be happy
+if I felt that you needed me and that I had left you."
+
+"Rachel, do you care for him?"
+
+"Do I, I wonder?" Rachel said, half thinking aloud and letting herself
+go as one does who, having overcome the first difficulty of speech,
+welcomes the rapturous belief of pouring out her heart to the right
+listener. "I believe," she said, "that I care for him as much as I could
+for any one, in that way, but"--and she shook her head--"I know all the
+time that you come first, and that you always, always will."
+
+"Oh, but that is not right," said Lady Gore. "That is not natural."
+
+"Not natural," Rachel said, "that I should care for my mother most?"
+
+"No," Lady Gore said, "not in the long run. Of course," she went on with
+a smile, "to say a thing is not 'natural' is simply begging the
+question, and sounds as if one were dismissing a very complicated
+problem with a commonplace formula, but it has truth in it all the same.
+It is difficult enough to fashion existence in the right way, even with
+the help of others, but to do it single-handed is a task few people are
+qualified to achieve. I am quite sure that a woman has more chance of
+happiness if she marries than if she remains alone. It is right that
+people should renew their stock of affection, should see that their hold
+on the world, on life, is renewed, should feel that fresh claims, for
+that is a part, and a great part, of happiness, are ready at hand when
+the old ones disappear. All this is what means happiness, and you know
+that the one thing I want in the world is that you should be happy. I
+was thinking to-day," she went on, with a slight tremor in her voice,
+"that if I were quite sure that your life were happily settled, that you
+were beginning one of your own not wholly dependent on those behind
+you, I should not mind very much if mine were to come to an end."
+
+"To an end?" said Rachel, startled. "Don't say that--don't talk about
+that."
+
+"I do not talk about it often," Lady Gore said; "but this is a moment
+when it must be said, because, remember, when you talk of sacrificing
+your life to me----"
+
+"Sacrificing!" interjected Rachel.
+
+"Well, of devoting it to me," Lady Gore went on; "and putting aside
+those things that might make a beautiful life of your own, you must
+remember one thing, that I may not be there always. In fact," she
+corrected herself with a smile, "to say _may_ not is taking a
+rose-coloured view, that I _shall_ not be there always. And who knows?
+The moment of our separation may not be so far off."
+
+Rachel looked up hurriedly, much perturbed.
+
+"Why are you saying this now?" she said. "You have seemed so much better
+lately. You are very well, aren't you, mother? You are looking very
+well."
+
+Lady Gore had a moment of wondering whether she should tell her daughter
+what she knew, what she expected herself, but she looked at Rachel's
+anxious, quivering face and refrained.
+
+"It is something that ought to be said at this moment," she answered.
+"You have come to a parting of the ways. This is the moment to show you
+the signposts, to help you to choose the best road."
+
+"Listen, mother," said Rachel earnestly. "In this case I am sure I know
+by myself which is the best road to choose. I am perfectly clear that as
+long as I have you I shall stay with you. That I mean to do," she
+continued with unwonted decision. "And besides, if--if you were no
+longer there, how could I leave my father?"
+
+"Ah," said Lady Gore, "I wanted to say that to you. Now, as we are
+speaking of it, let us talk it out, let us look at it in the face.
+Consider the possibility, Rachel, the probability that I may be taken
+from you; my dream would be that you should make your own life with some
+one that you care about, and yet not part it entirely from your
+father's, that while he is there he should not be left. If I thought
+that, do you know, it would be a very great help to me," she said,
+forcing herself to speak steadily, but unable to hide entirely the
+wistful anxiety in her tone.
+
+"I will never, never leave him," Rachel said. "I promise you that I
+never will."
+
+"Then I can look forward," her mother said, "as peacefully, I don't say
+as joyfully, as I look back. Twenty-four years, nearly twenty-five," she
+went on, half to herself and looking dreamily upwards, "we have been
+married. You don't know what those years mean, but some day I hope you
+will. I pray that you may know how the lives and souls of two people who
+care for one another absolutely grow together during such a time."
+
+"It is beautiful," Rachel said softly, "to know that there is such
+happiness in the world," and her own new happiness leapt to meet the
+assurance of the years.
+
+"It is beautiful indeed," Lady Gore said. "It means a constant abiding
+sense of a strange other self sharing one's own interests--of a close
+companionship, an unquestioning approval which makes one almost
+independent of opinions outside."
+
+"Some people," said Rachel, pressing her mother's hand, "have the
+outside affection and approval too."
+
+"Yes, the world has been very kind to me," Lady Gore said, "and all that
+is delightful. But it is the big thing that matters. Do you remember
+that there was some famous Greek who said when his chosen friend and
+companion died, 'The theatre of my actions has fallen'?" Rachel's face
+lighted up in quick response. "When I am gone," her mother went on,
+"don't let your father feel that the theatre of _his_ actions has
+fallen--take my place, surround him with love and sympathy."
+
+"I will, indeed I will," said Rachel.
+
+"What a man needs," said Lady Gore, "is some one to believe in him."
+
+"My father will never be in want of that," said Rachel, with heartfelt
+conviction. "Mother," she added, "I never will forget what I am saying
+now, and you may believe it and you may be happy about it. I won't leave
+my father; he shall come first, I promise, whatever happens."
+
+"First?" said Lady Gore gently. "No, Rachel, not that; it is right that
+your husband should come first."
+
+"The people," said Rachel smiling, "whose husbands come first have not
+had a father and mother like mine."
+
+There was a knock at the house door. Rachel sprang hurriedly to her
+feet, the colour flying into her cheeks. Lady Gore looked at her. She
+had never before seen in Rachel's face what she saw there now.
+
+"I must take off my things," the girl said, catching up her gloves and
+veil.
+
+"Don't be very long," said her mother.
+
+"I'll--I'll--see," Rachel said, and she suddenly bent over her mother
+and kissed her, then went quickly out by one door as the other was
+thrown open to admit a visitor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Francis Rendel came into the room with his usual air of ceremony,
+amounting almost to stiffness. Then, as he realised that his hostess was
+alone, his face lighted up and he came eagerly towards her.
+
+"This _is_ a piece of good fortune, to find you alone," he said. "I was
+afraid I should find you surrounded."
+
+"It is early yet," Lady Gore said, with a smile.
+
+"I know, yes," Rendel said. "I must apologise for coming at this time,
+but I wanted very much to see you----" He paused.
+
+"I am delighted to see you at any time," Lady Gore said.
+
+"It is so good of you," he answered, in the tone of one who is thinking
+of the next thing he is going to say. There was a silence.
+
+"I hope you enjoyed yourself at Maidenhead?" said Lady Gore.
+
+"Very, very much," Rendel answered with an air of penetrated conviction.
+There was another pause. Then he suddenly said, "Lady Gore----" and
+stopped.
+
+She waited a moment, then said gently, "Yes, I know. Rachel has been
+telling me."
+
+"She has! Oh, I am so glad," Rendel said. Then he added, finding
+apparently an extreme difficulty in speaking at all, "And--and--do you
+mind?"
+
+"That is a modest way of putting it," said Lady Gore, smiling. "No, I
+don't mind. I am glad."
+
+"Are you really?" said Rendel, looking as if his life depended on the
+answer. "Do you mean that you really think you--you--could be on my
+side? Then it will come all right."
+
+"I will be on your side, certainly," said Lady Gore; "but I don't know
+that that is the essential thing. I am not, after all, the person whose
+consent matters most."
+
+"Do you know, I believe you are," Rendel said. "I verily believe that at
+this moment you come before any one else in the world." There was no
+need to say in whose estimation, or to mention Rachel's name.
+
+"Well, perhaps at this moment, as you say," said Lady Gore, "it is
+possible, but there is no reason why it should go on always."
+
+"She is absolutely devoted to you," Rendel said.
+
+"Rachel has a fund," her mother said, "of loyal devotion, of unswerving
+affection, which makes her a very precious possession."
+
+"I have seen it," said Rendel. "Her devotion to you and her father is
+one of the most beautiful things in the world, even though...."
+
+"Even...?" said Lady Gore, with a smile.
+
+"Did she tell you what she said to me this morning?"
+
+"I gathered, yes," Lady Gore replied, "both what you had said and her
+answer."
+
+"I didn't take it as an answer," said Rendel. "I thought that I would
+come straight to you and ask you to help me, and that you would
+understand, as you always do, in the way that nobody else does."
+
+"Take care," said Lady Gore smiling, "that you don't blindly accept
+Rachel's view of her surroundings."
+
+"Oh, it is not only Rachel who has taught me that," said Rendel, his
+heart very full. "It is you yourself, and your sympathy. I wonder," he
+went on quickly, "if you know what it has meant to me? You see, it is
+not as if I had ever known anything of the sort before. To have had it
+all one's life, as your daughter has, must be something very wonderful.
+I don't wonder she does not want to give it up."
+
+Lady Gore tried to speak more lightly than she felt. "She need not give
+it up," she said, with a somewhat quivering smile. "And you need not
+thank me any more," she went on. "I should like you to know what a great
+interest and a great pleasure it has been to me that you should have
+cared to come and see me as you have done, and to take me into your
+life." Rendel was going to speak, but she went on. "I have never had a
+son of my own. It was a great disappointment to me at first; I was very
+anxious to have one. I used to think how he and I would have planned out
+his life together, and that he might perhaps do some of the things in
+the world that are worth doing. You see how foolish I was," she ended,
+with a tremulous little smile.
+
+Rendel, in spite of his gravity, experience and intuitive understanding,
+had a sudden and almost bewildering sense of a change of mental focus as
+he heard the wise, gentle adviser confiding in her turn, and confessing
+to foolish and unfulfilled illusions. He felt a passionate desire to be
+of use to her.
+
+"I should have been quite content if he had been like you," she said,
+and she held out her hand, which he instinctively raised to his lips.
+
+"You make me very happy," he said. "You make me hope."
+
+"But," she said, trying to speak in her ordinary voice, "--perhaps I
+ought to have begun by saying this--I wonder if Rachel is the right sort
+of wife for a rising politician?"
+
+"She is the right sort of wife for me," said Rendel. "That is all that
+matters."
+
+"I'm afraid," Lady Gore said, "she isn't ambitious."
+
+"Afraid!" said Rendel.
+
+"She has no ardent political convictions."
+
+"I have enough for both," said Rendel.
+
+"And--and--such as she has are naturally her father's, and therefore
+opposed to yours."
+
+"Then we won't talk about politics," Rendel said, "and that will be a
+welcome relief."
+
+"I'm afraid also," the mother went on, smiling, "that she is not abreast
+of the age--that she doesn't write, doesn't belong to a club, doesn't
+even bicycle, and can't take photographs."
+
+"Oh, what a perfect woman!" ejaculated Rendel.
+
+"In fact I must admit that she has no bread-winning talent, and that in
+case of need she could not earn her own livelihood."
+
+"If she had anything to do with me," said Rendel, "I should be ashamed
+if she tried."
+
+"She is not as clever as you are."
+
+"But even supposing that to be true," said Rendel, "isn't that a state
+of things that makes for happiness?"
+
+"Well," replied Lady Gore, "I believe that as far as women are concerned
+you are behind the age too."
+
+"I am quite certain of it," Rendel said, "and it is therefore to be
+rejoiced over that the only woman I have ever thought of wanting should
+not insist on being in front of it."
+
+"The only woman? Is that so?" Lady Gore asked.
+
+"It is indeed," he said, with conviction.
+
+"And you are--how old?"
+
+"Thirty-two."
+
+"It sounds as if this were the real thing, I must say," she said, with a
+smile.
+
+"There is not much doubt of that," said he quietly. "There never was any
+one more certain than I am of what I want."
+
+"That is a step towards getting it," Lady Gore said.
+
+"I believe it is," he said fervently. "You have told me all the things
+your daughter has not--that I am thankful she hasn't--but I know,
+besides, the things she has that go to make her the only woman I want to
+pass my life with--she is everything a woman ought to be--she really
+is."
+
+"My dear young friend," said Lady Gore, with a shallow pretence of
+laughing at his enthusiasm, "you really are rather far gone!"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "there is no doubt about that. I have not, by the
+way, attempted to tell you about things that are supposed to matter more
+than those we have been talking about, but that don't matter really
+nearly so much--I mean my income and prospects, and all that sort of
+thing. But perhaps I had better tell Sir William all that."
+
+"You can tell him about your income," said Lady Gore, "if you like."
+
+"I have enough to live upon," the young man said. "I don't think that on
+that score Sir William can raise any objection."
+
+"Let us hope he won't on any other," she replied. "We must tell him what
+he is to think."
+
+"And my chances of getting on, though it sounds absurd to say so, are
+rather good," he went on. "Lord Stamfordham will, I know, help me
+whenever he can; and I mean to go into the House, and then--oh, then it
+will be all right, really."
+
+At this moment the door opened and Sir William came in.
+
+"You are the very person we wanted," his wife said.
+
+"You want to apologise to me for the conduct of your party, I suppose,"
+said Gore to Rendel, half in jest, half in earnest, as he shook hands.
+
+"I'm very sorry, Sir William," said Rendel, "if we've displeased you.
+Pray don't hold me responsible."
+
+"Oh yes," said Lady Gore lightly, to give Rendel time, "one always holds
+one's political adversary responsible for anything that happens to
+displease one in the conduct of the universe."
+
+"I hope," said Rendel, trying to hide his real anxiety, "that Sir
+William will try to forgive me for the action of my party, and
+everything else. Pray feel kindly towards me to-day."
+
+Sir William looked at him inquiringly, affecting perhaps a more
+unsuspecting innocence than he was feeling. Rendel went on, speaking
+quickly and feeling suddenly unaccountably nervous.
+
+"I have come here to tell you--to ask you----" He stopped, then went on
+abruptly, "This morning, at Maidenhead, I asked your daughter to marry
+me."
+
+"What, already?" said Sir William involuntarily. "That was very prompt.
+And what did she say?"
+
+"She said it was impossible," Rendel answered, encouraged more by
+Gore's manner and his general reception of the news than by his actual
+words.
+
+"Impossible, did she say?" said Sir William. "And what did you say to
+that?"
+
+"That I should come here this afternoon," Rendel replied.
+
+Sir William smiled.
+
+"That was prompter still," he said. "It looks as if you knew your own
+mind at any rate."
+
+"I do indeed, if ever a man did," said Rendel confidently. "And I really
+do believe that it was because she was a good daughter she said it was
+impossible."
+
+"Well, if it was, that's the kind that often makes an uncommonly good
+wife," Sir William said.
+
+"I don't doubt it," Rendel said, with conviction. "And I feel that if
+only you and Lady Gore----"
+
+He stopped, as the door opened gently, and Rachel appeared, in a fresh
+white summer gown. She stood looking from one to the other, arrested on
+the threshold by that strange consciousness of being under discussion
+which is transmitted to one as through a material medium. Then what
+seemed to her the full horror of being so discussed swept over her. Was
+it possible that already the beautiful dream that had surrounded her,
+that wonderful secret that she had hardly yet whispered to herself, was
+having the light of day let in upon it, was being handled, discussed, as
+though it were possible that others might share in it too?
+
+Rendel read in her face what she was going through. He went forward
+quickly to meet her.
+
+"I am afraid," he said, putting his thoughts into words more literally
+than he meant, "that I have come too soon. I hope you will forgive me?"
+
+"It is rather soon," Rachel answered, not quite knowing what she was
+saying.
+
+"But you don't say whether you forgive him or not, Rachel," said Sir
+William, whose idea of carrying off the situation was to indulge in the
+time-honoured banter suitable to those about to become engaged.
+
+"Don't ask her to say too much at once," Lady Gore said quickly,
+realising far better than Rachel's father did what was passing in the
+girl's mind.
+
+"I'm afraid I can't say very much yet," Rachel said hesitatingly.
+
+"I don't want you to say very much," said Rendel, "or indeed anything if
+you don't want to," he ended somewhat lamely and entreatingly.
+
+"Miss Tarlton!" announced the servant, throwing the door open.
+
+The four people in the room looked at each other in consternation.
+Events had succeeded each other so quickly that no one had thought of
+providing against the contingency of inopportune visitors by saying Lady
+Gore was not at home. It was too late to do anything now. Miss Tarlton
+happily had no misgivings about her reception. It never crossed her mind
+that she could be unwelcome, especially to-day that she had brought with
+her some photographs taken from the Gores' own balcony some weeks
+before, on the occasion of some troops having passed along Prince's
+Gate. She had half suggested on that occasion that she should come, in
+order that she might have a post of vantage from which to take some of
+the worst photographs in London, and the Gores had not had the heart to
+refuse her. If she had had any doubt, however--which she had not--about
+her hosts' feelings in the matter, she would have felt that she had now
+made up for everything by bringing them the result of her labours, and
+that nothing could be more opportune or more agreeable than her entrance
+on this particular occasion.
+
+Miss Tarlton was a single woman of independent means living alone, a
+destiny which makes it almost inevitable that there should be a
+luxuriant growth of individual peculiarities which have never needed to
+accommodate themselves to the pressure of circumstances or of
+companionship. She was perfectly content with her life, and none the
+less so although those to whom she recounted the various phases of it
+were not so content at second hand with hearing the recital of it. She
+was one of those fortunate persons who have a hobby which takes the
+place of parents, husband, children, relations--a hobby, moreover, which
+appears to afford a delight quite independent of the varying degrees of
+success with which it is pursued. Unhappily the joy of those who thus
+pursue a much-loved occupation is bound to overflow in words; and if
+they have no daily auditor within their own four walls, they are driven
+by circumstances to choose their confidants haphazard when they go out.
+Miss Tarlton's confidences, however, were all of an optimistic
+character: she inflicted on her hearers no grievances against destiny.
+She recorded her vote, so to speak, in favour of content, and thereby
+established a claim to be heard.
+
+To see her starting on one of her photographing expeditions was to be
+convinced that she considered the scheme of the universe satisfactory,
+as she went off with her felt hat jammed on to her head, with an air,
+not of radiant pleasure perhaps, but of faith in her occupation of
+unflinching purpose. With her camera slung on to her bicycle and her fat
+little feet working the pedals, she had the air of being the forerunner
+of a corps of small cyclist photographers. Life appealed to Miss Tarlton
+according to its adaptability to photography. For this reason she was
+not preoccupied with the complications of sentiment or of the softer
+emotions which not even the Roentgen rays have yet been able to reproduce
+with a camera.
+
+"How do you do, Lady Gore?" she said as she came in. "I am later than I
+meant to be. I was so afraid I should not get here to-day, but I knew
+how anxious you would be to see the photographs."
+
+"How kind of you!" Lady Gore said vaguely, for the moment entirely
+forgetting what the photographs were.
+
+Miss Tarlton, after greeting the other members of the party, and making
+acquaintance with Rendel, all on her part with the demeanour of one who
+quickly despatches preliminaries before proceeding to really important
+business, drew off her gloves, displaying strangely variegated fingers,
+and proceeded to take from the case she was carrying photographs in
+various stages of their existence.
+
+"I have brought you the negatives of one or two," she said, holding one
+after another up to the light, "as I didn't wait to print them all. Ah,
+here is one. This is how you must hold it, look."
+
+Lady Gore tried to look at it as though it were really the photograph,
+and not the equilibrium of a most difficult situation, that she was
+trying to poise. Sir William was about to propose to Rendel to come down
+with him to his study, but Miss Tarlton obligingly included everybody at
+once in the concentration upon her photographs which she felt the
+situation demanded.
+
+"Look, Sir William," she said. "I am sure you will be interested in this
+one. That is Lord X. He is a little blurred, perhaps; still, when one
+knows who it is, it is a very interesting memento, really. Look, Miss
+Gore, this is the one I did when we were standing together. Do you
+remember?"
+
+"Oh! yes, of course," Rachel said. She did, as a matter of fact, very
+well remember the occasion, the length of time that had been necessary
+to adjust the legs of the camera, which appeared to have a miraculous
+power of interweaving themselves into the legs of the spectators; the
+piercing cry from Miss Tarlton at the feather of another lady's hat
+coming across the field of vision just as the troops came within focus;
+and a general sense of agitation which had prevented any one in the
+photographer's immediate surroundings from contemplating with a detached
+mind the military spectacle passing at their feet.
+
+"These plates are really too small," said Miss Tarlton; "I have been
+wishing ever since that I had brought my larger machine that day." Her
+hearers did not find it in their hearts to echo this wish. "Of course,
+though, a small machine is most delightfully convenient. It is so
+portable, one need never be without it. I am told there is quite a tiny
+one to be had now. Have you seen it, Sir William?"
+
+"No, I haven't," said Sir William, in an entirely final and decided
+manner. Miss Tarlton turned to Rendel as though to ask him, but saw that
+he was standing apart with Rachel, apparently deep in conversation. She
+felt that it was rather hard on Rachel to be called away when she might
+have been enjoying the photographs.
+
+"Do you know whether Mr. Rendel photographs?" she said to Lady Gore, in
+a more subdued tone.
+
+"I really don't know; I think not," Lady Gore said, amused in spite of
+herself at her husband's rising exasperation, although she was conscious
+of sharing it.
+
+"Rendel," said Sir William, obliged to let his feelings find vent in
+speech at the expense of his discretion, "Miss Tarlton is asking whether
+you photograph?"
+
+"I'm afraid I don't," said Rendel.
+
+"Ah, I thought not," said Sir William, giving a sort of grunt of
+satisfaction.
+
+"It is only..." said Miss Tarlton, who had relapsed into her photographs
+again, and was therefore constrained to speak in the sort of absent,
+maundering tone of people who try to frame consecutive sentences while
+they are looking over photographs or reading letters--"ah--this is the
+one I wanted you to see, Lady Gore----"
+
+"Oh! yes, I see," said Lady Gore, mendaciously as to the spirit, if not
+to the letter, for she certainly did not see in the negative held up by
+Miss Tarlton, which appeared to the untutored mind a square piece of
+grey dirty glass with confused black smudges on it, all that Miss
+Tarlton wished her to behold there. Then she became aware of a welcome
+interruption.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Wentworth?" she said, putting down the photograph
+with inward relief, as a tall young man with a fair moustache and merry
+blue eyes came into the room.
+
+"Photographs?" he said, after exchanging greetings with his host and
+hostess, nodding to Rendel and bowing to Rachel.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Gore. "Now you shall give your opinion."
+
+"I shall be delighted," he said. "I have got heaps of opinions."
+
+"Do you photograph?" said Miss Tarlton, with a spark of renewed hope.
+
+"I am sorry to say I don't," answered Wentworth. "I believe it is a
+charming pursuit."
+
+"It is an inexhaustible pleasure," said Miss Tarlton, with conviction.
+
+"I congratulate you," said Wentworth, "on possessing it."
+
+"Yes," said Miss Tarlton solemnly, "I lead an extremely happy life. I
+take out my camera every day on my bicycle, and I photograph. When I get
+home I develop the photographs. I spend hours in my dark room."
+
+"It is indeed a happy temperament," said Wentworth, "that can find
+pleasure in spending hours in a dark room."
+
+"Have you ever tried it?" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Certainly," said Wentworth. "In London in the winter, when it is foggy,
+you know."
+
+"Oh," said Miss Tarlton, again with unflinching gravity. "I don't think
+you quite understand what I mean. I mean in a photographic dark room,
+developing, you know."
+
+"I see," said Wentworth. "When I am in a dark room in the winter I
+generally develop theories."
+
+"Develop what?" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Theories, about smuts and smoke, you know; things people write to the
+papers about in the winter," said Wentworth, whose idea of conversation
+was to endeavour to coruscate the whole time. It is not to be wondered
+at, therefore, if the spark was less powerful on some occasions than on
+others.
+
+"Oh," said Miss Tarlton, not in the least entertained.
+
+Wentworth, a little discomfited, could for once think of nothing to say.
+
+"I suppose," said Miss Tarlton, still patiently pursuing her
+investigations in the same hopeless quarter, "you don't know the name of
+that quite, quite new and tiny machine?"
+
+"Machine? What sort of machine?" said Wentworth.
+
+"A camera," said Miss Tarlton, with an inflection in her tone which
+entirely eliminated any other possibility.
+
+"No, I'm afraid I don't," said Wentworth. "I don't know the name of any
+cameras, except that their family name is legion."
+
+"What?" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Legion," said Wentworth again, crestfallen.
+
+"Oh," said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"Pateley would be the man to ask," said Wentworth, desperately trying to
+put his head above the surface.
+
+"Pateley? Is that a shop?" said Miss Tarlton eagerly. "Where?"
+
+"A shop!" said Sir William, laughing. "I should like to see Pateley's
+face"--but the door opened before he completed his sentence, and his
+wish, presumably not formed upon aesthetic grounds, was fulfilled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Robert Pateley was a journalist, and a successful man. Some people
+succeed in life because they have certain qualities which enlist the
+sympathy and co-operation of their fellow-creatures; others, without
+such qualities, yet succeed by having a dogged determination and power
+of push which make them independent of that sympathy and co-operation.
+Robert Pateley was one of the latter. When he was discussed by two
+people who felt they ought to like him, they said to one another, "What
+is it about Pateley that puts people off, I wonder? Why can't one like
+him more?" and then they would think it over and come to no conclusion.
+Perhaps it was that his journalism was of the very newest kind. He was
+certainly extremely able, although his somewhat boisterous personality
+and entirely non-committal conversation did not give at the first
+meeting with him the impression of his being the sagacious and
+keen-witted politician that he really was. Was it his laugh that people
+disliked? Was it his voice? It could not have been his intelligence,
+which was excellent, nor yet his moral character, which was blameless.
+In fact, in a quiet way, Pateley had been a hero, for he had been left,
+through his father's mismanagement of the family affairs, with two
+sisters absolutely on his hands, and he had never, since undertaking the
+whole charge of them, for one instant put his own welfare, advancement
+or interest before theirs. Absorbed in his resolute purpose, he had
+coolness of head and determination enough to govern his ambitions
+instead of letting himself be governed by them. The son of a solicitor
+in a country town, he had made up his mind that, as he put it to
+himself, he would be "somebody" some day. He had got to the top of the
+local grammar school, and tasted the delights of success, and he
+determined that he would continue them in a larger sphere. It is not
+always easy to draw the line between conspicuousness and distinction.
+Pateley, who went along the path of life like a metaphorical
+fire-engine, had very early become conspicuous; he had gone steadily on,
+calling to his fellow-creatures to get out of his way, until now, as
+steerer of the _Arbiter_, a dashing little paper that under his guidance
+had made a sudden leap into fame and influence, he was a personage to be
+reckoned with, and it was evident enough in his bearing that he was
+conscious of the fact.
+
+Such was the person who, almost as his name was on Sir William Gore's
+lips, came cheerfully, loudly, briskly into the room, including
+everybody in the heartiest of greetings, stepping at once into the
+foreground of the picture, and filling it up.
+
+"Did I hear you say that you would like to see my face, Gore? How very
+polite of you! most gratifying!" he said with a loud laugh, which seemed
+to correspond to his big and burly person.
+
+"You did," said Sir William. "Wentworth says you know everything about
+photography."
+
+"Ah! now, that," said Pateley, galvanised into real eagerness and
+interest as he turned round after shaking hands with Lady Gore, "I
+really do know at this moment, as I have just come from the Photographic
+Exhibition."
+
+"Oh!" said Miss Tarlton with an irrepressible cry, the ordinary
+conventions of society abrogated by the enormous importance of the
+information which she felt was coming.
+
+"Let me introduce you to Miss Tarlton," said Sir William. Miss Tarlton
+bowed quickly, and then proceeded at once to business.
+
+"Do you know the name of a quite tiny camera?" she said; "the very
+newest?"
+
+"I do," said Pateley. "It is the 'Viator,' and I have just seen it." A
+sort of audible murmur of relief ran through the company at this burning
+question having been answered at last. "And it is only by a special
+grace of Providence," Pateley went on, "assisted by my high principles,
+that that machine is not in my pocket at this moment."
+
+"Oh! I wish it were!" said Miss Tarlton.
+
+"I'm afraid it may be before many days are over," said Pateley. "I
+never saw anything so perfect. And do you know, it takes a snapshot in a
+room even just as well as in the open air. If I had it in my hand I
+could snap any one of you here, at this moment, almost without your
+knowing anything about it."
+
+"I am so glad you haven't," Lady Gore couldn't help ejaculating.
+
+"The man who was showing it took one of me as I turned to look at it. It
+is perfectly wonderful."
+
+"And that in a room?" Miss Tarlton said, more and more awestruck. "And
+simply a snapshot, not a time exposure at all?"
+
+"Precisely," Pateley said.
+
+"I shall go and see it," Miss Tarlton said, and, notebook in hand, she
+continued with a businesslike air to write down the particulars
+communicated by Pateley.
+
+"I am quite out of my depth," Lady Gore said to Wentworth. "What does a
+'time exposure' mean?"
+
+"Heaven knows," said Wentworth. "Something about seconds and things, I
+suppose."
+
+"I can never judge of how many seconds a thing takes," said Lady Gore.
+
+"I'm sure I can't," Wentworth replied. "The other day I thought we had
+been three-quarters of an hour in a tunnel and we had only been two
+minutes and a half."
+
+"Now then," Pateley said with a satisfied air, turning to Sir William,
+"I have cheered Miss Tarlton on to a piece of extravagance." Sir
+William felt a distinct sense of pleasure. "I have persuaded her to buy
+a new machine."
+
+"The thing that amuses me," said Sir William with some scorn, having
+apparently forgotten which of his pet aversions had been the subject of
+the conversation, "is people's theory that when once you have bought a
+bicycle it costs you nothing afterwards."
+
+"It is not a bicycle, Sir William, it is a camera," said Miss Tarlton,
+with some asperity.
+
+"Oh, well, it is the same thing," Sir William said.
+
+"_The same thing?_" Miss Tarlton repeated, with the accent of one who
+feels an immeasurable mental gulf between herself and her interlocutor.
+
+"As to results, I mean," he said. Arrived at this point Miss Tarlton
+felt she need no longer listen, she simply noted with pitying tolerance
+the random utterance. "A camera costs very nearly as much to keep as a
+horse, what with films and bottles of stuff, and all the other
+accessories. And as for a bicycle, I am quite sure that you have to
+count as much for mending it as you do for a horse's keep."
+
+"The really expensive thing, though, is a motor," said Wentworth. "Lots
+of men nowadays don't marry because they can't afford to keep a wife as
+well as a motor."
+
+Rendel, who was standing by Rachel's side at the tea-table, caught this
+sentence. He looked up at her with a smile. She blushed.
+
+"I have no intention of keeping a motor," he said. Rachel said nothing.
+
+"Are you very angry with me?" Rendel said.
+
+"I am not sure," she answered. "I think I am."
+
+"You mustn't be--after saving my life, too, this morning, in the boat."
+
+"Saving your life?" said Rachel, surprised.
+
+"Yes," Rendel said. "By not steering me into any of the things we met on
+the Thames."
+
+"Oh!" said Rachel, smiling, "I am afraid even that was more your doing
+than mine, as you kept calling out to me which string to pull."
+
+"Perhaps. But the extraordinary thing was that when you were told you
+did pull it," said Rendel.
+
+"Oh, any one can do that," replied Rachel.
+
+"I beg your pardon, it is not so simple," Rendel answered, thinking to
+himself, though he had the good sense at that moment not to formulate
+it, what an adorable quality it would be in a wife that she should
+always pull exactly the string she was told to pull.
+
+"I've been asking Sir William if I may come and speak to him...." he
+said in a lower tone. "He said I might." Rachel was silent. "You don't
+mind, do you?" he said, looking at her anxiously.
+
+"I--I--don't know," Rachel said. "I feel as if I were not sure about
+anything--you have done it all so quickly--I can't realise----"
+
+"Yes," he said penitently, "I have done it all very quickly, I know, but
+I won't hurry you to give me any answer. My chief's going away
+to-morrow for ten days, and I am afraid I must go too, but may I come as
+soon as I am back again?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel shyly.
+
+"And perhaps by that time," he said, "you will know the answer. Do you
+think you will?" Rachel looked at him as her hand lay in his.
+
+"Yes, by that time I shall know," she said.
+
+As Rendel went out a few minutes later he was dimly conscious of meeting
+an agitated little figure which hurried past him into the room. Miss
+Judd was a lady who contrived to reduce as many of her fellow-creatures
+to a state of mild exasperation during the day as any female enthusiast
+in London, by her constant haste to overtake her manifold duties towards
+the human race. Those duties were still further complicated by the fact
+that she had a special gift for forgetting more things in one afternoon
+than most people are capable of remembering in a week.
+
+"My dear Jane, how do you do?" said Lady Gore. "We have not seen you for
+an age."
+
+"No, Cousin Elinor, no," said Miss Judd, who always spoke in little
+gasps as if she had run all the way from her last stopping-place. "I
+have been so frightfully busy. Oh, thank you, William, thank you; but do
+you know, that tea looks dreadfully strong. In fact, I think I had
+really better not have any. I wonder if I might have some hot water
+instead? Thank you so much. Thank you, dear Rachel--simply water,
+nothing else."
+
+"That doesn't sound a very reviving beverage," said Lady Gore.
+
+"Oh, but it is, I assure you," said Miss Judd. "It is wonderful. And,
+you see, I had tea for luncheon, and I don't like to have it too often."
+
+"Tea for luncheon?" said Sir William.
+
+"Yes, at an Aerated Bread place," she replied, "near Victoria. I have
+been leaving the canvassing papers for the School Board election, and I
+had not time to go home."
+
+"What it is to be such a pillar of the country!" said Lady Gore
+laughing.
+
+"You may laugh, Cousin Elinor," Miss Judd said, drinking her hot water
+in quick, hurried sips, "but I assure you it is very hard work. You see,
+whatever the question is that I am canvassing for, I always feel bound
+to explain it to the voters at every place I go to, for fear they should
+vote the wrong way: and sometimes that is very hard work. At the last
+General Election, for instance, I lunched off buns and tea for a
+fortnight."
+
+"Good Lord!" said Sir William to Pateley as they stood a little apart.
+"Imagine public opinion being expounded by people who lunch off buns!"
+
+"And the awful thing, do you know," said Pateley laughing, "is that I
+believe those people do make a difference."
+
+"It is horrible to reflect upon," said Sir William.
+
+"By the way," said Pateley, with a laugh, "your side is going in for the
+sex too, I see. Is it true that you are going to have a Women's Peace
+Crusade?"
+
+"Yes," said Sir William with an expression of disgust, "I believe that
+it is so. _My_ womenkind are not going to have anything to do with it, I
+am thankful to say."
+
+"Oh, yes, I saw about that Crusade," said Wentworth, joining them, "in
+the _Torch_."
+
+"Don't believe too firmly what the _Torch_ says--or indeed any
+newspaper--ha, ha!" said Pateley.
+
+"I should be glad not to believe all that I see in the _Arbiter_, this
+morning," Sir William said. "Upon my word, Pateley, that paper of yours
+is becoming incendiary."
+
+"I don't know that we are being particularly incendiary," said Pateley,
+with the comfortable air of one disposing of the subject. "It is only
+that the world is rather inflammable at this moment."
+
+"Well, we have had conflagrations enough at the present," said Sir
+William. "We want the country to quiet down a bit."
+
+"Oh! it will do that all in good time," said Pateley. "I am bound to say
+things are rather jumpy just now. By the way, Sir William, I wonder if
+you know of any investment you could recommend?"
+
+Wentworth discreetly turned away and strolled back to Lady Gore's sofa.
+
+"I rather want to know of a good thing for my two sisters who are living
+together at Lowbridge. I have got a modest sum to invest that my father
+left them, and I should like to put it into something that is pretty
+certain, but, if possible, that will give them more than 2-1/2 per
+cent."
+
+"Why," said Sir William, "I believe I may know of the very thing. Only
+it is a dead secret as yet."
+
+"Hullo!" said Pateley, pricking up his ears. "That sounds promising. For
+how long?"
+
+"Just for the moment," said Sir William. "But of necessity the whole
+world must know of it before very long."
+
+"Well, if it really is a good thing let us have a day or two's start,"
+said Pateley laughing.
+
+"All right, you shall," said Sir William. "You shall hear from me in a
+day or two."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The days had passed. The great scheme of "The Equator, Ltd.," was before
+the world, which had received it in a manner exceeding Fred Anderson's
+most sanguine expectations. The possibilities and chances of the mine,
+as set forth by the experts, appeared to be such as to rouse the hopes
+of even the wary and experienced, and Anderson had no difficulty of
+forming a Board of Directors most eminently calculated to inspire
+confidence in the public--none the less that they were presided over by
+a man who, if not possessed of special business qualifications, was of
+good social position and bore an honourable name. Sir William Gore, the
+Chairman of the company, was well pleased. He invested largely in the
+undertaking. The savings of the Miss Pateleys, under the direction of
+their brother, had gone the same way. The _Arbiter_ had indeed reason to
+cheer on the Cape to Cairo railway, which day by day seemed more likely
+of accomplishment.
+
+Sir William, on the afternoon of the day when the success of the company
+was absolutely an assured fact, came back to his house from the city,
+satisfied with the prospects of the "Equator," with himself, and with
+the world at large. He put his latchkey into the door and looked round
+him a moment before he went in with a sense of well-being, of rejoicing
+in the summer day. Then as he stepped into the house he became conscious
+that Rachel was standing in the hall waiting for him, with an expression
+of dread anxiety on her face. The transition of feeling was so sudden
+that for a moment he hardly realised what he saw--then quick as
+lightning his thoughts flew to meet that one misfortune that of all
+others would assail them both most cruelly.
+
+"Rachel!" he said. "Is your mother ill?"
+
+"Yes," the girl answered. "Oh, father, wait," she said, as Sir William
+was rushing past her, and she tried to steady her quivering lips. "Dr.
+Morgan is there."
+
+"Morgan--you sent for him...." said Gore, pausing, hardly knowing what
+he was saying. "Rachel... tell me...?"
+
+"She fainted," the girl said, "an hour ago. And we couldn't get her
+round again. I sent--ah! there he is coming down." And a steady, slow
+step, sounding to the two listeners like the footfall of Fate, was heard
+coming down from above. Sir William went to meet the doctor, knowing
+already what he was going to hear.
+
+Lady Gore died that night, without regaining consciousness. Hers had
+been the unspeakable privilege of leaving life swiftly and painlessly
+without knowing that the moment had come. She had passed unconsciously
+into that awful gulf, without having had to stand for a moment
+shuddering on the brink. She had never dreaded death itself, but she had
+dreaded intensely the thought of old age, of a lingering illness and its
+attendant horrors. But none of these she had been called upon to endure:
+even while those around her were looking at the beautiful aspect of life
+that she presented to them the darkness fell, leaving them the memory
+only of that bright image. Her daughter's last recollection of her had
+been the caressing endearment with which Lady Gore had deprecated
+Rachel's remaining with her till Sir William's return--how thankful the
+girl was to have remained!--her husband's last vision of her, the
+smiling farewell with which she had sped him on his way in the morning,
+with a caution as to prudence in his undertakings. As he came back he
+had found himself telling her already in his mind, before he was
+actually in her presence, of what he had done. That was the thing which
+gave an edge to every action, to each fresh development of existence.
