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diff --git a/36593.txt b/36593.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee27dae --- /dev/null +++ b/36593.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11473 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fordham's Feud, by Bertram Mitford + +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: Fordham's Feud + +Author: Bertram Mitford + +Release Date: July 3, 2011 [EBook #36593] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORDHAM'S FEUD *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Fordham's Feud +By Bertram Mitford +Published by Ward, Lock and Co Ltd, London. +This edition dated 1897. +Fordham's Feud, by Bertram Mitford. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +FORDHAM'S FEUD, BY BERTRAM MITFORD. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +AT FIRST SIGHT. + +The steamer _Mont Blanc_ was sweeping round the rather dangerous +promontory just beyond La Tour de Peilz. + +The fine vessel was a brave sight as she sped arrowlike over the +turquoise breast of Lake Leman, her straight stem shearing up a great +scintillating blade of water on either side, her powerful paddles +lashing up a long line of creaming rollers, hissing and curving away in +her wake. From stem to stern she was gay with bunting, for this was but +her second trip after being laid up through the winter season, and there +was a spick-and-span newness about everything, from the whiteness of her +commodious hurricane deck to the dazzling glass and luxurious lounges of +her airy and spacious saloon. + +The day was perfect. Not a cloud was in the arching heavens, not a +ripple on the blue surface of the lake, which mirrored forth the hoary +crowns of the Savoy Alps as though they were cut in steel. The great +forest-clad slopes were rich in their velvety verdure, rising from the +water's edge on the Savoy side; and a dazzling snow shroud still covered +the Dent du Midi half-way down to its base. On the Swiss shore the +straggling towns and multitudinous villas lying among the fresh greenery +of vineyards looked mere pigmy toys beneath the slopes of the great +mountains. And from the same bosky slopes came ever and anon the glad, +joyous shout of the cuckoo. It was June--but only just June--and the +air, balmy and life-giving, knew no suspicion of sultriness. + +"I say, Phil, my boy, it's about time to collect our traps. We go off +at the next stage but one--Hallo! What has become of the fellow?" broke +off the speaker, turning to discover that his friend had left his side. +"Ah! there he is. At it again too. By George, the dog's +irreclaimable!" + +The said "dog" had withdrawn some yards from the speaker, and was +standing with his back against the bulwarks apparently lost in +contemplation of the scenery of the Savoy side. But he had chosen a +very odd place for his study of Nature, for between the latter and +himself, in the direction of his gaze, were multifold heads--and hats, +and between these heads--and hats--and the canvas awning was a space of +barely half a yard. Yet he seemed to gaze with rapt attention at +something--or somebody. "I say, Phil, who is _she_, this time?" The +suddenness of the question, the dry chuckle, the faintly sneering +intonation, produced much the same effect on the gazer as the lash upon +the half-broken thoroughbred. He started. + +"Confound it, Fordham, you needn't make a fellow jump so," he retorted +petulantly, with a slight flush. "Can't a fellow look around him, I +should like to know?" + +"Oh, certainly he can. This is a free country--in fact `Liberte et +Patrie' is the Cantonal motto. You may even see it displayed at this +moment--in triplicate too--among the bunting adorning this gallant +craft. Ah--I see the point of attraction now--and this time, 'pon my +life, Phil, I think there's some excuse--for _you_," he added, sticking +his glass into his eye and sending a critical look into an apparently +unconscious group opposite. + +Philip Orlebar laughed, his good-humour quite restored. Indeed, it was +never for long that he and that enviable attribute parted company. + +Although the regular tourist season had not yet set in, the steamer's +decks still contained a sprinkling of all those nationalities which you +would be sure to find represented there at that time of the day and of +the year. Keen-faced Americans "doing" Europe with infinite zest and a +Gladstone bag apiece; stolid Germans in long black coats--a duplicate of +the latter invariably slung through the strap of their double +field-glasses; a stray Muscovite noble, of refined manner and slightly +_blase_ aspect; a group of English youths equipped with knapsack and +alpenstock, bound for some mountain expedition with their Swiss tutor; +and last but not least--in their own estimation at any rate--great in +the importance of their somewhat aggressive sense of nationality, a +muster of Britons numerically equalling all the other races and kindreds +put together. There was the inevitable clergyman with his inevitable +wife--the latter austere of visage, as became a good Evangelical in a +land where the shops were kept open on the Sabbath. There was the +British matron clucking around with her _posse_ of daughters--which +guileless damsels were being convoyed about the Continent to a like end +as that which caused their mammas and grandmammas to be shipped off on +the voyage round the Cape in the days of good old John Company. There +were the regulation old maids, of the blue-stocking persuasion, Byron in +hand, gazing yearningly upon the distant but gradually nearing walls of +classic Chillon. And here and there, elderly but erect, natty of +attire, and countenance darkly sunburnt beneath the turbanlike puggaree +enshrouding his summit, stalked unmistakably the half-pay Anglo-Indian. + +Upon one face in the group Fordham's eyeglass, following his companion's +gaze, critically if somewhat contemptuously, came to a standstill. It +was in profile at that moment, but whether in profile or full it was a +face bound to attract attention. The regular features and short upper +lip fully satisfied every requirement exacted by the canons of beauty. +The eyes, large and earnest, now blue, now grey, according to the light +under which they shone, rather imparted the idea that their possessor +was inclined to take life seriously, and there was character in the +strongly marked arching brows. A sheen of dark-brown hair rippled back +in waves beneath a broad-brimmed sailor hat to roll into a heavy knot +over the back of the neck. + +"Well, you cynical old humbug," said Orlebar, emphasising his words with +an almost imperceptible nudge of the elbow. "Isn't _that_ about good +enough to meet with even your approval?" + +"H'm! No doubt. But what I wanted to impress upon you was that in less +than ten minutes we shall have to quit this ship. So that if you've any +loose gear among your traps--and I believe you have--now is the time to +make it fast." + +The bell hanging in the steamer's bows now began to peal, to the +accompaniment of the slackening beat of her paddles as, slowing down to +half-speed, she glided majestically up to the Clarens landing-stage. +Philip Orlebar, turning a deaf ear to his companion's warning, had left +that mentor's side, and was strolling with finely assumed carelessness +towards the gangway--for the object of his attention, and already more +than incipient adoration, had risen and was moving in the same +direction. If she was about to land there, as seemed probable, might he +not, by standing nigh at hand, obtain some chance clue as to her +identity and destination? + +But they met face to face in the little crowd--met with a suddenness +which brought a slightly disconcerted look to his somewhat speaking +countenance. Her large eyes encountered his, however, fearlessly and +with an air of surprised inquiry, for in his eagerness she might be +excused for thinking him on the point of addressing her. + +There were few passengers to be landed at Clarens, and she was not one +of them; fewer still to embark, and in barely a couple of minutes the +_Mont Blanc_ was speeding on her way again. + +"Heavens alive, man?" said Fordham, veiling the faint sneer with which +he had been watching the movements of his impressionable friend. "If +you don't collect your traps the chances are all in favour of half of +them being left on board. We shall be at Montreux in three minutes." + +Again the bell gave forth its warning note, again the beat of the +paddles slackened, as the _Mont Blanc_--sweeping so close in shore that +any one of the groups lounging about in the gardens of the villa-like +_pensions_, sloping down to the water's edge, could have chucked a +walnut on to her decks as she sped by--rapidly neared the poplar-fringed +landing-stage. Then a great splashing of paddle-wheels as the engines +were reversed, a throwing of warps and a mighty bustling, and the vessel +was stationary. + +"Confound that fellow!" grumbled Fordham, as his friend did not appear. +"Directly his eye lights upon a fresh `skirt' his wits are off +woolgathering on the spot." + +"_Embarquement_!" sung out the bronzed skipper from the bridge. +"_Allons, allons, messieurs et mesdames! Depechez vous, s'il vous +plait. Nous sommes deja en retard_!" he added, testily. + +The last embarking passenger was on board, and while the gangway plank +was in the act of withdrawal the defaulter emerged from below, laden +with loose luggage. He was not slow about his movements then. A couple +of leaps and he stood panting and flurried on the pier beside his +companion, who had taken the precaution of landing everything that he +could lay hands on. + +"I s-say, old man," stuttered Philip Orlebar, relinquishing to the care +of mother earth--or rather the pavement of the landing-stage--the +impedimenta which he had rescued at the cost of such flurry and risk. +"W-w-what became of her? Did she come ashore?" + +"What became of _her_? Why by this time _she's_ half-way to Territet, +laughing fit to die over the ridiculous figure you cut; in short, the +wholly astonishing attitudes you struck, hurtling through the air with a +Gladstone under each arm and half a score of telescopes and bundles and +flying straps dancing about you like a kettle of beans tied to a dog's +tail." + +"Did I look such a fool as that? Hang it, I suppose I must have looked +a bit grotesque though, eh, Fordham?" + +"Infernally so," was the consoling reply. "In fact, I noticed _her_ +looking over the side, taking particular stock of you in your admirably +acted _role_ of escaped lunatic. _Ah, bonjour, Francois! Ca va bien, +hein_!" broke off the speaker in response to the smiling +_commissionaire_ who stepped forward at that moment to take charge of +their luggage. + +"_Tenez, Francois_," went on Fordham, at the conclusion of the string of +hearty inquiries with which the man had greeted him, for they were old +acquaintances. "_Vous allez nous emballer ces colis la sur la poste +des Avants. Faut qu'ils nous rejoignent demain. Sans faute, mon brave, +n'est ce pas_?" + +"_Mais oui, Monsieur Fordhamme. Restez seulment tranquille. Vous +pouvez y compter. Ah, vous allez monter par le Chauderon? Et bien-- +belle promenade, messieurs, et je vous remercie bien. Au revoir, +messieurs_!" + +"That seems a good sort of chap," began Philip Orlebar, dubiously, as +they turned away. "But, hang it all, is it safe--don't cher know?" + +"What? The luggage? Rather. You may trust Francois to see a matter of +this kind through. He is a good chap--most of these fellows are. They +have a name among the British for being keen on _pourboires_--in a word, +grasping. But show me the true-born Briton of the same class who in a +race for gratuities couldn't give them long odds, and beat them at that. +It's not to be done, I tell you. And now, Phil, we've plenty of time. +First a cool _lager_ at yonder _cafe_, then for our stroll up the +Chauderon. And that said stroll on an afternoon like this is enough to +make a man feel the pleasure of living, if anything is." + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +TWO UNLIKES. + +In his eulogy of the beauties of that fairy glen, the Gorge du +Chauderon, Fordham was not exaggerating one whit; and while our two +friends are pursuing their way along its winding path, under the cool +shelter of a wealth of luxuriant greenery meeting overhead, and the roar +and rush of the mountain stream leaping through a succession of black, +rock-girt caldrons in their ears, we will take the opportunity of +improving their acquaintance. + +Philip Orlebar was a tall, fair, well-built young fellow of six and +twenty, who had devoted the four years which had elapsed since he left +college to sowing his wild oats; though, in justice to him, we must say +that his crop was of the most moderate dimensions, in spite of his +opportunities, for a sunny lightheadedness of manner, combined with a +more than ordinarily prepossessing exterior, rendered him popular with +everybody. This especially held good as regarded the other sex, and was +bad both for it and for himself; in fact, his susceptibility in that +line was a source of chronic misgiving to his friends, who never knew +into what sort of entanglement it might plunge him. + +He was the only son of a baronet, who doted on him. But his +expectations were not great, for Sir Francis Orlebar, who had been a +widower since a year or two after Philip's birth, had recently endowed +himself with a second wife, and taking this with the fact that his +income did not exceed by a shilling 2,000 pounds per annum, it follows +that a superfluity of spare cash was never a distinguishing feature in +the Orlebar household. + +But if Sir Francis doted on his son, his new spouse did not. She +grudged the allowance of five hundred a year which that fortunate youth +enjoyed. She would have grudged it just as much if it had been fifty. +Two thousand a year to keep up the title and the house upon was a mere +pittance, declared Lady Orlebar the Second--who, by the way, had never +possessed a shilling of her own--and a quarter of that was to be thrown +away upon an idle young man, who squandered it all on his own selfish +pleasures. But on this point Sir Francis was firm. He refused to +reduce his son's allowance by one single penny. + +So Philip came and went as he chose, and took life easily. He had no +expensive tastes, and with a sufficiency of cash, good looks, excellent +spirits, and an unlimited capacity for enjoyment, little is it to be +wondered at if he found the process of "seeing the world" a very +pleasant experience indeed. And he did so find it. + +Richard Fordham was the exact antipodes to his friend both in appearance +and disposition, which may have accounted for the excellent relations +existing between the two. Externally he was of medium height and +well-proportioned. His dark, almost swarthy countenance was handsome +too, for his features were good and regular. But there was something +sinister in his expression, something ruthless in the glitter of his +keen black eyes as he emitted one of his pungent sarcasms; and he was a +man to whom sarcasm was as the very breath of life. One peculiarity +about him was that, though possessed of an abnormal sense of humour, he +never laughed. At most he would break into a short dry guffaw which had +more of a sneer in it than of mirth; and although he could send a +roomful of people into roars whenever he chose, not a muscle of his own +saturnine countenance would relax. + +He was a good many years older than his travelling companion--how many +it would have puzzled most people to determine, for he was one of those +men whose ages are hard to guess. And what constituted the bond of +union between them was also a poser, unless their utter dissimilarity. +Anyhow, light-hearted Phil was wont enthusiastically to declare that +"Old Fordham was the best fellow in the world. Only wanted knowing a +bit. Why, there never was a fellow easier to get on with, by Jove--once +you knew him." + +It is only fair to say that in his own experience the encomium was +wholly deserved. They had been travelling companions for some time now, +and yet had never had a difference, which is something to be able to +say. The dry, caustic sparkle of the older man's conversation had a +great charm for the younger. "He could take any amount of chaff from +Fordham," the latter was wont to declare; "for he was a chap whose head +was screwed on the right way, and, moreover, thoroughly knew his way +about," a qualification sure to inspire respect in the young. + +We have said that Philip Orlebar was more than popular with the other +sex, and here again the dissimilarity between the friends held good. +Women detested Fordham uniformly and instinctively. There is something +in the theory of reciprocity; Fordham, for his part, cordially and +unaffectedly detested women. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"By Jove!" cried Philip, when they had covered rather more than half +their distance--"By Jove! but this place is well named--`Kettle,' isn't +it, eh, Fordham?" + +"_No_, `Caldron,' to be accurate." + +"Well, it's pretty steamy just here. Let's call a halt under that big +rock and poke a smipe. What d'you say?" + +"Just as you like," was the tranquil reply. They had reached that part +of the gorge where two great perpendicular cliffs, their black surface +thickly grown with ferns and trailers, form a huge natural portal, +narrowing the way to the road itself and the brawling, leaping mountain +torrent which skirts it. A delightfully cool resting-place--almost too +cool--for the whirl of the spray reached them even there. Soon the blue +curl from a brace of pipes mingled fragrantly with the scent of pine +resin and damp fern. + +Hardly were they seated than a sound of approaching voices was heard, +and two girls appeared in sight round the bend in the path. One carried +a basket filled with wild flowers, eke a large handful of the same; the +other a bag of sketching materials. Both shot a rapid glance at the two +smokers as they walked swiftly by. + +"Rather good-looking, eh?" said Phil, as soon as they were out of sight. +"English, of course?" + +"No mistake. The whole lake-side from Lausanne eastwards simply grows +Britishers. I predict we shall soon be for annexing it." + +"They're bound in the same direction as ourselves," went on Philip. "At +least there's no other place than Les Avants up this way, is there?" + +The other's mouth drew down at the corners in a faint sneer. + +"Don't be alarmed, Phil. They're bound there all right--in fact they're +quartered there. They've just been down into the gorge; one to pick a +lot of daisies and buttercups, over which she and a pet parson will +enjoy a not altogether scientific _tete-a-tete_ this evening--the other +to execute a hideous libel on the existing scenery." + +"Now how the deuce do you know all this, Fordham?" + +"Oh, I know all their little ways. I know something more, viz, that in +forty-eight hours' time _you_ will be the chosen and privileged bearer +of the truss of hay and the daubing bag--I mean the wild flowers and the +sketching gear." + +"Oh, you don't know everything, old chap," cried Philip, with a laugh. + +"Don't I? By the bye, if you're not eager to catch a chill, we'd better +start again. I know this much: there will be a flutter of rejoicing in +the dovecote when those two arrive, brimful of the intelligence that a +couple of new men--one, rather, for I don't count--are ascending to Les +Avants, for at this time of year our estimable sex is almost exclusively +represented in these hotels by invalids, parsons, or half-pay veterans. +With some of whom, by the way, I shall have to fraternise, unless I want +to do my expeditions alone, for you will be in such demand as universal +porter in the matter of shawls and wraps and lunch-baskets, up the +Rochers de Naye or the Dent de Jaman, or any other point of altitude to +which the ambition of the enterprising fair may aspire, that we had +better take a formal and affecting farewell of each other as soon as we +arrive at the door." + +"Shut up, you old fraud," was the jolly retort. "At present all my +aspirations are of the earth earthy, for they are of the cellar. I hope +they keep a good brew up there, for I feel like breeding a drought in +the hotel the moment we arrive." + +"Well, the brew's first-rate, and now the sooner we get over this bit of +heavy collar-work the sooner we shall reach it." + +"Right. Excelsior's the word," assented Phil, with a glance at the +steep and rugged path zigzagging above at a frightfully laborious angle. + +There may be more attractive spots than Les Avants as you arrive there +within an hour or two of sunset in the early summer, but there cannot be +many. The golden rays of the sinking sun light up the frowning Rochers +de Naye and the mighty precipice which constitutes the face of the Dent +de Jaman with a fiery glow. The quiet reposeful aspect of the hollow, +which the aforesaid sunbeams have now abandoned, lying in its +amphitheatre of bold sweeping slopes crowned with black pine forests, is +soothing, tranquillising of effect; and the handsome, plentifully gabled +hotel, rearing up among a sprinkling of modest chalets, is suggestive of +comfort and abundance. But what is this milk-white carpet spread in +snowy sheen over the meadows, covering the green of the adjoining slopes +to a considerable height? Is it snow? Not it. That white and dazzling +expanse consists of nothing less than a mass of the most magnificent +narcissus blossoms, growing in serried profusion, distilling in heavy +fumes a fragrance of paradise upon the balmy evening air. Such was the +aspect of Les Avants as our two friends arrived there on that evening in +early June. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"By Jove, Fordham, but this is a sweet place!" cried Philip Orlebar, +moved to real earnestness as they emerged from the wooded path suddenly +upon the beautiful scene. "A perfect Eden!" + +"Plenty of Eves, anyhow?" was the characteristic and laconic retort. + +But Philip had already noted a flutter of light dresses, though still +some little distance off. Tennis racket in hand, a number of girls in +groups of twos and threes, here and there a male form interspersed, were +wending along a gravel path leading from the tennis-court towards the +hotel, for the first dinner-bell was just ringing. The sight called up +a sneer to Fordham's lip. + +"Look at that, Phil, and note the vagaries of the British idiot abroad. +Fancy coming to the Swiss mountains to play lawn tennis." + +"Well, old man, and if they like it?" + +"Ah, yes, quite so; I forgot!" was the significant answer. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +BREAKING THE ICE. + +"We sha'n't be intolerably crowded here, Phil," remarked Fordham, as +they sat down to _table d'hote_. "It's early in the season yet, you +see." + +But although the long tables running round the fine dining-hall--the +latter occupying the whole ground-floor of one wing--were only laid +half-way down the room, yet there was a good concourse flowing in. +Portly matrons with bevies of daughters, clergymen and clergywomen with +or without daughters, spectacled old maids hunting in couples, an +undergraduate or two abroad for the "Long," here and there a long-haired +German, and a sprinkling of white-whiskered Anglo-Indians, by the time +they had all taken their seats, constituted a gathering little short of +threescore persons. A pretty cheerful gathering, too, judging from the +clatter of tongues; for the Briton abroad is a wholly expansive animal, +and as great a contrast to his or her--especially her--starch and +buckram personality at home as the precept of the average professor of +faith and morals is to his practice. + +Our two friends found themselves at the transverse table at the lower +end of the room, with their backs to the bulk of the diners. But in +front of them were the open windows, no small advantage in a room full +of dining fellow-creatures. The sunset glow fell redly on the purple +heads of the Savoy Alps, and the thick, heavy perfume of narcissus came +floating in, triumphing over the savoury odours of fleshpots. + +The room had just settled down steadily to work through the _menu_ when +Phil's neighbour, a lady of uncertain age with spinster writ large, +opened fire upon him in this wise: + +"How very thick the scent of the narcissus is this evening." + +"It is. A sort of Rimmel's shop turned loose in the Alps." + +"But such a heavy perfume must be very unhealthy, must it not?" + +"Possibly." + +"But don't you think it must be?" + +"I really can't give an opinion. You see, I don't know anything about +the matter," replied Phil, good-humouredly, and in something like +desperation as the blank truth dawned upon him that he was located next +to a bore of the first water, and the worst kind of bore at that--the +bore feminine. His persecutor went on: + +"But they say that flowers too strongly scented are very unhealthy in a +room, don't they?" + +"Do they? I don't know. But, after all, these are not in the room; +they are outside." + +"But don't you think it comes to the same thing?" Heavens! What was to +be the end of this? Instinctively he stole a glance at Fordham, but +that worthy's impassive countenance betrayed nothing, unless it were the +faintest possible appreciation, in his grim, saturnine way, of the +humour of the thing. He mumbled something not very intelligible by way +of reply, and applied himself with extra vigour to the prime duty of the +gathering. But he was not to escape so easily. + +The lady was intently scrutinising the _menu_. Then to Phil: + +"Don't you think _ferras_ is an extremely bony fish?" + +This was too much even for Fordham. The corners of his mouth dropped +perceptibly, and a faintly audible chuckle escaped him. + +"I--I--'pon my life I don't know," stuttered poor Phil. "The fact is I +never knew the scheme of creation comprised such a fish." + +"Didn't you really? How very odd. But do you really mean it though?" + +"Oh, yes; it's a fact," he declared, wearily. + +"Ah! they are bringing it round now. You will soon be able to give me +your opinion." + +Phil was deciding that he would die rather than prosecute any +investigations into the osseously reputed _ferras_, and was on the point +of asserting that he loathed the whole finny race, when a diversion +occurred. Three chairs opposite had remained vacant, and into these +three persons were now seating themselves. Looking up suddenly, Phil +found himself face to face with the girl who had so strongly attracted +his attention on board the _Mont Blanc_. + +The old couple were her parents, of course, he decided straight out of +hand. Military and Indian, he went on, pursuing his verdict, and a +fine-looking old man. The elder lady seemed in frail health. Of course +they were the girl's parents--not a doubt about it. But what a piece of +luck! She to be his _vis-a-vis_ at the table! He quite forgot the +existence of the exemplary bore at his elbow, now. + +The girl herself, as soon as she was seated, sent a searching glance all +down the room, as if appraising the style of people who were to be their +fellow-sojourners. This he noted; also her perfect and graceful +self-possession. But for all the interest taken in the new arrivals by +Fordham, they might just as well not have come in. + +Dinner was more than half through, and still he had found no opportunity +of utilising the pleasant unconventionality afforded by the _table +d'hote_ system. If only they had been next to him; but being opposite +tended to hinder matters. He could not even volunteer the salt or the +mustard, and under cover of that flimsy advance work up a conversation, +for both those condiments--and everything needful--were as lavishly +supplied on the other side of the table as on his own. What the deuce +was he to say? For once in his life, easy-going Philip Orlebar felt his +normal stock of assurance fail him. + +"Alma, child," the elder lady was saying in a low tone, but audible +across the table, "hadn't you better change places with your uncle and +come next to me? I don't think he ought to sit with his back to the +window." + +"Not her parents, by Jove!" thought Phil. "`Alma.' That's a name I +never heard before." + +"'Tisn't that," grumbled the veteran, before his niece could reply. +"There's no draught--none at all. But what the deuce do they mean by +sticking us up in this corner with our backs to the view? I don't want +to look at a lot of other animals feeding. I want to get the benefit of +the mountains opposite, and the sunsets and all that." + +"But, uncle," struck in the girl--and Phil noted that she had a sweet +voice, beautifully modulated and clear--"we can look at the mountains +opposite all day long, but this grand opportunity of studying a +considerable collection of our fellow-creatures all off their guard is +only vouchsafed at _table d'hote_ time. And I was just congratulating +myself on having the whole population in front of me." + +"Pooh-pooh, child! When you get to my age you'll have had quite enough +of studying your fellow-creatures--more than enough, I'll lay a guinea. +And confound it, we come to this country to study Nature," added the old +man, relapsing into his original growl. + +Now this conversation, though carried on in a low tone, was distinctly +audible across the table--a fact of which the parties to it should have +been aware but for that inconceivable fatuity peculiar to our +fellow-countrymen when abroad, a conviction that everybody but +themselves is either deaf or afflicted with an opacity of understanding +which could hardly exist outside an asylum for imbeciles. So they were +not a little surprised and slightly perturbed when Fordham, looking up, +said quietly: + +"If you will allow me, sir, I shall be happy to exchange seats. It is +perfectly immaterial to me which way I face." + +The trio looked astonished, but the relief on one countenance could +hardly dissemble itself. + +"Er--you are very kind," stuttered the veteran. "But--er--really--I +hardly like--er--unfair advantage to take of your good-nature." + +"It is kind of you, indeed," struck in the old lady, somewhat hurriedly, +as though she feared the offer would be allowed to drop. "But the fact +is the General never can bear to sit with his back to the light. And, +if it is really all the same to you--" + +"It is, I assure you. I am delighted to be of service. So I'll mention +the matter to the head waiter, and you may consider it settled." + +The girl was placed between her uncle and aunt. This change would +result in Fordham being placed next to her. "What the deuce is the +fellow driving at now?" thought Philip, in mingled wrath and alarm. +Then it dawned upon him that his friend was driving at nothing less than +the securing of that coveted position for him, Philip. "Good old +Fordham! What a brick he is!" he mentally resolved, with a glow at his +heart. "Best fellow that ever lived, by Jove?" + +But the ice thus broken, our two friends and the new arrivals were soon +chatting away as if they had known each other for at least some time. + +"I noticed you on board the _Mont Blanc_ this afternoon," said Phil to +the old General, with magnificent mendacity--the fact being that he was +unaware of that veteran's very existence. "But you didn't land at +Montreux, did you?" + +"No. We went on to Territet. The ladies drove, with the luggage. I +took the funicular railway up to Glion and walked the rest." + +"Don't you think that Glion railway is very dangerous?" struck in +Philip's neighbour, seeing her opportunity. + +"Oh, dear no. Perfectly safe, they tell me," answered the old +gentleman. "I daresay, though, it's rather a trying affair for you +ladies, finding yourselves let straight down the steep side of a +mountain in a thing for all the world like a bucket in a well." + +"But don't you think it may one of these days come to grief?" pursued +the Infliction. + +"But, my dear madam, just consider the number of times it has gone up +and down in perfect safety." + +"Ah, but don't you think it may break down just that one time you may +happen to be in it?" + +It was dreadful. The octopus-like tenacity of this bore was enough to +paralyse the most mercurial. There fell a kind of languid despair upon +the countenances of the group, and each looked helplessly at the other, +as if to ascertain who was equal to the titanic task of warding off this +terrible person. But, meeting the large eyes of his _vis-a-vis_, Phil +at any rate found comfort. They would have something to laugh at +between them, anyway. + +"Here! I say--you! What are you doing?" called out Fordham, as at that +moment a waiter came bustling up and began to shut the window. + +"I shut de window, sir. Dere is one German gentleman at de oder end of +de room say dat de window must be shut." + +"Oh, indeed! Well, then, give my compliments to the one German +gentleman at the other end of the room and tell him the window won't be +shut. We'll see him in Halifax first." + +The waiter paused a moment, then skipped away to deliver the message. + +"Confound the fellow's cheek!" cried Philip, indignantly. "Likely we +are going to have our window bossed by some cadaverous brass-band player +at the other end of the room." + +And one and all in the vicinity of the disputed window seconded, in +varying terms, his protest. + +Just then the waiter reappeared. + +"Ver' sorry, sir; but de German gentleman say it must be shut." + +"Does he?" said Fordham. "Well, look here. Tell him--this time without +my compliments--that there are a few people at this end of the room +whose convenience is of as much importance as his own, and that they are +equally resolved that this window shall stand open. There--leave it +alone. If you do shut it we shall open it again at once." + +The waiter paused again very irresolute, shrugged his shoulders, +smirked, shrugged his shoulders again, then skipped away. Watching him, +they had no difficulty in locating the offender--a lank-haired +bespectacled Teuton occupying the remotest possible seat from the window +in dispute. He, in wrath, vehemently evoked the proprietor, who, +however, at that moment was not on hand. + +"That Battle of the Windows is an oft-recurring phase of hotel life out +here," remarked Fordham. "No man is more absolutely unprejudiced +against Continental nationalities than myself: yet it is a fact that +whenever there is anything like a respectable sprinkling of Germans or +Frenchmen in these hotels, they invariably insist upon having the room +hermetically sealed all through dinner-time." + +"The deuce they do!" growled the old General. "But do you mean to tell +me, sir, that a few of these unbarbered music-masters are going to cram +their confounded love of fustiness down our throats?" + +"Well, I've seen more than one lively episode over that window +question," replied Fordham. "And the fact of that one fellow trying it +on just now is sufficient proof that the tradition exists--and exists +pretty strongly too." + +"But don't you think they may perhaps, after all, be more susceptible to +cold than we English?" struck in the Infliction. + +"Undoubtedly," assented Fordham, blandly, preparing to beat a retreat +from the table under cover of his reply, for the dessert had already +gone round, and the room was emptying fast. + +"By Jove, Fordham, but isn't it a deuced rum thing they should have +turned up here?" said Phil, as the two made their way to the _promenoir_ +for a cigar. + +"_She_, I suppose you mean. No, it isn't particularly rum. I knew they +were bound here all along." + +"What--on board the steamer? No. How did you know?" + +"Oh, while you were taking particular stock of the chick, I happened to +overhear tags of the old birds' conversation," said Fordham, acidly, as +if the subject bored him. + +"Well, and why didn't you tell a fellow?" + +"Why didn't I? Hang it all, it's bad form to repeat what you hear by +accident, you know. Besides, it was rather sport to watch your face +under the pleasant little surprise." + +"Oh, that be hanged for a yarn?" cried Philip, impatiently. "But I say, +who are they, I wonder? What's their name?" + +"Don't know. Easily found out though." + +"But how?" + +"Why, go and look at the arrival book in the _bureau_. I'll wait for +you here. I'm not interested in the matter." + +Away went Philip without a word. Turning the pages of the book, the +last entry of all, freshly made, read: + +"_Major-General and Mrs Wyatt_." + +"_Miss Wyatt_." + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +ALMA. + +Everybody visiting at Les Avants for the first time while the narcissus +is in full bloom, is apt to grow more than enthusiastic over that lovely +and fragrant flower, even as in higher localities everybody is bound to +gush inordinately over that other blossom which is like unto a gun-wad +picked into fluff, and is neither lovely nor fragrant--to wit, the +_edelweiss_. This being so, it is not surprising that Alma Wyatt should +have seized the very first opportunity of escaping from the house with +intent to cull as huge a bunch of the beautiful blossoms as she could +possibly carry. + +It was a radiant morning. The sky a deep and dazzling blue, such as is +never to be seen over this uncertain and watery England of ours, was +unflecked by a single cloud, and the air, mellow and balmy in the early +forenoon, distilled a most exquisite perfume. To Alma it seemed as if +all the glories of Paradise lay spread around her as she wandered on +through the white and shining fields, drinking in the floods of +fragrance diffused by the breath of a million snowy petals. Opposite, +the great slopes were all aglow with green and gold, relieved by the +sombre plumage of shaggy pines straggling up to the frowning scarp of +the Dent de Jaman as though they aspired to scale that grim and +forbidding wall, and had been forced to yield sullenly in the attempt. +A mellow haze rested upon the soaring peaks beyond the fragment of blue +lake just visible--blue as the sky above; and from his pent-up prison +far down in the deep and wooded gorge the hoarse thunder of the mountain +torrent was borne upward in subdued and unending cadence, to mingle with +the hum of bees culling their sweet stores from the luscious cells of +the narcissus blossoms. Small wonder that to this girl with the large, +earnest eyes and poetic temperament--small wonder that to this girl, but +two days out from damp and cockneyfied Surbiton, the majesty of the +great mountains, the hoary cliffs still flaked with snow towering on +high, the black and stately pines, the vernal pastures and the far-away +echo of melodious cow-bells, the blue lake and the golden splendour of +this radiant Swiss summer, should be as something more than a glimpse of +the glories of Paradise. + +She was glad that she had come out alone, glad that she had not met any +of the other girls with whom she had made acquaintance the evening +before. It was delicious to be free to drink in all the wealth of this +Elysium without feeling constrained to talk, to reply to commonplaces +which should let in the outside world, vulgar by comparison, upon the +illimitable charm of this fairy scene. For this was her first +experience of Switzerland--almost of the Continent--and it in nowise +fell short of the ideal she had formed. + +Alma Wyatt had been left fatherless at an early age. Better for her had +she been orphaned altogether. Her childhood had been wholly uncared +for, and, as far as her mother was concerned, unloved. For she had a +younger sister upon whom that mother's love was concentrated to doting +point. All the bitterness of home life had fallen to Alma, all the +sweets thereof to her sister. Their mother, a selfish, domineering +woman, whose redeeming qualities were infinitesimal even to vanishing +point, simply made the elder girl's life wretched within that +semi-detached villa at cockneyfied Surbiton, but for the younger the +slender resources of a cramped income were strained to the uttermost. +No wonder that the beautiful face was seldom free from a tinge of +sadness; no wonder that her character had acquired a concentrativeness +and reserve beyond her short twenty years of life. + +We said that it would have been better for her were she an orphan +indeed, and in saying this we are not exaggerating. Her uncle and aunt, +under whose care we first make her acquaintance, looked upon her almost +as their own child--would have been only too glad to have adopted her as +such, for they were childless. But her mother would not hear of this. +Alma was necessary as, figuratively speaking, a whipping-post for +Constance, the younger girl. She could not part with her altogether-- +besides, she was useful in other ways. But the General and his wife +managed to have her with them as frequently as they could, and the +widow, who could not afford to quarrel with her brother-in-law, dared +not oppose his wishes in the matter beyond a certain point. So here was +Alma, with a prospect of two months to spend with her dearly-loved and +indulgent uncle and aunt; two months of easy travel and varying sojourn +among the fairest and most inspiring scenes that this world can show; +two months of unconventional life as near to perfect freedom as the +trammels of civilisation will allow; and above all, two months of +emancipation from home worries and suburban semi-detached pettinesses, +and the galling fetter of a show of "duty" towards those whom she could +neither love nor honour. + +Standing there among the narcissus, gazing around upon the radiant +scenes spread in lustrous splendour about her, she made a wondrously +beautiful picture. Her eyes shone with a light of gladness, and the +normally calm regularity of the patrician features had given way to a +slight flush of eagerness which was infinitely winsome. But as her +glance suddenly met that of another the glad light vanished as by magic, +yielding place to a look of vexation, coldness, reserve. She had been +surprised in the midst of a rhapsody--taken off her guard. + +But as though he read her thoughts, Philip Orlebar was not the man to +add to her discomfiture. He was thoroughbred, _aux bouts des ongles_, +and with all his lightheadedness and devil-may-care jollity, was endowed +with tact beyond the endowment of most Englishmen--_young_ Englishmen at +any rate. + +"Good morning, Miss Wyatt," he said, snatching the pipe from between his +teeth. "Out among the narcissus already, I see. Just what I've been +doing myself--though, as a rule, flower gathering isn't much in my line. +I only pick up an extra fine blossom now and again as I stroll along, +which may account for the meagreness of my bunch," exhibiting a small +handful containing some dozen of stalks. "But you--you have got a grand +bouquet." + +The unaffectedness of his address, the breezy lightheadedness of his +tone, was not without its influence even upon her. The gravity of her +reserve melted into a smile. + +"They are so lovely," she answered; "I couldn't remain indoors a moment +longer." + +"Just the state of the case with me. Surprising how great minds always +jump together. But to be serious, I believe the blossoms up above there +are larger than these. Some one or other in the hotel told me I ought +to go and look at them, and I did," added mendacious Phil. "That lazy +dog, Fordham, wouldn't move--planted himself at the end of a pipe in a +cane chair in one of those arbours. I couldn't stand that, so I started +a stroll in a small way. Let me carry those for you." And in a +twinkling he had possessed himself of the two huge bunches of narcissus +which she had gathered. + +"Thanks. It's a shame to burden you, though. Isn't this a beautiful +place?" + +"Rather. Old Fordham is enthusiastic about it, and I don't much wonder. +He knows it well, you see. I never was here before in my life, but now +I am here I'm in no hurry to move on. There are some grand walks and +first-rate climbs to be had. You were saying last night you were +looking forward to that sort of thing. I hope we shall be able to show +you the way about a little. We must make up a party for a climb +somewhere before this splendid weather changes. Fordham is worth any +round dozen of guides." + +"But--we can hardly lay your friend's good-nature under such a heavy +contribution," she said, with a queer little smile. + +"Oh, can't we! Old Fordham is the best fellow in the world--only wants +knowing a bit. He'll do anything he's asked." + +That queer smile broadened round Alma's lips. She had sat opposite the +now eulogised Fordham during the whole of dinner-time; and, be it +remembered, she was given to studying character. But she said nothing, +and by this time they had regained the hotel. + +A cool fountain was playing in the terraced garden in front of the +_promenoir_, shooting high in the air and falling back into its basin in +a shower of scattering diamond drops. Beside this, leaning on an +alpenstock, a big meerschaum in his mouth, stood General Wyatt. + +"Well, Alma. Been ravaging the narcissus fields?" he said, as they came +up. "But what on earth will you do with all that lot? A trifle too +strong, won't it be, for any ordinary-sized room?" + +"I don't think so, uncle. Why, in England people would give anything +for such magnificent blossoms as these, and here we are already +beginning to think them nothing very great. But I'll go and put them in +water for the present." + +"Well, don't be long, dear, or we sha'n't get our walk," he called after +her. + +"Grand day, General?" said Philip, re-lighting his pipe. + +"It is, indeed. By the bye, since I've heard your name, are you in any +way related to Francis Orlebar--Sir Francis he is now?" + +"Rather closely. He happens to be my father. Did you know him well?" + +"You don't say so! Well, well! It's a small world, after all. Know +him well? I should think I did. I was some years his senior though, +and he wasn't long in the service. But that must have been before you +were born." + +"And have you never met since, General?" + +"Only once--just about the time he got into that--er--ah." And the old +man, remembering who he was talking to, suddenly pulled himself up and +launched forth into a tremendous sneeze. The slip was not lost upon +Phil, but he came to the rescue promptly. + +"Think we are like each other, General?" he said. + +"N-no! Don't know though. There is a likeness. You're the finer built +fellow of the two--taller and broader. Bless my soul, though, but the +world is a small one. To think of Frank Orlebar's son turning up in +this way?" + +"I hope I'm not interrupting, General Wyatt," said a feminine and +tentative voice. "Your niece was saying last night she was a perfect +stranger here, and we thought she might like to go with us. We are +going to the Cubly. It isn't far, and we shall be back to lunch. We +hope you will come too." + +The speaker was one of the two girls who had passed our friends in the +Gorge du Chauderon. Phil had already made a little conversation with +her the evening before. So now she turned and extended the invitation +to him. He gladly accepted, while the General answered for Alma and +himself that nothing would give them greater pleasure. And at that +moment Alma reappeared and they started. The Miss Ottleys were pleasant +well-bred girls of artistic tastes and plenty of conversation, and the +walk promised to be a success. + +We shall not, however, follow the party to the pine-crowned height +sheering up from the vine-clad slopes immediately behind Montreux, nor +share in the magnificent panorama which it affords. Sufficient to say +that at the end of three hours they returned, in the highest spirits and +on the best of terms with themselves and each other. In such free and +easy fashion are acquaintanceships formed and often consolidated into +friendships, amid the pleasant unconventionally of life in mountain +hotels. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +FORDHAM PHILOSOPHISES. + +"I say, Fordham. We're getting up an expedition for to-morrow, and +you've got to come," cried Phil, bursting into his friend's room just +before dinner one evening. + +"Have I?" replied the latter leisurely, turning round with a half-soaped +visage, and razor arrested in mid-air. "But, Phil, it's rather lucky +you didn't swoop down in such hurricane method upon a more nervous man +than yours truly, or it's wildly hunting for sticking plaster he'd be at +this moment. And now, for my enlightenment, who's _we_?" + +"Oh, the Ottleys and the Wyatts and one or two more. We want to start +early, cross the lake by steamer and get as far up that valley on the +other side as we can." + +"To Novel? Yes, and then?" + +"Why then we are going to charter a boat and row back in the cool of the +evening." + +"Not a bad scheme. Who do you say are going, beside the inseparables?" + +"One of the Miss Milnes--the pretty one--and that fellow Scott." + +"Scott, the devil-dodger?" + +"Yes. The Ottleys have asked him. I can't think why, for he's a rank +`outsider.'" + +"Most of the `shepherds' appointed to administer `Dearly beloved +brethren' to their countrywomen in this otherwise favoured land are, my +dear chap. But it's all the better for you. He can take the two Ottley +nymphs off your hands while you offer _latria_ to the fair Inkermann--no +Alma--I beg your pardon." + +"But--but hang it, that's just what the beggar won't do," blurted Phil +in desperation. "Fact is he's always in the way, and really it's +contemptible, you know; but what's to be done with a cad like that, who +ignores a snub that another fellow would knock you down for--or try to? +You'll come along, old man, won't you?" + +"Let's see. There's the General, he's too old and don't count. Then +there's yourself and the parson; and they want a third donkey--I mean +beast of burden. Two won't be enough to sling all the panniers they'll +want along. I'm afraid, Phil, you mustn't count upon me, unless you can +manage to supply the missing steed first." + +"Bosh, Fordham! You won't be wanted to carry anything." + +"Not, eh? Let's see again. Four females--that means eight wraps, +putting it at the lowest computation. Add to that the delicate +creatures' rations--for you can't get anything eatable or drinkable at +Novel--and sunshades, which they _must_ have for crossing the lake, +don't you know, and which they'll discard directly they begin to walk. +And there's all the amateur-commissionaire business into the bargain. +No, no, Phil. Having given the matter my most careful consideration, I +regret to say that I am unable to undertake it--as the publisher said +when he `chucked' the budding author's MS." + +"You old savage! If you weren't shaving I'd `chuck' all the boots and +bolsters in the room at your head." + +"Well, I've done now, so you can begin. But, I say, Phil," he went on, +tranquilly, "how long have we been here?" + +Philip Orlebar's handsome head was well through the open window at that +moment. His friend therefore found it necessary to repeat the question. + +"Eh--what? How long? Oh, about ten days, haven't we?" + +"I believe we have," rejoined the other in the same silky tone. "And, +my dear boy, doesn't it strike you that you are getting on ra-ather +rapidly?" + +"No. Why?" + +"Nothing. Only that even the charm of my improving conversation does +not avail to keep your head within that window, when some inexplicable +instinct--for you couldn't possibly have _seen_ her--warns you that your +divinity is on the terrace below. And yet, in a few minutes more you +will be seated by her side for at least an hour--such being +unfortunately the length of _table d'hote_, and after that may safely be +counted upon to pass the residue of the evening not a hundred yards +apart from her by any means." + +"Well, I'm only one of a crowd then," retorted Philip, with a dash of +irritation. "Those confounded Ottley girls are always on hand--a good +deal too much so." + +"Are they? Look here now, Phil. What is there about that girl that +makes a difference between her and any other girl?" + +"Ah! You--even you, you old ruffian, own that there is a difference?" + +"Not so fast, my dear chap. I asked _you_ the question. But if you +want me to answer it myself, I reply `Nothing.'" + +"What? You don't see any difference?" + +"Not a particle," responded his tormentor, blandly. Philip stared for a +moment. He hardly knew what to say. Then: + +"Well, with all your shelliness, you crustaceous old cuss, I gave you +credit for more discrimination. Why, confound it all, look at her +alongside the rest of the crowd here. Isn't she a head and shoulders +above them all--in every particular?" + +"H'm, h'm! Oh, yes! no doubt. But that isn't saying very much. She +looks thoroughbred, I admit, and talks well, and has some ideas--not bad +ones, either; not that I've ever been favoured with them myself, for +I've never laid myself out for that honour. Women, you see, are like +children. As long as you keep them at arm's length they respect you. +Directly you have ever so little to do with them, then good-bye to your +peace, for they will allow you none; then, presto, the collar is round +your neck and you find yourself cast for the _role_ of general poodle +before you know where you are. It's fetch-and-carry, will-you-do-this +and would-you-mind-doing-that. And then you are expected to act the +sympathetic listener to all their infernal egotistic fads; and God help +you if at any moment you forget the sympathetic part of it. But to +return to our sheep. You think this particular girl an angel, because +she's good-looking and thoroughbred, and has a hovering sort of +suggestion about her of being an ill-used mortal and welcoming a +sympathetic spirit, and all that sort of thing. Then, again, you run +against her up here, where you're both of you showing at your best +because you've neither of you anything in the world to put you out-- +splendid weather, lovely country, good old times all round--sort of +paradise in which she stands out as the Eve to you, and I daresay you as +the Adam to her. That's not life, my dear fellow; that's not life. A +mere summer idyll and no more. Can't possibly last, you know." + +"And why the deuce can't it last?" said Phil, who had been listening +somewhat impatiently to this harangue. + +Fordham emitted a short, dry guffaw. + +"Well now, can it? I put it to you. Just run over all the `happy +couples' within the circle of your acquaintance: to how many of them is +life a summer idyll, or any sort of idyll at all? You needn't go +further than this house, which at present contains a good few +`yoke-fellows,' to use a thoroughly expressive term. If you haven't yet +found time to observe them, just keep your eyes open for the next day or +two--if you can divert those killing orbs from the adorable Alma, that +is--and a place like this is good for observations of the kind, because +the subjects of them are always more or less off their guard. Putting +it at the lowest computation, eight marriages out of every ten are +abject failures--the other two very dubious." + +"Oh, indeed! And how many are there that turn out satisfactorily?" said +Phil, ironically. + +"Perhaps one in five thousand." + +"Oh--well--it's something to have got you to admit that much. Now why +shouldn't I, for instance, hit off that one?" + +"Why shouldn't you? Well now, Phil, I put it to you as one not wholly +unacquainted with sporting matters. What would you say to a fellow who +should ask you to take tickets in a lottery where the chances were five +thousand to one against you--or rather to take one ticket, and that at +the price of all you were worth? You'd vote him drunk, of course. Yet +if I know anything of my fellow-creatures, you are in a fair way towards +perpetrating that identical suicidal imbecility. Now, what do you say? +Chuck your expedition across the lake to-morrow, and let's go on to +Zermatt now instead of a week or so later. That, or your fate is +sealed." + +"No you don't, old chap; no you don't," said Phil, who, far from being +offended by the other's ill-conditionedness, was hugely pleased thereat, +since it confirmed and encouraged certain hopes he had already more than +half shaped. "By Jove, I never had such a good time in my life as I've +been having here. Too soon to cut it just yet." + +Fordham's shoulders went up in an expressive shrug as he turned away to +the door. + +"Don't say you weren't shown the cliff you proposed to jump over," he +said. "Jump now, and be--blessed to you." + +"By the way, Fordham," said Phil, "isn't it a deuced rum thing? The old +General knows my governor well--or rather did, years ago." + +"Did he?" was the sharp reply, as the speaker faced suddenly round. "Ah +well--yes--it is queer. But the world's a pretty small one. There goes +the second bell," he added, in his normally unconcerned tones, as he +again turned to the door. + +His manner struck even Philip, though faintly. But for the fact that +Fordham was literally a man in an iron mask, Philip could have sworn +that the tone was a startled one. That, however, was absurd, anyhow. +Fordham was not even acquainted with Sir Francis. The two had met and +become intimate merely as travelling companions. + +"Well, Mr Fordham, what do you think of these young people's plan for +to-morrow?" said General Wyatt as they met at table. + +"Not a bad one. The valley of the Morge is well worth walking up, but +you must start from here so as to catch the early steamer." + +"Make old Fordham go with us. He says he won't," said Phil, in an +undertone, to Alma Wyatt, next to whom he was seated, for the change of +places had been effected satisfactorily to all parties concerned. "You +can get round him if any one can." + +"I don't know so much about that," she answered, with a smile. "I'll +try, though." Then across the table, "Why do you say `_you_ must start +early,' Mr Fordham, as if you weren't going with us? You really must +come. The gentians, they say, are lovely up that valley. We are quite +reckoning on you." + +"To carry the gentians?" he rejoined drily. "Or to pick them?" + +"Neither. You shall talk to us while we pick them. And you shall not +carry anything, and we'll promise to be very good and give no trouble." + +Few men could have stood this appeal, or the look which accompanied it. +Phil felt quite hot. Though used to his friend's ways, he thought him +an ill-conditioned dog at that moment. Had he not unequivocally snubbed +his--Phil's--divinity? But the said divinity rather enjoyed it than +otherwise. For, in spite of the extremely derogatory deliverances we +have just heard from Fordham's lips concerning her, Alma Wyatt was the +only woman in the hotel to whom he had addressed a spontaneous remark; +and she, so far from being offended at his brusqueness or taciturnity, +looked upon him as a character, to be studied with avidity. + +"To put it on other grounds," she went on gaily. "Uncle will be quite +lost without you. What will become of him all day with no one to argue +with?" She could not have ventured upon safer ground. Fordham, though +he detested women, by no means extended his antipathy to his own sex, +and when away from the obnoxious skirts no man was better company. He +was a power in the smoking-room, and as a travelling companion very +nearly perfect. He and General Wyatt had become great friends during +their short acquaintance, and now as it struck him that the old man had +probably been relying upon his company for the proposed undertaking, his +mind was made up. + +"Well, General, I shall be happy to make one of the party," he said. +"And after all, if it's a case of rowing back across the lake, another +oar won't come out of place." + +"Don't you think it very dangerous to cross the lake in a small boat?" +struck in the Infliction, at his elbow. + +"Not if the weather's fine." + +"Ah, but don't you think storms come up very suddenly on this lake?" + +"Oh, Lord," said Phil in an undertone, "the Gadfly is getting her sting +into old Fordham." + +"Be quiet, she'll hear you," replied Alma, trying to hide a laugh. +"Besides, I want to enjoy the fun." + +But while Fordham was ruminating over a suitable extinguisher, a mild +clergyman on the opposite side of the table struck in eagerly, and +requested to know if that was really the case, and further manifested +such a desire for information on that particular subject that the +Infliction turned to him with reinvigorated purpose, and the rest were +spared. The good man had only arrived that evening, and little knew +what floodgates he was opening. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE FIRE OF THE LIVE COAL. + +"I believe we are all here now," remarked Fordham, ironically, sending a +significant glance round the little group assembled on the _debarcadere_ +at Montreux. + +"Better count and make sure," responded Scott, the parson, with an +asinine guffaw. + +The first remark was evoked by the recollection that, even as they now +stood watching the swift, shearing approach of the _Mont Blanc_ sweeping +up to the jetty, so had they arrived on that spot some three hours +earlier, just in time to gaze after the steamer preceding, as she +disappeared round the promontory previous to standing in for Territet. +And for having missed their boat, and lost three hours of the day, they +had to thank the Miss Ottleys, or rather the maternal parent of those +young ladies, who, with the usual feminine lack of a sense of the +eternal fitness of things, had instructed them to combine business with +pleasure, and execute sundry commissions for her in Montreux, on the way +to the steamer. Wherefore they--and the parson--had arrived at the pier +in time to find the residue of the party gazing discontentedly after the +receding boat. + +But no one would fall in with Fordham's suggestion to return. If they +had lost three hours' the days were long and the evenings moonlight. +All agreed that they would wait for the next boat. + +"_En route_!" shouted the skipper, with his lips to the speaking-tube. +The gangway was withdrawn with a bang--the great paddle-wheels churned +the blue water into creamy foam, and the fine vessel, panting and +snorting like a courser impatient of the momentary restraint, plunged +forward as she swung round obedient to the hand of the helmsman. + +"What a disagreeable chap that man Fordham is," remarked Scott to the +Miss Ottleys, with whom he had withdrawn to a comfortable corner of the +deck. + +"He can be about as rude as any man I ever knew," returned the younger +of the two girls, who had a hazy sort of idea that any man ought to +think it rather an honour than otherwise to have all his arrangements +thrown out by her dilatoriness. + +"I don't think we can blame him this time," objected the elder. "It +must have been very provoking to the dear old General as well." + +"Ah, he's different," said Scott. "But that fellow Fordham just thinks +the world was made to suit his convenience. By the bye, who asked him +to come to-day?" + +"Well, you see, it was Mr Orlebar who suggested the trip, and it isn't +likely he'd leave his friend out." + +"Oh, ah--I see! Pity he didn't though. The fellow is a regular wet +blanket." + +There was reason in the speaker's venom. Scott, who held the proud +position of English chaplain at Les Avants for that month, was a fair +specimen of the young "masher" parson. He wore a carefully-trimmed +moustache and talked with a drawl. He affected lawn tennis in +preference to any other form of exercise because it enabled him to array +his graceful five foot six of dimensions in faultlessly fitting +flannels, and when so arrayed he was under the impression that Apollo +himself might take a back seat. He was not a gentleman by birth, and, +having all the exuberant assurance of the self-estimating "ranker," was +a standing offence to those who were. Though made much of by a large +section of the ladies, always ready to constitute a pet tame cat of a +young parson, the men abhorred him. His bumptiousness and chronic +infringements of good form met with systematic snubbing, and on more +than one occasion nothing but his "cloth" had saved him from being +incontinently kicked. Now of all the "setting down" he had received +since his arrival at the hotel, that which he had encountered at the +hands of Fordham had been the most merciless and exhaustive. + +The latter and General Wyatt were leaning against the taffrail smoking +their cigars. + +"Have you known young Orlebar long?" the old man was saying. "I +gathered from what he told me that you had been travelling together for +some years." + +"Well, we have only been a couple of months together this summer. Last +autumn, though, we returned from a thirteen months' trip to China and +Japan, then home across the Rockies." + +"Indeed! You ought to know of what sort of stuff a fellow is made after +a trip of that kind with him." + +"Yes. Phil is a good fellow enough, and he and I suit each other +admirably. He always does what he's told, and can stand being chaffed +for his own good. Not many fellows of his age can do that." + +"I like the boy," went on General Wyatt, "like him immensely. He's a +fine fellow--a finer fellow than his father was. But it's a thousand +pities he has no sort of profession, for when he comes into Claxby and +the title he won't have too much to keep up either upon." + +"I suppose not," assented Fordham, indifferently. "But then he hasn't +got any expensive tastes or habits." + +"That's a very good point about him. Still, if his father had put him +into some profession instead of allowing him ample means to lead an idle +life, it would have been all the better for him. But that's Frank +Orlebar all over. He dotes upon the boy, and so feels bound to indulge +him in every particular. That sort of sentimentality was always a grave +weakness in Frank Orlebar's character. His heart was always stronger +than his head, and it invariably led him into some serious blunder." + +"Didn't he come rather to grief once and have to go abroad for a time?" +said Fordham, meditatively trimming the ash of his cigar with his +thumbnail. "Phil never mentioned it, but I seem to remember the case +some twenty years back." + +"Oh, you remember it?" said the General, looking furtively around and +lowering his voice. "Well, it wasn't a `case' exactly--never came to +that, luckily. But there was the devil of a scandal, and Orlebar went +abroad for a time. It was said that he went to exchange shots with the +injured party, and I believe he did, but whether either of them winged +his man I'll be hanged if I know." + +On one of the benches in the forepart of the hurricane deck, gazing +dreamily at the great wooded slopes sliding by as the steamer passed the +storm-beaten walls of grim Chillon, revelling in the gorgeous +magnificence of the flying scenery while keeping an ear for her +companion's remarks, sat Alma Wyatt. + +"Do you know you answered me quite at random?" said Philip, with a +laugh. + +"Did I? Oh, how rude of me! But--you must make allowances. I find it +quite impossible to take my attention entirely off these lovely shores +and the mountains changing every minute as we go rushing through the +water. Look at them--all green and gold in this exquisite sunlight! +Look at the dazzling white of the Dent du Midi there, in sharp contrast +to the vivid blue of the sky! And the lake--I have just counted no less +than thirteen different shades on its surface where each tiny catspaw of +wind sweeps it--thirteen, from the richest ultramarine to gold and plum +colour and scarlet. There, I am very gushing--am I not?