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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37337-8.txt b/37337-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8de6dab --- /dev/null +++ b/37337-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7486 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lord Duke, by E. W. Hornung + +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: My Lord Duke + +Author: E. W. Hornung + +Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LORD DUKE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + + MY LORD DUKE + + BY E. W. HORNUNG + + + NEW YORK + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + 1897 + + COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + Norwood Press + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY 1 + + II. "HAPPY JACK" 16 + + III. A CHANCE LOST 31 + + IV. NOT IN THE PROGRAMME 44 + + V. WITH THE ELECT 63 + + VI. A NEW LEAF 77 + + VII. THE DUKE'S PROGRESS 90 + + VIII. THE OLD ADAM 105 + + IX. AN ANONYMOUS LETTER 122 + + X. "DEAD NUTS" 137 + + XI. THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH 151 + + XII. THE WRONG MAN 163 + + XIII. THE INTERREGNUM 180 + + XIV. JACK AND HIS MASTER 189 + + XV. END OF THE INTERREGNUM 199 + + XVI. "LOVE THE GIFT" 215 + + XVII. AN ANTI-TOXINE 223 + + XVIII. HECKLING A MINISTER 233 + + XIX. THE CAT AND THE MOUSE 244 + + XX. "LOVE THE DEBT" 257 + + XXI. THE BAR SINISTER 266 + + XXII. DE MORTUIS 282 + + + + +MY LORD DUKE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY + + +The Home Secretary leant his golf-clubs against a chair. His was the +longest face of all. + +"I am only sorry it should have come now," said Claude apologetically. + +"Just as we were starting for the links! Our first day, too!" muttered +the Home Secretary. + +"_I_ think of Claude," remarked his wife. "I can never tell you, Claude, +how much I feel for you! We shall miss you dreadfully, of course; but we +couldn't expect to enjoy ourselves after this; and I think, in the +circumstances, that you are quite right to go up to town at once." + +"Why?" cried the Home Secretary warmly. "What good can he do in the +Easter holidays? Everybody will be away; he'd much better come with me +and fill his lungs with fresh air." + +"I can never tell you how much I feel for you," repeated Lady Caroline +to Claude Lafont. + +"Nor I," said Olivia. "It's too horrible! I don't believe it. To think +of their finding him after all! I don't believe they _have_ found him. +You've made some mistake, Claude. You've forgotten your code; the cable +really means that they've _not_ found him, and are giving up the +search!" + +Claude Lafont shook his head. + +"There may be something in what Olivia says," remarked the Home +Secretary. "The mistake may have been made at the other end. It would +bear talking over on the links." + +Claude shook his head again. + +"We have no reason to suppose there has been a mistake at all, Mr. +Sellwood. Cripps is not the kind of man to make mistakes; and I can +swear to my code. The word means, 'Duke found--I sail with him at +once.'" + +"An Australian Duke!" exclaimed Olivia. + +"A blackamoor, no doubt," said Lady Caroline with conviction. + +"Your kinsman, in any case," said Claude Lafont, laughing; "and my +cousin; and the head of the family from this day forth." + +"It was madness!" cried Lady Caroline softly. "Simple madness--but then +all you poets _are_ mad! Excuse me, Claude, but you remind me of the +Lafont blood in my own veins--you make it boil. I feel as if I never +could forgive you! To turn up your nose at one of the oldest titles in +the three kingdoms; to think twice about a purely hypothetical heir at +the antipodes; and actually to send out your solicitor to hunt him up! +If that was not Quixotic lunacy, I should like to know what is?" + +The Right Honourable George Sellwood took a new golf-ball from his +pocket, and bowed his white head mournfully as he stripped off the +tissue paper. + +"My dear Lady Caroline, _noblesse oblige_--and a man must do his obvious +duty," he heard Claude saying, in his slightly pedantic fashion. +"Besides, I should have cut a very sorry figure had I jumped at the +throne, as it were, and sat there until I was turned out. One knew there +_had_ been an heir in Australia; the only thing was to find out if he +was still alive; and Cripps has done so. I'm bound to say I had given +him up. Cripps has written quite hopelessly of late. He must have found +the scent and followed it up during the last six weeks; but in another +six he will be here to tell us all about it--and we shall see the