+Life was lived through again for her, and acquired a fresh aspect from
+her interest and sympathy, from her keen, humorous insight and
+far-seeing wisdom. But now, what would his life be without that light
+that had always shone on his path? He did not, he could not, begin to
+think about the future. He knew only that the present had crumbled into
+ruins around him. That, he realised the next morning when, after some
+snatches of uneasy sleep, he suddenly wakened with a sense of absolute
+horror upon him, before he remembered shuddering what that horror was.
+He had wanted to tell her about yesterday, about the "Equator," he said
+to himself with a dull aching pain almost like resentment--he wanted to
+have her approval, to have the sense that for her what he did was right,
+was wise. But he knew now in his heart, as he really had known all the
+time, that it was she who had been the wise one. And part of the horror,
+as the time went on, would be to realise that when she had gone out of
+the world something had gone out of himself too, which she had told him
+was there. And he had dreamt that it was true. But that would come when
+the details of misery were realised by him one by one, as after some
+hideous explosion it is not possible to see at once in the wreck made by
+the catastrophe all the ghastly confirmations of disaster that come to
+light with the days. The first days were not the worst, either for him
+or for Rachel, as each one of them afterwards secretly found. For though
+life had come to a standstill, had stopped dead, with a sudden shock
+that had thrown everything in it out of gear, there were at first new
+and strange duties to be accomplished that filled up the hours and kept
+the standards of ordinary existence at bay. There were letters of
+condolence to be answered, tributes of flowers to be acknowledged, sent
+by well-meaning friends moved by some impotent impulse of consolation,
+until the air became heavy with the scent of camellias and lilies.
+Rachel moved about in the darkened rooms, feeling as if the faint,
+sweet, overpowering perfume were a kind of anodyne, that was mercifully,
+during those early days, lulling her senses into lethargy. To the end of
+her days the scent of the white lily would bring back to her the feeling
+of actually living again through that first time of numbing grief. How
+many hours, how many days and nights she and her father had lived within
+that quiet sanctuary they could not have told--lived in the dark
+stillness, with one room, the stillest of all, containing the beloved
+something strangely aloof all that was left of the thing that had been
+their very life. Then out of that quiet hallowed darkness they came one
+dreadful day into the brilliant sunlight, a day that was lived through
+with the acutest pain of all, of which every detail seemed to have been
+arranged by a horrible cruel convention of custom in order to intensify
+the pangs of it. They drove at a foot's pace through the crowded, sunlit
+streets, with a shrinking agony of self-consciousness as one and another
+passer-by looked up for a moment at what was passing. "Look, Jim, 'ere's
+a funeral!" one small boy called to another--and Rachel, shuddering,
+buried her face in her hands and could have cried out aloud. Some men,
+not all, lifted their hats; two gaily-dressed women who were just going
+to cross stopped as a matter of course on the pavement and waited
+indifferently, hardly seeing what it was, until the obstruction had gone
+by, as they would have done had it been anything else. Rachel, leaning
+back by her father, trying to hide herself, yet felt as if she could
+not help seeing everything they met. Every step of the way was a slow
+torture. And oh, the return home! that drive, at a brisk trot this time,
+through the same crowded, unfeeling streets, which still retained the
+association of the former progress through them, the sense that now, as
+the coachman whipped up his horses, for every one save for the two
+desolate people who sat silently together inside the carriage, life
+might--indeed, would--throw off that aspect of gloom and go on as
+before! And then the worst moment of all, the finding on their return
+that the house had taken on a ghastly semblance of its usual aspect,
+that the blinds were up, the windows open, the sun streaming in
+everywhere--the hard, cruel light, as it seemed to Rachel, shining into
+the rooms that were for evermore to be different.
+
+Then followed the time which is incomparably the worst after a great
+loss, the time when, ordinary life being taken up again, the sufferer
+has the additional trial of too large an amount of leisure on his
+hands--the horror of all those new spare hours that used to be passed in
+a companionship that is gone, that must be filled up with something
+fresh unless they are to stand in wide, horrible emptiness, to assail
+recollection with unendurable grief. And especially in that house were
+they empty, where the existence of both father and daughter had revolved
+round that of another to a greater extent than that of most people. The
+problem of how to readjust the daily conditions was a hard, hard one to
+solve, harder obviously for Sir William than it was for Rachel. The
+girl was uplifted in those days by the sense that, however difficult she
+might find it to carry out in detail, the general scheme of her life lay
+clear before her. She was going to devote it to her father, she was
+going to carry out that unmade promise, which she now considered more
+binding on her than ever, although her mother had warned her against
+making it, the promise that her father should come first. But the
+warning at the moment it was made had not been accepted by Rachel, and
+in the exaltation of her self-sacrifice it was forgotten now. She saw
+her way, as she conceived, plainly in front of her. Rendel, with his
+usual understanding and wisdom, did not obtrude himself on her during
+those days. He had quite made up his mind not to ask for her decision
+until there might be some hope of its being made in his favour. He had
+felt Lady Gore's death as acutely as though he had the right of kinship
+to grieve for her. He was miserably conscious that something inestimably
+precious had gone out of his life, almost before he had had time to
+realise his happiness in possessing it. But neither he nor Rachel
+understood what Lady Gore's death had meant to Sir William. And the poor
+little Rachel, rudderless, bewildered, tried to do the best she could
+for her father's life by planning her own with absolute reference to it,
+by putting at his disposal all the bare, empty hours available for
+companionship which up to now had been so straitly, so tenderly, so
+happily filled. And he on his side, conscious of some of her purpose,
+but unaware of the extent to which she carried her deliberate intention
+of consecrating herself to him, of bearing the burden of his destiny,
+believed that he had to bear the overwhelming burthen of guiding hers.
+Instead of going in the late afternoon hours of those summer days to his
+club, where he would have found some companionship that was not
+associated with his grief, and passing an hour agreeably, he wistfully
+went home, feeling that Rachel would be expecting him. And Rachel on her
+side felt it a duty to put away any regular occupation that might have
+proved engrossing, and so to ordain her life that she should be always
+ready and at her father's orders if he should appear. And, thus
+deliberately cutting themselves loose from such minor anchorages as they
+might have had, they tried to delude themselves into the belief that not
+only was such makeshift companionship a solace, but that it actually was
+able to replace that other all-satisfying companionship they had lost.
+But they knew in their hearts, each of them, that it was not so. And Sir
+William realised, more perhaps than Rachel did, that it never could be.
+The relation between a father and daughter, when most successful, is
+formed of delightful discrepancies and differences, supplementing one
+another in the things that are not of each age. It means a protecting
+care on the side of the father, an amused tender pride in seeing the
+younger creature developing an individuality which, however, is hardly
+in the secret soul of the elder one quite realised or believed in. The
+experience of the man in such a relation has mainly been derived from
+women of his own standing; his judgment of his daughter is apt to be a
+good deal guesswork. The daughter, on the other hand, brings to the
+relation elements necessarily and absolutely absent on the other side.
+If she cares for her father as he does for her, she looks up to him, she
+admires him, she accepts from him numberless prejudices and rules about
+the government of life, and acts upon them, taking for granted all the
+time that he cannot understand her own point of view. And yet, even so
+constituted, it can be one of the most beautiful and even satisfying
+combinations of affection the world has to show, provided the father has
+not known what it is to have the fulness of joy in his companionship
+with his wife, in that equal experience, mutual reliance, understanding
+of hopes and fears, which is impossible when the understanding is being
+interpreted through the imagination only, by one standing on a different
+plane of life. Neither Rachel nor her father had realised all this; but
+the mother with her acuter sensibilities had known, and had so
+deliberately set herself to fulfil her task that they had all these
+years been interpreted to one another, as it were, by that other
+influence that had surrounded them, that atmosphere through which
+everything was seen aright and in its most beautiful aspect. And the
+time came when Sir William suddenly grasped with a burning, startling
+vividness the fact that his life could not be the same again, that he
+must henceforth take it on a lower plane. The day was fine and
+bright--too warm, too bright; the hopeful light of spring had given
+place to the steady glare of summer. He had been used before to go out
+riding with Rachel in the early morning, in order to be back by the time
+Lady Gore was ready to begin her day. They had tacitly abandoned this
+habit now. Then one day it occurred to Sir William that it might be a
+good thing for Rachel to resume it. He proposed to her that they should
+go out as they used. She, in her inmost heart shrinking from it, but
+thinking it would be a satisfaction to him, agreed. He, shrinking from
+it as much as she did, thought to please her. And so they went out and
+rode silently side by side, overpowered by mute comparison of this day
+with days that had been. And when they got home they went each their own
+way, and made no attempt at exchanging words. Sir William went miserably
+to his study, his heart aching with a rush of almost unbearable sorrow
+as he thought of the bright little room upstairs to which he had been
+wont to hurry for the welcome that always awaited him. What should he do
+with his life? How should he fill it? he asked himself in a burst of
+grief, as he shut himself in. And so much had the theory, firmly
+believed in by himself and his wife, that he had by his own free will,
+and in order to devote his life to her, abandoned any quest of a public
+career become an absolute conviction in his mind, that he felt a dull
+resentment at having been so noble. He recognised now that it had been
+quixotic. He had let the time pass. Fifty-five! To be sure, in these
+days it is not old age; it may, indeed, under certain circumstances be
+the prime of life, for a man who has begun his career early, political
+or otherwise. Had this been Sir William's lot he could have sought some
+consolation, or at any rate alleviation, in his misfortune, by turning
+at once to his work and plunging into it more strenuously than before.
+But even that mitigation, for so much as it might be worth, was denied
+to him. And he sat there, trying to face the fact that seemed almost
+incredible to a man of what seemed to him his aptitudes and capacity,
+the awful fact that he had not enough to do to fill up his life. He did
+not state this pitiless truth to himself explicitly, but it was
+beginning to loom from behind a veil, and he would some day be forced to
+look at it. He could not start anything fresh. He had not the requisite
+impulse. He could have continued, he could not begin; the theatre of his
+actions, as Lady Gore had foreseen, had indeed fallen when she fell, and
+without it he could initiate no fresh achievements. Oh, to have had
+something definite to turn to in those days, something that called for
+instant completion! To have had some inexorable daily task, some duty
+for which he was paid, in a government office, or in some private
+undertaking of his own, for which he would have been obliged, like so
+many other men, to leave his house at a fixed hour, and to be absorbed
+in other preoccupations till his return. What a physical, material
+relief he would have found in such a claim! Round most men of his age
+life has woven many interests, many ties, many calls, on their time and
+energies from outside as well as from those near to them, but all those
+spare, available energies of his had been absorbed and appropriated,
+filled up, nearer home, and so completely that he had never needed
+anything else. And now, whither should he turn? What should he do? Then
+he remembered his Book, the Book his wife and he had been accustomed to
+talk of with such confidence, such certainty--he now realised how
+very little there was of it done, or how much of what might be fruitful
+in the conception was owing to the way that she, in their talking over
+it, had held it up to him, so that now one light played round it, now
+another. Well he remembered how, only two days before she was taken ill,
+they had talked of it for a long time until she, with an enthusiasm that
+made it seem already a completed masterpiece, had said with a smile,
+"Now then, all that remains is to write it!" And he had almost believed,
+as he left her, that it would spring into life some day, that it would
+not only hold the place in his life of the Great Possibility that is
+necessary to us all, but that he would actually put his fate to the
+proof by carrying it into execution. He took out the portfolio in which
+were the notes he had made about it now and again. They bore the seared
+outward aspect of an entirely different mental condition from that with
+which they came in contact now. What is that subtle, mocking change that
+comes over even the inanimate things that we have not seen since we
+were happy, and now meet again in grief? It is like a horrible inversion
+of the golden touch given to Midas. To Gore, during those days, the
+darkness fell upon every fresh thing to which he went back. The
+impression was so strong on him as he turned over the manuscript, that
+he shuddered. What was the use of all this? What was it worth? He knew
+in his heart that the person of all others to whom it had been of most
+worth was gone--he would not be doing good to himself or to any one else
+by going on with it. He would be defrauding no one by letting the
+darkness cover it for ever. And another reason yet lay like cold lead at
+the bottom of his heart--the real, cruel, crushing reason--he could not
+write the book, he was not capable of writing it. That was the truth.
+And he desperately thrust the stray leaves into the cover, and the whole
+thing away from him, hopelessly, finally; there was nothing that would
+help him. That curtain would never lift again. And he covered his face
+with his hands as though trying to shut out the deadly knowledge.
+
+But of all this Rachel, as she sat waiting for her father at breakfast,
+was utterly unconscious. She did not realise the unendurable
+complications that had piled one misery on another to him. To her the
+wound had been terrible, but clean. The greatest loss she could conceive
+had stricken her life, but there were no secondary personal problems to
+add to it, no preoccupations of self apart from the one great
+desolation.
+
+Sir William turned over his letters listlessly as he sat down, opened
+them, and looked through them.
+
+"What am I to say to that?" he said, throwing one over to Rachel.
+
+The colour came into her cheeks as she saw that it was from Rendel.
+
+"I have one from him too," she said.
+
+"Oh! well, I don't ask to see that," Sir William said, with an attempt
+at cheerfulness. "I know better."
+
+"I would rather you saw it, really, father," and she handed him Rendel's
+letter to herself--a straightforward, dignified, considerate letter, in
+which he assured her that he did not mean to intrude himself upon her
+until she allowed him to come, and that all he asked was that she should
+understand that he was waiting, and would be content to wait, as long as
+there was a chance of hope.
+
+"Well, when am I to tell him to come?" Sir William said.
+
+"Father, what he wants cannot be," Rachel said.
+
+"Cannot be?" said Sir William. "Why not?"
+
+"Oh!" Rachel said, trying to command her voice, "I could not at this
+moment think of anything of that kind."
+
+"At this moment, perhaps," Sir William said. "But you see he is not in a
+hurry. He says so, at any rate, though I am not sure that it is very
+convincing."
+
+"How would it be possible," said Rachel, "that I should go away? What
+would you do if I left you alone?"
+
+"Well, as to that," Sir William replied, speaking slowly in order that
+he might appear to be speaking calmly, "I don't know, in any case, what
+I shall do." And his face looked grey and worn, conveying to Rachel, as
+she looked across at him, an impression of helpless old age in the
+father who had hitherto been to her a type of everything that was
+capable and well preserved. She sprang up and went to him.
+
+"Father, dear father," she cried amidst her sobs, as she hid her face on
+his shoulder. "You know that you are more to me than any one else in the
+world. Let me help you--let me try, do let me try." And at the sound of
+the words Gore became again conscious of the immeasurable, dark gulf
+there was between what one human being had been able to do for him and
+what any other in the world could try to do. And his own sorrow rose
+darkly before him and swept away everything else--even the sorrow of his
+child. It was almost bitterly that he said, as if the words were wrung
+from him involuntarily--
+
+"Nobody can help me now."
+
+"Oh, father!" Rachel cried again miserably. "Let me try."
+
+"Darling, I know," he said, recollecting himself at the sight of her
+distress, "and you know what my little girl is to me; but there are some
+things that even a daughter cannot do. And," he went on, "it would
+really be a comfort to me, I think, if"--he was going to say, "if you
+were married," but he altered it as he saw a swift change pass over
+Rachel's face--"if I knew you were happy; if you had a home of your own
+and were provided for."
+
+"Do you think that would be a comfort to you?" asked Rachel, trying to
+speak in an almost indifferent tone. "That you would be glad if I were
+to go away from you to a home of my own?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I think it would." And as he spoke he felt that the
+burden of giving Rachel companionship and trying to help her to bear her
+grief would be removed from him. "Besides," he went on, with an attempt
+at a smile, "it is not as if you would go far away from me altogether;
+you will only be a few streets off, after all. I could come to you
+whenever I wanted, and even--who knows?--I might sometimes ask you for
+your hospitality."
+
+"If I thought _that_----" Rachel said, and caught herself up.
+
+"You know," her father said more seriously, "we have been discussing
+this from one point of view only, from mine; but you are the person most
+concerned, and I am taking for granted that, from your point of view, it
+would be the best thing to do--that you would be happy."
+
+"If I only thought," Rachel said, her face answering his last question,
+if her words did not, "that you would come to me--that you would be
+with me altogether----"
+
+"I have no doubt that you would find that I came to you very often,"
+said Sir William, with again a desolate sense of having no definite
+reason for being anywhere.
+
+There was a pause before he said, "Then I'll tell him to come and see
+me, and perhaps he can see you afterwards."
+
+"Oh," said Rachel, shrinking, "it is not possible yet."
+
+"Well," said Sir William, "I will tell him so. We will explain to him
+that, since he is willing to wait, for the moment he must wait."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+And Rendel waited--through the autumn, through the winter--but not
+without seeing Rachel again. On the contrary, every week that passed
+during that time was bringing him nearer to his goal. After the first
+visit was over, that first meeting under the now maimed and altered
+conditions of life, the insensible relief afforded to both father and
+daughter by his companionship, his unselfish devotion and helpfulness,
+his unfailing readiness to be a companion to Sir William, to come and
+play chess with him, or to sit up and do intricate patiences through the
+small hours of the morning, all this gradually made him insensibly slide
+into the position of a son of the house. And Rachel, convinced that she
+was doing the best thing for her father and admitting in her secret
+heart that for herself she was doing the thing that of all others would
+make her happy, yielded at last. They were married in April, and went
+away for a fortnight to a shooting-box lent them by Lord Stamfordham in
+the West of Scotland, leaving Sir William for the first time alone in
+the big, empty house. It was with many, many misgivings that Rachel had
+agreed to go; but her father had insisted on her doing so. He had
+vaguely thought that perhaps it would be a relief to him to be alone,
+but he found the solitude unbearable. Those acquaintances of Gore's who
+saw him at the club expressed in suitably tempered tones their pleasure
+at seeing him again, and, thinking he would rather be left alone,
+discreetly refrained from thrusting their society upon him when in
+reality he most needed it, remarking to one another that poor old Gore
+had gone to pieces dreadfully since his wife died. A great many people
+knew him, and liked him well enough, but he had no intimate friends.
+Pateley occasionally dropped in; but Pateley was too full of business to
+have leisure to help to fill up anybody else's time, and Sir William
+found the blank in his own house, the unchanging loneliness, almost
+unbearable.
+
+In the meantime Rendel and his wife were beginning that page of the book
+of life which Sir William had closed for ever. At last, that vision of
+the future to which Rendel had clung with such steadfast hope, with such
+unswerving purpose, had been fulfilled: Rachel was his wife. It was an
+unending joy to him to remember that she was there; to watch for her
+coming and going; to see the dainty grace of movement and demeanour, the
+sweet, soft smile--her mother's smile--with which she listened as he
+talked. And during those days he poured himself out in speech as he had
+never been able to do before. It was a relief that was almost ecstasy to
+the man who had been made reserved by loneliness to have such a
+listener, and the sense of exquisite joy and repose which he felt in her
+society deepened as the days went on. To Rachel, too, when once she had
+made up her mind to leave her father, these days were filled with an
+undreamt-of happiness. She was beginning to recover from the actual
+shock of her mother's death, although, even as her life opened to all
+the new impressions that surrounded her, she felt daily afresh the want
+of the tender sympathy and guidance that had been her stay; but another
+great love had happily come into her life at the moment she needed it
+most, and a love that was far from wishing to supplant the other. The
+memory of Lady Gore was almost as hallowed to Rendel as it was to his
+wife: it was another bond between them. They talked of her constantly,
+their reverent recollection kept alive the sense of her abiding,
+gracious influence.
+
+It was a new and wonderful experience to Rachel to have the burden of
+daily life lifted from her. She had been loved in her home, it is true,
+as much as the most exacting heart might demand, but since she was
+seventeen it was she who had had to take thought for others, to surround
+them with loving care and protection; she had always been conscious,
+even though not feeling its weight, of bearing the burden of some one
+else's responsibilities. And now it was all different. In the first
+rebound of her youth she seemed to be discovering for the first time
+during those days how young she was, in the companionship of one whose
+tender care and loving protection smoothed every difficulty, every
+obstacle out of her path. And all too fast the perfumed days of spring
+glided away, a spring which, on that side of Scotland, was balmy and
+caressing. Day after day the sun shone, the mist remained in the
+distance, making that distance more beautiful still; and everything
+within and without was irradiated, and like motes in the sunshine Rendel
+saw the golden possibilities of his life dancing in the light of his
+hopes and illuminating the path that lay before him.
+
+Rachel wrote to her father constantly, tenderly, solicitously; and Sir
+William, reading of her happiness, did not write back to tell her what
+those same days meant to him. For in London the sky was grey and heavy,
+and it was through a haze the colour of lead that he saw the years to
+come. The dark and cheerless winter had given place to a cold and
+cheerless spring.
+
+It was a rainy afternoon that the young couple returned to London; but
+the gloomy look of the streets outside did but enhance the brightness of
+the little house in Cosmo Place, Knightsbridge, with its open, square
+hall, in which a bright fire was blazing. Light and warmth shone
+everywhere. Rachel drew a long breath of satisfaction, then her eyes
+filled with tears. The very sight of London brought back the past. Could
+it be possible that her mother was not there to welcome her? She had
+thought her father might be awaiting her at Cosmo Place; but as he was
+not, she went off instantly to Prince's Gate. How big and lonely the
+house looked with its gaunt, ugly portico, its tall, narrow hall and
+endless stairs! The drawing-rooms were closed: Sir William was sitting
+in his study, a chess-board in front of him, on which he was working out
+a problem.
+
+Rachel was terribly perturbed at the change in his appearance--a
+something, she did not quite know in what it lay, that betokened some
+absolute change of outlook, of attitude. He had the listless,
+indifferent air of one who lets himself be drifted here and there rather
+than of one who moves securely along, strong enough to hold his own way
+in spite of any opposing elements. This fortnight of solitude, in which
+he had been face to face with his own life and his prospects, had
+suddenly, roughly, pitilessly graven on his face the lines that with
+other men successive experiences accumulate there gently and almost
+insensibly. He had taken a sudden leap into old age, as sometimes
+happens to men of his standing, who, as long as their life is smooth,
+uneventful, and prosperous, succeed in keeping an aspect of youth.
+Rachel's heart smote her at having left him; it reproached her with
+having known something like happiness in these days, and her old sense
+of troubled, anxious responsibility came back. She begged him to come
+and dine with them that evening. He demurred at first at making a third
+on their first night in their own house. Rachel protested, and overruled
+all his objections. She arrived at home just in time to dress for
+dinner, finding her husband surprised and somewhat discomfited at her
+prolonged absence. He had wanted to go proudly all over the house with
+her, and see their new domain. But as he saw her come up the stairs, he
+realised that black care had sprung up behind her again, that this was
+not the confiding, naively happy Rachel who had walked with him on the
+moors.
+
+"There you are!" he said. "I was just wondering what had become of you."
+
+"I was with my father," Rachel said, in a tone in which there was a
+tinge of unconscious surprise at what his tone had conveyed. "And,
+Francis, he looks so dreadfully ill!"
+
+"Does he?" said Rendel, concerned. "I am sorry."
+
+"He looks really broken down," she said, "and oh, so much older. I am
+sure it has been bad for him being alone all this time. I ought not to
+have stayed away so long."
+
+"Well, it has not been very long," said Rendel with a natural feeling
+that two weeks had not been an unreasonable extension of their wedding
+tour.
+
+"He looks as if he had felt it so," she answered. "But at any rate, I
+have persuaded him to come to dinner with us to-night; I am sure it will
+be good for him."
+
+"To-night?" said Rendel, again with a lurking surprise that for this
+first night their privacy should not have been respected.
+
+"Yes," said Rachel. "You don't mind, do you?"
+
+"Oh, of course not," he replied, again stifling a misgiving.
+
+"You see," said Rachel, "I thought it might amuse him, and be a change
+for him, and then you might play a game of chess with him after dinner,
+perhaps."
+
+"Of course, of course," Rendel answered. But the misgiving remained.
+
+When, however, Sir William appeared, Rendel's heart almost smote him as
+Rachel's had done, he seemed so curiously broken down and dispirited.
+They talked of their Scotch experiences, they spoke a little of the
+affairs of the day, but, as Rendel knew of old, this was a dangerous
+topic, which, hitherto, he had succeeded either in avoiding altogether
+or in treating with a studied moderation which might so far as possible
+prevent Sir William's susceptibilities from being offended. Rachel sat
+with them after dinner while they smoked, then they all went upstairs.
+
+"Now then, father dear, where would you like to be?" she said, looking
+round the room for the most comfortable chair. "Here, this looks a very
+special corner," and she drew forward an armchair that certainly was in
+a most delightful place, looking as if it were destined for the master
+of the house, or, at any rate, the most privileged person in it, a
+comfortable armchair, with the slanting back that a man loves, and by
+it a table with a lamp at exactly the right height. "There," she said,
+pushing her father gently into it, "isn't that a comfortable corner?"
+
+"Very," Sir William said, looking up at her with a smile. It truly was a
+delight to be tended and fussed over again.
+
+"And now you must have a table in front of you," she said, looking
+round. "Let me see--Frank, which shall the chess-table be? Is there a
+folding table? Yes, of course there is--that little one that we bought
+at Guildford. That one!"--and she clapped her hands with childish
+delight as she pointed to it.
+
+Rendel brought forward the little table and opened it.
+
+"Oh, that is exactly the thing," she cried. "See, father, it will just
+hold the chess-board. Now then, this is where it shall always
+stand--your own table, and your own chair by it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+It is difficult to judge of any course of conduct entirely on its own
+merits, when it has a reflex action on ourselves. When Rendel before his
+marriage used to go to Prince's Gate and to see Rachel, absolutely
+oblivious of herself, hovering tenderly round her mother, watching to
+see that her father's wishes were fulfilled, that unselfish devotion and
+absorption in filial duty seemed to him the most entirely beautiful
+thing on this earth. But when, instead of being the spectator of the
+situation, he became an active participator in it, when the stream of
+Rachel's filial devotion was diverted from that of her conjugal duties,
+it unconsciously assumed another aspect in his eyes. But not for worlds
+would he have put into words the annoyance he could not help feeling,
+and Rachel was entirely unconscious of his attitude. The devoted,
+uncritical affection for her father which had grown up with her life was
+in her mind so absolutely taken for granted as one of the foundations of
+existence, that it did not even occur to her that Rendel might possibly
+not look at it in the same light. She took for granted that he would
+share her attitude towards her father as he had shared her adoration for
+her mother. It was all part of her entire trust in Rendel, and the
+simple directness with which she approached the problems of life. She
+had, before her marriage, expressed an earnest wish, which Rendel
+understood as a condition, that even if her father did not wish to live
+with them, she might share in his life and watch over him, and Rendel
+had accepted the condition and promised that it should be as she wished.
+But it is obviously not the actual making of a promise that is the
+difficulty. If it were possible when we pledge ourselves to a given
+course for our imagination to show us in a vision of the future the
+innumerable occasions on which we should be called upon to redeem, each
+time by a conscious separate effort, that lightly given pledge of an
+instant, the stoutest-hearted of us would quail at the prospect. Rendel
+looked back with a sigh to those days, that seemed already to have
+receded into a luminous distance, when Rachel, alone with him in
+Scotland, with no divided allegiance, had given herself up, heart and
+mind, to the new happiness, the new existence, that was opening before
+her.
+
+The danger of pouring life while it is still fluid into the wrong mould,
+of letting it drift and harden into the wrong shape, is an insidious
+peril which is not sufficiently guarded against. It is easy enough to
+say, Begin as you mean to go on; but the difficulty is to know exactly
+the moment when you begin, and when the point of going on has been
+arrived at; and of drifting gradually into some irremediable course of
+action from which it is almost impossible to turn back without
+difficulty and struggle. There had been a feeling that everything was
+somehow temporary during those first days at Cosmo Place, which extended
+into the weeks. Sir William held as a principle, and was quite genuine
+in his intention when he said it, that young people ought to be left to
+themselves. He would not, therefore, take up his abode under their roof,
+but still that he should do so eventually was felt by all concerned as a
+vague possibility which prevented in the young household a sense of
+having finally and comfortably settled down. Indeed, as it was, it was
+perhaps more unsettling to Rachel, and therefore to her husband, to have
+Sir William coming and going than it would have been to have him
+actually under the same roof. If he had been living with them his
+presence would have been a matter of course, and less constant
+companionship and diversion would probably have been considered
+necessary for him than they were when he dropped in at odd times. The
+advancing season and the grey dark mornings made the early rides
+impossible. Rachel in her secret soul did not regret them. Sir William
+had taken the habit of looking in at Cosmo Place on his way to Pall Mall
+and further eastward, and it always gave Rachel a pang of remorse if she
+found that by an unlucky chance she had been out of the way when he
+came. He would also sometimes come in on his way back, as has been
+said, in the obvious expectation of having a game of chess, of which
+Rendel, if he were at home, had not the heart to disappoint him. In
+these days there was not much occupation for him in the City. The
+excitement of starting and floating the "Equator" Company and the
+allotting of the shares to the eager band of subscribers had been
+accomplished some time since. The "Equator's" hour, however, had not
+come yet. The outlook in the City was not encouraging for those who knew
+how to read the weather chart of the coming days. The heart of the
+country was still beating fast and tumultuously after the emotions of
+the past two years; it needed a period of assured quiet to regain its
+normal condition. In the meantime the storm seemed to be subsiding. The
+great railway laying its iron grip on the heart of Africa was advancing
+steadily from the north as well as from the south: it was nearing the
+Equator. The country, its imagination profoundly stirred by the
+enterprise, watched it in suspense. But until the meeting of the two
+giant highways was effected, everything depended upon an equable balance
+of forces, of which a touch might destroy the equilibrium. German
+possessions and German forces lay perilously near the meeting of the two
+lines. At any moment a spark from some other part of the world might be
+wafted to Africa and set the fierce flame of war ablaze in the centre of
+the continent.
+
+The General Election was coming within measurable distance; the Liberal
+Peace Crusade was strenuously canvassing the country in favour of
+coming to a definite understanding with certain foreign powers.
+
+At the house in Cosmo Place it was no longer always possible, as on that
+first evening, to avoid the subject of politics.
+
+"I must say," said Rendel one night with enthusiasm--Stamfordham had
+made a big speech the day before of which the papers were
+full--"Stamfordham is a great speaker, and a great man to boot."
+
+"A great speaker, perhaps," Sir William said. "I don't know that that is
+entirely what you want from the man at the helm."
+
+"Well, proverbially it isn't," said Rendel, with a smile, determined to
+be good-humoured.
+
+"As to being a great man," continued Sir William, "anybody who knocks
+down everything that comes in his way and stands upon it looks rather
+big."
+
+"Even admitting that," said Rendel, "it seems to me that the
+determination and courage necessary to knock down what is in your way,
+when it can't be got out by any other method, is part of what makes a
+great statesman."
+
+"You speak," said Sir William, "as if he were a savage potentate."
+
+"In some respects," said Rendel, "the savage potentate and civilised
+ruler are inevitably alike. The ultimate ground, the ultimate arbiter of
+their empire, is force."
+
+"Empire!" said Sir William. "That is the cry! In your greed for empire
+you lose sight of everything but the aggrandisement of a dominion
+already so immense as to be unwieldy."
+
+"Still," said Rendel, "as we have this big thing in our hands, it is
+better to keep it there than let it drop and break to pieces."
+
+"I don't wish to let it drop," said Gore. "I wish to be content to
+increase it by friendly intercourse with the world, by the arts of peace
+and civilisation, and not by destruction and bloodshed."
+
+"I am afraid," said Rendel, "that the savage, which, as you say too
+truly, still lurks in the majority of civilised beings, will not be
+content to see the world governed on those amiable lines."
+
+"There I must beg leave to differ from you," said Sir William, "I
+believe that the majority of civilised human beings will, when it has
+been put before them, be on the side of peace."
+
+"We shall see," Rendel said, with a smile which was perhaps not as
+conciliatory as he intended it to be.
+
+"Yes, you will see when the General Election comes," said Gore. "And if
+it goes for us, and we have a Cabinet composed of men who are not the
+mere puppets in the hands of an autocrat, the destinies of the world
+will be altered."
+
+"Father," said Rachel, "do you really think that is how the General
+Election will go?"
+
+"Quite possibly," Gore said, with decision. Rendel said nothing.
+
+"Oh, father!" said Rachel. "I wish that you were in Parliament! Suppose
+you were in the Government!"
+
+"Ah, well, my life as you know, was otherwise filled up," said Sir
+William, with a sigh; "but in that case the Imperialists perhaps might
+not have found everything such plain sailing." And so much had he
+penetrated himself with the conviction of what he was saying, that he
+felt himself, as he sat there opposite Rendel, whose wisdom and sagacity
+in reality so far exceeded his own, to be in the position of the older,
+wiser man of great influence and many opportunities condescending to
+explain his own career to an obscure novice.
+
+Rendel looked across at Rachel sitting opposite to him, listening to
+what her father said with her customary air of sweet and gentle
+deference, and then smiling at himself; and again he inwardly vowed
+that, for her sake, he would endure the daily pinpricks that are almost
+as difficult to bear in the end as one good sword-thrust.
+
+"I must say it will be interesting to see who goes out as Governor of
+British Zambesiland," he said presently, looking up from the paper.
+"That will be a big job if you like."
+
+"Let's hope they will find a big man to do it," said Sir William.
+
+"I heard to-day," said Rendel, "that it would probably be Belmont."
+
+"Well, he'll be a firebrand Governor after Stamfordham's own heart,"
+said Gore. "It's absurd sending all these young men out to these
+important posts."
+
+"That is rather Stamfordham's theory," said Rendel--"to have youngish
+men, I mean."
+
+"If he would confine himself to theories," said Sir William, "it would
+be better for England at this moment."
+
+"It might, however, interfere with his practical use as a Foreign
+Secretary," Rendel was about to say, but he checked the words on his
+tongue.
+
+After dinner that evening he remained downstairs under pretext of
+writing some letters, while Rachel proposed to her father to give her a
+lesson in chess.
+
+Rendel turned on the electric light in his study, shut the door, stood
+in front of the fire and looked round him with a delightful sense of
+possession, of privacy, of well-being. His new house--indeed, one might
+almost have said his new life--was still so recent a possession as to
+have lost none of its preciousness. He still felt a childish joy in all
+its details. The house was one of those built within the last decade
+which seem to have made a struggle to escape the uniformity of the older
+streets. The front door opened into a square hall, from the left side of
+which opened the dining-room, from the right the study, both of these
+rooms having bow windows, built with that broad sweep of curve which
+makes for beauty instead of vulgarity. The house, Rendel had told his
+wife with a smile when they came to it, he had furnished for her, with
+the exception of one room in it; the study he had arranged for himself.
+And it certainly was a room in which, to judge by appearances, a worker
+need never be stopped in his work by the paltry need of any necessary
+tool. Rendel was a man of almost exaggerated precision and order.
+Everything lay ready to his hand in the place where he expected to find
+it. A glance at his well-appointed writing-table gave evidence of it.
+The back wall of the study, opposite the window, was lined with books.
+On the wall over the fireplace hung a large map of Africa. Rendel looked
+intently at it as he thought of the stirring pages of history that were
+in the making on that huge, misshapen continent, of the field that it
+was going to be for the statesmen and administrators of the future: he
+thought of Lord Belmont, only two years older than himself, with whom he
+had been at Eton and at Oxford, and wondered what it felt like to be in
+his place and have the ball at one's feet. For Rendel in his heart was
+burning with ambition of no ignoble kind. He was burning to do, to act,
+and not to watch only; to take his part in shaping the destinies of his
+fellow-men, to help the world into what he believed to be the right
+path; and he would do it yet. In his mind that evening, as he stood
+upright, intent, looking on into the future, there was not the shadow of
+a doubt that he would carry out his purpose. He had come downstairs
+smarting under the impression of Sir William's last words when they were
+discussing the new Governor. Then he recovered, and reminded himself of
+the obvious truism that the man occupied with politics must school
+himself to have his opinions contradicted by his opponents, and must
+make up his mind that there are as many people opposed to his way of
+thinking in the world as agreeing with it. But it is one thing to engage
+in a free fight in the open field, and another to keep parrying the
+petty blows dealt by a persecuting antagonist. Day by day, hour by hour,
+as the time went on, Rendel had to make a conscious effort to keep to
+the line he had traced out for himself; he had to tighten his
+resolution, to readjust his burden. The yoke of even a beloved
+companionship may be willingly borne, but it is a yoke and a restraint
+for all that. But Rendel would not have forgotten it. He accepted the
+lot he had chosen, unspeakably grateful to Rachel for having bestowed
+such happiness on him, ready and determined to fulfil his part of the
+compact, to carry out, even at the cost of a daily and hourly sacrifice,
+the bargain he had made. And, after all, as long as he made up his mind
+that it did not signify, he could well afford, in the great happiness
+that had fallen to his lot, to disregard the minor annoyances. His life,
+his standards, should be arranged on a scale that would enable him to
+disregard them. If one is only moving along swiftly enough, one has
+impetus to glide over minor impediments without being stopped or turned
+aside by them. For Rachel's sake all would be possible, it would be
+almost easy. At any rate, it should be done. Rendel's will felt braced
+and strengthened by his resolve, and he knew that he would be master of
+his fate. There are certain moments in our lives when we stop at a
+turning, it may be, to take stock of our situation, when we look back
+along the road we have come--how interminable it seemed as we began
+it!--and look along the one we are going to travel, prepared to start
+onward again with a fresh impulse of purpose and energy. That night, as
+Rendel looked on into the future, he felt like the knight who, lance in
+rest but ready to his hand, rides out into the world ready to embrace
+the opportunity that shall come to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The opportunity that came that night was ushered in somewhat
+prosaically, not by the sound of a foeman's horn being wound in the
+distance, but by the postman's knock. There was only one letter, but
+that was an important looking one addressed to Rendel, in a big, square
+envelope with an official signature in the corner. It was, however,
+marked "private and confidential," and was not written in an official
+capacity. Rendel as he looked at it, saw that the signature was
+"Belmont." In an instant as he unfolded the page his hopes leapt to meet
+the words he would find there. Yes, Lord Belmont was going to be
+Governor of Zambesiland; that was the beginning. And what was this that
+followed? He asked Rendel whether, if offered the post of Governor's
+Secretary, practically the second in command, he would accept it and go
+out to Africa with him. The offer, which meant a five years'
+appointment, was flatteringly worded, with a mention of Lord
+Stamfordham's strong recommendation which had prompted it, and wound up
+with an earnestly expressed hope that Rendel would not at any rate
+refuse without having deeply considered it. Belmont, however, asked for
+a reply as soon as was consistent with the serious reflection necessary
+before taking the step. Rendel looked at the clock. It was half-past
+nine. He need not write by post that night, he would send round the
+first thing in the morning. That would do as well. At this particular
+moment he need do nothing but look the thing in the face. Serious
+consideration it should have, undoubtedly, though that was not needed in
+order to come to a decision. He was not afraid of gazing at this new
+possibility that had just swum into his ken. The moment that comes to
+those who are going to achieve, when the door in the wall, showing that
+glorious vista beyond, suddenly opens to them, is fraught with an
+excited joy which partakes at once of anticipation and of fulfilment,
+and is probably never surpassed when in the fulness of time the
+opportunities come even too fast on each other's heels, and it has
+become a foregone conclusion to take advantage of them. There is no
+moment of outlook that has the charm of that first gaze from afar, when
+the deep blue distances cloak what is lovely and unlovely alike and
+merge them all into one harmonious and inviting mystery. Rendel was in
+no hurry for that curtain of mysterious distance to lift: possibility
+and success lay behind it. He relished with an exquisite pleasure the
+sense of having a dream fulfilled. The crucial moment that comes to
+nearly all of us of having to compare the place that others assign to
+us in life with that which we imagined we were entitled to occupy, is to
+some fraught with the bitterest disappointment. The sense of having
+cleared successfully that great gulf which lies between one's own
+appreciation of oneself and that of other people is one of rapture.