--and you may +laugh at me accordingly." + +"I certainly shall do nothing of the sort," he replied, eagerly. "Do +you suppose I am such a boor, such a Vandal that I can't enter into your +ideas? Perhaps I was thinking just the same things, only could not for +the life of me express myself so beautifully." + +She looked him steadily in the face for a moment as though to read his +thoughts, as though to detect the slightest trace of make-believe about +his reply. But his tones rang true and she was satisfied. + +"Then I shall proceed with my gush, and really end in making you laugh," +she resumed. "But I do think that this eastern end of the Lake of +Geneva must have been hewn out of a corner of Paradise." + +"And yet, there stands an eternal reminder to the contrary," he replied, +pointing to the grim towers of Chillon which lay mirrored in clear-cut +reflection upon the sapphire waters. "Think of the numberless wretches +racked and thumbscrewed and burnt within those walls in past centuries. +Have you so soon forgotten that ghastly _oubliette_ they were driven +down under a fraudulent promise of liberty? It is said that remains +occasionally come to light even to this day." + +"Ah, now you have drawn a sort of black line across my fair picture. +You are upsetting my ideal just as Mr Fordham kept trying to do the +other day when we were going over the castle. Do you remember he +pronounced the torture stake a fraud of the first magnitude, declaring +that it had been renewed since he visited Chillon five years ago, and +that Byron's name on the pillar in Bonivard's dungeon was probably a +despicable sham and the work of some latter-day 'Arry?" + +"Yes, but we all agreed that even if it were genuine it was a rank act +of 'Arrydom on the part of the bard, and by no means a thing to fall +down in adoration before." + +"So we did. As to the other things I don't like being disturbed in my +illusions. But a visit to these old castles and prisons with their +hideous and varied appliances of torture and mutilation and death +invariably tempts me seriously to wonder whether the world was not for +centuries under the sway of some malignant fiend instead of a beneficent +Ruler. Just think a moment, as you were saying just now, over the +unutterable horrors perpetrated in that castle alone, not to mention our +own Tower of London and thousands of similar places scattered about the +`civilised' world. Why, it seems as if the one thought animating the +mind of every one in authority was how to inflict the greatest and most +ingenious forms of suffering upon his fellow-creatures. Does not that +look as if the world was under Satanic sway? But there, you will be +thinking me a very heterodox, not to say a wicked person." + +"I shall think you neither the one nor the other," he protested, warmly. +The sweet seriousness and depth of thought characterising this girl +constituted by no means the least of her attractions, and with all his +sunny spirits and light-hearted susceptibility Philip Orlebar was poles +apart from the ruck of contemporaneous _jeunesse doree_ whose talk is of +the green room and the daily habits of this or that star actress. He +had ideas and a serious side, and could well appreciate the same in +others. And if in others, how much more in this one who was now +exhibiting them. + +"But come," she resumed, gaily, changing her tone and manner with a +suddenness as of the sunlight breaking through a cloud, "we had better +turn our backs on gloomy Chillon, and only look upon and remember my +`corner hewn out of Paradise.' There--that little idea is all my own." + +Remember it? thought Philip. Would he ever forget it? The radiant +glories of the summer day, the swift gliding movement over the flashing +water, the great mountains around soaring up to the eternal blue, the +sense of exhilaration in the mere delight of living--and tingeing, +gilding all, touching with the fire of the live coal this fairyland of +entrancing glow and sunlight, the magic of a subtle presence here at his +side. And the fire of that live coal was Love. + +Yes, it had come to this with him. In spite of his friend's cynical +warnings and more or less envenomed banter; in the teeth of all +prudential considerations, of future advantage, ways and means, and +such; in the face of the awkward fact that his acquaintanceship with her +was one of barely ten days, Philip had come to admit to himself that +life apart from Alma Wyatt would be but a dead and empty pretence at +living. + +Barely ten days! Could it be? Less than one brief fortnight since his +glance had first rested upon her, here on this very deck! It seemed +incredible. + +But she? Her splendid eyes met his in conversation fully and +fearlessly, their heavy dark lashes never drooping for a moment beneath +his ardent gaze. Never the faintest tinge of colour came into the warm +paleness of the beautiful patrician face; never a tremor shook the +sweetly modulated voice in response to his most eager efforts to please, +in recognition of his most unmistakable "signs of distress." Could she +not guess? + +"I think the idea is a very sweet one," he rejoined, earnestly. "A +little corner of Paradise--that's just what it is." + +"Ahem! We shall be at Bouveret in five minutes," struck in a drawling +voice, not wholly guiltless of a cockney twang, recognisable as the +property of Scott. "Do you feel prepared to mount Shanks's mare, Miss +Wyatt?" + +Alma murmured a very frigid reply, while Philip was obliged to turn away +to conceal the fury which blazed forth from his visage, and further to +quell an overmastering impulse which moved him to take the speaker by +the scruff of his neck and drop him there and then overboard--in front +of the paddle-wheels. The free and easy patronising drawl of this +insufferable cad made his blood surge again. + +"By the way, Miss Wyatt," went on the pachydermatous pastor, "I have a +great mind to ask you to arbitrate. I must say Mr Fordham is a pretty +cool hand. What do you think? Here am I with this huge knapsack full +of things to carry, and he positively declines to take his share. That +is--I've hinted to him pretty plainly that he ought to." + +"Fordham isn't a man who deals largely in hints," said Philip, facing +round upon the speaker with a fierceness that almost made the latter +recoil. "If he were, he would doubtless hint that one beast of burden +is sufficient for the party." + +Scott looked affronted. Then his countenance suddenly cleared. "Oh! we +are going to take a horse with us then?" he said, gleefully. + +"No--an ass," returned Philip, quickly. + +Even the inflated layer of the other's self-esteem was not proof against +this shaft. It collapsed with its owner, who retired with a scowl to +pour his grievance into haply more sympathising ears. And by that time +the steamer had crossed the broad and turgid belt where the snow-waters +of the Rhone cleft in a sharply defined pathway the blue surface of the +lake, and was slowing down to half-speed as she approached Bouveret +pier. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +THE STORM ON THE LAKE. + +"Is there absolutely no way of getting on to St. Gingolph, Mr Fordham?" +said the eldest Miss Ottley, ruefully. + +"You may put it in that way," was the tranquil reply. "Unless we walk." + +The party, gathered round Fordham on the wooden pier, were not a little +disappointed. They had reckoned on changing steamers and going straight +on without delay, for the _Mont Blanc_ went no further than Bouveret. +Now they discovered that there was no steamer to change on to. + +"That's what comes of missing the early boat," resumed Fordham, +mercilessly. "You will kindly remember that I warned you I doubted the +accuracy of my _horaire_, and that we should probably not find any +steamer on this side, when you elected to come on by the _Mont Blanc_." + +This was undeniable, but it didn't seem to mend matters. + +"And now two courses lie open to us," he went on. "We can either walk +to St. Gingolph along the high road, or take a short cut round the base +of the Grammont for Novel. I should recommend the latter. What do you +say, General?" + +"Oh, I'm entirely in your hands. What do the ladies think?" + +But the ladies voting unanimously for this plan it was carried +forthwith. Then suddenly it occurred to them that nobody knew the way. +But they reckoned without Fordham. He had never been over that +identical ground, but he undertook to act as guide, and fulfilled his +undertaking with admirable accuracy. But they were not to reach their +original destination, and it came about in this wise. + +The day was hot, and the path winding upward round the mountain-side, +though charming as it led through beech and oakwoods, affording many a +glimpse of the blue lake below, was both steep and rugged. After about +an hour the Miss Ottleys suggested a halt--and lunch. + +"This is a very tiring way, Mr Fordham," said one of them, "and it +seems a very long one. Are you quite sure we are going right?" + +"I see," was the short reply. "You want me to say I am not quite sure. +Well, what do you want to _do_--that's the point?" + +They looked at each other. + +"I think we had almost better have our picnic here," said the one who +had first spoken. + +"I believe we had," said the other sister. "This is a lovely spot." + +"If we stop here now we sha'n't get on to Novel at all," said Fordham. + +"Oh, hang Novel!" cut in Scott. "I'm for stopping here. What do _you_ +say, Miss Wyatt?" + +"I am perfectly ready to do what every one else wishes," answered Alma. + +"Fordham, old man, I believe we none of us want to go any further," said +Philip. "It's awfully hot, you know, and it'll be no end of a grind. +It's a mistake, too, to make a toil of a pleasure. I propose that we +bivouac here, feed, and poke a smipe, and drop down quietly on St. +Jingo--or whatever you call it--afterwards. Let's put it to the vote." + +"All right," said Fordham, serenely. "It's all one to me." + +Philip was right, the fact being that every one had had enough of it. +So they ate their luncheon in the cool shade, and took their ease and +were happy; and after a couple of hours or so started downward for the +village, where they were to embark for the return voyage across the +lake. + +"We might have had some difficulty in getting a boat," remarked Fordham. +"As it happens, though, I saw my commissionaire, Francois Berthod, in +Montreux, and he has a brother at St. Gingolph who owns one. So I made +him wire him to look out for us." + +But when they reached St. Gingolph a fresh deadlock seemed likely to +arise. There was not much demand for boatmen at the out-of-the-way, +seldom-visited little village. Accordingly those amphibious worthies +were, one and all, absent, following their other avocations, and among +them Jules Berthod. To the whereabouts of the latter nobody seemed able +to furnish a clue. The woman who managed the wineshop opined that he +had gone over to Bouveret, and would not return till late; but in any +case it didn't matter, she being perfectly certain that neither Jules +nor any other boat-owner would cross the lake that afternoon--an opinion +abundantly backed up in unintelligible _patois_ by more than one +blue-bloused boozer lounging on the wooden seats. + +But Fordham knew better, and he was right. For, as luck would have it, +who should arrive at that very moment but the missing Jules--a cheery, +copper-faced athlete, who, recognising Fordham, made no great difficulty +about the undertaking. He glanced at the party, then at his boat; +remarked dubiously that it was rather late in the day for crossing, and +he should hardly get back that night; then shrugged his shoulders, +ejaculated "_Enfin_," and straightway set off to haul in his craft. + +The latter, though roomy, was somewhat narrow of beam, and not so heavy +as it looked. There were seats for three rowers, each pulling a pair of +sculls. + +"I'll take stroke, if it's all the same to everybody," said Philip. + +Fordham was about to demur, Philip being the heaviest man of the party, +except perhaps the boatman, and there was abundance of weight in the +stem; but remembering that Alma had been voted coxswain, he refrained. +So Berthod was constituted bow, and Scott, eager to distinguish himself, +took the remaining pair. + +It was five o'clock when they pushed off. From St. Gingolph to Vevey +the distance is about eight miles; therefore they reckoned upon barely +two hours of easy pulling. Another two hours' walk in the cool of the +evening would bring them back to Les Avants almost before it was dark. + +"I don't think much of this sort of rowing," grumbled Scott, for about +the third time as, with a final effort to scrape down some of the stars +of heaven, he violently fouled Philip's oar. "They don't seem to know +what it is in this country. Fancy having your oars hitched on to an +iron peg, instead of running free in rowlocks. Why, you can't even +feather." + +"I suppose you went in for boating a good deal when you were at the +'Varsity, Mr Scott?" remarked Fordham, innocently. It was rather +cruel, Scott being one of that rapidly increasing class of parson who +has never kept terms at any university. + +"Er--not a very great deal--a little, that is," was the somewhat +confused reply. + +"Didn't aspire to your college boat, eh?" said Philip, who ever since +they started had been mentally anathematising this cockney 'Arry, whose +alternate star-scraping and crab-catching efforts had kept him in a +lively state of irritation and bad time. + +"Won't some of you young ladies favour us with a song?" suggested the +General. "Nothing like melody on the water." + +"Rather," said Philip. "It'll send us along at twice the pace--inspire +us, don't you know. Make us keep time--if anything will," he added, +significantly. + +There was some little demur among the girls, who were shy of singing +without accompaniment. Then they started the Canadian boat-song, and +the effect of the clear voices floating out over the mirror-like water +was pretty enough, for the said voices certainly did "keep tune," even +though the oars--thanks to the star-scraping proclivities of the +maladroit Scott--failed with exasperating frequency to "keep time." And +the scene was a lovely and a peaceful one, inspiring, too, if you came +to contrast the utter insignificance of that cockleshell boat floating +there on the blue expanse of lake, with the sombre grandeur of the great +mountains--many a jagged and fantastic peak starting into view above and +behind the abrupt forest-clad slopes sheering up from the water's edge +as the distance widened between them and the Savoy shore. Then, +dominating the flat Rhone Valley, the towering Dent de Morcles, and +further in the background the snowy head of the Mont Velan peeping round +the volcano-like crest of the pyramid-shaped Mont Catogne, and above the +green slopes around Les Avants, the rocky hump of the Naye shone red in +the beams of the westering sun. + +But in spite of the calm and peaceful stillness lying alike upon the +water and the encircling mountains, Jules Berthod seemed not altogether +at ease. There was a heavy loom of cloud over the purple Jura, which to +the mind of the experienced boatman had no business to be there. At the +same time a kind of lurid opacity crept over the hitherto radiant sun. + +"_Crr-rre nom! Si on allait nous flanquer un coup de vent, par +exemple_!" he muttered between his teeth as he sent more than one uneasy +glance to the westward. + +There was one upon whom that glance was not lost--who had also begun to +read the face of the sky. That one was Fordham. + +"What do you say to my taking your place, Mr Scott?" he said. "We must +be nearly half-way across by now. If anything, rather more." + +Scott, who had had enough of it, jumped at this proposal, and sank down +with a sigh of relief into the cushioned seat among the ladies. + +"When are we to take our turn?" asked the youngest Miss Ottley. + +"Better wait until we have broken the back of the work," answered +Fordham, who knew, however, that no feminine hand was destined to handle +the oar that day. + +"Bless my soul, but how chilly it has turned," said General Wyatt. + +It had--and more. The boat no longer slid smoothly over the glassy +water. Something of a swell had arisen. + +"By Jove! If only we had a sail we should slip along sweetly. There's +quite a little breeze getting up," said Philip, resting a moment on his +oars. "Well, we haven't, so it's of no use wishing. But how about +another song? We want invigorating. Does any one know the Eton fourth +of June song?" + +It happened that nobody did, and Philip remarking that that inspiriting +chorus was a thin affair if rendered as a solo, was urgently assured +that he never was more mistaken in his life and as urgently pressed to +give practical proof of the same. Then the disputants abruptly paused. +For Jules Berthod was resting on his oars, and seemed deep in a hurried +consultation with Fordham, who, it will be remembered, now occupied the +middle seat. + +"_Nom de nom_!" he growled. "_Ca arrive--ca arrive. Je l'attendais +bien--allez_!" + +"What is the matter?" exclaimed Marian Ottley, with a shade of alarm. +"Is it going to be rough, or what?" + +A heavy lumping swell was now running, into which the boat rose and fell +with a plash and an angry hiss, as each well-timed, powerful stroke +forced her through. But a marvellous and magical change had come over +the whole scene. The great curtain of cloud seemed now to spread over +half the lake, and was gliding on, on. It stole up over the Savoy +mountains, and each hitherto shining summit now reared itself dark and +threatening against the inky veil. It had thrown out an advance guard +of flying scud, which already partially enshrouded the peaks and ridges +dominating the Rhone Valley to the eastward, and still it crept on. The +air was stirred in fitful puffs, moaning and chill, and the sun had +disappeared. The sudden metamorphosis from golden unclouded afternoon +to the brooding lurid gloom of half day was inexpressibly awesome-- +almost appalling. + +"Do you mind taking a `trick at the wheel,' General Wyatt?" said +Fordham. "We shall want some masterly steering directly." + +"No, uncle. I can do it better than you," objected Alma, firmly. +"That's one advantage my riverside dwelling has left me--handiness with +the tiller ropes." + +"But you'll have to keep us head to a tolerably heavy sea," said +Fordham. "That is, not straight at it, but as nearly so as possible. +You must not let her fall away on any account." + +"I thoroughly understand boats--in smooth water or rough," answered the +girl, calmly. + +"Hurrah!" cried Phil. "Three cheers for our coxswain!" + +She spoke no more than the truth. There was strength in those supple +young wrists and judgment within that well-shaped head, and all there +realised that the General at his age would make the more indifferent +helmsman of the two. + +A whirring vibrating hum seemed to fill the air. Over the water not +half a mile distant stretched a dark line. Nearer, nearer it came, and +as it swept steadily on, those in the boat had no difficulty in making +out a jagged, serrated ridge of leaping wave crests, banked up white and +gleaming against the inky scud which seemed urging it on. On, on-- +nearer, nearer. It was a critical moment. Most of those in the boat +held their breath. Could that cockleshell live a moment against that +creaming surging wall of water rolling on to engulf it? + +Nearer--nearer! The fearful roar of the advancing waves became +stunning, deafening. It was a terrible moment, and to those awaiting +the shock it seemed as hours. Philip, grasping his oars rigidly in the +intensity of the crisis, cast one look over his shoulder at the +advancing terror, then at the group in the stern-sheets. The two Ottley +girls had buried their faces in their hands. Scott was livid, his eyes +starting from his head. Even the old General's face looked rigidly +nerved for a desperate emergency. But she who sat holding the tiller +ropes--not a quiver was in her countenance. There was the keenness of +steel in her grey eyes, and the little hands seemed to conceal the +strength of a vice, as the boat's head swept round to meet the advancing +shock. + +It came. With a mighty roar the huge wall of water struck them. The +little craft seemed literally flung into the air, then plashed down +again, and those within her thought she had buried herself in the waves +for good and all. She reeled and rocked, and but for those firm hands +that held the tiller ropes would have spun round and sunk headlong. +Several great seas swept beneath her, leaving her half full of water, +and the terrified shrieks of the two thoroughly frightened girls, the +million bellowing voices of the gale, the roaring, hissing tongues of +the leaping billows, the weird darkness of the lowering scud out of +which leapt each succession of towering curling seas thundering down +upon the tiny craft like ravenous monsters sure of their prey, +constituted a scene and surroundings well calculated to try the boldest +nerves. + +For awhile nobody spoke. Those in charge of the boat knew exactly what +to do, and did it--fortunately so, or the fate of every soul there was +sealed. In the teeth of the fierce tornado it was all the three strong +men could do to keep steerage way on her, and well they knew that should +she fall away for one instant the next would witness her capsize. And +ever the huge waves flung her from crest to crest, drenching her +occupants, while the air was filled with clouds of spray torn from the +breaking summits and hurled away high overhead. + +"Oh, my God!" shrieked Scott, his eyes starting from his wet and livid +countenance, as a sudden volume of water struck him full on the neck, +nearly knocking him overboard. "Oh, my God! We shall never see land +again?" + +"Shut your mouth, you snivelling sneak?" said Philip, exasperated beyond +all patience. "Look at Miss Wyatt there and then heave your pitiful +cowardly carcase overboard." At which remark Fordham laughed aloud, his +short, dry guffaw more sardonic than ever. + +But the wretched chaplain was impervious even to this humiliation, so +abject, so overmastering was his terror. He cowered in the bottom of +the boat, his face hidden in his hands, moaning. + +"Get up, will you!" cried Fordham, savagely. "You're in Miss Wyatt's +way. And make yourself useful if you can. Take that hat of yours and +bale like the devil." + +The peremptory tone had some effect, and the wretched man made an effort +to obey. But a fresh sea dashed the hat from his hands and carried it +away. + +"This'll never do," muttered Fordham, in a tone only audible to Philip. +"Why can't those two damned women rouse themselves and bear a hand, +instead of screeching there like stuck pigs?" + +The General had been baling away manfully, but it was terribly uphill +work, for every wave that struck the boat sent a pouring, hissing stream +right into her. + +But if her two girl friends were cowering and trembling under the terror +of death, no weakness of the kind had impaired the calm resolution of +Alma Wyatt. With head bent slightly forward and brows knitted, she +never removed her steadfast glance from the work before her. Her eyes +full of blinding spray, her wrists stiff and aching with the terrible +strain upon them, she watched the advance of each crushing billow, +appalling, unnerving in its towering height, and the boat's head was +held true, though her whole frame would tremble with the fearful +exertion involved. Philip, tugging manfully at his oars, noted all +this. Even though they should go down he did not care greatly, in the +excitement and ecstasy of the moment. They would die together, at any +rate. + +The flying wrack was so thick that they could not see fifty yards around +on either side. Already it seemed darkening as with the closing in of +twilight. To lie tossing about on the angry surging expanse all night +would be a serious matter. Still, Fordham felt sure that the waves had +somewhat abated in fierceness. But the muttered remark of Jules Berthod +behind him shattered this hope just as he was on the point of expressing +it. + +"_Nom de Dieu! Cochon de veni! Voila que ca va nous accrocher de +nouveau. Cette fois on va chavirer. Oui, cette fois on coulera--nom de +nom_!" + +Again that terrible vibrating hum was in the air. A fresh gust was upon +them. The boat half full of water, all hands nearly played out after +their abnormal exertions--how could they live out a fresh tornado? + +"All up, Phil. Stand clear for a swim directly," he said, in an +undertone. + +Philip could hardly repress a start. Well he knew the other would not +so have spoken without good reason. Besides, the hideous symptoms of +renewed tempest were now manifest even to his ear. He looked hard at +Alma, and his plans were laid. The instant the boat went over he would +seize her and drag her clear of the struggling crowd. If possible he +would secure an oar, which would help to keep them up. He was a strong +swimmer and felt that they might stand a chance. At the same time he +realised that it would be a very poor one. + +On it came, the howling of the hurricane, the livid line of boiling +seas. But this time not in that mountainous wall, for the windows of +heaven were opened and a mighty rain descended with such violence as to +beat down the heads of the waves, which, flattened beneath the terrific +force of the downpour, had lost much of their power for peril. For a +quarter of an hour this continued, then a red straggling glow stole +athwart the livid scud. + +"_Bon_!" muttered Jules. "_Cette fois on ne coulera pas. Mais non_!" + +The red glow brightened. Suddenly as the parting of curtains, the dark +wrack opened out, revealing a patch of blue sky. Then a golden sun-ray +shot through, and lo! the whole ridge of the purple Jura, lying beyond +the great heaving, tumbling mass of blue water dotted with myriads of +white foamy crests. + +"Hurrah!" roared Philip. "We've weathered it this time. Fordham, old +chap, isn't that our haven?" as a grey town about three miles distant +stood disclosed by the retreating scud. + +"Yes, that's Vevey all right," was the answer. "Give way. We shall be +there in half an hour or so. I needn't tell you how to steer now, Miss +Wyatt. Hold up for a little while longer, Mr Scott. This company does +not carry a steward." For the unfortunate chaplain, relieved of his +fears as to mortal extinction, began to show symptoms of falling a prey +to the agonies of sea sickness. + +There was still a pretty stiff sea running, and every now and then a +wave would strike them, sousing them from head to foot. But it was +little enough they cared for this after their recent experiences, and +soon the boat was running in under the lee of the _debarcadere_. + +Quite a little crowd had collected to witness the landing of these "mad +English," as they put it. Then, directing Berthod to call later for the +very liberal remuneration awaiting him, the whole party started for the +Hotel Monnet to get their dripping clothes dried and to dine, causing +quite a sensation as they hurried through the streets of the sleepy +little town, in their capacity of shipwrecked castaways. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +AN INOPPORTUNE REMINDER. + +Life at a mountain hotel affected by our compatriots is very much like +life on board a passenger ship, with the difference and manifest +advantages that the Johnsonian definition of the latter does not apply +to the former, and you can generally steer clear of a bore--unless he, +or she, should happen to be too near you at table, that is. But life on +the whole is a free and easy unconventional thing, and as a rule +everybody knows everybody, and people who as neighbours at home would +take about two years to get beyond the rigid afternoon call, and +cup-of-weak-tea stage of social intercourse, here become as "thick as +thieves" in the same number of days. A chance walk does it, or a seat +in proximity at _table d'hote_; peradventure the fact that both venerate +the same star Boanerges at home, or are alike enthusiastic believers in +"General" Booth's scheme; or it may be that both hold in common a choice +bit of scandal concerning some other person or persons in the house. +And then, as our said compatriots are nothing if not clique-ish, +coteries will abound wherever these may be gathered together. There +will be the chaplain's clique and the worldly clique; the clique that +won't tolerate bores at any price, and that in which they reign +paramount, and so on, and so on. But with all these dubious elements of +weak humanity in active operation, life at such an hotel is rather a +pleasant thing than otherwise, and to him who can derive diversion from +the study of a heterogeneous crowd of his compatriots off their guard, +vastly amusing. + +Now with a gathering of this sort, three-fourths of it composed of the +other sex, such a fellow as Philip Orlebar was pretty sure to be in +general request; and within forty-eight hours of his arrival he was on +good terms with very nearly everybody in the house. In fact, he was in +danger of becoming "the rage"; for, apart from his good looks and rather +taking manners, the superior sex was almost entirely represented by two +or three quiet university men, a sprinkling of parsons, and a few +contemporaries of General Wyatt. So, as was his wont, he threw himself +with zest into the thing, determined to get all the fun out of it he +could; and, truth to tell, he managed to get a good deal. + +When Fordham, on the day of their arrival, predicted for himself a +series of solitary undertakings, as far as his friend's company was +concerned, he was foretelling no more than the truth. For an expedition +_a deux_, he, Fordham, being the second, Philip was never available. +The Misses This wanted to be taken up the Cape-au-Moine, or the Misses +That had organised a picnic to the Folli or the Cret de Molard; but why +the deuce couldn't Fordham shake himself together and be sociable, and +come too? To which the latter would tranquilly reply that the _role_ of +universal flunkey was not congenial to his temperament. + +Of late, however, Master Phil's popularity had been on the wane. While +he was an open question, each and all the damsels up there "on spec," +with but few exceptions, vied with each other to make things pleasant +for him, and their mammas showed unimpeachable dentist's fronts in +beaming approval of their efforts. But when he devoted himself to one, +and one only, manifestly and exclusively, then it became surprising how +suddenly all these little attentions cooled down; how the dimpling smile +became an acidulated sneer, and the bell-like voice rang a hard note; +how the mammas aforesaid awoke to the fact that he seldom went to +church, and when he did it was only to sit near that Miss Wyatt. + +"That Miss Wyatt," however, must be held to constitute pre-eminently one +of the few exceptions referred to above. If Philip Orlebar had +concentrated all his attentions upon her with that blundering suddenness +men will be guilty of under such circumstances, she certainly had not +given him a lead; in fact, he was wont to complain bitterly to himself-- +and sometimes to Fordham--that she treated him rather too calmly, might +give him a few more opportunities. But Alma Wyatt was not the sort of +girl who gives "opportunities." + +Fordham's comment was characteristic. + +"Oh! the divinity has a fault, then? See here, Phil. Supposing she had +never come here, you would have cut out one of those other girls as your +divinity, _pro tem_, and have planted her on a pedestal in the usual +way. Now you see what sort of a crowd they are. Why do you think the +other one more endowed with god-like attributes than they? I tell you +all women are deadly alike, in spite of the spurious philosophical cant +which affects to stamp them as an unknown quantity, inscrutable, +mysterious, and so forth. The fact being that there is nothing +incomprehensible about them or their ways except to such of ourselves +who are greater fools than they. Now to me it is a perfectly safe +conjecture how any given woman will act under any given circumstances." + +"How do you get at it?" + +"By starting on the sure basis that she will act with cussedness, either +overt or concealed, be it remembered. But what I want you to see is, +that as long as you go on setting up these clay idols _pro tem_, it's +all right. Only don't come to me and ask me to help you to hang one of +them round your neck for life. You'll find it a lumping heavy burden, +my boy, I don't care who it is, even if it doesn't throttle you at the +start." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Two days after the boating incident Philip was strolling in the garden +of the hotel with Alma and her aunt. It was Sunday, and they had just +returned from the little tabernacle where, during his month of office, +the irrepressible Scott dispensed spiritual nourishment to his flock--or +was supposed to--and whither it is to be feared that one of the trio had +betaken himself in obedience to the vitiated motives ascribed to him by +sundry disappointed mammas above mentioned. + +"What do you think I heard some of them saying as we came out of +church?" said Mrs Wyatt, with an amused smile. "That Mr Scott's +sermon about the storm on Gennesaret was the finest ever preached." + +"Ha-ha! So it was, in one sense," said Philip. "I know I was divided +between an impulse to hurl a book at his head and to roar out laughing. +You should have seen the fellow grovelling at the bottom of the boat and +screaming--Wasn't he, Miss Wyatt?" + +"The poor man was rather frightened, certainly," replied Alma. "But I +never for a moment expected we should live through it. In fact, I was +horribly frightened myself--quite shaken all day yesterday." + +"_You_!" cried Philip, in a blending of admiration and tenderness and +incredulity. "I never heard such a libel in my life. But for your +splendid nerve we should all have gone to the bottom, to a dead +certainty. Even old Fordham admitted that much." + +"No--no?" expostulated Alma, a tinge of colour suffusing her face. +"Please don't try and make a heroine of me. And, talking of Mr +Fordham, you know I told you the other day I didn't like him, and you +were very much offended with me." + +"I might have been with any one else," he replied, meaningly. + +"Well, now," she went on rather shyly, "I want to retract what I said +then. I never saw a man behave so splendidly in an emergency as he +did." + +We dare not swear that the suspicion of a jealous pang did not shoot +through Phil's loyal heart at this warmly-spoken eulogy. But if so, he +did manful penance by promptly informing his friend. Fordham gave vent +to a sardonic chuckle. + +"That's a woman all over. She allows her deliberately-formed judgment +to be clean overthrown by a mere fortuitous circumstance. From looking +upon me with aversion and distrust the pendulum now swings the other +way, and she invests me with heroic virtues because on one occasion I +happen to demonstrate the possession of a negative quality--that of +_not_ being afraid, or seeming not to be. Faugh! that's a woman all +over! All impulse and featherhead." + +Which was all poor Alma's warm-hearted little retraction gained from +this armour-plated cynic; but she had the negative consolation of never +knowing it. + +"It isn't the first time I've seen him all there at a pinch; in fact, he +got me out of a queer corner once when we were in China. I shouldn't be +here or any where to-day, but for him. But it was a horrid business, +and I can't tell you how he did it; in fact, I hardly like to think of +it myself." + +The look of vivid interest which had come over Alma's face faded away in +disappointment. + +"Have you been roaming the world long together?" she said. + +"Perhaps a couple of years, on and off. We ran against each other first +in the course of knocking about. It was at a bull-fight in Barcelona. +We had adjoining seats and got into conversation, and, as Britishers are +few in the Peninsula, we soon became thick. But, you know, although +he's the best fellow in the world once you know him, old Fordham has his +cranks. For instance, he's a most thorough and confirmed woman-hater." + +"I suppose he was badly treated once," said Mrs Wyatt. "Still, it +strikes me as a foolish thing, and perhaps a little childish, that a man +should judge all of us by the measure of one." + +"I don't know, aunt," said Alma. "It may be foolish from a certain +point of view, morbid perhaps; but I think it shows character. Not many +men, I should imagine, except in books, think any of us worth grieving +over for long; and the fact that one affair turning out disastrously +should stamp its mark on a man's whole life shows that man to be endowed +with a powerful capacity for feeling." + +"Perhaps so," assented the old lady. "But, Alma, I don't know what Mr +Orlebar will think of us taking his friend to pieces in this +free-and-easy fashion." + +"My dear Mrs Wyatt, there is really nothing to be uneasy about on that +score," cried Philip. "We are not abusing him, you know, or running him +down. And by the way, queer as it may seem, I know absolutely no more +of Fordham's earlier life than you do. He may have had an `affair,' or +he may not. He has never let drop any clue to the mystery--if mystery +there is." + +"You see, auntie, how different men are to us poor girls," said Alma, +with a queer little smile. "They know how to keep their own counsel. +No such thing as pouring out confidences, even to their closest +friends!" + +There was a vague something about her tone and look which struck Philip +uncomfortably. He could not for the life of him have told why, yet the +feeling was there. Not for the first time either. More than once had +Alma shown indications of a very keen tendency to satire underlying her +normal openness of ideas and the fascination of her utterly unaffected +manner. For a few moments he walked by her side in silence. + +It was a lovely day. The air was heavy with the scent of narcissus and +roses; languid and glowing with the rich warmth of early summer. Great +bees drowsily boomed from flower to flower, dipping into the purple +pansies, hovering round a carnation, and now and again unwarily +venturing within the spray of the sparkling fountain. A swallow-tail +butterfly on its broad embroidered wings fluttered about their faces so +tamely, that by stretching out a hand they could almost have caught it. +Cliff and abrupt slope, green pastureland and sombre pine forest, showed +soft and slumbrous in the mellow glow; while overhead, her burnished +plumage shining in the sun, floated a great eagle, the rush of whose +pinions was almost audible in the noontide stillness as the noble bird +described her airy circles in free and majestic sweep. An idyllic day +and an idyllic scene, thought Philip, with more than one furtive glance +at the beautiful face by his side. + +Then, as usual at such moments, in came the prose of life in the shape +of the post. A green-aproned porter, a sheaf of letters in his hand, +drew near. + +"_Pour vous, Monsieur_!" he said, handing one to Philip. + +When a man starts, or describes a ridiculous _pirouette_ at a street +crossing because a hansom cabman utters a war-whoop in his ear, it is +safe to assume that man's nerves to be--well, not in the state they +should be. But the war-whoop of the hansom cab fiend athirst for-- +bones, is nothing in the way of a test compared with the wholly +unexpected receipt of an objectionable and unwelcome letter. When +Philip took the missive from the porter's hand, a glance at the +superscription was enough. A very dismayed look came over his +countenance. He held the obnoxious envelope as though it might sting +him, then crushed it hurriedly into his pocket. But not before he, and +peradventure his companion, had seen that it was directed in a very +slanting, pointed, and insignificant feminine hand. + +Then the luncheon bell rang. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +"BEST TO BE OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, BEFORE..." + +Philip was not up to his usual form during luncheon. Any one in the +secret would have said that that letter was burning a hole in his +pocket. It seemed to affect his appetite; it certainly affected his +conversational powers. More than once he answered at random; more than +once he relapsed into a spell of silence, almost of gloom, wholly +foreign to his breezy and light-hearted temperament. Yet he was still +in ignorance of its contents. He might have mastered them when he went +up to his room at the ringing of the bell, yet he did not. Now, +however, he wished that he had. + +Fordham, glancing sharply at him across the table, more than three parts +made up his mind as to the cause of this abnormal gravity and +abstraction on the part of his volatile friend. He knew he had been +wandering about with Alma Wyatt--the old lady had not been with them all +the time--and was inclined to believe that the impulsive Phil had, +contrary to his own advice, both hinted and outspoken, committed +himself. At the same time he recognised that if that was so the answer +had not been altogether satisfactory. In short, he decided that Master +Phil had received a "facer," and chuckled internally thereat. + +The lunch at last over, Philip gained his room. The first thing he did +was to lock the door. Then, drawing the obnoxious missive from his +pocket, he tore it open, with something that sounded very like a +"cussword," and spread the sheet out on the table before him. The +sheet? There were seven of them, all of the flimsiest paper, all +closely written over on every side, in that thin, pointed, ill-formed +hand. Well, he had got to go through them, so with a sort of effort he +began. + +"My own dear, dear old darling Phil,--It is just ages, months, years, +centuries, since poor little I heard from you, you dreadfully awfully +naughty, naughty boy!" + +"Oh, Lord!" he ejaculated, turning the sheets over, in a kind of +despair, as if to see how much more of this sort of thing was coming. +But he derived no modicum of solace from his investigation, for there +was a great deal more of it coming--in fact, the whole seven sheets +full. Seven sheets of the sort of stuff that sets the court in a roar, +and melts the collective heart of the dozen empanelled grocers and +ironmongers gathered there to mulct the unwary of the substantial salve +which should heal the wounds of the lovely and disconsolate--if slightly +intriguing--plaintiff. And, as he read, an uncomfortable misgiving that +it might ultimately come to this, invaded his mind more than once. + +With a sigh of relief he turned the last page, but the feeling was +promptly nipped in the bud as he read:-- + +"I've been at Pa again and again to take us abroad this year; how jolly +it would be if we were to meet again in that love of a Switzerland, +wouldn't it, dear boy? But no such luck, he won't, and we are going to +St. Swithins instead, and it's the next best thing, and I do _love_ St. +Swithins, and I shall think the blue sea is the Lake of Geneva and you +are there. But we will go all over it together soon, you and I alone, +won't we, Phil, darling, you and your little Edie." Then followed half +a dozen lines of appropriate drivel, and a postscript:--"Be sure you +send me a big bunch of adleweis from the top of the Matterhorn." + +If ever a man felt nauseated with himself and all the world, assuredly +that man was Philip Orlebar, as he sat staring at this effusion. Its +fearful style--or rather utter lack of it--its redundancy of +conjunctions, its far from infrequent mis-spellings, its middle-class +vulgarity of gush, would at any other time have been amusing, if +painfully so; now it was all absolutely revolting. He took it up again. +"`Adleweis!' (why couldn't the girl borrow a dictionary), and `from +the _top_ of the Matterhorn' (ugh!) And St. Swithins, staring, +cockneyfied, yahoo-ridden St. Swithins, with its blazer-clad 'Arries and +shrimp-devouring 'Arriets, its nigger minstrels and beach conjurers! +(faugh!) What sort of a mind--what sort of ideas had the girl got? +Then again, `dear boy'! Fancy Alma--" and at this suggestion he dropped +the missive, and, starting up, began to pace the room. + +"`We will go all over it together soon!' Will we, though!" he muttered +bitterly. And then, with a savageness begotten of a feeling of being +cornered, trapped, run to earth, he began to wonder whether he should +suffer himself to be taken possession of in this slap-dash fashion. Had +he really given himself away beyond recall! Old Glover entertained +splendidly, and the sparkling burgundy was more than first-rate. What a +fool he had been. Still it seemed impossible that Edith should have +taken seriously all he said--impossible and preposterous! Yes, +preposterous--if all that a man said while sitting out with a pretty +girl, in a deliciously cool and secluded corner of the conservatory-- +after that first-rate sparkling burgundy too--was to be twisted into a +downright proposal--an engagement. By Jove, it was--preposterous! + +But through all his self-evolved indignation Philip could not disguise +from himself that he had acted like a lunatic, had, in fact, given +himself away. Between his susceptibility to feminine admiration and his +_laisser faire_ disposition, he had allowed his relations with Edith +Glover to attain that stage where the boundary between the ordinary +flirtatious society acquaintance and the affianced lover has touched +vanishing point. The girl was pretty, and adored his noble self. Old +Glover, who was a merchant-prince of some sort or other and rolling in +money, would be sure to "come down" liberally. On the whole he might do +worse. So he had reasoned. But now? + +Throughout his perusal of that trying effusion his mind's eye had been +more than half absorbed in a vision of Alma Wyatt--Alma as he had last +seen her--the sweet, patrician face, the grey earnest eyes, the +exquisite tastefulness of her cool white apparel, the grace and poetry +of her every movement, the modulated music of her voice. It seemed a +profanation to contrast her--to place her on the same level with this +other girl--this girl with her middle-class ideas, vile orthography, and +exuberant gush. + +What was he to do? that was the thing. Should he send a reply--one so +chilling and decisive as to leave room for no further misapprehension? +That would never do, he decided. The Glovers were just the sort of +people to come straight over there and raise such a clamour about his +ears that he might safely wish himself in a hornets' nest by contrast. +This they might do, and welcome, were it not for Alma. But then, were +it not for Alma it is probable to the last degree that he would have +drifted on, contented enough with the existing state of things. + +"Heavens and earth, I believe old Fordham is right after all?" he +ejaculated at last. "Women are the devil--the very devil, one and all +of them. I'll adopt his theory. Shot if I don't!" + +But profession and faith are not necessarily a synonym. Between our +would-be misogynist and the proposed mental transformation stood that +bright and wholly alluring potentiality whose name was Alma Wyatt. + +With an effort he locked away the obnoxious missive, wishing to Heaven +he could lock up the dilemma he was in as easily and indefinitely. +Should he consult Fordham? No, that wouldn't help matters; besides, he +shrank from having to own that he had made a consummate ass of himself, +nor did he feel disposed just then to open his heart even to Fordham. +How beastly hot it had become! He would stay up in his room and take it +easy--have a read and a smoke. Hang everybody! And with a growl he +kicked off his boots, and, picking up a Tauchnitz novel, flung himself +on the bed and lighted his pipe. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Rat-tat-tat-tat! Then a voice. "You there, Phil? The first +dinner-bell has gone!" + +He started up. The knock and the voice were Fordham's. It was a +quarter-past six, and he had been asleep just three hours. + +"We were afraid you had heard bad news, Mr Orlebar," said Mrs Wyatt, +as he slid into his seat a quarter of an hour late. "You haven't, have +you?" + +"Oh, no," he answered, with splendid mendacity. "I've been feeling a +little pulled down to-day, and dropped off to sleep without knowing it." + +"The thunder in the air, I suppose," said Alma, with a bright, +mischievous glance. "We had such a nice walk up to the Cubly, when it +began to get cool." + +"The Cubly?" + +"Yes. Uncle was looking for you everywhere, but, as it happens, it was +lucky we didn't disturb you. Besides, we feared you might have had bad +news." + +This was what he had missed then--all through that infernal letter too. +He felt more savage than ever. Bad news? Yes he had, and no mistake. +But the next moment he was destined to hear worse. + +"I'm sorry to say we are obliged to cut short our stay here," General +Wyatt was saying to Fordham. "Some friends whom we had arranged to meet +have wired us to join them at the Grindelwald--an old brother officer +and his family. They have turned up sooner than we expected, and, +reckoning on our promise to join them, have already engaged our rooms. +In fact they could not have got them otherwise, for the hotel is filling +up rapidly." + +"Sorry to hear that, General--very sorry. When do you leave?" + +"Not later than Tuesday, I'm afraid. That'll give this young person a +day clear for a final walk or climb." + +Here was a bolt from the blue with a vengeance, thought Philip. + +"I don't want to go in the least," said Alma. "Don't you think," she +added, with a flash of merriment, "it's hateful to leave a place just as +you have become fond of it?" + +"Hateful isn't the word for it," replied Philip, with savage vehemence. + +"But don't you think you may become just as fond of where you're going?" +struck in the eternal female opposite. + +"I'm perfectly sure you won't in this case," said Fordham, speaking to, +and answering for, the Wyatts at the same time. "The Grindelwald is +about the most noisy, crowded, and cheap-tripper-ridden resort in the +Alps. A chronic dust cloud overhangs the whole Lutschinen Thal by +reason of a perennial string of vehicles ascending from and descending +to Interlaken with scarce a break of fifty yards. You can't go on a +glacier without paying gate-money--a franc a head. Fancy that! Fancy +reducing a glacier to the level of a cockney tea-garden! Then between +the village and either of the said glaciers is an ever-moving stream of +the personally conducted, mostly mounted on mules and holding umbrellas +aloft." + +"But don't you think you are painting poor Grindelwald in very +unattractive colours?" expostulated the Infliction. + +"Think? No, I'm sure of it," was the short reply. "And I haven't done +yet. The place swarms with beggars and cadgers. Go where you will, you +are beset by small ragamuffins pestering you to purchase evil-looking +edelweiss blossoms or mobbing your heels to be allowed to show you the +way, which you know a vast deal better than they do. Every fifty yards +or so you come upon the Alpine horn fiend, prepared to make hideous +melody for a consideration; or wherever a rock occurs which can by any +chance produce an echo, there lurks a vagabond ready to explode a +howitzer upon receipt of a franc. No. Taking it all in all, I don't +think one is far out in defining Grindelwald as the Rosherville of +Switzerland." + +"That sounds truly dreadful," said Alma. "But were it the reverse I +should still be sorry to leave here--very sorry." + +"We must get up a jolly long walk to-morrow," said Philip, eagerly. +"It'll be the last time, and we ought to have a good one. Let's go up +the Cape au Moine." + +"But isn't that a very dangerous climb?" objected Mrs Wyatt. + +"Oh, no. At least, I believe not. Wentworth, who has been up ever so +many times, says it's awfully over-rated. But we'll get him to come +along and to show us the way." + +Fordham looked quickly up, intending to throw cold water on the whole +scheme. But Philip's boot coming in violent and significant contact +with a rather troublesome corn, stifled in a vehement scowl the remark +he was about to make, as his friend intended it should. + +"That'll be delightful," assented Alma, gleefully. "Now who shall we +ask to go? Mr Wentworth, the two Ottleys--they are sure to ask Mr +Scott." + +"Should have thought that boat experience would have choked _him_ off +any further enterprise," grunted Fordham. + +"That'll be four," went on Alma, not heeding the interruption. "Then +you two, uncle and myself--eight altogether. We ought to be roped. +It's a real climb, isn't it?" + +"Oh, very," said Fordham. "So real that not half of us will reach the +top." + +"Well, I mean to for one," declared Alma. "And oh, I do hope it'll be +fine." + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +ON THE CAPE AU MOINE. + +Alma's wish was destined to be fulfilled, for the morning broke clear +and cloudless. Starting in the highest spirits, a couple of hours' easy +walking brought the party to the foot of the steep and grassy slope +which leads right up to the left _arete_ of the Cape au Moine. + +Though the morning was yet young it was uncomfortably warm. The mighty +grass slopes of the Rochers des Verreaux, of which the Cape au Moine is +the principal summit, stood forth with the distinctness of a steel +engraving, so clear was the air. A suspicious clearness which, taken in +conjunction with certain light cloud streamers flecking the sky, and the +unwonted heat of that early hour, betokened to the practised eye an +impending change of weather. + +"Wet jackets," remarked Wentworth, laconically, with a glance at these +signs. + +"Likely enough," assented Fordham. "Hallo! what's the row down there? +They seem to be beginning already." + +These two were leading the way up the steep, slippery path, and were a +little distance ahead of the rest. The above remarks referred to a +sudden halt at the tail of the party, caused by one of the Miss Ottleys +finding her heart fail her: for the path at that point skirts the very +brink of a precipice. + +"Only what I expected," sneered Fordham. "Look at that, Wentworth. +What sort of figure will all these women cut when we get them up on the +_arete_ yonder, if they can't stand an easy, beaten track up a grass +slope? We shall have them squalling and hystericking and fainting, and +perhaps taking a header over. Eh?" + +Wentworth merely shrugged his shoulders. "Who is that new specimen +they've caught?" he said, as, the difficulty apparently overcome, the +group behind was seen to resume its way. + +"That?" said Fordham, glancing at the person indicated, a tallish, +loosely-hung youth in knickerbockers, who seemed to be dividing his time +between squiring the Miss Ottleys and arguing with Scott, the parson. +"Don't know who he is--and don't want to. Confound the fellow!--began +`Fordham-ing' me after barely a quarter of an hour's talk. Name's +Gedge, I believe. I suppose some of the women cut him into this trip." + +"Most probably," replied Wentworth. "I haven't exchanged any remarks +with him myself. But he sits near me at table and talks nineteen to the +dozen. It's like having a full-sized cow-bell swinging in your ear just +the time you are within his proximity." + +"They say everything has its use," returned Fordham, meditatively. "I +own to having discovered a use for friend Gedge--viz, to demonstrate +that there can actually exist a more thoroughly self-sufficient and +aggressive bore than even that fellow Scott." + +The other laughed. And by this time they had gained the dip where the +path--a mere thread of a track--crosses the high ridge of the Chaine des +Verreaux at its extreme end, and sat down to await the arrival of the +residue of the party. + +The latter, broken up into twos and threes, was straggling up the slope. +The temporary impediment had apparently been successfully overcome, and +the trepidation of the fearful fair one removed. Still, to those +unaccustomed to heights it was nervous work, for the path was, as we +have said, a mere thread, intersecting the long, slippery grass, more +treacherous than ice, of the frightfully steep mountain-side--and lying +below was more than one precipice, comparatively insignificant, but high +enough to mean a broken limb if not a broken neck. + +"Well, Miss Wyatt, do you feel like going the whole way?" said +Wentworth, as Alma, with her uncle and Philip Orlebar, gained the ridge +where they were halted. + +"Of course I do," she answered gaily. "I always said I would get to the +top if I got the chance--and I will." + +"There are five _aretes_--three of them like knife-blades," pursued +Wentworth, who rather shared Fordham's opinions regarding the other sex. +"What if you begin to feel giddy in the middle of one of them?" + +"But I'm not going to feel anything of the kind," she answered, with +defiant good-humour. "So don't try and put me off, for it's of no use." + +"I say, Fordham," sung out a sort of hail-the-maintop voice, the +property of the youth referred to as Gedge, as its owner climbed puffing +up to where they sat, followed by the rest of the party. "I don't think +overmuch of this Cape au Moine of yours. Why one can dance up it on one +leg." + +"And one can dance down it on one head--and that in a surprisingly short +space of time--viz, a few seconds," said Wentworth, tranquilly. +"However, you'll see directly." + +"Well, who's going up and who's going to wait for us here?" said Philip, +after a rest of ten minutes or so. + +"I don't think we are," said the elder Miss Ottley. "I more than half +promised mamma we wouldn't. And Monsieur Dufour says it's such a +dangerous mountain. We'll stay here and take care of General Wyatt." + +There was some demur to this on the part of the more inexperienced +section of the males. The experienced ones said nothing. + +"You'd better stay with us, Alma," said the General, with a shade of +anxiety. "Remember there have been several people killed up there." + +"Just why I particularly want to go, uncle. I want to be able to say I +have been up a mountain on which several people have been killed." + +"I think Miss Wyatt has a steady enough head, General," said Wentworth, +who was an experienced Alpine climber. "At least, judging from the way +in which she stood looking over that precipice down yonder, I should say +so. If she will allow me I will take care of her." + +"I'll be hanged if you will though!" said Phil to himself. And then +they started. + +The mere climbing part of what followed was not hard. But what was apt +to prove trying to the nerves of the uninitiated was when, after feeling +their way carefully along the narrow ledge-like path which runs beneath +the rocks near the crest of the ridge, they came right out upon the +summit of the _arete_ itself. Here, indeed, it was a good deal like +walking on the edge of a knife-blade even as Wentworth had defined it, +and here it was that two, at any rate, of the party began to feel +dubious. On the right was a precipitous fall of rocks, then the steep, +slippery, grassy slope--broken here and there by a cliff--which +constituted the whole of that side of the mountain; on the left an +unbroken drop of seven or eight hundred feet. And on the apex of this +rock ridge, in single file, poised, like Mohammed's coffin, between the +heavens and the earth, the aspiring party had to walk or crawl. + +"Well, Miss Wyatt, how do you feel now?" said Wentworth, who was leading +the way. Alma was immediately behind him, then came Philip Orlebar, +then Fordham, Scott and Gedge bringing up the rear. "Not giddy at all, +I hope?" + +"Not in the very least," said Alma, brightly. "Quite sure? I can give +you a hand if you like." + +"Not for the world. I assure you I'm thoroughly enjoying it. And what +a view!" + +"Well, look carefully where you're going," continued Wentworth. "Leave +the view to take care of itself until you get to the top. It won't run +away." + +That the warning was by no means superfluous was shown by a sudden +stagger on the part of Philip. He reeled for a moment, then, with a +great effort, recovered his balance. He had been so absorbed in +watching Alma's progress in front, that he had quite neglected the +attention due to his own footing. Now this cannot be done with impunity +upon the edge of a knife-like ridge about one thousand feet in mid-air-- +as he learned when he found himself within an ace of plunging into +space. Fordham, for a moment, thought he had gone. + +"You'll add to the record of this much maligned climb, Phil, if you +don't mind," he said. "What's the row? Feel heady?" + +"Not a bit. Only made a slip. Sha'n't do it again though. I say, +Wentworth, how far would a fellow fall here--on this side?" + +"Oh, about eight hundred feet. Then he'd go footballing two or three +hundred more," was the nonchalant reply. "I wouldn't try it, though, if +I were you." + +They were off the _arete_ now, and paused to rest under the rocks to +allow the others time to come up. + +"Hallo, Gedge!" continued Wentworth, as the addressed came crawling +along on all-fours, and that very gingerly. "I thought you felt like +doing this climb on one leg, and instead of that it seems to take you +all four." + +"You people go on at such a rate. Besides, I find I'm not up to much on +a place like this. No, I'll climb down from the `one-leg' position, +absolutely and unreservedly." + +"There's another man who isn't up to much on a place like this," said +Fordham, with a dry chuckle. + +Scott, to whom this remark referred, had nearly reached the middle of +the _arete_. He, too, was creeping on hands and knees. But suddenly +his heart seemed to fail him, for there he sat, straddling the ridge, +one leg on each side of the mountain, the very picture of wild panic. +His hat had blown off, and hung by a string over his shoulder, and he +dared not move a finger to replace it. His hands shook as he grasped +the rock in a strained, terror-stricken grasp, and his eyes seemed to +start from his deadly white face. + +"Oh, help me off!" he cried piteously. "For Heaven's sake, some of you +help me off!" + +In vain they called out to him that he was perfectly safe--that if Miss +Wyatt could get along the place without any difficulty surely he could. +The poor man's reasoning faculties seemed to have deserted him +altogether. + +"I suppose I must go back and salvage him!" said Wentworth, resignedly. +"You had better wait here for me, though." And in a moment he was +beside the distressed chaplain. + +"Hang it all, Mr Scott!" he said in an undertone, "do remember what an +exhibition you are making of yourself before Miss Wyatt, and pull +yourself together. You're quite safe, I tell you. Now, turn round-- +carefully as you like--and then crawl back again as you came." + +When a man of Scott's calibre is in a horrible funk, poised a thousand +feet in mid-air, appeals to his reason or his sense of shame are apt to +fall alike on deaf ears. To all Wentworth's adjurations he only +reiterated piteously, "I can't move! What is to be done? I can't +move!" + +What, indeed, was to be done? It was a position in which if a man will +not help himself nobody can help him. Wentworth was in despair. +Suddenly a happy thought struck him. His flask! + +"Here, take a nip of this and pull yourself together. That's right," as +Scott eagerly seized the proffered refreshment. + +And soon the effects were felt. A liberal gulp or two having infused +into his system a faint modicum of that artificial courage libellously +termed "Dutch," the panic-stricken cleric managed to turn round upon his +aerial perch, and began to crawl gingerly back in the same ignominious +posture as that in which he had come, stipulating eagerly that his +succourer should keep just behind him in order to grab hold of him if he +should show the least sign of falling. Wentworth was glad to get rid of +him on any terms, and, depositing him in safety under a rock, solemnly +enjoined upon him not to move therefrom until they should return. + +"Well, Mr Fordham," said Alma, wickedly, "we poor women are not always +the ones who give the most trouble, you see." + +"No, by Jove, you're not, Miss Wyatt," struck in Gedge, +characteristically eager to answer for everybody. "What an awful fool I +must have looked myself. I'll do the next _arete_ on my hind legs like +the rest of you." And he was as good as his word. + +Two more of these narrow rock-ridges, overhanging a dizzy height, then a +particularly awkward "corner" where a very slight excrescence of the +rock constituted the only foothold, and where Wentworth and Philip's +combined caution availed to render the danger for Alma practically +_nil_, and they began the steep but easy climb of the grassy cone +itself. A few minutes later they stood on the summit. + +"Well, Miss Wyatt, I must in all due sincerity congratulate you," said +Wentworth, as they sat down to rest after their exertions. "No one +could have got along better than you have done. And you have never +climbed a mountain before?" + +"Never. Why, I've never even seen a mountain before I came to this +country a couple of weeks ago," answered Alma, with a gratified smile. + +"Wonderful I wonderful! Isn't it, Fordham?" + +"Very," replied that worthy, drily. + +"No chance of any one holding too good an opinion of herself when Mr +Fordham is by," said Alma, with mischievous emphasis on the "her." + +"Which is to say that everything--everybody, rather--is of some use," +was the ready rejoinder. + +"I don't see the point of that at all," cried Phil, dimly conscious that +his deity was being made the butt of his crusty friend's satire. "No, I +don't. Come now, Fordham." + +"I suppose not. There is another point you don't see either, which is +that when a man has taken the trouble to shin up the Cape au Moine on a +particularly hot and surpassingly clear day, he prefers the enjoyment of +the magnificent view which a bountiful Providence has spread around him +to the labour of driving this or that `point' into the somewhat opaque +brain-box of Philip Orlebar, Esq." + +"You had better take that as final, Mr Orlebar, ere worse befall you," +laughed! Alma, interrupting the derisive hoot wherewith her adorer had +greeted the above contemptuous speech. "And Mr Fordham's principle is +a sound one in the main, for I never could have imagined the world could +show anything so glorious, so perfectly heavenly as this view. Let us +make the most of it." + +Her enthusiasm was not feigned, and for it there was every +justification. The atmosphere balmy and clear, the lofty elevation at +which they found themselves--these alone were enough to engender an +unbounded sense of exhilaration. But what a panorama! Range upon range +of noble mountains, the dazzling snow-summits of the giants of the +Oberland reaching in a stately line across the whole eastern background +of the picture, from the cloud-like Wetterhorn to the massive rock +rampart of the Diablerets. Mountains, mountains everywhere--one vast +rolling sea of tossing peaks, rock-ridges, and smooth, hump-like backs; +of bold and sweeping slopes, here black with pine forest, there vividly +green in the full blaze of unclouded sunlight; and, cleaving the heart +of the billowy expanse, such a maze of sequestered and peaceful valleys +resonant with the far-away music of cow-bells, at eventide sweet with +the melodious _jodel_ of the _Ranz des Vaches_. In the distance the +turbid Sarine winding its way by more than one cluster of red roofs +grouping around a modest steeple on its banks. This on the one hand. +On the other, the rolling, wooded champaign and rich pasture-lands of +the plain of Switzerland stretching away to the lakes of Neuchatel and +Bienne, and historic Morat; and below, like a huge turquoise, the blue +Lake Leman in its mountain-girt setting, between the far-away line of +the purple Jura and the great masses of the Savoy Alps rearing up +opposite. What a panorama, beneath a sky of deep and unclouded blue, +lighted by the golden radiance of a summer sun! It was indeed something +to make the most of--to store up within the treasure-house of the +memory. + +Seated upon the rank grass which carpeted the windswept summit of the +narrow pinnacle, Alma was making Wentworth tell her the names of the sea +of peaks, far and near, which lay around them. This he was well +qualified to do, knowing them as he did by heart, and for nearly an hour +the object lesson went on. Fordham lay on the grass, smoking a pipe, in +an attitude of the most perfect repose, and the irrepressible Gedge was +bearing his part in a bawled colloquy between himself and those they had +left to await their return. Neither heard what the other said, but this +was a secondary consideration. The great thing was to be saying +something--anyhow as far as the volatile Gedge was concerned. + +"It isn't the snow mountains that are responsible for the greatest +number of smashes," said Wentworth, having pointed out two or three +peaks which, like the one they were on, were responsible for having +killed somebody. "The grass peaks like this are far the worst. It's +this way. A fellow makes up his mind to do a regular climb--say the +Matterhorn or the Jungfrau. All right. He makes up his mind that he's +going to do a big thing, and from start to finish he's keenly on the +look out. Besides, he has guides, who won't allow him to take any risk. +Now, on a thing like this, that you can just hop up and down again +between the two _table d'hotes_, why he thinks he is going to do it on +one leg, like friend Gedge there." + +"Well, but--Wentworth--you don't call this a small thing?" struck in he +named. "The confounded--what d'you call 'em?