Duke. +Meanwhile, pray don't waste your sympathies upon _me_. To be perfectly +frank, this is in many ways a relief to me--I am only sorry it has come +now. You know my tastes; but I have hitherto found it expedient to make +a little secret of my opinions. Now, however, there can be no harm in my +saying that they are not entirely in harmony with the hereditary +principle. You hold up your hands, dear Lady Caroline, but I assure you +that my seat in the Upper Chamber would have been a seat of +conscientious thorns. In fact I have been in a difficulty, ever since my +grandfather's death, which I am very thankful to have removed. On the +other hand, I love my--may I say my art? And luckily I have enough to +cultivate the muse on, at all events, the best of oatmeal; so I am not +to be pitied. A good quatrain, Olivia, is more to me than coronets; and +the society of my literary friends is dearer to my heart than that of +all the peers in Christendom." + +Claude was a poet; when he forgot this fact he was also an excellent +fellow. His affectations ended with his talk. In appearance he was +distinctly desirable. He had long, clean limbs, a handsome, shaven, +mild-eyed face, and dark hair as short as another's. He would have made +an admirable Duke. + +Mr. Sellwood looked up a little sharply from his dazzling new golf-ball. + +"Why go to town at all?" said he. + +"Well, the truth is, I have been in a false position all these months," +replied Claude, forgetting his poetry and becoming natural at once. "I +want to get out of it without a day's unnecessary delay. This thing must +be made public." + +The statesman considered. + +"I suppose it must," said he, judicially. + +"Undoubtedly," said Lady Caroline, looking from Olivia to Claude. "The +sooner the better." + +"Not at all," said the Home Secretary. "It has kept nearly a year. +Surely it can keep another week? Look here, my good fellow. I come down +here expressly to play golf with you, and you want to bunker me in the +very house! I take it for the week for nothing else, and you want to +desert me the very first morning. You shan't do either, so that's all +about it." + +"You're a perfect tyrant!" cried Lady Caroline. "I'm ashamed of you, +George; and I hope Claude will do exactly as he likes. _I_ shall be +sorry enough to lose him, goodness knows!" + +"So shall I," said Olivia simply. + +Lady Caroline shuddered. + +"Look at the day!" cried Mr. Sellwood, jumping up with his pink face +glowing beneath his virile silver hair. "Look at the sea! Look at the +sand! Look at the sea-breeze lifting the very carpet under our feet! Was +there ever such a day for golf?" + +Claude wavered visibly. + +"Come on," said Mr. Sellwood, catching up his clubs. "I'm awfully sorry +for you, my boy. But come on!" + +"You will have to give in, Claude," said Olivia, who loved her father. + +Lady Caroline shrugged her shoulders. + +"Of course," said she, "I hope he will; still I don't think our own +selfish considerations should detain him against his better judgment." + +"I am eager to see Cripps's partners," said Claude vacillating. "They +may know more about it." + +"And solicitors are such trying people," remarked Lady Caroline +sympathetically; "one always does want to see them personally, to know +what they really mean." + +"That's what I feel," said Claude. + +"But what on earth has he to consult them about?" demanded the Home +Secretary. "Everything will keep--except the golf. Besides, my dear +fellow, you are perfectly safe in the hands of Maitland, Hollis, Cripps +and Company. A fine steady firm, and yet pushing too. I recollect they +were the first solicitors in London--" + +"Were!" said his wife significantly. + +"To supply us with typewritten briefs, my love. Now there is little +else. In such hands, my dear Claude, your interests are quite +undramatically safe." + +"Still," said Claude, "it's an important matter; and I am, after all, +for the moment, the head of--" + +"I'll tell you what you are," cried the politician, with a burst of that +hot brutality which had formerly made him the wholesome terror of the +Junior Bar; "you're a confounded minor Cockney poet! If you want to go +back to your putrid midnight oil, go back to it; if you want to get out +of the golf, get out of it! I'm off. I shouldn't like to be rude to you, +Claude, my boy, and I may be if I remain. No doubt I shall be able to +pick up somebody down at the links." + +Claude struck his flag. + +A minute later, Olivia, from the broad bay window, watched the lank, +handsome poet and the sturdy, white-haired statesman hurrying along the +Marina