+Rendel had been so short a time married, and had had so few
+opportunities during that time of being called upon for any decision,
+that it was an entirely new sensation to him to remember suddenly that
+this was a thing which concerned somebody else as well as it did
+himself. But the thought was nothing but sweet; it meant that there was
+somebody now by his side, there always would be, to care for the things
+that happened to him; and Rachel, too, would be borne up on the wave of
+excitement and rejoicing that was shaking Rendel, to his own surprise,
+so strangely out of his usual reserved composure. He sat down
+mechanically at his writing-table and drew a sheet of writing-paper idly
+towards him, wondering how he should formulate his reply. To his great
+surprise and somewhat shamefaced amusement, he found that his hand was
+shaking so that he could not control the pen. He would go up before
+writing and tell Rachel. Then, as he went upstairs, he was conscious of
+a secret annoyance that a third person should just at this moment be
+between them.
+
+A profound silence reigned as he opened the drawing-room door. Rachel
+and her father were poring intently over the chess-board. Rachel looked
+up eagerly as her husband came in.
+
+"Oh, Francis," she said, "I am so glad. Do come and tell me what to do."
+
+"Yes, I wish you would," Sir William said, with some impatience. "Look
+what she is doing with her queen."
+
+"Is that a letter you want to show me?" said Rachel, looking at the
+envelope in Rendel's hand.
+
+"All right. It will keep," he said quietly, putting it back in his
+breast pocket.
+
+Sir William kept his eyes intently fixed upon the board. He would not
+countenance any diversion of fixed and rigid attention from the game in
+hand.
+
+"That is what I should do," said Rendel, moving one of Rachel's pawns on
+to the back line.
+
+"Oh! how splendid!" said Rachel. "I believe I have a chance after all."
+
+Sir William gave a grunt of satisfaction. "That's more like it," he
+said. "If you had come up a little sooner we might have had a decent
+game."
+
+Rendel made no comment. The game ended in the most auspicious way
+possible. Rachel, backed by Rendel's advice, showed fight a little
+longer and left the victory to Sir William in the end after a desperate
+struggle. The hour of departure came. Rachel and her husband both went
+downstairs with Sir William. They opened the door. It was a bright,
+starlight night. Sir William announced his intention of walking to a
+cab, and with his coat buttoned up against the east wind, started off
+along the pavement. Rachel turned back into the house with a sigh as she
+saw him go.
+
+"He is getting to look much older, isn't he?" she said. "Poor dear, it
+is hard on him to have to turn out at this time of night."
+
+Rendel vaguely heard and barely took in the meaning of what she was
+saying. His one idea was that now he would be able to tell her his news.
+
+"Come in here," he said, drawing her into the study. "I want to tell you
+something." And he made her sit down in his own comfortable chair. "I
+have had a letter this evening," he said.
+
+"Have you?" said Rachel, looking up at him in surprise at the unusual
+note of joyousness, almost of exultation, in his tone. "What is it
+about?"
+
+"You shall read it," he said, giving it to her. Her colour rose as she
+read on.
+
+"Oh, what an opportunity!" she said, and a tinge of regret crept
+strangely into her voice. "What a pity!"
+
+"A pity?" said Rendel, looking at her.
+
+"Yes," she said. "It would have been so delightful."
+
+"Would have been?" said Rendel, still amazed. "Why don't you say 'will
+be'? Do you mean to say you don't want to go?"
+
+"I don't think _I_ could go," Rachel said, with a slight surprise in her
+voice. "How could I?"
+
+Rendel said nothing, but still looked at her as though finding it
+difficult to realise her point of view.
+
+"How could I leave my father?" she said, putting into words the thing
+that seemed to her so absolutely obvious that she had hardly thought it
+necessary to speak it.
+
+"Do you think you couldn't?" Rendel said slowly.
+
+"Oh, Frank, how would it be possible?" she said. "We could not leave him
+alone here, and it would be much, much too far for him to go."
+
+"Of course. I had not thought of his attempting it," said Rendel,
+truthfully enough, with a sinking dread at his heart that perhaps after
+all the fair prospect he had been gazing upon was going to prove nothing
+but a mirage.
+
+"You do agree, don't you?" she said, looking at him anxiously. "You do
+see?"
+
+"I am trying to see," Rendel said quietly. For a moment neither spoke.
+
+"Oh, I couldn't," Rachel said. "I simply couldn't!" in a heartfelt tone
+that told of the unalterable conviction that lay behind it. There was
+another silence. Rendel stood looking straight before him, Rachel
+watching him timidly. Rendel made as though to speak, then he checked
+himself.
+
+"Oh, isn't it a pity it was suggested!" Rachel cried involuntarily.
+Rendel gave a little laugh. It was deplorable, truly, that such an
+opportunity should have come to a man who was not going to use it.
+
+"But could not _you_----" she began, then stopped. "How long would it be
+for?"
+
+"Oh, about five years, I suppose," said Rendel, with a sort of aloofness
+of tone with which people on such occasions consent to diverge for the
+moment from the main issue.
+
+"Five years," she repeated. "That would be too long."
+
+"Yes, five years seems a long time, I daresay," said Rendel, "as one
+looks on to it."
+
+"I was wondering," she said hesitatingly, "if it wouldn't have been
+better that you should have gone."
+
+"I? Without you, do you mean?" Rendel said. "No, certainly not. That I
+am quite clear about."
+
+"Oh, Frank, I should not like it if you did," she said, looking up at
+him.
+
+"I need not say that I should not." There was another silence.
+
+"Should you like it very, very much?" she said.
+
+"Like what?" said Rendel, coming back with an effort.
+
+"Going to Africa."
+
+There had been a moment when Rendel had told Lady Gore how glad he was
+that Rachel had no ambitions, as producing the ideal character. No doubt
+that lack has its advantages--but the world we live in is not, alas,
+exclusively a world of ideals.
+
+"Yes, I should like it," he replied quietly. "If you went too, that
+is--I should not like it without you."
+
+"Oh, Frank, it _is_ a pity," she said, looking up at him wistfully. But
+there was evidently not in her mind the shadow of a possibility that the
+question could be decided other than in one way.
+
+"Come, it is getting late," Rendel said. And they left the room with the
+outward air of having postponed the decision till the morning. But the
+decision was not postponed; that Rachel took for granted, and Rendel had
+made up his mind. This was, after all, not a new sacrifice he was called
+upon to make: it was part of the same, of that sacrifice which he had
+recognised that he was willing to make in order to marry Rachel, and
+which was so much less than that other great and impossible sacrifice of
+giving her up.
+
+He came down early the next morning and wrote to Lord Belmont, meaning
+when Rachel came down to breakfast to show her the letter, in which he
+had most gratefully but quite decisively declined the honour that had
+been done him. He read the letter over feeling as if he were in a dream,
+and almost smiled to himself at the incredible thought that here was the
+first big opportunity of his life and that he was calmly putting it away
+from him. Perhaps when he came to talk it over with Rachel again she
+might see it differently. Might she? No. He knew in his heart that she
+would not. It was probable that Rendel's ambition, his determined
+purpose, would always be hampered by his old-fashioned, almost quixotic
+ideas of loyalty, his conception of the seemliness, the dignity of the
+relations between husband and wife. In a matter that he felt was a
+question of right or wrong he would probably without hesitation have
+used his authority and decided inflexibly that such and such a course
+was the one to pursue; but here he felt it was impossible. It would not
+be consistent with his dignity to use his authority to insist upon a
+course which, though it might be to his own advantage, was undeniably an
+infringement of the tacit compact that he had accepted when he married.
+With the letter in his hand he went slowly out of the study. Rachel was
+coming swiftly down the stairs into the hall, dressed for walking,
+looking perturbed and anxious.
+
+"Frank," she said hurriedly, "I have just had a message from Prince's
+Gate, my father is ill."
+
+"I am very sorry," Rendel said with concern.
+
+"I must go there directly," she said.
+
+"Have you breakfasted?" asked Rendel.
+
+"Yes," she said. "At least I have had a cup of tea--quite enough."
+
+"No," said Rendel, "that isn't enough. Come, it's absurd that you should
+go out without breakfasting."
+
+"I couldn't really," Rachel said entreatingly. "I must go."
+
+"Nonsense!" Rendel said decidedly. "You are not to go till you have had
+some breakfast." And he took her into the dining-room and made her eat.
+But this, as he felt, was not the moment for further discussion of his
+own plans. He saw how absolutely they had faded away from her view.
+
+"I shall follow you shortly," he said, "to know how Sir William is."
+
+"Oh, do," she said. "You can't come now, I suppose?"
+
+"I have a letter to write first. I must write to Lord Belmont."
+
+"Oh yes, of course," she said, with a sympathetic inflection in her
+voice. "Oh, Frank, how terrible it would have been if you had been going
+away now!" And she drew close to him as though seeking shelter against
+the anxieties and troubles of the world.
+
+"But I am not," said Rendel quietly. And she looked back at him as she
+drove off with a smile flickering over her troubled face.
+
+Rendel turned back into the house. There was nothing more to do, that
+was quite evident. He fastened up the letter to Belmont and sent it
+round to his house, also writing to Stamfordham a brief letter of thanks
+for his good offices and regrets at not being able to avail himself of
+them.
+
+Later he went to Prince's Gate. Sir William was a little better. It was
+a sharp, feverish attack brought on by a chill the night before. It
+lasted several days, during which time Rachel was constantly backwards
+and forwards at Prince's Gate, and at the end of which she proposed to
+Rendel that her father should, for the moment, as she put it, come to
+them to Cosmo Place.
+
+In the meantime Stamfordham, surprised at Rendel's refusal of the
+opportunity he had put in his way, had sent for him to urge him to
+re-consider his decision while there was yet time. Rendel found it very
+hard to explain his reasons in such a way that they should seem in the
+least valid to his interlocutor. Stamfordham, although he was well aware
+that Rendel had married during the spring, had but dimly realised the
+practical difference that this change of condition might bring into the
+young man's life and into the code by which his actions were governed.
+He himself had not married. He had had, report said, one passing fancy
+and then another, but they had never amounted to more than an impulse
+which had set him further on his way; there had never been an attraction
+strong enough to deflect him from his orbit. With such, he was quite
+clear, the statesman should have nothing to do.
+
+"Of course," he said, after listening to what Rendel had to say, "I
+should be the last person to wish to persuade you to take a course
+contrary to Mrs. Rendel's wishes, but still such an opportunity as this
+does not come to every man."
+
+"I know," said Rendel.
+
+"I never was married," Stamfordham went on, "but I have not understood
+that matrimony need necessarily be a bar to a successful career."
+
+"Nor have I," Rendel said, with a smile.
+
+"Let's see. How long have you been married?"
+
+"Four months," Rendel replied.
+
+"As I told you, I am inexperienced in these matters," Stamfordham said,
+"but perhaps while one still counts by months it is more difficult to
+assert one's authority."
+
+"My wife," said Rendel, "does not wish to leave her father, who is in
+delicate health. Sir William Gore, you know."
+
+"Oh, Sir William Gore, yes," said Stamfordham, with an inflection which
+implied that Sir William Gore was not worth sacrificing any possible
+advantages for.
+
+"I am very, very sorry," Rendel said gravely. "I would have given a
+great deal to have been going to Africa just now."
+
+"Yes, indeed. There will be infinite possibilities over there as soon as
+things have settled down," said Stamfordham. And he looked at a table
+that was covered with papers of different kinds, among them some notes
+in his own handwriting, and said, "Pity my unfortunate secretaries! I
+don't think I have ever had any one who knew how to read those
+impossible hieroglyphics as you did."
+
+"I don't know whether I ought to say I am glad or sorry to hear that,"
+said Rendel, as he went towards the door.
+
+"What are you going to do if you don't go to Africa?" Stamfordham said.
+
+"Something else, I hope," said Rendel, with a look and an accent that
+carried conviction.
+
+"Shan't you go into the House?" said Stamfordham.
+
+"I mean to try," Rendel said. Then as he went out he turned round and
+said, "I daresay, sir, there are still possibilities in Europe, after
+all."
+
+"Very likely," said Stamfordham; and they parted.
+
+One of the most difficult tasks of the philosopher is not to regret his
+decisions. The mind that has been disciplined to determine quickly and
+to abide by its determination is one of the most valuable instruments of
+human equipment. But it certainly needed some philosophy on Rendel's
+part, during the period that elapsed between his refusal of Lord
+Belmont's offer and the departure of the newly appointed governor, not
+to regret that he himself was remaining behind. Day by day the papers
+were full of the administrators who were going out, of their
+qualifications, of their responsibilities. Day by day Rendel looked at
+the map hanging in his study and wondered what transformations the
+shifting of circumstances would bring to it.
+
+Sir William Gore, in the meantime, had got better. He had slowly thrown
+off the fever that had prostrated him, although he was not able to
+resume his ordinary life. He had demurred a little at first to the
+proposal that he should take up his abode at Cosmo Place, then, not
+unwillingly, had yielded. In his ordinary state of health he would have
+been alive to the proverbial drawbacks of a joint household, but in his
+present state of weakness and depression he felt he could not be alone,
+and in his secret heart it was almost a relief to be away from Prince's
+Gate, its memories and associations. It had been in one of these moments
+of insight, of revelation almost, that suddenly, like a blinding flash
+of light shows us in pitiless details the conditions that surround us,
+that with intense self-pity he had said to himself that there was
+actually no one in this whole world with whom he was entitled to come
+first. Rachel's solicitude certainly went far to persuade him of the
+contrary; but in his secret soul he bitterly resented the fact that
+there should now be someone to share Rachel's allegiance, although
+Rendel might well have contended that he was divided in Sir William's
+favour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The Miss Pateleys, sisters of Robert Pateley, lived together. The death
+of their parents, as we have said, had taken place when their brother
+was already launched on his successful career as a journalist. They had
+at first gone on living in the little country town in which their father
+had been a solicitor. It had not occurred to them to do anything else.
+They were surrounded there by people who knew them, who considered them,
+towards whom their social position needed no explaining and by whom it
+was taken for granted. When they went shopping, the tradespeople would
+reply in a friendly way, "Yes, Miss Pateley,--No, Miss Jane. This is the
+stocking you generally prefer"; or, "These were the pens you had last
+time," with an intimate understanding of the needs of their customers,
+forming a most pleasing contrast to the detached attitude of the staff
+of big shops. The sisters had a very small income between them, eked out
+by skilful management, and also, it must be said, by constant help from
+their brother, who represented to them the moving principle of the
+universe embodied in a visible form. He it was who knew things the
+female mind cannot grasp, how to read the gas meter, what to do when the
+cistern was blocked, or when the landlord said it was not his business
+to mend the roof. These things which appeared so preoccupying to Anna
+and Jane seemed to sit very lightly on their brother Robert, and when
+they saw him shoulder each detail and deal with it with instant and
+consummate ease they admired him as much as they did when they saw him
+carrying upstairs his own big portmanteau which the united female
+strength of the house was powerless to deal with. After a time Robert,
+devoted brother though he was, found that it complicated existence to
+have to settle these matters by correspondence, still more to have
+suddenly to take a journey of several hours from London in order to deal
+with them on the spot. He proposed to his sisters that they should come
+and live in London. With many misgivings, and yet not without some
+secret excitement, they assented, and for a few months before our story
+begins they had been established in the same house as their brother, on
+the floor above the lodgings he inhabited in Vernon Street, Bloomsbury.
+Vernon Street, Bloomsbury, was perhaps a fortunate place for them to
+begin their London life in, if London life, except as a geographical
+term, it can be called, for two poor little ladies living more
+absolutely outside what is commonly described by that name it would be
+hard to find. Indeed, if it had not been for the courage and
+adventurous spirit of Jane, the younger of the two, their hearts might
+well have failed them during those first months in which the autumn days
+shortened over the district of Bloomsbury. Since they knew no one, they
+had nobody to visit, and nobody came to see them. They were still not a
+little bewildered by London. There were, it was true, a great many
+sights of an inanimate kind; but how to get at them? They did not
+consider themselves justified in taking cabs, and omnibuses were at
+first, to two people who had lived all their lives in a tramless town, a
+disconcerting and complicated means of locomotion. However, as the time
+went on they shook down, they found their little niche in existence;
+they made acquaintance with the clergyman's wife and some of the
+district visitors, and when the first summer of their London life came
+round, the summer following Rachel's marriage, everything seemed to them
+more possible. London was bright, sunshiny, and welcoming, instead of
+being austere and repellent. Pateley had succeeded in obtaining a key of
+the square close to which they lived, and they sat there and revelled in
+the summer weather. The mere fact of having him so near them, of knowing
+that at any moment in the day he might come in with the loud voice and
+heartiness of manner which always cheered and uplifted them, albeit some
+of his acquaintances ventured to find it too audible, gave them a fresh
+sense of being in touch with all the great things happening in the
+world. Then came a moment in which, indeed, the larger issues of life
+seemed to present themselves to be dealt with. Pateley, under whose
+auspices the _Arbiter_ had prospered exceedingly, and who had an
+interest in it from the point of view of a commercial enterprise as well
+as of a political organ, found himself one day the possessor of a larger
+sum of ready money than he had expected. He made up his mind that some
+of it should be given to his sisters, and that the rest should join
+their own savings invested in the "Equator," which seemed to present
+every prospect of succeeding when once the moment should come to work
+it. Pateley was altogether in a high state of jubilation in those days.
+The Cape to Cairo railway was actually on the verge of being completed.
+In a week more the gigantic scheme would be an accomplished fact. The
+excitement in London respecting it was immense. A small piece of German
+territory still remained to be crossed, but if no unforeseen incident
+arose to jeopardise the situation at the last moment all would yet be
+well. The rejoicings of Englishmen commonly take a sturdy and obvious
+form, and two days after the great junction was expected to take place,
+the _Arbiter_ was to give a dinner at the Colossus Hotel in the Strand
+to the representatives of the Cape to Cairo Railway in London, after
+which the Hotel would be illuminated on all sides, and fireworks over
+the river were to proclaim to the whole town that Africa had been
+spanned. Pateley was to take the chair at the dinner. He had some shares
+in the railway himself, although the rush upon it had been too great
+for him to secure any large amount of them. He had golden hopes,
+however, in the future of the "Equator," when once the railway was at
+its doors. Anderson had gone back again to Africa, this time with an
+eager staff of companions, and was only waiting for his time to come.
+
+"Now then," Pateley said jovially, one evening, as he went into the
+lodgings in Vernon Street and found his sisters sitting over their
+somewhat inadequate evening meal, "Times are looking up, I must tell
+you. I shouldn't wonder if you were better off before long. When the
+railway's finished, and if the "Equator" mine is all we believe it to
+be, you ought to get something handsome out of it--and I have got
+something for you to go on with which will keep you going in the
+meantime. So now I hope you will think yourselves justified in sitting
+down to a decent dinner every evening, instead of that kind of thing,"
+and he pointed, with his loud, jovial laugh, to the cocoa and eggs on
+the rather dingily appointed table.
+
+Jane's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed with an incredulous joy.
+Anna's breath came quickly. What a fairy prince of a brother this was!
+
+"But, Robert, we had better not make much difference in our way of
+living at first, had we?" Anna said, timidly, calling to mind the
+instances in fiction of imprudent persons who had launched out wildly on
+an accession of fortune and then been overtaken by ruin.
+
+"Well, I don't suppose you are either of you likely to want to cut a big
+dash," he said with another loud laugh. "At least, I don't see you doing
+it."
+
+"It is a great responsibility," Anna said timidly. "I hope we shall use
+it the right way."
+
+"Right way!" said Pateley. "Of course you will. Go to the play with it,
+get yourself a fur cloak, have a fire in your bedroom----"
+
+"Oh!" said Jane.
+
+"But, Robert," Anna said, "I don't feel it is sent to us for that."
+
+"Sent!" said Pateley. "Well, that is one way of putting it."
+
+But he did not enlarge upon the point. He accepted his sisters just as
+they were, with their limitations, their principles, and everything. He
+was not particularly susceptible to beauty and distinction, in the sense
+of these qualities being necessary to his belongings, and perhaps it was
+as well. Anna and Jane, though they looked undeniably like gentlewomen,
+had nothing else about them that was particularly agreeable to look
+upon. Nor were they either of them very strikingly ugly, or, indeed,
+strikingly anything. Jane was the better looking of the two. It was,
+perhaps, a rather heartless freak of destiny that life should have
+ordained her to live with somebody who was like a parody of herself,
+older, rounder, thicker, plainer. Living apart they might each have
+passed muster; living together they somehow made their ugliness, like
+their income, go further. But in the composite photograph it was Anna
+who predominated. It was a pity, for she was the stumpier of the two.
+
+Long and earnest were the discussions the little sisters had that night
+after their splendid brother had departed, until by the time they went
+to bed they were prepared, or so it seemed to them, to launch their
+existence on a dizzy career of extravagance. They were going, as they
+expressed it, to put their establishment on another footing, which meant
+that instead of being attended by an inexperienced young person of
+eighteen they were to have an arrogant one of twenty-five. Their own
+elderly servant had declined to face the temptations of London, and had
+remained behind, living close to their old home. And, greatest event of
+all, they had at length--it was now summer, but that didn't matter, furs
+were cheaper--yielded to the thought which they had been alternately
+caressing and dismissing for months, and they were each going to buy a
+Fur Cloak. The days in which this all important purchase was being
+considered were to the Miss Pateleys days of pure enjoyment. Days of
+walks along Oxford Street, no longer so bewildered by the noise of
+London traffic, the discovery of some shop in an out of the way place
+whose wares were about half the price of the more fashionable quarters.
+The days were full of glorious possibilities.
+
+It was two days after that evening visit of Pateley's to his sisters,
+which had so gilded and transformed their existence, that sinister
+rumours began to float over London, bringing deadly anxiety in their
+wake. Telegrams kept pouring in, and were posted all over the town,
+becoming more and more serious as the day went on: "Disturbances in
+South Africa. Hostile encounter between English and Germans. Cape to
+Cairo Railway stopped. Collapse of the 'Equator, Ltd.,'" until by
+nightfall the whole of England knew the pitifully unimportant incidents
+from which such tragic consequences were springing--that a group of
+travelling missionaries, halting unawares on German territory and
+chanting their evening hymns, had been disturbed by a rough fellow who
+came jeering into their midst, that one of the devout group had finally
+ejected him, with such force that he had rolled over with his head on a
+stone and died then and there; and that the Germans were insisting upon
+having vengeance. As for the "Equator, Ltd.," nobody knew exactly in
+what the collapse consisted. The wildest reports were circulated
+respecting it; one saying that it was in the hands of the Germans,
+another that they had destroyed the plant that was ready to work it,
+another again, and it was the one that gained the most credence, that
+there was no gold in the mine at all, and that the whole thing was a
+swindle. The offices of the "Equator" were closed for the night. They
+would probably be besieged the next morning by an angry crowd eager to
+sell out, but the shares would now be hardly worth the paper they were
+written upon. Pateley, in a frenzy of anxiety, in whichever direction
+he looked--for his sisters, for himself, for his party, for the Cape to
+Cairo Railway--spent the night at his office to see which way events
+were going to turn. In his unreasoning anger, as the day of misfortune
+dawned next morning, against destiny, against the far-away unknown
+missionaries, against all the adverse forces that were standing in the
+way of his wishes, there was one concrete figure in the foreground upon
+whom he could justifiably pour out his wrath: Sir William Gore, the
+Chairman of the "Equator," who, in the public opinion, was responsible
+for the undertaking. He would go to see Sir William that very day as
+soon as it was possible. In the meantime he would go round to his
+sisters to try to prepare them for the unfavourable turn that their
+circumstances after all might possibly take. As, sorely troubled at what
+he had to say, he came up into their little sitting-room, he found it
+bright with flowers; the fragrance of sweet peas filled the air. Anna,
+who had longed for flowers all her life and had welcomed with tremulous
+gratitude the rare opportunities that had come in her way of receiving
+any, had suddenly realised that it might not be sinful to buy them. The
+joy that she had in the handful bought from a street vendor was cheap,
+after all, at the price that might have seemed exorbitant if it had been
+spent on the flowers alone.
+
+"Robert," said Jane, almost before he was inside the room, "guess what
+we are going to do?"
+
+"Something very naughty, I'm afraid," Anna said, excited and shy at the
+same time. She was generally less able than Jane to overcome the awe
+that they both felt of a relation so great and so beneficent, so
+altogether perfect, as their brother Robert, but at this moment she was
+intoxicated by the possession of wealth, by the sense of luxury, of
+well-being, by that fragrance of the spirit her imagination added to the
+fragrance of the flowers that stood near her. "We're each going to buy a
+fur cloak like that, look!" And she held out to him proudly the picture
+in the inside cover of the _Realm of Fashion_, representing a tall,
+slender, undulating lady, about as unlike herself as could well have
+been imagined, wrapped in a beautiful clinging garment of which the
+lining, turned back, displayed an exquisite fur. Pateley, as we have
+said, was not as a rule given to an excess of sensibility. He did not
+ridicule sentiment in others, but neither did he share it; that point of
+view was simply not visible to him. Suddenly, however, on this evening
+he had a moment of what felt to himself a most inconvenient access of
+emotion. There was a plain and obvious pathos in this particular
+situation that it needed no very fine sensibilities to grasp, in the
+sight of his sister, her small, thickset little figure encased in her
+ugly little gown, looking up appealingly to him over her spectacles with
+the joy of a child in the toy she was going to buy. It was probably the
+first, the very first time in her life, that she had had that particular
+experience. Added to the joy of getting the thing she coveted was the
+sense of having looked a conscientious scruple in the face, and seen it
+fly before her like an evil spirit before a spell. She had routed the
+enemy, pushed aside the obstacle in front of her, and, excited, and
+flushed with victory, was looking round on a bigger world and a fairer
+view. Pateley, to his own surprise, found himself absolutely incapable
+of putting into words what he had come to say, not a thing that often
+happened to him. In wonder at his not answering at once, Anna,
+misinterpreting his very slight pause, caught herself up quickly and
+said anxiously--
+
+"That is what you suggested, isn't it, Robert? You are quite sure you
+approve of it?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I approve," he said heartily, recovering himself. "Of course.
+Go ahead."
+
+"You must not think," she went on, reassured, "that we mean to spend all
+our money in things like this, but of course a fur cloak is useful; it
+is a possession, isn't it? and it is, after all, one's duty to keep
+one's health."
+
+"Of course it is," Pateley said. "No need of any further argument."
+
+"I am so glad," she said, "so glad you approve!" and she smiled again
+with delight.
+
+Again Pateley felt an unreasoning fury rising in his mind that people
+who were so easily satisfied should not be allowed to have their heart's
+desire. Perhaps after all, it was not true about the "Equator"; perhaps
+things might be better than they seemed. At any rate, he would not say
+anything to his sisters until he had seen Gore. And with some hurried
+explanation of the number of engagements that obliged him to leave them,
+he strode out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+In the meantime Lord Stamfordham, watching the situation, felt there was
+not a single instant to lose. There is one moment in the life of a
+conflagration when it can be stamped out: that moment passed, no power
+can stop it. Stamfordham, his head clear, his determination strong and
+ready, resolved to act without hesitating on his own responsibility. He
+sent a letter round to Prince Bergowitz, the German Ambassador, begging
+him to come and see him. Prince Bergowitz was laid up with an attack of
+gout which unfortunately prevented his coming, but he would be glad to
+receive Lord Stamfordham if he would come to see him.
+
+It was a little later in the same day that Rendel, alone in his study,
+was standing, newspaper in hand, in front of the map of Africa looking
+to see the exact localities where the events were happening which might
+have such dire consequences. At that moment Wentworth, passing through
+Cosmo Place, looked through the window and saw him thus engaged. He
+knocked at the hall door, and, after being admitted, walked into the
+study without waiting to be announced.
+
+"Looking at the map of Africa, and I don't wonder," he said. "Isn't it
+awful?"
+
+"It's terrible," said Rendel, "about as bad as it can be."
+
+"Look here, why aren't you over there to help to settle it?" said
+Wentworth.
+
+"Well, I should not have been there, in any case," said Rendel. "That is
+where I should have been--look," with something like a sigh.
+
+"You would have been nearer than you are now," said Wentworth. "Upon my
+word, I haven't patience with you. The idea of throwing up such a chance
+as you have had!"
+
+"How do you know about it?" Rendel said.
+
+"How do I know?" said Wentworth. "Everybody knows that you were offered
+it and refused."
+
+"After all," said Rendel, "there are some things one leaves undone in
+this world. It does not follow that because people are offered a thing
+they must necessarily accept it."
+
+"I don't say I am not in favour of leaving things undone," Wentworth
+said, "on occasion."
+
+"So I have observed," said Rendel.
+
+"But really, you know," Wentworth went on, "this is too much. What do
+you intend to do?"
+
+"What do I intend to do?" Rendel said, with a half smile, then
+unconsciously imparting a greater steadfastness into his expression,
+"broadly speaking, I intend to do--everything."
+
+"Oh! well, there's hope for you still," Wentworth said, "if that is your
+intention. It's rather a large order, though."
+
+"Well, as I have told you before," Rendel said, "I don't see why there
+should be any limit to one's intentions. The man who intends little is
+not likely to achieve much."
+
+"That's all very well, and plausible enough, I dare say," said
+Wentworth, "but the way to achieve is not to begin by refusing all your
+chances."
+
+"This is too delightful from you," said Rendel, "who never do anything
+at all."
+
+"Not at all," said Wentworth. "It is on principle that I do nothing, in
+order to protest against other people doing too much. I wish to have an
+eight hours' day of elegant leisure, and to go about the world as an
+example of it. It would be just as inconsistent of me to accept a
+regular occupation as it is of you to refuse it."
+
+"I have a very simple reason for refusing this," said Rendel more
+seriously, and he paused. "I am a married man."
+
+"To be sure, my dear fellow," said Wentworth, "I have noticed it."
+
+"My wife didn't want to go to Africa," said Rendel, "and there was an
+end of it."
+
+"Oh, that was the end of it?" said Wentworth.
+
+"Absolutely," said Rendel. "She did not want to leave her father."
+
+"Ah, is that it?" said Wentworth, feeling that he could not decently
+advance an urgent plea against Sir William. "Poor old man! I know he's
+gone to pieces frightfully since his wife died--still, couldn't some one
+have been found to take care of him?"
+
+"Hardly any one like Rachel," Rendel said.
+
+"Naturally," said Wentworth.
+
+"You know he is living with us?" Rendel said.
+
+"Is he?" said Wentworth surprised. "Upon my word, Frank, you are a good
+son-in-law."
+
+Rendel ignored the tone of Wentworth's last remark and said quite
+simply--
+
+"Oh! well, there was nothing else to be done. He's been ill, you know,
+really rather bad; first he had a chill, and then influenza on the top
+of it. He's frightfully low altogether."
+
+"But I rather wonder," said Wentworth, "as Mrs. Rendel had her father
+with her, that you didn't go to Africa without her. Wouldn't that have
+been possible?"
+
+"No," said Rendel decidedly. "Quite impossible."
+
+"I should have thought," said Wentworth, "that in these enlightened days
+a husband who could not do without his wife was rather a mistake."
+
+"That may be," said Rendel. "But I think on the whole that the husband
+who can do without her is a greater mistake still."
+
+"It is a great pity you were not born five hundred years ago," said
+Wentworth.
+
+"I should have disliked it particularly," said Rendel. "I should have
+been fighting at Flodden, or Crecy, or somewhere, and I should have
+been too old to marry Rachel, even in these days of well-preserved
+centenarians. It is no good, Jack; I am afraid you must leave me to my
+folly."
+
+"Well, well," said Wentworth, agreeing with the word, and thinking to
+himself that even the wisest of men looks foolish at times when he has
+the yoke of matrimony across his shoulders; "after all there is to be
+said--if we are going to have another war on our hands in Africa, which
+Heaven forfend, the time of the statesmen over there is hardly come
+yet."
+
+At this moment the door opened and the two men turned round quickly as
+Rachel came in.
+
+"Frank," said Rachel. "Should you mind----" Then she stopped as she saw
+Wentworth. "Oh, how do you do, Mr. Wentworth? I didn't know you were
+here. Don't let me interrupt you."
+
+"On the contrary," said Wentworth, "it is I who am interrupting your
+husband."
+
+"I only came to see, Frank, if you were very busy," she said.
+
+"I am not at this moment. Do you want me to do anything?"
+
+"Well, presently, would you play one game of chess with my father? I am
+not really good enough to be of much use; it doesn't amuse him to play
+with me."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel. "I have just got one or two letters to write and
+then I'll come."
+
+"I think it would really be better," said Rachel, "if he came in here.
+It is rather a change for him, you know, to come into a different room
+after having been in the house all day."
+
+"Just as you like," said Rendel, without much enthusiasm, but also
+without any noticeable want of it.
+
+"Well," said Wentworth, "I'm not going to keep you any longer, Frank. I
+just came in to--give you my views about things in general."
+
+"Thank you," said Rendel, with a smile. "I am much beholden to you for
+them."
+
+"Perhaps you would come up and see my father, Mr. Wentworth," said
+Rachel, "before you go away?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," Wentworth said. His feeling towards Sir William
+Gore was kindly on the whole, and the kindliness was intensified at this
+moment by compassion, although he could not help resenting a little that
+Gore should have been an indirect cause of Rendel's refusing what
+Wentworth considered was the chance of his friend's life. He shook hands
+with Rendel and prepared to follow Rachel. At this moment a loud, double
+knock resounded upon the hall door with a peremptoriness which must have
+induced an unusual and startling rapidity in the movements of Thacker,
+Rendel's butler, for almost instantly afterwards he threw open the study
+door with a visible perturbation and excitement in his demeanour,
+saying--
+
+"It's Lord Stamfordham, sir, who wants particularly to see you." And to
+Rendel's amazement Lord Stamfordham appeared in the doorway. He bowed
+to Wentworth, whom he knew slightly, and shook hands with Rachel. She
+then went straight out, followed by Wentworth. As the door closed behind
+them, Stamfordham, answering Rendel's look of inquiry and without
+waiting for any interchange of greetings, said hurriedly--
+
+"Rendel, I want you to do me a service."
+
+"Please command me," Rendel said quickly, looking straight at him. He
+felt his heart beat as Stamfordham paused, put his hat down on the
+table, took his pocket-book out of his breast pocket and a folded paper
+out of it.
+
+"I want you," he said, "to transcribe some pencil notes of mine."
+
+"You want _me_ to transcribe them?" said Rendel, with an involuntary
+inflection of surprise in his tone.
+
+"Yes, if you will," said Stamfordham. "The fact is, Marchmont, the only
+man I have had since you left me who can read my writing when I take
+rough pencil notes in a hurry, has collapsed just to-day, out of sheer
+excitement I believe, and because he sat up for one night writing."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Rendel, half to himself.
+
+"Yes," said Stamfordham drily; and then he went on, as one who knows
+that he must leave the sick and wounded behind without waiting to pity
+them. "These," unfolding the paper, "are notes of a conversation that I
+have just had at the German Embassy with Bergowitz." Rendel's quick
+movement as he heard the name showed that he realised what that
+juxtaposition meant at such a moment. "Every moment is precious,"
+Stamfordham went on, "and it suddenly dawned on me as I left the Embassy
+that you were close at hand and might be willing to do it."
+
+The German Embassy was at the moment, during some building operations,
+occupying temporary premises near Belgrave Square.
+
+"I should think so indeed," Rendel said eagerly.
+
+"The notes are very short, as you see," said Stamfordham. "You know, of
+course, what has been happening. I needn't go into that." And as he
+spoke a boy passed under the windows crying the evening papers, and they
+distinctly heard "Panic on the Stock Exchange." The two men's eyes met.
+
+"Yes, there is a panic on the Stock Exchange," Stamfordham said,
+"because every one thinks there will be war--but there probably won't."
+
+"Not?" said Rendel. "Can it be stopped?"
+
+Stamfordham answered him by unfolding the piece of paper and laying it
+down before him on the table. It was a map of Africa, roughly outlined,
+but still clearly enough to show unmistakably what it was intended to
+convey, for all down the map from north to south there was a thick line
+drawn to the west of the Cape to Cairo Railway--the latter being
+indicated, but more faintly, in pencil--starting at Alexandria and
+running down through the whole of the continent, bending slightly to the
+southward between Bechuanaland and Namaqualand, and ending at the
+Orange River. East of that line was written ENGLAND, west of it GERMANY,
+and below it some lines of almost illegible writing in pencil.
+
+Rendel almost gasped.
+
+"What?" he said; "a partition of Africa?"