--_aretes_ require a pretty +strong head." + +"Yes, that's so. This is, perhaps, a little more difficult than some of +the other climbs that break fellows' necks. Take the old Jaman, for +instance. You could almost ride a mule up and down it. Anyhow, the +path, with ordinary care, is as safe as a church. But some day the +know-everything Briton spots a rather fine gentian growing just off the +path. Quite easy, of course. But he soon finds all the difference in +the world between the path and the mountain-side. The grass is as +slippery as ice, especially if it is a little wet. His feet slide from +under him and away he goes. A toboggan's nothing to it. He shoots down +the grass slope like a streak of lightning, then over the inevitable +cliff--and--a sack of bones is brought back to the hotel, and a +paragraph goes the round of the English papers, headed `Another Alpine +Accident.' Thus a mountain gets the name of being a dangerous one, +whereas really it is a mere idiot-trap, sensible people being perfectly +safe on it--in ordinarily decent weather, that is." + +"Horrible!" said Alma, with a little shiver. "And at this height it all +seems to come home to one so." + +"I say, Wentworth," said Phil, "you'd better keep those bogey +disquisitions of yours until we get down. You will spoil Miss Wyatt's +nerve for the _aretes_ going back." + +"Not at all," said Alma. "I am very much interested. Tell me, Mr +Wentworth, don't people often come to grief by climbing down places that +look easier than they are?" + +"Of course they do. You notice, from below, a bit of rock that looks as +if you could sit on it and then have your feet on the ground, but when +you get to it it's a cliff fifty or sixty feet high. But I've taken the +trouble to go into the cases, and in nine instances out of ten it is the +little grass fiend that does for its victim, not the eternal snow-capped +giant." + +"Ever come up here in the snow, Wentworth?" said Gedge. + +"Yes. It's dangerous, though--very dangerous indeed. I don't care +about doing it again--in winter, I mean, not when there's a mere +temporary powdering of it. Of course, you understand, the whole aspect +of the mountain is changed, every feature as unfamiliar as if it was a +new thing. And snow is apt to slide away in great masses, taking you +with it. It's bad in wind, too. I've crossed those _aretes_ when I've +had to lie flat and grab the rock rather harder than we saw friend Scott +doing just now. You have no idea of the force of the wind on a place +like that." + +Fordham and Gedge now started to go down. Alma, however, begged for a +little longer time. She might never see such a view again in her +lifetime, she urged, and they had still the best part of the day before +them. So Wentworth had yielded--that is to say, he had remained behind +too, ignoring Philip Orlebar's airy hint that _he_ needn't bother to +wait if he would rather go, for that he--Phil--would undertake to bring +Miss Wyatt down safely. But Wentworth, who was a good-natured fellow, +and whose inclinations in nowise moved him to cut out Master Phil even +temporarily, was impervious to the latter's wishes now. He felt himself +in a measure responsible, and Philip was comparatively inexperienced at +mountain work. + +So they sat and talked on, till suddenly Alma exclaimed, with a shiver-- + +"Why, the sun is going in. And look! we are almost in a cloud." + +Wentworth, hitherto absorbed in a favourite topic, doubly attractive as +shared by a new and interested listener, looked quickly round. + +"Yes," he said, rising, "we had better go down." + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +PERIL. + +It had stolen upon them like an enemy unawares. + +A moment ago they were in a full blaze of noonday radiance, revelling in +its golden, undimmed splendour; now this had, as by the wave of a magic +wand, given place to a semi-gloom, chill and depressing in its misty +suddenness. A moment ago a panorama as of half a continent lay spread +around them, now an object the size of a human being was invisible at +twelve yards. Creeping up, swift, stealthy, and ghost-like, the cloud +curtain was wreathing its dank and shadowy folds round the pinnacle-like +cone of the Cape au Moine, and already imparting a rimy slipperiness to +the rocks and grass. + +"We had better go down," Wentworth had said, unconcernedly. Heartily +now he wished they had done so half an hour earlier, for he, in common +with the rest of them, was sensible of a sudden rising of the wind, +which, taken with the fact that, so far from dispelling the cloud, it +only seemed to be rolling it up thicker, pointed to the possibility of a +gusty squall, the extent and suddenness of whose force it was impossible +to predict. + +The very features of the mountain seemed to have changed. As they got +off the grassy cone on to the first _arete_, the summit, dimly visible +as they looked back, seemed to tower up at least four times its actual +height, and the vertical line of the great precipice which forms its +eastern face stood forth black and forbidding against the opaque +background of vapour. A pair of crows flapped forth from some rocky +recess and, uttering a raucous croak, soared away into the misty space. +The straight, narrow edge of their dizzy path disappeared in the cloud +not a dozen yards in front. + +No one knew better than Wentworth the utterly disconcerting effect of +this sort of phenomenon upon even the most skilled mountaineer. Every +well-known feature or landmark assumes a puzzling unfamiliarity--in +fact, a complete metamorphosis of the whole scene appears to have taken +place. So, with a dubious glance to windward, he remarked-- + +"It might be our best plan not to attempt the _aretes_ at present. We +can get back on to the cone and wait until this blows over, in perfect +safety. What do you think, Miss Wyatt?" + +"Oh, let's try it, if it can be done," she exclaimed, eagerly. "My +uncle will be so dreadfully frightened if we wait here. Only think of +it. He will certainly imagine we have come to grief. No, let's go on; +I am not in the least afraid." + +Wentworth made no further objection, and they resumed their now perilous +way. For the wind had gained in strength and volume with alarming +rapidity, and, balanced there on that knife-like ridge, those three +adventurous ones were exposed to its full force and fury. More than +once they were obliged to take refuge on their hands and knees, and +indeed were finally reduced to crawling ignominiously thereon. The +shrill whistle of the blast tore past their ears, singing through the +weather-beaten herbage which straggled upon the side of the _arete_. +The mist swirled over the crest of the ridge in rimy puffs, and below, +whenever they snatched half a glance from their precarious progress, the +climbers could note a seething, whirling chaos of vapour filling up the +great hollow whose bottom lay at a dizzy depth beneath. + +"Not much further to go, is there?" said Philip, anxiously, as they +stood resting beneath the rocks at the end of the second _arete_ from +the summit. It had devolved upon Wentworth as guide to help Alma down +the steeper and more dangerous places, even to the placing of her feet; +but this Philip had quite ceased to secretly resent. He himself was as +bewildered as a child in this unaccustomed cloud-land. + +"Not so very much," answered Wentworth, ambiguously and in fact somewhat +absently, for often as he had been there before, the cloud had +disconcerted him more than he chose to admit, and he was thinking +whether it would not really be rank lunacy to resume their attempt. But +a slight shiver of cold on Alma's part decided him. + +"Had enough rest, Miss Wyatt?" he said. "Come along, then. We must not +lose any time." + +He stepped forth from their resting-place. The shrieking fury of the +wind had become almost a gale. This _arete_ was the worst of all, for +whereas the path on the others ran here and there along the face of the +slope, thus partially shielding them from the full force of the blast, +here they would have to crawl along the very crest itself. + +"It seems to be blowing harder than ever!" said Wentworth, imprudently +standing upright upon the sharp ridge. + +A perfect roar drowned his words. As though struck by some unseen power +he staggered, made a frantic attempt to regain a recumbent posture, then +clutching wildly at the ground he disappeared into space; while the +horrified spectators who had not yet left their shelter, blown flat +against the rock by the incredible force of the sudden gust, realised +that but for this providential rampart they too would have met with the +same fate. + +For many minutes they gazed at each other in silence, too unnerved, too +horror-stricken to speak. And that they were so is little to be +wondered at. They had just seen their companion blown into the abyss +within a few paces of them. At that very moment they pictured him lying +far, far down where the boiling vapours swirled blackly through space-- +lying in scattered, mangled fragments, poor relics of the strong, +cool-headed man who but a moment ago was guiding them with such skill +and judgment. And their own position was sufficiently alarming. Here +they were, up in the clouds, exposed to the force and fury of a mountain +storm whose duration it was impossible to pre-estimate. + +"How awful?" gasped Alma, at length, during a lull in the bellowing of +the gale. "How truly awful! Is--is there no chance for him?" + +Philip shook his head gloomily, and there was a shudder in his voice. +"Not a shadow of a chance, I'm afraid. You saw, as we came along, the +sort of drop there is on that side. But--try not to think of it." + +"I cannot help thinking of it. Oh, it is too frightful!" and, +thoroughly unnerved, she burst into a wild storm of tears. + +It was too much for Philip. Not there on that lonely mountain height, +enveloped in the black darkness of the cloud, witnessing her distress, +her only protector, could he any longer restrain the tenderness which +took possession of him with every glance from her eyes, every tone of +her voice. + +"Alma--darling"--he broke forth--"think only of yourself now. Keep up +your spirits like your own brave self. Look. It may not last long, and +once the wind drops we shall have no difficulty in finding the way." + +His words of consolation--no less than those of love which had been +drawn from him involuntarily as it were--seemed to fall on deaf ears. +The shock of the horrible fate which had overtaken poor Wentworth before +their very eyes was too overwhelming, and she continued to weep +unrestrainedly, almost hysterically. The black peaty turf of the narrow +space where they rested had grown wet and slippery, for it was beginning +to rain, and overhead the grey crags loomed athwart the flying misty +scud, breaking it up into long fantastic wreaths and streamers, where it +swirled past the cloven and jagged facets of the rock. + +"What are you doing?--No; I will not have that!" said Alma presently, +resisting an attempt on his part to button around her shoulders his +coat, which he had taken off for the purpose. + +"You must have it. I saw you shiver," he answered decisively, at the +same time holding the garment around her in such wise as to make the +very most of its warming powers. + +"I will not. I am more warmly clad than you are. You will catch your +death of cold yourself." + +"Now, it's of no use arguing--you must have it. I have a will of my own +sometimes, and I'll fling the coat over the cliff rather than wear it +myself. It is cold, as you say," he added, with a violent shiver, "but +I'm not made of sugar." + +It was cold indeed. The wind blew chill and piercing, and the rain, +which was driving in upon them in a sleety penetrating shower, began to +render things more and more uncomfortable for poor Phil in his +shirtsleeves. And yet amid the cold and the wet, weatherbound up there +in that weird noonday night, with the horror of a comrade's fate still +upon him--fear, uncertainty, and danger around them, Philip Orlebar was, +strange to say, uncontrollably, blissfully happy. Stranger still, it +might be that the day would come when he should look back to that period +of doubt and horror spent in the semi-darkness of the mountain storm, +and the fury of its icy blasts around their shelterless heads, with the +same sad, aching hopelessness wherewith a lost soul might look upon the +paradise it has forfeited by its own act. + +The time went by--he standing before her in order that she might benefit +by even that slight barrier from the force of the wind--talking ever, in +order to keep up her spirits, to keep her mind from dwelling upon the +horror they had both witnessed; but for which event, indeed, it is +probable that he would have spoken all that was on his mind there and +then. Even he, however, recognised that this was no time for anything +of the kind; and indeed, in the fearless protectiveness of his +demeanour, the tact and fixity of purpose wherewith he strove to take +her out of herself, no one would have recognised the thoughtless, +devil-may-care, and, truth to tell, somewhat selfish temperament of +Philip Orlebar. His whole nature seemed transformed. He seemed a dozen +years older. But the love tremor in his voice spoke the high pressure +of restraint he had put upon himself. Did Alma detect it? We cannot +say. + +A faint halloo came through the opaque folds of the mist--then another +much nearer. At the same time they realised that the force of the wind +had materially abated; moreover it seemed to be getting much lighter. + +"That's Fordham," said Philip, with a start. Then he answered the +shout. + +"Is Miss Wyatt all right?" sung out Fordham. + +"Safe as a church," roared Philip, and the welcome news was passed on to +those waiting further back. + +A ray of sunlight shot through the gloom, and lo, as if by magic, the +opaque inky wall thus breached began to fall asunder, yielding before +each successive piercing ray, and the patch of blue sky thus opened +spread wider and wider till the whole of the _arete_ lay revealed, wet +and glistening in the sunshine, and beyond the gleaming crags the +cloudcap around the apex of the cone grew smaller and beautifully less +until it was whirled away altogether. + +"Where's Wentworth?" was Fordham's first query on joining them. Philip +looked very blank. + +"Come this way, Fordham," he said, leading the other to the spot, not +many paces distant, where the unfortunate man had disappeared. "Look at +that. What sort of a chance would a fellow have who went over there?" + +Fordham looked at the speaker with a start of dismay, then at the line +where the abrupt slope of the ridge broke into sheer precipice half a +dozen yards below. + +"I'm afraid he wouldn't have the ghost of a shadow of a chance," he +muttered. "But--how was it?" + +"Blown over," answered Philip. + +"The devil!" + +Both men stood gazing down in gloomy silence. The strength of the wind +was still a trifle too powerful to be pleasant up there on the _arete_; +but below, sheltered from its force, the whole vast depth of the valley +was filled with a sea of snowy vapour, slowly heaving itself up into +round billowy humps. + +"By Jove! Did you hear that?" suddenly exclaimed Philip, with a start +that nearly sent him to share the fate of the luckless Wentworth. + +"Yes, I did," was the hardly less eager reply. "But--it isn't possible. +Wait--now--listen again!" + +A faint and far-away shout from below now rose distinctly to their ears. +Both listened with an intensity of eagerness that was painful. + +"Only some native, herding cattle down there!" said Philip, +despondently. + +"Shut up, man, and listen again. Cattle-herds in this canton don't as a +rule talk good English," interrupted Fordham. "Ah! I thought so," he +added, as this time the voice was distinctly audible--articulating, +though somewhat feebly--"Any one up there?" + +"Yes. Where are you?" + +"About forty feet down. Get a rope quick. I can't hold on for ever." + +"Now, Phil," said Fordham, quickly, "you're younger than I am, and +you've got longer legs. So just cut away down to the Chalet Soladier, +that one we passed coming up, and levy upon them for all the ropes on +the premises. Wait--be careful though," he added, as the other was +already starting. "Don't hurry too much until you're clear of the +_aretes_, or you may miss your own footing. After that, as hard as you +like." + +Away went Philip; Alma, her nerves in a state of the wildest excitement, +dividing her attention between following with her eyes his dangerous +course along the knife-like ridges, and listening to the dialogue +between Fordham and Wentworth. The latter's fall, it transpired, had +fortunately been arrested by a growth of rhododendron bushes, anchored +in the very face of the cliff. He had no footing to speak of, he said, +and dared not even trust all his weight upon so precarious a hold as the +roots of a bush or two, especially where there could be but the most +insignificant depth of soil. He was distributing his weight as much as +possible, upon such slight slope as this bushy projection afforded; +indeed, so constrained was his position that he could not even give free +play to his voice, hence the faint and far-away sound of his first hail. +He hoped the rope would not be long coming, he added, for the bushes +might give way at any moment; moreover he himself was becoming somewhat +played out. + +Alma felt every drop of blood curdle within her as she listened to this +voice out of the abyss, and pictured to herself its owner hanging there +by a few twigs, with hardly a foothold, however slight, between himself +and hundreds of feet of grisly death. Even Fordham felt sick at heart +as he realised the frightful suspense of the situation. + +"Keep up your nerve, Wentworth," he shouted. "Phil has nearly reached +the _chalet_ now. They can be here in half an hour." + +"He is there now," said Alma, who was watching every step of his +progress through his own glasses which he had left up there. "And the +man is all ready for him--and--yes--he is meeting him with ropes. Now +they are starting. Thank Heaven for that!" + +Fortunate indeed was it for Wentworth that the _chalet_ was inhabited at +that time of year, and that its occupier happened to be there that day. +The latter, who had watched the ascent, and had seen some of the party +on the cone just before the cloud had hidden everything, was a trifle +uneasy himself. But the sight of a tall athletic young Englishman +tearing down the slope in his shirtsleeves confirmed his fears. He put +two and two together, and, being a quick-witted fellow, had started to +meet Philip with all the ropes his establishment could muster. + +All this was shouted down to Wentworth for the encouragement of the +latter. And the excitement of those on the _arete_, no less than that +of the party left behind on the high _col_, became more and more intense +as they watched the distance diminish between them and the bearers of +the needful ropes, upon which depended a fellow-creature's life. +Minutes seemed hours. But what must they have seemed to the man who +hung there over that dizzy height--his strength ebbing fast--counting +the very seconds to the time his rescue should begin! + +By the time Philip and the cowherd had joined him, together with Gedge, +who had come to render what help he could, Fordham's plan was laid. +They could not all stand on the narrow _arete_ in such wise as to obtain +anything like the requisite purchase on the rope. But on the other side +of the ridge a precipitous fall of rock, some ten or twelve feet, ended +in an abrupt grass slope. Here two of them could stand, holding the end +of the rope, while two more on the apex of the ridge could direct the +ascent of the rescued man as well as assist in hauling. + +"Now, Phil," he said, "if you've quite got back your wind"--for the two +men were somewhat out of breath with their rapid climb--"get away down +there with Gedge, and hold on like grim death. No, Miss Wyatt, not +you," in response to an appeal on Alma's part to be allowed to help. +"Four of us will be enough. We can manage easily." + +There were two good lengths of rope, each about forty feet--for the +peasants in mountain localities frequently adopt the precaution of tying +themselves together when mowing the grass on some of the more dangerous +and precipitous slopes. These were securely knotted together and manned +as aforesaid. + +"I don't like knots," muttered Fordham, as he let down the end, having +first tied his flask to the same with a bit of twine the stopper being +loosened so as to render the contents accessible without an effort--"I +don't like knots, but there's no help for it. Now, Wentworth," he +shouted, "is that right?" + +"Little more to the left--about a yard and a half. There--so. All +right. I've got it. Pay out a little more line." + +"Take a pull at the flask, and then sing out when you're quite ready," +bawled Fordham. + +There was silence for a few minutes, then: + +"Ready. Haul away," cried Wentworth. + +And they did haul away--those on the _arete_ flat on their faces, +carefully watching the ascent of the rope lest it should be worn through +by any friction. In a very short time Wentworth appeared in sight where +the line of the slope broke into the precipice; a moment more and he was +beside them in safety. + +Then what a stentorian cheer split the echoes of those craggy heights, +conveying to the rest of the party, waiting in anxious, breathless +suspense below, that the rescue had been safely effected. Wentworth +himself seemed rather dazed, and said but little; nor did it add to his +composure when he found Alma Wyatt wringing both his hands, and +ejaculating, "Oh, I am so glad--I am so glad!" preparatory to breaking +forth into a perfect paroxysm of unnerved crying. + +"You've had a narrow squeak, old chap!" said Philip. + +"Hurt at all?" asked the more practical Fordham. + +"No. Don't seem like it. Scratched a bit--nothing more." + +His face was badly scratched and covered with blood. One sleeve of his +coat was nearly torn from the shoulder, and he had lost his watch. + +"_Vous vous y-etes joliment tire--Nom de nom_!" said the cowherd +oracularly. "_Remplacer une montre c'est plus simple que de remplacer +ses membres broyes--allez_!" + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +LIGHT. + +"Wentworth, old man, here's to your lucky escape," cried Gedge, with his +usual effusiveness, flourishing a brimming bumper of Beaune. + +A roaring fire blazed in the wide chimney-place of the Chalet Soladier. +The air was raw and chill, for another rain-gust had swept suddenly up; +and seated around the cheerful glow our party was engaged in the +comfortable and highly congenial occupation of assimilating the luncheon +which had been brought along. + +"That's a most appropriate toast, and one we ought all to join in," said +the old General, approvingly. "Here, Philip, give the _chalet_ man a +full bumper. He is entitled to join if any one is, and, Alma--explain +to him what it is all about." + +This was done, and the toast drunk with a hearty cheer. The recipient +of the honour, however, was in no responsive mood. That he, of all +people, should have been fool enough to miss his footing; he an +experienced climber, and who, moreover, was in a way the leader of the +expedition! It was intolerable. And this aspect of the situation +tended far more towards the somewhat silent and subdued demeanour he had +worn ever since, than any recollection of the ghastly peril from which +he had been extricated, than even the thought of the grisly death from +which he had been saved almost by a miracle. Yes, he felt small, and +said so unreservedly. + +But Alma came to the rescue in no ambiguous fashion. + +"You are not fair to yourself, Mr Wentworth," she declared. "The thing +might have happened to anybody up there in that awful wind. Of course I +don't know anything about mountain climbing, but what strikes me is that +if, as you say, you considered yourself in a way responsible for us, the +fact that you incurred the danger, while we have all come down safe and +sound--incurred it, too, out of care for our safety--is not a thing to +feel small about, but very much the reverse." + +"Hear, hear!" sung out Gedge, lustily, stamping with his feet in such +wise as to upset a whole heap of sandwiches and the residue of Fordham's +beverage. But Wentworth shook his head. + +"It's very kind of you to put it that way, Miss Wyatt. Still the fact +remains that it oughtn't to have happened; and perhaps the best side of +the affair is that it happened to me after all, and not to one of +yourselves. By Jove! though," he added, with a laugh. "Friend Dufour +will score off me now for all time. We are always having arguments +about the Cape au Moine. I always say it is an over-rated climb, and +for the matter of that I say so still." + +"That may easily be," struck in Philip. "I suppose any mountain is +dangerous with a gale of five hundred hurricane power blowing." + +"Of course. But where I blame myself, Orlebar, is in not starting to +come down sooner. And I fancy that is the line Miss Wyatt's advocacy +will take when she finds herself laid up with a bad cold after getting +wet through up there." + +"It will take nothing of the kind, Mr Wentworth," replied Alma, "for I +am not going to be laid up with any cold at all. The walk down here +almost dried my things, and this splendid fire has done the rest." + +Luncheon over pipes were produced, indeed the suggestion to that effect +originated with the representatives of the softer sex there present, who +preferred the, at other times much-decried, narcotic to the somewhat +rancid odour emanating from sundry tubs used in cheese-making, which +stood in the corner of the room. The rain beat hard upon the roof +without, but nothing could have been more snug than the interior of the +_chalet_ in its semi-darkness, the firelight dancing upon the beams and +quaint appointments of this rough but picturesque habitation. + +"Now, Gedge, you're by way of being a logician," said Wentworth, blowing +out a cloud of smoke. "Can you tell us why a man can't keep his head +just as well over a drop of a thousand feet as over one of six?" + +"_Do_ you mean when the wind is blowing," answered Gedge, suspecting a +"catch." + +"No. I mean when there's no apparent reason why he shouldn't." + +"Because he gets confoundedly dizzy, I suppose." + +"But why should he? He has the same foothold. Take that _arete_ up +there. If the drop on each side were only six feet, no fellow would +hesitate to run along it like a cat along a wall." + +"Not even Scott," muttered Fordham, in a tone just audible to Alma, who +at the picture thus conjured up of the unfortunate chaplain straddling +the _arete_, and screaming to be taken off, could hardly restrain +herself from breaking forth into a peal of laughter. + +"It's a clear case of the triumph of mind over matter, I take it," +answered Gedge. "What do you say, Scott?" + +"Oh, I'm no authority," mumbled the latter hastily. "Don't appeal to +me. My head seems going round still." + +"Scott is no authority on matters outside the smoking-room," said +Fordham, mercilessly--thereby nearly causing Alma to choke again, and +begetting inextinguishable resentment in the breast of the youngest Miss +Ottley, who had taken the parson under her own especial wing. "Within +those sacred precincts we all bow to him as supreme." + +"I don't quite see where that comes in," rejoined Wentworth, in answer +to Gedge. "If anything it would be the other way about--triumph of +matter over mind: the matter being represented by several hundred feet +of perpendicularity, before, or rather above, which the `mind' takes a +back seat; or, in plainer English, gets in a funk." + +"That very fact proves the mind to be paramount; proves its triumph, +paradoxical as it may sound," argued Gedge. "An idiot, for instance, +wouldn't care twopence whether the drop was six feet or six hundred. As +long as there was firm ground under him, he'd shuffle along it gaily. +Why? Because he is incapable of thought--deficient in mind." + +"Upon that showing," said General Wyatt, with a twinkle in his +eye--"upon that showing, the Miss Ottleys and myself must be the most +sensible people of the lot; for, unlike your hypothetical idiot, Gedge, +we emphatically did care twopence whether the drop was six feet or six +hundred. In other words, we funked it egregiously and stayed behind. +Our minds, you see triumphed over matter in the most practical way of +all." + +"I guess this argument's going to end in a clean draw," said Philip. +"Hallo! the sun's out again, and, by Jove, there isn't a cloud in the +sky," he added, flinging the door open and going outside. "The day is +young yet. How would it be to go over the Col de Falvay and work round +home again by way of the Alliaz? It's a lovely walk." + +But this, after some discussion, was voted too large an undertaking. At +Alma's suggestion it was decided that the party should stroll over the +_col_ into the next valley and pick flowers. + +"It is our last day here, uncle," she urged, in answer to the old +General's somewhat half-hearted objection that they would have had about +enough walking by the time they reached home. "It is our last day, so +we ought to make the most of it. And look how lovely it has turned +out!" + +It had. No sign was left now of the dour mist curtain which had swept +the heavens but a short while before. Wandering in the golden sunshine, +among fragrant pine woods and pastures, knee-deep in narcissus, the +party soon split up as such parties will. Fordham and the General took +it very easily; strolling a little, sitting down a little, they chatted +and smoked many pipes, and were happy. Scott and his fair admirer +paired off in search of floral and botanical specimens, and were also +happy. The residue of the crowd assimilated themselves in like +harmonious fashion, or did not--as they chose. Two units of it at any +rate did, for crafty Phil seized an early opportunity of carrying off +Alma to a spot where he knew they would find lilies of the valley. As a +matter of fact they did not find any, but this was of no consequence to +him. What was of consequence was the blissful fact that he had got her +all to himself for the afternoon. And this was her last afternoon, +their last afternoon together. And in consideration of this, the +light-hearted, easy-going Phil became seized with an abnormal +melancholy. + +"You are a rank deceiver," said Alma, some three hours later, as, in +obedience to a shout of recall, they turned to rejoin the rest of the +party now taking the homeward way, but as yet some distance off. "You +told me you knew we should find the lilies there--you _knew_, mind, not +you _thought_. Then when we found none at the first place, you knew we +should at another; and you dragged me from place to place, but yet I +haven't found one. And now I must be content with the bundle of +bell-gentians I gathered this morning. Poor things! how they have +faded," she added, undoing a corner of the handkerchief containing them. +"Ah! here is some water. I must freshen them up a bit." + +"What a day this has been," said Philip, regretfully, as Alma stooped +down to freshen the gentians with water from the tiny runnel which, +dripping from the mossy undergrowth beneath the shadowy pines, sped at +their feet with a bell-like tinkle. There was a moist fragrance as of +crushed blossoms in the air, and the unearthly glow of a cloudless +evening was upon the sunlit slopes, and the grey solemn faces of the +cliffs across the valley. + +"Yes, indeed," she answered, her wet, tapering hands plunged lightly +among the rich blue blossoms of the bell-gentians. + +"And it is your last!" + +"Unfortunately it is. But--who would have thought, to look around now-- +who would have believed the awful time we went through up there only +this morning! When Mr Wentworth was drawn up again safe and unhurt, I +could not help crying for joy. Poor fellow! What must he have gone +through all that time, with nothing but a rhododendron bush between him +and a frightful death!" + +"I reverse the usual order and begin to think I'd rather it was me than +him," said Philip, gruffly. "May I ask whether, in that case, you would +have manifested the same delight?" + +There was a flash of mischievous mirth in Alma's great grey eyes as she +looked up at him. + +"You foolish boy! I sha'n't answer that question. But, if you had been +down there, how could you have taken such splendid care of me?" + +"Oh, I did take care of you then?" he said quickly. "You did, indeed." + +"Let me take care of you for life then, Alma." Just those few words, +curt even to lameness. But there was a very volume of pent-up feeling +in their tone as he stood there, his face a trifle paler, his fine frame +outlined against the black background of the pines, his eyes dilated and +fixed upon hers, as though to read there his answer. + +She started. Her face flushed, then grew pale again. Released by the +tremor of her hand, another corner of the handkerchief fell, and the +bell-gentians poured down into her lap and on the ground. She did not +answer immediately, and a troubled look came over her face. Yet the +question could not have been such a surprising one. Reading every +changing expression of the lovely face eagerly, hungrily, Philip +continued, and there was a quaver of forestalled despair in his voice. + +"Not to be--is it?" with a ghastly attempt at a laugh. "I'm a +presumptuous idiot, and had better go my way rejoicing--especially +rejoicing. Isn't that it?" + +But a radiantly killing smile was the answer now, scattering his +despondency as the sun-ray had dispelled the dark storm-cloud which had +overshadowed them up there on the _arete_. + +"You are in a great hurry to answer your own question," she said. +"Doesn't it strike you that I am the right person to do that--Phil?" + +The very tone was a caress. The half-timid, half-mischievous way in +which his Christian name--abbreviated too--escaped her was maddening, +entrancing. Hardly knowing what he said in his incoherent transport of +delight, he cast himself upon the bank beside her, regardless of +bristling pine needles and the outpost prowlers of a large nest of red +ants hard by. But Alma was not yet prepared to allow herself to be +taken by storm in any such impetuous fashion. + +"Now wait a minute, you supremely foolish creature," holding up a hand +warningly as he flung himself at her side--and her face flushed again; +but there was a sunny light in her eyes, and a very sweet smile playing +around her lips. "What I was going to say is this. You can't decide +any important question out of hand. It requires talking over--and-- +thinking over." + +"You darling! you tantalising enchantress!" he cried passionately. "Let +us talk over it then, as much as you like. As for thinking over it-- +why, we've done enough of that already." + +"_You_ have, you mean," she corrected, archly. "Never mind. But--now +listen, Phil. You think you are very, very fond of my unworthy self. +Wait--don't interrupt," as the expression "you think" brought to his +lips an indignant protest. "Yet you hardly know me." + +"I know you to be perfection," he broke in hotly. + +"That's foolish," she rejoined, but with a by no means displeased smile. +"But, I say it again, you hardly know me. We meet here and see each +other at our best, where everything is conducive to enjoyment and +absolute freedom from worry, and then you tell me I am perfection--" + +"So you are," he interrupted emphatically. + +"Well, we meet under the most favourable circumstances, wherein we show +at our best. But that isn't life. It is a mere idyll. Life is a far +more serious thing than that." + +"Why, that's just how that fellow Fordham talks," exclaimed Philip, +aghast. + +"Mr Fordham is an extremely sensible man then," she rejoined, with a +queer smile. "No. What I want you to consider is, how do you know I +could make you happy, only meeting as we do, up here and in this way? +We must not fall into the fatal error of mistaking a mere summer idyllic +existence for a sample of stern, hard life." + +"Oh, darling! you cannot really care for me if you can reason so coldly, +so deliberately!" he exclaimed, in piteous consternation. "I am afraid +you don't know me yet, if you think me so shallow as all that." + +"I do know you, Phil, and I don't think you shallow at all--know you +better than you think--better, perhaps, than you know yourself," she +answered, placing her hand upon his, which promptly closed over it in +emblematical would-be possession of its owner. "I am a bit of a +character-student, and I have studied you--among others." + +"Oh! only among others?" + +She laughed. + +"Is that so very derogatory? Well, for your consolation, perhaps my +study has so far been satisfactory; indeed, we should hardly be talking +together now as we are had it been otherwise. Now--what more do you +want me to say?" + +"What more! Why, of course I want you to say you will give me +yourself--your own sweet, dear self, Alma, you lovely, teasing, +tantalising bundle of witchery. Now, say you will." + +"Not now--not here. In a little more than a month I shall be at home +again," she answered, with a dash of sadness in her voice, as though the +prospect of "home, sweet home" were anything but an alluring one. "Come +and see me then--if you still care to. Who knows? You may have got +over this--this--fancy--by that time." + +"Alma! You hurt me." His voice betrayed the ring of real pain as he +gazed at her with a world of reproach in his eyes. + +"Do I? I don't want to. But by then you will know your own mind +better. Wait--let me have my say. By that time you will not have seen +me for a month or more, as we are leaving this to-morrow. You may have +more than half forgotten me by then. `Out of sight,' you know. I am +not going to take advantage of your warm, impulsive temperament now, and +I should like to feel sure of you, Phil--once and for all--if we are to +be anything to each other. So I would rather it remained that way." + +"You are hurting me, dearest, with this distrust. At any rate let me +tell--er, ask--er, speak to your uncle to-night--" + +"No. On that point I am firm," she answered, rising. "When I am at +home again I will give you a final answer--if you still want it, that +is. Till then--things are as they were." + +"Hard lines!" he answered, with a sigh. "Still, one must be thankful +for small mercies, I suppose. But--you will write to me when we are +apart, will you not, love?" + +"I don't know. I ought not. Perhaps once or twice, though." + +For a moment they stood facing each other in silence, then his arms were +round her. + +"Alma, my dearest life!" he whispered passionately. "You are very cold +and calculating, you know. You have not said one really sweet or loving +thing to me through all this reasoning. Now--kiss me!" + +She looked into his eyes with a momentary hesitation, and again the +sweet fair face was tinged with a suffusing flush. Then she raised her +lips to his. + +"There," she said. "There--that is the first. Will it be the last, I +wonder? Oh, Phil, I would like to love you--and you are a very lovable +subject, you know. There! Now you must be as happy as the day is long +until--until--you know when," she added, restraining with an effort the +thrill of tenderness in her voice. + +"And I will be, darling," he cried. "The memory of this sweet moment +will soon carry me over one short month. And you will write to me?" + +"Not often--once or twice, perhaps, as I said before. And now we must +pick up my gentians, and move on, or the others will be wondering what +has become of us. Look; they are waiting for us now, on the _col_," she +added, as their path emerged from the cover of the friendly pines. + +But by the time they gained that eminence--and we may be sure they did +not hurry themselves--the rest of the party had gone on, and they were +still alone together. Alone together in paradise--the air redolent with +myriad narcissus blossoms, soft, sweet-scented as with the breath of +Eden--alone together in the falling eve, each vernal slope, each rounded +spur starting forth in vivid clearness; each soaring peak on fire in the +westering rays; and afar to the southward, seen from the elevation of +the path, the great domed summit of Mont Blanc, bathed in a roseate +flush responsive to the last kisses of the dying sun. Homeward, alone +together, amid the fragrant dews exhaling from rich and luscious +pastures, the music of cow-bells floating upon the hush of evening; then +a full golden moon sailing on high, above the black and shaggy pines +hoary with bearded festoons of mossy lichens, throwing a pale network +upon the sombre woodland path, accentuating the heavy gloom of forest +depths, ever and anon melodious with the hooting of owls in ghostly +cadence, resonant with the shrill cry of the pine marten and the faint +mysterious rustling as of unearthly whispers. Homeward alone together. +Ah, Heaven! Will they ever again know such moments as these? + +Never, we trow. The sweet, subtle, enchanted spell is upon them in all +its entrancing, its delirious fulness. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +SHADOW. + +Nearly a week had elapsed since the departure of the Wyatts, and yet, +contrary to all precedent, the volatile Phil's normal good spirits +showed no sign of returning. He was hard hit. + +No further opportunity of meeting alone did Alma afford him after that +one long, glowing evening. Her manner to him at parting had been very +kind and sweet; and with a last look into her eyes, and a pressure of +the hand a good deal more lingering on his part than etiquette demanded, +let alone justified, the poor fellow was obliged to be contented, for of +opportunities for taking a more affectionate farewell she would give him +none. They would meet again, she said, and he must wait patiently until +then. But to him such meeting seemed a very long way off, and meanwhile +the residue of the bright summer, hitherto so joyously mapped out for +walking and climbing and fun in general, to which he had been looking +forward with all the delight of a sound organisation both physical and +mental, seemed now to represent a flat and dreary hiatus--to be filled +up as best it might, to be got through as quickly as possible. + +Philip Orlebar was hard hit--indeed, very hard hit. He had never been +genuinely in love in his life, though nobody had more often fancied +himself in that parlous state. But now he was undergoing his first +sharp attack of the genuine disorder, and the experience was--well, +somewhat trying. + +And the symptoms, like those of hydrophobia, manifested themselves +diversely. Genial, sunny-tempered Phil became morose--"surly as a +chained bulldog developing influenza," as the elastic Gedge tersely put +it. He avoided his kind, and evinced a desire for wandering, by his own +sweet self, into all manner of breakneck places. More especially did he +avoid Fordham, whose continually cropping up sarcasms at the expense of +the sex now ennobled and deified by the production of one Alma Wyatt, +fairly maddened him. + +"Damned cheap kind of cynicism, don't you know," he growled one day. "I +wonder you don't drop it, Fordham." In fact, so confoundedly +quarrelsome did he wax that it became a source of wonder how Fordham +stood it so equably, and at last some one said so. The answer was +characteristic. + +"Look here, Wentworth. If you were down with fever, and delirious, +you'd think me a mighty queer chap if I took mortal offence at anything +you said in the course of your ravings. Now that poor chap is down with +the worst kind of fever and delirium. By and by, when he wakes up and +convalesces, he'll ask shamefacedly whether he didn't act and talk like +an awful fool during his delirium. No. You can't quarrel with a man +for being off his nut. You can only pity him." + +On the letter whose receipt had caused him such disquietude but a week +ago Philip had since bestowed no further thought. It seemed such a far +back event--it and the individual whose existence it so inopportunely +recalled--and withal such an insignificant one. For beside the +withdrawal of Alma Wyatt's daily presence, all other ills, past, +present, and to come, looked incomparably small, and the contemplation +of them not worth undertaking. + +However indulgent might be Fordham with regard to his younger friend's +disorder, secretly he hugged himself with mirth, and enjoyed the joke +hugely in his own saturnine fashion as he read off the symptoms. How +well he knew them all. How many and many a one had he seen go through +them, and live to laugh at his own abject, if helpless, imbecility--to +laugh in not a few instances with almost as much bitterness as he +himself might do. He believed that it was in his power to comfort poor +Phil, up to a certain point. As a looker on at the game, and a +keen-sighted one, he felt pretty sure that Alma Wyatt was far more +tenderly disposed towards her adorer than the latter dreamed. But it +was not in accordance with his principles to do this. Richard Fordham +turned matchmaker! More likely patchmaker! he thought, with a +diabolical guffaw as the whimsicality of the idea and the jingle thereof +struck him; for like the proverbial patching of the old garment with the +new cloth would be the lifelong alliance of his friend with Alma Wyatt-- +or any other woman. No. His mission was, if anything, to bring about a +contrary result, and thus save the guileless Philip from riveting upon +his yet free limbs the iron fetters of a degrading and fraudulent +bondage--for such, we grieve to say, was Fordham's definition of the +estate of holy matrimony. + +"Well, Phil," he said, as the latter, returned from a recent and +solitary climb, tired and listless, took his seat a quarter of an hour +late at _table d'hote_, "does the world present a more propitious aspect +from the giddy summit of the Corbex?" + +"Oh, hang it, no! But, I say, Fordham--what a deuced slow crowd there +is here now. Just look at that table over there." + +"Nine old maids--no, eleven--in a row," said the other, putting up his +eyeglass. "Four parsons--poor specimens of the breed, too. That is to +say, three old maids and a devil-dodger; then three more ditto and two +devil-dodgers; finally the balance, with the remaining sky-pilot mixed +among them somewhere. Truly an interesting crowd!" + +"By Jove, rather!" growled Philip. "And just look at that infernal +tailor's boy over there laying down the law." + +Following his glance, Fordham beheld a carroty-headed snobling fresh +from the counter or the cutting-board, who, in all the exuberance of his +hard-earned holiday and the enterprising spirit which had prompted him +to enjoy the same among Alpine sublimities in preference to the more +homely and raffish attractions of shrimp-producing Margate, was +delivering himself on Church and State, the House of Peers and the +Constitution in general, with a freedom which left nothing to be +desired, for the edification of his appreciative neighbours--only they +didn't look appreciative. Philip contemplated this natural product of +an age of progress and the Rights of Man with unconcealed disgust. + +"Faugh! Are we going to be overrun with bounders of that description?" +he growled. + +"Later on we may drop across a sprinkling of the species," said Fordham. +"Even the Alps are no longer sacred against the invasion of the modern +Hun." + +"Well, it's no longer any fun sticking here, and I'm sick of it," went +on Phil. + +"All right. Let's adjourn to Zermatt or somewhere, and begin climbing. +You want shaking up a bit." + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +FORDHAM PROVES ACCOMMODATING. + +"Dear me--how very disagreeable (sniff-sniff)--how exceedingly +unpleasant this smoking is?" + +The afternoon train was crawling up the Rhone valley, wending its +leisurely way over the flat and low-lying bottom as though to afford its +passengers, mostly foreigners, every opportunity of admiring its native +marsh. In the corner of a second-class smoking-carriage sat the typical +British matron whom her feelings had moved to unburden herself as above. +Beside her, half effaced by her imposing personality, sat her spouse, a +mild country parson. A great number of bundles and a great number of +wraps completed the outfit. + +"I must say it is _most_ disagreeable," went on the lady, with renewed +sniffs. "And how ill-mannered these foreigners are, smoking in the +presence of ladies." This with a dagger-glance at the other two +occupants of the carriage, who each, with a knapsack on the rack above +his head and clad in serviceable walking attire, were lounging back on +the comfortable seats, placidly blowing clouds. + +"Hush, my dear!" expostulated the parson. "It's a smoking-carriage, you +know. I told you so before we got in at Martigny. Why not go into the +other compartment? It's quite empty." + +It was. On the Swiss lines the carriages are generally built on +American principles; you can walk the entire length of them, and indeed +of the whole train. They are, however, divided into two compartments, +the smaller being reserved for the convenience of non-smokers, the other +way about, as with us. + +"No, I shall certainly not take the trouble to move," replied the +offended matron. "Smoking-carriage or not, those two men are most +unmannerly. Suppose, Augustus, you go over to them and ask them to put +out their cigars? Remind them that it is not usual in England to smoke +in the presence of ladies." + +But the Rev Augustus was not quite such a fool as that. + +"Not a bit of use, my dear," he said wearily. "They'd certainly retort +that we are not in England--probably request us to step into the +non-smoking compartment." + +Fordham, who at the first remonstrance had rapidly signalled his friend +not to talk and thus betray their nationality, was leaning back enjoying +the situation thoroughly. + +"Que diable allait _elle_ faire dans cette galere?" he murmured, rightly +judging the other travellers' command of modern languages to be of the +limited order. Phil for his part was obliged to put his head out of the +window in order to laugh undetected. Meanwhile the aggrieved British +matron in her corner continued to fume and sniff and inveigh against the +abominable manners of those foreigners, and otherwise behave after the +manner of her kind when, by virtue of honouring it with their presence, +they have taken some continental country under their august wing. Then +the crawl of the train settled down to an imperceptible creep as it drew +nearer and nearer to the old-world and picturesque capital of the +Valais. + +There was whispering between the pair. Then, in obedience to a conjugal +mandate, the mild parson diffidently approached our two friends. + +"Pardong, mossoor. Ais-ker-say See-ong?" + +The last word came out with a jerk of relief. + +"Sion? I believe it is," replied Fordham, blandly. "We shall have a +quarter of an hour to wait, if not longer." + +If ever a man looked a thorough fool, it was the first speaker. The +faultless and polished English of the reply! Here had they--his wife +rather--been abusing these two men in their own tongue and in her +usually loud key for upwards of half an hour. He turned red and began +to stammer. + +But the poor man's confusion was by no means shared by his spouse. That +imposing matron came bustling across the carriage as if nothing had +happened. + +"Perhaps you can tell us," she said, "which is the best way of getting +to Evolena? There is a diligence, is there not?" + +Philip, who had all a young man's aversion for a fussy and domineering +matron, would have returned a very short and evasive reply. The woman +had been abusing them like pickpockets all the way, and now had the +cheek to come and ask for information. But to Fordham her sublime +impudence was diverting in the extreme. + +"There is a diligence," he answered, "and I should say you'll still be +in time for it. But I should strongly recommend you to charter a +private conveyance. Coach passengers are apt to beguile the tedium of +the road with tobacco." + +This was said so equably and with such an utter absence of resentment +that the lady with all her assertiveness was dumbfoundered. Then, +glaring at the speaker, she flounced away without a word, though, amid +the bustle and flurry attendant upon the collecting of wraps and +bundles, the offenders could catch such jerked-out phrases as +"Abominable rudeness?" + +"Most insulting fellow!" and so forth. + +"Great Scott! What do you think of that for a zoological specimen, +Phil?" said Fordham, as the train steamed slowly away from the platform +where their late fellow-passengers still stood bustling around a pile of +boxes and bundles. "The harridan deliberately and of her own free will +gets into a tobacco cart--out of sheer cussedness, in fact, for there +stands the non-smoker stark empty--and then has the unparalleled face to +try and boss us out of it. And there are idiots with whom she would +have succeeded too." + +"Well, you know, it's beastly awkward when a woman keeps on swearing she +can't stand smoke, even though you know she has no business there. What +the deuce are you to do?" + +"Politely ask her to step into the next compartment, whose door stands +yearningly open to receive her. Even the parson had wit enough to see +that." + +"Yes, that's so. But, I say, what an infernally slow train this is?" + +"This little incident," went on Fordham, "which has served to break the +monotony of our journey, reminds me of a somewhat similar joke which +occurred last year on my way back to England. We fetched Pontarlier +pretty late at night, and of course had to turn out and undergo the +Customs ordeal. Well, I was sharp about the business, and got back into +my carriage and old corner first. It was an ordinary compartment--five +a side--not like this. Almost immediately after in comes a large and +assertive female with an eighteen-year-old son, a weedy, unlicked cub as +ever you saw in your life, and both calmly took the other end seats. +Now I knew that one of these seats belonged to a Frenchman who was going +through, so sat snug in my corner waiting to enjoy the fun. It came in +the shape of the Frenchman. Would madame be so kind, but--the seat was +his? No, madame would not be so kind--not if she knew it. Possibly if +madame had been young and pretty the outraged Gaul might have subsided +more gracefully, for subside he had to--but her aggressiveness about +equalled her unattractiveness, which is saying much. So a wordy war +ensued, in the course of which the door was banged and the deposed +traveller shot with more vehemence than grace half-way across the +compartment, and the train started. He was mad, I can tell you. +Instead of his snug corner for the night, there the poor devil was, +propped up on end, lurching over every time he began to nod. + +"Well, we'd finished our feed--we'd got a chicken and some first-rate +Burgundy on board--and were looking forward to a comfortable smoke. In +fact, we'd each got a cigar in our teeth, and the chap who was with me-- +whom we'll call Smith--was in the act of lighting up, when-- + +"`I object to smoke. This isn't a smoking-carriage, and I won't have +it.' + +"We looked at the aggressive female, then at each other. Her right was +unassailable. It was not a tobacco cart, but on French lines they are +not generally too particular. Still, in the face of that protest we +were floored. + +"Smith was awfully mad. He cursed like a trooper under his breath-- +swore he'd be even with the harridan yet--and I believed him. + +"Some twenty minutes went by in this way, Smith licking his unlit cigar +and cursing roundly to himself. Presently she beckoned him over. He +had half a mind not to go; however, he went. + +"`I don't mind your smoking,' says she--`out of the window.' + +"`Oh, thanks,' he says. `It's rather too cold to stand outside on the +footboard. Besides, it's risky.' + +"`Well, I mean I don't mind if you have part of the window open. But I +can't stand the place full of smoke and no outlet. And'--she hurries up +to add--`I hope you won't mind if I draw the curtain over the lamp so +that my boy can go to sleep.' + +"Smith was on the point of answering that he preferred not to smoke, but +intended to read the night through, and could on no account consent to +the lamp being veiled, when it occurred to him that it was of no use +cutting off his nose to spite his face. He was just dying for a smoke. +So the bargain was struck, and we were soon puffing away like traction +engines. + +"Now the Frenchman who had been turned out of his seat was no fool of a +Gaul. Whether suggested by the settling of our little difference or +originating with himself, the idea seemed to strike him that he too +might just as well obtain terms from the enemy to his own advantage. +The unlicked cub aforesaid was slumbering peacefully in his corner, his +long legs straight across the compartment, for we were three on that +side, and there was no room to put them on the seat. The first station +we stop at, up gets the Frenchman, flings open the door, letting in a +sort of young hurricane, and of course stumbling over the sleeper's +legs. Aggressive female looks daggers. But when this had happened +several times--for the stoppages were pretty frequent, and even though +but for a minute the Frenchman took good care to tumble out--she began +to expostulate. + +"`It was cruel to disturb her poor boy's slumbers continually like that. +Surely there was no necessity to get out at every station.' + +"That Frenchman's grin was something to see. He was _desole_; but +_enfin_! What would madame? He had been turned out of his corner seat, +and could not sleep sitting bolt upright. It was absolutely necessary +for him to get a mouthful of fresh air and stretch his legs at every +opportunity. But the remedy was in madame's hands. Let _monsieur_ +change places with him. Monsieur was young, whereas he was--well, not +so young as he used to be. Otherwise he was sorry to say it, but his +restlessness would compel him to take exercise at every station they +stopped at. + +"Heavens! that old termagant looked sick. But she was thoroughly +bested. If she refused the enemy would be as good as his word, and her +whelp might make up his mind to stay awake all night. So she caved in, +sulkily enough, and with much bland bowing and smiling the Frenchman got +back his corner seat, or one as good, and the cub snored on his dam's +shoulder. Thus we all regained our rights again, and everybody was +happy." + +"Devilish good yarn, Fordham," said Phil. "But you be hanged with your +Smith, old man. Why, that was you--you all over." + +"Was it? I said it was Smith. But the point is immaterial, especially +at this time of day. And now, Phil, own up, as you contemplate this +howling, hungry crowd of the alpenstock contingent, that you bless my +foresight which coerced you into posting on every stick and stone you +possess, bar your trusty knapsack. If you don't now, you will when we +get to Visp and tranquilly make our way through a frantic mob all +shouting for its luggage at once. Here we are at Sierre. Sure to be a +wait. I wonder if there's a _buffet_. Hallo! What now?" + +For his companion, whose head was half through the window, suddenly +withdrew it with a wild ejaculation, then rushed from the carriage like +a lunatic, vouchsafing no word of explanation as to the phenomenon--or +apology for having stamped Fordham's pet corn as flat as though a steam +roller had passed over it. The latter, scowling, looked cautiously +forth, and then the disturbing element became apparent. There, on the +platform, in a state of more than all his former exuberance, stood +Philip, talking--with all his eyes--to Alma Wyatt, and with all his +might to her uncle and aunt, who had just stepped out of the train to +join her. And at the sight Fordham dropped back into his seat with a +saturnine guffaw. + +But the next words uttered by his volatile friend caused him to sit up +and attend. + +"This is a most unexpected pleasure, General," Philip was saying. "Why +I thought you were a fixture at the Grindelwald for the rest of your +time." + +"Couldn't stand it. Far too much bustle and noise. No. Some one told +us of a place called Zinal, and we are going there now." + +"What an extraordinary coincidence!" cried Phil, delightedly. "The fact +is we are bound for that very place." + +"The devil we are!" growled Fordham to himself at this astounding piece +of intelligence. "I have hitherto been under the impression, friend +Phil, that we were bound for Visp--_en route_ for Zermatt." + +"But--where's Mr Fordham? Is he with you?" went on Mrs Wyatt. + +"Rather. He's--er--just kicking together our traps. I'll go and see +after him. Fordham, old chap, come along," he cried, bursting into the +carriage again. + +"Eh?" was the provokingly cool reply. + +"Don't you see?" went on Phil, hurriedly. "Now be a good old chap, and +tumble to my scheme. Let's go to Zinal instead." + +"I don't care. How about our traps though? They're posted to t'other +place." + +"Hang that. We can send for 'em. And er--I say, Fordham, don't let on +we weren't going there all along. I sort of gave them to understand we +were. You know?" + +"I do. I overheard you imperil your immortal soul just now, Philip +Orlebar. And you want me to abet you in the utter loss thereof? It is +a scandalous proposal, but--Here, hurry up if you're going to get out. +The train is beginning to move on again." + +"Delighted to meet you again, Fordham," said the old General, shaking +the latter heartily by the hand. "What are your plans? They tell us we +ought to sleep here, in Sierre, to-night and go on early in the +morning." + +"That's what we are going to do." + +"A good idea. We might all go on together. They tell me there's a +capital hotel here. Which is it," he went on, glancing at the caps of +two rival commissionaires. + +"The `Belle Vue.' But it's only a step. Hardly worth while getting +into the omnibus." + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +IN THE VAL D'ANNIVIERS. + +There are few more beautiful and romantic scenes than the lower end of +the Val d'Anniviers as, having after a long and tedious ascent by very +abrupt zig-zags reached Niouc, you leave the Rhone Valley with its +broad, snake-like river and numberless watch-towers, its villages and +whitewashed churches, and Sion with its cathedral and dominated by its +castled rock in the distance--you leave all this behind and turn your +face mountainwards. + +Far below, glimpsed like a thread from the road, the churning waters of +the Navigenze course through their rocky channel with a sullen roar, +their hoarse raving, now loud, now deadened, as a bend of the steep +mountain-side opens or shuts out the view beneath, and with it the +sound. From the river the slopes shoot skyward in one grand sweep-- +abrupt, unbroken, well-nigh precipitous. Pine forests, their dark-green +featheriness looking at that height like a different growth of grass +upon the lighter hue of the pastures--huge rocks and boulders lying in +heaped-up profusion even as when first hurled from the mountain-side +above, seeming mere pebble heaps--_chalets_, too, in brown groups like +toy chocolate houses or standing alone perched on some dizzy eyrie among +their tiny patches of yellow cornland--all testify to the stupendous +vastness of Nature's scale. And at the head of the valley the forking +cone of the Besso, and beyond it, rising from its amphitheatre of snow, +the white crest of the Rothhorn soaring as it were to the very heavens +in its far-away altitude. And the air! It is impossible to exaggerate +its clear exhilaration. It is like drinking in the glow of sunshine +even as golden wine--it is like bathing in the entrancing blue of the +firmament above. + +"Alma, you have treated me shockingly," Philip was saying, while they +two were seated by the roadside to rest and await the arrival of the +others, who might be seen toiling up the zig-zags aforesaid, but yet a +little way off. "Shockingly, do you hear. You never wrote me a line, +as you promised, and but that by great good luck we happened to be in +the same train I should never have known you were coming here at all." + +"That's odd. Is the place we are going to of such enormous extent that +we could both be in it without knowing of each other's proximity?" she +said innocently, but with a mischievous gleam lurking in her eyes. + +"No--er--why?" + +Alma laughed--long and merrily. "You are a very poor schemer, Phil. +Your friend would have had his answer ready--but you have regularly-- +er--`given yourself away'--isn't that the expression? Confess now--and +remember that it is only a full and unreserved confession that gains +forgiveness. You were not going to Zinal at all--and you have +hoodwinked my uncle shamefully?" + +"What a magician you are!" was the somewhat vexed answer. And then he +joined in her laugh. + +"Am I? Well I thought at first that the coincidence was too striking to +be a coincidence. Where were you going?" + +"To Zermatt. But what a blessed piece of luck it was that I happened to +put my head out of the window at that poky little station. But for that +only think what we should have missed. Heavens! It's enough to make a +fellow drop over the cliff there to think of it." + +"Is it! But only think what an unqualified--er--misstatement you have +committed yourself to. Doesn't that weigh on your conscience like +lead?" + +"No," replied the sinner, unabashed. "It's a clear case of the end +justifying the means. And then--all's fair in love and war," he added, +with a gleeful laugh. + +"You dear Phil. You are very frivolous, you know," she answered, +abandoning her inquisitorial tone for one that was very soft and +winsome. "Well, as we are here--thanks to your disgraceful stratagem--I +suppose we must make the best of it." + +"Darling!" was the rapturous response--"Oh, hang it!" + +The latter interpolation was evoked by the sudden appearance of the +others around a bend of the road, necessitating an equally sudden change +in the speaker's attitude and intentions. But the sting of the whole +thing lay in the fact that during that alteration he had caught +Fordham's glance, and the jeering satire which he read therein inspired +him with a wildly insane longing to knock that estimable misogynist over +the cliff then and there. + +"Well, young people. You've got the start of us and kept it," said the +General, as they came up. His wife was mounted on a mule, which +quadruped was towed along by the bridle by a ragged and unshaven +Valaisan. + +"Alma dear, why didn't you wait for us at that last place--Niouc, isn't +it, Mr Fordham?" said the old lady, reproachfully. "We had some coffee +there." + +"Which was so abominably muddy we couldn't drink it--ha--ha!" put in the +General. "But it's a long way on to the next place--isn't it, Fordham?" + +"Never mind, auntie. I don't want anything, really," replied Alma. "I +never felt so fit in my life. Oh!" she broke off, in an ecstatic tone. +"What a grand bit of scenery!" + +"Rather too grand to be safe just here?" returned Mrs Wyatt, "I'm +afraid. I shall get down and walk." + +The road--known at this point as "Les Pontis"--here formed a mere ledge +as it wound round a lateral ravine--lying at right angles to the gorge-- +a mere shelf scooped along the face of the rock. On the inner side the +cliff shot up to a great height overhead on the outer side--space. +Looking out over the somewhat rickety rail the tops of the highest trees +seemed a long way beneath. Twelve feet of roadway and the mule +persisting in walking near the edge. No wonder the old lady preferred +her feet to the saddle. + +Mere pigmies they looked, wending their way along the soaring face of +the huge cliffs. Now and then the road would dive into a gallery or +short tunnel, lighted here and there by a rough loophole--by putting +one's head out of which a glance at the unbroken sweep of the cliff +above and below conveyed some idea as to the magnitude of the +undertaking. + +"A marvellous piece of engineering," pronounced the General, looking +about him critically. "Bless my soul! this bit of road alone is worth +coming any distance to see." + +Philip and Alma had managed to get on ahead again. + +"Oh, look!" cried the latter, excitedly. "Look--look! There's a bunch +of edelweiss, I declare!" + +He followed her glance. Some twelve feet overhead grew a few +mud-coloured blossoms. The rock sloped here, and the plant had found +root in a cranny filled up with dust. + +"No; don't try it! It's too risky, you may hurt yourself," went on +Alma, in a disappointed tone. "We must give them up, I suppose." + +But this was not Philip's idea. He went at the steep rock bank as +though storming a breach. There was nothing to hold on to; but the +impetus of his spring and the height of his stature combined carried him +within reach of the edelweiss. Then he slid back amid a cloud of dust +and shale, barking his shins excruciatingly, but grasping in his fist +four of the mud-coloured blossoms. + +"Are you hurt?" cried Alma, her eyes dilating. "You should not have +tried it. I told you not to try it." + +"Hurt? Not a bit! Here are the edelweiss flowers though." And in the +delighted look which came into Alma's eyes as she took them, he felt +that he would have been amply rewarded for a dozen similar troubles. +But just then a whimsical association of ideas brought back to his mind +the absurd postscript to that letter which had so sorely perturbed him. +"Be sure you send me a big bunch of `adleweis' from the top of the +Matterhorn"; and the recollection jarred horribly as he contrasted the +writer of that execrable epistle, and the glorious refined beauty of +this girl who stood here alone with him, so appropriately framed in this +entrancing scene of Nature's grandeur. + +"That is delightful," said Alma, gleefully, as she arranged the blossoms +in her dress. "Now I have got some edelweiss at last. When we get to +Zinal I shall be the envied of all beholders, except that every one +there will have hats full of it, I suppose." + +"I don't know about that Fordham says it's getting mighty scarce +everywhere. But it's poor looking stuff. As far as I can make out, its +beauty, like that of a show bulldog, lies in its ugliness." + +"Shall I ever forget this sweet walk!" she said, gazing around as though +to photograph upon her mind every detail of the surroundings. "You +think me of a gushing disposition. In a minute you will think me of a +complaining and discontented one. But just contrast this with a +commonplace, and wholly uninteresting cockneyfied suburb such as that +wherein my delectable lot is cast, and then think of the difference." + +"Dearest, you know I don't think you--er--discontented or anything of +the sort," he rejoined, fervently. "But--I thought Surbiton was rather +a pretty place. The river--and all that--" + +"A mere romping ground for 'Arry and 'Arriet to indulge their horseplay. +Philip, I--hate the place. There!" + +"Then, darling, why go back to it? or anyhow, only to get ready to leave +it as soon as possible," he answered quickly. + +"Phil, you are breaking our compact, and I won't answer that question. +No. What I mean is that it is lamentable to think how soon I shall be +back in that flat, stale, and unprofitable place. Why this will seem +like a different state of existence, looked back upon then--indeed, it +is hard to believe that the same world can comprise the two." + +The road had now left its rocky windings and here entered the cool shade +of feathery pine woods, the latter in no wise unwelcome, for the sun was +now high enough to make himself felt. It might be that neither of them +were destined to forget that walk in the early morning through an +enchanted land. The soaring symmetry of the mighty peaks; the great +slopes and the jagged cliffs; the fragrance of the pine needles and +moist, moss-covered rocks; the golden network of sunlight through the +trees, and the groups of picturesque _chalets_ perched here and there +upon the spurs; the sweet and exhilarating air, and the hoarse thunder +of the torrent far below in its rocky prison--sights and sounds of +fairyland all. And to these two wandering side by side there was +nothing lacking to complete the spell. It was such a day as might well +remain stamped upon their memory--such a day as in the time to come they +might often and often recall. But--would it be with joy, or would it be +with pain? + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Meanwhile, the first half of the journey was over, for the picturesque +grouping of _chalets_ clustering around a massive church which suddenly +came into sight announced that they had reached Vissoye, the most +considerable place in the valley. Here a long halt was to be made; and +the old people indeed were glad of a rest, for it had grown more than +warm. So after breakfast in the cheerful and well-ordered hotel, the +General lit his pipe and strolled forth to find a shady corner of the +garden where he could smoke and doze, while his wife, spying a +convenient couch in the empty _salon_, was soon immersed in the +shadowland attained through the medium of "forty winks." + +Left to themselves, Alma and Philip strolled out into the village, +gazing interestedly upon the quaint architecture and devices which +ornamented the great brown _chalets_. Then they wandered into the +church--a massive parallelogram, with a green ash-tree springing from +its belfry. Alma was delighted with the wealth of symbolism and rich +colouring displayed alike upon wall and in window, roof and shrine; but +Philip voted it crude and tawdry. + +"There speaks the true John Bull abroad," she whispered. "As it +happens, the very crudeness of it constitutes its artistic merit, for it +is thoroughly in keeping. And the heavy gilding of the vine device, +creeping around the scarlet ground-colour of those pillars, is anything +but tawdry. It is quaint, _bizarre_, if you will, but striking and +thoroughly effective. I suppose you want nothing but that desolate grey +stone and the frightful wall tablets which give to our English +cathedrals the look of so many deserted railway stations." + +"Oh, I don't care either way. That sort of thing isn't in my line. But +look, Alma, what are they putting up those trestles for? I suppose they +are going to bury somebody." + +"Where? Oh, very likely," as she perceived a little old man, who, aided +by a boy, was beginning to clear a space in front of the choir steps, +with a view to arranging a pile of trestles which they had brought in. +"We may as well go outside now." + +They went out on to the terrace-like front of the graveyard, and sat +down upon the low wall overhanging the deep green valley, which fell +abruptly to the brawling Navigenze beneath. Gazing upon the blue +arching heavens, and the emerald slopes sleeping in the golden sunshine, +Alma heaved a deep sigh of happy, contented enjoyment. + +"Ah, the contrasts of life!" she remarked. "At this moment I am trying +to imagine that I am in the same world as that hateful suburb, with its +prim villas and stucco gentility--its dull, flat, mediocre pretensions +to `prettiness.' Yes, indeed, life contains some marvellous contrasts." + +"Here comes one of them, for instance," said Philip. "This must be the +funeral they were getting ready for." + +A sound of chanting--full, deep-throated, and melodious--mingled with +the subdued crunch of many feet upon the gravelled walk as the head of a +procession appeared, wending round the corner of the massive building. +First came a little group of surpliced priests and acolytes, preceded by +a tall silver crucifix and two burning tapers; then the coffin, borne by +four men. Following on behind came a score of mourners--men, women, and +children, hard-featured villagers all, but showing something very real, +very subdued, in the aspect of their grief. + +"_Requiem aeternam dona et, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat et_." The +massive plain-song chant wailed melodiously forth, swelling upon the +sunlit air in a wave of sound. The two seated there had been discussing +the contrasts of life. Here was a greater contrast still--the contrast +of Death. + +"_Exultabunt Domino ossa humiliata_" arose the chant again, as the +_cortege_ defiled within the church. And through the open door the +spectators could see the flash of the silver cross and the starry +glitter of the carried lights moving up the centre above the heads of +the mourners. + +"So even in this paradise-like spot we are invaded by--death," said +Alma, in a subdued voice, as having waited a moment or two they rose to +leave. "Still, even death is rendered as bright as the living know +how," she went on, with a glance around upon the flower-decked graves +between which they were threading their way. "Confess now, you British +Philistine, isn't all that more impressive than the black horses and +plumes and hearses of our inimitable England?" + +"I daresay it might be if one understood it," answered Philip, +judiciously. "But I say, Alma, it isn't cheerful whatever way you take +it!" + +Mrs Wyatt was already on her mule as they regained the hotel, and the +General, leaning on his alpenstock, stood giving directions--with the +aid of Fordham--to the men in charge of the pack mules bearing their +luggage. + +"Alma, child," he said reprovingly, while Philip had dived indoors to +get his knapsack, "you're doing a very foolish thing, walking about all +the time instead of resting. You'll be tired to death before you get +there." + +"No, no I won't, uncle dear!" she answered, with a bright smile. "You +forget this isn't--Surbiton. Why I could walk for ever in this air. I +feel as fresh now as when we left Sierre this morning." + +Certainly she gave no reason to imagine the contrary as they pursued +their way in the glowing afternoon--on past little clusters of +_chalets_, through pine woods and rocky landslips, crossing by shaky log +bridges the rolling, milky torrent, which had roared at such a dizzy +depth beneath their road earlier in the day. The snow peaks in front +drew nearer and nearer, the bright glow of the setting sun spread in +horizontal rays over the now broadening out valley, and there on the +outskirts of a straggling village, surrounded by green meadows wherein +the peasants were busy tossing their hay crops, stood the hotel--a large +oblong house, partly of brick, partly of wood, burnt brown by exposure +to the sun, like the residue of the _chalets_ around. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +As they arrived the first bell was ringing for _table d'hote_ dinner, +and people were dropping in by twos and threes, or in parties, returning +from expeditions to adjacent glaciers or elsewhere. Some were armed +with ice-axes, and one or two with ropes and guides. Nearly all had red +noses and peeled countenances, and this held good of both sexes, more +especially of that which is ordinarily termed the fair. But this--at +first startling--phenomenon Fordham explained to be neither the result +of the cup that cheers and does inebriate nor of any organic disorder of +the cuticle, but merely the action of the sun's rays reflected from the +surface of the snow or ice with the effect of a burning glass. Alma +made a little grimace. + +"I think I shall confine my wanderings to where there's no snow or ice-- +and I do so want to go on a glacier--rather than become an object like +that," lowering her voice as a tall, angular being of uncertain age-- +with a fearfully peeled and roasted countenance, and with her skirts +tucked up to show an amount of leg which should have brought her under +the ban of the Lord Chamberlain--strode by with a mien and assurance as +though she held first mortgage on the whole of the Alps, as Fordham +graphically put it. + +"You can patrol the glaciers for a week if you only cover your face with +a veil," answered the latter. "You may burn a little, but nothing near +the horrible extent you would otherwise." + +"The house doesn't seem crowded," remarked Philip, when _table d'hote_ +was half through. They had secured the end of the long table, and there +was a hiatus of several empty chairs between them and their next +neighbours. This and the stupendous clatter of knives and forks and +tongues, enabled them to talk with no more restraint than a slight +lowering of the voice. + +"By Jove!" he went on, withdrawing his glance from an attentive scrutiny +of the table, "it's a mighty seedy crowd, anyhow. All British, too. +Look at those half-dozen fellows sitting together there. Did any one +ever see such an unshaven, collarless squad of bounders?" + +The objects of the speaker's somewhat outspoken scorn assuredly did +their best to justify it. They answered exactly to his description as +to their appearance. Moreover when they spoke it was in the dialect of +Edgware Road rather than that of Pall Mall. Two or three +gaudily-dressed females of like stamp seemed to belong to them. Beyond +were other people in couples or in parties. + +"Don't you think you are rather hard on them, Philip?" objected Mrs +Wyatt--for by virtue of the General's former acquaintance with his +father, and their now fast-growing intimacy with himself, the old people +had taken to calling him by his Christian name. + +Alma broke into a little laugh. + +"Auntie, you remind us of `the Infliction' at Les Avants. She always +used to begin `Don't you think.'" + +"Mrs Wyatt used to sit opposite her," said Phil, slily. + +"You're a naughty boy, Phil," laughed the old lady, "and you've no +business to poke fun at your grandmother. But I think you are too hard +on those poor fellows. They may not have any luggage with them." + +"No more have we. Fordham and I will have to live in our knapsacks for +the next week. And even if we had no clothes we'd manage by hook or by +crook to beg, borrow, or steal a razor." + +"I don't think much of the population, certainly," put in the General. +"There were a much better stamp of people at Les Avants." + +"Always are," said Fordham. "It's a place where people go to stay, and +the same people go there again and again. Moreover, it isn't enough of +a show-place to attract the mere tourist. 'Arry itinerant patronises +the higher resorts, where he can walk across a glacier and brag about it +ever after. But this is an exceptionally weedy crowd, as Phil says," he +added, sticking up his eyeglass and taking stock of the same. + +"Not all. I don't think quite all," objected Mrs Wyatt. "Those two +ladies sitting next to the clergyman down there look rather nice. Don't +you think so, Mr Fordham?" + +"Might discharge both barrels of a shot-gun down the table and not +damage a social equal," was the uncompromising reply. + +But little it mattered to them in a general way what sort of a lot their +fellow-countrymen there sojourning might or might not be. It was +delightful to exchange the low stuffy _salle-a-manger_, with its +inevitable reek of fleshpots, its clatter of knives and forks and its +strife of tongues, for the sweet hay-scented evening air, with the +afterglow reddening and fading on the double-horned Besso and the +snowfields beyond, the stars twinkling forth one by one against the loom +of the great mountain wall which seemed literally to overhang the +valley. There was a lulling, soothing sense in the sequestered +propinquity of the great mountains, in the dull roar of the +ever-speaking torrent. Old General Wyatt, seated on a bench smoking his +evening pipe, expressed unbounded satisfaction. + +"It's like a paradise after that abominably rackety Grindelwald," he +pronounced. + +"Yes, dear," assented his wife. "But what I want to know is," she added +in a low tone, "how is that going to end?" + +"How is what?--Oh--ah--yes--um!" as he followed her glance. + +The latter had lighted upon their niece and her now inseparable escort. +They had returned from an evening stroll, and were standing looking +about them as though loth to go in. Alma had thrown on a cloak, for +there was a touch of sharpness in the air, and the soft fur seemed to +cling caressingly round the lower part of her face, framing and throwing +into greater prominence the luminous eyes and sweet, refined beauty. +She was discoursing animatedly, but the old people were too far off for +the burden of her ideas to reach them. + +"It is going to end in the child completely knocking herself up," said +the General with a disapproving shake of the head. "She must have +walked twenty miles to-day if she has walked one. Now mind, she must +stay at home to-morrow and rest thoroughly." + +"That isn't what I mean, and you know it isn't," urged the old lady in a +vexed tone. + +"Ha-ha! I know it isn't," he answered with a growl that was more than +half a chuckle. + +"Well, and what do you think of it?" + +"Um! ah! I don't know what to think. If the young people like each +other, I don't see why they shouldn't see plenty of each other--in a +place like this. If they decide they don't--well, there's no harm +done." + +"But I've always heard you say that Sir Francis Orlebar was a poor man-- +a poor man with a second wife," said Mrs Wyatt, tentatively. + +"So is Alma. I don't mean with a second wife--ha-ha! But she hasn't a +sixpence, and it would be a blessed day for her that on which she got +away from that mother of hers for good and all." + +"But isn't that all the more reason she should marry somebody who is +well off?" + +"Well, yes, I suppose it is. But then, you can't have everything. It's +seldom enough you get cash and every other desirable endowment thrown +in. Now I like Phil Orlebar. I don't know when I've seen a young +fellow I've liked more. It's a thousand pities, though, that his father +didn't put him into some profession or give him something to do; but it +isn't too late now, and Alma might do worse. Here--hang it all!" he +broke off with a growl.--"What a couple of mischief-making old +match-makers we are becoming. It's getting cold. Time to go in." + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +"ALL IN THE BLUE UNCLOUDED WEATHER." + +"When are we going to begin some real climbing--eh, Phil?" + +"Oh, I don't know. By the way, Fordham, I'm not sure that real high +climbing isn't a mistake. It seems rather a thin thing to put oneself +to any amount of unmitigated fag, and go sleeping out under rocks or in +huts and in all sorts of beastly places chock full of fleas, and turn +out at ungodly hours in the morning--in the middle of the night, +rather--merely for the sake of shinning up to the top of some confounded +rock that scores of other fellows have shinned up already, and thousands +more will. No; I believe there's far more sense in this sort of thing, +and I'm certain it's far more fun." + +"This sort of thing" being a long day's expedition of the nature of a +picnic, a walk for the most part over the glacier to some point of +interest or scenic advantage, which in the present instance was a trip +to the Mountet Cabin, a structure erected by the Alpine Club high up +among the rocks at the base of the Besso, for the convenience of parties +ascending the Rothhorn or traversing one of the several difficult, and +more or less dangerous, glacier passes leading into the next valley. +The hour was early--before sunrise in fact--and our two friends were +threading their way rapidly between the rows of brown _chalets_ which +constitute the picturesque hamlet of Zinal, intent on overtaking the +rest of their party, who had "just strolled quietly on," a process which +in nineteen cases out of twenty may be taken to mean that if the +overtaker comes up with the advance guard within a couple of hours, he +or she has progressed at a rate by no means pleasant or advisable as the +start for a long day's walk or climb. This instance, however, was the +twentieth, for whereas those in advance consisted of General Wyatt and +his niece, two learned young ladies with short-cropped hair and +spectacles, and a young clergyman, also in spectacles, the athletic pair +had no difficulty in overhauling them in a very short time, and that +with no inordinate effort. + +"Well, Mr Fordham. It isn't always we poor women who keep everybody +waiting," said Alma, mischievously, as they came up, with a glance at +Phil, to whose reluctance to leave his snug couch until the very last +moment was due the fact that the party had not started together. + +"That's what comes of doing a good action--one always gets abused for +it," replied Fordham. "If I hadn't acted as whipper-in you'd never have +seen this lazy dog until you were half-way home again." + +"Oh, the poor _men_! They never can bring themselves to leave their +beds. And yet they call themselves the stronger sex," put in one of the +shock-headed young women, who, by virtue of being students at one of the +seats of learning recently founded for their sex, looked down as from a +lofty pedestal and with sublime pity upon the world at large. "The +strong-minded sex, I should have said." + +"Not much use, are they, Miss Severn?" said the parson in playful +banter. + +"Except when the midnight mouse in the wainscotting suggests burglars, +or the booming of the wind in the chimney, bogies," rejoined Fordham, +tranquilly. "In a thunderstorm, too, their presence is apt to be highly +reassuring." + +To this the shock-headed one deigned no rejoinder. She and her sister +had formed some slight acquaintance with the Wyatts, and had joined them +in expeditions similar to the present one; in fact, were rather more +glad to do so than the others were that they should. Like too many of +their kind they imagined that disagreeable, not to say rude, remarks at +the expense of the opposite sex demonstrated the superiority of their +own in general, and such representatives of it as devoted their minds to +conic sections in particular. + +Nothing, as a rule, is more depressing to the poor creatures of an +effete civilisation than an early morning start. Than the hour of +summer sunrise in the Alps, however, nothing is more exhilarating. The +cool, fresh, bracing air, the statuesque grandeur of the great +mountains, the dash and sparkle of the swirling stream, the mingling +aromatic fragrances distilling from opening wild flowers and resinous +pines--it is a glimpse of fairyland, a very tonic to heart and brain, a +reservoir of nerve power to limb and system. + +And now beyond the huge projecting shoulder of the Alpe d'Arpitetta the +rays of the newly-risen sun were flooding the snowfields with a golden +radiancy. No more shade directly. But the air was crisp, and the sky +of cloudless beauty. To two of those present it was but the beginning +of a glowing halcyon day--one among many. Nearly a fortnight had gone +by since their arrival, a fortnight spent in similar fashion--one day +succeeding another, spent from dawn to dark amid the sublimest scenes of +Nature on her most inspiring scale. + +Philip Orlebar, the mercurial, the careless, had undergone a marked +change. And it was a change which affected him for the better, was that +brought about by this crisis of his life, in that it seemed to impart a +not wholly unneeded ballast to his otherwise line character, a dignity +to his demeanour which became him well, the more so that there was the +stamp of a great and settled happiness upon his face, and in the +straight, sunny glance of the clear eyes, that was goodly to look upon. +The Fire of the Live Coal burnt bright and clear. + +"Alma, darling, why not let me say something to your uncle now instead +of waiting until you go home again?" he said one day, when they were +scrambling about among the rocks in search of the coveted edelweiss. +"Then I shall feel that you do really belong to me." + +She looked at him for a moment--looked at him standing over her in his +straight youthful strength and patrician beauty, and hesitated. She was +growing very fond of him, and, more important still, very proud of him, +which with a woman of Alma's stamp means that her surrender is already a +thing to be ranked among certainties. But the circumstances of her home +life had been such as to impart to her character a vein of wisdom, of +caution, which was considerably beyond her years. + +"No, Phil--not yet," she answered, with a little shake of her head; but +beneath all the decision of her tone there lay a hidden caress. "This +is a summer idyll--a mere holiday. Wait until it is over and life--real +life--begins again. No, stop--I won't have that--here," she broke off +suddenly, springing away from him with a laugh and a blush. "Remember +how many people at the hotel have telescopes, not to mention the big one +planted out in front of the door. We may constitute an object of +special attention at the present moment, for all we know." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Return we to our party now bound for the Mountet hut, _via_ the Durand +glacier. This was not the first time they had made this expedition, +consequently they were able to dispense with a guide--and Fordham, at +any rate, had had sufficient previous Alpine experience. The great +silent ice river locked within the vast depths of its rock-bound bed +rippled in a succession of frozen billows between its lofty mountain +walls, the human figures traversing it looking the merest pigmies among +the awful vastness of the Alpine solitude. Myriad threads of clear +water gurgled with musical murmur through the blue smooth funnels they +had worn for themselves in the surface of the ice, which glistened and +sparkled in the sunlight in a sea of diamond-like facets. "Tables," +viz, stones of all shapes and sizes heaved up, by the action of the +glacier, upon smooth round ice-pedestals--sometimes perfectly wonderful +in their resemblance to the real article of furniture--abounded, and +here and there the dull hollow roar of some heavier stream plunging +between the vertical blue sides of a straight chimney-like shaft, which +it had worn to an incredible depth by its action. + +"What an extremely good-looking fellow that young Orlebar is," remarked +the clergyman, who had been observing the pair some little distance in +front. + +"I can't say that handsome men are at all to my taste," replied the +elder of the two learned sisters, loyal to a recollection of evenings +spent at meetings of various scientific societies in the company of an +undersized, round-shouldered professor with a huge head of unkempt hair +and a very dandruffy coat-collar. "There is never anything in them. +They are invariably empty-headed to a degree." + +"And desperately conceited," put in the younger, acidly. + +"And this young Orlebar is the most empty-headed and conceited of them +all," rejoined the elder. "I consider him a perfectly odious young +man." + +"Really? Now, do you know--I--er--I thought him rather a nice fellow," +said the clergyman timidly. "Very pleasant and taking manners, and a +perfect gentleman." + +"There is no accounting for tastes, of course," was the severely frigid +reply; and the poor parson's heart sank within him as he wondered +whether this sort of thing was to be his lot all day, and whether it +would be practicable to cut adrift from his present convoy and effect a +juncture with Fordham and the General, now some few score yards in the +rear. + +"Alma dear, who on earth cut those awful Severns into our crowd to-day?" +Philip was saying, moved doubtless by that extraordinary coincidence +which inspires two people simultaneously with the same idea, though that +idea be entirely irrelevant to any subject then under consideration or +discussion. + +Alma laughed. + +"I think they more than three parts cut themselves in, and having done +so, cut in Mr Massiter," she answered. + +"Oh, I don't mind the parson! He's an inoffensive chap, you know, and a +good sort, I think. But those two fearful girls, with their `terms' and +their `triposes' and the `dear Principal,' and their shock heads, and +`quite too-too' get-up! Faugh! They never open their mouths without +saying something tart and disagreeable. I suppose they think it a sign +of erudition." + +"We mustn't abuse other people, especially on a day like this--it's a +bad habit to get into. I agree with you though--they might make +themselves a little more pleasant. However, they have their use. +Didn't it ever occur to you, you dear, foolish boy, that I may not +always care to be the only girl in the party? Though it amounts almost +to the same thing, for you never will let any one else come near me." + +"No, I won't," he assented, cheerfully. "I want you all to myself. It +may not last much longer. And--what a time we have had. I would +willingly go back and go through it all again." + +"But we are not going away to-morrow, or the next day either," she +replied, with a sunny laugh. "We shall have many more such days as +this." + +"It is perfect!" he continued, now in a low tone. "Almost too perfect +to last. When shall we be ever again together like this?" + +The remark was made without a shadow of _arriere pensee_, yet it sounded +almost prophetic. Why should it, however? No cloud was in their sky +any more than in the firmament of deep blue spreading overhead. No +shadow was across their path any more than upon the dazzling snowfields +lying aloft in pure and unbroken stretches. The morrow would be but a +reproduction of to-day--a heaven of youth and its warm pulsations, of +sunny freedom from care, and--of love. + +And now Fordham's voice was heard behind. + +"Hallo, Phil?" it shouted, characteristically addressing the stronger +and, in its owner's opinion, more important and only responsible member +of the pair in advance. "Better hold on till we come up. We are +getting among the _seracs_." + +They were. Great masses of ice, by the side of which a five-storey +house would look puny, were heaving up to the sky. The glacier here +made a steep and abrupt drop, falling abroad into wide, lateral chasms-- +not the black and grim crevasses of bottomless depth into which an army +might disappear and leave no trace, such as the smooth, treacherous +surface of the upper _neves_ are seamed with, but awkward rifts for all +that, deep enough to break a limb or even a neck. A labyrinthian course +along the sharp ice-ridges overhanging these became necessary, and +although Philip was armed with the requisite ice-axe and by this time +knew how to wield it, Fordham satirically reflected that the mind of a +man in the parlous state of his friend was not hung upon a sufficiently +even balance to ensure the necessary equilibrium from a material and +physical point of view. So he chose to rally his party. + +A little ordinary caution was necessary, that was all. A little +step-cutting now and then, a helping hand for the benefit of the ladies, +and they threaded their way in perfect safety among the yawning rifts, +the great blue _seracs_ towering up overhead, piled in titanic +confusion--here in huge blocks, there standing apart in tall needle-like +shafts. One of these suddenly collapsed close to them, falling with an +appalling roar, filling the air with a shower of glittering fragments, +causing the hard surface to vibrate beneath them with the grinding crash +of hundreds of tons of solid ice. + +"By Jove! What a magnificent sight?" cried the old General. "I +wouldn't have missed that for the world." + +"`He casteth forth His ice like morsels,'" quoted the parson to himself, +but not in so low a tone as not to be heard by Alma, becoming aware of +which he was conscious of a nervous and guilty start, as of one who had +allowed himself to be found preaching out of church. But he had in her +no supercilious or scoffing critic. + +"I think the vastness of this ice-world is the most wonderful thing in +Nature, Mr Massiter," she said. + +"It is indeed, Miss Wyatt," was the pleased reply. + +And then, catching eagerly at this chance of relief from the somewhat +depressing spell of the two learned ones, the good man attached himself +to her side and engaged her in conversation, not altogether to the +satisfaction of Philip, who, relinquishing the entrancing but somewhat +boyish amusement of heaving boulders down the smooth, slippery slope of +the ice, sprang forward to help her up the narrow, treacherous path of +the loose moraine--for they had left the ice now for a short time. +Virtue was its own reward, however--it and a stone--which, dislodged by +Alma's foot, came bounding down with a smart whack against the left +ankle of the too eager cavalier, evoking from the latter a subdued if +involuntary howl, instead of the mental "cuss-word" which we regret to +say might have greeted the occurrence had it owned any other author. + +Steep and toilsome as this little bit of the way was, the two +strong-minded ones still found breath enough to discourse to the +General--or, rather, _through_ him _at_ Fordham, upon the never-failing +topic, the unqualified inferiority of the other sex, causing that genial +veteran to vote them bores of the most virulent kind, and mentally to +resolve to dispense with their company at whatever cost on all future +expeditions which he might undertake. + +"Why, you couldn't get on for a day without us!" said Fordham, bluntly, +coming to the rescue. "How would you have got along those _seracs_ just +now, for instance, if left to yourselves?" + +"Life does not wholly consist in crossing glaciers, Mr Fordham," was +the majestic reply. + +"It runs on a very good parallel with it though. And the fact remains, +as I said before. You couldn't be happy for a day without us." + +"Indeed?" said the elder and more acid of the two, with splendid +contempt. "Indeed? Don't you flatter yourself. We could be happy-- +perfectly happy--all our lives without you." + +"That's fortunate, for I haven't asked you to be happy all your lives +_with_ me," answered Fordham, blandly. + +The green eyes of the learned pair glared--both had green eyes--like +those of cats in the dark. There was a suspicious shake in the shapely +shoulders of Alma Wyatt, who, with the parson, was leading the way, and +the General burst into such a frantic fit of coughing that he seemed in +imminent peril of suffocation; while a series of extraordinary sounds, +profuse in volume if subdued in tone, emanating from Philip's broad +chest, would have led a sudden arrival upon the scene to imagine that +volatile youth to be afflicted with some hitherto undiscovered ailment, +lying midway between whooping-cough and the strangles. + +And now once more, the fall of the glacier surmounted, the great +ice-field lay before them in smooth and even expanse. And what a scene +of wild and stately grandeur was that vast amphitheatre now opening out. +Not a tree, not a shrub in sight; nothing but rocks and ice--a great +frozen plain, seamed and crevassed in innumerable cracks, shut in by +towering mountains and grim rock-walls, the summits of which were +crowned with layers of snow--the perilous "cornice" of the Alpine +climber--curling over above the dizzy height--of dazzling whiteness +against the deep blue of the heavens. In crescent formation they stood, +those stately mountains encircling the glaciers, the snow-flecked hump +of the Grand Cornier and the huge and redoubted Dent Blanche, whose +ruddy ironstone precipices and grim ice-crowned _aretes_ glowed in the +full midday sunlight with sheeny prismatic gleam; the towering +Gabelhorn, and the knife-like point of the Rothhorn soaring away as if +to meet the blue firmament itself. Gigantic ice-slopes, swept smooth by +the driving gales, shone pearly and silver; and huge overhanging masses +of blue ice, where the end of a high glacier had broken off, stood forth +a wondrously beautiful contrast in vivid green. But this scene of +marvellous grandeur and desolation was not given over to silence, for +ever and anon the fall of a mighty _serac_ would boom forth with a +thunderous roar. The ghostly rattle and echo of falling stones high up +among those grim precipices was never entirely still, while the hoarse +growling of streams cleaving their way far below in the heart of the +glacier was as the voices of prisoned giants striving in agonised +throes. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +THE WRITING ON THE WALL. + +Not less imposing was the wild magnificence of this panorama as viewed +from the Mountet cabin, which, from its eyrie-like position high up +among the rocks, commanded the whole vast ice-amphitheatre. The last +climb, after leaving the glacier, had been a steep and trying one, and +to most of the party, at any rate, the first consideration on reaching +their goal was a twofold one--rest and lunch. + +"I suppose you don't get much sleep in these places, eh, Fordham?" said +the General, looking round upon the plank shelves which, plentifully +covered with straw, constituted the sleeping places. From the beams +above hung rugs of a heavy, coarse texture. + +"It depends on a good many things--the absence of fleas, or of a crowd. +When there are three or four parties, with their guides, going the same +way or coinciding here for the night, a box like this is apt to get +crowded and the air thick." + +"It is wonderfully ingenious," said Alma, taking in the solidity of the +building and its contrivances for safety and comfort--every stick of +which had to be dragged up there by mules and porters. "Where did they +sleep before these cabins were built?" + +"Under the rocks. Picked out a sheltered corner and rolled in. A +coldish sort of a bedroom too," answered Fordham. + +"And all for the sake of getting to the top of a peak that a hundred +other fools have been up already, and a thousand more will go up +afterwards," struck in the flippant Phil. "Throw one of those +hard-boiled eggs at me, Fordham. Thanks." + +"Is not that kind of reasoning--er--somewhat fatal to all enterprise?" +said the parson. + +"There is little enterprise, as such, in all this Alp climbing," +interrupted one of the learned young women before anybody could reply. +"Not one in a hundred of all the men who spend summer after summer +mountaineering ever thinks of benefiting his species by his experiences. +No branch of science is the gainer by it, for the poor creature is +lamentably ignorant of science in any branch--almost that such a thing +exists, in fact. To him a mountain is--a mountain, and nothing more--" + +"But--what in the world else should it be, Miss Severn?" said Philip. + +"--Just so many thousand feet to go up," continued the oracle, severely +ignoring the flippant interruptor. + +"Or so many thousand feet to come down--and then return home in a sack," +said the latter, wickedly. + +"Just one more peak to add to the number he can already boast of having +scaled. Nobody the gainer by it. Grand opportunities thrown away. The +only end effected, the aggravation of one man's already inflated +conceit." + +"I don't know about nobody being the gainer by it, Miss Severn," said +the General. "I am disposed to think this rage for mountaineering by no +means a bad thing--in fact a distinctly good one, as anything that calls +forth pluck, determination, and endurance is bound to be. Now, by the +time a man has done two or three of these gentry there," with a wave of +the hand in the direction of the surrounding peaks, "his nerve is likely +to be in pretty good order, and his training and condition not very +deficient. No, I don't agree with you at all, Miss Severn." + +"The guides are very considerably the gainers by it, too," said +Fordham--"the gainers by enough cash to tide them comfortably through +the winter." + +"These are all very secondary considerations," was the lofty rejoinder. +"Nobody touches my point after all. General Wyatt thinks that the +object of penetrating the wonders of these stupendous ice-worlds has +been gained when a man has got himself into the hard muscular training +of a mere brutal prize-fighter; while Mr Fordham thinks it quite +sufficient if a few hundred francs find their way into the pockets of a +few Swiss peasants. But what does science gain by it? Of course I +except the researches of such men as Tyndall--but they are the rare +exceptions." And the speaker looked around as if challenging a reply. +She was disappointed, however. Nobody seemed to think it worth their +while to undertake one. Presently Fordham said-- + +"It has often been remarked that we are not a logical nation. Hardly a +day passes without emphasising that fact to the ordinarily wide-awake +observer." + +"How so? Please explain. I don't quite follow you," said Miss Severn, +briskly, fiercely elate that her challenge had been taken up. + +"Well, we British are perennially grumbling at our abominably cold +climate--winter all the year round, and so forth; and yet during the few +weeks of summer vouchsafed to us away we rush to places like this, and +stow ourselves as close to the snow and ice as we possibly can." + +"I--I really don't see the connection," said the would-be debater, in +tart mystification. "Isn't that rather a pointless remark--not to say +irrelevant?" + +"Oh, no. If anything, the reverse," answered Fordham, tranquilly. "The +idea was suggested by seeing several of us shiver, and it naturally +occurred to me that we had probably sat as long as was safe if we wanted +to avoid catching cold. For present purposes it may be taken to mean +that we should be wise to think of going down, still wiser to go down +and take the thinking as thought. What do you say, General?" + +"I agree with you, Fordham. It doesn't do to sit too long in this sharp +air, after getting heated coming up, too." + +So the wisdom of the elders prevailed, and the party started upon the +homeward way. Philip having found a long, steep snow-shoot, preferred +the risky delights of a _glissade_ to the more sober and gradual descent +of a series of zig-zags. But the snow was soft, with the result that +when half-way the adventurous one went head over heels, convulsing with +mirth those who witnessed his frantic flounderings from the security of +the zig-zag footpath aforesaid. Meanwhile the two erudite damsels were +confiding to the parson their rooted conviction that Fordham was the +most abominably disagreeable man they had ever met--which view, however, +being that of the bulk of their sex on the same subject, was neither +original nor striking. + +And then as they gained the level of the glacier once more, again the +wily Phil managed to pair off--to straggle indeed considerably from the +main body--to straggle away almost to the base of the huge cliffs of the +Grand Cornier. Here crevasses began to open in all directions--real +ones, yawning black in the glistening surface. + +"By Jove! look at that!" cried Phil, as a huge rift came into view right +across the way they were following. It was overhung by a wreath of +frozen snow, and the "lip" thus formed was fringed and festooned with +gleaming icicles. It was a lovely and at the same time forbidding +spectacle, as the sunlight fell upon the myriad smooth needles of ice-- +catching the star-like facets in gleaming scintillation--playing upon +the translucent walls of the chasm in many a prismatic ray--roseate and +gold, and richest azure. Then, below, the black, cold depths, as of the +bottomless pit. + +"It is splendid, but gruesome," said Alma, peering tentatively into the +silent depths--a process which needed a steadying, not to say +supporting, hand. "I wonder how deep it is." + +"It's a pity, in the interests of science--but on that ground alone-- +that we haven't got our two learned friends along," said Philip, +proceeding to roll a big stone, of which there were several on the +surface of the glacier, to the brink. "They could locate the depth by +the time it takes to fall. Now, listen!" + +He rolled over the stone. It was a large one, and spoke volumes for his +excellent condition that he was able to move it at all. There was a +crash and a shatter like the breaking of glass, as it crushed through +the fringe of icicles--then a long pause, followed by a far-away and +hollow clang. + +"What an awful depth," said Alma, with a shudder, instinctively drawing +back. "Wait!" warned Philip. "There it goes again!" Another clang-- +this time very faint, together with a ghostly rumbling roar as the +prisoned echo strove to break free--told that the crevasse was of +appalling depth, even if its bottom was yet reached. The listeners +looked at each other. + +"Not much chance once over this little bit of crushed snow," said +Philip, breaking away the overhanging edge with the end of his ice-axe. + +"Horrible!" rejoined Alma, with a shudder. "Now I think we had better +go back to the others, for it seems to me we are getting more and more +in among the crevasses, and it must be a trifle dangerous." + +It was even as she said. The whole surface of the glacier was seamed +and criss-crossed with yawning rifts--many of them like the one before +them--of unknown depth. To a fairly experienced man, and one of average +gumption withal, the situation would have held no obstacle. To such the +lay of the glacier would have been understood, and he could have +threaded his way to safer ground without difficulty. But Philip was not +experienced in Alpine features, and there was just a little too much of +the bull-at-a-gate about his disposition for him to supplement this lack +by ordinary prudence. So they got deeper and deeper into the +labyrinth--and moreover the sun was already shut out behind the towering +mountain walls rearing up immediately overhead. + +Under these circumstances neither of the pair was sorry to hear a shout, +and to make out a figure approaching at some distance over the ice. + +"It's Fordham," cried Phil. "He'll show us the right line. He's about +as good as a professional guide." + +Not the least lovable trait in Philip Orlebar's character was his +perfect readiness to yield to another's superior knowledge, and this he +was wont to do, not grudgingly or as one making a concession, but fully, +frankly, and as a matter of course. It did not, for instance, occur to +him that his fortnight of knocking about among the mountains and +glaciers in the neighbourhood of Zinal--said knocking about being mostly +in picnic fashion, as in the present case--had rendered his experience a +trifle superior to that of Fordham, who had done a good deal of serious +Alpine climbing in times past; and in stating this we are not dealing +with so obvious a truism as the uninitiated would assume. For to many +of his age and temperament that very thing would have occurred, and does +occur, not infrequently to their own ultimate discomfiture if not +disaster. We speak of that which we know. + +Philip therefore hailed the advent of his friend with genuine pleasure, +not to say relief. But the other in no wise reciprocated that warming +sentiment. He didn't see any fun in coming about two miles out of his +way--and towards the end of the day, too--in order to benefit two people +whom he had every reason to suppose would be wishing him in Halifax all +the time. + +"Tired of life already, Miss Wyatt?" he said sourly, as he came up, +pointing to a great black crevasse the two were gingerly skirting. "Or +do you want to anticipate death, and defeating his ravages and decay, +ensure remaining beautiful for ever, although within the depths of a +glacier?" + +"What a weird style of compliment," answered Alma, with a little laugh. +"But any sort of compliment coming from Mr Fordham should be duly +treasured." + +"Well, there's a far weirder fact underlying it. Look here! If you +knew there were half a dozen even indifferent shots posted behind yonder +_seracs_ practising at you with rifles, I believe you'd think your run +of life was held on exceedingly frail and uncertain tenure. Well, left +to yourselves here, the same tenure is a good deal more uncertain than +it would be under the other contingency--you two poor greenhorns." + +"Oh, come; I say, Fordham?" exclaimed Philip, deprecatorily. But Alma +broke into a ringing laugh. + +"You think it a laughing matter, do you?" went on Fordham. "Now you +wouldn't think that a dozen steps further of the line you're following +would perform your own funerals? You'd never be seen again." + +"Now you're cramming us, old chap," said Philip, airily, surveying the +white unbroken surface in front. + +"Am I? Very well. Now, look." + +He counted exactly ten paces forward, then halted, advanced half a pace, +and holding his ice-axe by the head, drove the point into the surface. +In it went without resistance, as far as he allowed it to, which was +almost to the head. Then working it round he made a hole about half a +yard in diameter. + +"Come, now, and look." He went on cautiously knocking away more of the +snow-crust. + +They obeyed, and in a moment were peering through the hole into black +depths. The sheeny surface of the opposite ice-wall glared at them +through the aperture as with the disappointed glare of the eye of some +evil beast baulked of its prey. + +"By Jove!" cried Philip, aghast. "You never spoke a truer word, +Fordham. There would have been an end of us, sure enough. But I say, +old chap, how on earth did you know there was a crevasse there--a dev--, +hum--I mean an awful one it is, too? There's no sign or difference of +colour in the surface." + +"I knew that there was bound to be one by the lay of the land. Now +look," he went on, pointing to the main crevasse, which yawned broadly +parallel to the line they were pursuing, and out of which a lateral one +sprung, and seeming to change its mind, had abruptly terminated-- +apparently so, at any rate. "I knew that this other crack wasn't going +to end there, although it seems to; it was too deep to start with. +Consequently I knew that it was bound to run a considerable way _under_ +the surface, and so it does. A dozen more steps, I repeat, and one or +both of you would have disappeared for ever." + +"By Jove!" ejaculated Phil again, in mingled admiration and dismay, +while Alma shuddered, as she gazed into the ghastly death-trap with a +horrible fascination. + +"At the same time you're wrong in saying there is no sign or difference +of colour in the surface," went on Fordham. "There is the last--faint I +admit--but quite enough to catch a practised eye. And now, while we are +prosing away here, the other people are waiting for us over on the +_moraine_ yonder. So keep close behind me, and let's get out of this." + +Under such able and experienced pilotage they soon got clear of the more +dangerous part of the glacier--doubling and zigzaging in the most +labyrinthine fashion to avoid perils hidden or displayed. + +"You can't afford to go playing about among bottomless pits in any such +careless way, Phil, still more among masked deathtraps like some of +those we passed," said Fordham, as they drew near their party. "So if +you must go skylarking on dangerous ground, you'd better have some one +with you who knows the ropes rather more than you do, and not rather +less." + +But this recollection of peril past added something of a spice to the +keen enjoyment of a delightful day as they took their way homeward. And +then, as they left the wild wilderness of rocks and ice behind, the +great silent glaciers and piled masses of rugged _moraine_, the +westering sunlight flushing upon the soaring peaks as with a glow of +fire, to these two it meant one more day closing as it had begun--in a +golden unearthly beauty--closing into a brief night, which in its turn +should soon melt into another glowing day, even as this one which had +just fled. But--would it? + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Two people have arrived, sir," said the head waiter, meeting Philip in +the hall. "Dey ask for you, sir, first thing. One gentleman and lady." + +"Gentleman and lady?" echoed Phil, in amazement. "Who the deuce can it +be? Who are they, Franz?" + +"I not know, sir. Dey ask first for you; then they ask if we cannot +send messenger to find you. I tell them you away to the Mountet cabin-- +you come back quick as the messenger." + +"The deuce! Who can it be? By Jove--of course! The governor and her +ladyship! It'll be right good getting the old man out here. Don't know +about her ladyship though," he parenthesised, dubiously. "Where are +they, Franz?" + +"Here we are, Philip," cried a masculine voice, which was certainly not +that of Sir Francis Orlebar, and a hand dropped upon his shoulder with +would-be cordiality. + +The recipient of this unceremonious salute started as if he had been +shot. Then he turned--turned with what cordiality he could muster, to +confront the speaker. + +The latter was an elderly man of portentous aspect, ruddy of +countenance, and keen of eye. A thick white beard hid the lower half of +his face, and a crop of bristling white hair adorned his summit, which +last, however, was now concealed by a large pith helmet and puggaree. +He wore a great expanse of waistcoat, covering a redundancy of person +which went far towards bearing out his sleek and aggressively prosperous +appearance. He looked the sort of man who would be a law unto a +roomful--the sort of man whose thumbs would oft seek the armholes of his +waistcoat. He looked what he was--the prosperous, comfortable British +merchant who had begun life a good deal lower down than that. But he +did not look what he was not--viz, a gentleman. + +"Why, how d'you do, Mr Glover?" blurted out Philip at last. "Who on +earth would have thought of seeing you here?" + +"Aha! who'd have thought it, indeed! But the little girl wouldn't give +me any peace. Said you hadn't written to her for so long she didn't +know what had become of you, and we'd better go and see. So we left the +rest of them at St. Swithins and started off, and here we are. Why, +where is she? Edie--where have you got to?" + +"All right, dad; here I am," and the owner of the voice emerged from the +bureau, where she had been arranging about rooms. "Why Phil, dear, this +_is_ nice!" she went on, advancing upon him with extended hand and a +would-be effective blush. + +"Ha ha!" chuckled the old man. "She wouldn't give me any peace until I +brought her here. Now you'll find plenty to talk about, I'll warrant." + +Heavens! this was fearful. The feelings of a wild bull in a net must be +placidity itself compared with those of poor Philip on finding himself +thus cornered and publicly taken possession of. Every soul in the hotel +was getting the benefit of these effusive and affectionate greetings, +for it was just that time before _table d'hote_ when everybody was +coming in to change, and every head was more or less turned for a glance +at the new-comers as its owner passed by. Why Alma herself, who was +standing talking to some other ladies in the hall, was well within +hearing! What would she think? What sort of construction would she put +upon all the affection wherewith these people were bespattering him? +Heavens! what would she think? + +Ha! there was Fordham. Capital! He would plant the new arrivals upon +him. + +"Hullo, Fordham!" he sung out, as his friend at that moment passed +through the hall. "I want to introduce you to Mr Glover here; just +arrived, you know. Miss Glover--Mr Fordham. Knows the country like a +book," he went on, desperately. + +But this manoeuvre, so far from helping him had precisely the opposite +effect; for the old man, with effusive cordiality, at once buttonholed +Fordham, leaving the girl free to take possession of Phil. + +Well, what then? To all appearances the situation was the very reverse +of an unenviable one--indeed, more than one man passing through the hall +at the time looked upon the ill-starred Philip with eyes of downright +envy as he grumbled to himself, "Is that conceited ass Orlebar going to +monopolise every pretty girl who comes near the place?" Poor Phil! how +willingly he would have yielded up this one to the attentions of each +and all who might choose to offer them. + +In one particular they were right. Edith Glover was a very pretty girl. +She had large blue eyes, and profuse brown hair falling in a natural +wavy fringe around her brows. She had a clear complexion, regular +features, and a bright, laughing expression. She was of medium height, +had a good figure, and dressed well. But with all these advantages she +lacked one thing, in common with her father, and that was the hallmark +of birth. There was no mistake about it. With all her engaging +prettiness and tasteful attire there was this one thing painfully, +obviously lacking. She would have looked far more in keeping--and +therefore possibly more attractive--in the cap, apron, and print dress +of a housemaid, and her speech would have agreed thereto. + +It is an accepted saying that the letter "h" constitutes a crucial +shibboleth to the individual of dubious birth and British nationality; +but there is another letter to which this applies with almost equal +force, and that is the letter "a". Now the first letter of the alphabet +as enunciated by Edith Glover sounded uncommonly like the ninth--to wit, +the letter "i." + +"We will sit together at table, dear, of course," she murmured, sweetly, +with a killing glance into his eyes. + +"Um--ah--er," mumbled Philip. "Awful sorry, but afraid our end of the +table's full up--in fact, crowded." + +"Oh, but you can come down to ours." + +"Er--hardly. You see I'm with some people--very jolly party--came up +here together. Can't desert them, don't you know." + +Edith Glover had a temper, but now she judiciously dropped her eyes so +that he should not see the expression which had come into them. + +"Oh, well," she said, with a little pout, and heaving up an attempt at a +sob for the occasion; "of course, if you prefer to be with other people, +when I have made Pa bring me all this way because I couldn't bear to be +away from you any longer, I--I--" And the heave became very much more +pronounced. + +"This is gaudy!" thought Philip to himself. "They have been pretty well +giving me away for the benefit of the whole hotel already, and now she +is going to scare up a scene _pro bono publico_. A scene, by Jove!" he +reflected, in dismay. And then, at this additional indication of her +want of breeding, he felt hardened. Fancy Alma, for instance, making +such an exhibition of her feelings in public! and this idea brought with +it a dire foreboding--what if he were to undergo some private but +unmistakable indication of Alma's feelings, as a sequel to this +abominable _contretemps_! + +Just then the dinner-bell rang. + +"There goes the second bell, and I'm still in my nailed boots and +climbing gear. We left at six this morning, you know, to go up to the +Mountet Hut, and are only just back," he added, with forced gaiety and +unconcern. "I must really go and change. Sha'n't be down till dinner +is half over as it is." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Friends of yours, those new arrivals, aren't they, Philip?" said the +General, soon after the latter had taken his seat. + +"They are some people I used to know down at Henley. They had a big +riverside place there, and gave dances." + +"What a pretty girl!" said Mrs Wyatt, putting up her glasses to look +over at the objects under discussion, who were seated at another table +at the further end of the room. "Isn't she, Mr Fordham?" + +"I'm afraid I'm not a competent judge on that point," was the reply. + +"Mr Fordham won't be betrayed into saying anything in favour of any of +us," said Alma, maliciously. + +Poor Philip was in a state of mind which even his worst enemy might have +commiserated. He had, with quick instinct, grasped the certainty that +all was changed. There was a touch of frostiness in Alma's manner that +betokened this only too plainly. Her serenity was absolutely unruffled, +she was as brightly conversational as ever; but there was just that in +her manner towards himself, imperceptible however to others, which told +him only too unmistakably that the barrier was reared between them. Was +she not within earshot during the horrible obtrusive suddenness of this +most inopportune meeting! Her woman's wit had been prompt to put two +and two together. He was done for. + +Still he would not give up without a struggle. He would tell her all. +She might see extenuating circumstances, and then--oh, he hardly dared +think of a contingency so entrancing. Now was the time. He would dodge +those hateful Glovers somehow, and get her to come out with him for that +short twilight stroll which they two, in common with nearly everybody in +the hotel, were in the habit of taking almost every night after _table +d'hote_. + +"Which way shall we go to-night, Alma?" he said softly, as she rose from +the table. + +She paused and turned her glance upon him, her eyes full on his. + +"Don't you think you ought to go and do the civil to your--friends? I +do," she said. And without another word she left him--left him quickly +and decisively, her very action, her manner of performing it, laying +upon him a curt prohibition to follow. + +Philip, however, did not obey her injunction as regarded the Glovers. +Avoiding those ill-omened persons, he stole away into the darkness, +choosing the most hilly, and therefore, to after-dinner promenaders, +unfrequented way. There, in company with his pipe and his thoughts, he +wandered, and the latter were very bitter. He saw through the situation +only too clearly. There was no exaggerating the magnitude of the +disaster. The Glovers were not the sort of people to hide their +grievance under a bushel. Every one in the hotel would promptly be made +free of it. Alma would never forgive him for putting upon her--however +unintentionally--the most unpardonable slight of all--a public slight. +No. It was the one unpardonable sin. She would never forgive it. + +His estimate of the Glovers proved singularly accurate. Stung by his +defection, his marked neglect of her--seeing, moreover, with woman's +instinct the real lay of the land--the fair Edith had by no means buried +the secret of her relationship towards Philip within her own breast. +Before bedtime it was whispered all over the hotel that the pretty girl +who had arrived that evening was no other than his _fiancee_, whom he +had heartlessly jilted in favour of Miss Wyatt. + +No; assuredly this was not a thing that Alma was likely to forgive. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +TWO HEADS BETTER THAN ONE. + +"Fordham, old man, I'm in a devil of a mess," announced Philip, +dolefully, bursting into his friend's room the following morning while +the latter was shaving. + +"I tell you what it is, Sir Philip Orlebar as is to be," returned +Fordham, who was in an abominably bad humour, pausing with his razor +arrested. "You'll be the death of me long before you arrive at that +dignity unless you get out of a certain vile habit of crashing in upon a +man during such critical moments as this. Do you think I've no nerves?" + +"Well, I certainly did think so." + +"So it seems. But I have. So would you have if you had been expected +to sleep beneath two parsons pounding about overhead in nailed boots +half the night, and starting again at four o'clock this morning. The +noisiest people in their rooms in these ramshackle hotels are invariably +parsons and women; I imagine because the first are supposed to be +professionally unselfish and the second traditionally so." + +"How do you know they were parsons?" said Philip. "Sent up the _femme +de chambre_ to ask them politely to take their boots off. She came back +grinning, `_Ce sont deux pasteurs anglais, M'sieu, qui viennent de +passer le Trift-joch_.' Well, the avalanche that failed to engulph them +was an avalanche in the wrong place, decidedly. I might just as well +not have sent up; for though I'm not a sufficiently impartial witness to +assert that they made more row thereafter, I'm fully prepared to swear +that they didn't make any less." + +"H'm! But I say, Fordham. I was saying, I'm in the very devil's own +mess." + +"That is not infrequently the case, the extent of my acquaintance with +you warrants me in asserting. May I ask the nature of it this time?" + +"I've had a devil of a row with old Glover." + +"The British merchant? Already? And the day so young! What, may I +inquire, led to so decided a difference of opinion? Had you been +discussing politics, or a rise in sugar?" + +"Don't chaff, Fordham. It's no laughing matter to me. He says his +daughter hasn't had a wink of sleep all night." + +"No more has he, I should say, since he looses his combative instincts +thus early. No more have I--thanks to the nailed boots of the gospel-- +grinders aforesaid. Well, the only thing I can suggest is that he +should send down to Sierre and get her a sleeping draught." + +"He says she has lain awake all night, and is quite ill, and it's +entirely my doing." + +"Ah! I begin to see. Her room is underneath yours, I take it. Well, I +always said you had rather a heavy hoof." + +"Fordham, do be serious. Don't you see, man? You were there when they +arrived yesterday--and er--er--he swears he'll bring an action for +breach of promise against me? Now do you see?" + +"And he's just the sort of animal who would do it too," rejoined the +other coolly, spreading a fresh lather upon his chin. + +"Well, that's not all--nor even the worst of it. I'm in a proper sort +of hole, I can tell you," said poor Phil, despairingly dropping into a +chair and lighting up a Vevey cheroot. + +"Wait a minute, Phil," said Fordham, turning with his razor in mid-air. +"There's a time for all things and, it might be added, a place. Now +I've a strong suspicion that the partition walls between these rooms are +unconscionably thin, and that being so we had better postpone our +council of war until we have got outside of our toast and coffee, and +then adjourn with pipes to some sequestered spot where undisturbed we +can concert plans for the discomfiture of the enemy. But, look here, +you must pull yourself together. You are looking a cross between a +scarecrow and a galvanised skull. Man alive, you'll furnish sport to +all the women in the house if they see you going about like this." + +"What a good chap you are, Fordham," said poor Philip, gratefully. He +was looking wretchedly pulled down and haggard, as the other had said, +for he had had very little sleep. No one would have recognised the +bright, handsome sunny face of yesterday. He looked a dozen years +older. Even Alma, burning with outraged pride, must have pitied him. + +But the Wyatts were not at table when the two came down, which was +perhaps just as well. Old Glover was, but his daughter's place was +vacant. He frowned magnificently at Philip, and nodded in a stiff and +patronising way to Fordham as they came in. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Now Phil," began Fordham, as having strolled up the meadow path behind +the hotel, they sat down among a cluster of rocks and began to smoke, +"Now Phil, we can talk to our heart's content. What a chap you are. +You were a semi-lunatic for the space of a week about one `skirt,' and +no sooner is that put right than another `skirt' sails in unexpectedly +and upsets the coach again." + +"Upsets it, indeed!" muttered poor Phil. + +"As I understand the case," went on Fordham, "and it's far from an +uncommon one, you neglected to throw away your dirty water before you +got your clean. Consequently the former has overlapped the latter and +damaged it effectually. Do you follow me?" + +Philip nodded. + +"Well now, what do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to advise me." + +"H'm! The case stands thus. The appearance upon the scene of Number 1 +has sheered Number 2 off in a deadly huff, which, under the +circumstances, it was bound to do. Secondly, the British merchant and +his offspring threaten to make themselves particularly disagreeable. +Those are the two points upon which we must go to work." + +"Yes." + +"Very well. Now to begin with the first point. Have you squarely +explained the whole affair to Miss Wyatt?" + +"Don't I wish she'd give me the chance!" was the vehement reply. + +"You must make the chance--by hook or by crook. That's all I've got to +say. It is a matter between her and you exclusively, and one in which +you must fight entirely to your own hand. Now as to the other, the-- +er--Glover side of the difficulty. Quite sure you wouldn't have the +girl at any price?" + +"Dead certain." + +"That's so, eh?" + +"Yes, it is." + +"Well, I think you're right. I wouldn't myself--if I were you, I mean. +How did you manage to get in tow with her?" + +"Oh, it was just after that last cruise of ours, about six months ago," +said Philip, in the disgusted tone of a man who realises that he has +made a fool of himself and is called upon to face the consequences of +his folly. "I ran down to old Glover's place with some other fellows to +a dance, and--well--Edith and I got rather thick. Drifted into it, I +suppose?" + +"Used to go up the river a good bit, eh? Picnic and spoon on the +eyots--and all that sort of thing?" + +"Yes." + +"That river's the very devil for getting fellows into messes of this +kind. The rushes and the whispering-trees and the soft murmur of the +water, don't you know--_and_ the champagne in the hamper--all this I +suppose combines to work it. Now, did you ever propose to her in +definite terms?" + +"N-no. Once it struck me she thought I had. It was one evening at a +dance. We were sitting out in a corner of the lawn--and the river and +the moonlight on the water--" + +"_And_ the champagne," murmured Fordham. "No; it was sparkling +Burgundy. But don't chaff, old man. Well, I hadn't really said +anything definite. But, you know, a fellow _is_ apt to make rather a +fool of himself on such occasions, isn't he?" + +"Oh, very. Now how long was this--this evening when you hadn't really +said anything definite--before we came abroad together?" + +"About a month or six weeks." + +"And of course you have corresponded ever since?" + +"Up till the time I--er--you know--" + +"Yes, yes, I quite understand. Well now, have you said--written, +rather--anything definite in the course of that correspondence?" + +"N-no. I don't think I can have." + +"Would you mind allowing me to judge?" + +"I didn't keep copies of the letters--Oh, I see. Hers you mean! Hang +it, old man, I--er--don't think that would be quite fair to her." + +"Just as you please," was the perfectly unruffled rejoinder. "By the +way, you didn't perform the pleasing ceremony commonly known as +`speaking to papa,' did you?" + +"Not I," said Philip, with alacrity. + +"Yet he came here prepared to give you his blessing--and gave it, too, +in the most all-embracing fashion?" + +"_That's_ it! That's just it!" cried Philip, savagely. "It's a put-up +job! Yet what on earth could they want to hook me for? The dear old +governor has got years and years to go on yet; and even then he won't +cut up for much, for he's as poor as Job. Still it looks like a clear +case of `standing in.'" + +"I think it does. As for the motive, the British merchant may have had +a fancy to be able to talk about `My daughter, Lady Orlebar--ah!' and +added to that you're a personable dog enough, Phil. He ought to be able +to supply the funds to counterbalance the title." + +"There the motive breaks down," quickly interrupted the other. +"Although he cuts great splashes with his entertainments, and is rolling +in money, he has the reputation of being the most close-fisted screw +extant." + +"Is that so? Ah! now I begin to see a little light. You don't think +he'd come down with a fat settlement?" + +"Not the ghost of a chance of it." + +"Good. I think we may defeat him on that count. But let us again be +certain on this head. You are sure you wouldn't take the girl at any +price--not if he offers to settle fifty thousand?" + +"Not if he offered to settle five hundred thousand. But don't have any +misgivings on that score. He won't come down with five, you'll see." + +"Good again," said Fordham. "Now, are there any other daughters?" + +"Three." + +"Sons?" + +"Three." + +"Seven in the family. Right. Now, Phil, your line is this. You must +put a prohibitive price upon yourself. Tell him straight that you are +not going to wreck all your prospects in life for a girl you don't +really care two straws about, and never will, and bring yourself down to +beggary into the bargain. You can defeat him on the question of +settlements--if you are only firm enough." + +"But isn't that rather a shady standpoint to take up--eh, Fordham?" said +Phil, dubiously. "Not quite one's form--eh?" + +Fordham's dark brows came nearer together, and there was a sneer in the +black, piercing eyes which were fixed on the younger man's face. + +"My dear Phil," he replied, "if there is a phase of humanity in this +latter-day world which invariably lays itself out to be kicked, hustled, +jumped upon, bested all round, it is represented by the man whose `form' +rises up to bar him fighting the devil with fire. `Poor Satan!' say +such fellows as yourself. `It really isn't fair!' So, by way of +equalising the chances, you surrender at discretion, and the enemy of +mankind dances upon you _ad lib_. Here you have got to fight the devil +with fire, and you won't do it, because, forsooth, it is `not quite +one's form.' You are simply the victim of a `plant'--a not very +cunningly baited trap--and yet you are going to let the devil--who for +present purposes may be taken to mean the paternal Glover--bind you hand +and foot for all time. Could ever lunacy be more complete--more +hopeless?" + +"Well, what shall I tell him?" said Philip, desperately. + +"Tell him, in unequivocal terms, to go hang." + +For a few moments Philip said nothing. He sat watching the smoke +wreaths from his pipe curling up in blue circles upon the clear mountain +air, a puzzled and helpless expression clouding his features. Then at +last: + +"I say, Fordham." + +"Well?" + +"I wish--er--I wish, old chap, you'd pull me through this affair. I +mean--er--I wish you'd interview old Glover for me. You're so +cool-headed, and I--well, I get in a rage and lose my nut. Why, this +morning the old sinner and I were as nearly as possible coming to +fisticuffs. We shouted at and damned each other, but what we said I +haven't the faintest recollection." + +"I don't care to undertake anything of the kind, Phil, and so I tell you +candidly," answered Fordham. + +"Why not, old chap?" was the doleful rejoinder. + +"Because it is dead in the teeth of every ruling principle of my life to +poke my nose into what doesn't concern me. You may say I have already +done so in advising you at all. So I have, and to that extent I plead +guilty to having been inconsistent. But two wrongs don't make a right, +which we may take to mean that I don't see why I should violate my +principles still further. Were I to undertake what you want me to, old +Glover would begin by asking what the devil business it was of mine, +anyhow. And the worst of it is, he would be right--quite right." + +"Not of necessity," rejoined Philip, eagerly. "Surely you have a right +to act for a friend; and for all he knows you may be my legal adviser. +I believe you must have been a lawyer once, you're so devilish +coldblooded and logical. Now, say you'll do it." + +Fordham's dark brows met, and he smoked silently for a few minutes. +"Coldblooded--logical," had said this careless youngster, who was merely +paltering with the very outskirts of the grim web of circumstances which +go to make up the tragedies--and travesties--of the serious side of +life. "Coldblooded" was he now pronounced; yet could he remember when +his blood ran hot, surging and seething like the boiling and bubbling +pitch. Now it lay still within his veins, cool and acrid as vinegar. + +"And if I don't bring it off all right, or as you think all right, +you'll turn round and abuse me," he said at last. + +"You needn't be in the least afraid of that," answered Phil. "I'll give +you a free hand to act as you think right." + +"You will?" + +"Of course." + +"Now you're talking, as they say in the States. Well, Phil, I'll do +what I can for you. But mind, you must leave everything in my hands +unreservedly. None of your insane scruples about `form,' or anything of +that kind. Do you agree to this?" + +"I do, unreservedly." + +"Well, it's dead contrary to my principles, as I told you before; but +for this once I'll throw judgment overboard, especially as it is to turn +the flank of an infernal scheming, crafty female creature," added this +misogynist, an acrid ring coming into his tone. "And now, Phil, you had +better not go back to the hotel. Start off from here and walk somewhere +till lunch-time--if you could make it till dinner-time, all the better. +By then I shall have knocked what change I can out of the exasperated +but knowing British parent." + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +FIGHTING THE DEVIL WITH FIRE. + +Philip was only too ready to follow his friend's advice, and accordingly +started away there and then--whither he did not care. His only thought +was to get through the day somehow. + +He had no wish to encounter old Glover again. In saying that he had had +a considerable row with that worthy he had in no wise overstated +matters. His marked abstention from the fair Edith's society the +previous evening had been quite sufficient, and the old man had got up +with the fixed determination of having it out with the defaulting swain, +and withal giving the latter a very large piece of his mind. This was +all very well. But old Glover, not being a gentleman himself, did not +in the very least understand how to deal with gentlemen, and his method +of handling his grievance was so much that of the triumphant trickster +who has bested his neighbour over a bargain that it revolted Philip, +unconsciously strengthening a resolve which was forming in his mind to +avoid an alliance with connections of this sort at all costs and +hazards. + +Now, as he made his way up the mountain path with the quick elastic step +of perfect physical condition, Philip began to feel more sanguine. +Fordham would get him out of the mess somehow. From where he was he +could make out two figures strolling out from the hotel. He had no +glasses with him, but felt sure they were Fordham and old Glover. They +were at it already. Fordham was a wonderful fellow, and could do +anything if he chose. It would not be surprising if he were to succeed +in getting rid of the obnoxious Glovers altogether, and he--Philip--were +to find the field clear again when he returned that evening. He felt +quite hopeful. + +Not for long, however. For he remembered there was another horn to the +dilemma. He might free himself from the awkward position in which +circumstances and his own thoughtlessness had combined to land him; but +the new sweet relationship with Alma--ah! that was a thing of the past, +and this he recognised with a keen unerring instinct hardly to be looked +for in his easy-going nature. This he recognised with a despairing +pang, and again his heart was heavy as lead within him. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The first person Fordham encountered on returning to the hotel was old +Glover himself. The latter was seated on a pile of saw-planks stacked +against a chalet, smoking the pipe of solitude and sweet and bitter +fancies--probably the latter, if the expression of his countenance was +aught to go by. So far from being prepared to resent his intervention, +there was an eager look in the old man's eyes as he perceived Fordham, +which was by no means lost upon that astute reader of human nature. + +"Er--er--Mr Fordham?" he called out, the other having passed him with a +commonplace remark _in re_ the weather. + +Fordham turned with just a gleam of well-feigned astonishment in his +face. + +"Ar--Mr Fordham," went on old Glover now more eagerly, "would you--ar-- +mind accompanying me for a short stroll? I should--ar--like to have a +few words with you." + +"Certainly," was the reply, and an additional touch was thrown into the +well-feigned astonishment. "I am quite at your disposal. Doing nothing +this morning. We might stroll along the level towards the head of the +valley." + +The other assented with alacrity, and they started, Fordham keeping the +conversation to strict commonplace until they had got clear of the +clusters of chalets lining the path on either side. Then the valley +opened out into wide, level meadows, and, crossing the log bridge over +the swirling, rushing mountain torrent, Fordham led the way into one of +these. + +"Er--ar"--began old Glover, who had with difficulty restrained his +eagerness up till now, "have you, may I ask, known young Orlebar for a +considerable length of time?" + +"A goodish while." + +"Do you--ar--considar--that you know him well--er--I may say +intimately?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Er--now, Mr Fordham--you will--ar--excuse the question, I'm sure. +Have you always found him--ar--straightforward?" + +"Invariably. Too much so, in fact, for his own interests." + +"Ar--r!" The representative of British commerce drew himself up with a +sidelong stare at his neighbour. This was a quality quite outside his +comprehension. He began to suspect the other was making game of him. +The expanse of waistcoat swelled, and the folds of a truly magnificent +pomposity deepened around its wearer as he went on. "Ar--I am sorry I +cannot agree with you, Mr--ar--Fordham--very sorry indeed. In his +dealings with me--with me and mine--young Orlebar has, I regret to say, +shown the--ar--very reverse of straightforwardness. Are you aware, sir, +that he is engaged to my daughter?" + +"I can't say I am." + +The old man halted, turned round upon Fordham, and looked him full in +the face as though he could hardly believe in his own sense of hearing. + +"I--ar--beg your pardon, Mr--ar--Fordham. Did I--ar--understand you to +say you were not aware of it?" + +"Certainly, Mr Glover. I intended you to understand precisely that." + +Old Glover was nonplussed. He began to feel small and at a decided +disadvantage, a most unwonted feeling with him. He stared wonderingly, +inquiringly, distrustfully, into the dark, saturnine visage confronting +him, but could read nothing there. + +"It is an odd thing that Phil should not have informed me of the fact," +went on Fordham. "He is usually openness itself--indeed, too much so, +as I said just now. Wears his heart on his sleeve, I always tell him. +However, I shall have to congratulate him the next time I see him. By +the way, I suppose his father is delighted? Philip is an only son, you +know." + +Nothing could be more innocent than Fordham's tone, nothing more +unsuspecting than the look of half-amused wonder with which he received +the intelligence. But his keen perception noted the disconcerted wave +which passed over his interlocutor's face at this allusion to Sir +Francis Orlebar. + +"Fathers have different ways of taking news of that kind," he continued, +innocently. "Now, partly as a student of character, partly by reason of +some slight acquaintance with Sir Francis himself, I am curious to know +how he took the news of his son's engagement. How did he?" + +The question was put with blunt and cruel directness. No slippery +commercial instincts could avail here. It must be answered. Poor old +Glover felt unprecedentedly small in the hands of his wily opponent. +Those piercing dark eyes penetrated his poor coating of pomposity as a +lance-head might penetrate the rind of a pumpkin. + +"I am not aware how Sir Francis took the news," he answered, stiffly. + +"He was informed, of course?" pursued Fordham, remorselessly. "Really-- +ar--Mr Fordham. Your tone is--ar--very strange. I am at a loss to-- +ar--" + +"Oh, a thousand pardons. I merely asked the question because I thought +I understood you to say that Philip was engaged to your daughter. If I +was mistaken--But I quite understand. Of course the affair is no +business of mine. At the same time allow me to remind you, Mr Glover, +that the topic was broached by yourself, and, moreover, that you +requested me to accompany you for a stroll with that object. It is +naturally of far greater interest to you than to me, but if it is +distasteful to you, we will drop it at once. So let us talk of +something more congenial." + +His manner was the perfection of ingenuous indifference. Thorough cynic +as he was, Fordham was enjoying the embarrassment of this inflated old +schemer, who he well knew had not brought him thus far in order to "drop +the subject" at any such early stage of the conversation. And the next +words proved it. + +"You were not mistaken, sir. He is engaged to my daughter. And--ar-- +when you come to look at the matter in its right light, Mr Fordham, you +will, I am sure, agree with me that he has acted with very great want of +straightforwardness." + +"Perhaps. But you know, Mr Glover, Philip is an only son. It does, I +confess, appear strange to me that no reference should have been made to +his father at the time he asked for your consent to the engagement. He +did ask for it, I suppose?" + +"Hang it, sir!" blared forth the other, goaded to fury by his own +helpless flounderings, which only served to entangle him deeper and +deeper within the net. "Hang it, sir! You know as well as I do that in +these days young people don't trouble their heads about their fathers in +matters of this kind. They take it all into their own hands--arrange it +between themselves." + +The expression of astonished disapproval upon Fordham's face as he +received this announcement would have delighted the heart of the most +confirmed stickler for the old-fashioned proprieties. + +"Do they? I was not aware of it," he said, "Pardon my ignorance, but I +still can't help thinking that, whatever may be the general rule, for +the only son of a man of Sir Francis Orlebar's position to be allowed to +drift into a tacit engagement without consulting either the young lady's +father or his own, is--pardon me again--somewhat of an odd proceeding." + +"What is a beggarly baronet?" cried old Glover, the coarse huckstering +blood showing through the veneer of a would-be stately pomposity in his +blind rage at finding himself outwitted at every point. "Pooh! I could +buy up a dozen of them." + +"True. I was not thinking so much, though, about what was due to a +`beggarly baronet' as to a gentleman and the son of a gentleman. +However," he resumed, after a pause just perceptible enough to carry +that last shaft home, "let us now be frank with each other--talk as men +of the world, in fact. I presume you had some object in seeking this +interview with me, Mr Glover?" + +Their stroll had brought them to a large rock which at some period more +or less remote had fallen from above and embedded itself in the meadow. +In the shade formed by this Fordham proposed that they should sit down. +A beetling cliff sheered up behind to a great height, but in front and +around the approaches to the place were open. + +"You are right in your surmise, Mr--ar--Fordham. As an intimate friend +of young Orlebar, a man, I believe, considerably older than himself, it +occurred to me that you would be--ar--likely to have some influence over +him--and--ar--might exert that influence towards inducing him to do what +is right." + +"You may command any influence I may possess in that direction, Mr +Glover," said Fordham, suavely, though inwardly chuckling over the cool +impudence of the proposal and the opacity of the mind which could +propound it. + +"I was sure of it--sure of it," reiterated the other, much mollified at +the prospect of so welcome an alliance. "As I said before, he is not +behaving straightforwardly, and you will--ar--agree with me. Well, now, +some months ago it was that he came first to my place. I've got a +little crib down at Henley, you know, Mr Fordham--shall be happy to see +you there if you are returning to England--very happy. Well, we had +plenty of fun going on--parties and picnics and rowing and all that. +I'm a man that likes to see young folks enjoying themselves. I don't +stint them--not I. Let them enjoy themselves when they are young, say +I. Don't you agree with me?" + +"Undoubtedly," murmured Fordham. + +"Well, among other young fellows who came sparking around was this young +Orlebar," went on old Glover, forgetting his stilted pomposity in the +thread of his narrative. "I was always glad to see him--ask him if I +wasn't. Soon it seemed to me that he was taking a fancy to my Edie. +She's my eldest, you know, as good a girl as ever was. She's a pretty +girl, too, and looks at home anywhere--in the Park, or wherever she may +be. Now doesn't she?" + +"I quite agree with you on the subject of Miss Glover's attractions," +said Fordham, gravely. "She would, as you say, look thoroughly at home +in the Park--with a perambulator and a soldier," he added to himself. + +"All day and every day he made some excuse or other to run down. He'd +take her out on the river by the hour, sit about the garden with her, be +sending her flowers and things and all that. If that don't mean +intentions, I'd like to know what does. Well, I didn't feel called upon +to step in. I don't believe in interfering with young folks' +inclinations. I liked the young fellow--we all did--and it seemed he +was old enough to know his own mind. This went on for some time--some +months. Then suddenly we heard he'd gone abroad, and from that day on +heard no more about him by word or line. My poor Edie felt it +dreadfully. She didn't say anything at first, nor for a long time, and +at last I got it all out of her. Now, that isn't the way a girl should +be treated, is it, Mr Fordham? If you had daughters of your own you +would not like to see them treated like that, would you?" + +"Certainly not. But pray go on--I am interested." + +He was--but in reading _between the lines_ of this very ingenuous and +pathetic tale of base and black hearted treachery. To the narrator his +sympathetic tone and attitude conveyed the liveliest satisfaction, but +that hoary plutocrat little guessed at what a dismally primitive hour it +was requisite to rise in order to get the blind side of saturnine +Richard Fordham. + +"I'd taken the girls to the seaside for their summer outing," continued +the narrator--"a thing they generally go wild with delight over. But +poor Edie this time said she hated the sea. She wanted to go abroad. +Would I take her abroad? At first I wouldn't, till she grew quite thin +and pale. Then I knew why she wanted to go, and she told me. If she +could find him out herself--make up a pleasant little surprise, she +said--it would all come right. It would all be as before, and they +would be as jolly as grigs. I hadn't the heart to refuse her, and so we +came. We found out where young Orlebar was, and dropped down on him +with the pleasant little surprise we'd planned. But--it didn't seem a +pleasant surprise at all." + +"No, by Jove, it didn't!" said the listener to himself, putting up his +hand to hide a sardonic grin. + +"You saw that it didn't. You saw how he behaved. Didn't seem at all +glad to see us, hardly spoke to us. And that girl had been breaking her +heart about him--yes, breaking her heart--and he's never been near her +since the moment she arrived. But I see how it is--he's got another +string to his bow. That high and mighty young woman that was sitting +near you--Miss--what's her name?--Miss Wyatt, isn't it? Well--" + +"Excuse me if I remind you, Mr Glover, that among ourselves it is not +usual to drag ladies' names into other people's differences in that +free-and-easy sort of fashion," said Fordham, stiffly, though inwardly +convulsed with mirth at the idea of finding himself, of all people, +taking up the cudgels on behalf of one of the detested sex. + +"Eh--what? Why, they told me he was engaged to her." + +"Who told you he was?" + +"Why, let me see--some of the people last night. I don't quite +recollect which of them. But perhaps you can tell me for certain. Is +he?" + +"Not that I am aware of." + +"Not--eh?" with a very distrustful look into Fordham's face, and in no +wise convinced; for to this representative of British commerce a man was +bound to be lying, provided any adequate motive existed for mendacity, +and here such motive undoubtedly did exist. "Well, they told me the +pair of them were never apart, out together all day, sitting together +all the evening--never apart, except at bedtime." + +"Pooh! that means nothing. Here you see, and in places like this, +society is a pretty happy-go-lucky assortment, and the harmonious +elements gravitate towards each other. And while we are on this +subject, Mr Glover, I may as well remind you that Philip is young, a +great favourite with women, and consequently a devil of a fellow to +flirt. He's always over head and ears in some flirtation or other-- +always has been ever since I've known him. But he means nothing by it, +and it always comes to nothing." + +"Upon my word, Mr--ar--Fordham," replied the other, again bristling up +with pomposity, "you seem to treat this matter with strange--ar--levity. +Whatever--ar--_you_ may see fit to call it, _I_ look upon this--ar-- +outrageous trifling with my daughter's feelings as the act of an +unprincipled scoundrel. Yes, sir, an unprincipled scoundrel," he added, +rolling the words, in his delight at having hit upon a good, sounding, +double-barrelled epithet. "But what do you want him to do?" + +"Well, really--ar--Mr Fordham, that is a strange question to come from +a man of your--ar--knowledge of the world. What is the usual--ar-- +outcome of a young man's winning a girl's affection?" + +"I am bound in candour to reply that its nature varies. Further it +might be as well to approach this matter with caution and common sense. +You are doubtless aware that Sir Francis Orlebar is not a rich man--for +a man in his position a decidedly poor one, and Philip has not a +shilling in the world beyond what his father allows him? Now if his +father should disapprove of this--er--engagement--as not having been +consulted it is extremely likely he will--he may cut off that allowance +summarily." + +"In that case I should be prepared to allow the people--ar--something to +go on with." + +"What do you mean precisely by `something to go on with,' Mr Glover?" + +"Well--really now--ar--Mr Fordham. You must excuse my saying so, but +you are--ar--I mean this is--" + +"Taking a great liberty? I quite understand," was the perfectly +unruffled rejoinder. "But then you must remember this, Mr Glover. You +broached the subject. You called me into consultation, so to say. You +asked me to use my influence with Philip in this matter. I need hardly +tell you I have no interest in it one way or the other. We will drop +the subject altogether if you like." + +"I think you mistake me," said the other, hurriedly. "I did not--ar-- +say the words you were good enough to put into my mouth." + +"Well, then, you must allow me, Mr Glover, to keep an eye upon my +friend's interests. He is very young, remember, a mere thoughtless boy. +Now we, as men of the world, are bound to look at everything from a +practical point of view. Let us talk plainly then. How much are you +prepared to settle in the event of Philip--er--fulfilling the engagement +into which you say he has entered?" + +"I should be, as I said before, prepared to make them a fairly liberal +allowance," he jerked forth, with the air of a man who has just had a +tooth drawn and has found the process less painful than he had expected. + +But Fordham shook his head. + +"The `allowance' system is an unsatisfactory one," he said. "I have +known people let into queer quandaries by trusting to it. Allowances +may be cut off at the mere caprice of the allower. Now, don't be +offended," he added, with the shadow of a smile. "We agreed to speak +plainly and as men of the world. No--the thing must be a _settlement_. +Now what are you prepared to settle?" + +"I think I may say this. I will settle four hundred a year upon them +now. At my death of course--Why what is the matter? Is that not +enough?" + +The last in an astonished and indignant tone. For an almost derisive +shake of the head on the part of the other had cut short his words. + +"Most certainly not. It is, in fact, ridiculous." + +"Many a young couple has begun life on less." + +"And many a man has ruined his life by beginning on far more. No. I +think my young friend will rate himself at a far higher value than that. +Why there are shoals of women with six times that income who would jump +at him." + +"And are truth and honour to go for nothing?" spluttered old Glover, +swelling himself out with virtuous wrath until the expanse of the white +waistcoat was so tight that you could hear the seams crack. "Truth and +honour and good faith--and a sweet girl's broken heart?" he repeated, +working up a highly effective sniffle. + +"My dear sir, you can't run a household, and a milliner, and a +dressmaker, and a butcher and baker, and a pocket doctor, and a lawyer-- +in fact, an unlimited liability, upon truth and honour; nor can you pay +the Queen's taxes with a sweet girl's mended heart. Now, can you?" + +"You have a most--ar--peculiar way of putting things, I must say, Mr +Fordham. Well, I'll tell you what I'll do--I'll make it five hundred. +There!" + +"You might just as well make it five hundred pence, Mr Glover. I can't +advise my friend to throw himself away." + +"I consider five hundred a year ample," said old Glover, magisterially +inserting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his waistcoat. "If he wants +more let him work for it. Let him go into some business." + +"Why should he? He is young, and has the world at his feet. Why should +he grind away at some dingy and uncongenial money-grubbing mill just for +the fun of supporting your, or any other man's, daughter. It isn't good +enough, and I tell you so candidly. And remember this: he has +everything to lose and nothing to gain by the transaction, and with +yourselves it is the other way about." + +"And what amount would meet your friend's views, Mr Fordham?" was the +rejoinder, quick spoken, and with cutting irony. + +"He will have a position and title to keep up by and by," answered +Fordham, tranquilly. "I should say, a capital sum representing three +thousand a year--not one farthing less." + +Old Glover sprang to his feet with a snort and an activity one would +hardly have credited him with. He stared wildly at Fordham, gasped for +breath and snorted again. Then he spluttered forth. + +"I never heard anything so monstrous--such an outrageous piece of +impertinence in my life." + +"But, my dear sir, surely I've put the case plain enough--" + +"Don't talk to me any more about it, sir," interrupted the other +furiously, "I won't hear of such a preposterous suggestion." + +"Do I understand that you refuse the condition, then?" + +"Most emphatically you may understand that very thing. Three thousand a +year--ha--ha! He must be mad! But I tell you what it is, sir," he +blared forth, stung by Fordham's cool and indifferent demeanour. "That +young scoundrel--yes--that young scoundrel, I say," with a stamp of the +foot, "shall be _made_ to fulfil his engagement--shall be made to, I +say." + +"Shall he? Excuse my reminding you of the old proverb concerning the +horse which may be taken to the water." + +"Sha'n't he! I'll sue him for breach of promise. I'll claim such +swinging damages as never were asked for in a court of law yet. I'll +ruin him--yes, I'll ruin him, by God!" + +"You may obtain a few hundreds at the outside. But you said something +just now about your daughter's heart being broken. Do you propose to +heal that fractured organ by exposing the young lady to the jeers of a +not over particular crowd in a public court, and making her the laughing +stock of every newspaper reader in the kingdom for the sake of a few +hundred pounds?" + +"That's _my_ business, sir--that's _my_ business," was the savage reply. + +"Even then you will have to prove any specific promise at all. Under +the circumstances this will be a matter of some difficulty, I imagine. +Why not think over the terms I have stated?" + +"Never, sir I never! Such unheard-of impudence?" And he fairly danced +at the idea. + +"Well, then, I've no more to say. In my opinion a man is a fool who +ties himself to any woman. A lion might as well make himself the slave +of a cat. But when he is expected to embrace the exhilarating career of +a mill-horse in order that the dear creature may own a conveniently +supporting slave--if he does so, I say, he deserves to be hung on sight. +I shall certainly advise Phil Orlebar not to marry anybody on a cent +less than three thousand a year, and I believe he will take my advice." + +"Very well, sir. We shall see--we shall see. And, by the way, Mr-- +ar--Fordham"--and the trade mind of the successful huckster again rose +to the surface--"you are really a most clever advocate, and I must--ar-- +congratulate you. But `nothing for nothing,' you know. Now how much of +this fabulous income was to have found its way into your pocket if +obtained? Commission, you understand." + +There was such a lurid look in Fordham's dark face as he quickly rose to +his feet, that even old Glover, dancing with rage, quailed and stepped +back a pace or two. + +"I must congratulate _you_, Mr Glover, on your good fortune in being an +_old_ man at this moment. However," and his tone resumed its normal +sarcastic ring. "However, there are no witnesses present so we may as +well speak our minds to each other. It is abundantly obvious that you +have laid yourselves out to hook young Philip Orlebar, and have done it +deucedly clumsily too--so clumsily, that luckily for himself the bird +has seen the limed twig in time. Anyhow, to rush him as you have done, +and bestow the paternal blessing before it was asked for--in public +too--is just the way to choke off irrevocably a youngster of his stamp. +I don't know that there's anything more to be said, except this. Bring +your action by all means, but you will find it as hard a matter to prove +a specific promise, as you will to persuade any jury that it is not a +clear case of trying to entrap the son of a man of position and superior +birth." + +To convey any idea of old Glover's state as he listened to this +harangue, would be impossible. At first he was speechless, and Fordham +began to think he was on the verge of apoplexy. Eventually he found his +tongue, and the great cliff in the background fairly echoed to the sound +of a volley of strange and gurgling oaths. Then the full torrent of his +wrath burst forth. He would sue the delinquent Phil--would ruin him-- +would sue them both--for conspiracy, libel--what not. There was +nothing, in fact, that he would not do--shooting--horse-whipping--every +form of violence was enumerated. He should rue the day--every one +concerned should rue the day, etc, etc. + +But Fordham, lighting a fresh pipe, leaned comfortably back against the +rock, and waited with perfect unconcern until this human boiler should +have blown off all its steam--or burst--it didn't matter which. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +ON THE SUMMIT. + +A narrow apex of solid rock, surrounded by a little cairn of stones and +four human figures. And around--what a panorama! Everywhere rolling +billowy summits, snowy and hump-like, or rearing up sharp and defined in +craggy pinnacles--everywhere they rise--north, south, east, or west, the +eye wanders confused over a vast sea of them. Below, a mighty array of +snowfields, great ice rivers flowing silently down between their +rock-bound walls--divided, separated from each other by stupendous +ramparts of cliff and snow. Further down still--far, far beneath the +region of ice and snow--a confused labyrinth of tortuous valleys, green, +and sprinkled here and there with clusters of brown specks, haply +representing a town or village, the faintly glittering star above which +resolves itself under the lens of the telescope into the metal-sheathed +cupola of a church tower. The very immensity of the panorama is +overwhelming in its bewildering vastness. The eye, the senses, are +burdened with it--can hardly take it in. The whole world seems to lie +spread out around and beneath, for this apex of rock soaring up in +mid-air seems in very truth to tower above the rest of the world. It is +the summit of the Rothhorn. + +The two guides--good representatives of their class--with their +thoughtful bronzed faces and horny hands, their quasi-uniform attire of +grey frieze, and black-cock feather adorned hat--are busily engaged in +examining the contents of a bottle, which they have extracted from its +snug hiding-place in the heart of the cairn aforesaid--not in the hope +of finding it to contain liquid refreshment, let us hasten to explain-- +nor are the contents precisely of a solid nature. They are calculated +to appeal to the mind rather than the body, for they happen to consist, +for the most part, of an assortment of visiting cards, bearing the names +of such climbers as have hitherto gained this altitude, together with +those of their guides, and any other remarks their owners may have seen +fit to pencil thereon by way of record. + +"Well, Phil? Think my prescription was good enough, eh?" says Fordham, +cheerfully. "Worth while undergoing something to get such a view as +this?" + +But there is no cheerfulness about Philip Orlebar to-day, nor does he +seem to take any interest in the view. Sprawling on his back, on the +hard rock, with his hands behind his head, he is staring up at the sky-- +a phase of observation equally well undertaken at the bottom of a +valley, thinks his companion. He merely growls in reply, and relapses +into his abstraction. + +It is the second day after the somewhat stormily concluding interview +between Fordham and old Glover, but poor Philip's prospects had in no +wise been improved thereby--indeed, he could not but realise that they +were hopelessly ruined. The only result achieved was that of, so to +say, drawing the teeth of the aggrieved but scheming parent. That +crafty plutocrat had been left, in a manner of speaking, on his back. +He had been met with a crisp, healthy decisiveness, which had left +nothing to be inferred, whereas had Philip himself constituted the other +party to the interview, we fear that a tendency to temporise might have +wedged him into the morass firmer and deeper than ever. So far Fordham +had rendered him yeoman's service. + +But while released from one horn of the dilemma there was another upon +which he remained firmly impaled, and whence it was beyond the power of +any friend to extricate him, and that was a woman's outraged pride. +Alma Wyatt's self-contained nature was a fearfully proud one, and it had +been wounded to the quick. She, to allow herself to be deceived, +fooled, made a plaything of, a mere pastime to add zest to a summer +holiday--while all the time this man who had been whispering undying +love to her was plighted to some one else! Her face fairly blanched +with fierce wrath at the thought. And the insult, the publicity of the +insult which he had put upon her--for his attentions were, of course, +thoroughly understood by those around! No, she would never forgive him; +never as long as he lived--or even on his deathbed! + +Even then the natural fairness of her mind moved her to do him what +justice she could. Her own heart told her that in his love for herself +there was, at any rate, no make-believe. That, at any rate, was +genuine. So much the worse. It argued weakness in her eyes, an +unpardonable fault in a man. And, again--that he had dared to offer her +a mere place in his affections--to suppose that she would _share_ them +with anybody, let alone the overdressed, underbred creature to whom he +was already plighted, and who had come there and claimed him--publicly +claimed him--under her eyes! It was an outrage which she could not +bring herself so much as to think of condoning. + +The only consolation was that she had all this time steadfastly refused +to give him a definite answer--to allow him to give anybody to +understand in definite terms that she was engaged to him. But what +then? Had she not more than justified by implication such a conclusion +on the part of those around her! Even now she was conscious of the +exchanged glance, the hastily-stifled smile which her appearance evoked +amid this or that group she happened to be passing, but this she could +afford to treat with unconcern. Still the sting penetrated--penetrated +and rankled. Her bitterness towards the chief offender hardened to +white heat. + +Nothing had been said between them. She took care to allow him no +opportunity for that. No explanations were needed. The situation would +admit of none--absolutely none. She made no external difference in her +manner towards him--did not even change her place beside him at table. +She was too proud to give him or the lookers-on to suppose that she was +sorely wounded. But there was a steeliness in her tone when she +addressed him or answered any remark of his, which conveyed as severe a +punishment as even she could have wished. He was miserable. + +Then he wrote to her--a piteous and heartbroken letter--explaining, +protesting, and, above all, entreating. To ensure her receipt of this +he slipped it himself beneath her door at a time when it could not +escape her observation. As a result she did afford him an opportunity +of speaking with her alone--an interview of just sufficient duration to +allow her deliberately to tear his letter into small fragments before +his face, carefully letting him see that it was unopened. Not a word +did she speak. She could not trust herself. Her great eyes blazing +forth such scorn from her pale face seemed to sear and burn into his. +Then she turned and left him. + +After that he was desperate. Poor Phil, soft-hearted and sensitive, +felt that he had wrecked his whole life. He wished he could get up a +corresponding indignation. But he could not, not even the fraction of a +semblance of it. His heart seemed turned to water--his brain was +ablaze. He would relieve his feelings by undertaking some desperate +feat--thank Heaven, it was always easy to break one's neck. And on this +object intent he bounded upstairs three steps at a time in quest of his +ice-axe. + +But Providence, or his own forgetfulness, stood him in good stead that +time, for the implement he sought was not in his room. He must have +left it in Fordham's. Thither he repaired. + +"What's the row, Phil?" said the latter, looking up quickly, taking in +at the same time the obvious fact that things were not merely wrong with +his unlucky friend, but very much more so than ever. + +"Got my axe here? I'm just going for a--er--walk." + +"Well, you can put it off then, for I've just been scheming out a +promising climb. Got two first-rate Zermatt guides, who turned up last +night and want to go back there. Everything is ready. What do you say +to doing the Rothhorn? We can start for the Mountet cabin soon after +lunch; sleep there, get to the top any time by midday, and go down the +other side to Zermatt. What do you say?" + +"I'm your man, Fordham. Just the very thing I should like. And, I +say--while we are about it--we might stay at Zermatt a few days and do +the Matterhorn and two or three others, eh?" + +Fordham looked at him curiously. + +"Just the very thing I was going to suggest," he said, "only I doubted +whether you'd cotton. A smart shaking up and a change will do you all +the good in the world, just now, Phil. We'll start half an hour after +lunch--there goes the second bell!--and go up to the hut quietly." + +This they had done, and now after an excruciatingly early start from +that convenient tarrying-place, and about six hours of really difficult +climbing, of scrambling from rock to rock, worming round "corners" +overhanging dizzy heights--work that called into full play every muscle +and braced every nerve--here they were on the summit with the world at +their feet. + +During the actual process of ascent Philip's spirits seemed to return. +The hard, and, in places, really hazardous, nature of the undertaking +demanded all his attention, and whether clinging spreadeagled against +the face of the cliff with no real hold to speak of, or balancing with +one foot upon a rock projection about the size of a walnut, the other +dangling over nothing, what time the next man above should secure a +footing, or skirting gingerly the treacherous line of a curling snow +cornice, where the thrust of the handle of an ice-axe left a hole +through which lay viewed the awful depth of space which it overhung--all +this constituted such a strain upon his faculties as to leave room for +no other thought. Though strong and active, and in good training all +round, Philip, be it remembered, was a novice at this sort of thing, +consequently he found enough to do in ensuring his own safety, and, +relatively, that of his companions. At one point of their progress a +cloud had come over the mountain, rendering the rocks rimy and slippery, +throwing out the ridge of ice crowning a sharp _arete_ spectral and +drear against the misty murk, magnifying the cliffs to gigantic +proportions in their uncertain and ill-defined outlines. Gazing down +upon the snow-flecked rocks far, far beneath, losing themselves in the +swirling vortex of vapour, Philip felt rather small as he remembered his +reckless intentions of the day before. Life, strange to say, seemed +still worth having; at any rate such a way of ending it as a sudden dash +through space on to those hideous black and white rocks struck him as +grim and horrible in the extreme. + +But the excitement and physical exertion over, and the summit attained, +his depression returned. More over he was tired, for he had hardly +slept the night before, was, in fact, just dropping off, when roused by +his indefatigable friend at 2 a.m. to make a pretence at devouring the +breakfast which the guides were preparing over the weather-beaten stove. +Now the magnificence and extent of the view was nothing to him. It +seemed to lie outside his gaze. In spirit he was back again at the +hotel at Zinal. Was Alma beginning to miss him--to think more kindly of +him, now that they would not see each other for some days? Would those +execrable Glovers have left by the time he returned? And would all come +right again? If only it might! + +But if his younger friend's thoughts were far-away down in the valley +they had come up out of, Fordham's were not. That saturnine individual +was, for him, in high spirits. He had got out an excellent map--in the +production of such Switzerland stands in the foremost place--and with +the guides was busy verifying the topographical details of the +stupendous panorama lying beneath and around. The cloud which had +overshadowed them during their ascent had long since vanished, and now +the sky was blue and clear, and the air like an elixir of life. The +only clouds were those from three pipes, for the two guides and Fordham +were smoking like chimneys. + +But they had been an hour on the summit, and the air, though +exhilarating, was uncommonly chill. It became time to start downwards. +The guides were beginning to repack the haversacks. + +"Have a pull at this, Phil," said Fordham, handing him a flask. "And--I +tell you what it is, man. You don't know when you're well off." + +"Oh, I don't?" + +"Rather not. Look at this," with a comprehensive sweep of the hand. +"Think what a splendid climb we had to get up here. Think what a +splendid one we are going to have to get down, better, in fact, because +less of sheer fag, and then think how many poor devils there are who +would give their heads to be here to-day, instead of slaving their +hearts out all their lives to support some snarling, ungrateful female, +and a mob of more or less dirty and wholly detestable brats." + +"Candidly, my dear chap," returned Philip, "you are becoming somewhat of +the nature of a bore. I seem to have heard something very like that +before--not once, nor yet twice. The salutary instructions of the +immortal Mr Barlow, of `Sandford and Merton' fame, shine forth as very +masterpieces of sparkling pungency when contrasted with your latter-day +harangues. I want to know what the devil all this has to do with me." + +"You shall! The gist of the parable is this. You are thinking all this +time that Paradise lies at present in the Zinal valley in general, and +very particularly in the Hotel Durand; whereas in actual fact, so far as +any semblance of that institution may be said to exist, it lies around +and before you. For you are free at present, Phil, free as the air up +here which is making us shiver, your freedom is as boundless as this +rolling view of half a continent upon which we look down. You have the +world at your feet as literally as we have it before us now." + +"Go on, Mr Barlow. Pray proceed." + +"I will. At present you are thinking what a Paradise every moment of +life would be if coupled with the charmer down yonder. You are drawing +all manner of glowing mental pictures of the bliss of a home illumined +by her divine presence. All fustian, my dear fellow, all fustian! +These superstitions are encouraged by the women from obvious motives. +But they have no foundation in actual fact. Now what _I_ am thinking of +is this. I am thinking of you in two or three years' time, caged up +with your charmer in some shabby-genteel suburban semi-detached--for she +hasn't a shilling of her own, I believe--I am thinking of you, I say, +the proud possessor of two or three unruly brats--who may or may not be +kept clean--thus caged up, with a domineering, bad-tempered woman, who +has parted with her illusions, in proportion as she has contributed +towards populating this interesting orb. I am thinking of you toiling +the day through, week in week out, at some sordid and uncongenial +drudgery for a mere pittance. You can never be well off, my dear Phil, +for to do you justice, you lack the essential qualities of rascality and +sycophancy which are requisite to the manufacture of the `successful +man.' And while your scanty leisure is taken up policing a series of +ever-changing and refractory domestics, or carrying on epistolary war +with your landlord, _in re_ his inevitable refusal to observe the most +obvious provisions of his agreement, your much-needed slumbers will be +invaded by the piercing and colicky yells of the last overfed cherub, +and your night devoted to hospital duties in regard to that same. And +then when you look back to--this day, for instance--I am not far out in +asserting that you will catch yourself wondering whether such an +unparalleled ass is even worth the sixpenny-worth of laudanum which +should send him in search of the decisive change which may possibly be +for the better, but can hardly be for the worse. There--that's the +other side of the orange, and now you can't say it hasn't been shown +you." + +"That all, Fordham?" + +"Nearly. But think it over, think it over, my dear chap. The gift of +freedom is a grand and a glorious one. Don't throw it away for the +traditional mess of pottage--a comestible which may or may not be an +excellent thing, but cannot in my humble judgment maintain its savour if +subsisted on for the term of one's natural life to the exclusion of all +other articles of diet." + +"I appreciate the point of that highly finished hyperbole--at its true +valuation," returned Philip, ironically. "And, look here, Fordham, I +feel it necessary to amend my former comment. A man who will undertake +to deliver such an unconscionably prosy preachment, on the very apex of +a high Alp, is no longer merely becoming a bore, but has become one--in +fact _is_ a bore, and that of the first magnitude." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +THE FALLING STONE. + +"Peter," said Fordham, interrupting a story over which the guides were +guffawing among themselves, and which related to a certain rash tourist +who had undertaken to cross the Gorner glacier alone, giving Herr +Baedeker as his authority for dispensing with the services of their +fraternity, and how the adventurous one being eventually missed was duly +sought for, which search resulted in the discovery of him at the bottom +of a small crevasse in company with a sprained ankle and a Baedeker, and +how some of them in resentment of the fancied slur upon their craft had +grimly suggested that, whereas Baedeker had got him into his present +quandary, it was only fair that Baedeker should get him out. "Peter, +how long shall we take to get down to Zermatt?" + +The man thus addressed stared gravely at the sky, then down at the +valley, then at the surrounding heights, then at his colleague. The +latter went through precisely the same formula. Then he replied-- + +"If de gentleman"--with a look at Philip--"go down so well as he did +come up, then we shall get there in about seven or eight hours." + +"Right you are, Peter. You may put it at that," cried Phil, with +alacrity. "I'll go down like a chamois, my buck. We'll be in easy time +for _table d'hote_." But the other did not enter into this spirit of +exuberance. There was a touch of grimness in his reply, given with +characteristic deliberation. + +"You had better be late for de _table d'hote_ than not get to de _table +d'hote_ ever again," he said. + +"That's a damper, anyway," rejoined Phil. + +"It's a well earned one," said Fordham. "He wants you to realise that +you can no more afford to be careless going down than you could coming +up. And you can't. You're a heavyish chap, Phil, and there are places +where if you lose your footing we are extremely likely to be unable to +hold you up. And although your return to the valley we have just left +may be welcome enough, I doubt if it will be adequately so if effected +in fragmentary form. So don't imagine you can afford to skip down the +Rothhorn on one leg, that's all." + +Peter Anderledy, the head guide, was a swarthy, thick-set fellow, +black-bearded, and Italian looking--of apparently about forty, but in +reality ten years younger. The other, Conrad Spinner, was about the +same age but of a different build, being tall and straight, and of the +Northern type. His bronzed face was almost as dark as that of his +colleague, but his hair and moustache were blonde. The countenances of +both men wore the sedate almost melancholy expression common to those of +their calling, but the glance of their eyes was straight and quick. +Both were addicted to the unlimited consumption of tobacco--also in +common with those of their craft--a consideration by the way which is +difficult to reconcile with the popular notion that the soothing weed is +detrimental, not to say disastrous to the nerves, for if there is one +class of men which combines the most consummate coolness and courage +with an unlimited supply of sheer physical endurance and quickness of +resource, assuredly that class is represented by the qualified Alpine +guide. + +Few Alpine peaks are perpendicular, even on their most precipitous side. +The Rothhorn, however, is one of these, for its eastern face, if +anything, slightly overhangs, falling in a magnificent drop of ironstone +precipice, a depth of about fifteen hundred feet to the glacier beneath. +Its summit is in reality in two peaks, one slightly lower than the +other. The way lies not over but round the lower of these, effecting +what is termed in mountaineering parlance a "corner." There is +excellent hold both for hand and foot, but whereas the climber at the +moment of rounding this projection can neither see nor be seen by the +rest of his party, and whereas, further, his body is slightly inclined +outward over the dizzy height before mentioned, it follows that the +novice, unless endowed with perfect steadiness of head and nerve, is apt +to find the position a somewhat trying one. + +Now this is just what befell Philip Orlebar. At the worst point of the +projection, while hanging on, thus outwardly inclined, curiosity moved +him to turn his face over his shoulder and look down. The effect of the +stupendous height was disastrous. His hands, gripping the rock +overhead, began to tremble. A coldness ran through his legs. He could +not move. He felt that if he did so he must let go. Nor could he +withdraw his gaze from that awful abyss. + +"What on earth are you doing, Phil?" sung out Fordham, from behind, +noticing that the rope had ceased moving. + +"I'm looking down," came the reply. + +"You must not look down. You must come on," called out the head guide, +who was leading. + +The voices broke the spell. With an effort he pulled himself together, +and in a minute stood beside Peter. The others promptly followed. + +"By Jove! That's a grisly sort of place--eh, Peter?" he said. "I +suppose it's the worst of all?" + +"No; it is not de vorst--but it _looks_ de vorst," was the slow reply. +"But--you are all right. You have only to be careful--very careful." + +A slight change had been made in their position on the rope for the +downward climb. Peter Anderledy, the head guide, took the lead as +before. Philip as the novice, came next--the theory being that as he +was more likely to make a false step than Fordham, there should be two +above him to increase the chances of his safety--and indeed that of the +whole party--for there are two or three places during the first hour's +descent of the Rothhorn on the Zermatt side where it is difficult to +believe the rope would save anybody, so steep is the face of the rock, +so slight the hold. + +And now the work began in earnest. Almost immediately they got into a +narrow gully--a mere indenture in the surface of the rock, going +straight down for a considerable distance, and just sufficiently out of +the perpendicular to enable them to scramble down it slowly and with +infinite trouble--now sprawling face to the surface, now in ungainly, +half-squatting attitude, knees almost on a level with the chin. There +was hardly any hold as such; the climber preserving his position almost +entirely by pressure against the snow and ice-encrusted sides of the +shoot, much as an old-fashioned chimney sweeper in the prosecution of +his trade. It was an ugly place, and in the slippery precariousness of +the position with the whole height of the mountain to fall, was an +extremely trying one. + +"I say, Peter," gasped Philip, as at a peremptory call from above to +halt he was striving to make good his stability. "This is a devil of a +bit, you know. I suppose if a fellow were to fall he wouldn't stop till +he got right down on the Durand glacier, eh?" + +"Do not talk," came the severe reply. "Take care of what you are doing. +And mind de shtones." + +None too soon was the warning. Hardly were the words uttered than a +large flat stone, as big as a full-sized photograph album--upon which +Philip had reckoned as a secure support--gave way beneath his feet with +a startling suddenness that made his blood run cold, and went crashing +and bounding straight for Peter. The latter, however, had seen the +catastrophe almost before it had occurred. With incredible celerity he +rolled aside, and, clinging to the face of the rock like a fly on the +wall, felt the air of the impromptu projectile as it shot by within a +foot of him and right through what a fraction of a second before had +been occupied by his body. Away it went, splitting to fragments, as in +a series of leaps and bounds it disappeared from sight. + +"I say, though, I'm awfully sorry," said Philip, while Peter muttered +some very bad language--_secreta_--and Fordham sung out a warning to him +to be more careful and not to trust any stone until he had first well +tested it. + +At length the gully ended and was succeeded by some very pretty rock +climbing. The side of the mountain here bore the aspect of being plated +with huge slabs, and it was mainly upon the projections formed by what +should have been the "joints" of these, together with cracks running +across their surface, that the climbers were able to make their way. + +"A steeple-jack's work is a fool to this," commented Phil, gazing at the +two high above him as they descended cautiously and with cool +deliberation from point to point. + +With ordinary care there was no risk here. Each man securing his +foothold before the others moved they descended slowly but surely. It +was a delightful climb, and, indeed, no form of mountaineering is more +interesting than rockwork of the kind. They arrived without accident at +the point where the way lies through a gap in the high rock ridge, and +sat down for a short rest as well as to refresh the inner man. + +Experienced climbers prescribe the latter process for every two hours. +Certain it is that such recuperation is exceedingly welcome no less +often, thanks to the keen air of those high latitudes. But lack of time +and the risk of catching a chill precludes anything but the briefest +halt; wherefore, if the exertion immediate upon feeding resulteth not in +excruciating indigestion, the subject may congratulate himself on an +extra well-ordered internal economy. This poor Philip was destined to +learn at the hands of that hardest of all preceptresses, experience. +His normally buoyant spirits had deserted him, and as they resumed their +way down the rugged rock-face of the mountain he felt altogether bad. + +"This Alpineering is a fraud, Fordham," he pronounced. "I know I've got +a splitting headache, and feel as if there was a ball of string in my +diaphragm. I guess the little grass climbs are good enough for me." + +"Look where you are going! Never mind de talking till we get down," put +in Peter Anderledy. + +The peremptoriness of the rebuke brought Phil's head back from over his +shoulder with the celerity of a recruit at the word "eyes right!" Then +he growled. But this expression of his dissatisfaction made upon the +stolid guide not the faintest impression. + +"_Herr Gott_!" imprecated the latter presently, with set teeth and a +savage glance upward as he stopped to listen. "De shtones are falling." + +High above among the cliffs, but slightly in front of their line of +march, a hollow rattle became audible. There was something weird and +uncanny about the sound. No mortal hand, no mortal agency had loosened +those rocks and sent them hurtling down into the depths below. It was +almost as if the demons of the air were abroad. + +The party was descending a long _couloir_ or gully, which traversed +obliquely the iron face of the mountain. The crannies of the rocks were +filled with snow and the footing was good. Here and there a bit of +sloping ice necessitated the cutting of a step or two, but, on the +whole, the way was easy. Yet the guides seem to cast anxious glances +upward, and ever and anon that ghostly echoing rattle was heard. + +"Sunshine is a delightful thing," quoth Fordham. "But like everything +else to which that term applies it is bound to have its obverse side. I +could wish just now it had been cloudier and colder." + +"Why the deuce should you wish that?" said Philip. + +"Because then there wouldn't be so many stones flying. You see, they're +frozen to the rock by a thin cementing of ice. As soon as the sun has +any power that ice melts and they slide off. All these rock mountains +are the very devil for falling stones. On the Matterhorn you hear them +rattling all day long--" + +A vehement imprecation from both guides simultaneously, interrupted +them. There was a rushing sound in the air very like the "whigge" of a +shell, and a shadow seemed to swoop over their heads. Looking upward +they beheld a solid mass of rock of at least two tons' weight, sailing +through the air. It had shot outward from the last projecting portion +of the cliff upon which it had struck, and now describing a lofty arc it +whizzed directly over their position, and striking the rocks some +hundred feet lower split into fragments, which went crashing and roaring +down to the glacier beneath. + +Fordham, contemplating this occurrence, shook his head slightly and said +nothing. Philip opened his eyes wide and ejaculated, "By Jove!" The +guides swore with renewed energy. Each action was characteristic. + +For any such edifying notions as that the average man feels subdued and +reverential in the presence of impending danger may safely be relegated +to the Sunday school. In nine cases out of ten he relieves his feelings +pretty much as these Alpine guides did theirs--or feels inclined to-- +presumably as the outcome of an unwonted excitement not unmixed perhaps +with a sort of irritation against the powers that be, which have, in a +manner of speaking, "cornered" him. + +"We must get on so quick as we can. De shtones are going to fall to-day +like a devil," remarked Peter. This comparison as it stood was a +correct one and graphic withal. But in point of fact no thought of the +fall of Lucifer entered the honest guide's head. He was merely +reproducing a time-honoured and highly colloquial simile, the +unconscious variation of which made Philip laugh. + +For a quarter of an hour all went well. Suddenly that ominous rattle +was heard again--right overhead. The three foremost were on a small but +steep slope of hard ice, nor could they move out of the steps which had +been cut by the foremost guide's axe. It follows, therefore, that the +attitudes struck by them were grotesque in the extreme as they stood +glaring wildly upward at a rumbling shower of stones coming down +straight at them, as though the power of the human eye might at a pinch +avail to deflect the dreaded volley. On it came, whizzing and +ricochetting by--the three men staring at it in the most ludicrous state +of helplessness, Fordham ducking violently as a small chip rebounding +from the ice grazed his ear like a slug. It was but a shower of small +stones--none larger than a cricket ball. But a bullet is as potent for +evil as a cannon shot, as Philip was destined to learn. He was seen to +pick up his right leg with a howl of pain, and then to go rather white +in the face. + +"Are you hurt?" said the head guide, somewhat anxiously. + +"Oh, not much, I suppose," was the rather doleful reply. "I believe my +ankle's broken, that's all." + +Peter, without a word, turned back to help him, but he declined any aid. + +"The sooner we are out of this the better," he said. "I can hop along +somehow. Hand us your flask, Fordham. That's better!" + +And he was as good as his word. Though his foot was frightfully painful +he found that he could still use it, and at length they left the +rock-face of the mountain and gained the high ice _arete_ which forms +one of the spurs of the latter. + +It was an awkward place wherein to be incapacitated. The way lay right +along the very edge of the _arete_, where there was not room for two to +walk abreast. But Phil was very game. The pain of his bruised ankle +increased with every step, but he was not going to hamper his companions +by collapsing. He took another liberal pull at Fordham's flask, and +started again manfully, trying to persuade himself that he was in +reality more frightened than hurt. + +But apart from this casualty the view as seen from the apex of the dizzy +_arete_ was a thing to make the very pulses bound with delight in the +sheer exhilaration of living. Behind rose the stupendous cliffs of the +eastern face of the Rothhorn, soaring up to its twin-peaked summit +against the deep and cloudless blue. Immediately beneath, webbed and +criss-crossed by innumerable cracks, lay an amphitheatre of vast +glaciers flowing down from a crescent of grim and frowning cliffs +culminating in the Ober-Gabelhorn, a tower of precipitous rock. Right +opposite, the huge Matterhorn, a dark monolith, frowning, defiant--then +a white sublimity of dazzling snow mountains, the broad hump of the +Breithorn, and the two smaller ones known as Castor and Pollux--the +perilous Lyskamm and the sheeny mass of the beautiful Monte Rosa. +Glaciers, innumerable and vast, mighty rivers of rolling white waves, +whatever way the eye should turn. + +There was a sudden boom as of a heavy thunderpeal--a dull, roaring rush +as of a mighty torrent. A grand avalanche was pouring down the dark +perpendicular precipices which shut in the head of the Trift glacier, a +cataract of powdery whiteness, which, when the glass was brought to +bear, revealed hundreds of tons of frozen snow and huge ice blocks, +falling into a frightful chasm at the foot of the cliff, whence arose a +column of powdery spray for many minutes afterward. As this vast volume +flowed down the metallic face of the dark rock, each peak and precipice +around re-echoed the thunderous boom in a hundred differing +reverberations. + +Scarcely had this ceased than there came a sound of yodelling--cheery, +melodious, distant. Far down in the centre of the white and crevassed +plain, four specks, equidistant, were moving in a downward course. + +"It is a caravan who has come over de Trift-joch," pronounced Conrad +Spinner. And then he and his colleagues lifting up their voices, +answered the yodel, while Philip, being unskilled in that art but moved +by a British and youthful desire to make a noise of some sort, lifted up +his in an ear-splitting and quite unmelodious yell. + +The ice _arete_ came to an end at last and was succeeded by a long +descent over loose rocks, which, piled and packed together by the hand +of Nature, made a very tedious and difficult descent at the best of +times. To poor Philip with his bruised ankle it became excruciating. +At length he could endure it no longer and sank to the ground with an +agonised groan. + +"Off with your boot, and let's appraise the damage," said Fordham. +"Yes, it's a bad whack," he went on, as the extent of the injury became +manifest--for the whole ankle was frightfully swollen. It had been +struck on the inside, and the least touch made the sufferer wince. Both +guides shook their heads gloomily as they marked the angry and inflamed +aspect of the contusion, and Peter Anderledy fired off a few invocations +of his Maker in terms far more forcible than reverential. Even for this +there might have been found some extenuation. Besides a rough and steep +descent over the loose rocks aforesaid, there yet remained a bit of +cliff to be climbed down, the end of a glacier to cross, then at least +half an hour down a high moraine, whose edge, sharp and knife-like, +entailed single file progress, before they reached a point from which a +mule or a litter might be used, and even that point was some hours +distant from the village. + +This, however, was accomplished at last--the descent of the cliff being +avoided by a long _detour_. With the help of Conrad's stalwart shoulder +poor Phil managed to get along with a minimum of pain. But it took them +rather more than twice the ordinary time to accomplish the traject, nor +did they arrive at the point whence artificial transport could be used +until long after the hour when they had reckoned upon sitting safe and +snug at _table d'hote_ in the Hotel Mont Cervin at Zermatt. + +"I say, Conrad, this is a right royal sell," said Philip, as they sat +round a handful of fire which the guide had built--for Peter and Fordham +had hurried on to procure a mule or a _chaise-a-porteur_, and could not +return for some hours. "Sell isn't the word for it. We reckoned on +doing the Matterhorn the day after to-morrow. I suppose there's no +chance of it now." + +"If you can walk as far as de Riffel in one week you can tink you are +very lucky," answered the guide. + +Poor Philip groaned. + +"It's deuced rough," he said. "I didn't come over to Zermatt to lie up +a week in a confounded hotel." + +"It would be worse to lie up for ever in de churchyard," answered Conrad +oracularly, as he lit his pipe. + +"I suppose it would--but, I say, Conrad, how is it you fellows all talk +such good English? Where the dickens do you learn it?" + +"We learn it in de vinter. We make a class." + +"But who teaches you? Do you get hold of an Englishman?" + +"No. It is a Swiss--a Swiss who has been five years in America. But," +added the guide, naively, "I don't tink his pronunciation is very good." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Meanwhile, Fordham and Peter were making their way down the wild and +desolate Trift-thal in the moonlight. + +"I never did see de Rothhorn so bad for de shtones as to-day," grumbled +the latter. "Dey come down, oh, like a devil." + +"It's unfortunate, but one consolation is that it was nobody's fault. +It was sheer ill-luck, Peter, and you or Conrad might equally well have +been hit." + +"No, it is nobody's fault," assented Peter. "But, if anyting goes wrong +with de gentleman dere are always peoples what say it is de guide's +fault. But dat is just de very ting no guide can help--de falling +shtones. We get over de place as quick as we can, but we can't _run_. +_Ach_!" he concluded, with a disgusted shake of the head. + +There was reason in what he said. An Alpine guide under the +circumstances is in much the same position as the captain of a ship. +There are casualties which can be averted neither by the skill of the +one nor the seamanship of the other, nor the courage of both. Yet when +such occur public opinion is equally hard on both. + +It was midnight before the sufferer was safely housed. The local +practitioner looked grave, very grave, when he examined the injury. He +peremptorily forbade the patient to set foot to the ground until he gave +him leave, and that under pain of almost certainly losing his foot +altogether. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Great events from little causes spring." The little cause in this +instance was that little stone. There was a grim literalness in Peter +Anderledy's unconscious variation of a well-worn simile when he +predicted that the stones were going to fall "like a devil"--for the +falling of that little stone was destined to alter the course of Philip +Orlebar's whole life. Its effect might well have been the result of +satanic intervention. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +A WEAPON TO HAND. + +"Hallo, Wentworth?" + +"Hallo, Fordham!" + +"Hot, isn't it?" + +"Beastly hot." + +Thus characteristically did these two Britons greet each other, meeting +unexpectedly on the steps of one of the hotels at Zermatt. The bell was +ringing for _table d'hote_ luncheon, and the sojourners in that +extensive caravanserai were dropping in by twos and threes; ladies-- +ruddy of countenance, the result of sunburn--sketch-book and alpenstock +in hand; spectacled Teutons in long black coats with the inevitable +opera-glass slung around them; English youths armed with butterfly net +or tennis racket, and a sprinkling of the ubiquitous Anglican parson +whose nondescript holiday attire, which its wearer flattered himself +savoured of the real mountaineer while not entirely disguising his +"cloth," imparted to him very much the aspect of a raffish undertaker in +attenuated circumstances. The usual line of guides, taciturn and +melancholy, roosted upon the low wall just outside the hotel, or stood +in a knot in front of the wood-carving shop opposite, their normal +stolidity just awakened into a gleam of speculative interest by the +appearance of a string of vehicles heaving in sight amid a cloud of +dust, upon the road which leads up from St. Nicolas. For this was +before the days of the railway, and Zermatt, still uncockneyfied, +retained most of its pristine picturesqueness in spite of the monster +hotels dominating its quaint brown chalets. And then the majestic cone +of the Matterhorn, towering up from its plinth of rock and glacier. + +"Are you staying in this house, Wentworth?" pursued Fordham. "I thought +the `Monte Rosa' was the hotel patronised by all you regular climbing +fellows." + +"It is, as a rule. But I thought I'd come here for a change. Besides, +when I'm not climbing I like to be among ordinary people. One gets a +little sick of hearing nothing but guide-and-rope `shop' talked. Where +have you turned up from now?" + +"Zinal. Came _via_ the top of the Rothhorn. Orlebar got rather a nasty +whack from a falling stone. He'll have to lie by for a day or two." + +"Did he? By Jove! Now you mention it, I heard there had been a +one-horse kind of accident yesterday. I think they said it was on the +Trift-joch. But I didn't believe it, and then, you see, I started early +this morning to walk up to the Stockje hut and am only just back. Poor +chap! I say, though, is he badly hit?" + +"Between you and me and yonder mule, he is rather. Badly enough to +knock him out of any more climbing this season. He'll have to get all +the brag he can out of the Rothhorn alone until next year, at any rate. +It's rough on him, too, as he was keen on doing a few of the bigger +things." + +"Rough it is. Poor chap! I must go upstairs and see him after tiffin. +But, come along, Fordham, we had better go in. You can sit by me; there +are a lot of empty places around my end of the room." + +From their place at table--a remote corner--they could watch the room +filling. The bulk of the people were of the order already referred to, +but there were some new arrivals, mostly uninteresting--a parson or two; +a thick-set Scotchman with a blowsy wife and a whole tribe of +wooden-faced, flaxen-haired children; a couple of undergraduates in +neckties of vivid hue, presumably their college colours; item, a pair of +grim spinsters of uncertain age and tract-disseminating principles; in +short, the average ruck of our fellow-countrymen abroad. + +"Rather a pretty girl, that," murmured Wentworth. + +Fordham, who was critically inspecting the wine-list, looked up. Two +ladies had just entered the room, and it was to the younger of these +that Wentworth had referred. Both were dark, and the elder bore traces +of having been at one time strikingly handsome--the younger was so. In +their remarkable duplication of each other Nature had unmistakably +ticketed them mother and daughter. + +Upon Fordham the entry of these two produced an astonishing effect. All +the colour faded from his swarthy cheek, leaving a sallow livid +paleness. His lips were drawn tightly against his teeth, and his black +piercing eyes, half-closed, seemed to dart forth lurid lightnings, as he +watched the unconscious pair moving down the long room towards their +seat. Would they discover his presence? Surely there was something +magnetic in that burning glance--a something to which the objects of it +could hardly remain unconscious. Yet they did. + +He saw them take their places. His back was to the light. They had not +seen him. But had they caught the devilish, awful, surging hate +expressed in that fearful scrutiny it is doubtful whether they would +have eaten their luncheon with so tranquil an appetite. + +"Good-looking, isn't she?" pursued Wentworth, too intent on his own +observation to perceive the change that had come over his friend. "For +the matter of that, so is the mother--if it is her mother. They might +easily be sisters. What do you think, Fordham?" + +"So they might," replied the latter tranquilly, sticking up his +eyeglass. He had entirely recovered his self-possession, although there +lurked within his glance a snake-like glitter. "Older one needn't be a +day more than forty, and the girl half that. But I say, Wentworth, I +thought you were past admiring that sort of cattle." + +"Well, I am in a general way. But that's a splendid-looking girl. Even +you must admit that." + +If a slight shrug of the shoulders amounted to admission, Wentworth was +welcome to it. The object of his eulogy had all the dazzling "points" +of a perfect brunette. Hair and eyelashes dark as night--and abundance +of both--large clear eyes, and regular, white teeth which gleamed every +now and then in a bewitching smile as their owner responded to some +remark on the part of her right-hand neighbour with whom she had entered +into conversation. While she was in full view of the two men her mother +was not, being screened by the ample dimensions and exuberant cap +strings of a portly British matron opposite. + +The confused clatter and buzz of a babel of tongues at length began to +suffer abatement, then gave way to the rasping pandemonium of chairs +pushed back by the dozen along the polished wooden floor. Fordham, +watching his opportunity, left the room under cover of two large groups +of people already flitting from his neighbourhood. As he did so, a +sidelong glance towards the two new arrivals satisfied him that his +identity was still unperceived by them, which, for reasons of his own, +he particularly desired. Having thus effected his retreat undiscovered, +he paused and took up his position in the passage within a few yards of +the dining-room door as if awaiting the exit of somebody. + +The passage, unlighted by windows, was in shade--in a grateful and +refreshing gloom, deepened and intensified by the glare of the midday +sunshine in the room beyond. As he thus stood, his back to the wall, +that expression of deadly vindictive hatred returned to his face. +Standing back in the semi-gloom, he resembled some lurking beast of prey +in the diabolical passions impacted upon his countenance. + +"What an exceedingly disagreeable-looking man," had remarked more than +one of the passers by who had noted this expression. "Whoever he is +waiting for will have an unpleasant surprise, anyhow." This was true, +but not in the superficial and commonplace sense in which it was +enunciated. + +Nearly everybody had left the room but those two. Would they sit there +all day? Ah! Now! + +They were advancing up the room, the glowing and graceful beauty of the +girl in striking contrast to the maturer and time-worn charms of the +matron, who was still wonderfully handsome. It was a pleasing picture +to look upon. + +But the effect upon him now standing there was assuredly far from a +pleasing one. The expression of his countenance had become positively +devilish. The two were in the doorway now--the girl making some light +laughing remark to her mother. + +But just then the latter looked up--looked up full into Fordham's face, +into the burning, sunken eyes glowering in the shadow, and the effect +was startling. A look of the most awful terror came over her face, and +she put up her hands wildly as if to ward off some appalling object. +Then with a quick, gasping shriek, she fell heavily to the floor in a +dead faint. + +The shriek was echoed by another, as the girl flung herself wildly down +beside her mother, adjuring the latter by every endearing name. But the +poor woman lay in a ghastly and livid unconsciousness that was more like +death. + +The lounging, chatting groups--mostly ladies--which had been scattered +about the hall, startled by the shrieking, came crowding up in dubious, +half-frightened fashion. Waiters came pouring out of the dining-room +door. To the head of these Fordham spoke. + +"Is there a doctor staying in the house, Alphonse? The lady seems to be +rather unwell. And--I say, Alphonse," he added, "is Mr Wentworth still +in the dining-room? I've been waiting for him ever so long." + +"Here I am, Fordham," answered a voice behind him. "Why, man, I've been +out for at least ten minutes. But what's the row?" + +Meanwhile the sufferer was being cared for by several of her own sex. +As it happened, too, there was an English doctor staying in the house, +who now appeared on the scene. + +"Stand back, please," he ordered, authoritatively. "She'll soon come +round. But give her some air at any rate. What caused it?" he added to +the sobbing, frightened girl. "She has had a shock of some sort." + +"She couldn't have," was the answer. "She--she--screamed and fell down. +There was n-n-nothing to startle her--in fact, there was a strange +gentleman standing there as if waiting for somebody. But he was a +perfect stranger." + +All this Fordham--who had drawn out of the crowd and was out of sight, +but not of hearing--caught. The doctor made no direct reply to the +statement, though on the point of the utter unfamiliarity of the +stranger's appearance it is highly probable that he formed his own +opinion. + +"Let's go and look at the visitors' book," suggested Wentworth. "I want +to see if there's any one I know." + +They strolled into the bureau and the book was produced. While +Wentworth ran his eye attentively down the list of names, Fordham, +standing behind him, hardly seemed to look at it. Anyhow, he evinced no +interest whatever in the identity of anybody. But in reality the fact +was the other way. + +"The same name," he said to himself. "The same name! That simplifies +matters all round. Now I see daylight. At last--at last!" + +Half an hour later Fordham strolled round to the village post-office and +mailed a batch of letters. This was not in itself an extraordinary +circumstance. But in the midst of that batch was one addressed to +`_Mrs Daventer_,' and he knew it would be delivered that same +afternoon. + +"What sort of a crowd at lunch, Fordham?" said Philip, as the door of +his room opened to admit that worthy. "Any one new? Hullo, Wentworth! +Where have you dropped from?" + +"Oh, I've been around here about a week. But I say, Orlebar, it's +rather hard lines getting yourself knocked out of time this way." + +"Hard lines isn't the word for it. And--what do you think? That +confounded ass of a doctor says I sha'n't be able to do any climbing +this season. But he's only a Swiss," he added, with the youthful John +Bull's lordly contempt for talent or attainments encased in other than +an Anglo-Saxon skull. + +"You may depend upon it he knows his business," responded Wentworth. +"But you do as he tells you and keep your hoof up, old man, or you may +be pinned up in this lively chamber for a month." + +"I suppose you've been doing some big climbs?" said Philip, wistfully. + +"Not yet. Been taking it easy. I started to do the Deut Blanche the +day after I came here, but the weather worked up bad and we had to turn +back. I say, Orlebar, you'd better look sharp and get right. There was +a deuced pretty girl at _table d'hote_. Her mother fainted in the +passage directly after, and there was a devil of an uproar. I believe +Fordham made faces at her and scared her into a fit. He was the only +person there at the time--" + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Philip. "Scowled at her `like a devil,' as Peter +would say. Eh, Fordham?" + +But the latter, who was lighting a cigar, made no reply. + +"By the way, Orlebar," said Wentworth. "Seen anything more of that girl +you were so gone on at Les Avants, Miss--Miss--" + +The speaker broke off with a start that was comical, for Fordham, while +endeavouring to convey a mild and warning kick unseen of the third +party--a thing which nobody ever succeeded in doing yet, and in all +probability never will--had brought his hoof in contact with a corn, +imparting to poor Wentworth the sensation as of a red-hot needle +suddenly driven into his toe. In a measure it served him right, for his +blundering had touched poor Philip on a very sore place. Lying there +all the morning--with the prospect of a good many mornings and +afternoons too, destined to be similarly spent--the poor fellow had +found ample time for thought. + +"What a chap you are, Wentworth!" he retorted, irritably. "Here is a +poor devil tied by the leg in an infernal room for Heaven knows how +long, and you can find nothing better to liven him up with than a lot of +feeble and second-hand chaff. Let's have something a little more +amusing. Tell us some mountaineering lies for instance." + +And Wentworth spent the best part of the afternoon telling him some. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +FORGING THE LINK. + +A pile of rocks overgrown with stunted rhododendron bushes and shaggy, +weather-beaten pines, also stunted. Among these a foaming mountain +torrent cleft its way, dashing through the deep, narrow chasm which +walled it in some fifty feet below. A seldom-frequented path wound +around the base of the rocks, passing over a crazy wooden bridge. + +On the morning subsequent to the events just detailed Richard Fordham +sat among the rocks aforesaid, smoking a cigar. He had lighted it on +first arriving at this sequestered spot, and now the glowing end was +almost burning his fingers. This showed that he had been waiting there +for some time--half an hour at least. + +Waiting? That was just what he was doing. But there was no impatience +attendant on the process. His gaze had scarcely wandered from the +stretch of open meadowland lying between his position and the brown +roofs of Zermatt nearly a mile away--yet in it there was no concern, no +anxiety. + +An object was approaching along the path--a grey sunshade. Beneath this +was a human figure--a female figure. Watching its approach, the +expression of his countenance underwent a change; but in it there was +still no impatience. The expression of that dark, saturnine countenance +was one of exultant ferocity, such as might animate that of the +concealed leopard as it watches the unsuspecting antelope advance step +by step within easy springing distance of its lurking-place. + +The new arrival continued to advance slowly until she had reached the +rickety wooden bridge. There she paused and looked around as though +puzzled. + +At the sound of a cough above she started and changed colour, then +catching sight of another path, began to ascend to where he stood. This +was a platform of rock on the edge of the chasm. It was shut in by the +trees in such fashion that any one standing there would be scarcely +discernible from without, while commanding the approaches from the +quarter whence any one would be in the least likely to advance. + +The new-comer was an extremely well-preserved woman of middle age. She +was slightly above the medium height, and her dark, flashing eyes and +strongly marked brows gave her an imperious look which it needed not the +firm jaw and erect figure to confirm. But the expression stamped upon +her pale features at that moment was not that of power, rather it was +one of apprehension--of undisguisable dread, dashed with strong +abhorrence. As she stood there, panting with the exertion of the +ascent, or agitation, or both, a chance observer might have discovered +in her countenance a curious likeness to that of Fordham himself. + +The latter made no gesture, uttered no word of greeting. The evil +expression in his face was qualified by a thin, cold sneer. Thus they +confronted each other--the one pale, apprehensive, yet with strong +aversion and defiance in her eyes; the other self-possessed, thoroughly +conscious of power, and returning hate for hate in fullest measure. + +"Well?" broke from her at last, to the accompaniment of a half-checked +stamp of the foot. + +"Well?" + +"What have you got to say to me?" she said curtly; adding, in a +repressed volcano-storm of wrath and bitterness. "I have obeyed orders, +you see." + +"You could not have done otherwise. Even you have the sense thoroughly +to realise that." + +"But I didn't know _you_ were here," she went on; "not yet, anyhow. +When I saw you I got something of a shock, for my system is not what it +was. You quite took me by surprise." + +"I believe you--for once. Finished actress as you are, even you could +hardly have counterfeited the tragic effect produced by my unexpected +appearance yesterday. The devil himself could hardly have scared you +more." + +"Of the two it is the devil himself that I should have preferred to +see." + +"Undoubtedly. But the malevolent powers commonly attributed to that +functionary are nothing to those I shall bring to bear on you if you +neglect to carry out my instructions implicitly. On you and yours, I +should have said." + +Was it there that the secret of his power lay? An involuntary spasm +passed through her frame as if she had received a stab. + +"Perhaps, then, you will oblige me by communicating them," she hastened +to reply. "For it happens I have made arrangements to leave here this +very day--or to-morrow at latest." + +"Those arrangements you will have the trouble of cancelling, then." + +"Indeed! And may I ask why?" + +"Certainly. Your appearance here yesterday is going to supply the +weapon I have been working to forge for years. Nothing is now wanting +to complete the chain. Yours is the hand that shall do so. To that end +you will remain here--as long as I require your presence." + +"That is a very odd turn for events to take--that you should require my +presence," she said, with a bitter sneer. + +"Very. In fact, the irony of the situation is unique. And yet there +are people who say there is no such thing as poetic justice." + +"But now, suppose you begin by giving one some idea as to the nature of +this wonderful plan of yours. I take for granted it is for nobody's +_good_, anyhow." + +"You are wrong there. It will tend most distinctly to the good of two +people. And--calm your amazement--one of those people is yourself." + +"Your warning is wholly needed. The idea that any action of _yours_ +could tend to _my_ advantage is sufficient to justify the wildest +amazement, were there room for any other emotion than complete +incredulity," she answered, with a scornful smile. + +"You shall see directly. But, first of all, let me congratulate you on +the extremely fascinating appearance of--your daughter. It really does +you the greatest credit--" + +"We will leave her out of the question, if you please," she interrupted, +speaking quickly. + +"But I don't please--and that for the best possible reason. I said just +now that the scheme in which I require your aid will tend to the +advantage of two persons, one of them being yourself. The other is-- +your daughter." + +"Then you will certainly not obtain my aid. In anything that tends to +involve my child in co-operation--however indirect--with yourself, I +flatly refuse to have any hand." + +The sardonic smile deepened around Fordham's mouth. He opened his +cigar-case, took out a fresh cigar, and lighted it with the greatest +deliberation. + +"It is always a pity to commit oneself to a rash statement," he said. +"The determination just expressed you will directly see reason to +reconsider--certainly before you leave this delightful spot." + +"Never!" + +"Oh, but you will! You are, to do you justice, far too much a woman of +the world--life has been far too comfortable, too prosperous for you-- +for you both--during, we'll say, the last twenty years, for you to face +the alternative now." + +"Has it? I will risk anything--face any alternative." + +"Even that of starvation?" + +"Even that. But it will not come to that. Poverty it may be--but--we +can work--we can live somehow." + +"Ha! ha! ha! Can you? Only try it. I see I was giving you undue +credit just now when I defined you as a woman of the world. Those who +talk airily of poverty are always the ones who have spent life in +luxury. Think of it in all its aspects--of being on the very verge of +starvation, of the fireless grate, and weeks of north-east wind and +snowstorm, of the foul, insanitary den--kennel rather--covered by the +same roof as that which shelters the most debased two-legged animals +which ever bore semblance to the stamp of humanity. Think of the sights +and sounds, the mad-drunk ruffians, and the fighting, clawing, +screaming, harpies; the `language of the people,' and nights made +hideous with the yells of some one being murdered. This is what poverty +is going to mean in your case. This is what you and your--child will +come to. Stay a moment. You think I am exaggerating? You think, no +doubt, you have friends who will help you--who will never see you come +to this? But don't flatter yourself. I will prevent them from helping +you. I will cause them to spurn you from their doors--both of you. In +fact, I will hunt you down into utter and complete ruin--both of you. +Both of you--mark it well! Why do I not do so in any case? I don't +know. But oppose me in the slightest particular--neglect in the +minutest detail the scheme I am going to set you to carry out--and +this--and more than all this shall come upon you--shall come upon you +both--as sure as I am a living man." + +Her face was as white as a sheet, and in her flashing eyes there was the +look of a tigress whose whelps are menaced, as she advanced a step +nearer to him, her breast heaving violently. + +"Dare you boast that you _are_ a living man?" she panted, clenching and +unclenching her hands. "Are you not afraid I shall kill you where you +stand? I shall some day--I know it!" + +"Do--if you can. And, by the way, this would have been an excellent +opportunity. In the first place, you would be entirely free from +interruption, for I have already scouted the whole of this covert to +ensure the absence of the regulation dauber intent on evolving the +pictorial presentment of a dissipated-looking sugar-loaf, under the +impression that he or she is sketching the Matterhorn. In the next, +this country has practically abolished the death penalty, so that you +would get a dozen years at most, and your child would have the honour of +being the daughter of a convict as well as--But drop these +melodramatics, and return to sound sense. Heavens, woman! I wonder you +dare talk to _me_ like this." And as his memory leaped back his deep +voice took the snarling rumble of an enraged wild beast. + +Man and Nature are ever offering the most vivid and jarring contrasts. +The brown roofs of the village, dominated by the white cubes of the +great hotels, lay nestling amid the green meadows, against a background +of stately mountains. The hoarse rush of the torrent, pent up in the +narrow fissure at their feet, joined with the deeper roar of the +churning Visp, gathering hourly in volume as the midday sun told in +power upon its feeder, the great Gorner glacier, whose sheeny _seracs_ +reared their dazzling battlements in a blue and white line above the +vernal pastures at the head of the valley, while the stately monolith of +the giant Matterhorn towered aloft into the vivid blue of the cloudless +heavens. Yet there, amid the sequestered solitude of the jagged pines, +stood these two, confronting each other with deadly rage in their +hearts, with bitterest hate and defiance flashing from their set faces +and burning eyes--a very hell of evil passions surging alike in both. + +"Now take your choice," he went on. "Carry out my plan as I am about to +lay it before you, and you will benefit yourself in doing so. Refuse, +or mar it in the slightest detail, either by bungling or of set design, +and I will utterly crush you both, beginning from this day. You know +me." + +She made no answer. She never removed her eyes from his, and her breath +came in quick, hard gasps. Her aspect was that of some dangerous animal +cornered, driven to bay. Barely a couple of yards behind him was the +brink of the narrow fissure by which the churning torrent cleft its way +through the heart of the rocks. The sneering, mocking smile which came +into his face as he read her thoughts was devilish in its maddening +provocation. + +"No go," he said. "You couldn't do it. I am much too firm on my pins. +You would be extremely likely to go over yourself, and then what would +become of Laura, left to _my_ tender mercies?" + +"You fiend! I think Satan himself must be a god compared with you." + +"Am I to take that as a compliment? Well, now to business. Sit down." + +"Thank you. I prefer to stand." + +"I don't," seating himself upon a boulder and puffing deliberately at +his cigar. "Please yourself, however. And now kindly give me your best +attention." + +Then for the next twenty minutes he did all the talking, though every +now and then an ejaculation of anger, disgust, or dissidence would +escape her. This, however, affected him not in the slightest degree. +The cold, cutting, sarcastic tones flowed evenly on, laying down the +details of what was to her a strange and startling plan. Not until he +had unfolded it in all its bearings did he pause, as though to invite +comment. + +But by that time it was noticeable that the horror and decisiveness in +her refusal to co-operate with which the woman had first received his +suggestion had undergone a very marked abatement. She could even bring +herself to discuss the scheme in some of its details. + +"Now," he concluded--"now you see I am practically proposing to be +Laura's greatest benefactor; yours, too, in a secondary degree, for the +event will render you, to a large extent, free from my bondage." + +"That indeed would be to benefit me," she answered, with a return of the +old, rancorous aversion. "But even now the motive you have given is not +above suspicion. It is too inadequate." + +"Not so. If you look at it all round you will perceive it is complete. +I am of a revengeful disposition, and now, after half a lifetime, I see +my opportunity for taking a most sweeping revenge. But I like my +retribution to be as original as it is far-reaching. This one is. In +fact, it is unique." + +How unique it was even she could not at the moment fathom. But she was +destined to learn it later, in all its grim and undreamed-of horror. + +"I hope I may be allowed to change my mind," said Mrs Daventer, +sweetly, as she entered the bureau of the hotel that afternoon. "I wish +to counter-order the arrangements I made for leaving to-morrow. It can +be managed, I hope?" + +"I will see immediately, madame," said the civil _employe_, looking up +from the pile of letters he was sorting, and which had just come in. "I +tink de mules are already ordered. One moment--I will just inquire." + +He went out, leaving Mrs Daventer alone in the bureau. She turned over +some of the letters. Among the uppermost in the half-sorted pile was +one addressed "Philip Orlebar, Esq." The handwriting was rather large +and bold, but distinctly feminine, and the envelope bore the Zinal +postmark. At sight of this Mrs Daventer's pulses quickened and her +eyes dilated. Then she heard the _employe's_ steps returning. + +"It will be all right, madame," he said. "Another party is going down +who will be very glad of de mules." + +She thanked him, entered into a few pleasant commonplaces as to the +attractions of the locality, the number of people abroad that year, the +fineness of the season, and so forth, and expressing a little +disappointment at the man's reply that the pile of letters just +delivered contained none for her or her daughter, she went out. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Philip Orlebar received several letters that afternoon, but they did not +comprise one bearing the Zinal postmark, which circumstance, however, +conveyed no disappointment, inasmuch as he had never expected they +would. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +SIR FRANCIS ORLEBAR. + +Claxby Court, Sir Francis Orlebar's seat, was a snug country box, rather +modern in architecture and unpretentious of aspect. A long, winding +carriage-drive led up to the front portico, entering which you found +yourself in a spacious central hall, lit from above by a skylight. The +effect of this hall, with its carved furniture and quaint oak cabinets, +its walls covered with weapons and trophies of many lands, was extremely +good. A gallery ran round it above, and the dining and drawing-room, +morning-room and library, opened out from it on the ground-floor. + +The stabling and gardens were of proportionately modest dimensions. The +house stood in a park of about fifty acres, and, being on a slight +eminence, commanded a charming view of field and woodland stretching +away to a line of green downs to the southward. The estate consisted of +about three thousand acres, but it was not all good land, and there was +always a farm or two lying unlet. The former possessor had been a +careful man, but although times were better in his day, he had found it +all he could do to steer clear of serious embarrassment. The present +one found it hardly less difficult, but he had two things in his favour. +He was a man of simple and inexpensive tastes, and, with the exception +of one son, he was childless. His liability was, therefore, a strictly +limited one. + +Sir Francis Orlebar stood in his library window, thinking. It was a +bright summer morning--bright and cheerful enough to have exercised a +corresponding effect upon the spirits. Yet in this instance it did not +seem to. + +He was a slight, well-proportioned man of medium height, but his slight +build and erect carriage made him seem taller than he really was. There +was a look of almost ultra-refinement in his face, and he was still +strikingly handsome. His hair and moustache were grey, but his eyes +looked almost young. Not in their light-hearted expression, however, +for there was a tinge of melancholy never wholly absent from them, but +in their wonderful penetrating clearness. It was a most contradictory +face, and withal, to the student of physiognomy, a most provoking one, +for as a set-off to the high forehead and straight, clear eyes there was +a shade of weakness, of over-sensitiveness in the set of the lower jaw. +But it was the face of a many-generation-descended gentleman. + +As we have said, there was nothing in this bright, mellow summer morning +to conduce to depression. Yet the cloud upon the thinker's face +deepened. + +It would be safe to hazard a conjecture that the cause of his melancholy +was purely subjective. His was just the temperament which delights in +retrospect, which is given to tormenting its owner with speculative +musings upon what might have been--to raising the ghosts of dead and +buried events. + +He looked back upon his life and derived no pleasure from the process. +With his opportunities--always with the best intentions--what a poor +affair he seemed to have made of it! Better indeed for him had those +intentions been less free from alloy, since nothing which borders on +perfection has the slightest chance in this world of snares, and +pitfalls, and rank growths. Best intentions, indeed, had been his +undoing all along the line. His own inclinations were rather against +the profession of arms, but he had sacrificed them and accepted a +commission, in accordance with his father's strongly expressed wish. He +had married his first wife from motives of chivalry rather than +affection--out of pity for the life of toil and grinding poverty +otherwise mapped out for her. Then had followed disillusion, +unappreciativeness, ingratitude, misery, till her early death freed him +from the ill-assorted and blighting tie. Caught at the rebound, his too +soft heart and aesthetic nature had led him into an intrigue which +proved disastrous to all concerned--but, there, he did not care to dwell +upon that. Again, in a fit of disgust and sensitiveness, brought about +by the _eclat_ and scandal, he had sold out--always with the best +intentions--where another would simply have shown a bold front until the +nine days' wonder had abated, and was left early in life without a +profession. He had embarked in literature, always of a delicate, not to +say dilettante nature; had dabbled in art, and a little in a science or +two, but had never got his head above the level of the swaying, +striving, pushing--shall we say cringing?--multitude of heads, all +fighting for that proud and lucrative pre-eminence. But he had always +the interests and occupations of a country gentleman to fall back upon, +and perhaps, on the whole, these suited him as well as anything else. +And then, after about twenty years wherein to reflect on the scant +advantages which he had reaped from his former matrimonial venture, he +had suffered himself to be again bound with the iron chain, and his +second partner--as is curiously enough not unfrequently the case under +the circumstances, presumably through some ironical freak of Nature +which decrees that when a man of an age and experience to know better +does make a fool of himself he shall do it thoroughly--possessed neither +attractions, nor wealth, nor suitability of temperament to recommend +her. And having arrived at this stage of his retrospection, poor Sir +Francis could not but own to himself--we fear, not for the first time-- +that in taking this step to counteract the growing loneliness of +advancing age he had performed the metaphorical and saltatory feat +popularly known as "jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire." + +But there was one bright influence shining in upon the shaded events of +his anything but cheerful introspection, and its name was Philip. The +baronet's heart glowed with pride at the thought of his fine, +open-hearted, handsome son, upon whom he lavished an almost feminine +affection. Here again came in that fatal motor, "best intentions." +Better, perchance, had a little more steel and a little less velvet +gloved the hand which had had the bringing up of that sunny-natured +youth. But Sir Francis was the last person to whom this was likely to +occur, and now, as he thought that the time for his idolised son's +return could not be very far distant, there stole over his features an +unconscious smile of pleasurable anticipation. + +Immersed in such congenial musing, he hardly heard the subdued knock at +the door, the almost noiseless footsteps of the well-trained butler. +The latter bore some letters on a salver. + +"Put them on the table, Karslake," said the baronet, unwilling to be +disturbed in his pleasant reverie. + +"Beg pardon, Sir Francis," said the man, who was of long standing and +privileged--"beg pardon, Sir Francis, but I think one of 'em's from Mr +Philip." + +The change in the baronet's demeanour was striking. + +"Eh--what?" he cried, wheeling round and making what almost amounted to +a snatch at the letters. Then, having pushed the others contemptuously +aside, he resumed his position in the window, hurriedly tearing open the +envelope. + +The butler meanwhile was busying himself about the room, putting things +tidy that had got out of their places or were otherwise disarranged. A +quick gasp of dismay which escaped his master caused him to pause in his +occupation. + +"Karslake," said the latter, in explanation, for the old butler was, as +we said, privileged, having been in the household almost since Philip's +birth, "you will be sorry to hear that Mr Philip has met with an +accident--climbing those infernal mountains," he added, more to himself +than the servant. + +"Not serious, I trust, Sir Francis?" said the latter, in real anxiety, +for Philip was a prime favourite in the Claxby household, save with one, +and that not the least important member of it. + +"No, thank God! He got hit by a falling stone, and can't put his foot +to the ground. Confined to his room, he says." + +"I hope he'll be properly taken care of in them foreign parts, Sir +Francis," said Karslake, shaking his head in John Bull-like scepticism +as to any such possibility. + +"Oh, yes. There's an English doctor attending him as well as the +foreign one. Thank Heaven it's no worse. Is her ladyship down yet? +But never mind--I'll find her anyhow," he added to himself, going to the +door. And as he did so it was noticeable that he walked with a slight +limp. + +Lady Orlebar was up but not down, which apparently paradoxical +definition maybe taken to mean that, arrayed in a dressing-gown, she +reposed comfortably in a big armchair by her bedroom window. Her +occupation was of a twofold character, in that she was assimilating +coffee and reading _Truth_. + +In externals she was a large well-built woman of middle age, handsome +after a coarse, rubicund fashion, though a purplish hue which had +succeeded in her cheeks the roseate flush of youth, would almost excuse +the severe verdict of that hypercritic who should define her charms as +somewhat "blowsy." Her temper could not even be described as +"uncertain," for there was no element of uncertainty about it, as poor +Sir Francis had already realised, to his sorrow. Her disposition was +domineering and exacting to the last degree, and she would do nothing +for herself that she could get anybody else to do for her--presumably to +make up, if somewhat late in the day, for half a lifetime spent in +perforce doing everything for herself. From such a one as this it was +hardly likely Sir Francis would meet with much sympathy in the flurry +and anxiety into which the news of his son's accident had thrown him. + +"Mercy on us! Is that all?" was her comment as soon as he had given her +particulars. "Here you come bursting in upon me regardless of my poor +nerves, and I in such pain all night, as I always am. You come rushing +in upon me, I say, as if the house was on fire." + +The fact being that Lady Orlebar was as strong as a horse. The only +pain she ever suffered from was of that nature, which a daily hour's +walk, combined with a little discrimination at table, would have +conjured away like magic. But it was a useful affectation to assume +that life was a perpetual martyrdom--a highly efficient buttress to her +ascendency. + +"And all about what?" she went on. "Merely to tell me that an idle, +good-for-nothing boy, who ought to be hard at work earning his living +instead of skylarking about the world amusing himself, has sprained his +ankle. Really, Francis, I wonder the absurdity of it doesn't strike +even you!" + +"Well it's a pity I said anything about it, I admit," he answered +coldly. "Perhaps I shouldn't have--but--how would you like a trip +abroad, Alicia?" + +"What, at this time of year, when you have to sit five a side in a +railway compartment, and to make one of a clamouring, struggling rabble, +beseeching the hotel-keepers to allow you even a garret at a charge that +is rather more than would be required to keep a yacht? No, thank you, +not for me." + +"Well, I don't mind a little of that sort of thing, so I think I shall +take a run over myself." + +"Over where--may I ask?" + +"Over to Zermatt. I should like to be sure the boy is getting proper +care--efficient attendance. An injury of that sort, though +insignificant in itself, may become serious if not properly taken care +of at the time. And Philip is so reckless." + +The colour deepened in Lady Orlebar's highly coloured face, and the +sneer upon her lips was not pleasant to look upon. + +"Did I hear you aright, Sir Francis? It cannot be possible that I +understood you to say you purposed to leave me alone here--to leave me +all alone in my wretched state of health--while you go rushing off to +the Continent to look after this boy, who is surely old enough to take +care of himself, and who will probably laugh over you and your fussiness +with his friends for your pains." + +"Whatever may be your opinion of Philip, you can at least credit him +with being a gentleman," was the icy reply to this rally. + +But ice thrown into a boiling copper produces a mighty hissing, a +prodigious letting off of steam. And such was the effect entailed upon +the lady by this rejoinder. Of indifferent birth herself she imagined +the reply to contain a gird at that circumstance, and rushed into the +battle--horse, foot, and artillery. + +"Pah! An idle, good-for-nothing scamp is what I credit him with being," +she retorted furiously. "A fellow who allows his parents to pinch and +starve themselves in order that he may revel in the luxury of idleness. +And, I tell you what it is, Francis, I won't be neglected in any such +fashion! I won't be left alone here! No, that is a thing I will not +stand! Isn't it enough that I am ground down and forced to live on a +mere pittance because you choose to spoil your son? Is that not enough, +I say? And now you propose to go away and leave me alone for an +indefinite time. But you will find I am not to be so easily shelved. I +have my rights, and I know thoroughly well how to look after them. And +look after them I shall--rest assured of that! Go--go by all means! +But the consequences be upon your own head." + +Of attempting to reason with her in this mood, or indeed in any mood, +Sir Francis had long since learned the futility. Indeed, at that moment +he felt little inclination to attempt anything of the kind. Apart from +the coarseness of her temper, which revolted his more refined instincts, +her venomous abuse of his son aroused in him the bitterest resentment. +He was no match for an adversary of this fibre, for his refined and +sensitive nature shrank with loathing and horror from violent scenes. +So now he adopted the wise, if somewhat ignominious, course of beating a +retreat. He simply walked out of the room. + +This was not precisely what his wife desired. Like all women of her +kind, and a good many not of her kind, she dearly loved a battle, and +the sort of battle she loved most was that wherein victory was assured. +By fleeing at the sound of the first gun the enemy had effected a +retreat which was three parts of a victory. She returned to the perusal +of _Truth_--an extra pungent number--with an angry frown, yet she could +not quite reconcentrate her mind upon the spicy contents of the journal. +The slave had shown signs of rebellion. He must be made to feel that +rebellion was not going to answer. + +Poor woman! Her grievances were very great--very real--were they not? +She had brought her husband neither wealth, looks, nor connections when +she had condescended to take possession of him and his position and +title, yet _her_ convenience was ever to be uppermost, _her_ word law. +She claimed the right to control his every movement. She had, we say, +brought him not a shilling, yet to rule his means and expenditure was of +course her indubitable right. As, for instance, that he should persist +in making an allowance to his own son, instead of turning that fortunate +youth penniless out of doors and pouring out the cash thus saved at her +feet, was an act of flagrant and shameful ill-treatment of her that +cried aloud to Heaven for vengeance. But whether Heaven listened, and +looked upon it in the same light or not, certain it was that it +constituted the sum and crown of all her grievances, and they were not +few. + +That a man of Sir Francis Orlebar's temperament should ever have taken +such a woman to wife--rather, we ought to say, should ever have suffered +himself to be taken possession of by her--was marvellous, would have +been incredible but that we know the same sort of thing happens every +day. And having once succumbed he was bound hand and foot. No power on +earth could save him. A man more coarse fibred would have held his own, +even at the cost of a diurnal battle royal. One less sensitive would +have cut the knot of the difficulty by the simple expedient of +undertaking a tour round the world, or any other method of separation +which should commend itself to him. Or one of slippery principle would +have laid himself out to effect an emancipation in the method most +approved of by the lawyers and by newspaper editors in want of +acceptable "copy." But to Sir Francis each and all of these courses +were equally repugnant--the latter, indeed, not to be thought of. His +bondage was complete. He was a slave to that most tyrannical of +despots--a thoroughly selfish, domineering, coarse-natured woman. + +With an instinctive idea of placing it beyond his wife's power to renew +the last encounter he had taken himself out of the house. As he +strolled through the park the limp in his left leg became more +pronounced, as curiously enough it invariably did whenever he was vexed +or agitated, and now he was both. + +But by that evening the resolution he had formed to proceed to his son's +bedside was considerably shaken. He had telegraphed, and the replies +had been in every way satisfactory. Perhaps his presence there would be +unnecessary after all. This might or might not have been the sensible +way of looking at it. But continual dropping wears away stones, which +for present purposes may be taken to mean that the tongue of a violent +woman is a pretty effective weapon against the strongest resolution +formed by an irresolute nature. There had been another battle royal, +and the baronet had retreated under cover of the satisfactory replies to +his telegrams. It was better to avoid any more violent scenes, and +accordingly he had succumbed--had yielded for the sake of peace--that is +to say, "with the very best intentions." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +But the violent tongue of his stepmother, coupled with his father's +sensitive horror of the same, was destined to work such woe in poor +Philip's eventual fate as even that vindictive matron little dreamed. +Strange are the trivialities that combine together for stupendous +results. Had Sir Francis adhered to his first and laudable resolve what +widespread ruin might have been averted. But he did not. He abandoned +it for the sake of peace, of course with the best intentions. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +TAKEN AT THE REBOUND. + +When Philip at length managed to leave his room and hobble downstairs +with the aid of a stick and one of the hotel porters he realised to the +full that it was high time he did. + +He realised further that all thoughts of mountain climbing, for this +season at any rate, must be abandoned. Not that he cared about that, +however; for after more than a week of confinement to his room, and that +in the loveliest of summer weather, all inclination towards the reaping +of further mountaineering laurels seemed to have left him. His main +ambition now was to get well as soon as possible and move away to fresh +scenes. The lovely aspect of mountain and glacier shining in the golden +summer sun was now as gall to him, intertwined as it was with +recollections of Eden before his wholly unexpected and crushing +expulsion therefrom. The bright laughter and cheerful voices of parties +setting forth or returning--on sightseeing bent--grated irritably on his +nerves, for it brought back to him the time so recent, but now divided +by such an impassable gulf, when he himself was among the cheeriest of +the cheery. So now as he sat in his comfortable cane chair--his injured +foot propped up on another--in a sunny spot outside the hotel, his +thoughts were very bitter. + +Needless to say they ran upon the subject which had afforded him ample +food for reflection during these long days of his irksome and enforced +stagnation. To the first blank and heart-wrung sense of his loss had +succeeded by degrees a feeling of angry resentment. Alma had meted out +to him very harsh measure. She had allowed him no opportunity of +explanation, and surely he was entitled to that amount of consideration, +not to say fair play. But no. She had condemned him unheard. After +all Fordham was right. The less one had to do with the other sex the +better. It was all alike. And a very unwonted sneer clouded the beauty +of the ordinarily bright and sunny face. + +This, no doubt, was very good reasoning--would have been had the +reasoner but numbered a dozen or so more years of life. In that case it +would doubtlessly have afforded him abundant consolation. As things +were, however, he was fain to own to himself that it afforded him very +little indeed. However he might pretend to himself that Alma was not +worth wrecking his life over, the poor fellow knew perfectly well that +were she to appear at that moment before him with but one kind word on +her lips, all his rankling resentment and cynical communings would be +scattered to the winds. Those wretched Glovers--underbred, shop-keeping +adventurers as they were--to come there wrecking his life by their +infernal malice! And then as in a mental flash he compared the two +girls, the pendulum swung back again, and he reflected that however +harsh and peremptory had been Alma's way of looking at things, he had +got no more than he had deserved. But this idea, while it brushed aside +the flimsy attempts he had been making to harden his heart towards her, +left him rather more unhappy than before. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Well, Mr Orlebar, I am glad to see you down at last," said a very +pleasing feminine voice, whose owner suddenly appeared round an angle of +the house. + +"You're awfully good, Mrs Daventer," he replied. "But if you're only +half as glad to see me down as I am to be down, why then you're-- +you're--er--still more good." + +"It must be delightful to feel yourself out of doors again, after being +shut up all that time," she went on. "Still, it won't do to hurry +matters. You must make up your mind to have a little patience." + +"Just what I'm doing. Job isn't in it with me for that quality." + +She laughed--and a very attractive laugh it was. So Phil thought, and +he reckoned himself a judge. "A devilish nice woman, and a devilish +nice-looking one," had been his verdict to Fordham, and he saw no reason +to retract any part of it now. + +"I shouldn't give you credit for much of the quality at any rate," she +said. "You seem far too impulsive. For instance, just now you were +looking anything but philosophical. However, it is slow work being a +prisoner, and a lonely prisoner too. What has become of your friend?" + +"Who? Fordham? Oh, he's away for a few days. He and Wentworth have +gone over to Chamounix by the glacier route. I miss the chap no end. I +believe he'd have put it off if I had wanted him to, but, as it is, I've +been feeling a selfish dog keeping him in the best part of the day +yarning to me, when he might have been having a high old time on his own +account. I tell you what it is, Mrs Daventer, he's a rare good chap is +Fordham." + +This was amusing--rich, in fact. She did not even turn away her head to +conceal a bitter curl of the lips, for she flattered herself she was +past showing the faintest sign of feeling. But a ruling passion is +difficult to conceal entirely, especially when it consists of a surging, +deadly hatred. + +"Is he?" she said vacantly. + +"Rather. I see you don't believe it though. But, between ourselves, he +is a good bit of a woman-hater. So I suppose the sex instinctively +reciprocates the compliment. But, I say, Mrs Daventer. It was awfully +good of you to come and see me as you did--and the other people too," +added Phil, in the half-shamefaced way in which nineteen men out of +twenty are wont to express their thanks or appreciation as regards a +kindness rendered. + +"That was nothing. Mrs Wharton's very nice, isn't she? I'm very sorry +they're leaving to-morrow." + +"Are they? I hope I shall see them again before they go. Wharton's a +rare good sort although he's a parson. Don't look shocked. I'm afraid +I don't get on with `the cloth' over well. I daresay it's my own fault +though." + +"I daresay it is," she returned with a laugh. + +During the latter days of his captivity Philip had not been without +visitors. The British subject, when outside his (or her) native land, +is the proprietor of a far more abundant and spontaneous fount of +the milk of human kindness than when hedged around by the +stovepipe-hat-cum-proper-introductions phase of respectability within +the confines of the same. Several of the people sojourning in the hotel +had looked in upon the weary prisoner to lighten the irksomeness of his +confinement with a little friendly chat, and foremost among them had +been Mrs Daventer. + +"Are you doing anything particular this morning, Mrs Daventer? +Because, if not, I wish you'd get a chair--I can't get one for you, you +see--and sit and talk to me," said Phil, in that open, taking manner of +his that rendered him almost as attractive to the other sex as his +handsome face and fine physique. + +"Well, I suppose I must," she answered with a smile. + +"It would be a real act of Christian charity. And--" + +He broke off in confused amazement, caused by the arrival of a third +person upon the scene. "A good-looking girl," was his mental verdict. +"Wentworth was right, by Jove!" + +"Laura, dear, see if there are any chairs in the hall," said Mrs +Daventer. "Thanks, love," she went on, as her daughter returned, +bearing a light garden-chair. "Mr Orlebar claims that it is a +Christian duty on our part to sit and gossip with him. I suppose one +must concede him the privileges of an invalid." + +"I am glad your ankle is so much better," said the girl, quite +unaffectedly, but with the slightest possible tinge of shyness, which +added an indescribable piquancy to her rich Southern type of beauty. +"It must be so hideously trying to see every one else going about +enjoying themselves, while you feel yourself literally chained." + +"That's just how it is," assented Philip. "And they say it's the best +climbing season that has been known for ten years." + +"You are a great climber, I suppose?" + +"No. A rank greenhorn, in fact. The Rothhorn was the first--the first +real high thing--I've done, and it seems likely to be the last." + +"We heard about your accident the morning after we arrived. It made +quite a little excitement." + +"I suppose so," said Philip, with a laugh. "`Terrible tragedy. A cow +fell over the bridge and broke one horn,' as the country reporter put +it." + +"Get yourself a chair, dear," said Mrs Daventer. And as the girl moved +away with that intent, Philip could not, for the life of him, keep his +glance from following the graceful, lithe gait. She was a +splendid-looking girl, he told himself. + +"How is it you are not away among the glaciers this lovely day, Miss +Daventer?" he asked, when she had returned. + +"I don't know. I suppose I felt lazy. Some of the people near us at +table have gone up to the Theodule to-day, and wanted me to go with +them. But I should have had to decide last night; besides, they were +going to make such a woefully early start. So I didn't want to tie +myself." + +"Quite right," said Philip. "That early start side of the question +takes half the edge off the fun of any undertaking here. Still, once +you are squarely out it's all right, and you feel all the better for +it." + +"Always provided you have had a fair night's rest. But these big hotels +are apt to be very noisy--people getting up at all hours and taking +abundant pains to render the whole house aware of the fact." + +"Rather," said Philip. "Every one turns in ridiculously early, but +what's the good of that when just as you are dropping off to sleep +somebody comes into the room above you and practices for the next day's +walk during about two hours, in a pair of regulation nail boots? I've +been having a bad time of late. Getting no exercise in the daytime, I +find it hard to sleep at night, and there's always some one stumping +about overhead. I was obliged to ring up the night porter at last and +send him up to inform the gentleman overhead that I should take it as +very kind of him if he would defer his rehearsal of step-cutting, +jumping crevasses, etc, until he could practise upon real ice the next +day. Well, the porter went, for I heard his voice through the floor. I +asked him in the morning if the gentleman had sworn a great deal or only +a little. `Gentleman?' he said, in mild surprise. `It was not a +gentleman, it was a lady.'" + +"Wasn't she awfully sorry?" said Laura. + +"She may have been, but she didn't seem so. By way of impressing me +with the honour I ought to consider it to be lulled to sleep by the +tread of her fairy feet, I am bound to record that she made rather more +row than before." + +"Who was it? Do you know?" + +"I don't. I had my suspicions, but they were only suspicions." + +"Well, it couldn't have been either of us," laughed Mrs Daventer, "for +we happen to be on the same floor. But to whom do your suspicions +point?" + +"I fancy it must have been one of those two grim spinsters who have been +keeping me supplied with sacred literature." + +"No--have they?" said the girl, a swift laugh darting from her dark +eyes. "I know who you mean, though I don't know their names. They are +dreadful old people. I notice at table they never have the same +next-door neighbours two days running. I suppose they force their ideas +on that head upon everybody, judging from the scraps of conversation +that float across." + +"I ought to be grateful to them," went on Philip. "Every day I found a +fresh tract slipped under my door. The titles, too, were uniformly +appropriated to the sojourner in Zermatt. `Where are you going to climb +to-day?' or `Looking Upward.' `The Way that is Dark and Slippery,' +which reminded me of that high moraine coming down from the Rothhorn the +other night. But what really did hurt my feelings was one labelled, +`_On whomsoever it Shall Fall it shall Grind him to Powder_.' It seemed +too personal. I felt that they were poking fun at my misfortune, don't +you know, and it didn't seem kind. But it occurred to me that they +meant well. They meant to amuse me, and assuredly they succeeded. By +the way, these interesting documents bore the injunction: `When done +with, pass this on to a friend.' Wherefore, Miss Daventer, I shall feel +it my duty to endow you with the whole lot." + +"I must decline the honour. I couldn't think of depriving you of so +valuable a possession," was the laughing reply. "But we are wandering +dreadfully from the point. Why do you think it was one of those old +things who was walking about over your head?" + +"It is only bare suspicion, mind, and founded upon circumstantial +evidence--acreage, I mean. I have become observant since my enforced +detention, and while contemplating the populace--from a three-storey +window--I have noticed that nobody else could show such an acreage of +shoeleather." + +"Your imprisonment has rendered you satirical, Mr Orlebar," said Mrs +Daventer, in mild reproof, though at heart joining in the laugh +wherewith the remark was received by her daughter, as, indeed, nineteen +women out of twenty are sure to do whenever a man makes a joke at the +expense of another member of their own sex. + +Thus they sat, exchanging the airiest of gossip, laughing over mere +nothings. Then the luncheon bell rang. Philip's countenance fell. It +was surprising how soon the morning had fled. He said as much--but +dolefully. + +"Why, what's the matter?" said the elder lady, as she rose to go +indoors. + +"Oh, nothing. Only that I shall be left all alone again." + +"Poor thing!" said Laura, mischievously. "But perhaps, if you promise +to be very entertaining, we'll come and take care of you again. Shall +we, mother?" + +"Perhaps. And now, Mr Orlebar, is there anything you want? Anything I +can tell them to do for you--or to bring you out?" + +"You're awfully good, Mrs Daventer. They know they've got to bring me +something to pick at out here; but they may have forgotten. Yes, if you +don't mind just sending Alphonse here. And--I say--Mrs Daventer-- +you'll--you'll come around again presently yourselves--won't you?" + +"Perhaps--only perhaps!" answered Laura for her mother, with a +mischievous, tantalising glance, which, however, said as plainly as +possible, "Why, you old goose, you know we will." + +His face brightened. "Thanks awfully," he mumbled. And then, as they +left him, the sun did not seem to shine quite so brightly as before. +However, he would not be left alone for long. + +What had become of all the dismal and bitter reflections which had been +crowding in upon him when he first took up his position in that chair +barely two hours ago? Well, the cause of them existed still, but +somehow, however reluctant to own it he might be, there was no +disguising altogether a sneaking idea that the sting might be dulled. +Somehow, too, his anxiety to be able to get about had become greatly +enhanced, but not so his eagerness to seek out fresh scenes. That, +curiously enough, had proportionately abated. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +ONE NAIL DRIVES OUT ANOTHER. + +"That there are as good fish in the sea as any that ever came out may or +may not be a sound proverb, but it's one that our friend Orlebar seems +to believe in--eh, Fordham?" + +Beyond a grunt, his companion made no answer, and Wentworth continued-- + +"Just look at the fellow now. The widow and daughter mean `biz,' if +ever any one did. And Orlebar is such an easy fish to hook, provided +they don't allow him too much play. If they do, the chances are ten to +one he'll break away and rise to another fly." + +It was a warm, sunshiny Sunday afternoon, about a fortnight after +Philip's first appearance downstairs. The two thus conversing were +strolling along the road which leads to the Zmutt-thal, and in the green +meadows beyond the roaring, churning Visp, walked three figures which, +in spite of the distance, they had no sort of difficulty in identifying +with the objects under discussion. + +"Yes, Orlebar is a fish that requires prompt landing," pursued +Wentworth. "They have had a fortnight to do it in. If they don't +effectually gaff him within the next week, they may give it up. Some +one else will happen along, and he will think it time for a change. The +fair Laura will get left. Do you a bet on it, Fordham, if you like." + +"Not worth betting on, is it?" was the languid reply. "I have done what +I could for the boy--kept him out of numberless snares and pitfalls. +I'm a trifle tired of it now. If he is such a fool as to plunge in +headlong--why, he must." + +In spite of this admirable indifference, the speaker was, in fact, +watching the game keenly, and so far it was progressing entirely to his +own satisfaction. Did his female accomplice--in obedience to her better +instincts, or to a natural tendency to revolt against dictation--show +any signs of slackness, there he was, ruthless, unswerving, at hand to +remind her of the consequences of failure. She must succeed or fail. +In the latter alternative no palliation that she had done her best would +be admitted, and this she knew. No such excuse--indeed, no excuse-- +would avail to save her and hers from the consequences of such failure, +and the result would be dire. She was in this man's power--bound hand +and foot. She might as well expect mercy from a famished tiger as one +shade of ruth from him did the task which he had set her to fulfil fail +by a hair's breadth. And she judged correctly. + +Not by accident was Fordham strolling there that afternoon. The +strongest of all passions--in a strong nature--the vindictive, vengeful +hate of years thoroughly awakened in him, he watched the puppets dancing +to his wires. His accomplice must be kept alive to the fact that his +eye was ever upon her, that she dare not do, or leave undone, anything, +however trivial, that might risk the game. And now his companion's +remarks only went to confirm his previously formed decision. It was +time the curtain should be rung down upon the first act of the three-act +drama--time that the second should begin. + +"The most susceptible youngster that ever lived! I believe you're +right, Wentworth," he pursued, in reply to one of the aforesaid remarks. +"And the worst of it is he takes them all so seriously--throws himself +into the net headlong. Then, when he finds himself caught--tied tight +so that no amount of kicking and swearing will get him out--he'll raise +a great outcry and think himself very hardly used. They all do it. And +I'm always warning him. I warned him against this very girl who's +trying all she knows to hook him now." + +"The deuce you did. I should be curious to know in what terms," said +Wentworth. + +"In what terms? I preached to him; I spake parables unto him; I +propounded the choicest and most incisive metaphors. No use--all thrown +away. `A woman, my dear chap,' I said--`an attractive woman, that is-- +is like a new and entertaining book, delightful--for a time. But when +you have got from cover to cover you don't begin the book again and go +through it a second time, and then a third, and so on. Even the few +books that will bear going through twice, and then only after a decent +interval, will not keep you in literary pabulum all your life. So it is +with a woman. However attractive, however entertaining she may be, she +is bound to pall sooner or later--some few later, but the vast majority, +like the general run of books--sooner. So that in chaining yourself to +one woman all your life, as you seem bent upon doing, you are showing +about as much judgment as you would be in condemning yourself to read +one book all your life. Less, indeed, for, if the book bores you, you +can chuck it out of the window; but if the woman bores you, or leads you +the life of a pariah dog, you can't chuck her out of the window, because +if you do you'll likely be hanged, and she certainly will see you so +before she'll walk out of the door, once in it. Philip, my son, be +warned.'" + +"And how did he take that undoubtedly sound counsel?" said Wentworth, +with a laugh. + +"Oh, abused me, of course--swore I was a brute and a savage--in fact, he +rather thought I must be the devil himself. That's always the way. +Show a man the precipice he's going to walk over, and ten to one he +turns round and damns you for not minding your own business. And as a +general rule he's right. Talking of precipices, Wentworth, did you hear +that man's idea at _table d'hote_ when we were talking of the difficult +state the Dent Blanche was in this year?" + +"No. It must have been after I went out." + +"Why, he suggested, in the most matter-of-fact way, fixing a hawser from +the top of it to the glacier below. Gaudy idea, wasn't it, doing the +Dent Blanche by means of a hawser? And, just as we had done guffawing +over the notion, he added that the only drawback to the scheme was that +somebody would be sure to creep up and steal it. Whereupon that +sheep-faced parson on the other side of the table cut in with a very +aggrieved and much hurt amendment to the effect that he was sure the +mountain people were much too honest. We all roared in such wise as to +draw the attention of the whole room upon us, including an overheard +remark from one of the tract-dispensing old cats that some people were +never happy unless they were making a noise--even upon a Sunday." + +Philip meanwhile was assuredly doing everything to justify the +observations of our two misogynists aforesaid. The expression of his +face as he walked beside Laura Daventer, the tone of his voice as he +talked to her, told quite enough. The past fortnight of daily +companionship had done its work. Already there was a familiar, +confidential ring in his tone--a semi-caressing expression in his eyes, +which told unmistakably that he more than half considered her his own +property. And what of Laura herself? + +She, for her part, seemed disposed to take kindly to this state of +affairs. She had tacitly acquiesced in the gradual proprietorship he +had set up over her--had even abetted his efforts to glare off any +presumptuous intruder who should seek to infringe his monopoly. The +present arrangement suited her very well--on the whole, very well +indeed. + +"Do you really mean, Mrs Daventer," Philip was saying, talking across +Laura to her mother--"do you really mean you are going away at the end +of this week?" + +"I'm afraid so. We have been a long time abroad already, and we can't +remain away from home for ever." + +"N-no, I suppose not," he assented, ruefully. "But what on earth shall +I do here when you're gone?" + +"Just what you did before we came," answered Laura, mischievously. +"There are plenty more people here." + +"Just as if that's the same thing! I don't believe I'll stay on myself. +In fact, I should have gone back before now if it hadn't been for my +confounded ankle." + +"And that same `confounded ankle' would have been a great deal more +`confounded' but for us," rejoined Laura. "You would have used it again +too soon--much too soon--only we wouldn't let you. You would have +started up the Matterhorn, or done something equally insane, if we +hadn't taken care of you and kept you quiet at home." + +There was more than a substratum of truth underlying this statement. +The speaker had indeed done all she said. To one of Phil's temperament +it was infinitely more congenial to lounge through the days, sitting +about in sequestered nooks in the fields and woods with a very +attractive girl who chose to make much of him, than to undertake sterner +forms of pastime in the company of such unsympathetic spirits as Fordham +and Wentworth. And therein lay an epitome of the last fortnight. These +two had been thrown together. When Philip's ankle had improved +sufficiently to admit of moderate locomotion it was Laura who had been +his constant companion during his earlier and experimental hobbles. +Indeed, it is to be feared that the sly dog had more than once +exaggerated his lameness, in justification of an appeal for support on +the ground of the insufficiency of that afforded by his stick, though +somehow, when the said support was very prettily accorded, the weight +which he threw upon his charming prop was of the very lightest. So the +bright summer days of that fortnight had passed one by one, and it was +astonishing what a large proportion of the hours composing each had been +spent _a deux_. + +Thus had come about that good understanding, that sense of +proprietorship definite on the part of the one, dissimulated, yet +tangible and existent, on that of the other, which reigned between them. +But if she intended that proprietorship to become permanent--in fact, +lifelong, neither by word or sign did Laura do anything to proclaim such +intention. Kind, sympathetic, companionable as she was, she could not +with fairness be accused of doing anything to "throw herself at his +head." She was a perfect model of tact. When he waxed effusive, as it +was Phil's nature to do upon very slight provocation, she would meet him +with a stand-offishness the more disconcerting that it was wholly +unexpected. Sometimes, even, she would invent some excuse for leaving +him alone for half a day--just long enough to cause him grievously to +miss her, yet not long enough to render him disgusted and resentful. +But withal she had managed that her presence should be very necessary to +him, and now her forethought and cleverness had their reward, for she +knew she could bring him to her feet any moment she chose. + +"Yes, I should have gone back before now," repeated Philip. "I sha'n't +stay on after you leave. It'll be too dismal all round. By Jove! I +don't see why--er--why we shouldn't go back together. It would be +awfully jolly for me having some one to travel with, and I could help +you looking after the boxes and things--eh, Mrs Daventer?" + +"But what about your friend, Mr Orlebar? He doesn't want to go back +yet; and, even if he did, I think I see him travelling with a pair of +unprotected females." + +"Fordham? Oh, he and Wentworth have got together now, and they'll be +swarming up every blessed alp within fifty miles around before they +think of moving from here. No; on the whole I think my escort may be of +use to you--in fact, I think you ought to have it." + +"I believe ours is far more likely to be of use to you--in your present +state," answered Mrs Daventer, with a smile. "Well, Mr Orlebar, I was +going to ask you to spend a few days with us on your return, and if you +care to do so, you may as well come straight home with us now--that is, +of course, unless you have anything more important or attractive among +your plans." + +But this he eagerly protested he had not. Nothing would give him +greater pleasure, and so on. + +"Ours is a very quiet little place on the Welsh coast," went on Mrs +Daventer. "I don't know how we shall amuse you--or rather how you will +amuse yourself." + +Here again Philip raised his voice in protest. He did not want amusing. +He was sure it would be quite delightful. He was tired of the +abominable racket of hotel life. Quiet, and plenty of it, was just the +thing he wanted. It would do him more good than anything else in the +world. + +"Well, then, we may look upon that as settled," was the gracious +rejoinder--and Mrs Daventer could be very gracious, very fascinating, +when she chose. "If you are half as pleased with your stay as we shall +be to have you, we shall consider ourselves fortunate. And now, Laura, +I think we had better be turning back. I really must put in an +appearance at church this afternoon, especially as I missed it this +morning and last Sunday as well." + +The girl's face clouded. "Why, mother, the best part of the afternoon +is only just beginning," she objected. "Such a heavenly afternoon as it +is, too." + +"Let church slide, Mrs Daventer," urged Phil, impulsively. "Besides, +if you're going away what does it matter!" + +"That is a very earthly view to take of it, you unprincipled boy?" was +the laughing reply. "Never mind, I needn't drag you two children back +with me; so continue your walk while I go and sacrifice myself to save +appearances. Perhaps I'll meet you somewhere about here afterwards, as +you come back." + +"I do think that mother of yours is one of the sweetest women I ever +met--Laura," said Phil, as they turned to resume their stroll. + +The girl's face flushed with pleasure. "You never said a truer thing +than that," she replied. + +"Rather not. Hallo! she'll be late. At least a quarter of an hour's +walk, and there's that cracked old tin-kettle whanging away already." + +A bell sounded upon the clear, pine-scented air. It was not a melodious +bell--rather did it resemble the homely implement irreverently +suggested. Then they continued their walk through the sunlit pastures; +but Philip, whose ankle was by no means cured, began to limp. + +"Stop. We must not go any further," said Laura. "You have been walking +too much to-day as it is. We will sit down and rest." + +"Let us get up on top of these rocks then," he suggested, as their walk +had brought them to a pile of broken rocks overgrown with rhododendrons +and bilberry bushes. These they clambered up, and came to a shut-in, +mossy nook. One side was riven by a deep fissure through which a +torrent roared. It was the very spot which had witnessed that stormy +interview between Fordham and Mrs Daventer. Strange, indeed, was the +irony of fate which had led these two hither. + +"I tell you what it is, Laura," said Philip, throwing himself upon the +ground; "it was awfully jolly of your mother to give me that invitation. +We'll have no end of a good time down there together--won't we, dear?" +and reaching out his hand he closed it upon hers. But this, after a +momentary hesitation, she drew away. + +"I hope we will," she answered, and over the dark, _piquante_ face there +crept a most becoming flush. Very attractive too at that moment was +that same face, with its luminous eyes and delicate, refined beauty. +Still to the physiognomist there was a certain hardness about the ripe +red lips which was not altogether satisfactory. But this fault he who +now looked upon them failed to realise. + +He turned round quickly and fixed his eyes upon her face. There was +something in her tone, her gesture, that disquieted him. + +"Why, Laura! what is the matter? You speak as if you did not believe we +would--have a good time, I mean. Why should we not? We shall be +together, and I don't know what I should do if you were to go away from +me now--darling." + +"Stop, Phil. Don't say any more--at least not here," she added +hurriedly. "You are much too impulsive, and you don't know me yet, +although you think you do. Yes, we will have a good time--but--don't +begin to get serious, that's a good boy." + +Philip stared. But her unexpected rejoinder had its effect. Did she +intend that it should? The fervour of his tone deepened as he replied-- + +"I won't say a word that you would rather I did not, dear. Not now, at +any rate." + +"You had better not, believe me," she replied, in a tone that was almost +a caress, and with a smile that set all his pulses tingling. Very +alluring she looked, her dark beauty set off by her dress of creamy +white, by the languorous attitude, so harmonious with the sunshine and +surroundings. Overhead and around the great mountains towered, the +mighty cone of the giant Matterhorn dominating them all as he frowned +aloft from the liquid blue; the dull thunder of the seething Visp +churning its way through emerald pasture-lands; the picturesque brown +roofs of the _chalets_; the aromatic scent of the pines--all harmonising +in idyllic beauty with the figure to which they constituted a frame, a +background. Did it recall that other soft golden summer evening, not so +very long ago either, when he listened to much the same answer framed by +another pair of lips? Who may tell? For one nail drives out another, +and a heart taken at the rebound is easily caught. Yet assuredly it was +a strange, a grim, irony of fate, that which brought these two hither, +to this spot of all others, to enact this scene. But in such cycles do +the events of life move. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +THE DROOP OF A SUNSHADE. + +Alma Wyatt was at home again--was once more an inmate of the +much-decried semi-detached which was an exact counterpart of all the +Rosebanks, and Hollybanks, and Belmonts, and Heathfields, which go to +line the regulation suburban road. + +The said regulation road was ankle-deep in dust--even the foliage of the +trees and garden patches, which fronted each monotonous row of villas, +was dried and gasping, and sprinkled with the same powdery substance. +The atmosphere was of the stuffy, moist, enervating character +inseparable from low-lying riverside resorts. Small wonder, then, that +Alma, at home again now, should find herself drawing bitter contrasts +between commonplace, cockneyfied Surbiton, and the bounteous glories of +the mighty Alps--the thunder of the mountain torrent, and the cool +fragrance of the shadowy pine forest; the cloudless skies and the +soaring peaks; the sheeny ice-slopes, and the blue, castellated masses +of the _seracs_, and, not least, the bracing exhilaration of the air. + +"At home again! At _home_ again!"--as she kept bitterly repeating to +herself. At home again, to enact the part of a butt for her mother's +nagging and ever-discontented tongue; at home again, to fall into the +old _role_ of self-obliteration, to hold herself in readiness to +sacrifice every inclination of her own, to devote all her time, all her +energies, to the convenience of the family idol, her younger sister, and +especially to look for no appreciation of, or thanks for, the same. And +such is home! + +How her soul sickened as she looked around on the mediocrity of it all-- +the flat, ditchwater circumstances of life, the stagnation, the deadly +monotony. There was the same narrow round, the same bi-weekly run up to +Town on shopping intent, the same local gossip and feeble attempts at +entertainment, the same evening visits from the same bevy of Constance's +admirers--City youths mostly, all as like each other as the immaculacy +of their collars, the sheen of their hats, the lack of expression in +their countenances and the inanity of their conversation, could render +them. These would redeem the time with some feeble singing and feebler +wit, and evening after evening would Alma be called upon to sit it all +out and endeavour to make herself agreeable. Constance on such +occasions was in her element, but to the sucking Couttses and Barings +and Rothschilds Alma was a stumbling-block and a wet blanket. + +"Sort of garl, baai Jove, who ought to have a chappie built to her +ordar, don't cher know. Ordinary fellar not good enough," the principal +dry wag of the coterie was wont to remark. + +When she had told Philip Orlebar she detested the place and everything +to do with it, Alma had spoken no more than the literal truth. But if +she detested it then, it strikes her now as ten times more detestable. +The suburban mediocrity, the much-belauded river--a mere muddy +playground for 'Arry and 'Arriet--pall upon her with nauseous monotony. +Never did the hideous Cockney twang grate more offensively upon her +ears, never did the obtrusive vulgarity of the low-class Briton--the +most irredeemably vulgar animal in the world--revolt her sensibilities +as now, when contrasted with the pleasant speech and innately refined +manners of the same class of Continental peoples. Assuredly with no +feeling of gladness or even contentment did Alma Wyatt return home. +This may have been wrong; it was undoubtedly lamentable. But, under the +circumstances, it was very natural. + +We should be sorry to make oath that apart from this pardonable +discontent with her most uncongenial surroundings there was not another +phase of canker eating into her mind and destroying its peace. We have, +elsewhere, and more than once, emphasised the fact that a certain young +reprobate, hight Philip Orlebar, was one of those dangerous persons of +whom the opposite sex is prone to become very fond. Now Alma's +opportunities of doing so had been exceptional and many--and, in point +of fact, she had so become. + +Often now, in the stagnant monotony of her home life, does that bright +young face rise up before her, as she first saw it, gazing with scarcely +disguised admiration upon her own, as she has so frequently, so +constantly seen it since--the sunny blue eyes, with their straight, +frank glance, lighting up with a world of welcoming gladness when +meeting her for the first time in the day or after a few hours' absence. +She sees it, too, as she saw it in the black, driving cloud, high up on +the perilous rock _arete_ of the Cape au Moine, anxious on her account, +otherwise fearless and resolute--she sees it, as she saw it in the +sinking sunshine of that same day, tender, apprehensive, as its owner +hung upon the reply which her lips should frame--but, oh, so attractive! +Again, she sees it as she saw it last--crushed, hopeless, despairing, +and as it appears thus before her the proud, self-contained nature +partially breaks down, and, being alone, she cannot repress a convulsive +sob or two, and a few tears damp the handkerchief which she passes +rapidly over her eyes. + +Does she ever regret--repent of her haste in thus giving him his +_conge_! Does it ever occur to her that she may have judged him +hastily, harshly--in fact, unheard? Well, her nature is a fearfully +proud, a fearfully sensitive one. Did he not put a public slight upon +her, make her the laughing stock of a number of nondescript people? Yet +even here she cannot further justify herself in the idea that he had +merely been amusing himself at her expense. The feeling was there, warm +and genuine--as to that there could be no mistake whatever. +Characteristically, however, she proceeds to impale him upon the other +horn of the dilemma. He had shown weakness. If that other girl had +really any claim upon him, if there was really any engagement between +them, he ought to have broken it off definitely and decisively before +presuming to offer his affection to herself. Yes, he had been guilty of +lamentable weakness--an unpardonable fault in Alma Wyatt's eyes. + +There is even more behind, however, than all this. On hearing of his +accident, did she not write him a letter of condolence--a really kind +letter of sympathy and interest, asking to be informed how he got on--a +letter, indeed, in which it was just possible for any man not actually a +born fool to "read between the lines," affording him, with a little +diplomacy, a chance of crying "Peccavi," and eventually reinstating +himself? But how had he answered it? He had not answered it at all! + +No, from that day to this he had not answered it. There could be no +explanation. She had learned indirectly through those who were in the +same hotel at the time, that his accident, though tiresome, was not +serious--never sufficiently serious to incapacitate him for writing. +And she had been at Zinal long enough to have heard from him over and +over again; added to which, every letter which had arrived there for her +uncle and aunt, even some time after their departure, had been +scrupulously forwarded and safely received. The postal arrangements +could not be to blame; clearly, then, he had deliberately and of set +purpose elected to take no notice of her letter. + +Well, that dream was over. She felt a little hard--a little bitter. It +was no easy matter to gain Alma's good opinion, but of Philip Orlebar +she had managed to become very fond--more so, in fact, than she herself +had suspected at the time. And sometimes now a satirical smile would +curve her lips as she reflected bitterly that after all he had certainly +shown no weakness in choosing to ignore her own gracious advance, and +the reflection did not tend in any degree to restore either peace or +contentment to herself. + +Bearing in mind Alma's character and general temperament, it need hardly +be said that concerning this, the great event of her trip abroad, she +let fall neither word nor hint. She would, indeed, sometimes smile +bitterly to herself as she pictured her mother's wrath and disgust did +the latter become aware that she had refused the heir to a baronetcy--a +poor one certainly, but still a baronetcy. Why, life would thenceforth +cease to be worth living. It would be the last straw. And for this, in +her heart of hearts, she admitted that, looking at it from a strictly +mundane point of view, there was some excuse. The chances matrimonial, +to a girl situated as she was, were poor enough, in fact they were +mainly confined to the City youths of mediocre lineage and strictly +limited incomes, who constituted her sister's sworn admirers, or a +delicate handed and mustachioed curate who had for some time evinced an +unmistakable partiality for herself. Still she was nothing if not +characteristic. She was not going to sacrifice her clearly-formed +judgment upon the altar of expediency. So she strove to dismiss Philip +Orlebar from her mind, and to fall back into her old groove with what +contentment she might. + +That Alma did not "get on well at home" was not surprising--indeed, the +wonder would have come in had things been the other way. The +problematical amalgamation of oil and water was a trifle more +conceivable than the existence of any cordiality or even a good +understanding between herself and her mother. For the latter was not a +lovable person. To start with, her brain power was of the scantiest +order, her mind of the narrowest; it follows, therefore, that she was +intensely, aggressively obstinate. And in the art of nagging she was a +past mistress. She was one of those women to whom battle is as the air +they breathe, and she had a knack of starting a fray gently, +insidiously, sorrowfully even, as though marvelling herself that there +should ensue any hostilities at all. Her younger daughter, Constance, +then just eighteen, was an excellent replica of her in disposition--that +is to say, had not a single redeeming point in her character; and, +_pace_ the gushing philanthropist, there are such persons. But the +girl, with her blue eyes and smooth skin, her golden hair and fresh +complexion, was extremely pretty; and in stating this we have said all +there is to be said for her; for as a set-off against these advantages +she was selfish, wilful, and conceited to the last degree, as, indeed, +was only natural, seeing that from her birth upward she had been +thoroughly and consistently spoiled. + +There were those who wondered whence Alma had inherited her fine +character. Those in a position to speak--old General Wyatt for +instance--declared that she had inherited all her father's good +qualities and none of her mother's bad ones, whereas in the case of +Constance the positions were exactly reversed. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Alma, I want you to get on your hat, quick, and come along up the +river," cried Constance, bursting in upon her sister one bright summer +afternoon. The latter had sought out the coolest corner of the stuffy +little drawing-room, and was busily engaged in the--to her in her then +frame of mind--very congenial task of sticking a number of Alpine views +into an album. She had a touch of headache, and was not in the most +amiable frame of mind herself. In fact the above invitation struck +within her no responsive chord, and she said as much. + +"Of course!" snapped the younger girl. "Isn't that always the way! +Here one has been indoors the whole day, and directly it gets cool +enough to move you say you wont. Just because you know I want to. +Well--well. One never can get to the bottom of the selfishness of some +people." + +"Speak for yourself, Constance!" returned Alma, quickly but quietly. +"Does it never strike you that I may now and then feel tired, or +disinclined for exertion. And I certainly feel that way this +afternoon." + +But the other's rejoinder was a shrill, jeering, ringing laugh. + +"All very well," she cried, flinging her sailor hat into the air and +catching it. "All very well. But that won't go down with me. Can't +tear yourself away from those old Swiss photos. I know all about it. +By the way, which is the place you met _him_ in?" she jeered, going over +to the table and feigning a deep interest in the views which lay ranged +upon it ready for sticking in the book. "Which was it? You might as +well tell a fellow, instead of being as close as Death itself. Which +was it, Alma, and what's he like? You needn't keep it all so dark. I +won't let on." + +For the life of her, Alma could not restrain the colour which came into +her face. She was in a rather unamiable mood just then, as we have +said, and now she felt stung to retort. + +"Whoever `he' is, or isn't, which is nearer the truth, I should be sorry +to scrape together such a tenth-rate brigade as you seem to delight in +gathering round you. And now having shown how intensely and +objectionably silly you can make yourself, Constance, how would it be to +start off on your walk and leave me in peace?" + +"Well, that is a nice way to talk to your sister, I must say, Alma," +said Mrs Wyatt, entering the room in time to hear the latter half of +the above remark. + +"Pooh, mother. What odds!" cried Constance, maliciously. "Alma's only +mad because I chaffed her about her mysterious `mash.'" + +"My dear Connie, don't use those vulgar words," expostulated the mother, +but in a very different tone to that employed when speaking to her elder +daughter. The younger went on-- + +"It's a fact, mother. Alma has made a mysterious `mash' while she was +away. She's as close as death about it, but I've drawn her at last. +Don't you see now why she can't tear herself loose from her beloved +Swiss views? All enchanted land, don't you know." + +Mrs Wyatt sniffed, and up went her virtuous nose into the air, sure +prelude to the coming storm. + +"Ah well, my dear," she said, in her most aggrieved and acidulated tone. +"Ah well, we can't all have uncles and aunts to think that nothing's +good enough for us, to take us frisking round the world. And I'm afraid +such changes are not for everybody's good. Apt to make them return home +more dissatisfied, more discontented than ever." And emitting another +sniff, Mrs Wyatt paused and awaited the reply which she expected and +ardently hoped for. + +But it did not come. More and more repellent to Alma did these almost +daily wrangles become. The girl's fine nature scorned and loathed them, +recognising their tendency to degrade and lower the self-respect of all +parties concerned; indeed, there were times when it was as much as she +could do to keep herself from extending that scorn and loathing to their +originator. + +Thus disappointed, Mrs Wyatt nagged on, saying a few of the most +stinging things she could think of--stinging because unjust and untrue-- +to move her daughter to a reply; but still it didn't come. At last, +pushing back her chair, with a sigh Alma said-- + +"Where do you want to go to, Constance? I suppose I may as well go with +you as"--stay here to be reviled, she was nearly saying, but put it--"as +not." + +"All right, come along then," was the reply. And this compliance having +the effect of damming up the stream of the maternal eloquence, the two +girls sallied forth. + +At any other time, moved by the sheer and wanton contrariety of her +disposition, Constance would have declined to profit by this +concession--would have delighted to stand by and deftly add fuel to the +fire. To-day, however, she had a reason for acting otherwise. And as +they gained the tow-path of the river that reason took definite shape-- +the shape of a youth. + +He who stood there waiting for them was a medium-sized youth of about +twenty, a good-looking boy, on the whole, with dark hair and eyes of a +Jewish type, but remarkable for nothing in particular, unless it was a +full, free, and perfectly unaffected conceit--on which latter account +Alma was inclined to dislike him; but among Constance's galaxy of +adorers he held, just then, a foremost place. He rejoiced in the name +of Ernest Myers. + +That he was there by appointment was obvious. He was clad in flannels, +and in one hand held the bow rope of a light boat which he had drawn up +to the side. With a half smile, Alma understood now her sister's +disgust when she had refused to come out. She, Alma, was wanted to make +a third. Well, she didn't mind that. If it amused Constance to carry +on a harmless flirtation with young Myers--for it was not likely she +could think seriously of a bank clerk with an extremely limited salary-- +why should she baulk her? Besides, what were they but a couple of +children, after all. So she was gracious to the young man, and allowed +Constance to monopolise his conversation and attentions to her heart's +content, earning a subsequent encomium from her sister to the effect +that when she chose she could be the very ideal of a perfect +"gooseberry." + +They paddled up-stream in the evening sunshine. Alma, by common +consent, was voted to the tiller ropes, but as it was neither Saturday +nor Sunday, and the personality of 'Arry was comparatively absent, her +skill and attention were by no means overtaxed. There was nothing in +the clearness of one of the four and a half fine days, which go to make +up an English summer, to suggest it--and she had often handled the +tiller ropes since--nothing in the green glow of the emerald meadows, or +the droop of the pollard willows, to recall the furious, misty, leaden +surface of a storm-lashed lake. Yet the recollection did come back to +her that evening, and with unaccountable vividness, of the day when, +tossing before the howling wrath of the tempest, they had given +themselves up for lost. Even the varying demeanour of the different +members of their boat's crew, when thus brought face to face with +death--from the cynical indifference of Fordham, to the abject, craven +terror displayed by the chaplain, Scott--rose up clearly before her +mind's eye, and looking back upon it all, and upon the days that +followed, she was conscious of a strangely blank feeling as of a want +unsupplied. + +"Hallo!--By Jove! Look out! Excuse me, Miss Wyatt. But you as nearly +as possible took us right bang into that boat." + +It was young Myers who spoke. Upon Alma the warning was needed. In the +middle of his words she had pulled her right rope only just in time. +But as the boat, which they had so narrowly grazed, shot by she obtained +a distinct view of its occupants. And they were two, the one a +fine-looking, well-built specimen of young English manhood, who was +sculling, the other a dark, handsome girl seated in the stern-sheets. + +The boats had passed each other, as it were, in a flash. But in that +brief moment the faces of both its occupants were vividly stamped upon +Alma's vision. And that of the man was that of none other than Philip +Orlebar. + +She had seen him, but he had not recognised her. He was bending forward +talking to his companion in that airy, half-caressing, half-confidential +tone that Alma knew so well. She had seen him clearly and distinctly, +but he had failed to recognise her, and for this the droop of her +sunshade might account. + +The droop of a sunshade! On such frail pivots do the fortunes of +mankind turn! But for the droop of that sunshade the end of this story +might, we trow, have to be written very differently. + +"Why, Miss Wyatt! You do look startled!" exclaimed young Myers. "We +are well out of it now, though, and a miss is as good as a mile when +all's said and done. But it was a near thing." + +He might well remark on her aspect. The suddenness of the interruption, +the unexpectedness of the recognition, had startled every trace of +colour from her face. Looking back, cautiously at first, and still +under cover of the parasol, she gazed after the receding boat, now a +long way astern. Yes, it was him. But who was his companion? Well he +had not been slow to console himself, she thought bitterly. + +"How very stupid of me," she replied. "It was, as you say, a near +thing. I must not neglect my responsible duties again though." + +But while the two younger members of the trio were in high spirits and +laughed and chatted, and bantered each other for the rest of the time +they were out, Alma was silent and _distraite_. And an hour or so later +when they landed at the tow-path in the dusk and bade good-bye to their +escort and chief oarsman it seemed to Alma that that day had somehow +drawn down a curtain across her life. For this brief glimpse of her +former lover had stirred her heart with a dull and aching sense of void. +She recognised now that she had been fonder of Philip Orlebar than she +had chosen to admit, had, in fact, loved him. Well, it was too late now +for regrets. She it was who in her scorn and bitter anger had sent him +away from her, and now he had already begun to console himself. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. + +"...FOR HIS HOUSE AN IRREDEEMABLE WOE." + +"Well, Francis, and what do you think of that idle, good-for-nothing boy +of yours now? He seems in no great hurry to come and see his father--in +rather less of a hurry than his father was to go and see him." + +Thus Lady Orlebar one evening as she sat at dinner with her husband some +few weeks after we last saw them together. There was just sufficient +point in the ill-conditioned and therefore characteristic sneer to give +it effect. Nearly a month had gone by since Philip's return from the +Continent, but somehow he had not found time to pay his father a visit. +He was still in Wales, still staying with Mrs Daventer, where he had +been ever since his return aforesaid. + +"He seems tolerably happy where he is," went on Lady Orlebar, +maliciously, having failed to provoke a reply. "Of course there is a +girl in the case, and that with one of Philip's temperament can lead to +but one result. So make up your mind to hear by any post that you are +endowed with a daughter-in-law of the least desirable kind." + +Still Sir Francis made no reply. He was, in fact, very sore, very hurt, +by Philip's want of consideration, and his wife's gibing sneers were +probing the wound. This she failed not to see, and, seeing, enjoyed +thoroughly, after the manner of her kind. + +"Failing the daughter-in-law I prophesy the outcome will be an action +for breach of promise," she went on, characteristically eager to provoke +a battle of words in order to enjoy the triumph of crushingly defeating +the enemy. "Philip is just the sort who is sent into the world to +constitute an easy prey for rogues and adventuresses. The boy is simply +a born fool." + +Dinner was over, and the servants had withdrawn. The dessert was on the +table--had been for some time--and Sir Francis was wistfully wondering +how long it would be before his wife thought fit to follow the example +of the servants. Just then a footman entered bearing some letters on a +salver. The evening post had arrived. + +Welcoming any diversion, Sir Francis proceeded to open his. But at +sight of the contents of one of them, his face changed, and an +exclamation escaped him. His wife looked quickly up, then without a +moment's hesitation she stretched forth her hand and seized the letter, +which in his first bewilderment he had let fall upon the table. A +harsh, sneering laugh escaped her as she ran her eye down the contents, +and then proceeded to read them aloud:-- + + "Capias Chambers, Golden Fleece Lane, E.C. + + "_September 2_ 3, 188-. + + "Glover _versus_ Orlebar. + + "Dear Sir,--Instructed by our client, Miss Edith Glover, we have + written to your son, Mr Philip Orlebar, claiming from him the sum of + 10,000 (ten thousand) pounds damages by reason of non-fulfilment of + his promise to marry our aforesaid client. + + "Up till now we have received no reply; but we think it may be in the + interest of the young gentleman himself that you should be made aware + of this claim against him. + + "Trusting that by adopting this course further steps may be rendered + unnecessary-- + + "We are, dear Sir, + + "Yours faithfully, + + "Swindell and Shears. + + "To Sir Francis Orlebar, Bart., + + "Claxby Court, Rushtonborough." + +"Ha-ha! Didn't I say so?" she cried. "And scarcely are the words out +of my mouth than here it is--an action for breach of promise! Well, and +what are you going to do now, Francis?" + +"Nothing. Take no notice of it whatever. The thing is a mere attempt +at a swindle--a clumsy, impudent swindle. I sha'n't give it another +moment's thought." + +Easily said--far less easily done, especially by a nervous highly strung +temperament such as that of the speaker. + +"But who is this person?" went on Lady Orlebar, again scanning the +letter. "The people he is with now are named Daventer--not Glover. Do +you know who it can be?" + +"Honestly, I don't. To the best of my belief I never heard the name +before in my life. All the more does it look like a try-on--an impudent +and barefaced try-on. On second thoughts, however, I'll send it up to +Stretton in the morning, and tell him to see if he can make anything out +of it, or to act as he thinks fit. Yes, that's what I'll do." + +"Why don't you send for Philip himself and make him explain. It appears +to me that he would be the proper person to throw what light he could +upon the matter." + +"Oh, it's of no use worrying the boy. He may be here any day now. +It'll be time enough then." + +Lady Orlebar gave a snort of defiance. The above remark was as a direct +challenge to her to renew the battle. But her husband looked so +anxious, so worried himself, that even she forebore, for once, to worry +him further. + +There was silence in the room. Sir Francis sat abstractedly gazing upon +the table in front of him--in reality seeing nothing at all. His whole +mind was filled up with this scrape that his son had got into. It was +not the amount of the claim that affected him--on that point he felt +fairly secure. Philip was of age, but had not a shilling in the world +of his own; out of him, therefore, nothing could be got. But that his +name should once more be dragged through the mud, and that at the +instance of a harpy, an adventuress, this was where the sting of it all +lay. "Once more," we said. For Sir Francis had very good reasons of +his own for avoiding anything that should drag his name into notoriety. + +So unpleasantly absorbing were his reflections, so rapt was he in his +reverie, that the entrance of the butler was wholly unnoticed. Not +until the man had twice drawn his attention to the card which lay upon a +salver did he awake from his abstraction, and then it was with a start, +for the card was inscribed--"Mr Richard Fordham." + +Fordham!--Phil's friend, whom he had more than once pressingly invited +to make a stay at Claxby Court, which invitation had persistently been +declined upon one ground or another. Fordham--the man who had been +Philip's travelling companion, guide, philosopher, and friend during the +past year. Surely if any one knew anything of this unfortunate affair, +Fordham was the man. True, it would have struck him at any other time +that to arrive after dinner unannounced and unexpected was somewhat of +an odd proceeding, but Phil had always described his friend as an +out-and-out eccentricity. Besides, his visit might relate to this very +affair. The baronet saw light. "Where is this gentleman, Karslake?" he +said eagerly. "I showed him into the library, Sir Francis. He said he +would not detain you long, and his fly is waiting for him at the door." + +The library was lighted only by one shaded lamp in the centre of the +table; consequently it was in semi-gloom. The visitor was seated in a +low chair with his back to the door, and Sir Francis on entering hardly +perceived him. Then, closing the door behind him and giving a slight +cough, the baronet began-- + +"Mr Fordham, I believe--Garcia! Oh, good God!" + +And then, with a low cry of amazement and horror, he stopped short, +staggered back a pace or two, and stood gazing helplessly at his +visitor. + +For the latter, as soon as he heard the door close, had risen and +wheeled round rapidly to face the other. Now, as he stood there, the +light full upon him, the saturnine features wreathed into a smile that +was more than half a sneer; the look of triumphant malice upon that dark +countenance was positively satanic. + +"The name on the card was Fordham," said Sir Francis, vacantly. "I +recognised it as that of my son's friend. What does it all mean?" + +"It means this, Francis Orlebar. Your son's friend of to-day, hight +Fordham, is the same individual as your friend of years ago, hight +Garcia. Are you beginning to see?" + +The question was scarcely needed. As the whole truth burst in upon him +that this man, whose ruthless hate he had incurred--not wrongfully +either--long years ago, had been his son's confidant and constant +travelling companion now, the look of horror and repulsion upon the +baronet's countenance was in itself sufficient answer. + +"You do!" went on the other. "Quite so--I knew you would. And now you +are wondering what on earth was my object in constituting myself guide, +philosopher, and friend to your son, for no man can be more certain than +yourself that that object was not likely to be to Philip's advantage. +Do you follow me?" + +"I do. But Garcia, though I wronged you--wronged you unpardonably, I +admit--years ago, you would surely not extend your rancour, just as that +may be as regards myself--your revengeful bitterness--to an innocent +boy--one who is incapable of harming anybody. Surely even you would +stop short at this. We are both comparatively near the end of our +lives--his is all before him. Surely even you would shrink from doing +anything to poison that life." + +"Did you shrink from poisoning mine, Francis Orlebar? Still, upon my +soul, I believe you were more sinned against than sinning. I almost +think, if it concerned you alone, I would have let it pass. But in +striking you I shall equally well strike her--that she-devil. I had +almost decided to bury the whole affair, but I could not let her escape. +She should supply the weapon--the weapon I wanted. I forced her to be +the instrument of revenge upon herself equally as upon you. That sort +of revenge was too appetising, too wholly unique, to be thrown away." + +Never a strong man at any time, when he was unnerved Sir Francis was as +weak as water. He was now thoroughly unnerved. His face was as white +as death and his voice shook. + +"Man--man!" he gasped, "what are you driving at? What have you done? +Speak out--or are you too great a coward?" + +But Fordham only smiled--the same cruel, satanic smile, which consisted +of little else than the droop of the corners of his mouth. He was +enjoying the other's anguished suspense--gloating over these mental +writhings--as he had come there intending to do. But before he could +frame an answer, an interruption occurred. The door opened suddenly, +and there entered no less a personage than Lady Orlebar. + +The fact was, she reckoned the time had come for her to bear her share +in the interview. There should be no mysteries apart from her +cognisance in that house, while she was in it. So allowing sufficient +time to float them into the swing of the discussion, she had swooped +down upon them, suddenly, decisively, as was her wont. But +disappointment awaited. Beyond a stiff bow, Fordham's attitude +underwent no change--nor did he utter a single word. He stood, +unmistakably, ostentatiously, waiting for her to go out again. + +But this she had no intention of doing. One glance at her husband +satisfied her that a stronger spirit was needed to cope with the man +before her. + +"Sir Francis has not been very well lately," she began, looking at +Fordham. "He is anything but strong, and this news about his son has +sadly upset him." + +It was Fordham's turn to look astonished. To what news did she allude? +He himself had certainly not imparted any--not yet. + +"Of course it is a very tiresome and disconcerting thing," she went on, +"although likely to prove all sheet-and-turnip--for one can hardly +believe it genuine or likely to stand the test of a court of law." + +"I hope you may not be mistaken in that last surmise," remarked Fordham +grimly, and in a tone which implied that he very much hoped she might. +They were at cross purposes. + +"Well, it's an annoying thing, anyway. Who are these Glovers, Mr +Fordham, and how did Philip manage to get into their clutches? Of +course you know they have brought an action for breach of promise +against him?" + +"I didn't. I know, however, that they threatened to. In fact, I was +instrumental in rescuing him from their clutches. They are an underbred +lot, anyway." + +"I thought so?" cried Lady Orlebar eagerly, while Sir Francis started, +and stared bewildered at his visitor. If the latter had stood Philip's +friend in this affair surely he had no intention of injuring him. But +this world is one of cruel contrasts. + +"I am surprised you have heard nothing of this, Mr Fordham," she went +on. "We thought it was upon this subject that you had done us the +favour to call. May I ask, then--what is the nature of your business +with Sir Francis?" + +If Fordham was inwardly bursting with sardonic mirth, he was not going +to show it. The unbounded impudence of the woman, practically asking +him what the devil he wanted there at all--and expecting he was going to +tell her--struck him as the richest thing he had heard for a very long +time. + +"Pardon me, Lady Orlebar, if I seem rude," he answered, shortly; "but +the nature of my business happens to concern Sir Francis alone. We had +only just begun to enter upon it when you came in; but if Sir Francis is +not equal to hearing my communication to-night I shall be happy to call +again in the morning, or in a day or two." + +But Sir Francis was equal--very much so. The suspense he was undergoing +was far too real--sickening in fact. So he turned upon his spouse with +an energy that astonished that now irate personage. + +"I think, my dear, you had perhaps better leave us. Our business is +private and important--in fact, very important." And going over to the +door he held it open for her in such wise as to leave her no +alternative. + +"Very well, Sir Francis," she spluttered, fairly beside herself with +rage. "I am turned out of the room, mind, and by you! Very well. But +I have no wish to hear your secrets. They are sure to be of a +discreditable nature, anyhow." + +With this parting shot she disappeared. Fordham, looking after her, +slightly shook his head, and reflected that if he had thought to +chastise his old enemy with whips, assuredly Fate had elected to do so +with scorpions. Anybody under the heel of such a woman as this, had +about come to the bottom of the cup of misfortune. Surely he had +nothing worse left to fear. + +"And now that we are alone," said Sir Francis, coming back from the door +which he had closed after his wife, "perhaps you will er--enlighten me +as to the nature of this communication." + +He looked so unstrung, so worn, so piteous in his agony of suspense, +that even a ray of ruth may have entered the heart of his implacable +enemy. But if so, it was quickly quenched. + +"Did it never strike you as odd?" said the latter, "that Philip should +have been back all these weeks, and yet not have thought it worth his +while running over to see you?" + +Just what his wife had said. Sir Francis felt his apprehensions +deepening; but he made no reply. Perhaps he could not. + +"Well, he is more attractively employed, at any rate--for the time +being," emphasised Fordham. "In proof whereof--look at this." + +He produced a telegram from his pocket; deliberately unfolded it, then +handed it to the other. Sir Francis' face grew deathly white as he read +it, and he gave a sort of gasp. He could only stare at the paper, then +at Fordham, then at the paper again. + +Thus ran the latter:-- + + "_Married this morning to Laura Daventer. Congratulate me, old chap. + Phil_." + +"Is this a practical joke of yours?" gasped the baronet at length, as +soon as he could find words. + +"By no means. It is just as I received it. Look at the date of the +office stamp--the 22nd. It was yesterday the affair came off. I only +returned this morning from a few days' absence, and found the wire +awaiting me in my quarters. Yet it is news to you. Very inconsiderate +on Phil's part, I must say. He might have let you know." + +"Who--what--are these people--these Daventers?" + +"Well, the young lady is his social equal, at all events, as you will +probably be the first to admit," answered Fordham, the cruel sneer +deepening on his countenance. All the satanic ruthlessness of his +implacable rancour had returned. He was pouring out the very life blood +of his enemy now. All thoughts of pity, of compunction, had passed +away. + +"On her mother's side the girl is undoubtedly his social equal," he +continued. "On that of her father--well, you must be the best judge." + +"I!" echoed Sir Francis, wonderingly. "Who, then, is her father?" + +Fordham gazed full at him for a moment. Then his lips framed in a +whisper one single word. And, hearing it, Sir Francis dropped back into +his chair, his eyes staring, his face white as with the dews of death, +shaking in every limb. + +"Look well at the date of this," pursued his relentless tormentor, +holding out the telegram. "September 22nd. And this is the +twenty-third. They have been married more than twenty-four hours. By +the time you can communicate with them it will be forty-eight." + +But the unhappy man could articulate no word. The faculty of speech +seemed to have left him. He saw it all now--saw the whole plot in all +its diabolical horror. + +"I told you once that my vengeance would follow you to the very grave," +went on Fordham. "Did you think because it had slept for years that +therefore it was dead? Now you had better wire for Philip the first +thing in the morning, for it will be too late to-night. And when he +comes give him this. It will save you the trouble of explaining." + +He threw down what looked like a bulky letter carefully sealed and +directed. Mechanically Sir Francis clutched it, but of any further +reply he seemed incapable. Had his reason given way beneath the shock? +It almost looked like it. Then with one more glance at his stricken +enemy--a glance burning with hate, and long cherished rancour, and sated +vengeance--Fordham left the room--and the house. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. + +"THE SINS OF THE FATHERS." + +The telegram which Fordham had shown Sir Francis told no more than the +truth. Philip had riveted about himself that chain which only death can +break. He and Laura Daventer were married. + +How had it come about--the haste, the secrecy, too? Well, it was all +very simple. Given one of Philip Orlebar's temperament--given three or +four weeks of close and daily companionship with a very attractive girl +deadly in earnest in her designs upon him; given the accessories of a +highly amiable and accommodating mother; of glorious summer weather; of +cool rambles beneath shaded rocks, and strolls _a deux_ on the moonlit +beach--given all these things, we say, and small wonder is it that +Philip's susceptible heart--then very much at the rebound--should be +triumphantly captured, and with it his hand. + +Laura had played her cards well--had played them with a consummate +coolness beyond her years. She had determined to win him, almost from +the very first, yet she would rather risk failure than show herself +over-eager to grasp success. Hence she had nipped his too premature +declaration in the bud on that last occasion when we saw them together +at Zermatt. She had even done this again with equal judiciousness--her +point being that he should never think he was going to have an easy walk +over--then had as suddenly capitulated, so sweetly, so entrancingly, as +to bind him to her there and then with tenfold ardour. + +In all of this she had been most skilfully and efficiently abetted by +her mother. However reluctant the latter had been when the scheme was +first propounded to her, the pendulum had now swung round the other way. +It would be altogether to Laura's advantage, and nothing need ever be +known. The girl herself was in complete ignorance, and as for the +Mephistophelian originator of the idea, it was not likely that he would +disclose the secret. Perhaps, after all, she had judged him too +harshly. Perhaps he had really been moved to plan out this in Laura's +interest and, at the same time, to enjoy the sport of, in a measure, +turning the tables on his old enemy. And then, again, her mind would be +shaken by a great disquietude, or more than misgiving. For if ever she +could commit herself to a grave mistake, it would be when she should +credit Fordham with motives and intentions otherwise than entirely +evil--in his dealings with her and hers that is. Still she would not +abandon her share in the plot--in the first place she dared not--in the +next she lacked inclination. And meanwhile matters had gone too far. + +Clever, scheming, as she was, to do her justice, Laura's whole heart was +in the plan. In progress of her manoeuvring she had conceived a great +affection for this bright, open-hearted admirer of hers; an affection +which was destined to blaze forth into a burning, deep-rooted, lifelong +passion. And the motor which should work this transformation was very +near at hand. Even then she stood on the verge of its shadow. But-- +Heaven help her when it should enshroud her entirely--for then might she +sit down and cast ashes upon her head, and think no more of life. + +Even in that brief, fleeting hour of her triumph--of her happiness-- +there was always one misgiving which, like the skeleton at the feast, +would never be entirely banished. A heart caught at the rebound may +constitute an easy capture, but it is doubtful whether it constitutes a +safe one. And that her capture was of this nature Laura was fully +aware. Given one of Philip's expansive, sympathy-craving temperament, +it was impossible she could have been otherwise. Indeed, it was very +much the knowledge of this that constituted the trump card in her far +from unfavourable hand; and it was a far from unfavourable one, for +Laura Daventer could be very winning, very sympathetic, in short, very +dangerously attractive when she chose. + +They had travelled home to England together, and during the tediousness +and worry of a long journey--no small test of patience and temper--Laura +had shown at her best; helpful, ready, unselfish. They had spent three +or four days in London together, and Philip had found her a delightful +companion; and while Mrs Daventer rested or shopped, they two would go +off upon a long day's expedition--mostly up the river--returning in the +best of spirits, and more wrapped up in each other than ever. It was a +bright and happy time--an idyllic time--and there seemed no reason why +it should not last. Yet, deep down in her heart, Laura was conscious of +that gnawing, cankering misgiving. Without underrating her own charms-- +her own powers of attractiveness--she instinctively felt that one glance +from Alma Wyatt's great grey eyes would suffice to scatter her own fair +house of cards to the four winds of heaven. "_On revient toujours_," +etc, may be, and in fact is, a saw of doubtful, not to say baseless, +foundation, but this last experience of the volatile Phil's was of far +too recent occurrence, she decided. The wound could not actually be +healed in so short a time; but, given a fair field, under her own soft +and sympathetic hand, it eventually should be. + +Once they had got him safe home, Laura breathed more freely. In or +around the quiet and somewhat remote little Welsh seaport the prospects +of any chance meeting with Alma Wyatt seemed so minute as to be +practically non-existent. Ynys-cwm-barweg was not much of a place in +the matter of attractions; but given cloudless summer weather, bracing +sea air, and unbounded freedom, to two young people in love with each +other such a place is apt to become a very Eden. + +The rest was easy. To a clever woman like Mrs Daventer, the process of +"drawing" the ingenuous Philip was the merest child's play. Before he +had been a week her guest, she knew all about him and his family--its +circumstances, idiosyncrasies, and surroundings--as well as he did +himself. The chances seemed good enough. Laura should marry him, and +eventually become Lady Orlebar. Then the irony of the situation would +be complete, but they two would never know. + +That a chain is no stronger than its weakest link is proverbial. Clever +as she was, as success attended her shrewdness and manoeuvring, Mrs +Daventer closed her eyes more and more to one point. The scheme had +been one of Fordham's originating--could it therefore have for its +object anybody's good? Yet so promising did everything look that, +woman-like, she almost began to believe she had originated it herself, +and so thoroughly was she acting upon this idea that it became +unnecessary for the real author to apply from time to time a refreshing +spur, which, being the skilful tactician that he was, he forebore to do. + +But if her astuteness failed her as to the _bona fides_ of the plan, in +the execution of the same she showed skill and generalship. She read +Philip's character like a book. If Laura was to marry him, it must be +now. Once away, once at home again, absence, family influences, +possibly unforeseen circumstances, such as counter-attractions, would do +their work. Once away, it would be--never. Wherein she was most +probably right. + +Never did sheep walk so confidingly to the slaughter, never did +condemned so readily place the noose around his own neck. What Mrs +Daventer was cudgelling her wits to bring about Philip himself shortly +suggested. Then came some exquisite card-playing. She was horrified. +He must never suggest such a thing again. Great Heavens, the boy must +be mad! Of course he must do everything _en regle_ and in a proper way, +and the first step in that direction was of course to consult his +family. Why, what would be said? Of course that they had led him into +it--entrapped him. No, she would not hear of anything of the kind. + +Whereat the guileless Phil had laughed inordinately. Led him into it! +That was a good joke, and he even thought of retailing for Mrs +Daventer's amusement Fordham's characteristic parting words-- + +"You're walking into the trap with your eyes open, Phil, my boy. Don't +come to me to get you out of it, that's all, for I won't. I wash my +hands of you. You're hopeless." + +Now Fordham, we need hardly say, was perfectly aware that this warning +would have precisely the same effect upon Philip as endeavouring to pull +back a pig by the tail has upon that homely and generally useful +quadruped--that of strengthening the spirit of opposition, to wit. + +_Quem Deus vult perdere_. It is just possible that some similar idea as +that which had carried conviction to Mrs Daventer ran through Philip's +mind. He feared opposition in delay--knowing his own weakness, he may +have feared for the result. And the present was so insidiously sweet, +so seductively entrancing, why think of the future? Others would put +before him all sorts of hard, repellant contingencies--would unsettle +him--would, in fact, drag him, and that rudely, from his fool's +paradise? And why should they? It did not follow that everybody else +knew everything, while he, Philip Orlebar, was bound to remain a +consummate ass. It did not follow either that his paradise was a fool's +paradise. He was surely old enough to know his own business best; other +people's interference could do no good, but very likely plenty of +mischief. No, this was entirely his own affair, and as such he intended +it should remain. Thus the sheep went quite blithely to the slaughter. + +It was done--was done at last. The mother's horrified opposition went +down at the last moment before the daughter's quiet, determined +persistency and a special licence--went down with a completeness that to +an unprejudiced and strictly impartial observer might have looked ever +so slightly suspicious. It was arranged that Philip should break the +news to his father immediately afterwards, and on that condition only +would Mrs Daventer be brought to yield a most reluctant consent; and, +in accordance with this, Philip, leaving his bride in the care of her +mother, was to travel down to Claxby alone. + +Yet very happy were these two--very happy in their fool's paradise. To +Laura especially it seemed too good to be true--too good to last. She +seemed to move as in a waking dream. And now they must part, though +only for forty-eight hours, perhaps less--must part immediately upon +their union. It did not seem right. It seemed ominous. + +"Come back to me the moment you can break away, Phil, my darling," she +said, as she bade him a final good-bye in the early morning on the +platform of the seldom-used little station. "I have no fear but that +you will be able to talk over Sir Francis. Who could resist you?" she +parenthesised with an inflexion of tender pride. "But do not remain +away from me a moment longer than you are obliged. We have only just +begun to belong to each other remember, and I have only just begun to +live. Good-bye, my own." + +Then the train moved off from the platform, and soft-hearted Phil felt a +corresponding lump rise in his throat as he watched those beautiful +eyes, brimming over with love for him, fade into the dimness of +distance, till even the white waving handkerchief became as a mere +speck. Then a turn in the embankment hid the whole from view. + +Thus they parted, there on the wooden platform of the deserted little +country station. And those last words were as the knell of a life--of +two lives. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY. + +AFTER FORDHAM'S VISIT. + +After Fordham had left the room Sir Francis hardly seemed aware of his +visitor's departure. He sat there like one turned to stone, the full +horror of the recent disclosure weighing him down. First had come the +lawyer's letter threatening an action against his son. That seemed very +trivial now--very far-away. Then the shock of confronting so +unexpectedly his old enemy, and following that the pain and resentment +of learning that Philip had taken the most important step in life +without a word to him. But all this was nothing--less than nothing-- +when compared with the nature of that fearful disclosure. + +Why had the long-turned-down pages of that dark chapter in his past so +suddenly been flung open before him now? Why should this man pursue him +with such vengeful hate? He had wronged him, it was true, but equally +true was it that he had never shrunk from the consequences. He had +given him satisfaction, and bore the mark of that meeting even yet, +would carry it to his grave. Why, then, should he be thus relentlessly +pursued--why should his transgression be visited upon the head of his +innocent son? Surely the retribution was out of all proportion to the +offence. But reason as he would, rebel as he would, the horrible fact +remained. For years he and his had unconsciously been the objects of a +devilish, vindictive plot. And at the thought of the craft and +cleverness of the plan a ray of hope shone in upon his mind. The whole +thing might be annulled. It should be. But could it? He could no more +prove the relationship now than Fordham could have done at the time. +Besides, the publicity of such an attempt, and they had already been +married more than twenty-four hours--horrible--horrible! Whichever way +he looked at it there was a dead blank wall confronting him. + +"So make up your mind to hear by any post that you are endowed with a +daughter-in-law of the least desirable kind," had been his wife's +sneering words but a short half-hour ago. Prophetic indeed, so much so +that a brief suspicion crossed his mind lest she might be already in the +secret--very brief though, only to be succeeded by a fixed determination +that she must at all costs be kept out of it--out of that part of it +which contained the whole sting of the grisly reality at any rate; for +the bare fact of the marriage was of course public property. No; it +must remain a secret between himself and Philip, while they should +arrive at some decision as to what ought to be done. + +It may readily be surmised that Lady Orlebar did not leave her husband +alone for long, once Fordham had departed. Even her damaged dignity had +to give way before the intense curiosity which was consuming her, and +accordingly she swooped down upon him determined to arrive at the +torturing secret. But, for once, she failed--only for the present +though, she told herself--for so ill, so prostrated did he look that +expediency supplying the place of feeling, moved her to refrain from +worrying him further--moved her even to show some solicitude on his +behalf. If ever there was a valuable life, from her way of looking at +it, in this world, it was that of Sir Francis, for should it cease she +would be left well-nigh penniless. He could not put by any thing now +because she persisted in living up to the income, and at his death +everything would go to the obnoxious Philip, against whom her ire raged +secretly but hot. + +Wherefore, we say, expediency moved her to show some consideration for +her husband, and of a truth he needed it. Piteous indeed he looked, +white and ill as a man who has received a knock-down blow. At first a +horrible fear crossed her mind, that he had been speculating, but a +hurried assertion that money had nothing to do with the affair had +infinitely relieved it. If it was not that it didn't matter, she +reasoned. Of course it had to do with his scamp of a son, but that need +not affect her. + +"You had better go to bed, Francis, and take a sleeping draught," she +said, after several ineffectual attempts at eliciting the burden of the +recent interview. "We can talk things over to-morrow. But, goodness +gracious, what is the use of worrying? As if anything mattered at this +time of life--anything short of the smash up of a bank--and you say it +is no question of money. Come, now. The best thing you can do is to go +to bed." + +But on this point Sir Francis was not compliant. By a curious +coincidence a new idea struck him, viz, that Philip not having +communicated with him, was coming in person to break the news of his +marriage. And he might arrive at any moment. No, he would not go to +bed, late as it was. And then, as if to add point to his resolve, there +came a grinding of wheels on the drive, followed by a loud ring at the +front door. The baronet started up in his chair, and his face became +more ashy white than before. + +"Goodness gracious! Whatever is it all about?" cried Lady Orlebar, as, +following on a sound of voices outside, the door was thrown open, and +Philip entered without waiting to be announced. "Shall we ever get to +the bottom of all this mystery?" And then she stopped. For, at sight +of her, the joyous, radiant look on Philip's face had changed to one of +cold sternness as he discounted her furious opposition in advance. Even +she was overawed. She felt almost afraid of him. + +"Pardon me," he said to her, after the cold handshake of greeting. "I +must see my father--alone. Would you mind?" + +There was no mistaking the gesture as he moved towards the door. The +bluntness of the request--the insult of it--thought Lady Orlebar as she +swept majestically out. For the second time that evening she was turned +out of the room. Well, let them talk over their infamous secrets. They +need look for no help from her, she determined, fairly shaking with +rage. + +Sir Francis did not meet his son's gaze as he extended one trembling +hand. The other still clutched mechanically the packet which Fordham +had thrust into it. Philip's heart smote him, and all the brightness +went out of his face. Had his father already heard the news which he +had come to break? + +"I say, dad, what's the row? Dear old dad," he went on, obtaining no +answer but a sigh--bending down and placing his arm round his father's +shoulders--"you're looking deucedly cut up. Have you been--er--hearing +anything?" + +"Hearing anything?" echoed Sir Francis, in a hollow, far-away tone, and +turning to his son with a wild stare. "Hearing anything? Philip, I +have heard that which I--which we had both better have died than have +lived to see happen." + +"Come, come dad, don't take on about it like that! It was playing +rather low down, I know, doing things all on the quiet. Still--I +couldn't help it. Wait until you see my Laura--that's all! Why you'll +fall in love with her yourself, and we'll all be as jolly as sandboys +together. But, how did you hear about it? Who told you?" + +For answer Sir Francis pointed to the telegram which Fordham had left on +the table either by inadvertence or as not worth taking away. + +"Hallo! So Fordham has been here?" cried Phil. "Hang it, I never +authorised the old chap to break the news. I suppose, though, he +thought you knew it already, and came to congratulate you. Still--it's +odd--deuced odd. It isn't like him, anyhow." + +"He left this for you," holding forth the bulky missive. "Philip, take +it to your own room, where you will be quite alone, lock the door, and +read it through from beginning to end. Oh, God! It is horrible-- +horrible?" + +"Horrible! Fordham!" echoed Philip, in blank amazement. "Father, I +don't understand. Tell me in a word--what's it all about? Why make me +wade through twenty pages of Fordham's rigmarole when half-a-dozen words +will do it?" + +"Oh, I can't--I can't!" moaned poor Sir Francis. "Read it, Phil--read +it! That will tell you." And with almost frantic gesture he waved his +son from the room. + +Philip's heart beat strangely as he went to seek the privacy enjoined. +What on earth had Fordham to communicate that concerned himself--that +availed to throw his father into so pitiable a state of agitation? +Under ordinary circumstances he would have suspected the package, so +elaborately sealed and directed to himself, to contain a string of stale +and would-be cynical platitudes on the situation, for which he felt in +no sort of mood just then. Now a strange eerie foreboding of evil was +upon him. + +He gained his room, which was fireless, and cold and uncheery of aspect. +Then, by the light of the solitary candle, he broke the seals and drew +forth the contents of the envelope. These would keep him busy for some +time in all conscience, he decided, noticing how closely written were +the numerous sheets. But almost with the first glance, as he began to +read, a start and a wild ejaculation escaped him. Then, as he read on, +a deathly paleness spread over his countenance, and his hand clenched +convulsively upon the rail of his chair. His attitude became rigid and +his features hardened. His eyes dilated with a stare of intense horror +and surprise as they travelled down each successive sheet of the fateful +paper. + +Where is the sunny, light-hearted youth, rejoicing in the strength of +health and happiness and love, who entered this house such a short while +ago? Not surely to be found in this being, whose ashy features are +stamped with the set, grey look of a stricken despair; the frozen horror +in whose eyes, as they seek alternately the shadowed objects around the +half-darkened room and the rigidly grasped paper, is that of a man who +suddenly realises that he has all involuntarily committed some appalling +crime. + +His dry lips move half unconsciously, and in husky, laboured gasps, +frame the well-nigh inarticulate words-- + +"O God! such a hideous thing could never be! God in Heaven, it can't be +true! It can't be true!" + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. + +WHAT WAS REVEALED. + + "There is a good deal of a surprise before you, Philip," began the + paper, "but nevertheless, go patiently through this, from start to + finish, and don't look at the end first, after the manner of the + average woman reading a novel, for it would only detract from the full + bearing of the narrative, and probably cloud and obfuscate the same at + every issue. + + "My real name is not Richard Fordham, but Richard Cecil Garcia. It + suited me--no matter how--to take the other, to drop my real name, + with which I was thoroughly sickened and disgusted. With what show of + reason you will learn as you read on. But it is a strange, + foreign-sounding name, is it not? Well, it is a foreign name, for I + am of Corsican origin. That being so, it follows I have the hot, + vindictive temperament of a Southern race in addition to a fair share + of British tenacity of purpose. No man ever injured me but was + requited sooner or later--requited to the full--requited, in fact, + tenfold. The bearing of this upon what follows you will all too soon + grasp. + + "You and I have known each other now for something less than two + years; but have known each other better, more intimately, than we + should have done under ordinary circumstances in about half a + lifetime. You thought our first meeting entirely a fortuitous one. + It was not. It was deliberately brought about by me in pursuance of a + matured and long-set plan. + + "You have often wondered at my unutterable detestation of, contempt + for, the other sex. It has amused you, and you have laughed at it as + a `crank.' You are young, and think that a very large percentage of + angel abides within the average petticoat. Very good. I can't say I + ever held that belief, for I always despised and distrusted the dear + creatures from the very earliest time I can remember. + + "`Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,' may be + only Scripture, but it is remarkably sound human nature. My `fall' + came--and an uncommonly far and hard one it was destined to prove. + There is no need to go into all the sickening details--the how, or the + when, or the where. Suffice it to say that the creature was well + endowed with all the attractiveness (so-called) and the devilish arts + and wizardry of her species. For a few months I thought myself in + Paradise--had found the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life. + + "In this disastrous mania, mind you, it was not I who took the + initiative. For every reason on the face of the earth it was to this + woman's advantage that my name and what modest competence I possessed + should become hers. It suited her vanity, too, that she alone should + be the one to penetrate my armour-coat of invulnerable mail. And in + those days when the blood ran hot such beauty as hers was calculated + to bring down even my defences--though now I can look back to that + hideous mockery of a time with nothing but horror and unmitigated + disgust--can look upon the actress in that shameful travesty with + loathing and unquenchable hate. And now at this day I hold her very + life in the hollow of my hand. Some day I will close my fingers and + crush it--but not yet--not yet. + + "For some months, as I have said, I thought myself in Paradise. Then + came disillusion--speedy when it did come. I knew myself then to be + in _inferno_. Heavens! the life that she-devil led me--she of whom I + had practically been the salvation! She slandered my character, and + dragged my name in the mud. She ruined my chances in life and caused + every friend I owned in the world to flee as from the plague. She did + worse than that, for she sapped and well-nigh destroyed even my sense + of self-respect. I often wondered, at the time, I did not kill her; + looking back now I wonder still more. + + "Mind you, it was not on account of this one creature alone that I + have always held the whole of its sex in such intense abhorrence. But + I have studied it--studied it carefully. I have thought, `No one + shall say that I, the thinker, the character-reader, the student of + human nature all the world over, has judged a whole from a unit.' But + the result of my observation is that in a greater or less degree it is + wonderfully alike. You get the same littleness--the same gratuitous + malice--the same eager, scheming, unscrupulous grasping after + individual advantage--above all the same domineering spirit, the same + utter disregard of truth, the entire absence of any sense of moral + rectitude. If it were possible to roll the tiger, the ape, and the + snake into one animal, you would get a perfect embodiment of the + average civilised and Christian woman of the nineteenth century. The + _gentle_ sex! Pah! it sickens one! + + "Now and again, but rarely, I think I find an exceptional unit. But + then I thought so once before, to my ultimate disaster. And, Philip, + the last instance in which I thought to discover such an exception was + that of the girl named Alma Wyatt. Well, it is too late to think of + that now--for you at any rate. You have gone further and fared + infinitely worse. Yet I warned you--warned you plainly and + unmistakably. My very last words to you were those of warning. And + now let us return to my own record. + + "`When things are at their worst, they mend,' says the proverb. + Things were certainly at their worst with me. I had committed social + and financial suicide, all but mental--and even seriously contemplated + actual and physical. When I had reached that point; when every + conscious moment of the twenty-four hours was absorbed in marvelling + what besotted affliction of mania could have induced me to wreck my + life by legally chaining it to this demon, then, I say, came the + proverbial `mend.' It came in the shape of a third party. + + "Why dwell upon circumstances and detail? The story was an utterly + commonplace and ordinary one. She played off the whole stale bag of + tricks upon the new man, who must have been nearly as great a fool as + myself--in fact was. To cut the matter short, one fine day they went + off together, levanted--also in the most commonplace and ordinary + style. Then I sat down and chuckled--laughed as I had never laughed + since I was idiot enough to forge my chain. + + "But I was a curious tempered devil in those days--am so still you + will no doubt say--and although I could not feel any serious + resentment against one who had relieved me of an intolerable burden, + by reason of that relief, still the act in itself was a deadly insult + to me. I left the man alone for a few days, then I dropped down upon + him when he least expected it. I raised no scene--not I. There was a + better way of settling matters than that. It was easy enough if + judiciously worked--is still at this very day. A meeting was + arranged. + + "It came off--in a wild out-of-the-way spot just across the Spanish + border. We stood up, one lowering drizzling morning, when the clouds + were sweeping the tree-tops of the beech-forests covering the + Roncevalles plateau. We exchanged shots. I could have killed my man + easily, but didn't. I was only playing with him. He wasn't a bad + shot either, but I knew the game was entirely in my hands. I could + have killed him, I say, but I never intended to do that. It occurred + to me--knowing the man and having read off his character and + temperament fairly accurately--that life itself would avenge me upon + him far more than would his death. I would put my mark upon him, + however. So when we stood up again to each other's fire I planted my + ball in the tendons of his left leg, just above the knee. My + adversary dropped, and the seconds pronounced the affair at an end. + But he was not dead; not even, with ordinary care, dangerously + wounded. He would recover, but he would carry my mark--a mark + apparent to all--with him to his grave. He would walk with a limp + during the remainder of his life. + + "No doubt, Philip, you will now have guessed this man's identity. To + avoid all chance of mistake, however, I will say that it was your own + father. + + "Now we will come to Act 2 in the drama. + + "He soon had enough of the woman; very much more than enough, as, of + course, was sure to be the case. But he found he had strapped a + burden upon his back which it was in the last degree difficult to + shake off. She, of course, fully expected I was going to free her, in + which case she would undoubtedly have succeeded in marrying your + father; for he never was a strong man, Philip, and I believe he would + have been weak enough even for that. But I merely sat still and + laughed. Heavens! how I did laugh! For the joke was all on my side. + To be sure, if I had taken action which should have enabled Francis + Orlebar to marry her, I should have wreaked a far direr retribution + upon him than ever I could have done at the pistol's mouth. But then + I hated her far more than I did him, and I was not going to play into + her hands. Not, however, that I had done with him, as you will, to + your sorrow, learn. So no fees out of my pocket went to fatten the + Divorce Court lawyers, and I sat still and laughed--laughed harder + than ever. There was another consideration which militated against my + taking any steps to free myself. Once legally free, I reasoned, so + great a fool is man, who knows but that I might be tempted again to + rivet that loathsome and degraded chain upon my emancipated limbs! So + I resolved deliberately to leave it beyond my power again to + perpetrate such an act of suicidal folly, and accordingly I have done + so. + + "Although, if empowered to do so, your father would, as I say, have + been weak enough to give this woman the legal right to his name, when + he--when they both--saw that such could never be the case while I + lived, he mustered up sufficient resolution to break with her. Then + she tried it on with me; took up a high-handed line, declaring that + her legal right was to live with me; and that whereas nothing short of + legal process could quash that right, and whereas I had taken no such + process, she should assert her rights to the very uttermost. Again I + only laughed, and--started off upon my travels. + + "Then she tried another tack. A child was born to her--a daughter-- + whose paternity I, of course, denied. She initiated proceedings + against me for maintenance, but these I stopped by pretending to fall + in with her claim. It stipulated, however, that she should cease to + use my name. This she promised; but of course the promise was not + kept. So I cut off every shilling I allowed her, having previously + placed my means beyond the jurisdiction of the British courts--a + matter easily effected by secret and scattered investments in all + parts of the world; and she and her child were reduced to absolute + want. That brought her to her knees; that tamed the she-devil. I had + things all my own way then. It was my prerogative to impose terms, + and I did so most rigidly. She was to keep me regularly informed as + to her place of residence, and not to make any radical change in the + latter without my sanction, and under no circumstances was she to use + my name, or let it be known that I had any acquaintanceship with her + whatever. She was also to behave herself, and that thoroughly. + Failing the observance of these conditions, I would inexorably cut off + the supplies, and remove the child from her care in such wise that she + should never set eyes on it again. + + "Did she revolt? Of course she did--tried to, rather, more than once. + But it didn't answer; no, not for a moment. She found that my eye + was ever upon her, that not a movement of hers passed unknown to me. + So she had the gumption to see that nothing was gained by kicking, and + that the wisest--in fact the only--plan was to make the best of it. + But I hadn't done with her. + + "For years things went on quietly enough. The child grew and throve; + and for this child the woman seemed to entertain an extraordinary + affection. This I did nothing to lessen; for I saw therein a weapon + ready to hand whenever I should choose to require it. So I sat still + and laughed; for I had not done with her, remember. She had wrecked + my whole life and its chances, nor during the process, nor ever since, + had she shown one single redeeming point in her character, one single + sign of regret. + + "All this took place many years ago, while you were hardly out of the + cradle, certainly not out of the nursery, for I am a great deal older + than you think, Philip. To a certain extent, I watched you grow up, + unknown to your father or to yourself, for, I repeat, our meeting and + subsequent acquaintanceship was the outcome of no mere chance. And + this brings us to the third act of the drama. + + "Years went by, and your father, never having seen nor of late heard + of me since the day we stood up to each other's fire, ceased even to + think of me as other than a somewhat tragical incident in the past + history of his life. He little dreamed, however, that all this time I + was watching him--was watching you. Yes, I watched you as you grew + up. I knew that you were as the very apple of your father's eye. + Through you I intended to strike him once more--to crush him. + + "We met, you and I, as you remember. You thought it a chance meeting, + but it was not. In a week I had read off your character thoroughly, + exhaustively. I knew you a great deal better than you knew yourself. + + "Well, we went globe-trotting together. And as you look back on it + you will recollect more than one occasion upon which, but for my + intervention, your father would have been rendered childless. Why did + I intervene, you will say? Well, for two reasons. First, I chose to + pull the wires myself. I intended to close my vendetta by a plan that + should be perfectly unique. The hunter's instinct doesn't move him to + say, `No matter how the quarry falls, as long as it does fall.' No; + he must bring it down himself, in his own way. So it was with me. + The other reason will strike you as strange and incredible to the last + degree. I had taken a liking to you. + + "Yes, paradoxical as it may sound, paradoxical as it is, the fact + remains. I had a sneaking weakness for you, Philip. You were so + open-hearted, so ingenuous, so utterly helpless--in short, such an + ass. It seemed to devolve on me to be ever pulling you out of some + tangle. I began to waver in my purpose. There were times when I + thought I would leave the whole thing, and had it been a matter + concerning your father alone I think I should have done so. But there + was the woman. She was in my hand now. The time for her to feel its + weight was near. She was living at ease, happy and contented, for, as + I said before, she was entirely wrapped up in her daughter. She, + happy and contented after having poisoned my life, ruined me, dragged + my name in the mud--I don't mean in the mere act of relieving me of + her presence--but more in the shameful scandal, the horrible hell she + made of life while she was with me, so that wherever I went it was + rendered impossible--she happy and contented! Decidedly the time had + come to strike. + + "Even then I found myself still wavering on your account. I wavered + to the last. I honestly did my best to get you out of that Glover + hobble, and I believe I succeeded. Had not chance upset your + relations with Alma Wyatt I believe I should have spared you, for I + should have been powerless against her counter-influence--or, at any + rate, I should have preferred to think so, if only as a pretext for + throwing up the whole scheme. Then we went over to Zermatt, and here + chance stepped in again and took the reins a good deal out of my + hands. But for your accident you could have returned to Zinal in a + few days. Time and absence would have been all in your favour, and + you would have been saved. + + "It was part of my design to bring you to Zermatt. You remember we + were going there in the first instance, but chance diverted our plan. + Now, however, the time had come for me to draw in the circle of the + net. I wavered no longer. + + "We will touch briefly upon what followed. The Daventers arrived, + and, caught at the rebound, you transferred your susceptible heart. + Even then I warned you. You cannot say I did not give you every + chance. My last words to you were words of warning. But they were + utterly thrown away, as I knew they would be. Well, there is very + little more to be said. You walked into the trap with your eyes open + and--were caught. + + "Do you know who this woman is who calls herself Mrs Daventer? She + is no other than the woman whose infamies I have been detailing--she + who was and still is legally bound to me by the marriage laws of the + land. And her daughter--_your bride_--do you guess now whose child + she is? Mine--you will say. No, you are wrong. _Her father is your + father_, Philip Orlebar, and if you doubt me ask _him_." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +At this stage the paper fell from Philip's hand. The whole world seemed +going round with him. It was as if he had received a stunning blow, a +numbing shock. The dead grim horror of the situation had not yet fully +broken upon him. + +With an effort he picked up the paper again and read on:-- + + "You will remember that earlier in my narrative I said I disputed the + paternity of this child at the time of its birth. Well, before + letting the matter go into court I obtained more than one opinion from + eminent counsel. But every opinion was substantially in accord--to + the effect that the question of time rendered the matter such a very + near thing that I could not hope to contest the claim with the + slightest chance of success. How does this affect you now, Philip + Orlebar? Why, exactly as it affected me then. Your chances of + obtaining a decree of nullity are so remote as to be practically + non-existent--even if you care to throw the case open to the public-- + for remember, by the time you get this you will have been married two + whole days, and a court of law is a pretty scathing ordeal. Nor will + the plea of fraud avail you, while I know for a fact that Laura was + totally unaware of the circumstances of her parentage, or that the + name under which she was married--her surname, to wit, was rightly any + other than Daventer. + + "Well, you must accept the situation in all its bearings, and if you + cannot--as I firmly believe--break the tie by which you are legally, + but only legally, bound, you can console yourself, as I did, with the + reflection that it is now out of your power ever again to make a fool + of yourself. Nothing further remains to be said, except that I + suppose never before did the strands of Fate weave together so + complete a web of what is commonly called poetic justice, so unique an + instance of retribution. And remember this. If your father ate sour + grapes and your teeth are set on edge, you must blame him--not me. + + "Should you wish to meet me to talk over anything, I am still to be + found at my old quarters. Of course, I am using the name by which you + have always known me. + + "Richard Fordham." + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. + +"THAT STING EACH OTHER HERE IN THE DUST." + +Father and son had the house to themselves, for the servants had long +since gone to bed, and Lady Orlebar had done likewise, in a towering +passion. Softly Philip returned to the library, where he had left his +father, and then for a few moments they stood silently gazing into each +other's faces, the expression of each equally wretched, equally blank, +equally hopeless. + +"He has told you--that infernal villain!" said Philip, at length. "I +can see it." Sir Francis nodded. He could not speak just then. "And +this," went on Philip, drawing forth Fordham's communication. "You know +what he says here? Oh, father, for God's sake, is it true?" + +"It is impossible to say for certain," gasped the baronet, in a strange, +jerky tone, after several futile attempts to speak. "It is impossible +to--prove anything--either way." + +He did not upbraid his son, as many a father might and would have done. +He did not say, "If you _will_ go and throw your life away upon your own +weak and foolish judgment, if you _will_ go and do things in such +hurried and hole-and-corner fashion, if you _will_ go and buy a pig in a +poke, you have got no more than you deserve--you have only yourself to +thank?" But he did think--and that bitterly--that but for the hurry and +secrecy on the part of Philip in the matter, the weight of this horror +would never have fallen upon them at all. + +"Father, what do _you_ think--candidly? Do you think that scoundrel +Fordham spoke the truth?" + +It was the bitterest moment in Sir Francis's life. To answer in the +negative would be but to perpetuate the horror; besides he could not so +answer. His glance avoided that of his son, and his head drooped +forward on his chest, as he faltered, like a man who talks in his +sleep-- + +"I believe he did. I cannot say otherwise--I believe he did." + +And then Philip knew that his life was ruined at the outset--wrecked +almost before leaving port. + +"Father!" he said, at last, breaking the terrible silence which had +fallen between them. "What does this villain mean when he says, +`Remember by the time you get this you will have been married two whole +days...'? Has he given it me two days sooner than he meant to?" + +"Oh no--oh no. This would make it just about the time," muttered Sir +Francis, drearily. + +"But how do you make that out? How can I have been married two whole +days when I was only married this morning?" + +The change in Sir Francis's demeanour was in the last degree startling. + +"What?" he almost shrieked. "What's that you say, Phil? You were only +married this morning?" + +"Of course I was. I left Lau--I left _her_--almost at the church door." +And then he went on to detail Mrs Daventer's inexorable insistence +upon his breaking the news to his father at once. + +"But the telegram, Phil? What of the telegram?" cried Sir Francis, +wildly. "Look--look at the date. The 22nd--that was yesterday. And it +says `this morning.'" + +Philip had caught up the slip of paper and was staring at it with a +puzzled look. "It's as you say, father," he said. "The office stamp +does give the 22nd. Well, it is a mistake, and Fordham has been so far +sold, for the most awful side of his ghastly, diabolical plot has been +spared me. What an infernal fiend, in the literal sense of the word, +the man must be!" + +"Oh, thank God! thank God?" ejaculated poor Sir Francis, falling back in +his chair. "So you parted at the church door. Oh, thank God! that +unutterable horror is spared us. But the rest. My poor boy--my poor +boy! You can never see them again--it would be too fearful." + +"Once, father--once I must," was the reply, accompanied by a hard-set +frown. "Once--but once only." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Fordham's chambers were situated in a quiet street just off Park Lane. +They were comfortable, but not luxurious, as became one who was a +confirmed wanderer--here to-day, there to-morrow. He never cared to +accumulate a collection of things, for that very reason. Here on the +day after Philip's meeting with his father did Fordham sit. He was +writing--answering a letter from Wentworth urging him to join the latter +at Les Avants the following week--a suggestion which rather fell in with +his own inclinations--for London at the end of September was +insufferably close, abominably dusty, and blatantly vulgar. He hardly +knew himself why he had stayed so long. + +Well, that was not quite accurate either. He did know. He wanted to +watch the explosion of the infernal machine he had so craftily pieced +together, to note its results. + +His letter finished, he pushed his chair from the table and began to +think. He was in one of his worst moods that morning--cool, cynical, +utterly without ruth. As he thought on his interview of the previous +evening he laughed at himself because of the temporary softening he had +undergone. When others had got the drop on him, did they relent? Not +they. Now he had got the drop on them, why should he feel any +compunction? He would not. While in this vein he heard steps quickly +ascending the stairs. The door opened and there entered--Philip. + +The latter stopped short. At first it seemed as if he could not speak. +His broad chest was heaving, and a red spot burned in each of his livid +cheeks. Then, slowly, he brought out three words-- + +"You--infernal villain!" + +Fordham slightly shrugged his shoulders, and the expression of his face +was not goodly to look upon. + +"Is that all you came here to say? Well, at any rate you can't say I +didn't warn you--didn't give you every chance. Why, man, I did nothing +but warn you." + +"Yes--by the rule of contraries. And now what have _you_ got to say? +Putting myself aside for the present, for what you have done to my +father you shall answer to me. Yes, to me!" + +His tone had attained a loud and threatening pitch, and he made a step +forward. Fordham, who had risen when he first came in, drew himself +together with a nearly imperceptible movement which reminded one of +nothing so much as a snake ready to strike. Thus they confronted each +other, these two who had been such close, such intimate friends. + +"What have I got to say?" repeated Fordham, dropping out his words with +a steely deliberation. "The question ought rather to come from me. No; +stop! Stand back!" he added, warningly, as the other made towards him, +a move whose nature was unmistakably aggressive. "You'll do no good in +that line, I promise you. Why remember, boy, all the best tricks you +know with your hands I taught you, and there remain a great many better +ones for you to learn. I'm the best man of the two in that way." + +None knew this better than Philip, tall, powerful, and in good training +as he himself was. The other was a splendid boxer, and all wire and +whipcord. He would stand no chance against him. + +"Will you meet me in the old-fashioned way, then?" he said, with +difficulty restraining his rage. "We can cross the Channel and exchange +a few shots. What! You won't!" for the other had burst into a derisive +chuckle. "Hang it, Fordham, you may pretend to laugh, but I never +thought you were such an infernal coward!" + +"You may well talk about hanging," replied Fordham, with that same +sardonic chuckle. "Do you know, you young fool--do you know that all +this time you have been bellowing out enough to hang you a dozen times +over in this happy contingency for which you are thirsting? Do you +know, also, that in the event of my being the one to go under, one +single word construable into an arrangement of the meeting, uttered by +you over here would be enough to hang you as surely as if you had cut a +man's throat to steal his watch?" + +It was Philip's turn to look slightly foolish now; and in spite of his +anger and misery he did so--such is the power of a master-mind and a +sarcastic tongue. + +"Just do me the favour to open that door suddenly, will you?" went on +Fordham. "Ah! The coast's clear, is it? Well, then"--as the door was +shut again--"if you really mean business, this is how you ought to have +put it: `Fordham, old man, are you really going to St. Jean-de-Luz this +week or next? Because if so I might join you there.'" + +Philip started, and stared. Then it dawned on him. + +"And where the deuce is St. Jean-de-Luz?" he said. + +"About equidistant between Biarritz and the Spanish border, and very +near both," was the tranquil answer. "Well, I was going to Les Avants, +but if you prefer it I will alter my destination. Do you prefer it?" +with a keen glance into the other's eyes. + +"I understand," said Philip, slowly. "Yes, certainly, I do prefer it." + +"Very well, then. There is no more to be said. I will be at St. +Jean-de-Luz by the middle of next week at the latest. And now a word of +caution for your own sake. Do not breathe one syllable with regard to +our--er--rendezvous, while you are on this side of the English Channel. +Remember that on this side of that geographical feature we are both +within British jurisdiction. I suppose you don't want to spend the rest +of your life in penal servitude in the event of gaining your object?" + +"I understand," said Philip, again. "Till this day week, then--over +there." + +"You may rely upon me." And then the speaker rang the bell, and Philip, +hardly knowing where he went, found himself following a manservant to +the street door. + +He had gone in there on violence intent. That was a mistake. Fordham +was right to keep cool. It is what he ought to have done himself. Ah, +well, he was learning his lesson gradually. He had acted upon impulse +hitherto--the warm, generous impulse of youth. No more of that. But he +would be cool enough that day week, when they two should meet. + +No compunction did he feel--nothing but hate, and horror, and loathing +towards his former friend. The diabolical and coldblooded cruelty which +could predestine his life to shipwreck from the very cradle, which could +watch him grow up, and then under the guise of friendship lure him to +his ruin, effaced at one sweep all the recollection of their former +intimacy, of many an act of kindness on the part of the older man, of +strong and reliable comradeship in moments of danger. And his father-- +if he had injured Fordham in times past, he had given him full +satisfaction. That ought to have closed the matter. And now this +coldblooded villain, after all these years, rose again to persecute and +hound him into the grave. Never while he was there. And then at the +recollection of his father's white, stricken face and pitiable aspect, +Philip clenched his fists and wished he had insisted upon an earlier +meeting. + +When he reached the Great Western terminus the Welsh train was already +moving, but with an effort and at imminent risk to life and limb he +managed to fling himself into a compartment, and then, speeding over the +familiar landscape, his thoughts turned from those he was leaving behind +to those to whom he was going. Why, it was very little more than +twenty-four hours since he had parted from his bride, and what a +cataclysm had taken place within that time. His bride! Horror! How +should he even meet her, knowing what he did? How could he even bear to +look at her? And then, as he sat there throughout the day, gazing out +vacantly upon the flying trees and hedges, the scales seemed to drop +from his eyes. He had fallen a prey--a contemptibly easy prey--to a +couple of designing adventuresses. All the kind and gracious attentions +of the mother--the winsome ways of the daughter--all struck him now as +so many arts to lure him into their net, and they had succeeded. He had +fallen a victim to a couple of the basest tools ever employed to carry +out a base and villainous scheme. Well, after that night they should +look upon his face no more. + +Then another thought struck him. If the more horrible side of Fordham's +scheme, as set forth in his revelation, were true, Mrs Daventer-- +so-called--could not be in ignorance of it. Could she, as a mother,-- +under no matter what pressure of circumstances--consent to become a +party to so monstrous a crime? It did not seem possible. Yet, to poor +Phil, now beginning to realise the sublimity of iniquity to which some +will soar, it occurred that the woman acting under baser, stronger +motives, might even have been brought to sacrifice her own daughter. +Well, she would know, at any rate, and--she should tell. + +Chance favoured him. It was late when he reached the house. Laura, +having given him up for that night, had gone upstairs; but her mother +was still sitting in the drawing-room reading. The French window, +neither curtained nor shuttered, stood ajar, for the night was hot and +stuffy. Standing there for a moment in the starlight, the fresh salt +air fanning his brow, the murmur of the waves on the beach hard by, +humming confusedly in his ears, Philip felt quite sick and faint. He +had been continuously on the move since this horror had burst upon him-- +had eaten next to nothing, and had not slept a wink--and now it was all +beginning to tell. Recovering himself, he pushed open the window and +stepped into the room. + +"Why, Philip! What a way to come back!" cried Mrs Daventer, recovering +from the momentary start this unexpected invasion had thrown her into. +"Laura will be delighted! Why--what is the matter? Has anything gone +wrong?" she broke off, noting his haggard face and the miserable +expression of his eyes; and her own cheeks grew livid with a horrible +boding fear. + +His first answer was to step to the door and turn the key. + +"We had better not be interrupted for a few minutes," he said shortly. +"Now I want you to tell me. What is Cecil Garcia to you?" + +She started, swayed, as if to fall, then recovered herself, as if by an +effort of will. + +"You know, then?" she gasped. "_He_ has told you?" + +"Everything?" + +"Everything! Oh, the infamous fiend! He was always that way." + +"Maybe. Now I must have an answer to this! Who is Laura's father? +Cecil Garcia or--Sir Francis Orlebar?" + +She started from her chair, and stood gazing at him, unutterable horror +in her eyes, her lips livid and shaking. Her next words were gulped +out, as though between the gasps of strangulation. + +"He--told you--?" + +"That your daughter's father is my father. That I had married my +half-sister. Is it true?" + +She tried to speak--the words would not come. The full horror--the +diabolical ingenuity--of Fordham's plan, burst upon her now--for the +first time, and burst upon her with crushing force. This was the blow +then. While the barest taint of such suspicion lurked in Philip's mind, +Laura might go through life alone. This was how Fordham had chosen to +strike her. And she had half credited him with benevolent motives! +Him, a devil in human shape! + +"Is it true?" repeated Philip. + +But his voice hummed in her ears with a far-away sound. She made a +convulsive clutch at her throat, gasping as if to speak. No words would +come. Then swaying heavily, with a low cry that was half a groan, she +tottered and fell. + +"She has answered the question," said Philip to himself, as he caught +her just in time and placed her on the sofa. "She has answered the +question, and now I know the worst." + +Stepping to the door he unlocked it, just as Laura was turning the +handle. She had heard her mother's cry and the sound of voices. Among +the latter she recognised that of Philip, and had flown down, grievously +dreading that something had happened. + +And at sight of him all her fears were realised. That pale, stern man +with the haggard eyes, and the hand stretched forth as though to bar her +approach, was that her bright-hearted Philip, who had left her so gaily, +yet so lovingly, but the morning before? Heavens, what did it all mean? + +"No; it is all over," he said, putting forth his hand again, as she was +about to fling herself upon his neck. "I know all now. Heavens--it is +too horrible!" he added with a shudder. "But I suppose you are in the +secret too. To think of it!" + +"I think you have gone mad," she answered, a defiant fierceness taking +the place of the soft love tones wherein she had at first addressed him. +"But--what have you been doing to my mother?" she added in half a +scream, as she caught sight of the latter lying there white and still, +and rushed over to her side. + +"She has fainted. You had better see after her while I go for a doctor. +The knowledge that I had been made aware of the infamous plot to which +I have fallen a victim has been too much for her." + +Even in the midst of her attentions to her fainting mother the girl +turned upon him with flashing eyes and a livid countenance. + +"Infamous plot!" she cried. "You dare? Mark this, then. Never come +near me again--never again until you have apologised most humbly to her +and to me. I mean it! Do you hear?" + +"That makes it easier," he replied, with a faint sneer. "Now I am going +for the doctor." And he went out. "_She_ is in it too," he +soliloquised as he sped along through the cool night. "It is a horrible +business--horrible--horrible! But the mother? Well, she answered the +question. Still, when she comes round, I shall insist upon her +answering it again in words, or in writing." + +But his question was destined to remain unanswered, for Mrs Daventer +never did come round. A couple of hours after Philip's return with the +medical man she died. But she never spoke again. + +The doctors pronounced it a plain case of heart disease, though they +wrapped their definition up in a layer of technical jargon that was +anything but plain. So the only person who could have cleared up the +doubt was silent for ever, and the true secret of Laura's paternity lay +buried in her mother's grave. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. + +"FOR A BROTHER'S BLOOD." + +The wind soughed mournfully through the great beech-forests which cover +the slopes leading up to the Roncevalles plateau. + +It was early morning--gloomy and lowering. The two occupants of the +open carriage wending its way at a footpace up the steep mountain road +were well wrapped up, for at that elevation, late summer as it was, the +air was biting and chill. + +"And so you are determined to go through with this, Orlebar?" one of +them was saying. "Can it not be arranged even now?" + +"Certainly not," was the brief, determined answer. "I am going to do my +level best to rid the world of the most inhuman, damnable monster that +ever disgraced it." + +"You will have to be as cool as--as this air, then, Orlebar. Your +friend--your enemy I should say rather--is something like a dead shot. +By the way, your story is one of the strangest I ever heard in my life; +and not the oddest part of it to me is that you should still persist in +choosing this place." + +"Because it _is_ this place. You were here at the time of--of that +other affair, Major. You will be able to place us upon the exact spot. +I have a presentiment. On the very spot where that villain wounded my +father I shall kill him. That is why I have chosen it." + +The other shook his head gravely. He was an older man than he looked-- +and he looked past middle age. Major Fox's own career had been an +eventful one. He had seen active service under the flag of two foreign +powers severally, and, moreover, was reckoned an authority on hostile +meetings of a private nature, at many of which he had assisted, not +always in the character of second. That the object of this early drive +was a hostile meeting the above fragment of conversation will clearly +show. + +Where is the sunny-tempered, light-hearted Philip Orlebar of old? +Dead--dead and buried. He who now sits here, pale, stern, gloomy, with +the aspect of a man upon whose life a great blow has fallen--whom that +blow has aged a dozen years at least--surely these two personalities can +have nothing in common? + +Onward and upward, higher and higher wends the carriage. Then the +acclivity ends, and surmounting the roll of its brow a great flat wooded +space, with here and there the distant hump of a mountain jutting +against the sky, lies spread out in front. It is the Roncevalles +plateau. + +A bell clangs forth, slow and sepulchral upon the raw morning air. Its +measured, intermittent toll, heard beneath the gloomy lour of the +overcast heavens, would be depressing enough under ordinary +circumstances. But now it strikes the hearers as immeasurably ominous, +for it is the death-toll. + +Standing up, the Major, speaking in fluent French, impresses a few +directions upon the Basque driver. The latter nods and whips up his +horses. As they trot past the quaint, old-world monastery, with its red +roofs lying against an appropriate background of foliage, dark hooded +figures could be seen gliding about. + +"That changes the scene again, Orlebar," remarked Major Fox. "A few +minutes ago one might almost have expected to meet Caesar and his +legions emerging from the great beech-forests. Now this brings us to +more mediaeval times again. Hallo! What is it?" + +For the horses had been suddenly reined in. Then the driver drew them +up to the side of the road. + +A mournful, wailing, dirgelike sound was heard in front. Standing up in +the vehicle, its occupants made out a number of white-clad figures +advancing round a bend in the road. The dark-covered horizontal burden +borne in the midst; the glitter of the crucifix moving slowly in front; +the measured and solemn chant; the clang of the bell from the tower--all +told the nature of that procession advancing along the desolate and +lonely wooded plateau. Its errand was one of death; and they, the +unlooked-for spectators, they, too, were bound upon an errand of death. + +"_Requiem aeternum dona ei Domine: et lux perpetua luceat ei_" chanted +the singers. The Basque driver doffed his _beret_ and bent his head +devoutly as the _cortege_ went by, and the Major and Philip lifted their +hats. But the words, the chant, struck upon the tatter's ear with +indescribable import, for they brought back a very different scene. He +saw again the arching blue of the cloudless heavens above the Val +d'Anniviers, the rugged cliff and the feathery pine forest, the vernal +slopes and the flower-strewn graves. Again the dull roar of the +mountain torrent rose upon the air, and Alma Wyatt's voice was in his +ears as upon that glowing morning in the churchyard at Vissoye. And now +he heard it again, that chant for the dead, here in the wild solitudes +of this Pyrenean forest country, swelling through the murk of the +lowering heavens. And he himself was going forth to death--to meet +death or to deal it out to another. + +"_Si iniquitates observaveris Domine: Domine quis sustinebit_!" The +chant rolled on, now sinking fainter as the funeral procession receded. +Heavens! here was a comment on the errand of hate and vengeance--the +errand of blood which had brought these two abroad that morning. + +"If I were inclined to be superstitious, I should take that incident to +be unlucky," said the Major, with a jerk of his thumb in the direction +followed by the receding _cortege_, "but I'm not, so it doesn't matter. +_En avant, Michel_." + +But the driver as he obeyed turned half round on his box to ask for +directions, with the result that the carriage turned abruptly off into a +bypath which penetrated deeper into the forest. A few hundred yards +along this and the Major called a halt. + +"We will leave the trap here, Orlebar. The place is close at hand, and +the other party is sure to be on the spot." + +"You seem to know it well, Major," said Philip. "Why, I couldn't have +ferretted it out to save my life." + +"My dear fellow, I have been here before--in times past," was the +answer, given with a touch of dryness. + +Voices were now heard just ahead of them, and as they emerged into a +sequestered open glade three figures were standing in a group chatting. +They belonged to Fordham and two strangers--one mustachioed and +grizzled, the other mustachioed and dark. + +"Good morning--good morning," said the Major, briskly, raising his hat +as he stepped forward. + +"M. le docteur Etchegaray--M. le Major Fox," introduced Fordham. + +The dark stranger bowed, and the Major bowed, and there was elaborate +hat-lifting on both sides. Then the Major passed on the introduction to +his principal, to whom he further effected that of the other stranger, +who was Fordham's second, and whom he named as "M. de Verrieux." + +Beyond a slight raising of the hat such as etiquette demanded, no +recognition passed between the two principals. The seconds and the +medical man drew apart for a few moments' conference. + +"Is it settled that the matter is to proceed, then?" said M. de Verrieux +when this was ended. Both principals nodded. "_Enfin--a l'affaire_," +he went on. + +On one side of the glade was a great dead tree trunk blazed by +lightning. The seconds had decided to place their men twenty-five paces +apart in such wise that the white trunk should be equidistant from +either. The weapons were Colt's revolvers, but each shot was to be +fired by word of command. + +The gloom of the morning deepened. A spot or two of rain fell upon the +weapons as they were handed to the principals, and the wind moaned +dismally among the tree-tops. They stood up, facing each other, those +two who had been friends. They stood up, silent, motionless as that +death which they were about to deal to each other. Again through the +murky stillness there tolled forth from the monastery tower that distant +dirge-bell. + +"_Attention, messieurs_!" cried M. de Verrieux. "_Un--deux--Trois_!" + +Both pistols cracked simultaneously. The hum of Philip's ball passed +just over his adversary's head. Fordham, however, without moving his +elbow from his side, had pointed his weapon almost vertically in the +air, and had pressed the trigger. He stood cool, impassive, and +motionless. + +"The affair has proceeded with the greatest honour to both sides," +declared M. de Verrieux. "We may now, I presume, consider it closed?" + +"I trust so," said the Major, looking at Philip, whom he was heartily +glad to get so well out of it. But the latter, to his dismay, replied +shortly-- + +"By no means. I don't consider it has begun." + +The seconds looked at each other, then at their principals. M. de +Verrieux shrugged his shoulders. + +"_Enfin! Puisque Monsieur le desire_," he said. + +"Take care he isn't committing suicide," said Fordham, with a queer +flash in his eyes, and his brows met in that extraordinarily forbidding +frown of his. But the remark was met by a somewhat sharp protest on the +part of Major Fox, who declared that it was contrary to all precedent +for one principal even to address the other under the circumstances, let +alone utter what sounded uncommonly like a taunt. Fordham recognised +frankly this infringement of etiquette, and apologised elaborately. + +Again the two stood facing each other. + +Never to his dying day would Philip forget that moment, and the still, +sepulchral silence of the great forest, the faint earthy smell of moist +vegetation, the sighing of the wind in the tree-tops, the mournful toll +of the far-away dirge-bell. All the events of his later life swept +through his mind in a flash--Alma Wyatt--the sweet, sunlit mountain +slopes--the blue lake, and the shining glacier--then that other in her +dark beauty--the dance and sparkle of the sea, and the expanse of yellow +sand on the low-lying Welsh coast--then the frightful disclosure--his +own horror--his father's agony--the parting--Mrs Daventer's death. All +passed before him in vivid retrospect, as he stood there to receive the +fire of the man whom up to a week ago he had reckoned his dearest +friend. + +The word was given. Again both pistols cracked together. Fordham only +moving half his arm, had exactly repeated his former manoeuvre. He had +fired straight up at the sky. At the same time he was seen ever so +slightly to wince. + +"Are you touched?" said the Frenchman, eagerly. "No? Ha--I thought--" + +"It doesn't seem much like it," answered Fordham, slowly. + +Then the seconds had their innings. On one point they were thoroughly +agreed. The affair could be allowed to go no further. It had been +conducted in a manner which was to the last degree creditable to both +gentlemen concerned, pronounced M. de Verrieux animatedly, and he +trusted they would both do each other the honour of shaking hands with +each other. After which pleasing ceremony he, the speaker, would be +delighted if they and the whole party would do him the honour of +breakfasting with him, and doing justice to the best wines the cellar of +the country inn could supply. This the Major emphatically seconded, +though he knew too well there would be no handshaking or any such +friendly parting between his two fellow-countrymen. + +Philip, for his part, said nothing. The decision of the seconds was +final. Nor could he, whatever his wrongs, bring himself to go on firing +at a man who was determined not to return his fire. Even then--so +desperately contradictory is human nature--even then, without in anywise +detracting from his own wretchedness and desperation, he was conscious +of a weakness towards his old friend, a strange sense of relenting. At +that moment he rejoiced that he had not the other's death upon his +hands. + +"Well, since there is to be no more shooting," said Fordham, at length, +speaking in an easy, careless tone, "I may as well convince you that I +was not bragging just now. Look at that knot in the blazed tree--there +about four feet from the ground." + +He raised his pistol, and with scarcely a moment's aim fired. The knot, +a flat one, and about the size of a crown piece, was seen to splinter. +The ball had made a plumb centre. + +"Look again," he went on, and again his pistol cracked. The knot split +into a gaping gash and the splinters flew from it. He had planted his +second bullet right upon the first one. Ejaculations broke from the +spectators in their respective tongues. + +"Well, Mr Fordham," said the Major, "I think I may say, on behalf of my +principal and myself, that we appreciate your courtesy to the full. M. +de Verrieux, if you will do me the pleasure of meeting me this evening +or to-morrow morning at St. Jean-Pied-de-Port as arranged, we will draw +up the usual _proces-verbal_. Gentlemen, I have the honour to salute +you, and to wish you good morning." + +Then, amid much elaborate hat-lifting, Major Fox and his principal +walked away, while M. de Verrieux and the doctor lit their cigars and +proceeded to put away the pistols. Suddenly a cry escaped the medico. +It was echoed by the other. For Fordham was lying on the ground as pale +as death. He was in a dead faint. + +"And he said he wasn't hit?" ejaculated the doctor. "I could have sworn +I saw him wince. Yes! look there," pointing to a hole in the fallen +man's trousers just above the left knee. "There it is. He held his +hand over it all the time, do you see, very cleverly too. Too proud to +give way before the young one. Well, well; he _is_ a man. But it is +wonderful--wonderful." + +All this while the speaker had been ripping up the leg of the prostrate +man's trousers. + +"Here it is," he went on triumphantly. "_Ah, ca_! But there will be no +probing required. The ball has gone clean through." + +"Is the wound a dangerous one?" said the other. "It doesn't seem to +bleed much." + +"_C'est selon_!" replied the doctor, with a shrug of the shoulders. +"The haemorrhage is, as you say, slight; but the tendon is badly torn-- +and--_he will carry the mark of this day with him to his grave. He will +walk with a limp for the remainder of his life_." + +And Fordham waking up just then to consciousness under the influence of +the cordial which his second was administering, heard the words, and +smiled grimly to himself. + +"Poetic justice, with a vengeance!" he thought. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. + +AT THE END OF HIS LIFE. + +Midway between Nyon and Rolle, the steamer _Mont Blanc_ was shearing her +arrowy course through the blue waters of Lake Leman, heading for the +latter place. + +Her decks were covered with passengers, mostly of French nationality-- +light-hearted, chattering, cheerful souls, talking volubly and all at +once--talking the harder apparently in inverse ratio to the interest of +the topic under consideration. + +Right in the stern of the boat, beneath the upper deck, his back against +the end of the saloon, sat a solitary Englishman. He was smoking a +cigar and pretending to read, but it was patent to the most casual +observer that the book before him occupied very little of his attention +indeed, for he was gazing out upon the sapphire surface of the lake and +its green and gold setting of engirdling mountains, with an expression +of settled sadness upon his extremely attractive countenance, which had +no business to be seen upon the face of one so young. + +Suddenly there was a rush of feet, and a hat came skimming along the +lower deck, a broad-brimmed straw hat--a feminine hat. Springing from +his seat he caught it, just in time to save it from going overboard, and +turned to hand it to its pursuer and owner. + +"Thanks so much," said a sweet voice. Then the speaker stopped short in +amazement and changed colour. "Why, it's Mr Orlebar--pardon me--Sir +Philip, I should have said." + +"It used to be `Philip' at one time, Alma," was the reply, with the +ghost of a sad smile. And then these two stood looking into each +other's eyes in silence. Neither seemed able to say a word. + +It was as she had implied. Sir Francis Orlebar was no more. Never +recovering from the prostration into which he had been thrown by +Fordham's revelation, he had sunk into a decline and had succumbed three +months later, tended by his son devotedly to the last. Then Philip, +reserving enough for his modest wants, had apportioned the remainder +between his stepmother and that other who had a legal claim upon him. +This done, he had left Claxby Court and had started upon his travels +again. + +She who was his wife, in the eye of the law, he had never set eyes on +since that fateful night. He had tried by every means in his power to +find some channel through which the mystery might be cleared up, but in +vain. The only person who could have done so was dead, and her last +words, her last look, her last behaviour, conclusively confirmed him in +his very darkest conjectures. The bare recollection of the subject was +unutterably nauseous and repulsive to him now. + +Old Glover had in due course served him with a writ in the threatened +breach of promise action. Nothing could be more repellent than to be +dragged forth into notoriety thus, yet what could he do? He was too +poor to offer any compromise, even if it were not the persistently +rancorous intention of that estimable British merchant to exact his +pound of flesh in spite of everything, and that pound of flesh the +dragging of him--Philip--into notoriety and a court of law. But at the +last moment chance had befriended him. For the beauteous Edith had +succumbed to the prismatic attractions of a ritualistic parson of fine +presence and ample means, and this cleric had, under pain of cancelling +his own engagement, laid a stern embargo on his future bride making an +exhibition of herself in a public court. So, whereas it is manifestly +impossible to bring an action for breach of promise failing the consent +of the interesting plaintiff, old Glover was obliged to deny himself the +gratification of his rancour, and to console himself characteristically +with the sound commercial reflection that, after all, they had got much +the better bargain of the two. For the parson was well off, and would +very likely be a bishop one day, or, at any rate an archdeacon, whereas +Philip Orlebar, though now a baronet, would always have been as poor as +Job, and would never have done any good for himself or anybody else. In +which conjecture he was probably right. + +"It's an odd thing I should not have seen you all this time," said +Philip at last, realising that it was necessary to say something. "Yet +you must have come on board at Geneva." + +"No--at Nyon." + +"_At_ Nyon! That would account for it. I have been sitting here almost +ever since we left Geneva, and, of course, I can't see the gangway from +here, or who lands, or who embarks. Have you been staying there?" + +"Only a few days. The people I am with were there to see some friends +of theirs. But--between ourselves--it was rather slow." + +"You are not with the General then?" + +"Oh no! Don't I wish I was!" she added, with an eager lowering of her +voice. "But there, I ought not to say that. These are a very kind sort +of people, but a trifle `heavy.' I am only travelling _with_ them, not +their guest." + +Now what the deuce did Philip care about the estimability or other +idiosyncrasies of the people she was travelling with? He saw only her-- +her as he remembered her in times past--her as he had seen her many a +time since, waking and in his dreams--her as he had seen her the first +time of all, here on the deck of this very ship. He detected the +sympathetic softening of the great grey eyes, the saddened inflection of +that voice, the first note of which had thrilled his whole being, and +his heart tightened. For, after all, he was young, and, in spite of the +blow which had fallen upon his life, all possibilities for him were not +dead. + +And she? Knowing something of his history since they parted--though not +the exact nature of the grim skeleton so carefully kept locked up-- +knowing something of his history, we say, for the world is small and +tongues are long, she felt her heart go out to him as it had never done +before, as she never thought possible that it could have done. The +sunny laugh had gone out of his face for ever; leaving an expression, a +stamp of hopelessness, which to her was infinitely pathetic. It was all +that she could do to keep down the rush of tears which welled to her +eyes as they looked up into his sad ones. What, we say, did he, did +either of them, care about the heaviness or otherwise of the people she +was travelling with? Yet of such trivialities will the lips force +themselves to chatter while the heart is bursting. + +"Where and how is the dear old General now?" he went on. "And your +aunt?" + +"They have gone to live at a place in the country--a few miles from +Rushtonborough. That is near your home, is it not?" + +"Yes," he said eagerly, and the possibilities began to stir around and +quicken into life. Then his tone relapsed again. "Do you ever go down +there yourself?" + +"I haven't yet. They have only just gone there. And now"-- +hesitatingly, "I think I must go back to my people. They will be +wondering what has become of me." + +"Not yet--Alma." + +The pleading tone melted her not very strongly formed resolution. She +paused. The end of the saloon hid them effectually, though, of course, +they only held this snug corner to themselves on the precarious tenure +of chance. + +"Tell me a little more about yourself," he went on. "Are you still +living at that place you hated so--Surbiton?" + +"N-no," as if the topic was distasteful. "By the way, I saw you there +once." + +"But--I have never been there in my life," he answered, very mystified. + +"Not on land, perhaps--but by water. You were in a boat--and the one I +was in as nearly as possible ran you down. I was steering--or rather, +ought to have been," she added with a little smile. "You didn't see me, +but I recognised you." + +"I remember now," he said. "And was that you? Yes, I remember +perfectly. Oh, Alma--if only I _had_ seen you!" + +It seemed to escape him in spite of himself, and it conveyed volumes. +There had been just a spice of bitterness in the motive that had urged +her to let him know she had seen him and with whom, but now she would +have given worlds to withdraw the remark--such a turning of the knife in +the wound did it seem. And now she realised plainer than words could +tell, that if he had seen her on the occasion in question, it would have +made all the difference in the world to her life and his. + +"What is this place we are coming to?" he said, as the steamer's bell +begun to ring to the accompaniment of a sensible slackening of the +paddles. + +"Rolle. The next is Morges, and then Ouchy, where we land. We are +going to stay a few days in Lausanne." + +"What, at this time of year? Why you will be roasted?" + +"So we shall. But the Sitgreaves want to get some things there before +going on to the mountains." + +"Are you going on to the mountains? Where? Perhaps we may meet again?" +And once more the possibilities were all astir. + +"Philip, I think we had better not," she answered, with her eyes full +upon his. "It would not be fair to--you." + +"Oh, I can keep myself in hand all right," he replied, with a hard laugh +from which he could not altogether eliminate the suspicion of a tremor. +"Don't be afraid. I've learnt a thing or two since we last had the +pleasure of meeting." + +The steamer was under way again, skimming merrily over the sapphire +surface. The chit-chat and laughter of the other passengers rose +gleefully upon the air, and in the saloon the pop of corks, the clink of +knives and forks. There is solitude in a crowd--stillness in noise. + +"Where are you going to now, Philip?" she said. + +"Oh, I don't quite know! I've booked to Territet. Perhaps I'll walk up +and put in a few days at the old shop--perhaps I'll go on to Saas or the +Bel Alp and do some climbing. Can't tell till I get there." + +She made no answer. This was not the easy, light-hearted talk of the +old times. There was a bitter, reckless ring about it that was +unmistakable. The speaker literally did not care where he went or what +he did. Still she did not leave him. + +"I wonder if it has ever occurred to you all this time Alma," he went on +in a softer tone, "that it was here--on board this very ship--we first +met? Not exactly that perhaps, but first saw each other, which amounts +to the same thing." + +"Yes, it has." + +"It has? Well, it seems a strange chance, a strange stroke of Fate, +that we should meet here again--here of all places. How long ago was +it? Ten years--twenty?" + +"No; only three." + +"Well, it is like twenty to me. I tell you I feel as if I had come to +the end of my life." + +"You must not say that--believe me you must not. Time will do wonders +for you. You have a long life before you yet, and great opportunities." + +But although she spoke bravely she could hardly succeed in steadying her +voice. All the old feeling, all the feeling which had lain dormant +within her since that stray glimpse on the river, was surging into +activity. Philip Orlebar, crushed, saddened, all the elasticity burned +out of his young life by the searing irons of sorrow, reigned king in +her heart, as Philip Orlebar, sanguine, buoyant, light-hearted, could +never have done. And the change, sad, infinitely deplorable as it was, +had solidified and stamped his character, not altogether to the +disadvantage of that possession. But for that one tremendous +impediment, in all human probability lifelong, Alma would have needed no +pressure to have returned love for love in full and abundant measure. + +"Great opportunities?" he echoed. "Yes, I may have had once--before you +condemned me unheard. Great Heaven! you had no pity--no consideration +for me then, and now it is too late." + +It was cruel. The tears which she had striven so heroically to repress +brimmed, overflowed. They fell, each shining drop burning into the +heart of the spectator as a drop of molten lead. And upon the blue +radiant lake the measured paddle-stroke of the steamer beat strong and +joyous, the laughter and chat of the holiday-seekers rang out light and +cheery. + +"Darling love--love of my life--my only love!" he uttered, in +heartbroken tones, "what am I to say? Why--why were you so hasty? And +now it is too late." + +"Yes, I was hasty; I know it now," she replied. "But I tried to make +amends. Oh, Philip! why did you not answer--take some notice of my +letter?" + +"Your--what?" + +His face had turned deathly white. Already he saw that some horrible +_contretemps_ had served to divert from him a life's happiness. + +"My letter? I wrote to you at Zermatt directly I heard of your +accident. You took no notice, so I concluded you did not want to hear +of me any more." + +"Alma, as sure as I stand here a living man, I have never received a +line of your writing in my life." + +It was her turn to grow pale now. + +"But I did write. I directed to your hotel at Zermatt. What can it +mean? You never received it?" + +He burst into a harsh laugh--a laugh infinitely more moving than tears. + +"What can it mean?" he repeated. "It means this: it is part of the +whole hellish plot. That letter was intercepted by the hand that for +its owner's vile purposes lured me to my ruin. But that hand is +_burning_ now for that act of wickedness--that one act alone--that act +which ruined my life. It is burning in another world--if there be +another world--for the woman, its owner, is dead." + +"I begin to see," she said, her eyes brimming with love and pity. "Yes, +I can see it all now." + +The bell rang again, and the paddles slackened. The _Mont Blanc_ was +sweeping up to the _debarcadere_ at Morges. The next stoppage would be +Ouchy, and there they must part. + +"Do you remember that day we were crossing over to Bouveret on this very +boat?" he went on. "Do you remember our conversation as we passed +Chillon Castle? You remarked then, _a propos_ of all its mediaeval +horrors, instruments of torture, and so forth--that there seemed a time +when the world must have been under Satanic rule instead of under that +of a good Providence. Do you remember that?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Well, the same thing holds good now. What have I done that those whom +I have never harmed should lay themselves out to ruin my life--to render +my days a hell and a curse to me? For it is a curse--a lifelong curse." + +"Not that--not that, God grant. Philip, be brave; you are young yet. +Better days will dawn, dear." + +"But they will not bring me--you. No, something tells me it is not so-- +it never will be so. Nothing better will dawn for me but the grave. I +told you before; I tell you again. I feel as if I had come to the end +of my life." + +"Hush--hush," she said, soothingly. "Your life is still your own; you +are your own master. You must make an object in life for yourself. +That is the only remedy." + +But he shook his head. + +"No, no. The Satanic influence is everywhere. Was it not abroad that +day on the river when one glimpse of you would have saved me? Had your +parasol been held but a few inches higher I should have seen you, and +the sight of you would have brought me back to you, back to myself, in +time. Yet it was not to be." + +Again the bell rang, again the paddles slowed down. The massive +red-tiled tower of Ouchy drew nearer and nearer. The _Mont Blanc_ +glided proudly up to the pier. + +"Alma, darling--my lost love--we may never meet again. Something tells +me we shall not. Give me--one kiss." + +His hands were holding hers. His sad eyes were full upon hers. And she +loved him. What could she do? + +"Would it be right?" she said, hesitatingly. + +"Right or wrong, give it me. You will never regret it." + +Her lips met his, in one sweet, warm, clinging kiss. Then with a +murmured, "God bless you, Philip, dear!" she had torn herself away, and +was gone. + +There was the usual stir and bustle of landing. Then as they were +wending their way from the _debarcadere_ in the wake of their luggage, +which an hotel porter was hauling before them on a truck, one of Alma's +friends said-- + +"Who was the other party to the _tete-a-tete_, Alma? I declare your +behaviour is positively scandalous, my dear girl. Do you know you were +rather more than a whole hour hobnobbing with him? Come, who was he?" + +"An old friend of mine," she answered, trying to do so lightly, but of +course failing abjectly. + +"Why don't you say a _dear_ friend?" said another of the girls, +maliciously. "Why, he was standing there on the lower deck as we +landed, simply devouring the last of you with his eyes. And they _were_ +eyes, too. Come, now, his name? You are not going to get out of that, +don't think it. Who was he?" + +"Sir Philip Orlebar." + +"Sir Philip Orlebar?" repeated the last who had spoken and who was by +way of being the wag of the party. "And you did not bring him up and +introduce him. A whole, real, live baronet--and such a good-looking +one, too! Oh, Alma, I should never have thought it of--Gracious +goodness!" + +The last words were little better than a shriek. For a frightful sound +had drowned the speaker's utterance--a loud, vibrating, strident roar, +and a crash as of a heavy missile tearing through planks and rafters. +Turning towards it, the faces of the girls blanched with terror and +their knees trembled under them, so that they could hardly stand. Those +around behaved variously, but all were in a state of the wildest +consternation and dismay. + +"_Mais il eclate--le bateau-a-vapeur_!" cried one of the bystanders. + +The _Mont Blanc_ was still at the jetty. At first it was difficult to +make out what had happened. Then dense masses of steam were seen to be +issuing from the centre of the ship, and from the whole outside of the +saloon spurted white, hissing jets. + +The upper deck was the scene of a wild and frenzied panic. A mob of +terror-stricken passengers surged to the gangway, fighting, shouting, +swarming over each other and everything, at imminent peril of being +precipitated into the water. And over and above this chaos, this rout +and tumult, there arose a succession of the most appalling screams that +ever human ear was condemned to listen to, for they issued from the +throats of so many human beings shut up within the death-trap below--so +many human beings, for whom all escape was cut off, and who were being +literally parboiled alive. + +This is what had happened. The steam reservoir had exploded, and the +mass of iron covering it had been hurled along the lower deck, sweeping +the saloon from end to end, and crashing through the stern of the vessel +like the projectile from a piece of ordnance. And then an enormous +volume of scalding steam had filled the apartment, and in a moment the +light-hearted holiday-seekers, with which it was crowded, wrapped in +that hell-blast from which there was no escape, were writhing in the +throes of the most horrible, the most agonising of deaths. + +Alma, recovering her presence of mind, left her friends, and hurried +back to the scene of the catastrophe. But the gathering crowd barred +her way; it in its turn being kept back by the arm and voice of +Authority. Yet she got near enough to see the outside of the wrecked +saloon, the twisted girders supporting the upper deck, the jagged breach +in the stern where the iron plate had gone through. She saw the +panic-stricken crowd swaying and surging. She saw one scalded wretch +rush to the side and leap overboard, in the frenzy of his intolerable +agony. What she did not see was him whom she sought. She did not see +Philip Orlebar. + +Not in the terrified, struggling crowd upon the upper deck did her eyes +seek him; even at that moment she knew it was not thus he would be found +in the hour of peril and alarm. Her anguished gaze, straining upon the +spot where she had last seen him, met with no reward. He was not there. +Oh, merciful Heavens! Could he have gone back to his seat in the stern +of the boat, to that spot where they had stood together talking for a +full hour. + +For that spot was now enveloped in a cloud of white steam, which was +pouring out through the hole knocked in the end of the saloon by the +iron cover of the cistern. Had Philip returned to his seat his back +would have rested against that very part of the panelling which was +blown away. + +It was long before the work of rescue could be begun, long before the +fiery breath of that hell-blast had sufficiently abated its fury to +admit of search. Still Alma stood there, and as each agonising minute +of suspense went by she realised more certainly that there was no hope. +She saw body after body--in life or in death--brought away from the +fatal ship. She heard the heartrending groans of the sufferers, and the +appalling yells of some tortured wretch imploring the boon of death as a +termination to his agony. These dreadful sights and sounds which at any +other time would well-nigh have killed her with horror, seemed to be +something outside her life now. He whom she sought was not among them-- +not yet. + +She pressed forward. The crowd elbowed her backward. The voice of +Authority warned her backward. To Authority she appealed. + +Now Authority, even in a blue uniform and a sword, may still possess a +heart, and Authority as there embodied, was young and presumably +susceptible. The white eager face was passingly beautiful--the piteous +glance and appealing voice correspondingly entrancing. Authority's +heart melted. In the result the crowd elbowed her backward no more. + +"Mademoiselle had a friend on board? A lady? No? A gentleman--an +English gentleman? Good. He should be sought for." + +Accordingly Alma learned the worst without undue delay. There was an +English gentleman among the injured--a tall, good-looking gentleman with +a blonde moustache. "He was hurt--very badly hurt," declared Authority, +humanely mendacious, adding, "But he is not burned--oh, no--certainly he +is not burned. Wait. They will disembark him in one little moment. Is +he dead? Well, Mademoiselle must not give way. He is not burned-- +certainly--not in the least burned." + +And the force of even that little crumb of well-meant comfort came home +to Alma as, a few minutes later, she bent down over what had so recently +contained the soul of Philip Orlebar, and regardless of the glances of +three pairs of eyes or of three hundred, kissed the calm and placid +face, so still and composed in death--kissed those lips hardly cold +yet--the warmth of whose parting kiss in life seemed to glow upon hers-- +the sad, hopeless echo of whose parting words still seemed to linger in +her ears. "_Alma, darling. My lost love. We may never meet again. +Something tells me we shall not_." Well, they had not--in life. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +As the _douanier_ had said, Philip Orlebar was not burned, for he had +met his death in the open air. He had, as Alma had first conjectured, +resumed his seat in the stern of the boat--was on the point of doing so +rather, when the explosion occurred, and the iron plate, bursting +through the end of the saloon, had struck him on the spine and shattered +it, killing him instantaneously--painlessly. + +"_I feel as if I had come to the end of my life_," had been his words, +twice used during that last sad conversation. Poor Philip! Had he +uttered them in sheer bitterness of heart or under the influence of a +strange unerring presentiment? Verily it may have been a little of +both. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE. + +A DAY TOO LATE. + +Not less radiantly did the sun shine upon the blue lake, in whose +pellucid surface lay mirrored the great feathery slopes of the Savoy +Alps; not less joyously did the cheerful sights and sounds of everyday +life run their course after the terrible catastrophe of which that +fairest of earth's scenes had been the theatre. Pleasure boats skimmed +the placid waters; quarry barges, their white triangular sails hanging +listless in the still air, were unlading their cargoes of stones brought +thither from the Savoy shore; even a steamer swept up to the jetty, and, +having discharged and received its human freight, went plashing on its +way. The world still went on; but to Alma Wyatt, wandering there alone +by the landing-place in the glad sunshine, the golden side of life was +clouded over for evermore. + +Nearly a month had gone by since poor Philip's remains had been carried +back to the home of his fathers for burial. His successor, the new +baronet, a distant cousin whom he had known but slightly, had hurried to +the scene of the disaster, and much moved by his young kinsman's most +lamentable fate had spared no trouble and expense to ensure that every +honour and care should surround the last lugubrious arrangements. But +the awful strain of that horrible experience had told upon Alma, and for +three weeks she was so ill and prostrate that she was forbidden to leave +her room. + +When, eventually, she was able to appear again, she would not leave the +place. With a persistency which her friends more or less strongly +condemned as morbid--impressing upon her the thankfulness she ought to +feel that the explosion had not taken place a few minutes earlier, while +she herself was standing on the fatal spot--she would make her daily +pilgrimage to the scene of the disaster, for to her it was holy ground. +To her had been spoken the very last words he ever breathed, and they +had been words of love. Her lips had received the last kiss it had been +in his power to bestow. "You will never regret it," he had said. And +did she? Not for worlds would she barter that sweet sad recollection. +She loved him now--loved him with all her heart and soul and being. And +it was too late. Too late! She might go to him, but never more could +he return to her. + +There in the noontide sunshine she stood, and, whatever way her eyes +might turn, the whole scene around her brought back his memory. She +could see the little white village of St. Gingolph sleeping beneath the +great mountains on the opposite shore; and it brought back that day, +when tossing on the furious billows of that sudden tempest, they had +reckoned their hours as numbered--and there were times when in the +bitterness of her soul she could find it in her heart to wish they had +died together then. Again, there rose the green serrated ridges of the +Chaine des Verreaux, beneath whose shadow she had received his first +declaration of love. She could see the distant _arete_ of the +Cape-au-Moine heaved up against the blue sky, could mark the exact spot +where they had cowered for shelter when exposed to the wild fury of the +blast, up there on those dangerous heights, now so green and smiling in +the sunlight, and she could see him in the sweet golden evening of that +eventful day, so appealing, so winning in his brave young beauty, as he +poured out his love at her feet. Then she hardly knew her own heart. +Now she knew it. But--too late. + +"How do you do, Miss Wyatt?" + +She started violently. That familiar voice even, fitted with the +picture she had been drawing. Turning she encountered the dark, +piercing eyes of Fordham. + +He had raised his hat, but he did not offer his hand. He stood there +contemplating her with grave, saturnine expression as of old. + +"Wretched business this," he said, with a jerk of the head in the +direction of the spot where the catastrophe had taken place. "Poor +fellow, poor fellow! Well, I suppose even I can hardly be held so much +as indirectly responsible for it." + +"I hardly know whether I am speaking to his friend or his enemy," said +Alma, who, while instinctively distrusting this strange being, yet was +conscious of being in some degree held spell-bound, even as the historic +wedding-guest, together with an unaccountable anxiety to hear what he +had to say. + +"Both, I suppose," answered Fordham, impassively. "Formerly that is to +say. Now only the first. You have heard of such a thing as a vendetta, +I suppose, Miss Wyatt?" + +"Of course." + +"Well, I come of the race among which that institution is pre-eminently +supposed to flourish. Philip's father injured me, and I foredoomed the +son from his cradle to be the means of avenging that injury upon the +father. And when the time came--he did so." + +"And you are such a monster as to come here and gloat over it!" said +Alma, recoiling from him in a perfect horror of repulsion. But the +other was unmoved. A wintry ghost of a smile drooped the corners of his +mouth. He looked at her for a moment and went on. + +"By no means. I saved his life more than once--and twice after that I +_gave_ him his life." + +"Gave him his life?" + +"Yes. Are you aware that he challenged me, and I met him?" + +"I had heard of it." + +"Well, we exchanged shots twice; rather, I let him have two shots at me, +while I--blazed away at the heavens. He could have had a dozen if he +wished, but the seconds did not. I am a dead shot, and I was not going +to fire at him. Now, am I such a monster?" + +"Go on." + +"Well, his bullet hit me, and I shall never walk straight again. It hit +me--exactly where I wounded his father when Philip himself was hardly +out of his cradle. But I bore him not the slightest grudge for that-- +nor do I. My vendetta was accomplished. It had to be done, and it was +done. Yet several times I wavered. The chances were even that I would +spare him, for I had grown fond of the boy. And, Miss Wyatt, yours is +the hand that turned the scale against him." + +"Mine? What _do_ you mean?" + +"Yours. I mean just that. You were in such a hurry to send him to the +right-about, to condemn him unheard, that you threw him back into my +power again. My power against him could not have stood against yours-- +but you threw yours away. Afterwards it was too late." + +Oh the anguish of her heart as she listened! This man was reiterating +word for word what Philip himself had said. Why had she been in such a +hurry to condemn him unheard? Well, her whole life now was destined to +be an expiation of that one act of hard and merciless pride. Fordham, +who had been watching her keenly, with a feeling, half grim, half +sorrowful at his heart, continued: + +"That marriage of his was brought about solely by me. You may or may +not have guessed that, yourself apart, there was every reason why that +particular alliance could have been nothing but absolutely disastrous to +him. Well, into the particulars I need not go--especially for your +enlightenment. Suffice it to say that the measure was brought about for +the purposes of my lifelong feud, of which it was the crowning act. And +now his wife is dead." + +Every vestige of colour forsook Alma's cheeks. What infinite +possibilities might not the future have opened out? + +"Dead?" she echoed. "How? When?" + +"Yes--dead. She died suddenly--_the day before_ poor Philip's own end. +But it was a day too late. Had it occurred a day earlier he would have +heard of it, and would not have been in the _Mont Blanc_ blow-up." + +"Was she--was she--fond of him?" gasped Alma. + +"Passionately, I am told; and that was a factor in the carrying out of +my vendetta." And then, backing against the iron railing of the jetty +to rest his lame leg, Fordham continued deliberately, "So you see, if he +had landed here at Ouchy, when you did, instead of deciding to go on +further, Philip would now be a free man as well as a living one. But +that is the way of the world--our blessings, when they come to us, +invariably do so a day too late." + +Fordham was right. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fordham's Feud, by Bertram Mitford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORDHAM'S FEUD *** + +***** This file should be named 36593.txt or 36593.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/9/36593/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +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. 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