arm-in-arm; both in knickerbockers and Norfolk jackets; and each +carrying a quiverful of golf-clubs in his outer hand. + +The girl was lost in thought. + +"Olivia," said a voice behind her, "your father behaved like a brute!" + +"I didn't think so; it was all in good part. And it will do him so much +good!" + +"Do whom?" + +"Poor Claude! Of course he is dreadfully cut up." + +"Then why did he pretend to be pleased?" + +"That was his pluck. He took it splendidly. I never admired him so +much!" + +Lady Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again without a +word. Her daughter's slight figure was silhouetted against the middle +window of the bow; the sun put a golden crown upon the fair young head; +yet the head was bent, and the girl's whole attitude one of pity and of +thought. Lady Caroline Sellwood rose quietly, and left the room. + +That species of low cunning, which was one of her Ladyship's traits, had +placed her for the moment in a rather neat dilemma. Claude Lafont had +cast poet's eyes at Olivia for months and years; and for weeks and +months Olivia's mother had wished there were less poetry and more +passion in the composition of that aristocrat. He would not say what +nobody else, not even Lady Caroline, could say for him. He was content +to dangle and admire; he had called Olivia his "faëry queen," with his +lips and with his pen, in private and in print; but he had betrayed no +immediate desire to call her his wife. Lady Caroline had recommended him +to marry, and he had denounced marriage as "the death of romance." Quite +sure in her own mind that she was dealing with none other than the Duke +of St. Osmund's, it was her Ladyship who had planned the present small +party (which her distinguished husband would call a "foursome") for the +Easter Recess. Flatly disbelieving in the existence of the alleged +Australian heir, she had seen the merit of engaging Olivia to Claude +before the latter assumed his title in the eyes of the world. That the +title was his to assume, when he liked, had been the opinion of all the +Lafonts, save Claude himself, from the very first; and, when it suited +her, Lady Caroline Sellwood was very well pleased to consider herself a +Lafont. In point of fact, her mother had borne that illustrious name +before her marriage with the impecunious Earl Clennell of Ballycawley; +and Lady Caroline was herself a great-granddaughter of the sixth Duke of +St. Osmund's. + +The sixth Duke (who exerted himself to make the second half of the last +century rather wickeder than the first) had two sons, of whom her +present Ladyship's grandfather was the younger. The elder became the +seventh Duke, and begot the eighth (and most respectable) Duke of St. +Osmund's--the aged peer lately deceased. The eighth Duke, again, had but +two sons, who both predeceased him. These two sons were, respectively, +Claude's father and the unmentionable Marquis of Maske. The Marquis was +a man after the heart of his worst ancestor, a fascinating blackguard, +neither more nor less. At twenty-four he had raised the temperature of +his native air to a degree incompatible with his own safety; and had +fled the country never to return. Word of his death was received from +Australia in the year 1866. He had died horribly, from thirst in the +wilderness, and yet a proper compassion was impossible even after that. +For the news was accompanied by a letter from the dead man's +hand--scrawled at his last gasp, and pinned with his knife to the tree +under which the body was found--yet composed in a vein of revolting +cynicism, and containing further news of the most embarrassing +description. The Marquis was leaving behind him--somewhere in +Australia--at the moment he really could not say where--a small +Viscount Dillamore to inherit ultimately the title and estates. He gave +no dates, but said his wife was dead. To the best of his belief, +however, the lad was alive; and might be known by the French eagle of +the Lafonts, which the father had himself tattooed upon his little +chest. + +This was all the clue which had been left to Claude, to follow on a bad +man's bare word, or to ignore at his own discretion. For reasons best +known to himself, the old Duke had taken no steps to discover the little +Marquis. Unluckily, however, his late Grace had not been entirely +himself for many years before his death; and those reasons had never +transpired. Claude, on the other hand, was a man of fastidious +temperament, a person of infinite scruples, with a morbid horror of the +incorrect. He would spend half the morning deciding between a semicolon +and