+
+"Yes," said Stamfordham. Then he said with a sort of half smile, "The
+partition, that is to say, so far as it is in our own hands. But,"
+speaking rapidly, "I will just put you in possession of the facts of the
+case and give you the clue. We abandon to Germany everything that we
+have a claim to west of this line. It does not come to very much," in
+answer to an involuntary movement on Rendel's part; and he swept his
+hand across the coast of the Gulf of Guinea as though wiping out of
+existence the Gold Coast, Ashanti, Sierra Leone, and all that had
+mattered before. "Germany abandons to us everything that she lays claim
+to on the east of it, including therefore the whole course of the Cape
+to Cairo Railway."
+
+"But has Germany agreed?" said Rendel, stupefied with surprise.
+
+"Germany has agreed," said Stamfordham. "We have just heard from
+Berlin."
+
+Rendel felt as if his breath were taken away by the rapid motion of the
+events.
+
+"That means peace, then?" he said.
+
+"Yes," Stamfordham said; "peace."
+
+"Then when is this going to be given to the world?" said Rendel.
+
+"Some of it possibly to-morrow," said Stamfordham. "The Cabinet Council
+will meet this evening, and the King's formal sanction obtained. Of
+course," he went on, "the broad outlines only will be published--the
+fact of the understanding at any rate, not necessarily the terms of the
+partition. But it is important for financial reasons that the country
+should know as soon as possible that war is averted."
+
+"Of course, of course," said Rendel. "Immeasurably important."
+
+Stamfordham took up his hat and held out his hand with his air of
+courtly politeness as he turned towards the door.
+
+"I may count upon you to do this for me immediately?"
+
+"This instant," said Rendel, taking up the papers. "Shall I take them to
+your house as soon as they are done?"
+
+"Please," said Stamfordham. "No, stay--I am going back to the German
+Embassy now, then probably to the Foreign Office. You had better simply
+send a messenger you can rely upon, and tell him to wait at my house to
+give them into my own hand, as I am not sure where I shall be for the
+next hour. Rendel, I must ask you by all you hold sacred to take care of
+those papers. If that map were to be caught sight of before the
+time----"
+
+Rendel involuntarily held it tighter at the thought of such a
+catastrophe.
+
+"Good Heavens!--yes," he said. "But that shan't happen. Look," and he
+dropped the paper through the slit in the closed revolving corner of
+his large writing-table, a cover that was solidly locked with his own
+key so that, though papers could be put in through the slit, it was
+impossible to take them out again without unlocking the cover and
+lifting it up. "This is the only key," he said, showing his bunch. "Now
+then, they are perfectly safe while I go across the hall with you."
+
+Stamfordham nodded.
+
+"By the way," he said, pausing, "you are married now, Rendel...."
+
+"I am, yes, I am glad to say," Rendel replied.
+
+"To be sure," said Stamfordham, with a little bow conveying discreet
+congratulation. "But--remember that a married man sometimes tells
+secrets to his wife."
+
+"Does he, sir?" said Rendel, with an air of assumed innocence.
+
+"I believe I have heard so," said Stamfordham.
+
+"On the other hand," said Rendel, "I also have heard that a married man
+sometimes keeps secrets from his wife."
+
+"Oh well, that is better," said Stamfordham.
+
+"From some points of view, perhaps," said Rendel. Then he added more
+seriously, "You may be quite sure, sir, that no one--_no one_--in this
+house shall know about those papers. I would give you my word of honour,
+but I don't suppose it would make my assertion any stronger."
+
+"If you said nothing," said Stamfordham, "it would be enough;" and
+Rendel's heart glowed within him as their eyes met and the compact was
+ratified. "By the way, Rendel, there was one thing more I wanted to say
+to you. There will probably be a vacancy at Stoke Newton before long;
+aren't you going into the House?"
+
+"Some time," said Rendel. "When I get a chance."
+
+"Well, there is going to be a chance now," said Stamfordham. "Old
+Crawley is going to resign. I hear it from private sources; the world
+doesn't know it yet. It is a safe Imperialist seat, and in our part of
+the world."
+
+"I should like very much to try," said Rendel, forcing himself to speak
+quietly.
+
+"Suppose you write to our committee down there?" said Stamfordham. "That
+is, when you have done your more pressing business--I mean mine."
+
+"That shall come before everything else," Rendel said. "I will do it at
+this moment."
+
+He turned quickly back into his study after Stamfordham had left him,
+and unlocked and threw up the revolving cover of the writing-table
+hastily, for fear that something should have happened to the paper on
+which the destinies of the civilised world were hanging. There it was,
+safe in his keeping, his and nobody else's. He took it in his hand and
+for a moment walked up and down the room, unable to control himself,
+trying to realise the tremendous change in the aspect of his fortunes
+that had taken place in the last half-hour. Then he had seemed to
+himself in the backwater, out of the throng of existence. He had been
+trying to reconcile himself to the idea that he was "out of it," as he
+had put it to himself--left behind. And now he shared with the two great
+potentates of the world the knowledge of what was going to take place;
+it was his hand that should transcribe the words that had decided it; he
+was a witness, and so far the only one. Then with an effort he forced
+himself to be calm. Every minute was of importance. He sat down at the
+writing-table, took up the paper, and pored over it to try to
+disentangle the strange dots, scratches, and lines which, flowing from
+Stamfordham's pen, took the place of handwriting. Some ill-natured
+people said that Stamfordham was quite conscious of the advantage of
+having writing which could not be read without a close scrutiny. It was
+no doubt possible. However, having the clue to what the contents of the
+paper were, Rendel, to his immense relief, found that he could decipher
+it. As he was writing the first word of the fair copy the door of the
+study opened slowly, and Sir William Gore appeared on the threshold, a
+newspaper in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Sir William, who had not been able to come downstairs for a month, may
+be forgiven for unconsciously feeling that the occasion was one which
+demanded from his son-in-law a semblance of cordial welcome at any rate,
+if not of glad surprise. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to
+learn that we are not looking each of us at the same aspect of life as
+our neighbour, especially our neighbour of a different time of life from
+ourselves. We appeal to him as a matter of course, and say, "Look! see
+how life appears to me to-day! see what existence is like in relation to
+myself!" But unfortunately the neighbour, who is standing on the outside
+of that particular circle, and not in its centre, does not see what we
+mean. Sir William had been shut up for a month in the room that he
+inhabited on the drawing-room floor of the house in Cosmo Place. He had
+simply not had mental energy to care about what was happening beyond the
+four walls of that room. If he had been asked at that moment what the
+universe was, he would have said that it was a succession of days and
+nights in which the important things of life were the hours and
+compositions of his meals, the probable hour of the doctor's visit, and
+the steps to be made each day towards recovery and the resumption of
+ordinary habits.
+
+Rachel had of course devoted herself to him. It was she who went up with
+his breakfast, who read to him during the morning, who tried to remember
+everything that happened out of doors to tell him on her return; it was
+she who had done many hundreds of patiences in the days when he was not
+well enough to play at chess. He was hardly well enough now, but he had
+set his heart upon the first day when he should come down and play chess
+with Rendel as a sort of pivot in his miserable existence. And now the
+moment had come. How should he know that for all practical purposes his
+son-in-law was a different being from the young man who had come
+upstairs to see him the day before? For yesterday Rendel had come up and
+talked to him about indifferent things, not telling him, lest he should
+be excited, of the evil rumours that were filling the air, and had gone
+downstairs again himself with a miserably unoccupied day in front of
+him--a day in which to remember and overcome the fact that, instead of
+being in the arena of which the echoes reached him, he was doomed to be
+a spectator from afar, who could take no part in the fray. But so much
+Sir William had not known. How should we any of us know what the inward
+counterpart is to the outward manifestation? know that the person who
+comes into the room may be, although appearing the same, different from
+the one who went out? He knew only that the Rendel of this morning had
+said with a smile, "I am looking forward to the moment when you will
+checkmate me again." And Sir William had a right to expect that, that
+moment having come, Rendel should feel the importance and pleasure of it
+as much as he did himself. But it was not the same Rendel who sat there,
+it was not the unoccupied spectator ready to join his leisure to that of
+another; it was a resolute combatant who had been suddenly called into a
+front post, and for whom the whole aspect of the world had changed. It
+was an absolute physical effort to Rendel, as the door opened and he saw
+Sir William, to bring his mind back to the conditions of a few hours
+before. The fact of any one coming in at that moment called him back to
+earth again, turned him violently about to face the commonplace
+importunities of existence. Sir William had probably not formulated to
+himself what he had vaguely expected, but it certainly was not the
+puzzled, half-questioning look, the indescribable air of being taken
+aback, altered at once by a quick impulse into something that tried not
+to look forbidding, and more strange and tell-tale than all the quick
+movement by which Rendel drew a large sheet of blotting-paper over what
+he was writing. Sir William's whole being was jarred, his rejoicing in
+the small occasion of being on another stage towards recovery was gone;
+nobody cared, not one. Rachel was not in the house, and who else was
+there to care? Nobody: there never would be again. Could it be possible
+that for the rest of his life he was doomed to be in a world so arranged
+that his comings and goings were not the most important of all? He stood
+still a moment, then tried to speak in his usual voice.
+
+"I am not in your way, am I, Rendel?"
+
+Rendel also made a conscious effort as he replied, rising from his chair
+as he spoke--
+
+"Oh no, Sir William, please come in. I have some writing to finish, if
+you don't mind."
+
+"Pray go on," said Sir William; "I won't disturb you. I'll sit down here
+and read the paper till you are ready"; and he sat down with his back to
+the writing-table and the window, in the big chair which Rendel drew
+forward.
+
+"Thank you," Sir William said. "I took the liberty of bringing in your
+afternoon paper which was outside."
+
+"Certainly," Rendel replied, too absorbed for the moment in the thing
+his own attention was concentrated upon to realise the bearing of what
+Gore was saying. "Of course," and went back to his writing.
+
+Gore leant back, idly turning over the pages of the _Mayfair Gazette_;
+then he started as his eye fell on the alarmist announcements. What was
+this? What incredible things were these that he saw? The letters were
+swimming before him; he could only vaguely distinguish the black
+capitals and the headlines; the rest was a blur. All that stood out
+clearly was: "Cape to Cairo Railway in Danger," and then beneath it:
+"Sinister Rumours about the 'Equator, Ltd.'"
+
+"Rendel!" he said, half starting up. Rendel turned round with a start,
+dragging his mind from the thing it was bent upon. "How awful this is!"
+said Sir William, holding up the paper with a shaking hand. Rendel began
+to understand. But, that he should have to look up for one moment, for
+the fraction of a second, from those words that he was transcribing!
+
+"Yes, yes, it is terrible," he said, and bent over his writing again.
+Sir William tried to go on reading. What was this about Germany? War
+would mean the collapse of everything--private schemes as well as all
+others.
+
+"War! Do you think it can possibly mean war?" he said. "Can't Germany be
+squared?"
+
+"War!" said Rendel without looking up. "Who can tell?" And again he felt
+the supreme excitement of standing unseen at the right hand of the man
+who was driving the ship through the storm. Sir William laid down the
+paper on his knee and tried to think, but all he could do was to close
+his eyes and keep perfectly still. Everything was vague ... and the
+worst of it--or was it the best of it?--was that nothing seemed to
+matter.
+
+At the same moment a brief colloquy was being exchanged outside the hall
+door. Stamfordham's brougham had drawn up again, and Thacker, who was
+standing hanging about the hall with a secret intention of being on the
+spot if tremendous things were going to happen, had instantly rushed
+out.
+
+"Is Mr. Rendel in?" said Lord Stamfordham hurriedly as Thacker stood at
+the door of the brougham.
+
+"Yes, my lord."
+
+"Ask him to come and speak to me."
+
+Thacker was shaken into unwonted excitement; he opened the door of the
+study quickly and went in. Sir William started violently. Any sudden
+noise in the present state of his nerves threw him completely off his
+balance.
+
+"Can you come and speak to Lord Stamfordham, sir?"
+
+Rendel sprang up; then with a sudden thought turned back and pulled down
+the top of his writing-table, which shut with a spring, and rushed out
+without seeing that Sir William had begun raising himself laboriously
+from his chair as he said--
+
+"Don't let me be in your way, Rendel."
+
+"His lordship is not coming in, Sir William," said Thacker.
+
+Sir William sank back into his chair. Thacker, after waiting an instant
+as though to see whether Gore had any orders for him, went quietly out,
+closing the door after him.
+
+Rendel had madly caught up a hat as he passed, and flown down the steps,
+not seeing in his haste a burly personage who was coming along the
+pavement dressed in the ordinary garb of the English citizen, with
+nothing about him to show that his glowing right hand held the
+thunderbolts which he was going to hurl at the head of Gore. It is
+unnecessary to say that Robert Pateley knew Stamfordham's carriage well
+by sight; and it was with pleasure and satisfaction that he found that
+Providence had brought him on to the pavement at Cosmo Place in time to
+see one of the moves in the great game which the world was playing that
+day. It was better on the whole that he should not accost Rendel. There
+was no need at that moment for Stamfordham to be aware of his presence,
+although, after all, there was no reason why he should not be. But
+seeing Rendel standing speaking to Stamfordham at the door of the
+brougham he conceived that he was probably coming in again directly, and
+made up his mind to go in and see Gore at any rate if possible. He went
+up the steps, therefore, and into the house, the front door being open.
+It happened neither Rendel nor Stamfordham saw him enter, the former
+having his back turned and blocking the view of the latter. Thacker,
+with intense interest, was watching the development of affairs from the
+dining-room window, and did not see Pateley go in either.
+
+"Have you done the thing?" said Stamfordham quickly.
+
+"All but," Rendel said.
+
+"Well, I want you to add this," said Stamfordham. "Get in and drive back
+with me, will you? I have so little time."
+
+Rendel jumped in, and the brougham moved past the window just as Sir
+William Gore, who had painfully pulled himself out of his chair, looked
+out, petrified with surprise at the unexplained crisis that seemed to
+have come upon the household. "Stamfordham!" he said to himself, "and
+Frank! What are the Imperialists hatching now, I wonder?" and he
+mechanically looked round him at Rendel's writing-table. It was,
+however, closed and forbidding, save for a little corner of white paper
+that was sticking out under the revolving flap. By one of those strange,
+almost unconscious impulses which may suddenly overtake the best of us
+at times, Gore put out his hand and pulled out the paper. It was quite
+loose and came away in his hand. What was it? He looked at it vaguely.
+Then gradually it became clear. A map?... yes, it was a rough map, with
+a thick line drawn from the top to the bottom down the middle of it;
+names to the right and the left. England? Germany? And what were those
+words written underneath? _What?_ Was that how Germany was going to be
+'squared?' And sheer excitement gave him strength to grasp more or less
+the meaning of what he saw. If Africa were going to be divided, if
+Germany and England were agreeing to that division, it meant Peace.
+There was no doubt of it. But had the Imperialists suddenly gone on to
+the side of peace? Had they snatched that trump card from their
+adversaries and were they going to play it? Sir William stood gazing at
+the paper. Then as he heard some one at the door of the room he
+suddenly realised what he had done. He instinctively clutched the paper
+in the hand which held the _Mayfair Gazette_, the newspaper concealing
+it. As he turned and looked towards the door an unexpected sight greeted
+his eyes--no other than Pateley, who, finding himself in the hall
+unheralded, had made up his mind to come into Rendel's study and there
+ring the bell for some one who should bring word to Sir William Gore of
+his presence. But he was surprised to find Sir William downstairs
+instead of in his room as he had expected. He paused for a moment,
+shocked at the change in Gore's appearance. He looked thin, listless,
+bent: his upright figure, his spring, his energy were gone. Pateley's
+heart smote him for a moment. Would it be possible to call this feeble,
+suffering creature to account? Then his heart hardened again as he
+thought of his sisters.
+
+"Pateley!" said Gore, advancing with the remains of his usual manner,
+but curiously shaken for the moment, as Pateley said to himself, out of
+his usual self-confidence.
+
+The state of nervousness of the older man was painfully perceptible.
+Added to his general weakness, which made the mere fact of seeing some
+one unexpectedly a sudden shock to him, he had besides at that moment an
+additional and very definite reason for uneasiness in the thing which he
+held in his hand. He endeavoured, however, to pull himself together as
+he shook hands with Pateley.
+
+"I have not seen you for a long time," he said, pointing to a chair and
+sinking back into his own.
+
+"No," Pateley replied. "I was very sorry to hear that you had been ill.
+You are looking rather bad still."
+
+"And feeling so," Sir William said wearily. "The worst of influenza is
+that one feels just as bad when one is supposed to be getting better as
+when one is supposed to be getting worse. It is a most annoying form of
+complaint."
+
+"So I have understood," said Pateley, "though I have not learnt it by
+personal experience."
+
+"No, you don't look as though you suffered from weakness," said Sir
+William, with a faint smile and a consciousness that this was not a
+person from whom it would be very easy to extract sympathy for his own
+condition.
+
+Pateley paused. He felt curiously uncomfortable and hesitating, a
+sensation somewhat novel to him. Sir William leant back in his chair,
+trying to control the trembling of his hands, of which one held the
+_Mayfair Gazette_, the smaller paper still concealed underneath it.
+
+"I see," Pateley said, "you are reading the evening paper. Not very good
+reading, is it? Things look pretty bad."
+
+"They do indeed," said Sir William.
+
+"It looks uncommonly like war with Germany," Pateley said; "prices are
+tumbling down headlong on the Stock Exchange. I believe there is going
+to be something very like a panic."
+
+"Is there?" said Gore uneasily; "that's bad."
+
+"Yes, it is very bad," Pateley went on. "I suppose you have heard that
+there are ugly rumours about the 'Equator.'"
+
+"I saw something," Sir William said, forcing himself to speak. "What is
+it exactly that they say?"
+
+"Well, the last thing they say," Pateley replied with a harder ring in
+his voice, "is that it is not a gold mine at all."
+
+"What?" said Sir William, grasping the arms of his chair.
+
+"And that the whole thing, therefore, is going to pieces with every
+penny invested in it."
+
+"Is it--is it as bad as that?" said the other, tremulously. "No, no, it
+can't be. Surely it can't be."
+
+"Do you mean to say you don't know?" said Pateley.
+
+"I know nothing," said Sir William. "I have heard nothing about it, up
+to this moment."
+
+"One can't help wondering," said Pateley, "that a man in your
+responsible position towards it," the words struck Sir William like a
+blow, "should not have known, should not have inquired----"
+
+"I have been ill, you know," Sir William said nervously, "I have not
+been able to look into or understand anything. I have not been out of
+the house yet. I could not go to the City or do any business."
+
+"Yes, I see that," said Pateley, "and I am sorry to be obliged to
+thrust a business discussion upon you now----"
+
+Sir William looked up at him quickly, anxiously.
+
+"But the fact is, at this moment the business won't wait. If you
+remember, when the 'Equator' Company was first started, I, like many
+others, invested in it, having asked your opinion of it first, and
+having heard from you that you were going to be the Chairman of the
+Board of Directors."
+
+"I believed in it, you know," Sir William said, with eagerness; "I put a
+lot of money into it myself."
+
+"I know you did, yes," said Pateley, "but _you_ fortunately had a lot to
+do it with, and also a lot of money to keep out of it. Every one is not
+so happily situated. I blame myself, I need not say, acutely, as well as
+others." And as Sir William looked at him sitting there in his
+relentless strength, he felt that there was small mercy to be expected
+at his hands.
+
+"I don't know," Sir William said, trying to speak with dignity, "that I
+was to blame. I believed in it, as others did."
+
+"No doubt," Pateley said. "But I am afraid that will hardly be a
+satisfactory explanation for the shareholders. The shares at this moment
+are absolutely worthless."
+
+"But what can I do?" said Sir William. "What would you have me do?"
+
+"It seems to me there is a rather obvious thing to be done," said
+Pateley. "It is to help to make good the losses of the people who,
+through you, will be"--and he paused--"ruined."
+
+"Ruined!" Sir William repeated, "No, no--it cannot be as bad as that. It
+is terrible," he muttered to himself. "It is terrible."
+
+"Yes, it is terrible," said Pateley, "and even something uglier."
+
+"But," Sir William said miserably, "I don't know that I can be blamed
+for it. Anderson, who is absolutely honest, reported on the thing, and
+believed in it to the extent of spending all he had in getting the
+rights to work it."
+
+"That is possible," Pateley said, "but Anderson was not the chairman of
+the company. You are."
+
+"Worse luck," Sir William said bitterly.
+
+"Yes, worse luck," Pateley said. "Your name up to now has been an
+honourable one." Sir William started and looked at him again. "I am
+afraid," Pateley went on, "after this it may have," and he spoke as if
+weighing his words, "a different reputation."
+
+Sir William cleared his throat and spoke with an effort.
+
+"Pateley," he said, "you won't let _that_ happen? You will make it
+clear...? You have influence in the Press----"
+
+"I am afraid," Pateley said, "that my influence, such as it is, must on
+this occasion be exerted the other way. Of course there is a good deal
+at stake for me here," he went on, in a matter of fact tone which
+carried more conviction than an outburst of emotion would have done. "I
+care for my sisters, and I am afraid I can't sit down and see
+them--swindled, or something very like it."
+
+"Not, swindled!" said Gore angrily.
+
+"Well," Pateley said, "that is really what it looks like to the
+outsider, and that is what, as a matter of fact, it comes to."
+
+"Heaven knows I would make it right if I could," said Sir William, "but
+how can I?"
+
+"Well, of course, on occasions of this kind," Pateley said, still in the
+same everyday manner, as though judicially dealing with a fact which did
+not specially concern him, "it is sometimes done by the simple process
+of the person responsible for the losses making them good--making
+restitution, in fact."
+
+"I have told you," said Sir William, "that I'm afraid that is
+impossible."
+
+"Ah then, I am sorry," Pateley said, in the tone of one determining, as
+Sir William dimly felt, on some course of action. "I thought some
+possible course might have suggested itself to you."
+
+"No, I can suggest nothing," Sir William said, leaning back in his
+chair, and feeling that neither mind nor body could respond at that
+moment to anything that called for fresh initiative.
+
+"I thought that you might have other possibilities on the Stock Exchange
+even," said Pateley, "though I must say I don't see in what direction.
+There is bound to be a panic the moment war is declared."
+
+There was a pause. Sir William lay back in his chair looking vaguely in
+front of him. Pateley sat waiting. Then Gore felt a strange flutter at
+his heart as the full bearing of Pateley's last sentence dawned upon
+him.
+
+"Supposing," he said, trying to speak steadily, "there were no war?"
+
+"That is hardly worth discussing," said Pateley briefly, as he got up.
+"War, I am afraid, is practically certain. Then do I understand, Sir
+William," he continued, "that you can do nothing to help me in this
+matter? If so, I am sorry. I had hoped I might have spared you some
+discomfort, but since you can do nothing----" He broke off and looked
+quickly out of the window, then said in explanation, "It is only a
+hansom stopping next door; I thought it might be Rendel coming back. But
+I was mistaken."
+
+Sir William realised that every instant was precious.
+
+"Pateley," he said, "look here. If you could wait a day or two
+longer...."
+
+"Do you mean," said Pateley, "that if I were to wait there would be a
+chance of your being able to do something?"
+
+"I don't know," said Sir William, "I am not sure, but there might be a
+turn in public affairs; the panic might be over, there might be a chance
+of peace."
+
+"If that is all," Pateley said quite definitely, "I am afraid that
+prospect is not enough to build upon. I can't afford to wait on that
+security."
+
+Sir William got up and spoke quickly with a visible effort.
+
+"Look here, listen... I have a reason for thinking that is the way
+things may be turning."
+
+"A reason?" said Pateley, turning round upon him.
+
+"Yes," said Sir William.
+
+"What is it?" said Pateley.
+
+Sir William felt his courage failing him in the desperate game he had
+begun to play. It was no good pausing now. He stood facing Pateley,
+holding a folded paper in his hand, no longer hidden by the newspaper
+which had slid from his grasp on to the ground. He looked at the paper
+in his hand mechanically. Mechanically Pateley's eye followed his. The
+conviction suddenly came to him that Gore was not speaking at random.
+
+"Sir William," he said, "time presses," and unconsciously they both
+looked towards the window into the street. At any moment Rendel might
+draw up again. "If you have any reason for what you are saying, tell
+me--if not, I must leave you to see what can be done."
+
+"I have a reason," said Sir William, "the strongest, for believing that
+there will be peace."
+
+Pateley looked at him. "Give me a proof?" he said, with the accent of a
+man who is wasting no words, no intentions.
+
+Sir William's hand tightened over the paper. "If I gave you a proof," he
+said, "would you swear not to take any proceedings against the 'Equator'
+Company?"
+
+"If you gave me a proof, yes--I would swear," said Pateley.
+
+"And you will keep the things out of the papers," Sir William went on
+hurriedly, "till I have had time to see my way?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley again.
+
+"And my name shall not appear in the matter?"
+
+"No--no," Pateley said, in spite of himself breathlessly and hurriedly,
+more excited than he wished to show. Sir William paused and looked
+towards the window. "All right," said Pateley, "you have time. Quick!
+What is it?"
+
+"There is going," Sir William said, "I am almost certain, to be an
+understanding, an agreement between England and Germany about this
+business in Africa."
+
+"Impossible!" said Pateley.
+
+"Yes," said Sir William, hardly audibly.
+
+"Give me the proof," Pateley said, coming close to him and in his
+excitement making a movement as though to take the paper out of Gore's
+hand.
+
+"Wait, wait!" Sir William said. "No, you mustn't do that!" and he
+staggered and leant back against the chimneypiece. Pateley had no time
+to waste in sympathy.
+
+"Look here, if you don't give it to me, show me what it is."
+
+"Yes, yes, I will show it you," Sir William said, "only you are not to
+take it, you are not to touch it."
+
+Pateley signed assent, and Sir William unfolded the map of Africa and
+held it up with a trembling hand.
+
+"What!" said Pateley, at first hardly grasping what he saw. Then its
+full significance began to dawn upon him. "Africa--a partition of Africa
+between Germany and England! Do you mean to say that is it?"
+
+"Yes," Sir William said. "But for Heaven's sake don't touch it, don't
+take it out of my hand," he said again, nervously conscious that his own
+strength was ebbing at every moment, and that if the resolute, dominant
+figure before him had chosen to seize on the paper, nothing could have
+prevented his doing so.
+
+"Well, at any rate, let me have a good look at it," Pateley said, "the
+coast is still clear," and as he went to the window to give another look
+out, he took something out of his breast pocket. "Now then," he said,
+turning back to Sir William, "hold it up in the light so that I can have
+a good look at it;" and as Sir William held it in the light of the
+window, Pateley, as quick as lightning, drew his tiny camera out of his
+pocket. There was a click, and the map of Africa had been photographed.
+Pateley unconsciously drew a quick breath of relief as he put the
+machine back. Sir William, as white as a sheet, dropped his hands in
+dismay.
+
+"Good Heavens! What have you done? Have you photographed it?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, trying to control his own excitement, and
+recovering his usual tone with an effort. "That's all, thank you. It is
+much the simplest form of illustration."
+
+"Illustration! What are you going to do with it?" Sir William said,
+aghast.
+
+"That depends," said Pateley. "I must see how and when I can use it to
+the best advantage."
+
+"You have sworn," Sir William said tremulously, "that you won't say
+where you got it from."
+
+"Of course I won't," Pateley said, gradually returning to his usual
+burly heartiness. "Now, may I ask where _you_ got it from?"
+
+"I got it out of there," Sir William said, pointing to the table. "A
+corner of it was sticking out."
+
+"Might I suggest that you should put it back again?" said Pateley.
+
+"Good Heavens, yes!" said Gore. "I had forgotten." And he nervously
+folded it up and dropped it through the slit of the table.
+
+"Ha, that's safer," said Pateley, with a short laugh. "You should not
+lose your head over these things," and he gave a swift look down the
+street again. "Now I must go. I am going straight to the City, and I'll
+tell you what I shall do," and his manner became more emphatic as he
+went on, as though answering some objection. "I'm going to buy up the
+whole of the 'Equator' shares on the chance of a rise, and perhaps some
+Cape to Cairo too, and then we'll see. Now, can't I do something for you
+too? Won't you buy something on the chance of a rise?"
+
+Sir William had sunk into a chair. He shook his head.
+
+"I am too tired to think," he said. "I don't know."
+
+"Well, you leave it to me," Pateley said, "and I'll do something for
+you--and if things go as we think, by next week you will be in a
+position to make good the losses of all London two or three times over.
+I'll let you know what happens, and what I've been able to do."
+
+"Thank you," Sir William said again feebly.
+
+"The news will soon pick you up," said Pateley heartily, as he shook him
+by the hand. "No, don't get up; I can find my way out. Goodbye." And a
+moment later he passed the window, striding away towards Knightsbridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Sir William remained lying back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling,
+too much exhausted by the excitement of the last few minutes to realise
+entirely what had happened, but with a vague, agonised consciousness
+that he had done something irrevocable, something that mattered
+supremely. But to try even to conceive what might be the consequence of
+it so made his heart throb and his head whirl that all he could do was
+to put it away from him with as much effort as he had strength to make.
+It was so that Rachel found him, when she came gaily in a few minutes
+later from a shopping expedition in Sloane Street, eager to tell him of
+all her little doings, and of some acquaintances she had met in the
+street. He looked at her and tried to smile.
+
+"Father--father--dear father!" she said in consternation. "What is it?
+Are you not so well?"
+
+"Yes, yes," he said nervously, trying to speak in something like his
+ordinary voice. "I am--tired, that's all."
+
+"You have been up too long," she said anxiously.
+
+"I don't think it's that," he said.
+
+"But where is Frank?" asked Rachel. "I thought, of course, that he was
+with you. That was why I went out. I had no idea you would be alone."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham came," said Sir William, feeling like one who is
+forced to approach something that horrifies him, and who dares not look
+it in the face. "Frank went out with him."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham! Again!" said Rachel amazed.
+
+"Yes," said Sir William, leaning back with his eyes closed, as though
+unable to expend any of his feeble strength on surprise or wonder, much
+less on attempts at explanation. And as Rachel looked at him her
+solicitude overcame every other thought.
+
+"Darling," she said, "do come back to your own room. Let's go upstairs
+now."
+
+"No, no," said Sir William quickly, feeling, even though he thought of
+Rendel's return with absolute terror, that it would be better to know
+the worst at once without waiting in suspense for the blow to fall.
+"I'll wait till Rendel comes in."
+
+"But he shall go up to you at once," Rachel urged. "Do come up now, dear
+father."
+
+At that moment, however, the question of whether they should wait or not
+for Rendel's return was settled for them, for his latchkey was heard
+turning in the front door. He came into the room with such an air as a
+winged messenger of victory might wear, unconscious of his surroundings
+and of the road he traverses as he speeds along. Rachel looked at him,
+and forbore to utter either the inquiry that sprang to her lips or any
+appeal for sympathy about her father's condition.
+
+"I've got to finish some writing," Rendel said, bringing back his
+thoughts with visible effort. And he went quickly to the writing-table,
+opening it with the key of his watch-chain. Sir William dared not look.
+He tried to remember what had happened when he so hurriedly put the
+paper back; he wondered whether it had stuck in the slit, or if it had
+gone properly through and fallen straight among the others. There was a
+pause during which he sat up and gripped the arms of his chair,
+listening as if for life. Nothing had happened apparently. Rendel had
+drawn up his chair and was writing again busily. Sir William fell back
+again and closed his eyes as a flood of relief swept over him, Rachel
+sitting by him quietly, her hand laid gently on his. Rendel went on
+writing, transcribing from some more rough pencil notes he had brought
+in in his hand, then, having quickly rung the bell, he proceeded to do
+the whole thing up in a packet and seal it securely.
+
+"I want this taken to Lord Stamfordham at once," he said, as the servant
+came into the room. "And, Thacker, I should like you to go with it
+yourself, please. It's very important, and I want it to be given into
+his own hand. If he isn't in, please wait."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Thacker, taking the precious packet and departing, with
+a secret thrill of wondering excitement.
+
+Rendel pulled down the lid of the table, drawing a sort of long breath
+as he did so, like one who has cleared the big fence immediately in
+front of him, and is ready for the next. Sir William's breath was coming
+and going quickly.
+
+"I'm afraid you don't look very fit for chess, Sir William," he said
+kindly, struck with his father-in-law's look of haggard anxiety and
+illness.
+
+"No," Sir William said feebly, "not to-day, I'm afraid."
+
+"I'm sorry to see you like this," Rendel said. "Let me help you
+upstairs. What have you been doing with yourself since I left you? You
+don't look nearly so well as when you came down."
+
+"I feel a little faint," Sir William said. "It would be better for me to
+go and rest now, perhaps." And leaning on Rendel's arm, and followed
+solicitously by Rachel, he went upstairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+The night passed slowly and restlessly for Sir William Gore, although he
+slept from sheer exhaustion, and even when he was not sleeping was in a
+state of semi-coma, without any clear perception of what had happened.
+But in his dreams he lived through one quarter of an hour of the day
+before, over and over and over again, always with the same result,
+always with the same sense of some unexpected, horrible, shameful
+catastrophe, that was to lead to his utter humiliation. That was the
+impression that still remained when at last the morning came, and he
+finally awoke to the life of another day. Over and over again he went
+over the situation as he lay there, Pateley's words ringing in his ears,
+his looks present before him. Again he felt the sensation of absolute
+sickness at his heart that had gripped him at the moment he had realised
+that the map had been photographed, passing as much out of his own power
+as though he had given it to a man in the street. Does any one really
+acknowledge in his inmost soul that he has on a given occasion done
+"wrong," without an immeasurable qualifying of that word, without a
+covert resentment at the way other people may label his action? There is
+but one person in the world who even approximates to knowing the history
+of any given deed. The very fact of snatching it from its context puts
+it into the wrong proportion, the fact of contemplating it as though it
+were something deliberate, separate, complete in itself, apart from all
+that has led up to it, apart from the complication and pressure of
+circumstance. Sir William went over and over again in his mind all that
+had happened the day before, trying to realise under what aspect his
+actions would appear to others--over and over again, until everything
+became blurred and he hardly knew under what aspect they appeared to
+himself. He felt helplessly indignant with Fate, with Chance, that had
+with such dire results made him the plaything of a passing impulse. Then
+with the necessity of finding an object for his anger, his thoughts
+turned first to Rendel, who had primarily put him in the position of
+gaining the knowledge he had used to such disastrous effect, and then to
+Pateley, who had taken it from him.
+
+It is unpleasant enough for a child, at a time of life generally
+familiar with humiliation and chastisement, to see the moment nearing
+when his guilt will be discovered: but it is horrible for a man who is
+approaching old age, who is dignified and respected, suddenly to find
+himself in the position of having something to conceal, of being
+actually afraid of facing the judgment and incurring the censure of a
+younger man. And at that moment Gore felt as if he almost hated the man
+whose hand could hurl such a thunderbolt. Then his thoughts turned to
+Pateley, to the probable result of his operations in the City. In the
+other greater anxiety which he himself had suddenly imported into his
+life, that first care, which yet was important enough, of the "Equator,"
+had almost sunk out of sight. Would the mine turn out to be a gold mine
+after all? What would Pateley be able to do? Would he be able to make
+enough to cover his liabilities? and his head swam as he tried to
+remember what these might amount to.
+
+In the meantime Rendel, in a very different frame of mind from that of
+his father-in-law, or, indeed, from that of his own of the night before,
+filled with a buoyant thrill of expectation, with the sense that
+something was going to happen, that everything might be going to happen,
+was looking out into life as one who looks from a watch tower waiting on
+fortune and circumstances, waiting confident and well-equipped without a
+misgiving. The day was big with fate: a day on which new developments
+might continue for himself, the thrill of excitement of the night
+before, the sense of being in the foreground, of being actually hurried
+along in the front between the two giants who were leading the way. The
+dining-room was ablaze with sunshine as he came into it, and in the
+morning light sat Rachel, looking up at him with a smile when he came
+into the room.
+
+"What an excellent world it is, truly!" said Rendel, as he came across
+the room.
+
+"I am glad it is to your liking," she answered.
+
+"You look very well this morning," said Rendel, looking at her, "which
+means very pretty."
+
+"I don't feel so especially pretty," said Rachel, with something between
+a smile and a sigh.
+
+"Don't you? Don't have any illusions about your appearance," said
+Rendel. "Don't suppose yourself to be plain, please."
+
+"I am not so sure," said Rachel, as she began pouring out the tea.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" said Rendel. "What fault do you find with
+the world, and your appearance?"
+
+"I am perturbed about my father," she said, her voice telling of the
+very real anxiety that lay behind the words. "I don't think he is as
+well as he was yesterday."
+
+"Don't you?" said Rendel, more gravely. "I am very sorry. What is the
+matter?"
+
+"I can't think," Rachel answered. "He may have done too much yesterday
+afternoon."
+
+"He certainly looked terribly tired," said Rendel.
+
+"Terribly," said Rachel, "but I can't imagine why. He had been so
+absolutely quiet all the afternoon."
+
+"Well, you take care of him to-day," said Rendel, unable to eliminate
+the cheerful confidence from his voice.
+
+"I shall indeed," said Rachel.
+
+"Oh, he'll come all right again, never fear," said Rendel. "You mustn't
+take too gloomy a view."
+
+"You certainly seem inclined to take a cheerful one this morning," said
+Rachel, half convinced in spite of herself that all was well.
+
+"Well, I do," said Rendel. "I must say that in spite of the prevalent
+opinion to the contrary, I feel inclined this morning to say that the
+scheme of the universe is entirely right; it is just to my liking. The
+sunshine, and my breakfast, and my wife----"
+
+"I am glad I am included," she said.
+
+"And the day to live through. What can a man wish for more?"
+
+"It sounds as though you had everything you could possibly want,
+certainly," said Rachel, smiling at him.
+
+"I don't know," said Rendel, reflecting, "if it is that quite. The real
+happiness is to want everything you can possibly get. That is the best
+thing of all."
+
+"And not so difficult, I should think," said Rachel.
+
+"I am not sure," said Rendel. "I am not sure that it is quite an easy
+thing to have an ardent hold on life. Some people keep letting it down
+with a flop. But I feel as if I could hold it tight this morning at any
+rate. I do not believe there is a creature in the wide world that I
+would change places with at this moment," he went on, the force of his
+ardent hope and purpose breaking down his usual reserve.
+
+"You are very enthusiastic to-day, Frank," she said.
+
+"Well, one can't do much without enthusiasm," said Rendel, continuing
+his breakfast with a satisfied air, "but with it one can move the
+world."
+
+"Is that what you are going to do?" said Rachel.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel nodding.
+
+"Frank, I wonder if you will be a great man?"
+
+"Can you doubt it?" said Rendel.
+
+"Supposing," she said, "some day you were a sort of Lord Stamfordham."
+
+"That is rather a far cry," he replied. "By the way, I wonder where the
+papers are this morning? Why are they so late?"
+
+"They will come directly," Rachel said. "It is a very good thing they're
+late, you can eat your breakfast in peace for once without knowing what
+has happened."
+
+"That is not the proper spirit," said Rendel smiling, "for the wife of a
+future great man."
+
+"The only thing is," said Rachel, "that if you did become a great man, I
+don't think I should be the sort of wife for you. I am very stupid about
+politics, don't you think so? I don't understand things properly."
+
+"I think you are exactly the sort of wife I want," said Rendel, "and
+that is enough for me. That is the only thing necessary for you to
+understand. I don't believe you do understand it really."
+
+"Then are you quite sure," she said, half laughing and half in earnest,
+"that you don't like politics better than you do me?"
+
+"Absolutely certain," said Rendel, with a slight change of tone that
+told his passionate conviction. "I wish you could grasp that in
+comparison with you, nothing matters to me."
+
+"Nothing?" she repeated.
+
+"There is nothing," said Rendel, looking at her, "that I would not
+sacrifice to you--my career, my ambitions, anything you asked for."
+
+"I am glad," she said, "that you like me so much, but I don't want you
+to make sacrifices," and she spoke in all unconsciousness of the number
+of small sacrifices, of an unheroic aspect perhaps, that Rendel was
+daily called upon to make for her sake.
+
+At this moment Thacker came in with the morning papers, which he laid on
+the table at Rendel's elbow.
+
+"Now then you are happy," said Rachel lightly. "Now you can bury
+yourself in the papers and not listen to anything I say."
+
+"I wonder if there is anything about Stoke Newton and old Crawley's
+resignation," said Rendel, quite prepared to follow her advice. "I don't
+suppose he takes a very jovial view of life just now, poor old boy. Oh,
+how I should hate to be on the shelf!"
+
+"I don't think you are likely to be, for the present," said Rachel.
+
+And then Rendel, pushing his chair a little away from the table, opened
+the papers wide, and began scanning them one after another, with the
+mild and pleasurable excitement of the man who feels confidently abreast
+of circumstances. Then, as he took up the _Arbiter_, his eye suddenly
+fell upon a heading that took his breath away. What was this? He dropped
+the paper with a cry.
+
+"What is it, Frank?" said Rachel startled.
+
+"Good Heavens! what have they done that for?" he said, springing to his
+feet in uncontrollable excitement.
+
+"Done what?" said Rachel.
+
+"Why, they have announced--they have put in something that Lord
+Stamfordham----" He snatched up the paper again and looked at it
+eagerly. "It is incredible! and the map too, the very map, at this
+stage! Well, upon my word, he has made a mistake this time, I do
+believe." And he still gazed at the paper as though trying to fathom the
+whole hearing of what he saw.
+
+At this moment the door opened, and Thacker came in.
+
+"Sir William wished me to ask you for some foolscap paper, ma'am,
+please," he said, "with lines on it."
+
+"Foolscap paper? What is he doing?" said Rachel anxiously.
+
+"He is writing, ma'am," said Thacker. "He seems to be doing accounts."
+
+"Oh, I wish he wouldn't!" Rachel said. "I must go and see. I'll bring
+the foolscap paper myself, Thacker. Frank, there is some in your study,
+isn't there?"
+
+"What?" said Rendel, who, still absorbed in what he had just seen, had
+only dimly heard their colloquy.
+
+"Some foolscap paper," she repeated. "There is some in your study?"
+
+"Yes, yes, in my writing-table," he said absently.
+
+Rachel went quickly out of the room. At that moment the hall door bell
+rang violently. Rendel started and went to the window. In the phase of
+acute tension in which he found himself, every unexpected sound carried
+an untold significance, but he was not prepared for what this one
+betokened: Lord Stamfordham in the street, dismounting from his horse.
+Stamfordham was accustomed to ride every morning from eight till nine,
+alone and unattended. Thacker hurried out to hold the horse. Rendel
+followed him and met Stamfordham on the doorstep. He led the way quickly
+across the hall into his study and shut the door. They both felt
+instinctively that greetings were superfluous.
+
+"Have you seen the _Arbiter_?" Stamfordham said.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, looking him straight in the face with eager
+expectation.
+
+"So have I," said Stamfordham, "at the German Embassy. I had not seen it
+before leaving home, but I saw a poster at the corner, and I went
+straight to Bergowitz to ask him what it meant; he is as much in the
+dark as I am."
+
+"In the dark!" said Rendel, looking at him amazed. "What! but--was it
+not you who published it?"
+
+"_I_ publish it?" said Stamfordham. "Do you mean to say you thought I
+had?"
+
+"Of course I did! who else?" said Rendel.
+
+"Who else?" Stamfordham repeated. "I have come here to ask you that."
+
+"To ask _me_?" said Rendel, bewildered. "How should I know? I have not
+seen those papers since I gave the packet sealed to Thacker to take it
+to you."
+
+"And I received it," said Stamfordham, "sealed and untampered with, and
+opened it myself, and it has not been out of my keeping since."
+
+"But at the German Embassy," said Rendel, "since it was telegraphed...?"
+
+"The substance of the interview was telegraphed," said Stamfordham, "but
+not the map--_not the map_," he said emphatically. "That map no one has
+seen besides Bergowitz, you, and myself. Bergowitz it would be quite
+absurd to suspect, he is as genuinely taken back as I am--I know that it
+didn't get out through me, and therefore----" he paused and looked
+Rendel in the face.
+
+"What!" said Rendel, with a sort of cry. A horrible light, an incredible
+interpretation was beginning to dawn upon him. "You can't think it was
+through _me_?"
+
+"What else can I think?" said Stamfordham--Rendel still looked at him
+aghast--"since the papers after I gave them into your keeping were
+apparently not out of it until they passed into mine again? I brought
+them to you here myself. Of course I see now I ought not to have done
+so, but how could I have imagined----"
+
+Rendel hurriedly interrupted him.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham, not a soul but myself can have had access to those
+papers. I went out of the room, it is true," and he went rapidly over in
+his mind the sequence of events the day before, "for a short half-hour
+perhaps, when you came back here and I went out with you, but before
+leaving the room I remember distinctly that I shut the cover of my
+writing-table down with the spring, and tried it to see that it was
+shut, and then unlocked it myself when I came back."
+
+"Was any one else in the room?" said Stamfordham.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, and a sudden idea occurred to him, to be dismissed
+as soon as entertained, "Sir William Gore."
+
+"Gore?" said Stamfordham, looking at Rendel, but forbearing any comment
+on his father-in-law.
+
+"It was quite impossible," Rendel said decidedly, answering
+Stamfordham's unspoken words, "that he could have got at the papers;
+for, as I told you, when I came back again they were exactly where I had
+left them, and the thing locked with this very complicated key, and he
+showed it hanging on his chain."
+
+"It is evident," Stamfordham repeated inflexibly, "that some one must
+have got hold of it with or without your knowledge. I warned you
+yesterday, you remember, about taking your--any one in your household
+into your confidence."
+
+"And I did not," Rendel said, grasping his meaning. "My wife did not
+even know that I had the papers to transcribe. She does not know it
+now."
+
+Stamfordham paused a moment. He could not in words accuse Rendel's wife,
+whatever his silence might imply. Then he spoke with emphatic sternness.
+
+"Rendel," he said, "by whatever means the thing happened, we must know
+how. I must have an explanation."
+
+Rendel was powerless to speak.
+
+"For you must see," Stamfordham went on, "what a terrible catastrophe
+this might have been--the danger is not over yet, in fact, although I
+may be strong enough for my colleagues to condone the fact that the
+public has been told of this before themselves, and the country may be
+strong enough for foreign Powers to do the same. But, as a personal
+matter, I must know how it got out, and I repeat, I must have an
+explanation. For your own sake you must explain."
+
+Rendel felt as if the ground were reeling under his feet.
+
+"I will try," he said, still feeling as if he were in some wild dream.
+
+"When you have made inquiries," Stamfordham said, still speaking in a
+brief tone of command, "you had better come and tell me the result. I
+shall be at the Foreign Office till twelve."
+
+"Till twelve. Very well," said Rendel, feeling as if there was a dark
+chasm between himself and that moment. Mechanically he let Lord
+Stamfordham out, and stood as the latter mounted and rode away. Then he
+turned back into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+He went into the dining-room first--Rachel was still upstairs--and
+picked up the _Arbiter_ again, looking at it with this new, terrible
+interpretation of what he saw in it. There it was, as damning evidence
+as ever a man was convicted upon, the map that no one but himself and
+the two principals had seen, reproduced, roughly it is true, but still
+unmistakably, from the paper that he alone in the house had had in his
+possession. He turned hurriedly to the brief but guarded commentary
+evolved at a venture by Pateley, but nevertheless very near the truth.
+Pateley had played a bold game indeed, but he was playing it as
+skilfully and watchfully as was his wont. Rendel threw down the paper
+with a gesture of despair, then clenched his hands. If he had been a
+woman he would have wept from sheer misery and agitation. But it was of
+no good to clench his hands in despair; every moment that passed ought
+to be used to find out the truth of what had happened, to clear himself
+from that nightmare of suspicion.
+
+He went hurriedly across the hall to his study with the instinct of one
+who feels that on the spot itself there may be some suggestion to help
+discovery. His writing-table was locked. He tried it, shook it. The key,
+one of a peculiar make, hung always on his watch-chain. It was quite
+impossible that, save by one who had the key, the table should have been
+opened. What had he done yesterday? What had happened? And he sat down
+and buried his face in his hands, concentrating his thoughts, trying to
+recall every incident. The first time that Stamfordham had come in and
+given him the rough notes and the map, he, Rendel, had been alone. There
+was no doubt of that. After that who came in? Rachel? No, Rachel had not
+been in the room with the papers except just at the end when Rendel was
+sealing up the packet. Besides, if Rachel had had a hundred secrets in
+her possession, they would have been as safe as in his own. Then he
+caught himself up--in his own! after all, he was suspected--so the
+impossible idea, apparently, could be entertained. Then the thought of
+Sir William Gore came into his mind, but only to be instantly dismissed,
+for since the papers were locked up in Rendel's writing-table they must
+have been as inaccessible to Sir William as though they had been
+separated from him by the walls of several apartments. And there was one
+thing pretty certain: Gore, supposing him to be capable of using it, had
+not got a duplicate key. "Even he," Rendel found himself thinking,
+"would not do that." He heard Rachel's step swiftly descend the stairs
+and go into the dining-room, then she came quickly across the hall to
+the study.
+
+"Oh, there you are, Frank," she said. "My father is----" then she broke
+off as she saw that he was apparently buried in painful thought from
+which he roused himself with a start as she spoke. "Is anything the
+matter?"
+
+"I will tell you," said Rendel, speaking with an effort.
+
+"May I just ask you something first?" said Rachel hurriedly. "I want
+some foolscap paper for my father. He is so restless this morning, so
+impatient."
+
+"It is in there--I told you, didn't I?" said Rendel, turning round and
+pointing to one of the drawers at the side of his table.
+
+"In that drawer!" said Rachel. "How very stupid of me! I didn't think of
+that. I thought it was in the top part, and I could only get one sheet
+out of there."
+
+"The top? Wasn't the top locked?" said Rendel quickly, his whole thought
+concentrated on the problem before him, and the part of the table must
+have played in the drama that affected him so nearly.
+
+"Yes, it was," said Rachel smiling, "and I couldn't open it, but there
+was a little tiny corner of ruled paper sticking out, so I pulled it,
+and out it came."
+
+Rendel started and looked at her.
+
+"It is sweetly simple," she added.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, with an energy that surprised her. "It would come
+out quite easily, of course."
+
+"Frank," she said, surprised, "what is it? You didn't mind my pulling it
+out, did you?"
+
+"Of course not; I don't mind your doing anything--only--I didn't realise
+that things could be got out of my writing-table in that way."
+
+"Well, you must be sure to poke them in further next time," Rachel said
+lightly, shutting again the side drawer to which she had been directed,
+and out of which she had got some sheets of foolscap. "I will be back
+directly."
+
+"Wait one moment," said Rendel. "Lord Stamfordham has been here."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham! Since I went upstairs?" said Rachel, standing still
+in sheer surprise.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel. "Some secret information that--I knew about, has got
+into the paper and is published this morning."
+
+"Oh, Frank, how terrible!" said Rachel. "How did it happen? Do they
+mind?"
+
+"Yes, they mind," Rendel said.
+
+"Was that what you saw in the paper," Rachel said, "that excited you so
+much?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel.
+
+"I don't wonder," Rachel said, standing with her hand on the handle of
+the door, an attitude of all others least inviting of confidence. "Who
+let it out?"
+
+"That is what we want to know," said Rendel. "That is what Lord
+Stamfordham came here to ask."
+
+"Well, he doesn't think it was you, I suppose," said Rachel, smiling at
+the absurd suggestion.
+
+"It is quite possible," Rendel said, with a dim idea that he would lead
+up to the statement, "that he might--that he does."
+
+"What!" said Rachel, opening her eyes wide. "Frank! how absurd!"
+
+"So it seems to me," said Rendel sombrely.
+
+"Too ridiculous!--I'll come down in one moment," Rachel said
+apologetically. "I don't want to keep my father waiting."
+
+"Don't say anything to him," said Rendel, "of what I have just been
+saying to you."
+
+"Oh, no, I won't indeed," Rachel said. "He ought not to have anything to
+excite him to-day," and she went rapidly upstairs.
+
+Rendel, as the door closed behind her, felt for the moment like a man
+who, shipwrecked alone, has seen a vessel draw near to him and then pass
+gaily on its way without bringing him help. What was to be done? Again
+he took hold of the situation and looked it in the face. But now a new
+light had been thrown upon it by Rachel. If a paper could be taken out
+in the way that she had shown him, it was possible that Gore might have
+obtained the map in the same way, though it still seemed to Rendel
+exceedingly unlikely that, granted he had done so, he would have been
+able, given the condition he was in, to act upon it soon enough for it
+to appear this morning. He hesitated a moment, then he made up his mind
+to wait no longer. He took up the _Arbiter_ and went upstairs to Sir
+William's room. He met Rachel coming out.
+
+"Oh, thank you," she said, as she saw the paper. "I was just coming down
+to fetch that. Father would like to see it."
+
+"I thought I would bring it up," Rendel said. "I want to speak to him a
+moment."
+
+Rachel looked alarmed.
+
+"Frank, you will be careful, won't you?" she said. "He really is not in
+a fit state to discuss anything this morning."
+
+"I am afraid what I have to say won't wait," Rendel said. "I think I had
+better speak to him alone." And he quite unmistakably waited for Rachel
+to go her way before he went into Sir William's room and shut the door.
+Sir William, wrapped in his dressing-gown, was sitting up in an easy
+chair. On the table near him were sheets of foolscap paper covered with
+figures, and lying beside them a letter with a bold, splotchy writing,
+which he quickly moved out of sight as Rendel came in, a letter that had
+told him of certain successful financial operations undertaken in the
+City on his behalf. His face was pale and haggard. He looked up, as he
+saw Rendel come into the room, with an expression almost of terror,
+dashed however with resentment. In his mind at that moment, his
+son-in-law was the embodiment of the fate that, in some incredible way,
+had, as it were, turned him, Sir William Gore, who had hitherto spent
+his life in the sunshine of position, of dignity, of the deserved
+respect of his fellow-creatures, out into a chill storm of
+circumstances, absolutely alone, into some terrible world where, instead
+of walking upright among his fellow-men, he was, by no fault of his own,
+he kept repeating to himself, hurrying along with a burden on his back,
+crouching, fearing observation, fearing detection. That burden was
+almost intolerable. He had been trying to distract his thoughts and seek
+some cold comfort by making calculations based upon the letter he had
+received from Pateley, but all the time, behind it lay ice-cold and
+immovable the thought of the price at which Pateley's co-operation had
+been bought, of the moment of reckoning with Rendel that must come when
+the sands should have run out their appointed time. So much had he
+suffered, so much had he been dominated by this thought, that when the
+door opened and Rendel finally came in, the moment brought a sort of
+relief. Rendel, on the other hand, when he saw Sir William looking so
+old, so white and feeble, suddenly felt his purpose arrested. It was
+impossible, surely, that this old man, with the worn, handsome face and
+pathetically anxious expression, could have had a hand in a diabolical
+machination, and the thought that it was unlikely came to him with a
+gleam of comfort. Then as quick as lightning came a reaction of
+wonderment as to what hypothesis was to take the place of this one. At
+any rate, there was only one thing to be done: to tell Gore the story
+without a moment's further delay.
+
+"Good morning, Sir William," he said. "I am sorry to hear you are not
+well this morning."
+
+"Not very," Gore said, trying to speak calmly, and involuntarily looking
+at the newspaper in Rendel's hand.
+
+"I hear you were asking for the _Arbiter_," Rendel said.
+
+"Yes, I should like to see it," Gore replied, "when you have done with
+it."
+
+"I want you to see it," Rendel said. "There is something in it which
+matters a great deal." Gore felt a sudden grip at his heart. He said
+nothing. "Here it is," said Rendel, and he handed him the paper, folded
+so as to show the startling headings in big letters and the rough
+facsimile of the map. Gore looked at it. The whole thing swam before his
+eyes; he held it for a moment, trying desperately to think what he had
+better say, but he could find no anchorage anywhere.
+
+"That is very surprising," he said finally. "As far as I can see,
+it's--it's a partition of Africa between England and Germany? Is that
+it? I can't see very well this morning."
+
+"That is it," said Rendel.
+
+"Yes, that is very important," Gore said, leaning back and letting the
+paper slide from his grasp. "Most important," and he was silent again,
+waiting in an agony of suspense for what Rendel's next words would be.
+Rendel, scarcely less agitated, was trying to choose them carefully.
+
+"I am very sorry," he began, "to have to tire and worry you about this
+when you are not well, but I have a particular reason for talking to you
+about it."
+
+"Pray go on," Gore managed to say under his breath.
+
+"I have a special reason," said Rendel, "for wanting to remember what
+happened in my study yesterday afternoon."
+
+"Yesterday afternoon?" said Gore. "Did anything particular happen?"
+
+"That is what I want to know," said Rendel, trying to speak calmly and
+quietly. "You will oblige me very much if you will try to remember
+exactly what happened all the time, from the moment you came into the
+room until you left it."
+
+Gore made an effort to pull himself together. There was no difficulty,
+alas! for him in remembering every single thing that had taken
+place--the difficulty was not to show that he remembered too well.
+
+"When I came in," he said, endeavouring to speak in an ordinary tone,
+"you were at your writing-table."
+
+"I was," said Rendel, watching him.
+
+"And then I sat down in an armchair and read the _Mayfair Gazette_----"
+and he stopped.
+
+"Yes. All that," Rendel said, "I remember, of course. Thacker came in
+telling me Lord Stamfordham was there, and I rushed out, shutting the
+roller top of my writing-table, which closes with a spring. I was
+especially careful to shut it, as it had valuable papers in it."
+
+"Indeed?" said Sir William, almost inaudibly.
+
+"Yes, and among them," Rendel said, watching the effect of his words, "a
+map--that map of Africa which is reproduced this morning in the
+_Arbiter_."
+
+"In your writing-table?" Gore said, with quivering lips.
+
+"Yes, in my writing-table, out of which it must have been taken."
+
+"That is very serious," Gore forced himself to say.
+
+"It is very serious," said Rendel, "as you will see. When I came back
+and had finished my work on the papers I did them up myself in a packet
+and sent them to Lord Stamfordham."
+
+"Your messenger was not trustworthy, apparently," said Gore, recovering
+himself.
+
+"My messenger was Thacker," Rendel said, "who is absolutely trustworthy.
+Lord Stamfordham himself told me that he had received the packet with my
+seal intact."
+
+"Still," said Gore, "servants have been known to sell State secrets
+before now."
+
+"But not Thacker," said Rendel. "However, of course I shall ask him; I
+must ask every one in the house, for it must have been by some one here
+that the thing was done, that the map was got out."
+
+"I thought you said the table was locked?"
+
+"It was locked, yes," said Rendel, "but I have learnt this morning that
+papers can be pulled out from under the lid. Rachel got a piece of
+foolscap paper for you in that way."
+
+"Did she?" said Gore, feeling that he had unwittingly supplied one link
+in the chain of evidence.
+
+"There was only one person, so far as I know," said Rendel, "in the room
+while that paper was in my desk, who could have pulled it out and looked
+at it, and apparently made an unwarrantable use of it." The question
+that he expected to hear from Gore did not follow. Rendel waited, then
+he went on, "That person was--you."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Gore, sitting up, his colour going and coming
+quickly.
+
+"My words, I think, are quite plain," Rendel said. "I mean that all the
+evidence, circumstantial, I grant, points--you must forgive me if I am
+wronging you--to your having taken out the map."
+
+"Will you please give me your reasons for this extraordinary
+accusation?" said Gore.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "I will." And he spoke more and more rapidly as, his
+self-control at length utterly broken down, and his emotion having
+gained entire possession of him, he felt the fierce joy of those who,
+habitually watchful of their words, yield once or twice in their lives
+to the impulse of letting them flow out unchecked in an overwhelming
+flood. "You alone were in the room with the papers; your prepossessions
+are all against us; you spoke yourself just now of the value of a State
+secret sold in the proper quarter; things are looking ugly about the
+'Equator.'"
+
+"Do you mean to hint----" said Gore.
+
+Rendel interrupted him quickly. "No, not to hint," he said; "hinting is
+not in my line. I dare to say it out. I dare to say that in one of those
+moments of aberration, of deviation, whatever you choose to call it,
+that sometimes descend upon the most unlikely people, you pulled that
+paper out, from idle curiosity, I daresay, and finding out what it was
+you sent it to the _Arbiter_."
+
+"You did well," said Gore bitterly, "to keep your wife out of the room
+while you were accusing me. I am old and defenceless," he said, with
+lips trembling, and again an immense self-pity rushing over him. "I
+can't answer; I can't reply to a young man's violence."
+
+"I have no intention," Rendel said, still speaking with a passion which
+intoxicated him, "of being violent, but I must go on with this, for Lord
+Stamfordham won't rest until it is sifted to the bottom, and he is not a
+man to be trifled with. And as to your being defenceless, good God! your
+best defence is Rachel's trust in you and devotion to you. It is because
+of it that I wanted to spare her the knowledge of what we have been
+saying. Her faith in your infallibility has always seemed to me so
+touching that for her sake I have respected it. I have tried--Heaven
+knows I have tried!--all this time to be to you what she wished me to
+be." Gore stirred; he was quite incapable of speaking. "This is not the
+moment," Rendel went on, almost unconscious of his words, which poured
+out in a flood, "to keep up a hollow mockery of trust and friendship,
+and it is more honest to tell you fairly that I have not entirely
+shared her faith in you. I have always thought that, like the rest of us
+after all, you were neither better nor worse than most other fallible
+people in this world, and that you may be, as I daresay we all are,
+fashioned by circumstances, or even by temptation. And I tell you
+frankly that I believe that you did this thing that I accuse you of.
+How, I demand to know. That, at any rate, is not more than one man may
+ask of another."
+
+Sir William winced and writhed helplessly under Rendel's words. The
+intolerable discomfort and misery that he felt as the moment of
+discovery drew near had given place gradually to a furious resentment at
+what he was being made to endure at the hands of one who ought not to
+have presumed to criticise him. As Rendel stood there, his clearly cut
+face hard and stern, pouring out accusations and reproach, Gore felt as
+if the younger man embodied all the adverse influences of his own life.
+It was through Rendel that the fatal opportunity had come of his getting
+himself into this terrible strait, Rendel: who, most unjustly in the
+scheme of things, was daring to tax Gore with it. It was too horrible to
+bear longer. He too felt that the time had come when that with which his
+heart and soul were overflowing must find vent in speech. As he heard
+Rendel's words of stern impeachment ringing in his ears, "I tell you
+frankly that I believe that you did this thing," he rose desperately to
+his feet.
+
+"Well," he said, casting with a kind of horrible relief all restraints
+and prudence to the winds, "what if I had?"
+
+Rendel turned pale.
+
+"If you had?" he said. "You did it, then?"
+
+"If I had," Gore went on quickly, "it wouldn't have been a crime. You
+can't know how easy it was for the thing to happen. I am not going to
+tell you--I am not going to justify myself----" And he went on with a
+passionate need of self-vindication, drawing from his own words the
+conviction that he had hardly been at fault.
+
+"Sir William," Rendel said hurriedly, "tell me----"
+
+"It is easy enough," said Gore, "for you to talk of faith and trust. You
+need not grudge my child's faith in me. I have nothing else left now."
+And as the two men looked at each other each in his soul had a vision of
+the gracious presence that had always been by Sir William's side: of one
+who would have believed in him, justified him, if the whole world had
+accused him. Rendel suddenly paused as he was going to speak.
+
+"Life is very easy for you," Gore went on in a rapid, trembling voice.
+Oh, the relief of saying it all!
+
+"It is all quite plain sailing for you, you with whom everything
+succeeds, you who are young and have your life before you. You have time
+for the things that happen to you to be made right."
+
+"Don't let us discuss all that now," said Rendel, with an effort. "We
+are talking of something else that matters more than I can say. You
+only can tell me----"
+
+"I will tell you nothing," said Gore loudly, excited and breathless,
+speaking in gasps. "One day when you are old and alone--and both of
+these things may come to you as well as to other people--you will
+understand what all this means to me."
+
+"Father, dear father!" cried Rachel, coming in hurriedly. Anxious and
+wretched at Rendel's interview with her father being so unduly
+prolonged, she had wandered upstairs again, and when she heard the
+excited and angry voices she could bear the suspense no longer. "What is
+it?"
+
+Gore sank back trembling into his chair as she came in, making signs to
+her that for the moment he was unable to speak. A glance at him was
+enough to show that it actually was so.
+
+"Oh, Frank!" she cried, "what have you done? I asked you not to excite
+him."
+
+"Wait, Rachel, wait!" said Rendel, trying to speak calmly, feeling that
+everything was at stake. "Sir William, can you not tell me----?"
+
+Gore feebly shook his head.
+
+"Frank!" cried Rachel, amazed at his persistence. "Oh, don't! Let me
+implore you not to ask him anything more. Frank! do you mind leaving him
+now? Oh, you must, you must, really. Look at him!"
+
+Sir William, white and exhausted, was leaning back in his chair with his
+eyes closed. Rendel looked at her face of quivering anxiety as it bent
+over her father, then turned slowly and left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Rendel came downstairs, hardly conscious of what he was doing, a wild
+conflict of emotion raging in his mind. He shut himself into his study,
+and tried to distinguish clearly the threads of motive and conduct that
+had become so hideously entangled. It sounds a simple thing, doubtless,
+as well as a praiseworthy one, to discover the doer of an evil deed, to
+convict him, to bring home to him what he has done, and to prove the
+innocence of any other who may be suspected. Such a course, when spoken
+of in general terms, gives a praiseworthy and sustaining sense of a duty
+accomplished towards society. But it is in reality a much more
+complicated operation than we are apt to think. The evildoer,
+unfortunately for our sense of righteousness in prosecuting him, is not
+always one who has unmixed evil instincts, and nearly every contingency
+of human conduct becomes, as we contemplate it, many-sided enough to be
+very confusing. And it was beginning to dawn upon Rendel that, although
+it may fulfil the ends of abstract justice that the guilty should be
+exposed and the innocent acquitted, such an act takes an ugly aspect
+when the eager pursuer is himself the innocent man who is to be
+vindicated, and the guilty one a weaker and defenceless person who is to
+be put in his place. "And yet," he said to himself bitterly, as he tried
+to think of it impartially, "if it were a question of any one else's
+reputation and not of my own I should be bound to say who the guilty man
+was." What was he to do? What could he do? He did not know how long he
+had been sitting there when Rachel came quickly in.
+
+"Oh! Frank," she said, with a face of alarm, "he's very ill. I'm sure he
+is. I've sent for Dr. Morgan to come at once. He fainted after you left,
+and he's only just come round again. Oh! I am terribly anxious," and she
+looked at him, her lips quivering, then put her hands before her eyes
+and burst into tears.
+
+Rendel's heart smote him. Everything else, as he looked at her, faded
+into the background. The thing that mattered was Rachel was the woman he
+loved. It was he who had brought this grief upon her.
+
+"Darling," he said, "I'm so sorry."
+
+She shook her head and tried to smile.
+
+"Oh," she said, trying to suppress her tears, "I ought not to have left
+him. I daresay you didn't know, but it has done him the most terrible
+harm. Did you tell him, then, about--about--the thing you told me of,
+that you had been suspected--of telling something--what was it?" and she
+passed her hand over her forehead as if unable to think.
+
+"No," said Rendel, "I didn't tell him that _I_ had been accused of it. I
+daresay he guessed I had. I told him it had happened."
+
+"But, Frank, why did you?" she said. "I implored you not."
+
+"Rachel," he said, "do you realise what it means to me that I should be
+accused of a thing like this?"
+
+"Of course, yes, of course," she said, evidently still listening for any
+sound from upstairs. "But still a thing like that, that can be put right
+in a few minutes, cannot matter so much as life and death...."
+
+And again her voice became almost inaudible.
+
+"There are some things," said Rendel in a low voice, "that matter more
+to a man than life and death."
+
+"Do you mean to say," said Rachel, "that it matters more that you should
+be supposed to have done something that you have not done, than that my
+father should not get well?"
+
+"Supposing your father had been wrongfully accused of something
+underhand and dishonourable," said Rendel, "would not that matter more
+to him than--than--anything else?"
+
+Rachel put up her hands with a cry as if to ward off a blow.
+
+"My father!" she said, drawing away from Rendel. "You must not say such
+a thing. How could it be said?"
+
+"You endure," said Rendel, "that it should be said about me."
+
+"About you! That is different," she said, unable in the tension of her
+overwrought nerves to choose her words. "You are young, you can defend
+yourself; but it is cruel, cruel of you to say that it might happen to
+my father. You don't realise what my father is to me or you couldn't say
+such things even without meaning them. No, you can't know, you can't
+understand, or you couldn't, just for your own sake, have gone to him
+to-day when he is so ill and told him things that excited him."
+
+"I think I do understand," Rendel said, forcing himself to speak calmly.
+"Of course I know, I have always known, perhaps not quite so clearly as
+to-day, that--that--he must come first with you."
+
+"Oh! in some ways he must, he must," Rachel said, half entreatingly, yet
+with a ring of determination in her voice. "I promised my mother that I
+would, as far as I could, take her place, and while he lives I must.
+Frank, I would give up my life to save him suffering, as she would have
+done. Ah! there is Doctor Morgan," and she left the room hastily as a
+doctor's brougham stopped at the door.
+
+Rendel stood perfectly still, looking straight before him, seeing
+nothing, but gazing with his mind's eye on a universe absolutely
+transformed--the bright, dancing lights had gone, it was overspread by a
+dark, settled gloom. There were sounds outside. He was mechanically
+conscious of Rachel's hurried colloquy with the doctor in the hall, of
+their footsteps going upstairs. Then he roused himself. What would the
+doctor's verdict be? But he could not remain now, he must hear it on his
+return from the Foreign Office, he must now go as agreed to Lord
+Stamfordham. But first, for form's sake, he rang for Thacker and
+questioned him, and through him the rest of the household, without
+result, except renewed and somewhat offended assurances from Thacker
+that the packet had been given by himself into Stamfordham's own hands
+and that, to his knowledge, no one but Sir William Gore had been in the
+study during Rendel's absence. But Rendel knew in his heart that there
+was no need to question any one further, and no advantage in doing so,
+since he knew also that he could not use his knowledge.
+
+He drove rapidly along in a hansom, unconscious of the streets he passed
+through. Wherever he went he saw only Rachel's face of misery, heard the
+words, "just for your own sake," that had cut into him as deeply as his
+own into Gore. Was that it? he asked himself, was it just for his own
+sake, to clear himself, that he had accused Gore? Well, why else? Once
+Stamfordham knew that the thing had been done, the secret revealed, the
+name of the actual culprit would make no real difference. It would make
+things neither easier nor more difficult for Stamfordham to know that it
+had been done, not by himself, but by Sir William Gore. But there was
+one person besides himself and Gore for whom everything hung in the
+balance, and it was still with Rachel's face before him and her words in
+his ears, that he went into Lord Stamfordham's private room.
+
+Lord Stamfordham had been writing with a secretary, who got up and went
+out as Rendel came in. How familiar the room was to Rendel! how
+incredible it was that day after day he should have come there--was it
+in some former state of existence?--valued, welcome.
+
+"Well, what have you to tell me?" Stamfordham said quickly.
+
+Rendel's lips felt dry and parched; he spoke with an effort.
+
+"I am afraid," he said in a voice that sounded to him strangely unlike
+his own, "that I have ... nothing."
+
+"What?" said Stamfordham. "Have you not made any inquiries? Haven't you
+asked every one in your house?"
+
+"I have made inquiries, yes," said Rendel.
+
+"And do you mean to say that there is nothing that can throw any light
+upon it, no possible solution?"
+
+"I can throw no light," said Rendel.
+
+"But...." said Stamfordham. "Is this all you are going to say? Have you
+thought of no possibility? Have you no suggestion to offer?"
+
+"I am afraid," said Rendel again, "that I can offer none."
+
+Lord Stamfordham sat silent for a moment, absolutely bewildered. Part of
+his exceptional administrative ability was the almost unerring judgment
+he displayed in choosing those he employed about him, and it was an
+entirely new experience to him to have to suspect one of them, or to
+impugn the ordinary code of honourable conduct. He found it extremely
+difficult, autocrat as he was, to put it into words. He was sore and
+angry at the grave indiscretion, if not something worse, that had been
+committed, most of all that it should have been himself, the great
+officer of state, in whom it was unpardonable to choose the wrong tool,
+who had put that immeasurably important secret into the hands of a man
+who had somehow or other let it escape from them; so much could not be
+denied. It certainly seemed difficult to conceive that it should be
+Rendel himself who had betrayed it, or that if he had betrayed it he
+would not admit the fact. And yet--could it be?--there was something in
+Rendel's demeanour now that made it more possible than it had been an
+hour ago to credit him with the shameful possibility. The pause during
+which all this had rushed through Stamfordham's mind seemed to Rendel to
+have lasted through untold ages of time, when Stamfordham at last spoke
+again.
+
+"Rendel," he said, "I have a right to demand that you should give me
+more satisfaction than this. You say you have learnt nothing, and can
+tell me nothing, but this I find impossible to believe." Rendel made a
+movement. "I am sorry, but I say this advisedly, since this disclosure
+_must_ have taken place in your house," and he underlined the words
+emphatically. "I can't think it possible that a man of your intelligence
+should not have found some clue, some possible suggestion."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Rendel. "I'm afraid I have not."
+
+"Then, of course, it is obvious what conclusion I must come to," said
+Lord Stamfordham. "That it is not that you cannot give any explanation,
+but that you decline to give it."
+
+Rendel, to his intense mortification, felt that he was changing colour.
+Stamfordham, looking at him earnestly, felt absolutely certain that he
+knew.
+
+"Rendel," he said, gravely, "take my advice before it is too late. Don't
+let a wish to screen some one else prevent you from speaking. If you
+have had the misfortune to--let the secret escape you, don't, to shelter
+the person who published it, withhold the truth now. But I must remind
+you also," and his words fell like strokes from a hammer, "that I am
+asking it for my own sake as well as yours. When I brought you those
+papers, I trusted you fully and unreservedly, and now that this
+catastrophe has happened in consequence of my confidence in you I am
+entitled to know what has happened."
+
+"Yes," Rendel said. "I quite see your position, and I know that you have
+a right to resent mine, but all I can say is that--" he stopped, then
+went on again with firmer accents, "I don't suppose I can expect you to
+believe me, but as a matter of fact I can't begin to conceive the
+possibility of knowingly handing on to some one else such a secret as
+that."
+
+"Knowingly," said Stamfordham, "perhaps not," and he waited, to give
+Rendel one more chance of speaking. But Rendel was silent. Then
+Stamfordham went on in a different tone and with a perceptibly harsher
+note in his voice. "My time is so precious that I am afraid if you have
+nothing further to tell me there is no good in prolonging the
+interview."
+
+"Perhaps not," said Rendel, who was deadly white, and he made a motion
+as though to go.
+
+"Do you realise," said Stamfordham, "what this will mean to you?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "I do."
+
+"Of course," said Stamfordham, "what I ought to do is to insist on the
+inquiry being continued until the matter is cleared up and brought to
+light."
+
+A strange expression passed over Rendel's face as there rose in his mind
+a feeling that he instantly thrust out of sight again, that
+supposing--supposing--Stamfordham himself investigated to the bottom all
+that had happened, and that without any doing of his, Rendel's, the
+truth were discovered? Then with horror he put the idea away. Rachel! it
+would give Rachel just as great a pang, of course, whoever found it out.
+The flash of impulse and recoil had passed swiftly through his mind
+before he woke up, as it were, to find Stamfordham continuing--
+
+"But I am willing for your sake to stop here."
+
+Rendel tried to make some acknowledgment, but no words that he could
+speak came to his lips.
+
+"It might, as I told you before," Stamfordham went on, standing up as
+though to show that the interview was over, "have been a national
+disaster. That, however, has, I hope, been averted, and we shall simply
+have done now something we meant to do a few days hence. But that does
+not affect the point we have been discussing," and he looked at Rendel
+as though with a forlorn hope that at the last moment he might speak.
+But Rendel was silent still. "You understand, then," Stamfordham said,
+looking him straight in the face, an embodiment of inexorable justice,
+"what this means to a man in your position?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel again.
+
+"I owe my colleagues an explanation," said Stamfordham. "Since one is
+not to be had, I must repeat to them what has passed between us."
+
+"Of course," said Rendel. And he went towards the door.
+
+"There is another thing I must ask you," Stamfordham said, speaking with
+cold courtesy. "I have a letter here about Stoke Newton. It will have to
+be settled." And he waited for Rendel to answer the question which had
+not been explicitly asked.
+
+"I shall not stand," said Rendel.
+
+"That is best," said Stamfordham quietly. "Will you telegraph to the
+Committee, then?"