a full stop; and he was consistently conscientious in matters of +real moment, as, for example, in that of his marriage. He had been +asking himself, for quite a twelve-month, whether he really loved +Olivia; he had no intention of asking _her_ until he was quite convinced +on the point. To such a man there was but one course possible on the old +Duke's death. And Claude had taken it with the worst results. + +"He has no sympathy for _me_," said Lady Caroline bitterly, as she went +upstairs. "He has cut his own throat, and there's an end of it; except +that if he thinks he's going to marry any daughter of mine, after this, +he is very much mistaken." + +It was extremely mortifying all the same; to have prepared the ground so +carefully, to have arranged every preliminary for a match which had now +to be abandoned altogether; and worse still, to have turned away half +the eligible young men in town for the sake of a Duke who was not a Duke +at all. Lady Caroline Sellwood had three daughters. The eldest had made +a good, solid, military marriage, and enjoyed in India a social position +that was not unworthy of her. The second daughter had not done quite so +well; still, her husband, the Rev. Francis Freke, was a divine whose +birth was better than his attainments, so that there was every chance of +seeing his little legs in gaiters before either foot was in his grave. +But Olivia was her youngest ("my ewe lamb," Lady Caroline used to call +her, although no other kind had graced her fold), and in her mother's +opinion she was fitted for a better fate than that which had befallen +either of her sisters. Olivia was the prettiest of the three. Her little +fair head, "sunning over with curls," as Claude never tired of saying, +was made by nature with a self-evident view to strawberry-leaves and +twinkling tiaras. And Lady Caroline meant it to wear them yet. + +She had done her best to encourage Claude in his inclination to run up +to town at once. The situation at the seaside had become charged with +danger. Not only did it appear to Lady Caroline that the poet was at +last satisfied with the state of his own affections, but she had reason +to fear that Claude Lafont would have a better chance with Olivia than +would the Duke of St. Osmund's. The child was peculiar. She had read too +much, and there was a suspiciously sentimental strain in her. Her acute +mother did not imagine her "vulgarly in love" (as she called it) with +the æsthetic Claude; but she had heard him tell the girl that "pity from +her" was "more dear than that from another"; and it was precisely this +pity which Lady Caroline now dreaded as fervently as she would have +welcomed it the day before. Her stupid husband had outwitted her in the +matter of Claude's departure. Lady Caroline was hardly at the top of the +stairs before she had made up the masterly mind which she considered at +least a match for her stupid husband's. He would not allow her to get +rid of Claude? Very well; nothing simpler. She would get rid of Olivia +instead. + +The means suggested itself almost as quickly as the end. + +Lady Caroline took a little walk to the post-office, and said she had +been on the pier. In a couple of hours a telegram arrived from Mrs. +Freke, begging Olivia to go to her at once. Lady Caroline was apparently +overwhelmed with surprise. But she despatched her ewe lamb by the next +train. + +"Olivia, I won both rounds!" called out the Home Secretary, when he +strutted in towards evening, pink and beaming. Claude also looked the +better and the brighter for his day; but Lady Caroline took the +brightness out of him in an instant; and the Home Secretary beamed no +more that night. + +"It is no use your calling Olivia," said her Ladyship calmly; "by this +time she must be a hundred miles away. You needn't look so startled, +George. You know the state to which poor Francis reduces himself by the +end of Lent, and you know that dear Mary's baby is not thriving as it +ought. I shouldn't wonder if he makes _it_ fast, too! At all events +Mary telegraphed for Olivia this morning, and I let her go. Now it's no +use being angry with any of us! With a young baby and a half-starved +husband it was a very natural request. There's the telegram on the +mantelpiece for you to see for yourself what she says." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"HAPPY JACK" + + +A dilettante in letters, a laggard in love, and a pedant in much of his +speech, Claude Lafont was nevertheless possessed of certain graces of +the heart and head which entitled him at all events to the kindly +consideration of his friends. He had enthusiasm and some soul; he had an +open hand and an essentially simple mind. These were the merits of the +man. They were less evident than his foibles, which, indeed, continually +obscured them. He would have been the better for one really bad fault: +but nature had not salted him with a single vice. + +Unpopular at Eton, he had found his feet perhaps a little too firmly at +Oxford. There his hair had grown long and his views outrageous. Had the +old Duke of St. Osmund's been in his right mind at the time, he would +certainly have quitted it at the report of some of his grandson's +contributions to the university debates. Claude, however, had the +courage of his most extravagant opinions, and even at Oxford he was a +man whom it was possible to respect. The era of Toynbee Hall and a +gentlemanly, kid-gloved Socialism came a little later; there were other +and intermediate phases, into which it is unnecessary to enter. Claude +came through them all with two things, at least, as good as new: his +ready enthusiasm and his excellent heart. + +Whether he really did view the new twist in his life with the +satisfaction which he professed is an open and immaterial question; all +that is certain or important is the fact that he did not permit himself +to repine. He was never in better spirits than in the six weeks' +interval between the receipt of Mr. Cripps's cable and that gentleman's +arrival with the new Duke. Claude divided the time between the proofs of +his new volume of poems and conscientious preparations for the proper +reception of his noble cousin. He had the mansion in Belgrave Square, +which had fallen of late years into disuse, elaborately done up, +repapered, and fitted throughout with new hangings and the electric +light. He felt it his duty to hand over the house in a cleanly and +habitable state; and he was accustomed to work his duty rather hard. He +ran down to Maske Towers, the principal family seat, repeatedly, and had +certain renovations carried out as far as possible under his own eye. In +every direction he did more than he need have done. And so the time +passed very busily, quite happily, and with an interest that was kept +green to the last by the utter absence of any shred of information +concerning the ninth Duke of St. Osmund's. + +Claude had even no idea as to whether he was a married man. So he +legislated for a wife and family. And his worst visions were of a +hulking, genial, sheep-farming Duke, with a tribe of very terrible +little Lords and Ladies, duly frightened of their gigantic father, but +paying not the slightest attention to the anæmic Duchess who all day +scolded them through her freckled nose. + +Mr. Cripps's letters continued to arrive by each week's mail; but they +were still written with a shake of the head and a growing deprecation of +the wild-goose chase in which the lawyer now believed himself to be +unworthily engaged. Towards the end of May, however, the letters +stopped. The last one was written on the eve of an expedition up the +country, on a mere off-chance, to find out more about one John +Dillamore, whom Mr. Cripps had heard of as a resident of the Riverina. +Claude Lafont knew well what had come of that off-chance. It had turned +the tide of his life. But no letter came from the Riverina; the next +communication was a telegram from Brindisi, saying they had left the +ship and were travelling overland; and the next after that, another +telegram stating the hour at which they hoped to land at Dover. + +Claude Lafont had just time enough to put on his hat, to stop the hansom +for an instant at the house in Belgrave Square, and to catch the 12.0 +from Victoria. + +It was a lovely day in early June. There was neither a cloud in the sky +nor the white crest of a wave out at sea; the one was as serenely blue +as the other; and the _Calais-Douvre_ rode in with a high-bred calm and +dignity all in key with the occasion. Claude boarded her before he had +any right, with a sudden dereliction of his characteristic caution. And +there was old Cripps, sunburnt and grim, with a soft felt hat on his +head, and a strange spasmodic twitching at the corners of the mouth. + +"Here you are!" cried Claude, gripping hands. "Well, where is he?" + +The lawyer's lips went in and out, and a rough-looking bystander +chuckled audibly. + +"One thing quickly," whispered Claude: "is he a married man?" + +"No, he isn't." + +The bystander laughed outright. Claude favoured him with a haughty +glance. + +"His servant, I presume?" + +"No," said Cripps hoarsely. "I must introduce you. The Duke of St. +Osmund's--your