+
+"I will," said Rendel, and with an inclination of the head, to which
+Lord Stamfordham responded, he went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Rendel up to this moment had been accustomed, unconsciously to himself
+perhaps, to live, as most men of keen intelligence and aspirations do
+live, in the future. The possibilities of to-day had always had an added
+zest from the sense of there being a long, magnificent expanse
+stretching away indefinitely in front of him, in which to achieve what
+he would. In his moments of despondency he had been able to conceive
+disaster possible, but it was always, after all, such disaster as a man
+might encounter, and then, surmounting, turn afresh to life. But of all
+possible forms of disaster that would have occurred to him as being
+likely to come near himself, there was one that he would have known
+could not approach him: there was one form of misery from which, so far
+as human probabilities could be gauged, he was safe. He had never
+imagined that he could in his own experience learn what it meant,
+according to the customary phrase, to "go under" because he could not
+hold his head up: to disappear from among the honourable and the
+strenuous, to be dragged down by the weight of some shameful deed which
+would make him unfit to consort with people of his own kind. As he
+walked home he was not conscious, perhaps, of trying to look his
+situation in the face, of trying to adjust himself to it. And yet
+insensibly things began falling into shape, as particles of sand
+gradually subside after a whirlwind and settle into a definite form.
+Then Stamfordham's words rang in his ears: "I must tell my colleagues."
+It was a small fraction of the world in number, perhaps, that would thus
+know how it happened, but they were, to Rendel, the only people who
+mattered--the people, practically, in whose hands his own future lay. He
+realised now as he had never done before in what calm confidence he had
+in his inmost heart looked on that future, and most of all how much, how
+entirely he had always counted on Lord Stamfordham's good opinion of his
+integrity and worth. It was all gone. What should he do? How should he
+take hold of life now?
+
+As he waited at a corner to cross the road, he saw big newspaper boards
+stuck up. The second edition of the other morning papers was coming out
+with the news eagerly caught up from the _Arbiter_. There it was in big
+letters, people stopping to read it as they passed: "Startling
+Disclosure. Unexpected Action of the Government." No power on earth
+could stop that knowledge from spreading now. How it would turn the
+country upside down--what a fever of conjecture, what storms of
+disapproval from some, of jubilation from others. What frantic
+excitement was in store for the few who, with vigilance strained to the
+utmost, were steering warily through such a storm! Rendel involuntarily
+stopped and read with the others.
+
+Some people he knew drove by in a victoria, two exquisitely dressed
+women who smiled and bowed to him as they passed--chance acquaintances
+whom he met in society, and to whom under ordinary circumstances he
+would have been profoundly indifferent.
+
+Rendel could almost have stood still in sheer terror at realising some
+numbing sense that was stealing over him, some horrible change in his
+view of things that was already beginning. For as they bowed to him with
+unimpaired friendliness, he felt conscious of a distinct sensation of
+relief, almost of gratitude, that in spite of what had happened they
+should still be willing to greet him. Good God! was _that_ what his view
+of life, and of his relations with his kind was going to be? No! no!
+anything but that. He would go away somewhere, he would disappear...
+yes, of course, that was what "they" all did. He remembered with a
+shudder a man he had known, Bob Galloway, who, beginning life under the
+most prosperous auspices, had been convicted of cheating at cards. He
+recalled the look of the man who knew his company would be tolerated
+only by those beneath him. He realised now part of what Galloway must
+have gone through before he went out of England and took to frequenting
+second-rate people abroad.
+
+He looked up and found that he had mechanically walked back to Cosmo
+Place. He was recalled from his absorption to a more pressing calamity,
+as he recognised, with an acute pang of self-reproach, the doctor's
+brougham still standing before the door. He entered the house quickly.
+There was a sense of that strange emptiness, of the ordinary living
+rooms of the house being deserted, that gives one an almost physical
+sense that life is being lived through with stress and terrible
+earnestness somewhere else. He heard some words being exchanged in a low
+tone on the upper landing, and then a door shutting as Rachel turned
+back into her father's room. Rendel met Doctor Morgan as he came down
+the stairs. Morgan's face assumed an air of grave concern as he saw Sir
+William's son-in-law coming towards him, and Rendel read in his face
+what he had to tell. There are moments in which the intensity of nervous
+strain seems to make every sense trebly acute, in which, without knowing
+it, we are aware of every detail of sight and sound that forms the
+material setting for a moment of great emotion. As he looked at Doctor
+Morgan coming towards him, Rendel, without knowing it, was conscious of
+every detail that formed the background to that figure of foreboding: of
+the sunlight glancing on the glass of a picture, of its reflection in
+the brass of a loose stair rod that had escaped from its fastenings, and
+of which, even in that moment, Rendel's methodical mind automatically
+made a note.
+
+"I am afraid I can't give you a very good account," he said in answer
+to Rendel's hurried inquiries. "He has had another and more prolonged
+fainting fit, and I think it possible that his heart may be affected."
+
+"Do you mean, then," said Rendel, "that--that--you are really anxious
+about the ultimate issue?" and he tried to veil the thing he was
+designating, as men instinctively do when it is near at hand.
+
+"Yes, I am," Doctor Morgan answered. "Unless there is a great change in
+the next few hours, there certainly will be cause for the gravest
+anxiety."
+
+Rendel was silent, his thoughts chasing each other tumultuously through
+his brain.
+
+"Does my wife know?" he said.
+
+"I think she does," Morgan said. "I have not told her quite as clearly
+as I have said it to you, but she knows how much care he needs and how
+absolutely essential it is that he should be quiet. It is his one
+chance. No talk, no news, no excitement."
+
+"What has brought on this attack, do you think?" said Rendel, feeling as
+if he were driven to ask the question.
+
+"I can't tell," said Morgan. "He looked to me like a man who had been
+excited about something. Do you know whether that is so?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel; "he got excited this morning about something that
+was in the paper."
+
+"Ah! by the way, yes, I don't wonder," said Morgan, who was an ardent
+politician. "It was a most astonishing piece of news, certainly."
+
+"It was, indeed," said Rendel, brought back for a moment to the
+unendurable burthen he had been carrying about with him.
+
+"The Imperialists are safe now to get in," said Morgan. "We look to you
+to do great things some day," and without waiting for the polite
+disclaimer which he took for granted would be Rendel's reply to his
+remark, without seeing the swift look of keen suffering that swept over
+Rendel's face, he hurried away.
+
+Rendel was bowed down by an intolerable self-reproach. He could have
+smiled at the thought that he had actually been seeking solace in the
+idea that he had, at any rate, done a fine, a noble thing, that he had
+done it for Rachel, that, if she ever knew it, she would know he had
+sacrificed everything for her. And now, instead, how did his conduct
+appear? How would it appear to her, since she knew but the outward
+aspect of it? To her? Why, to himself, even, it almost appeared that
+wishing to insist on screening himself at the expense of some one else,
+he had, in defiance of her entreaties, appealed to her father, and
+brought on an attack that might probably cause his death.
+
+He stood for a moment as the door closed behind Morgan, and waited
+irresolutely, with a half hope that Rachel would come downstairs to him.
+But all was silent, desolate, forlorn; it was behind the shut door
+upstairs that the strenuous issues were being fought out which were to
+decide, in all probability, other fates than that of the chief sufferer
+who lay there waiting for death. The chief sufferer? No. Rendel, as he
+turned back sick at heart, after a moment, into his own study, thought
+bitterly within himself that death to the man who has so little to
+expect from life is surely a less trial than dying to all that is worth
+having while one is still alive. That was how he saw his own life as he
+looked on into the future, or rather, as he contemplated it in the
+present--for the future was gone, it was blotted out. That was the
+thought that ever and anon would come to the surface, would come in
+spite of his efforts to the contrary, before every other. Then the
+thought of Rachel's face of misery rose before him, haunted him with an
+additional anguish. With an effort he pulled himself together, sat down
+to the table, and wrote a letter to the committee of Stoke Newton,
+stating briefly that he had relinquished his intention of standing,
+directed it, and closed the envelope with a heavy sigh. One by one he
+was throwing overboard his most precious possessions to appease the
+Fates that were pursuing him. Where would it end? What would be left to
+him? The one precious possession, the turning-point of his existence
+still remained: Rachel, his love for her, their life together. But,
+after all, those great goods he had meant to have in any case, and the
+rest besides. The door opened. It was the servant come to tell him that
+luncheon was ready; the ordinary bell was not rung for fear of
+disturbing Sir William. Luncheon? Could the routine of life be going on
+just in the same way? Was it possible that a morning had been enough to
+do all this? He went listlessly into the dining-room. Rachel was not
+there. He went upstairs, and as he went up met her coming out of her
+father's room. Her startled and almost alarmed look, as at the first
+moment she thought that he was going back into her father's room, smote
+him to the heart.
+
+"You had better not go in, Frank," she said hurriedly. "The doctor said
+he was to be quite quiet. Please don't go in again," and the intonation
+of the words told him how much lay at his door already.
+
+"I was not going in," he said quietly. "I was coming to fetch you to
+have some luncheon."
+
+"I don't think I could eat anything," she said.
+
+"You must try, darling," he said gently. "It is no good your being
+knocked up at this stage. You look pretty well worn out already."
+
+And indeed she did. The last twenty-four hours had made her look as
+though she herself had been through an illness, and the nervous strain
+added to her own condition made her appear, Rendel felt as he looked at
+her, quite alarmingly ill. She suffered herself to be persuaded to eat
+something, then wandered wretchedly back to her father's room to remain
+there for the rest of the day.
+
+Rendel did not leave the house again. He sat downstairs alone, trying to
+realise what this world was that he was contemplating, this landscape
+painted in shades of black and grey. Was this the prospect flooded with
+sunshine that he had looked upon that very morning? The afternoon went
+on: the streets of London were full of a gay and hurrying crowd. Was it
+Rendel's imagination, the tense state of his nerves, that made him feel
+in the very air as it streamed in at his window the electric disturbance
+that was agitating the destinies of the country? Everyone looked as they
+passed as though something had happened; men were talking eagerly and
+intently. The afternoon papers were being hawked in the streets. One of
+them actually had the map, all had the news, given with the same
+comments of amazement, and, on the part of the Imperialists, of
+admiration at the feat that had been so cleverly performed. So the day
+wore on, the long summer's day, till all London had grasped what had
+happened--while the man through whom London knew was sitting alone, an
+outcast, with Grief and Anxiety hovering by him.
+
+These two same dread companions, seen under another aspect, were with
+Rachel as she sat through the afternoon hours in her father's darkened
+room, listening to his breathing, with all her senses on the alert for
+any sound, for any movement.
+
+Sir William moved and opened his eyes; then, looking at Rachel, who was
+anxiously bending over him, he rapidly poured out a succession of words
+and phrases of which only a word here and there was intelligible.
+"Frank," he said once or twice, then "Pateley," but Rachel had not the
+clue that would have told her what the words meant. She tried in vain to
+quiet him: he was not conscious of her presence. Then suddenly his
+voice subsided to a whisper, and a strange look came over his face. An
+uncontrollable terror seized upon Rachel. She ran out on to the stairs;
+and as, unsteady, quivering, she rushed down, meaning to call her
+husband, she caught her foot on the loose stair-rod and fell forward,
+striking her head with violence as she reached the bottom. It was there
+that Rendel, aghast, found her lying unconscious as he hurried out of
+his study to see what had happened. The sickening horror of that first
+moment, when he believed she was dead, swallowed up every other thought.
+It made the time that followed, when Doctor Morgan, instantly sent for,
+had pronounced that she had concussion of the brain, from which she
+would recover if kept absolutely quiet, a period almost of relief.
+
+And so Rachel was spared the actual moment of the parting she had been
+trying to face. For though Sir William rallied again from the crisis
+which had so alarmed her, he sank gradually into a state of coma from
+which he was destined never to wake, and from which, almost
+imperceptibly, he passed during the evening of the next day.
+
+Rendel, tossed on a wild storm of clashing emotions, the great anxiety
+caused by Rachel's accident and possible peril added to all he had gone
+through, had in truth little actual sorrow to spare for the loss of Sir
+William Gore. But Gore's death meant in one direction the death of all
+his own remaining hopes. When he knew the end had come, and that he
+would have to tell Rachel, when she was able to bear it, that her father
+was dead, he then began to realise how, unconsciously to himself almost,
+he had built upon some possibility of Sir William doing something to put
+things right. What, he had not formulated to himself; but he had had
+vague visions of a possible admission of some sort, of an attempted
+reconciliation, atonement, confession, such as he had read of in
+fiction, by which means the truth would have come out, and he would have
+been absolved without any effort on his own part. But those
+half-formulated dreams had vanished almost before he had realised them.
+Sir William Gore had gone to his eternal rest, and, as far as Rendel
+knew, no one but himself knew exactly what had happened. And now there
+was nothing in front of him but that miserable blank.
+
+Rachel was not told of what had happened until two days after her
+father's funeral. She received the news as though stunned, bewildered;
+as if it were too terrible for her to grasp. Gradually she came back to
+life again, but she was not the same as before. Her recovery would be,
+the doctor explained, a question of time. The accident that had befallen
+her, following the great strain and anxiety she had gone through, had
+completely upset her nervous system, and appeared--a not uncommon result
+after such an accident--to have completely obliterated the time
+immediately preceding her fall. The moment when Rendel, seeing her
+gradually recovering, first ventured on some allusion to Stamfordham
+and to what had taken place the day her father was taken ill, he saw a
+puzzled, bewildered look in her face, as though she had no idea of what
+he was saying, and he was seized by a fear almost too ghastly to be
+endurable.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham?" she said, puzzled. "When? I don't know about it."
+
+But the doctor reassured him, and told him that all would come right:
+she would be herself again, even if she never regained the memory of
+what had happened before her fall.
+
+"It is a common result of an accident of this kind," he said, "and need
+give you no special cause for anxiety. I have known two or three cases
+in which men who have completely recovered in other respects have never
+regained the memory of what immediately preceded the accident. That girl
+who was thrown in the Park a month ago, you remember--her horse ran away
+and threw her over the railings--although she got absolutely right, does
+not remember what she did that morning, or even the night before. And
+after all," he added, "it does not seem to me so very desirable that
+Mrs. Rendel should remember those two particular days she may have
+lost."
+
+Rendel gave an inward shudder. If he could but have forgotten them too!
+
+"They were full, as I understand, of anxiety and grief about her
+father's condition."
+
+"They were," said Rendel. "It would be much better if she did not
+remember them."
+
+"That's right, keep your heart up, then," said Morgan, all
+unconsciously; "and above all, no excitement for her, no anxiety, no
+irritation. Change of scene would be good for her, perhaps, and seeing
+one or two people. If I were you, I should take her to some German
+baths. On every ground I should think that would be the best thing for
+her."
+
+See people? Rendel felt, with the sense of having received a blow, what
+sort of aspect social intercourse presented to him now. But as the days
+went on Doctor Morgan insisted more strongly on the necessity that
+Rachel should go for a definite 'cure' somewhere, and recommended a
+special place, Bad-Schleppenheim.
+
+"Bad-Schleppenheim," he said, "is on the whole as good a place as you
+could go to."
+
+"But isn't it thronged with English people?" said Rendel.
+
+"Not unduly," said Morgan. "At any rate, I think it is worth trying."
+
+"I wonder if my wife would like it," said Rendel doubtfully.
+
+"I wouldn't tell her," said the doctor, "till it's all settled. That's
+the way to deal with wives, I assure you."
+
+And with a cheery laugh, Dr. Morgan, who had no wife, went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Rachel, however, even after the move abroad so strongly recommended by
+her doctor had been made, did not all at once regain her normal
+condition. She appeared to be better in health; she was calmer, her
+nerves seemed quieter; but a strange dull veil still hung between her
+mind and the days immediately preceding the great catastrophe. To what
+had happened the day before her father's death she never referred; she
+had not asked Rendel anything more about the accusation brought against
+him. Once or twice she had spoken of her father as if he were still
+there, then caught herself up, realising that he was gone. Was this how
+it was always going to be? Rendel asked himself. Would he not again be
+able to share with her, as far as one human being can share with
+another, his hopes and his fears, or rather his renunciations? Would she
+never be able to take part in his life with the sweet, smiling sympathy
+which had always been so ineffably precious to him? Those days that she
+had lost were just those that had branded themselves indelibly into his
+consciousness: the afternoon that Stamfordham had come with the map,
+the morning following when it had appeared in the newspaper, the scenes
+with Gore, with Stamfordham,--all those days he lived over and over
+again, and lived them alone. There was some solace in the thought that
+if that time were to be to Rachel for ever blurred, she would never be
+able to recall what had passed between herself and her husband after
+Rendel had brought on Gore's illness by taxing him with what he had
+done. And while he struggled with his memories--would he always have to
+live in the past now instead of in the future?--Rachel, who had been
+told to be a great deal in the fresh air, passed her time quietly,
+peacefully, languidly, lying out of doors. They had deemed themselves
+fortunate in securing in the overcrowded town a somewhat primitive
+little pavilion belonging to one of the big hotels, of which the charm
+to Rachel was that it had a shady garden. Rendel, whose time even during
+the period in which he had had no regular occupation had always been
+fully occupied, reading several hours a day, making notes on certain
+subjects about which he meant to write later, became conscious for the
+first time in his life that the hours hung heavy on his hands. It was
+with a blank surprise that he realised that such a misfortune, which he
+had always thought vaguely could befall only the idlers and desultory of
+this world, should attack himself. Life is always laying these snares
+for us, putting in our way suddenly and unexpectedly some form of
+unpleasantness by which we may have seen others attacked, but from
+which unconsciously we have felt that we ourselves should be preserved
+by our own merits,--just as when we are in good health we hear of
+sciatica, lumbago, or gout, and accept them without concern as part of
+the composition of the universe, until one day one of these
+disagreeables attacks ourselves, and stands out quite disproportionately
+as something that after all is of more consequence than we thought. It
+unfortunately nearly always happens that we have to face the mental
+crises of life inadequately prepared. We think we have pictured them
+beforehand, and according to that picture we are ready, in imagination,
+with a sufficient equipment of fortitude and decision to enable us to
+encounter them. In reality we mostly do no better than a traveller who
+going to an unknown land and climate, guesses for himself beforehand
+what his outfit had better be, and then finds it deplorably inadequate
+when he gets there. Rendel, during those days of lonely agony in London
+that followed the revelations sprung on the public by the _Arbiter_, had
+endeavoured to school himself to face what the future might have in
+store for him; but he had thought that while he was abroad, at any rate,
+the horror that pursued him now would be in abeyance. He had never been
+to German baths, he had never been to a fashionable resort of the kind;
+he had no idea what it meant. All that he had vaguely pictured was that
+it would be some sort of respite from the thing that dogged him now, the
+fear--for there was no doubt that as the days went on it grew into a
+fear--of coming suddenly upon some one he knew, who would look him in
+the face and then turn away. And now that they were at the term of their
+journey, installed in their little foreign pavilion, he had become aware
+that at a stone's throw from him was a numerous cosmopolitan society,
+among whom was probably a large contingent from London. He did not try
+to learn their names; he would jealously keep aloof from them. Rachel
+had been advised to stay here for four weeks at least. Four weeks, no
+doubt, is not very long under ordinary circumstances: he had not
+imagined that it might seem almost unendurably long to a man who had
+been married less than a year to a wife that he loved. And yet, before
+he had been there three days, he was conscious that each separate hour
+had to be encountered, wrestled with, conquered, before going on to the
+next. He had meant to write: there was a point of administration upon
+which he had intended to say his say in one of the Reviews. But somehow
+in that sitting-room, with the windows opening down to the garden, the
+steady work, which in his own study would have been a matter of course,
+seemed almost impossible. Then he thought he would read. He read aloud
+to Rachel for part of the day; but he did not dare to choose anything
+that was much good to himself, as he had been told that the more
+inactive her mind was the better. Something he would have to do; he
+would have to organise his daily life in some way that would make the
+burden of it endurable. He made up his mind to take long walks--the
+hotel and pavilion lay on the outskirts of the town--to go into the
+outlying country and explore it on foot. But in the evenings when Rachel
+was gone to bed, and when, alone at last, he would try to concentrate
+his mind on the study or the writing to which he had been used so
+eagerly to turn, another thought that he had been keeping at bay by a
+conscious effort would rush at him again and overwhelm him.
+
+In the meantime, at the other side of Bad-Schleppenheim, the hours were
+flying fast and gaily. From the moment when the visitors met together at
+an early hour in the morning to drink their glasses of Schleppenheim
+water, and onwards through the luncheon parties, excursions, walking up
+and down, listening to the band, seeing theatricals, or playing Bridge
+in the evening, there was never a moment in which they were not
+industriously engaged in the pursuit of something. It was mostly
+pleasure, though many of them imagined it was health. Many of the people
+who in London constituted Society were here, in an inner and hallowed
+circle, in the centre of which were many minor and a few major royalties
+out of every country in Europe; and revolving round them in wider
+circles outside, many other people who, at home just on the verge of
+being in Society, revelled in the thought that here, under altered
+conditions, and in the enforced juxtapositions of life in a
+watering-place, a special talent for tennis, a gift for Bridge, better
+clothes than other people, or a talent for private theatricals, would
+help them to be on the right side of the line they were so anxious to
+cross. Add to these, numbers of pretty girls anxious only to enjoy
+themselves, and swarms of young men who had come for the same reason,
+and it will be imagined that the atmosphere reigning in the brilliantly
+lighted Casino, in and around which the joyous spent their evenings
+singing, dancing, wandering in the grounds, was singularly different
+from that of the little isolated pavilion where Rendel sat trying to
+fashion the picture of his life into something that he could look upon
+without a shudder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The walls of the little town were placarded with the announcement of a
+great bazaar to be held for the benefit of the English Church in
+Bad-Schleppenheim. The economics of a fashionable bazaar are evidently
+governed by certain obscure laws, of which the knowledge is yet in
+infancy; for the ordinary laws of commerce are on these occasions
+completely suspended. That of supply and demand becomes inverted, since
+the vendors are seemingly eager to sell all that the buyers least want:
+the cost of production, of which statistics are not obtainable, the
+expenditure of money, time, and energy required to furnish the stalls is
+not taken into account at all. Loss and profit appear to be inextricably
+mingled; however much unsold merchandise remains on the stall at the end
+of the bazaar the seller is expected to hand over a substantial sum to
+the good object for which she is supposed to have been working. And yet
+there must be some advantage in this method of raising money, or even
+the female mind would presumably not at once turn to it as the simplest
+and most obvious way of obtaining funds for a given purpose.
+
+These problems, however, did not exist for Lady Chaloner, one of the
+leaders of English Society in Schleppenheim. She took bazaars for
+granted, as she did everything else. She was one of the very pillars of
+the social fabric of her country. She was of noble blood, she was
+portly, she was decidedly middle-aged. She had been recommended to diet
+herself and to drink the waters of Schleppenheim, and as she did so in
+company with half the distinguished people in Europe, she was quite
+content to follow the course prescribed. In these days when everything
+is called into question, when social codes alter, and an undesirable
+fusion of human beings takes place in so many directions, it was
+positively refreshing to turn to Lady Chaloner, who not only did not
+know, but could not conceive that it mattered, what other people did in
+any layer of existence beneath her own. She had not at any time a keen
+eye to discrimination of character. Her judgment of those
+fellow-creatures whom she naturally frequented was based in the first
+instance on their degree of blood relationship with herself, then on
+their social standing: but she was but vaguely aware of the difference
+between the men and women, especially the women, who did not belong to
+that inner circle, and knew as little about them as a looker-on leaning
+from a window in a foreign town knows about the people who pass beneath
+him in the street. But there were times when she entirely recognised
+the usefulness in the scheme of creation of those motley crowds of
+well-dressed persons, even though they bore names she had never heard
+before. During her preparation for the bazaar, for instance, which she
+was getting up in the single-minded conviction that nothing better could
+be done for the institution she was trying to befriend, she had been
+more than willing to co-operate with Mrs. Birkett, the wife of the
+chaplain, and even to ask some of Mrs. Birkett's friends for their help.
+Mrs. Birkett, who approached the bazaar from the point of view from
+which she had artlessly imagined it was being undertaken, that of
+ensuring some sort of provision for the expenses of the chaplain who
+undertook the summer duty of Schleppenheim, received a series of shocks
+as she came face to face with the different points of view of the
+various stall-holders with whom she was successively brought into
+contact. Lady Chaloner--she looked on this as a great achievement--had
+succeeded in enrolling among the bazaar-workers the young Princess
+Hohenschreien, on the ground of her being a staunch Protestant. The
+Princess was half-English, half-German. Her mother had been a distant
+connection of Lady Chaloner. This relationship in some strange way
+entirely condoned in Lady Chaloner's eyes the fact that the Princess
+Hohenschreien had a good deal of paint on her face, and a good deal of
+paint in her manner, and that the loudness of her laugh and the boldness
+of her bearing were more pronounced than would have been permitted of
+the well-behaved ladies brought up within the walls of Castle Chaloner.
+However, Lady Chaloner's daughters were married to husbands of an
+excellent and irreproachable kind, and were out in the world; and Lady
+Chaloner felt no kind of responsibility about Madeline Hohenschreien,
+"Maddy," as she was called by her intimates. She expressed distinct
+approval of her, in fact, in the words, "Maddy has such a lot of go
+about her, hasn't she? It does one good to hear her laughin'." So when
+"Maddy" instantly and light-heartedly undertook to help the bazaar by
+performing at the Cafe Chantant, that was to go on at stated times all
+through the evening, Lady Chaloner felt that she was doing a distinctly
+good work. It was no small undertaking, however, marshalling her forces
+and trying to arrange that every one of the stallholders should not be
+selling exactly the same thing--namely, the small carved wooden objects,
+the staple commodity of Schleppenheim, made by the surrounding
+peasantry.
+
+The bazaar was drawing near, and Lady Chaloner was very busy indeed.
+Indefatigably did she send for Mrs. Birkett several times every day,
+begging her to bring a pencil and paper that they might make lists. Mrs.
+Birkett's experience, however, was limited to sales of work under
+somewhat different conditions in England, and she was not of very much
+use, except as a moral support and outward material embodiment of the
+cause for which the bazaar was being undertaken. She sought comfort in
+her inmost soul in the thought of all the money that must surely flow
+into the coffers of the Church after this magnificent undertaking; but
+she was secretly out of her element and ill at ease, when Lady Chaloner
+pounced upon her to talk of the bazaar, at an hour when the most
+fashionable people in Europe, with their best clothes on, were walking
+up and down while the band was playing, or established at little tables
+exchanging intimate pleasantries with one another and greetings with the
+people that passed.
+
+She was sitting by Lady Chaloner, in compulsory attendance upon that
+benefactress of the Church, a few days before the bazaar was to come
+off.
+
+"Now, let me see," said Lady Chaloner, "what are you goin' to have on
+your stall?"
+
+"On mine?" said Mrs. Birkett, rather taken aback.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Chaloner, "aren't you goin' to have a stall?"
+
+"You see," said Mrs. Birkett, "I have not any of the things here
+that--er--I generally use for the purpose," and she thought regretfully
+of a big box at home which contained a sort of rolling stock of hideous
+articles that travelled, so to speak, between herself and her friends
+from one bazaar to another, and reappeared, a sort of symbolical
+merchandise, a currency in a nightmare, at all the fancy sales held in
+the neighbourhood of Leighton Ham.
+
+"The only thing is," said Lady Chaloner, "it is rather a pity, because,
+bein' for the Church, people will expect you to sell, you know. Perhaps
+you could sell at somebody else's stall. Mine's full, I think," she
+added prudently. "Let me see," and her ladyship ran quickly over the
+names of the half a dozen young women who, in the most beguiling of
+costumes, were going to trip about and sell buttonholes to their
+partners of the evening before. Lady Chaloner's solid good sense and
+long habit of the world kept things that should be separate perfectly
+distinct; she did not for a moment contemplate Mrs. Birkett tripping
+about and selling buttonholes. "Perhaps Mrs. Samuels hasn't got her
+number complete," she said, not realising this time, the thing being a
+little more out of her field of vision, that Mrs. Samuels, who had been
+spending her time, energy, and even money, in trying to be friends with
+Lady Chaloner, might quite possibly be in the same attitude towards Mrs.
+Birkett, if thrust upon her, as Lady Chaloner was to herself.
+
+"I daresay, yes," said Mrs. Birkett, with some misgiving, as she saw
+Mrs. Samuels further down the alley, standing with a London manager in
+the centre of a group who were laughing and talking round them.
+
+"Let me see, Mrs. Samuels is goin' to have the tea, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes, the refreshment stall," said Mrs. Birkett, referring to her list.
+
+"And Lady Adela Prestige the fortune tellin'--and Princess
+Hohenschreien, what did she say she would do? Oh! I remember, the Cafe
+Chantant. What has she done about it, I wonder? Do you know anything
+about that?"
+
+"I am afraid I don't," said Mrs. Birkett. This, indeed, was quite beyond
+her competence.
+
+"I wonder if she has got people enough. Ah! here she is. Madeline!
+Maddy!" she called out, as Princess Hohenschreien appeared at the end of
+the walk, a parasol lined with pink behind her, and her head thrown back
+as she laughed loud and heartily at something her companion had said.
+
+"Yes, dear Lady Chaloner? Were you calling me?"
+
+"I wanted to speak to you about the bazaar," said Lady Chaloner. "How do
+you do, M. de Moricourt," to the Princess's companion.
+
+"The bazaar," said the young man in French, as he bowed, "what is that?"
+
+"What is that?" said the Princess, with another burst of laughter. "But,
+_mon cher_, you are impossible! We have been talking of nothing else all
+the way down the alley."
+
+"How?" said the young man. "I really beg your pardon, Princess, but I
+thought we were talking of the comedy we were going to act at the
+Casino."
+
+"And what do you suppose that comedy is for," said the Princess, "if not
+for the bazaar?"
+
+"How can I tell?" said Moricourt. "It might have been to please the
+public, or even to please the Princess Hohenschreien," with a little
+bow.
+
+"Of course we shall please both," said the Princess. "And a bazaar
+gives us a reason. A charity bazaar, isn't it?"
+
+"Ah! a charity bazaar," said Moricourt, "that is another thing. It
+doesn't matter how badly I shall act, then."
+
+"Perhaps that is as well," said the Princess.
+
+"Is it permitted to know the object of the charity we are going to
+assist so well?" said Moricourt.
+
+Lady Chaloner, dimly aware that Mrs. Birkett was becoming very
+uncomfortable, although she did not clearly distinguish whether the
+peculiar expression to be observed on the latter's face came from
+irritation or embarrassment, hastily said--
+
+"It is not a charity exactly. It is for the English Church at
+Schleppenheim. This is Mrs. Birkett, the wife of the clergyman,"
+indicating Mrs. Birkett.
+
+"Ah!" said Moricourt, "the English Church," and he bowed to Mrs. Birkett
+as though making the acquaintance of that honoured institution. Princess
+Hohenschreien also included herself in the introduction, and bowed with
+a good-natured smile of absolute indifference to Mrs. Birkett and to all
+that she represented.
+
+"Well, now then, seriously," said Lady Chaloner, "do you undertake the
+Cafe Chantant, Madeline?"
+
+"Not the whole of it, my dear lady," said the Princess. "That really is
+too much to ask. M. Moricourt and I will act a play."
+
+"How long does the play last?" said Lady Chaloner.
+
+"How long did we say it took?" said the Princess to her companion. "It
+depends upon how often Moricourt forgets his part. When we rehearsed it
+last night he waited quite ten minutes in the middle of it."
+
+"I must remind you," said Moricourt, "that I was pausing to admire ...
+the beautiful feathers in your hat."
+
+"Oh! well, that is different," said the Princess. "I think that
+explanation is satisfactory--but otherwise----" And she filled up the
+sentence with a telling glance, to which Moricourt replied with a look
+of fervent admiration.
+
+"Well, how long does it take, then?" said Lady Chaloner, with a smile of
+strange indulgence, Mrs. Birkett thought, for a lady so highly placed,
+and of such solid dignity.
+
+"Oh! about half an hour," said Moricourt; "perhaps three-quarters."
+
+"Is that all?" said Lady Chaloner, in some consternation. "The Cafe
+Chantant goes on for how long did you say, Mrs. Birkett?"
+
+This piece of statistics Mrs. Birkett was able to furnish.
+
+"From six till ten, I think you said, Lady Chaloner," she said, reading
+from her list.
+
+"Heavens!" said the Princess, "you don't expect us, I hope, to go on
+from six till ten. We had better do the Nibelungen Ring at once. I will
+be Bruennhilde--and I tell you what," turning to Moricourt, "you shall be
+the big lizard who comes in and says 'bow-wow,' or whatever it is. Mr.
+Wentworth!" and she called to Wentworth who was strolling along with an
+air of being at peace with himself and the universe. "What is it that
+lizards do?"
+
+"If they are small," said Wentworth, "they run up a wall in the sun, or
+they run over your feet, and if they are big----"
+
+"You fall over their feet, I suppose," said the Princess.
+
+"But a lizard at a Cafe Chantant," said Moricourt, "what does he do?"
+
+"At a Cafe Chantant? He sings, of course," said Wentworth.
+
+"No no," said the Princess, with again her resonant laugh. "I don't know
+much about botany, but I am sure lizards don't sing."
+
+"Then in that case," said Moricourt, "Wentworth must. He can sing; I
+have heard him."
+
+"Can you, Mr. Wentworth? How well can you sing?" said the Princess with
+artless candour.
+
+"Well," said Wentworth, "that is rather difficult to say. I don't sing
+quite as well as Mario perhaps, but a little better than ... a lizard."
+
+"Oh, that will do perfectly," said the Princess. "For a charity, people
+are not particular."
+
+"By the way, what is all this for?" said Wentworth.
+
+"For the English Church here, you remember," said Lady Chaloner.
+
+"Oh! to be sure, yes," said Wentworth. "I saw the placard."
+
+"This is Mrs. Birkett," said Lady Chaloner.
+
+Wentworth bowed and said politely, "I hope the bazaar will be a great
+success."
+
+"I hope so, thank you," Mrs. Birkett said, feeling that if the bazaar
+were not a great success, she would have gone through a good deal for a
+very little. She longed to be allowed to go away, but she was not quite
+sure whether she would not be jeopardising the success of the bazaar by
+leaving at this juncture. Visions of having promised to meet her
+reverend husband to go for a walk at a given moment were haunting her.
+Finally, with a desperate effort, she said--
+
+"I am afraid I have an appointment, Lady Chaloner, and must go now,
+unless there is anything more I can do."
+
+"Oh, must you go?" said Lady Chaloner, "we had better meet in the
+morning, I think, and make a final list of the stalls."
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Birkett, with a sigh of relief, and with a
+determined effort she tried to include the circle she was leaving in one
+salutation, and made away as fast as she could.
+
+"I hope," said the Princess, "the poor lady is not shocked at having a
+Cafe Chantant in her Church bazaar."
+
+"At any rate," said Wentworth, "she will be consoled when you hand over
+the results to her afterwards."
+
+"What is the name of the piece you are going to do?" said Lady Chaloner,
+pencil in hand.
+
+"_Une porte qui s'ouvre_," said Moricourt, with a glance at the
+Princess.
+
+"Oh! if you think we'll have that one!" said the Princess. "Would you
+believe, Lady Chaloner, that he wants me to be the maid in it instead of
+the leading lady, because he kisses the maid behind the door!"
+
+"My dear Maddy!" said Lady Chaloner, reprovingly.
+
+"Don't look so shocked at me, dear Lady Chaloner," she said. "I am sure
+I am as shocked myself at the suggestion, as----"
+
+"Mrs. Birkett," suggested Wentworth.
+
+"Precisely," said the Princess.
+
+"At any rate we'll put that piece on the list for the present," said
+Lady Chaloner. "Then there will be a song from Lady Adela----"
+
+"And a song from Mr. Wentworth," said Moricourt.
+
+"That's splendid," said Lady Chaloner. "The Cafe Chantant will do. The
+only thing I rather regret is about the stalls, that every one is goin'
+to sell the same thing."
+
+"And who is going to buy?" said the Princess.
+
+"That's another difficulty," said Lady Chaloner, "they'll all have to
+buy from one another."
+
+"We had better have some autographs," said the Princess, "they always
+sell."
+
+"Very good," said Lady Chaloner, putting it down on the list. "You had
+better get some."
+
+"All right," said the Princess. "We'll have some of all kinds, I think.
+I will get some from those people too," nodding her head in the
+direction of the London manager.
+
+"Everybody considers himself an autograph in these days," said
+Wentworth; "it is terrible what a levelling age we live in."
+
+"We might sell photographs, of course," said the Princess, "instead of
+autographs."
+
+"Or both," said Lady Chaloner, earnestly and anxiously, as though
+contemplating all sources of revenue. "Signed photographs."
+
+"Excellent," said Wentworth.
+
+"There ought to be people enough to buy, if they would only come," said
+Lady Chaloner, taking up a Visitors' List that lay beside her. "People
+like the Francis Rendels, for instance," putting her finger on the name,
+"or----"
+
+"The Rendels? Are they here?" said Wentworth, with much interest.
+
+"So it says here. What is she like?" said Lady Chaloner. "Would she
+help?"
+
+"I am not sure," said Wentworth. "She's in mourning, and very quiet--but
+very charming."
+
+"Thank you," said the Princess with a gay laugh. "I am sure that is a
+compliment _a mon adresse_. I know what you mean when you say that very
+quiet women are charming. Let us go away, Moricourt; we are too noisy
+for Mr. Wentworth."
+
+"You are too bad, Maddy, really," said Lady Chaloner, smiling at this
+brilliant sally.
+
+"_Ich bitte sehr_," said Wentworth to the Princess, with a little bow,
+as he took up the paper and looked for the address of the Rendels.
+"Pavillon du Jardin, Hotel de Londres--I must go and look them up," he
+said.
+
+"You might beat them up to come and buy, at any rate," said Lady
+Chaloner, "if they can't do anything else."
+
+"I will do what I can," said Wentworth with a smile, reflecting as he
+walked off what a strange blurring of the focus of life there is when,
+everything being concentrated on to one particular purpose, whether it
+be a bazaar, an election, or the giving of a ball, all the human beings
+one encounters are considered from the point of view of their fitness to
+one particular end--in the aspect of a buyer or seller, as a voter, as a
+partner, as the case may be. There was no doubt that at this moment the
+whole of mankind were expected to fit somehow into Lady Chaloner's
+pattern: to be useful for the bazaar, or to be thrown away as useless.
+
+As Wentworth turned away he exchanged greetings with a jovial
+important-looking personage coming in the other direction, no other than
+Mr. Pateley, exhaling prosperity as he came. The completion of the Cape
+to Cairo railway, and the reinstatement in public opinion of the
+'Equator' Mine, proved to be of gold after all--let alone certain
+fortunate pecuniary transactions connected with that reinstatement--had
+given Pateley both political and material satisfaction. The _Arbiter_
+was advancing more triumphantly than ever, and its editor was a person
+of increasing consideration and influence.
+
+"You seem very busy, Lady Chaloner," he said, as he looked at the sheets
+of paper on the table by her.
+
+"We are gettin' up a bazaar," Lady Chaloner said. "Will you help us?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," said Pateley obviously. "What do you want me to
+do?"
+
+"Give us your autograph," said the Princess promptly, "and we will sell
+it for large sums of gold."
+
+She had certainly chosen a skilful way of enlisting Pateley's
+co-operation. He revelled in the joy of being a political potentate, and
+every fresh proof that he received of the fact was another delight to
+him.
+
+"I shall be greatly honoured," he said.
+
+"We are going to have autographs of all the distinguished people we can
+find," said the Princess, continuing her system of ingratiation.
+
+"I can tell you of an autograph who has just arrived," said Pateley. "I
+have just seen him driving up from the station; a very expensive
+autograph indeed--Lord Stamfordham."
+
+"Lord Stamfordham?" said Lady Chaloner, the Foreign Secretary, like the
+rest of the world, falling instantly into his place in her kaleidescope.
+"Certainly, if he would give us a dozen autographs we should do an
+excellent business with them."
+
+"You had better make Adela Prestige ask him, then," said the Princess
+with a laugh.
+
+"I wonder where Adela is?" said Lady Chaloner, considering the question
+entirely on its merits.
+
+"That depends upon where Lord Stamfordham is," murmured the Princess to
+her companion. "By the way, Lady Chaloner, before we part, it is
+Tuesday, isn't it, that we make our expedition to Waldlust to lunch in
+the wood?"
+
+"Tuesday?--let me see, this is Thursday. Yes, I think so," said Lady
+Chaloner. Then she gave a cry of dismay. "Oh! no, Maddy, Tuesday is the
+bazaar; that will never do."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Princess, "all the better. The bazaar doesn't open
+till half-past five after all, and we can lunch at half-past twelve. It
+will do us good to be in the fresh air before our labours begin; we
+shall look all the better for it."
+
+"Very well," said Lady Chaloner dubiously. "But then what about the
+arrangements?"
+
+"Can't those be made on Monday?" said the Princess; "and if there are
+any finishing touches required, Mrs. Birkett and her friends can do them
+on Tuesday. They won't want to look their best, I daresay," and she
+laughed again.
+
+"Very well," said Lady Chaloner. "Tuesday, then, for Waldlust. I will
+ask Lord Stamfordham to come."
+
+"And I will ask Adela," said the Princess.
+
+"Come then, Moricourt," said the Princess, "if you want to rehearse that
+play before we act it."
+
+"Pray do," said Lady Chaloner anxiously. "I am sure people who act
+always rehearse first."
+
+"I am more than willing," said M. de Moricourt, throwing an infinity of
+expression into his voice and glance as he looked at the Princess.
+
+"Some parts especially will require a great deal of rehearsing." And
+they departed together.
+
+"She is so amusin'," said Lady Chaloner to Pateley. "I really don't know
+anybody that can be more amusin' when she likes."
+
+Pateley gave a round, sonorous laugh of agreement, tantamount to a smile
+of assent in any one else. He wisely did not commit himself to any
+expression of opinion as to the accomplished wit of the Princess, which
+at all events as far as he had had opportunity of observing it, did not
+strike him as being of a very subtle character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The echoes of the band which was enlivening the promenade we have just
+left penetrated to the pavilion where Rachel and her husband were
+sitting alone. A little path ran from the back of the pavilion straight
+up into the woods. At certain hours, when the fashionable world met to
+drink the waters, to listen to the band, or to talk at the Casino, the
+woodland path was almost deserted. At no time was it very crowded, as it
+was a short and rather steep short cut to a walk through the wood which
+could be reached by a more convenient access from the principal street
+in the town.
+
+Rendel, although it had not occurred to him to look at a Visitors' List,
+and although he did not realise yet how many people he knew were at
+Schleppenheim, still had a strange, unpleasant feeling, horribly new to
+him, of shrinking from meeting any one he had ever seen before. He had
+seen the woodland path, and was wondering if he should go and explore it
+at this hour when presumably every one was listening to the band, of
+which the incessant strains heard in the distance were beginning to be
+maddening. As he looked up vaguely, the little door into the garden
+opened, and he saw the familiar figure of Wentworth appear. His heart
+stood still. Did Wentworth know? Was he coming out of compassion? And at
+the same moment that he thought it, further back somewhere in his mind
+he was conscious of the absurdity of Wentworth having become suddenly so
+important--Wentworth's opinion, his personality mattering, his
+representing one of the instruments of Fate. He stood, therefore, to
+Wentworth's surprise, absolutely still, waiting to see what his friend's
+attitude would be. But there was no mistake about that, about the
+unaffected heartiness and rejoicing with which Wentworth met him, in
+absolute unconsciousness of any possible cloud between them, any
+possible reason why Rendel should not be as glad to see him as he had
+been at any time since they had been at Oxford together.
+
+"Frank!" he said, as he came forward, "what's all this about? Why are
+you hiding yourself here?" And he stopped in surprise at seeing as he
+spoke the words something in Rendel's whole bearing that made him feel
+as if he were speaking the truth in jest, as if the man before him
+really were hiding, really had something to conceal.
+
+Then, after that first moment, Rendel realised that Wentworth knew
+nothing. That, at any rate, for the moment was to the good, and with an
+abounding sense of relief he held out his hand.
+
+"Don't you like these quarters?" he said. "We think they are perfectly
+delightful."
+
+"So do I," Wentworth said, "so do I. They are so quiet."
+
+"My wife wants to be quiet," said Rendel, half indicating Rachel, who
+was lying back in a garden chair, some knitting in her hands.
+
+"How are you, Mrs. Rendel?" said Wentworth, and he hastened forward to
+greet her.
+
+She put out her hand with a smile and shook hands with him, apparently
+not surprised at seeing him, or particularly interested.
+
+"You are certainly most delightfully cool here in the shade," he said.
+"It is awfully hot in that promenade."
+
+"It must be," said Rachel.
+
+"How long have you been here?" Wentworth went on, sitting down.
+
+"How long is it?" said Rachel, with a slightly puzzled look, looking at
+Rendel. "Only a few days, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, not quite a week. My wife has not been well. We were recommended
+here that she might do the cure."
+
+"I see," Wentworth said, somewhat relieved at finding himself on the way
+to an explanation. "Well, this is a splendid place, I believe, for the
+people that it cures," he added sapiently.
+
+"No doubt," Rendel said.
+
+There was another pause.
+
+"Then that is why we have not seen you at the Casino," Wentworth said.
+"One can't avoid running up against people one knows at every turn
+here."
+
+"Is that so?" said Rendel, a note of anxiety in his voice. "We have not
+run up against any one yet."
+
+"Oh! dear me, yes," said Wentworth, unconscious that each of the names
+he might enumerate would represent to Rendel a possible inexorable
+judge. "Half London is here: Lady Chaloner, Pateley--all sorts of
+people."
+
+"Pateley?" said Rendel, the blood rushing to his face at the association
+of ideas called up in his mind by that name.
+
+"Of course," said Wentworth. "Pateley, flourishing like the bay-tree.
+They say he is making thousands, and he looks as if he were."
+
+"Out of the _Arbiter_?" asked Rendel.
+
+"The _Arbiter_, I suppose, or something else. But I have no doubt he
+would tell you if you asked him. He does not impress me as being one of
+the very reserved kind."
+
+"I don't know," said Rendel. "I don't suppose Pateley ever says more
+than he means to say, with all his air of hearty communicativeness."
+
+"Well, I daresay not," said Wentworth. "The man's very good company
+after all; and as long as none of our secrets are in his keeping, it
+doesn't matter particularly."
+
+Rendel said nothing. He felt he could not meet Pateley face to face at
+this moment.
+
+"What do you do, then, all day here," said Wentworth, "if you don't
+drink the waters, and don't go to the Casino, and don't play Bridge?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't do very much," said Rendel, with an involuntary
+accent in the words that made Wentworth ponder over the undesirability
+of marrying a wife who is in mourning and depressed.
+
+"You should go into the wood," said Wentworth, "as the Germans do. We
+found a lot of them the other day singing part-songs out of little
+books. There is a band of them here called the Society of the United
+Thrushes, composed of the most respectable and most middle-aged ladies
+of the district."
+
+"That sounds charming," said Rendel.
+
+"Look here," said Wentworth, "if you don't care to walk alone, do let's
+walk together. One can go up here and along the wood for miles. We'll
+have good long stretches as we used to at Oxford. What do you think,
+Mrs. Rendel? Don't you think it would be a good thing for him?"
+
+"Very," said Rachel with a smile. "I think he ought to go and walk."
+
+"That's capital," said Wentworth. "Let's do that to-morrow, shall we?"
+
+"I should like it very much," said Rendel.
+
+But the next day the weather broke, and was unsettled for three days. On
+the Tuesday morning, happily for the bazaar and the big tent in the
+grounds of the Casino, the sun shone out again, and everything was
+radiant as before. Wentworth turned up at the pavilion in the forenoon
+and persuaded Rendel to make a day of it. The two started off together
+through the wood, the scented air floating round them, and bringing to
+Rendel, as he strode along with a congenial companion, a sense of mental
+and physical relief as though the atmosphere of both kinds that he was
+breathing were as different from that which had weighed him down a
+fortnight ago as the scent of the aromatic pines was from the air of the
+London streets. Wentworth was full of talk, of a kind it must be
+confessed which left his hearer at the end without any very distinct
+impression of what it had been about, although it passed the time
+agreeably and genially. He had his usual detached air, which Rendel had
+always been accustomed to find a relief as opposed to his own strenuous
+attitude, of standing aloof as an amused spectator of human
+contingencies.
+
+"I haven't seen you for ever so long," Wentworth was saying. "What
+became of you at the end of the season? You vanished somehow, didn't
+you?"
+
+"We were in mourning, you know," Rendel replied.
+
+"Ah, to be sure, yes, Sir William Gore died," said Wentworth, attuning
+his voice to what he considered a suitable key, on the assumption that
+Rendel would feel still more bound to be loyal to his father-in-law now
+than when, as he put it to himself, the "old humbug" was alive. "Poor
+Mrs. Rendel, she looks as if it had been a great blow to her."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "it was; and she has been ill besides." And he told
+Wentworth briefly of what had happened to Rachel, and the condition she
+was in, and the reassuring hopes held out by the doctors that she would
+almost certainly recover her normal state.
+
+"I am very glad to hear that," said Wentworth cheerily. "Then you must
+come to London and start life again, Rendel, now you are free. Sir
+William Gore was rather a responsibility, I daresay."
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "he was."
+
+"Let me see," said Wentworth, "it was just about when he died, I
+suppose, that Stamfordham published that sensational agreement with
+Germany?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel, "it was the day before he died."
+
+"Ah," said Wentworth, "the day before? Then of course you didn't realise
+the excitement it was. By Jove! of course you know I'm not 'in' all that
+sort of thing myself, but I must say I never saw such a fuss and fizz as
+it was. The way it was sprung on people too! It was an awfully bold
+thing to do, you know; but it turned up trumps after all, that's the
+point. Stamfordham isn't like any body else, and that's the fact."
+
+"What's that place we are coming to through the trees?" said Rendel.
+
+"Why, that's it," said Wentworth. "That's where we shall get luncheon.
+They always have something ready for people who drop in."
+
+"It isn't crowded, is it?" said Rendel.
+
+"My dear fellow," replied Wentworth, "there is never anybody. I have
+been there twice since I came; once there was a German doctor, and once
+there was nobody."
+
+"All right," said Rendel.
+
+"You are sure to get veal," Wentworth said. "In Germany, whatever else
+is wanting, you can always get a veal cutlet to slake your thirst with,
+after the longest and hottest walk."
+
+"I shall be quite content," said Rendel.
+
+They went on across the hollow, and up a slight ascent. They strolled
+idly round the woodland house, and saw, as they expected, in the
+agreeable little garden behind, a long table all ready for luncheon.
+
+"This is capital," said Wentworth. "You see, as I told you, they always
+expect people," and a waiting maid appearing at that moment, Wentworth
+proceeded to order luncheon for himself and Rendel in the best German he
+could muster. Unfortunately, however, the proprietor of the
+establishment was engaged in his cellar on important business, and the
+dialect spoken by the red-handed and red-cheeked maiden who received
+them was not very intelligible. However, by dint of nodding of heads and
+pointing out items on the bill of fare, they came to an understanding,
+Wentworth taking for granted that something quite unintelligible that
+she had said about the table was an inquiry as to whether they would
+sit at it, which indeed it was. But it was further an inquiry as to
+whether they were of the party that was coming to sit at it, which he
+also quite cheerfully and unsuspectingly answered in the affirmative. He
+then pulled out his watch, and pointing to a given time at which he
+would return, he and Rendel went further away into the wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+When they returned, half an hour later, the little garden was no longer
+empty. People were coming and going, the table was covered with food;
+Lady Chaloner was seated at it, and at a little distance from her
+Princess Hohenschreien, with M. de Moricourt inevitably in her wake.
+Lady Chaloner's readiness in the German tongue was not equal at this
+moment to her sense of injury. It was Princess Hohenschreien, therefore,
+who was charged with the negotiations, and who was discussing in voluble
+and amused German with the inn-keeper the heinousness of his crime in
+having promised two unknown pedestrians a seat at that very select
+table. The inn-keeper was full of apologies. Not having a nice
+discrimination of the laws that govern the social relations of our
+country, he had thought that if the strangers were English they were
+entitled to sit down with the others.
+
+"What does he say, Maddy?" said Lady Chaloner. "Ask him if he can't put
+them somewhere else. Good Heavens! here they are!" she said _sotto voce_
+as two people came through the trees at the bottom of the garden, and
+then stopped in surprise at seeing how populous it had become. Then, as
+Lady Chaloner looked at them, she suddenly realised with relief that she
+knew them.
+
+"What!" she cried, "is it you? Are you the two people who came in here
+and ordered luncheon in the middle of our party?"
+
+"I am afraid we are, do you know," said Wentworth, as he came forward.
+"We didn't know how indiscreet we were being. We'll go somewhere else."
+
+"Not at all, not at all," said Lady Chaloner. "How do you do, Mr.
+Rendel? I have not seen you for a long time. Of course you must lunch
+with us, so it all ends happily. Maddy, this is Mr. Francis
+Rendel--Princess Hohenschreien."
+
+Rendel bowed. He had had one moment, as they came up into the garden and
+saw there were other people there, before Lady Chaloner had recognised
+them, to make up his mind as to what he would do. Then he had said to
+himself desperately that he would risk it. After all, he might be
+exaggerating the whole thing; Wentworth did not know, and so the others
+might not. Rendel had felt during the last hour one of those strange
+sudden lightenings of the burden of existence that for some unexplained
+reason come to our help without our knowing why. He was almost beginning
+to think life would be possible again. At any rate, here, at the present
+moment, he would not try to remember or realise what it was going to be,
+what it must be. He would sit here on this peerless day with these
+pleasant friendly people, and this one hour at any rate the sun should
+shine within and without.
+
+"That's right," said Lady Chaloner, pointing to two places some way down
+the table at her left; "sit anywhere."
+
+As Wentworth and Rendel stood opposite to the Princess and her attendant
+cavalier, the door of the house, which faced them, opened, and Lady
+Adela Prestige appeared in the doorway, with some more people behind
+her.
+
+"How delightful this is!" Lady Adela cried, as she stepped out into the
+garden.
+
+"Isn't it?" said Lady Chaloner. "Look how amusin'," she continued. "Mr.
+Wentworth and Mr. Rendel have come to luncheon too, quite by chance."
+
+Lady Adela nodded to Wentworth, whom she was seeing every day, and bowed
+to Rendel, whom she knew slightly. Then, as Rendel looked beyond her, he
+saw who was coming out of the house in her wake--Lord Stamfordham,
+followed by Philip Marchmont. Stamfordham, coming out into the dazzling
+sunlight, did not at first see who was there. In that hurried, almost
+imperceptible interval, Rendel had time to grasp that here was the
+horrible reality upon him in the worst form in which it could have come.
+He had wild visions of saying something, doing something, he knew not
+what, instantly repressed by the Englishman's repugnance to a scene.
+Then he pulled himself together, and simply stood and waited. And as he
+waited he saw Stamfordham come up to the table with a pleased smile,
+prepared to sit down on Lady Chaloner's right hand, next the seat into
+which Lady Adela had dropped. Then Stamfordham suddenly saw the two men
+still standing on the other side of the table, and recognised in one of
+them Francis Rendel. A swift extraordinary change came over his face.
+The genial content of the man who, having deliberately put all his usual
+cares and preoccupations behind him was now, under the most favourable
+conditions, prepared to enjoy a holiday in genial society, suddenly
+disappeared. He involuntarily drew himself up, his face became hard and
+stern; he again looked as Rendel had seen him look the last time they
+had met. The mental agony of the younger man during that moment was
+almost unendurable. What was going to happen next? As in a dream he
+heard the comfortable voice of Lady Chaloner, who had never in her life,
+probably, spoken with any misgivings, whose calm confidence in the
+bending of contingency to her desires nothing had ever occurred to
+shake.
+
+"Will you sit down there, Lord Stamfordham? We have two new recruits to
+our party, you see. I don't think I need introduce either of them."
+
+Stamfordham remained standing for a moment; then he said quietly, but
+very distinctly--
+
+"I am afraid, Lady Chaloner, that I can't sit down at this table."
+
+A sort of electric shock ran through the careless happy people who were
+surrounding him. Rendel turned livid. Then he tried to speak. But no
+words could come; mentally and physically alike he could not frame them.
+He pushed his chair away from the table, and moved out behind it; then
+with his hands grasping the back of it, he bowed to Lady Chaloner
+without speaking, turned and went away by the little opening in the wood
+from which he and Wentworth had come. Wentworth, ready and light-hearted
+as he generally was, was for one moment also absolutely paralysed with
+amazement and concern, then saying hurriedly, "Forgive me, Lady
+Chaloner, I must go and see what has happened," he quickly followed.
+Lord Stamfordham drew up his chair to the table and sat down. His
+urbane, genial manner had returned, and he spoke as though nothing had
+happened; the rest instantly took their cue from him.
+
+"What delightful quarters you have found for us, Lady Chaloner," he
+said. "I don't think I made acquaintance with this place when I was at
+Schleppenheim last year."
+
+"Charmin', isn't it?" said Lady Chaloner. And quite imperturbably, at
+first with an effort, which became easier as the meal went on, the whole
+party went on talking and laughing as usual, with, perhaps, if the truth
+were known, an added zest of excitement, certainly on the part of some
+of its members, at "something" having happened. The two extra places
+that had been put were taken away again, and the rank closed up
+indifferently and gaily round the table, as ranks do close up when
+comrades disappear by the way.
+
+In the meantime Rendel was madly hurrying away through the wood, going
+straight in front of him, not knowing what he was doing, what he
+proposed to do--his one idea being to get away, away, away from those
+smiling, distinguished indifferent people, hitherto his own associates,
+who now all knew the horrible fate that had overtaken him, who would
+from henceforth turn their backs upon him too. The thought of that
+moment when he had been face to face with Stamfordham, of those
+distinct, inexorable tones, of the words which judged and for ever
+condemned him, burnt like a physical, horrible flame from which he could
+not escape. He flung himself down at last, and buried his face in his
+hands, trying to shut out everything, as a frightened child pulls the
+clothes over its head in the darkness. Then, to his terror, he heard
+footsteps in the wood. Who was it? Was this some one else who knew?
+Would he have to go through it all over again? And he lifted his head in
+anguish as the steps drew nearer. The sight of the newcomer brought him
+no relief. It was Wentworth, who, anxious and bewildered, came stumbling
+along, having by some strange chance come in the direction that brought
+him to the person he was seeking. Rendel looked at him.
+
+"Well?" he said, in a strained voice, as though demanding an explanation
+of Wentworth's intrusion.
+
+The sight of his face completely bewildered Wentworth.
+
+"Good God, Rendel!" he said, "what is it? What has happened?"
+
+There was a pause. Then Rendel said, trying with very indifferent
+success to speak in a voice that sounded something like his own--
+
+"Didn't you see what happened?"
+
+"I saw that--that--Stamfordham----" Wentworth began, then he stopped.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel curtly, "you saw it--you saw what Stamfordham did?
+Well, there's an end of it," and he looked miserably around him as
+though hemmed in by the powers of earth and heaven.
+
+"But, Frank," Wentworth said, still feeling as if all this were some
+frightful dream, one of those dreams so vivid that they live with the
+dreamer for weeks afterwards, and sometimes actually go to make his
+waking opinion of the persons who have appeared in them, "tell
+me--what----"
+
+"Jack," said Rendel, "it's no good talking about it. I'll tell you
+another time, I daresay, if I can. Leave me alone now, there's a good
+fellow--that's all I want."
+
+"Look here, Frank," said Wentworth; "if it's anything--anything that
+Stamfordham thinks you've done--that--that you oughtn't to have
+done--well, I don't believe it, that's all!"
+
+"You are a good friend, old Jack," said Rendel, looking at him. "I might
+have known you wouldn't believe it."
+
+"Of course I don't," said Wentworth stoutly. "I don't know what it is,
+but I don't believe it all the same."
+
+"Well," said Rendel slowly, "I'll tell you this for your comfort--you
+needn't believe it."
+
+"Of course not," said Wentworth heartily, "and I don't care what it is,
+of course you didn't do it. And what's more, I know you can't have done
+anything to be ashamed of, and of course other people will know it too,"
+he said sanguinely, carried along by his zealous friendship.
+
+Rendel's face turned dark red again. "No," he said, "other people won't.
+Of course other people will think I have done it. Don't let's talk about
+it now. The fact is," mastering his voice with an effort, "I can't,
+Jack. Just go away, and leave me alone. I'll come back some time."
+
+"But what are you going to do? You're not going to sit here all day, I
+suppose."
+
+"I'll come later," Rendel said. "You must find your way back without me,
+there's a good fellow. By the way," he added, "I'm sorry to have spoilt
+your day; I'm afraid you've had no luncheon. But you'll be back in
+Schleppenheim in time to get some. Look here, would you mind saying to
+my wife that--that I've walked a little further than you cared to go, or
+something of that sort, and that I'll be back at dinner time?"
+
+"Very well," said Wentworth, hesitatingly. "She is not likely to be
+anxious, is she?" he said dubiously. "I mean, at your being away so
+long. She won't be alarmed, will she?"
+
+"Oh no," said Rendel. "That is to say, if you don't alarm her." And then
+looking up and seeing Wentworth's anxious expression, so very unlike the
+usual one, "And you needn't be alarmed yourself, Jack; I'm not going to
+do anything desperate," he said, forcing a smile; "that's not in my
+line."
+
+"No, no, of course not," Wentworth said, with a sort of air of being
+entirely at his ease. And then reading in Rendel's face how the one
+thing he longed for was to be alone, he said abruptly, "All right, then,
+we shall meet later," and strode off the way he had come.
+
+What a solution it would have been, Rendel felt, if he had indeed been
+able to make up his mind to the step that Wentworth evidently thought he
+might be contemplating--what an answer to everything! and as again that
+burning recollection came over him he felt that, in spite of the courage
+required for suicide, it would have required less courage to put himself
+out of the world, beyond the possibility of its ever happening again,
+than to remain in it and face what other agony of humiliation Fate might
+have in store for him. But he was not alone, unfortunately; his own
+destiny was not the only one in question. And if his words, his
+intention, his faith in the future had meant anything at all when he
+told Rachel that there was no sacrifice he would not be ready to make
+for her, he was bound to go on doggedly and meet the worst. He walked
+aimlessly through the wood, higher and higher, until he reached a sort
+of clearing from which he could see, far below him, the white road
+winding back again to Schleppenheim, and presently as he looked he saw
+driving rapidly back in the direction of the town the open carriages
+containing the people he had just left. Stamfordham must be in one of
+them. What were they saying about him, those people? Or, if not saying,
+what were they thinking? Could he ever look one of them in the face
+again? Not one. And again he had a wild moment of thinking that it would
+be possible to put the thing right, to establish his innocence, to
+insist upon knowing how it was that Sir William Gore had given the
+information to the _Arbiter_, on knowing what the arrangement was with
+Pateley on which that _coup de theatre_ had depended, and he sprang to
+his feet with the determination that he would go straight back into
+Schleppenheim, seek out Pateley and insist upon knowing what had
+happened. Then, just as before, the revulsion came. The principal thing,
+he had no need to ask Pateley. He knew, and that was the thing other
+people might not know. In a little while, he was told, Rachel would be
+herself again, and perhaps able to remember: she must not come back to
+the knowledge of something that must be such a cruel blow to her faith
+in her father, her adoring love for him. And yet as he turned downwards
+and strode hurriedly back along the woodland paths, across the shafts of
+sunlight which were growing longer as the day wore on, he felt how
+absurdly, horribly unequal the two things were that were at stake. On
+the one hand his own future, his success, his whole life, all the
+possibilities he had dreamt of; on the other, reprobation falling on one
+who was beyond the reach of it, one who had no longer any possibilities,
+who had nothing to lose, whose hopes and fears of worldly success, whose
+agitations had been for ever stilled by the hand of death. And Rachel?
+Would the suffering of knowing that her father's memory was attacked, of
+being rudely awakened from her illusions to find that in the eyes of the
+world he was not, and did not deserve to be, what he had been in hers,
+would that suffering be equal to that which he himself was encountering
+now? But even as he argued with himself, as he tried to prove that his
+own salvation was possible, he knew that when it came to the point he
+could do nothing. If it had been a question of another man, whom he
+himself could have saved by bringing the accusation home to the right
+quarter, he would have done it, he would have felt bound to do it: but
+as it was, he knew perfectly well that the thing was impossible. The
+fact is that, whether guided by supernatural standards or by those of
+instinct and tradition, there are very few of the contingencies in life
+in which the man accustomed to act honestly up to his own code is really
+in doubt as to what, by that code, he ought to do: and by the time that
+Rendel reached the little garden again which he had left in the company
+of Wentworth a few hours before, he knew quite well that he was going to
+do nothing, that he might do nothing, that he must simply again wait.
+Wait for what? There was nothing to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Two of the occupants of the carriages that Rendel had seen going rapidly
+along the road knew the meaning of the scene that had taken place under
+their eyes; the others were in a state of simmering curiosity.
+
+"I should be glad," said Stamfordham, as they approached Schleppenheim,
+"if nothing could be said about what happened."
+
+He was sitting opposite to Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela in a landau.
+There was no need, of course, to explain to what he was referring.
+
+"Of course, of course," said Lady Chaloner, not quite knowing what to
+say.
+
+In the meantime Wentworth had got back, had been to see Rachel, and had
+told her that Rendel was going to extend his walk a little further and
+that he would be back without fail in time for dinner. He himself, he
+added, had been obliged to come back for an engagement. Rachel accepted
+quite placidly the fact that her husband would return later than she
+expected; she thanked Wentworth with the same sweet smile of old, asked
+where they had been, said the woods must have been delightful. Then,
+feeling that he could do nothing, Wentworth, with some misgiving, left
+her.
+
+Rachel still felt the languor which succeeds illness,--not an unpleasant
+condition when there is no call for activity,--a physical languor which
+made her quite content to sit or lie out of doors most of the day,
+sometimes walk a little way, and then come back to rest again. She had
+accepted Rendel's unceasing solicitude for her with love and gratitude,
+she clung to his presence more than ever now that both her parents being
+gone she felt herself entirely alone: but for the rest she was strangely
+content to let the days go by in a sort of luxury of sorrow, while she
+recalled the happy time passed with those other two beloved ones who had
+made up her life. But there was no bitterness in the recollection; there
+was a sort of tender mystery over it still. At times she felt as if
+there were something more; she had some dim, confused recollection of
+her husband being connected with it all, and with Gore's illness; how,
+she could not remember. And she did not try. Deep down in her mind was
+the feeling that with a great effort it might all come back to her; but
+she shrank from making the effort.
+
+After Wentworth left her, it had occurred to her that, since Rendel was
+not coming back again, she would venture outside the limits of their
+garden and go to where the band was playing. She did not at all realise
+what the surroundings of that band would be. The kind of life that she
+had led before, when they had come abroad with Lady Gore, had not been
+the sort of existence reigning at Schleppenheim. She strolled out,
+feeling that everything was very strange and new, in the direction of
+the music, following without knowing it a path which brought her into
+the very middle of the promenade into the centre of a gaily dressed
+throng of people, somewhat bewildering to one accustomed to pass all her
+days in solitude. Shrinking back a little she turned out of the stream,
+and, finding an unoccupied chair under a tree, sat down, looking timidly
+about her. Then finding that no one was paying any attention to her, or
+appeared to be conscious of the fact that she was venturing out alone,
+she gradually became amused at watching all that was going on round her.
+Presently two well-dressed women she did not know, an older and a
+younger one, Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela Prestige in fact, on their way
+to their bazaar, came along deep in talk, the older one stopping to
+speak with some emphasis whenever the interest of the conversation
+demanded it. One of these halts was made close by Rachel.
+
+"I should like to know what it was," Lady Adela was saying.
+
+"You may depend upon it," said Lady Chaloner, "that it was something
+very bad. He is not the man to do that sort of thing for nothing."
+
+"I am quite sure of it," Lady Adela replied, with a little tremor of
+excitement. "One can't help feeling that it's something really bad; that
+it was not only that he had run away with his neighbour's wife or
+something of that kind. He must have done something that can't be
+condoned."
+
+"I am sure of it," Lady Chaloner said seriously. "There is no doubt
+about that."
+
+"Poor creature!" said Lady Adela. "Didn't he look awful?"
+
+"Perfectly fearful!" said Lady Chaloner. "He looked like the villain in
+a play, who is found out--the man who has cheated at cards, or something
+of that sort."
+
+"Perhaps that was it."
+
+"I daresay," said Lady Chaloner. "I wonder if he has been playing
+Bridge?"
+
+"Dear me, I wish I knew!" said Lady Adela.
+
+This sounded very interesting, Rachel thought--exactly the kind of thing
+that happened in books at smart watering-places.
+
+"Ah, there is Maddy," said Lady Adela. "I do wonder what she thought."
+
+"By the way," said Lady Chaloner, "we must tell her not to say anything
+about it."
+
+But the Princess had driven back in the company of M. de Moricourt and
+Mr. Marchmont, and had, therefore, not heard the warning given by
+Stamfordham to his companions in the other landau.
+
+"Well," said the Princess eagerly, coming up to the others, "what did
+you think of that? Wasn't it amazing?"
+
+"Yes," said Lady Adela. "What do you think it was, Maddy?"
+
+"Something awful, you may depend upon it," said the Princess; "and I am
+sure little Marchmont knows. We tried to make him tell us on the way
+back, but he wouldn't. But I gathered somehow that Lord Stamfordham
+couldn't have done anything else."
+
+Lord Stamfordham! Did they say Stamfordham? Rachel thought to herself
+wonderingly. Was he here? And she had some kind of queer, puzzled
+feeling that he was connected in her mind with something that had
+happened lately. What was it?
+
+"And Pateley doesn't know anything about it either," said the Princess.
+"I met him just now and asked him."
+
+"Did you?" said Lady Chaloner. "I don't think you ought to have done
+that. I was going to tell you that Stamfordham said it was not to be
+mentioned."
+
+"Did he?" said the Princess, somewhat taken aback. "I asked Mr. Pateley
+because I thought he would be sure to know. But I made him promise not
+to tell anybody."
+
+"I believe he did know, though," said Moricourt, who, though he spoke
+his own language, understood perfectly everything that was said in
+English. "I wonder what the quiet and charming wife that Wentworth
+admires so much thinks?"
+
+"Poor thing!" said Lady Chaloner gravely.
+
+"By the way," said Lady Adela with a sudden idea, "Wentworth was with
+him. Wentworth must know all about it, of course. He is sure to come to
+the bazaar. We'll ask him."
+
+"Wentworth was with him?" said Rachel to herself with an involuntary
+movement, rising from her seat. Of whom were they speaking? What was it
+all about? She was unconscious that she was standing scrutinising the
+faces of the group near her as though trying to gather from them what
+their words might mean. They, deep in their conversation, did not notice
+her. Then, with a feeling of extraordinary relief--she hardly knew
+why--she saw a familiar, substantial person coming along the promenade
+with a sort of friendly swagger. She went forward to meet him, still
+feeling as though she were walking in her sleep.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel!" said Pateley in his usual hearty tone, in which there was
+now an inflection of surprise and almost of anxiety.
+
+Pateley had not met either of the Rendels since the day of his last
+interview with Sir William Gore, and he had carefully not investigated
+further the incident which had been of such great advantage to himself.
+But in the last half-hour, since, under the seal of profound secrecy, it
+had been confided to him what had happened at the luncheon, and he had
+been anxiously asked what was the cloud hanging over Rendel, he had
+pieced things together in a way which brought him pretty near the truth.
+It was beginning to be clear to him that Stamfordham had somehow visited
+upon Rendel the treachery into which he himself had practically led
+Gore. Stamfordham had asked Pateley at the time of the disclosure how
+the _Arbiter_ had become possessed of the information. Pateley had
+apologetically declined to give an explanation. But the ardent support
+given by the _Arbiter_ to Stamfordham's action in the matter and to all
+his subsequent policy had made it tolerably certain that Stamfordham
+would not bear him much malice. And, as a matter of fact, the whole
+affair had added to Stamfordham's reputation. The masterly way in which
+he had caught up the situation and dealt with it after the premature
+disclosure of the Agreement had added a fresh laurel to his crown.
+
+As Pateley uttered the words, "Mrs. Rendel," the whole of the group who
+were standing near turned with a common impulse as if a thunderbolt had
+fallen into their midst, and he grasped at once that they had been
+talking within earshot of her of something she ought not to have heard.
+Lady Adela was the first to recover her presence of mind.
+
+"Come," she said; "we must go and take our places. I mean to have some
+tea if we can get it before the opening," and she made a move in which
+the others joined.
+
+Pateley, remaining by Rachel, lifted his hat to them as they strolled
+away. "How long have you been at Schleppenheim?" he asked. "I had no
+idea you were here."
+
+"We have been here," said Rachel--"let me see--about a week."
+
+She looked anxious and disturbed.
+
+"And where are you staying?" said Pateley.
+
+"In the little pavilion behind the Hotel de Londres," and she pointed.
+
+"Charming place," said Pateley. "And how is your husband?"
+
+"He is very well, thank you," said Rachel. "He has been out for a long
+walk to-day; he went for an expedition to the woods with Mr. Wentworth."
+
+And she looked as if something else that she did not say were on the tip
+of her tongue.
+
+"It must have been delightful in the woods to-day," said Pateley, hardly
+knowing what he answered. He also was preoccupied by the story he had
+heard and wondering how much she knew of it. "Are you going home now?"
+he said, as Rachel turned away from the promenade in the direction she
+had pointed out.
+
+"I think so. I am a little tired," said Rachel, holding out her hand.
+
+"May I come and see you?" Pateley said.
+
+"Please do," said Rachel.
+
+"I certainly shall," Pateley said. "It will be delightful to get away
+for a little while from this seething mass of humanity."
+
+And he again gave one of his loud laughs as he also went towards the
+tent, to plunge with the greatest zest into the seething mass whose
+company he had been contemning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Rachel turned in the other direction and walked slowly back to the
+pavilion. What had happened? What had she been hearing? The slightest
+mental exertion still made her head ache, but she was conscious that if
+she once let herself go and made the effort it would be possible for her
+to understand. But that moment had not come yet.
+
+She had not been many minutes in her quiet shady garden when the little
+gate at the bottom of it was thrown open, and her husband came quickly
+in, looking round him with an anxious, hurried glance as though not
+knowing what he might find. What had he expected? He could hardly have
+told. But as he drew nearer and nearer he had been gradually nerving
+himself for the worst. He had been dreading to find he knew not what.
+Wentworth might be sitting with Rachel, the faces of both telling that
+Wentworth's would-be explanations had been of no avail; or Rachel
+herself might have been absent--she might have strolled out into the
+crowd and there unawares heard rumours of what he felt convinced must by
+this time be in every one's mind, on every one's lips. It was therefore
+for the moment an unmeasured relief to find that all seemed as usual,
+that Rachel was sitting there quiet and cool before her little
+tea-table.
+
+"Ah!" he almost gasped, with a long sigh, as he sank into a chair and
+leant his head against the back of it with a weary, hunted look.
+
+"Frank!" said Rachel anxiously, "what is the matter? What has happened?"
+
+"What do you mean?" he said, sitting up, with again the startled,
+haggard expression on his face. "What should have happened?"
+
+"I don't know," Rachel said, startled too at his look and manner. "You
+look so tired, so ill."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," he said, taking up and drinking eagerly the cup of
+tea that almost mechanically she had poured out and pushed towards him,
+and as he did so he realised that he had had no food since the morning.
+He ate and drank and then again lay back in his chair and was silent. As
+Rachel looked at him the absolute conviction swept over her--she knew
+not why--that he had been concerned in the terrible catastrophe of which
+she had heard the broken accounts. It began to dawn upon her that in
+some inconceivable way the thing had happened to him; that it was of him
+those women were speaking. She still heard Lady Adela saying: "Did you
+ever see any one look so awful?" And yet what could it be? What horrible
+misunderstanding was it? What horrible mistake could have been made?
+
+She sat and waited. Not the least of her charms was that she knew, what
+many women do not know, how to sit absolutely quiet. She knew when to
+refrain from questioning, how to sit by her companion in so peaceful, so
+final a manner, as it were, that he did not feel that she was simply
+waiting for what he would do next.
+
+The band blared out again with renewed vigour. Rendel leant his elbows
+on his knees, his face between his hands.
+
+"Oh! that miserable noise!" he said. "Will it never leave off? The
+hideousness of it all!--those people, that band! Oh! to get away from it
+all!" he muttered half to himself.
+
+"Frank," said Rachel entreatingly, touching his arm, "if you don't like
+it why shouldn't we go away from it? I think it is horrible, too. I went
+out of the garden to-day to where the people were walking."
+
+Rendel looked up quickly.
+
+"Did you? Did you see any one you knew?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel; "I saw Mr. Pateley."
+
+"Pateley!" said her husband. "Did you have any talk with him? What did
+he say?"
+
+"Hardly anything," said Rachel. "He was surprised to see me, and asked
+how long we had been here, and if he might come and see us. That was
+all."
+
+"That was all," echoed Rendel, again with an inward shiver. "Coming to
+see us, is he?"
+
+That encounter for the moment he must at any cost avoid.
+
+"Frank, I wonder if we must go on staying here?" Rachel said.
+
+"Of course we must," Rendel replied, trying to pull himself together
+again. "Dr. Morgan said that this was the very best place for you to
+come to, and that the waters would do you all the good in the world."