kinsman, Mr. Claude Lafont." + +Claude felt the painful pressure of a horny fist, and gasped. + +"Proud to meet you, mister," said the Duke. + +"So delighted to meet and welcome _you_, Duke," said Claude faintly. + +"I'm afraid I'm a bit of a larrikin," continued the Duke. "You'd have +done as well to leave me where I was--but now I'm here you've got to +call me Jack." + +"You knew, of course, what would happen sooner or later?" said Claude, +with a sickly smile. + +"Not me. My colonial oath, I did _not_! Never dreamt of it till I seen +_him_"--with a jerk of his wideawake towards Mr. Cripps. It was a very +different felt hat from that gentleman's; the crown rose like a +sugar-loaf, nine inches from the head; the brim was nearly as many +inches wide; and where the felt touched the temples it was stained +through and through with ancient perspiration. + +"And I can't sight it now!" added his Grace. + +"Nevertheless it's true," said Mr. Cripps. + +Claude was taking in the matted beard, the peeled nose, and the round +shoulders of the ninth Duke. He was a bushman from top to toe. + +"What luggage have you?" exclaimed Claude, with a sudden effort. "We +must get it ashore." + +"This is all," said the Duke, with a grin. + +It lay on the deck at their feet: a long cylinder whose outer case was +an old blue blanket, very neatly rolled and strapped; an Australian +saddle, with enormous knee-pads, black with age; and an extraordinary +cage like a rabbit-hutch. The cage was full of cats. The Duke insisted +on carrying it ashore himself. + +"This _is_ the man?" whispered Claude, jealously, to Mr. Cripps. + +"The man himself; there's an eagle on his chest as large as life." + +"But it might be a coincidence----" + +"It might be, but it isn't," replied Cripps shortly. "He's the Duke all +right; the papers I shall show you are quite conclusive. I own he +doesn't look the part. He's not tractable. He would come as he is. I +heaved one old hat overboard; but he had a worse in his swag. However, +no one on board knew who he was. I took care of that." + +"God bless you, Cripps!" said Claude Lafont. + +He had reserved a first-class carriage. The Duke took up half of it with +his cat-cage, which he stoutly declined to trust out of his sight. There +were still a few minutes before the train would start. Claude and Cripps +exchanged sympathetic glances. + +"I think we ought to drink the Duke's health," said Claude, who for once +felt the need of a stimulant himself. + +"I think so too," said Mr. Cripps. + +"Then make 'em lock the door," stipulated his Grace. "I wouldn't risk my +cats being shook, not for drinks as long as your leg!" + +A grinning guard came forward with his key. The Duke "mistered" him, and +mentioned where his cats came from as he got out. + +"Very kind of you to shout for me," he continued as they filed into the +refreshment room; "but why the blazes don't you call me Jack? Happy +Jack's my name, that's what they used to call me up the bush. I'm not +going to stop being Jack, or happy either, 'cause I'm a Dook; if I did +I'd jolly soon sling it. Now, my dear, what are you givin' us? Why don't +you let me help myself, like they do up the bush? English fashion, is +it? And you call that drop a nobbler, do you, in the old country? Well, +well, here's fun!" + +The Duke's custodians were not sorry to get him back beside his cats. +They were really glad when the train started. The Duke was in high +spirits. The whisky had loosened his tongue. + +"Like cats, old man?" he inquired of Claude. "Then I hope you'll make +friends with mine. They were my only mates, year in, year out, up at the +hut. I wasn't going to leave 'em there when they'd stood by me so long; +not likely; so here they are. See that black 'un in the corner? I call +her Black Maria, and that's her kitten. She went and had a large family +at sea, but this poor little beggar's the only one what lived to tell +the tale. That great big Tom, he's the father. I don't think much of +Tom, but it would have been a shame to leave him behind. No, sir, my +favourite's the little tortoise-shell with the game leg. He got cotched +in a rabbit trap last shearing-time; he's the most adventurous little +cat that ever was, so I call him Livingstone. I've known him explore +five miles from the hut, when there wasn't a drop of water or a blade of +feed in the paddicks, and yet come back as fat as butter. A little +caution, I tell you! Out you come, Livingstone!" + +Claude thought he had never seen a more ill-favoured animal. To call it +tortoise-shell was to misuse the word. It was simply yellow; it ran on +three legs; and its nose had been recently scarified by an enemy's +claws. + +"No, I'm full up of Tom," pursued the Duke, fondling his pet. "Look what +he done on board to Livingstone's nose! I nearly slung him over the +side. Poor little puss, then, poor little puss! You may well purr, old +toucher; there's a live Lord scratching your head." + +"Meaning me?" said Claude genially; there was a kindness in the rugged +face, as it bent over the little yellow horror, that appealed to the +poet. + +"Meaning you, of course." + +"But I'm not one." + +"You're not? What a darned shame! Why, you ought to be a Dook. You'd +make a better one than me!" + +The family solicitor was half-hidden behind that morning's _Times_; as +Jack spoke, he hid himself entirely. Claude, for his part, saw nothing +to laugh at. The Duke's face was earnest. The Duke's eyes were dark and +kind. Like Claude himself, he had the long Lafont nose, though sun and +wind had peeled it red; and a pair of shaggy brown eyebrows gave +strength at all events to the hairy face. Claude was thinking that +half-an-hour at Truefitt's, a pot of vaseline, and the best attentions +of his own tailors in Maddox Street would make a new man of Happy Jack. +Not that his suit was on a par with his abominable wideawake. He could +not have worn these clothes in the bush. They were obviously his best; +and, as obviously, ready-made. + +Happy Jack was meantime apostrophising his pet. + +"Ah! but you was with me when that there gentleman found me, wasn't you, +Livingstone? You should tell the other gentleman about that. We never +thought we was a Dook, did we? We thought ourselves a blooming ordinary +common man. My colonial oath, and so we are! But you recollect that last +bu'st of ours, Livingstone? I mean the time we went to knock down the +thirty-one pound cheque what never got knocked down properly at all. We +had a rare thirst on us----" + +Mr. Cripps in his corner smacked down the _Times_ on his knees. + +"Look there!" he cried. "Did ever you see such grass as that, Jack? +You've nothing like it in New South Wales. I declare it does my old +heart good to see an honest green field again!" + +Jack looked out for an instant only. + +"Ten sheep to the acre," said he. "Wonderful, isn't it, Livingstone? And +you an' me used to ten acres to the sheep! But we were talking about +that last little spree; you want your Uncle Claude to hear all about it, +I see you do; you're not the cat to make yourself out better than what +you are; not you, Livingstone! Well, as I was saying----" + +"Those red-tiled roofs are simply charming!" exclaimed the solicitor. + +"A perfect poem," said Claude. + +"And that May-tree in full bloom!" + +"A living lyric," said Claude. + +It was really apple-blossom. + +"And you," cried the Duke to his cat, "you're a comic song, that's what +_you_ are! Tell 'em you won't be talked down, Livingstone. Tell this +gentleman he's got to hear the worst. Tell him that when the other +gentleman found us"--the solicitor raised his _Times_ with a shrug--"one +of us was drunk, drunk, drunk; and the other was watching over him--and +the other was my little cat!" + +"You're joking, of course?" said Claude, with a flush. + +"Not me, mister. That's a fact. You see, it was like this----" + +"Thanks," said Claude hastily; "but I'd far rather not know." + +"Why not, old toucher?" + +"It would hurt me," said Claude, with a shudder. + +"Hurt you! Hear that, Livingstone? It would hurt him to hear how we +knocked down our last little cheque! That's the best one _I_'ve heard +since I left the ship!" + +"Nevertheless it's the case." + +"And do you mean to tell me you were never like that yourself?" + +"Never in my life." + +"Well, shoot me dead!" whispered the Duke in his amazement. + +"It ought not to surprise you," said Claude, in a tone that set the +_Times_ shaking in the far corner of the carriage. + +"It does, though. I can't help it. You're the first I've ever met that +could say as much." + +"Pray let us drop the subject. I prefer to hear no more. You pain me +more than I can say!" + +Claude's flush had deepened; his supersensitive soul was indeed +scandalised, and so visibly that an answering flush showed upon the +Duke's mahogany features, like an extra coat of polish. + +"I pain you!" he echoed, dropping his cat. "I'm very sorry then. I am +so! I had no intention of doing any such thing. All I wanted was to fly +my true flag at once, like, and have done with it. And I've pained you; +and you bet I'll go on paining you all the time! How can I help it? I'm +not what us back-blockers call a parlour-man, though