+
+"I wonder if we need," said Rachel. "I am sure it is the kind of thing
+you hate."
+
+"It is not for very long, after all," said Rendel, trying to smile.
+
+He was gradually regaining possession of himself, but was still afraid
+to trust himself to utter any but the most commonplace and ordinary
+sentences.
+
+"The moment I have done the cure," said Rachel, "we'll go back to
+London, won't we? And you can begin your work again, and do all the
+things you like. And then," she went on with an attempt at lightness of
+tone, "you can go back to your beloved politics, and think of nothing
+else all day." And she went on talking of their house, of their arrival,
+of what they would do, in a forlorn little attempt to show him that she
+meant to try to shoulder life valiantly, although it had been so
+altered. "You will stand for somewhere. You will go into the House."
+
+Rendel thought of what the life might have been that she was sketching,
+and what it was going to be now. What he had gone through that day was
+an earnest probably of what awaited him many a time if he should try to
+lead his life as he used to lead it, among the people who were congenial
+to him.
+
+"No," he said, "I'm not going to stand. I'm not going into the House. I
+shan't have anything to do with politics."
+
+"What?" said Rachel, looking at him startled.
+
+"All that, is at an end," he said firmly. Then with the relief of
+speaking, came the irresistible desire to go on, to tell her something
+at least of what his fate was, although he might not tell the thing that
+mattered most.
+
+"Do you remember," he said, "something that I told you had happened----"
+he broke off, then began again. "Tell me," he said, impelled to ask,
+"how much you remember, if you remember anything, of those days when
+your father was so ill, at the end, just before he died, or is it still
+a blank to you?"
+
+Rachel shuddered.
+
+"No, I can't remember," she said. "The last thing I remember clearly is
+one afternoon when he was beginning to be worse and had to go upstairs
+again; and I remember nothing more after that till," and her voice
+trembled, "till--a day that I woke up in bed and wanted to go to him,
+and you told me that--that he was dead. The rest of that time is a
+blank."
+
+"How extraordinary it is!" muttered Rendel to himself.
+
+"I did not even know," said Rachel, "that I had fallen on the stairs,
+until the doctor told me days afterwards that I had caught my foot as I
+was running downstairs. He told me then it was no use trying to
+remember the time just before," she went on in a low, anxious voice,
+something stirring uneasily within her: "that it might not come back at
+all. It seems it doesn't sometimes to people who have that sort of
+accident."
+
+Rendel, his eyes fixed on the ground, had been listening; he took in the
+meaning of her words and tried to realise their bearing on himself, but
+he was too far gone on the slope to stop. It was clear that she would
+not know what had happened, unless she were told by himself... and yet,
+who could tell how the awakening would come? it might even be in a worse
+form when she was able once more to mix with her kind.
+
+"Rachel," he said. "I want to tell you something that happened the day
+before your father became worse, the day before you had that accident,
+the last day, in fact, that you remember." She looked at him with
+anxious eagerness. "Something tremendously important happened. Lord
+Stamfordham brought me some private notes of his own to decipher and
+copy."
+
+"Of course," said Rachel, "that I remember. In your study downstairs."
+
+"You remember?" said Rendel eagerly. Then instantly conscious, alas,
+that the evidence could do him no kind of good, "that I gave some papers
+to Thacker to take to Stamfordham?"
+
+"Stop a minute," said Rachel. "Yes, I remember that too. My father
+wanted to play chess afterwards, but he was too tired."
+
+"In those papers," said Rendel, "there was a very important secret,
+though it didn't remain a secret," he added, with a bitter little laugh,
+"for twenty-four hours. Those papers contained the notes of a
+conversation at the German Embassy at which that agreement was decided
+upon by which Germany and England divided Africa between them. It was
+_I_ copied those papers from Stamfordham's notes. I copied the map of
+Africa with a line down the middle of it. The next morning, no one knew
+how or why, that map appeared in the _Arbiter_."
+
+Rachel looked at him, still not understanding all that was implied.
+
+"Do you see what that means for me?" Rendel said. "It was not
+Stamfordham published it, he did not mean to do so until the moment
+should come, and since I was the person who had had the original notes,
+he thought that I had published it; that I had let it out, somehow."
+
+"You!" said Rachel, with wide-open eyes.
+
+"Yes," said Rendel shortly. "That I had betrayed the great secret
+entrusted to me."
+
+"Frank!" she cried. "But of course you didn't!"
+
+"Of course I didn't," Rendel said quietly.
+
+"And--then----?" said Rachel breathlessly.
+
+"Then," Rendel said, shrinking at the very recollection, "Stamfordham
+told me he believed I had done it. Then of course,"--and the words came
+with an effort--"there was an end of everything, and I knew that there
+was nothing left for me to do but to go under, to throw everything up. I
+knew that people would turn their backs upon me, and I didn't see
+Stamfordham again until--until to-day. And to-day Wentworth and I went
+up to that place in the woods to lunch, and by chance, by the most
+horrible, evil fortune, we came upon a luncheon party at which
+Stamfordham was, and--and," he said trying to speak calmly, "when he saw
+me he refused to sit down at the same table with me." And as he spoke
+Rachel felt that things were becoming clear to her and that she was
+beginning to understand. The comments of the people who had stood by her
+and discussed the scene they had witnessed still rang in her ears, and
+she realised what the horror of that scene must have been.
+
+"Frank!" she cried, with her tears falling. And she went to him and took
+his hand, then drew his head against her bosom as though to give him
+sanctuary. "Imagine believing that you, _you_ of all people..." and the
+broken words of comfort and faith in him, of love and belief again gave
+him a moment of feeling that rehabilitation might be possible.
+
+"Frank!" Rachel went on, "tell me this. Did my father know?"
+
+"Know what?" Rendel said, starting up, the iron reality again facing
+him.
+
+"That you were accused? That they could believe that you had done such a
+shameful thing?"
+
+"Yes," said Rendel slowly. "At least he knew what had
+happened--and--and--he guessed that the suspicion would fall upon me."
+
+"Oh!" cried Rachel, hiding her face in her hands and trying to steady
+her voice. "I am sorry he knew just at the end. I wonder if he
+realised?"
+
+Rendel said nothing. Even now was Sir William Gore to stand between
+them?
+
+"Perhaps he didn't," Rachel said, almost entreatingly, "as he was so
+ill. Because think what it would have been to him! Of course he would
+have known it was not true, but he was so fastidious, so terribly
+sensitive, the mere thought that you could have been suspected of such a
+thing even would have preyed upon him so terribly."
+
+"Well," said Rendel, in a low voice--the last possibility of clearing
+himself was put behind him, and the darkness fell again--"he is beyond
+reach of it. It is I who must suffer now."
+
+Rachel had walked to the other side of the garden, pressing her
+handkerchief to her eyes and trying to control herself. Now she came
+swiftly back, a sudden determination in her heart.
+
+"Frank," she cried, "why must you suffer? We must find out who really
+did it."
+
+"I can't," said Rendel.
+
+"But have you tried?"
+
+"Yes," he said. "As much as was possible."
+
+"But it must be possible," she cried. And she came to him, her eyes and
+face glowing with resolve. "If the whole world came to me and said that
+you had done this I should not believe it. I remember so well my mother
+saying, the day that I came back from Maidenhead," and their eyes met in
+the recollection of that happy, cloudless time, "'what a man needs is
+some one to believe in him,' and I thought to myself that when--if--I
+married I would believe in my husband as she believed in my father."
+
+At this moment one of the Swiss waiters came quickly through the
+pavilion into the garden.
+
+"Monsieur Pateley," he said, "wishes to know if Madame is at home."
+Rachel and her husband looked at each other in consternation.
+
+"I can't see him at this moment," Rendel said, going to the gate.
+
+"Can't we send him away?" said Rachel, anxiously.
+
+"Where is he?" addressing the waiter. But it was too late. The question
+answered itself, as Pateley's large form appeared behind that of the
+waiter, distinctly seen on every side of it. Rachel, trying to control
+her face into a smile of welcome, went forward to meet him as Rendel
+disappeared amongst the trees, from whence he could get round into the
+house another way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+We do not move unfortunately all in one piece. It would be much simpler
+if we did, and if our actions could be accounted for by saying, "He did
+this, being a generous man, or a forgiving man, or a curious man, or a
+remorseful man." Unhappily, and it makes our actions more difficult to
+account for, we are more complicated than this, and Pateley, when he
+finally felt impelled to make his way into Rachel's presence so soon
+after parting from her in the promenade, could not probably have said
+exactly what motive prompted him to seek her. To Rachel he arrived as
+the complement, the consolidation, of the resolve that she had made. She
+hardly tried to conceal her agitation as she shook hands with him and
+looked in his face. Her own wore an expression that had not been there
+an hour ago. Something new had come to life in it. So conscious were
+they both of something abnormal, overmastering, between them that there
+did not seem anything strange in the fact that for a moment, after the
+first greeting, they stood without thinking of any of the commonplaces
+of intercourse. Then Pateley, more accustomed to overlay the realities
+of life by the conventional outside, recovered himself and said in an
+ordinary tone, looking round him--
+
+"What a delightful oasis! What charming quarters you are in here!"
+
+"Yes, we like them very much," said Rachel, recovering herself; and they
+went towards the little table and sat down.
+
+"No tea for me, thank you," said Pateley. "I have just been made to
+drink a liquid distantly resembling it at the bazaar."
+
+"At the bazaar?" said Rachel. "It was German tea, I suppose?"
+
+"I imagine so. It has been well said," said Pateley, "that no nation has
+yet been known great enough to produce two equally good forms of
+national beverage. We have good tea, but our coffee is abominable: the
+Germans have good coffee, but their tea is poison. The Spaniards, I
+believe, have good chocolate, but that I have to take on hearsay. I have
+never been to Spain. I mean to go some day, though."
+
+"Do you?" Rachel said, dimly hearing his flow of words while she made up
+her mind what her own were to be. She had had so little time to form her
+plan of action, to piece together all that she had been hearing during
+the afternoon, that it was not yet clear to her that from the
+circumstances of the case Pateley must necessarily be concerned in it;
+and at the moment she began to speak she simply looked upon him as some
+one who knew Rendel in London, who had known her father and mother, who
+had a general air of bluff and hearty serviceability, and had presented
+himself at a moment when she had no one else to turn to.
+
+"Mr. Pateley," she said, and at the sudden ring of resolution in her
+tone Pateley's face changed and his smiling flow of chatter about
+nothing came to a pause. "There is something I want very much to ask you
+about," she went on, "something I want your help in."
+
+"I am at your orders," said Pateley, with a smile and bow that concealed
+his surprise.
+
+"It is something that matters very, very much," Rachel went on.
+"Something you could find out for me."
+
+Pateley said nothing.
+
+"I don't know if you know," she went on hurriedly--"if you heard, of
+what happened to me in London just before my father died? I had an
+accident. It seemed a slight one at the time. I fell down on the stairs
+one evening that he was worse when I ran down quickly to fetch my
+husband, and I had concussion of the brain afterwards and was
+unconscious for forty-eight hours. And since, I have not been able to
+remember anything of what happened during those days."
+
+Pateley made a sort of sympathetic sound and gesture.
+
+"But," Rachel said, "I have heard to-day--not until to-day--of something
+that happened during that time, something terrible. I am going to tell
+it to you, in the greatest confidence. You will see when I tell you
+that it matters very, very much. First of all,--this I remember--on the
+day my father began to be worse, Lord Stamfordham brought my husband
+some papers to copy for him in which was the Agreement with Germany, and
+told him no one was to know about them, and my husband told no one, and
+sent them back, when they were done, to Stamfordham, in a sealed
+packet."
+
+Pateley, as he listened, sat absolutely impenetrable, with his eyes
+fixed on the ground.
+
+"But somebody got hold of them," she went on--"somebody must have stolen
+them, because they were published the next morning in the paper, in the
+_Arbiter_." And as the words left her lips she suddenly realised that
+the man in front of her was the one of all others in the world who must
+know what had happened. The _Arbiter_ was embodied in Pateley, it was
+Pateley: that, everybody knew, everybody repeated. Pateley would, he
+must, be able to tell her.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "the _Arbiter_ is your paper!"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, looking at her.
+
+"Then," she said, "you know--you must know."
+
+"Know what?" he said calmly.
+
+"You must know," she said, "who it was told the _Arbiter_ what was in
+those papers."
+
+Pateley sat silent a moment. Then he said--
+
+"It can and does happen occasionally that things are brought to the
+_Arbiter_ of which I don't know the origin, in fact of which the origin
+is purposely kept a secret."
+
+She waited for him to add something to this sentence, to add a _but_ to
+it, but he remained silent. Being unversed in diplomatic evasions, she
+accepted his words as a disclaimer.
+
+"But still," she said, "even if you don't know this you could find it
+out. It matters terribly. I don't want to say to any one else, it is not
+a thing to be told, how horribly it matters, but I must tell _you_, that
+you may see. Lord Stamfordham thought that my husband had betrayed the
+secret--he told him so then. And to-day--it was too terrible!--he was at
+a luncheon to which Frank and Mr. Wentworth went, not knowing----" A
+sudden involuntary change in Pateley's face made her stop and say, "But
+perhaps you were there? Were you at the luncheon?"
+
+"No," said Pateley. "I was not there."
+
+"But you heard about it?" she said.
+
+"Yes," he said after a pause. "I heard about it."
+
+"It's too horrible!" said Rachel, covering her face with her hands. "Of
+course you heard about it--everybody will hear about it: how Lord
+Stamfordham insulted him and refused to sit down with him, because of
+the unjust accusation that was brought against him. Now do you see," she
+said excitedly, and Pateley, as he looked at her, was amazed at the fire
+that shone from her eyes, at the glow of excitement in her whole
+being--"now do you see how much it matters? how if we don't find out the
+truth, if we don't get to know who did it, this is the kind of thing
+that will happen to him? You see now, don't you? You will help me?"
+
+Pateley had got up and restlessly paced to the end of the garden and
+back, his eyes fixed on the ground, Rachel breathlessly watching him. He
+was moved at her distress, he felt the stirrings of something like
+remorse at the fate that had overtaken Rendel. But in Pateley's
+Juggernaut-like progress through the world he did not, as a rule, stop
+to see who were the victims that were left gasping by the roadside. As
+long as the author of the mischief drives on rapidly enough, the evil he
+has left behind him is not brought home to him so acutely as if he is
+compelled to stop and bend over the sufferer. But a brief moment of
+reflection made him pretty clear that neither himself nor the _Arbiter_
+had anything to fear from the disclosure. He had nothing particularly
+heroic in his composition; he would not have felt called upon for the
+sake of Francis Rendel, or even for the sake of Rendel's wife, to
+sacrifice his own destiny and possibilities if it had been a question of
+choosing between his own and theirs; but fortunately this choice would
+not be thrust upon him. He looked up and met Rachel's eyes fixed upon
+him.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I will help you."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" she cried, her heart swelling with relief. "Will you,
+can you find out about it?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley again. He paused a moment, then came back and stood
+in front of her. "I have no need to find out," he said slowly. "I know
+who did it."
+
+Rachel sprang up.
+
+"What?" she cried, quivering with anxiety. "Do you mean that you know
+now, that you can tell Frank, that you can tell Lord Stamfordham? Oh,
+why didn't you say so?"
+
+Pateley paused.
+
+"I didn't know," he said, "that Stamfordham had accused your husband of
+it, and so I kept--I was rather bound to keep--the other man's secret."
+
+"The other man?" Rachel repeated, looking at him.
+
+"Yes," said Pateley. "The man who did it."
+
+Rachel started. Of course, yes--if her husband had not done it some one
+else had, they were shifting the horrible burden on to another. But that
+other deserved it, since he was the guilty man.
+
+"Yes," she said lower, "of course I know there is some one else!--it is
+very terrible--but--but--it's right, isn't it, that the man who has done
+it should be accused and not one who is innocent?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, "it is right."
+
+"You must tell me," she said, "you must!--you must tell me everything
+now, as I have told you. Is it some one to whom it will matter very
+much?"
+
+Pateley waited.
+
+"No," he said at length, "it won't matter to him."
+
+Rachel looked at him, not understanding.
+
+He went on, "Nothing will ever matter to him again. He is dead."
+
+"Dead, is he?" said Rachel, but even in the horror-struck tone there
+rang an accent of glad relief. "Then it can't matter to him. And it is
+right, after all, that people should know what he did. It is right, it
+is justice, isn't it?" she repeated, as though trying to reassure
+herself, "not only because of Frank?"
+
+"Yes," said Pateley, "I believe that it is right, that it is justice."
+Then as he looked at her he suddenly became conscious of an unwonted
+difficulty of speech, of an almost unknown wave of emotion rising within
+him, of shrinking from the words he was now clear had to be said.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel," he said at last, "I am afraid it will be very painful to
+you to hear what I am going to say."
+
+She looked at him bewildered. He waited one moment, almost hoping that
+the truth might dawn upon her before he spoke, but she was a thousand
+miles from being anywhere near it. "Those papers which I published in
+the _Arbiter_ the next morning were shown to me on the afternoon your
+husband had them to copy, by--" again the strange unfamiliar
+perturbation stopped him, and he felt he had to make a distinct effort
+to bring the name out--"your father, Sir William Gore."
+
+Rachel said absolutely nothing. She looked at him with dilated eyes,
+incredulous amazement and then horror in her face, as she saw in his
+that he was telling her the truth.
+
+"My father?" she said at last, with trembling lips.
+
+"Yes," Pateley said. The worst was over now, he felt, and he had
+recovered possession of himself.
+
+"No, no, it can't be!" she said miserably. "It's not possible...."
+
+"I fear it is," said Pateley. "They were shown to myself, you see, so it
+is an absolute certainty."
+
+"But when was it?" said Rachel, bewildered. "When did he have them?"
+
+"They were left," Pateley said, "in the study where he was, when your
+husband went down to speak to Lord Stamfordham. During that time I
+happened to go in."
+
+And as Rachel listened to his brief account of what had taken place she
+knew that there was no longer any doubt as to the culprit. For the
+moment, as the idol of her life fell before her in ruins the discovery
+she had made swallowed up everything else. Pateley made a move.
+
+"Wait, wait!" she said. "Don't go away. Only wait till I see what I must
+do. It is all so horrible! I see nothing clearly yet."
+
+He walked away to the other end of the little garden.
+
+She leant back in her chair, her eyes fixed, seeing nothing, trying to
+make up her mind. Gradually what she must do became more and more
+distinct to her, more and more inevitable. The sheer force of her
+agitation and emotion were carrying her own. If she acted at once,
+within the next half-hour, anything, everything might be possible. She
+would not wait to think, she would do it now, while it was still
+possible to pronounce the name, the dear name that she had hardly been
+able to bring to her lips during these last weeks in which every day,
+every hour, she had been conscious of her loss. She would go to the
+person who must be told, and who alone could remedy the great evil that
+had been done. She got up, a despairing determination in her face.
+
+Pateley looked at her, his face asking the question which he did not put
+in words.
+
+"I am going to Lord Stamfordham," she said. "I am going to tell him."
+
+"You?" said Pateley. "Are you going to tell him yourself?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "it is I who must tell him. I have quite made up my
+mind." She turned to him appealingly as though taking for granted he
+would help her. "I want to go now, while I feel I can, and before Frank
+knows anything about it. Can you help me--would you help me to find Lord
+Stamfordham?"
+
+"Certainly," said Pateley, with a new admiration for Rachel rising
+within him, but with some misgivings, however, as to the possibility or
+the desirability of running Stamfordham to earth among his present
+surroundings.
+
+"Do you know where he is?" Rachel said.
+
+"I should think probably at the bazaar," said Pateley, and as he
+reflected on the scene he had just left, Stamfordham surrounded by a
+bevy of attractive ladies beseeching him to give them an autograph, to
+buy a buttonhole, to drink their tea, to put into their raffles, and to
+have his fortune told, he felt still more dubious as to the mission he
+was engaged upon. Fortunately Rachel realised none of these things.
+
+"Come, then, let us go," she said, with a vibrating anxiety and
+excitement, at strange variance with the usual atmosphere that
+surrounded her, and he followed her out of the garden in the direction
+of the Casino.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Pateley, who had been caught up in some measure into the excitement of
+Rachel's emotion, was brought back to earth again with a run, as he
+passed with her through the brightly coloured hangings which drooped
+over the portals of the bazaar and found themselves in the gay crowd
+within. His misgivings grew as he felt more and more the incongruity of
+the errand they were bent upon to the preoccupations of the people who
+surrounded them. There was no doubt that, whatever the ultimate result
+as far as Mrs. Birkett and the needs she represented were concerned, the
+bazaar, that subsidiary consideration apart, was being very successful
+indeed. The sound of voices and laughter filled the air, and the gloomy
+previsions Lady Chaloner had felt as to the lack of buyers were
+apparently not realised, since the whole of the available space
+surrounded by the stalls was filled with people engaged in some sort of
+very active and voluble commercial transactions with one another which,
+financial result or not, were of a most enjoyable kind, to judge by the
+bursts of laughter they necessitated. Rachel, pale, strung up, with the
+look of determination in her face called up in the usually timid by an
+unwonted resolve, was making her way, or rather trying to do so, in
+Pateley's wake, bewildered by the sights and sounds around her. Pateley
+at each step was beset by some laughing vendor from whom he had much ado
+to escape, and indeed in most cases did not succeed in doing so without
+having paid toll. By the time he had gone half along the room he was the
+possessor of three tickets for raffles, for each of which he had paid a
+sum he would have grudged for the unneeded article that was being
+raffled. He had bought several single flowers, each one on terms which
+should have commanded an armful of roses, and he had had three dips into
+a bag from which fortunately he had emerged with nothing more permanent
+than sawdust. Rachel also had been accosted by a vendor as soon as she
+came in, a moment of poignant embarrassment for all parties
+concerned--herself, her escort, and the fascinating seller who had
+offered her wares, for Rachel, looking at her with startled eyes, felt
+in her pocket as though at last seeing what was wanted of her, and then
+stammered, "I'm so sorry, I have no money with me." Pateley knew the
+vendor; it was no other than Mrs. Samuels, who had emerged from behind
+her stall, and was making the round of the bazaar with a basket of most
+attractive-looking cakes. His eye met hers in hurried and involuntary
+misgiving, mutely telling her that Rachel was not a suitable customer,
+and that she had better carry her wares elsewhere. She at once responded
+to the unconscious confidence and returned to himself.
+
+"Now, Mr. Pateley," she said ingratiatingly, "you, I know, never refuse
+a cake. Look, these are what you had when you came to tea with me the
+other day. Now, I'll choose you the very best."
+
+"Of course, if you will choose one for me," said Pateley gallantly.
+
+"Oh, but one is not enough," she said, "you must have two--you really
+must. Five marks. Thank you so much!" and she tripped off.
+
+Pateley, who had already, as we have seen, spent a good deal of time and
+of the money which is supposed to be its equivalent in the bazaar before
+going to see Rachel, began to be conscious that before he got round it
+again he would have spent a sum large enough to have kept him another
+week in Schleppenheim. "However," he said to himself with a sigh, "it is
+all part of the story, I suppose." In his inmost soul he felt the
+conviction that he was altogether, in his strange progress through the
+joyous crowd with that pale, anxious companion, going through a
+sufficient penance to make amends for the misfortune of which he was the
+primary cause.
+
+"Where is Lord Stamfordham?" whispered Rachel anxiously. "Do you see
+him?"
+
+"Not at this moment," said Pateley, looking vainly in every direction.
+The difficulties of his quest, and the still worse difficulties that
+would certainly face him when the object of that quest should be
+attained, loomed with increased terror before him.
+
+The names of the stallholders, of the performers, waved above their
+respective quarters. In the corner of the great tent was a
+mysterious-looking enclosure, of which the entrance was closed by a
+curtain, and above which hung the legend, "Oriental Fortune-telling.
+Lady Adela Prestige." Lady Adela Prestige! That was probably the most
+likely place to try for. "I think he may be over there," he said, and
+without a word, hardly conscious of the people who were passing through,
+Rachel followed him.
+
+"Hallo, Pateley, is that you?" said a cheery voice. He turned round and
+saw Wentworth, a packet of tickets in his hand. "Would you like to have
+a ticket for the performing dog?" said Wentworth, not seeing who
+Pateley's companion was.
+
+"No," said Pateley, almost savagely, thankful to be accosted by some one
+whom he need not answer by a smile and a compliment. "I don't want any
+fooling of that sort now."
+
+"My dear fellow," said Wentworth, amazed, "what have you come here for,
+then?" and as he spoke he saw Rachel behind Pateley, and realised that
+something was happening that had no connection with the business of the
+bazaar.
+
+"Look here," Pateley said aside to him, "do you know where Stamfordham
+is?"
+
+"Over there," said Wentworth, with some inward wonder, pointing towards
+Lady Adela's corner. "I saw him there just now."
+
+"Ah!" said Pateley, "all right," hardly knowing if he was relieved or
+not, but desperately threading his way in the direction indicated, still
+followed by Rachel.
+
+Wentworth looked after them in surprise.
+
+"What is that you are saying, Mr. Wentworth?" said a voice in his ear,
+and he turned quickly and found himself face to face with Mrs. Samuels.
+"A performing dog? Where? I am quite sure it must be performing better
+than Princess Hohenschreien."
+
+Wentworth replied by eagerly offering a ticket.
+
+"Let me offer you a ticket, Mrs. Samuels, and then you shall see for
+yourself."
+
+"Well, I will take a ticket," she said, "on condition that you will tell
+me honestly what the performance is."
+
+"Certainly," said Wentworth, with a bow, offering the ticket and
+receiving a gold piece in exchange. "It is Lady Chaloner's Aberdeen
+terrier. He sits up and begs with a piece of biscuit on his nose while
+somebody says 'Trust!' and 'Paid for!'"
+
+"That is a most extraordinary and novel trick," said Mrs. Samuels
+gravely.
+
+"It is unique," said Wentworth; "and sometimes he tosses the biscuit in
+the air when they say 'Trust,' sometimes when they say 'Paid for,' but
+generally he drops on all fours and eats it before they have begun."
+
+"Thank you," said Mrs. Samuels. "I am afraid Princess Hohenschreien's
+performance will be best after all." Then Wentworth suddenly saw from
+her face that some other attraction was approaching from behind him, and
+turned quickly round as Mrs. Samuels, with her most beguiling air,
+advanced and offered her basket of cakes to Lord Stamfordham.
+
+"Now, milord," she said. "I am sure you must be hungry."
+
+"And what makes you think that?" said Stamfordham, whose air of willing
+response and admiration made it quite evident that Mrs. Samuels's
+blandishments were not usually exercised in vain. "Do I look pale, or
+haggard, or weary?"
+
+"None of these," said Mrs. Samuels; "but I am sure it is a long time
+since I had the privilege of offering you a cup of tea at my stall.
+Quite half an hour, I should think."
+
+"Quite possible," said Stamfordham. "All I can say is that it seems to
+me an eternity since I last had the pleasure of receiving anything at
+your hands. Pray give me a bag of those cakes. You baked them yourself,
+of course?"
+
+"Of course," Mrs. Samuels said, with a little rippling laugh. And then
+in answer to Stamfordham's smile of incredulity, "All is fair in ...
+bazaars and war, you know."
+
+In the meantime, Wentworth, enlisted, he himself did not understand how
+or why, in the anxious quest in which he saw Pateley and Rachel engaged,
+had hurried after Pateley, whose broad back he saw disappearing, to tell
+him of Lord Stamfordham's whereabouts. Pateley turned quickly round.
+Lord Stamfordham was coming towards them, with Mrs. Samuels, wreathed in
+smiles, at his side.
+
+"I think," she was saying, "when you have eaten those cakes you can
+drink some more tea, don't you think so?"
+
+"It is not improbable," Stamfordham replied. "But was our bargain that I
+was to eat them all myself?"
+
+"Certainly," Mrs. Samuels replied.
+
+"My dear lady," Stamfordham said, "I will engage to eat every one of
+them that you have baked, I can't say more. And in the meantime I am
+bound on a very foolish errand. I have sworn to go and have my fortune
+told," and as Mrs. Samuels's eye, with a careless and ingenuous air,
+rested upon Lady Adela's name above the tent, she smiled inwardly at the
+thought that what that astute lady might possibly prophesy would also
+perhaps come true if, as well as prophesying, she eventually brought her
+intelligence to bear upon its accomplishment.
+
+"Wait one moment," Pateley said, almost nervously, to Rachel. "There is
+Stamfordham, he is coming this way," and as Stamfordham drew near the
+door of the tent Pateley accosted him.
+
+Lady Adela, it may be presumed, had some occult means of discovering
+from inside who was drawing near her fateful quarters, or else she had
+the simpler methods more usually employed by mortals, of looking to
+see. At all events, as Stamfordham came towards her enclosure, she
+appeared on the threshold and winningly lifted the mysterious curtain,
+burlesquing a low curtsey in reply to Stamfordham's bow.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham!" Pateley said hurriedly. Stamfordham, in some
+surprise, looked round. He had been seeing Pateley on and off during the
+day. Why did he accost him in this way? But the urgent note in his voice
+arrested his attention. Then, as he looked up, he saw an anxious
+pale-faced, girlish figure standing by Pateley, looking at him with
+large brown eyes filled with indescribable anxiety. It was a face that
+he knew, that he had seen somewhere. Who was it? For one puzzled moment
+he tried to remember. Pateley took the bull by the horns.
+
+"Lord Stamfordham," he said, "Mrs. Rendel wants to speak to you."
+
+Mrs. Rendel! Of course it was Mrs. Rendel. He had last seen her that day
+at Cosmo Place. Again a wave of indignation rushed over him. Rachel
+advanced desperately, looking as though she were going to speak.
+Stamfordham, involuntarily looking round him at the crowd of observers
+and listeners, said quickly in a low voice, "I am very sorry, it is no
+good. It is impossible." And then to Pateley, "It is no good, I can't do
+anything. You must tell her so," and he passed through the curtain which
+Lady Adela let drop behind him. Rachel looked at Pateley, then to his
+amazement and also to his involuntary admiration she lifted the curtain
+and passed in too.
+
+The two people inside stood aghast at her appearance. She had followed
+so quickly upon Stamfordham's steps that he was still standing looking
+round him at his strange surroundings, Lady Adela facing him with a
+smile of welcome. The apparatus of the fortune-teller apparently
+consisted in certain cabalistic properties--wands, dials with signs upon
+them, and the like--arranged round a table. Stamfordham spoke first. He
+was absolutely convinced that Rachel had come to appeal to him for
+mercy, and was as absolutely clear that it was an appeal to which he
+could not listen.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel," he said, "I am afraid I am obliged to tell you that I
+cannot listen to anything you may have to say. I can guess, of course,
+why you have come here, and I am sorry for _you_," he said, leaning on
+the pronoun. "But I can do nothing," and he spoke slowly and inexorably,
+"I can do nothing for either you or your husband." But Rachel had now
+lost all fear, all misgiving.
+
+"I don't think," she said, unconsciously drawing herself up and looking
+straight at him, "you know what I have come to say, and I must ask you
+to listen for a moment."
+
+"I think I do know," Stamfordham said sternly, and she saw he meant to
+go out.
+
+"I have come to tell you," she said, quickly standing between him and
+the door, "that my husband was wrongfully accused of the thing that you
+believed he did." Stamfordham shook his head: this was what he expected
+to hear. "I know who did it, I have found out to-day," and she grew more
+and more assured as she went on. Stamfordham started, then looked
+incredulous again. "I have come to tell you who did it, that you may
+know my husband is innocent." Then she became aware of Lady Adela, who,
+having at first been much annoyed at her brusque intrusion, was now
+suddenly roused to interest, even to sympathy. Rachel turned to her. "I
+must say this," she said. "Don't you see, don't you understand, what it
+is to me?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you must," the other woman said, with a sudden impulse of
+help and sympathy. "Go on," and she went outside. Stamfordham felt a
+slight accession of annoyance as Lady Adela passed out; he felt it was
+going to be very difficult for him to deal as cruelly as he was bound to
+do with the anxious, quivering wife before him. He stood silent and
+absolutely impenetrable. Rachel went on quickly in broken sentences.
+
+"I didn't know about this at the time. I have been ill since. I could
+not remember. You brought some papers for my husband to copy, and he
+locked them up so that no one should see them, and while he went down to
+speak to you they were pulled out of his writing-table from outside, by
+somebody else who was there, and who showed them to Mr. Pateley. Mr.
+Pateley came in and went out again. Frank didn't know he had been
+there." Stamfordham stopped her.
+
+"They were taken out by 'somebody,' you say; do you mean--in fact I must
+gather from your words--that it was--do you mean by yourself?"
+
+"Oh no, no," Rachel cried, as it dawned upon her what interpretation
+might be put upon her words. "Oh no, not myself! I wish it had been, I
+wish it had!"
+
+"You wish it had?" Stamfordham said, surprised. "Who was it, then? Who
+was it?" he said again, in the tone of one who must have an answer. "Who
+got the paper out and showed it to Pateley?"
+
+Rachel forced herself to speak.
+
+"It was--my father," she said, "Sir William Gore." And with an immense
+effort she prevented herself from bursting into tears.
+
+"Sir William Gore!" said Stamfordham, "did _he_ do it?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel; "I only knew it to-day, and I am telling you to
+prove to you that it wasn't my husband."
+
+Stamfordham stood for a moment trying to recall Rendel's attitude at the
+time, and then, as he did so, he made up his mind that Rendel must have
+known.
+
+"But," he said, after a moment, still somewhat perplexed, "you say you
+didn't know about this?"
+
+"No," said Rachel, "I didn't. My father," and again her lips quivered
+and told Stamfordham what that father and his good name probably were to
+her, "was taken very ill, and I had an accident at the time and did not
+know anything that had happened. Frank told me nothing. Then my father
+died, and I was ill, and we came here and I did not know it at all till
+my husband came in and told me"--and her eyes blazed at the
+thought--"told me what had happened to-day..." She stopped. Stamfordham
+felt a stab as he thought of it.
+
+"But," he said, "did he know? Did he tell you then? Did he know that it
+was Sir William Gore?"
+
+"Oh no, no," Rachel said; "it was Mr. Pateley, and he brought me here to
+tell you that you might know." Then Stamfordham began to understand.
+
+"Mrs. Rendel," he said, with a change of voice and manner that made her
+heart leap within her. "Where is your husband?"
+
+"He is at our house, the little pavilion behind the Casino garden."
+
+"Will you take me to him?" Stamfordham said.
+
+Rachel looked at him, unable to speak, her face illuminated with
+hope--then she covered her face in her hands, saying through the tears
+she could no longer restrain, "Oh, thank you, thank you!"
+
+"Come," said Stamfordham gently, but with decision. "You must dry your
+tears," he added with a smile, "or people will think I have been
+ill-treating you." And to the speechless amazement of Lady Adela, who
+was standing outside the curtain waiting until, as she expressed it to
+herself, she too should have her "innings," Stamfordham passed out
+before her eyes with Rachel, saying to Lady Adela as he passed, "Will
+you forgive me? I am going to take Mrs. Rendel back." Then looking round
+him at the jostling crowd he said to Rachel, offering her his arm, "Will
+you think me very old-fashioned if I ask you to take my arm to get
+through the crowd?" And, leaning on his arm, hardly daring to believe
+what had happened or might be going to happen, Rachel passed back along
+the room through which she had just come with Pateley, the crowd this
+time opening before them with some indescribable tacit understanding
+that something had happened concerned with the incident which, as Rendel
+had foreseen, nearly everybody at the bazaar had heard of. They did not
+speak again until they reached the pavilion.
+
+Latchkeys were unknown at Schleppenheim, and the inhabitants of the
+little summer abodes walked in by the simple process of turning the
+handle of the front door. Rachel and Stamfordham went straight in out of
+the sunlight into the cool little room into which, in long low rays, the
+setting sun was sending its beams. Rendel had been trying to read: the
+book that lay beside him on the floor showed that the attempt had been
+in vain. He looked up, still with that strange, hunted expression that
+had come into his face since the morning--the expression of the man to
+whom every door opening, every figure that comes in may mean some fresh
+cause of apprehension. Rachel came into the room without speaking,
+something that he could not read in the least in her face, then his
+heart stood still within him as he saw Stamfordham behind her. What,
+again? What new ordeal awaited him? He made no sign of recognition, but
+stood up and looked Stamfordham straight in the face. Stamfordham came
+forward and spoke.
+
+"I have come," he said, "to apologise to you for what took place to-day,
+to beg you to forgive me." Rendel was so utterly astounded that he
+simply looked from one to the other of the people standing before him
+without uttering a sound.
+
+"I have just learnt," Stamfordham went on, "the name of the person who
+did the thing of which I wrongfully accused you." Rendel made a hurried
+movement forward as if to stop him.
+
+"Wait, wait one moment!" he cried, "don't say it before my wife--she
+doesn't know." In that moment Rachel realised what he had done for her.
+
+"Do you know?" asked Stamfordham.
+
+"Yes," Rendel answered.
+
+With the old friendliness, and something deeper, in his face and voice,
+Stamfordham said--
+
+"Mrs. Rendel knows also. It was she told me."
+
+"Rachel!" cried Rendel, turning to her. "Do you know?"
+
+"Yes," said Rachel, trying to command her voice. "I know--now--that it
+was--my father," and the eyes of the two met.
+
+Stamfordham advanced to Rendel.
+
+"Will you forgive me," he said again, "and shake hands?" Rendel held out
+his hand and pressed Stamfordham's in a close and tremulous grasp, which
+the other returned. "I must see you," he said. "Will you come to my
+rooms some time? I shall be here for a week longer." He held out his
+hand to Rachel. "Thank you," he said, "for what you have done." And he
+went out.
+
+Rendel turned towards Rachel, his arms outstretched, his face
+transformed by the knowledge of the great love she had shown him. His
+heart was too full for speech: in the closer union of silence that new
+precious compact was made. The veil that had hung between them so long
+was lifted for ever.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+The author's name on the original title page was "Mrs. Hugh Bell".
+Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
+inconsistencies. Typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes
+and the like) have been fixed. Text that has been changed to correct an
+obvious error by the publisher is noted below:
+
+page 125: "Rendal" corrected to "Rendel"
+
+  "Of course," he said, after listening to what Rendal[Rendel] had to say
+
+page 303: "toward's" corrected to "towards"
+
+  Wentworth, with some inward wonder, pointing toward's[towards] Lady
+  Adela's corner.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 24794.txt or 24794.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/9/24794/
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/24794.zip b/24794.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3ed680
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24794.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1b828f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #24794 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24794)