I may be a Dook; +but neither the one nor the other is my fault. You should have let me be +in the bush. I was all right there--all right with my hut and my cats. +I'd never known anything better. I never knew who I was. What did it +matter if I knocked down my cheque when I got full up of the cats and +the hut? Nobody thinks anything of that up the bush. The boss used +always to take me on again; some day I'll tell you about my old boss; he +was the best friend ever I had. A real gentleman, who thought no worse +of you so long's it only happened now and then. But see here! It shall +never happen again. It didn't matter in the boundary rider, but p'r'aps +it might in the Dook. Anyhow I'm strict T T from this moment; that +whisky at Dover shall be my last. And I'm darned sorry I pained you, +and--and dash it, here's my fist on it for good and all!" + +It is difficult to say which hand wrung the harder. Claude was not +pleased with himself; the conscious lack of some quality, which the +other possessed, was afflicting him with a novel and entirely unexpected +sense of inferiority. He was as yet unsure what the missing quality was; +he hardly suspected it of being a virtue; but it was new to Claude to +have these feelings at all. + +He said not another word upon the embarrassing subject, but fell +presently into a train of thought that kept him silent until they +steamed into Victoria. There the conquering Cripps was met by his wife +and daughters; but Claude managed to get a few more words with him as +they were waiting to have the baggage passed. + +"I like him," said Claude. + +"So do I," was the reply, "and I know him well." + +"I like his honesty." + +"He is honesty itself. I did my best just now to keep him from giving +himself away--but that was his deliberate game. Mark you, what he +insisted on telling you was quite true; but on the whole he has behaved +excellently ever since." + +"Well, as long as he doesn't confess his sins to everybody he meets!" + +"No fear of that; he looks on you as still the head of the family, with +a sort of _ex officio_ right to know the worst. His own position he +doesn't realise a bit. Yet some day I expect to see him at least as fit +to occupy it as one or two others; and you are the man to make him so. +You will only require two things." + +The great doors opened inwards, and the travellers surged in to claim +their luggage, with Mr. Cripps at their head. Claude caught him by the +elbow as he was pointing out his trunks. + +"Those two things?" said he. + +"Yes, those two, with my initials on each." + +"No, but the two things that I shall need?" + +"Oh, those! Plenty of patience, and plenty of time." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CHANCE LOST + + +It was the pink of the evening when the cousins drove off in a +four-wheeler with the cats on top. Claude had been in many minds about +their destination, until the Duke had asked him to recommend an hotel. +At that he had hesitated a little, and finally pitched upon the First +Avenue. A variety of feelings guided his choice, chief among them being +a vague impression that his wild kinsman would provoke less attention in +Holborn than in Northumberland Avenue. To Holborn, at all events, they +were now on their way. + +Claude sat far back in the cab; he felt thankful it was not a hansom. In +the Mall they met a string of them, taking cloaked women and +white-breasted men out to dinner. Claude saw one or two faces he knew, +but was himself unseen. He saw them stare and smile at the tanned and +bearded visage beneath that villainous wideawake, which was thrust from +one window to the other with the eager and unrestrained excitement of a +child. He felt ashamed of poor Jack. He was sincerely ashamed of this +very feeling. + +"What streets!" whispered the Duke in an awestruck whisper. "We've +nothing like 'em in Melbourne. They'd knock spots off Sydney. I've been +in both." + +Claude had a sudden thought. "For you," he said, "these streets should +have a special interest." + +"How's that?" + +"Well, many of them belong to you." + +"WHAT?" + +"You are the ground landlord of some of the streets and squares we have +already passed." + +The brown beard had fallen in dismay; now, however, a mouthful of good +teeth showed themselves in a frankly incredulous grin. + +"What are you givin' us?" laughed Jack. "I see, you think you've got a +loan of a new chum! Well, so you have. Go ahead!" + +"Not if you don't choose to believe me," replied Claude stiffly. "I +meant what I said; I usually do. The property has been in our family for +hundreds of years." + +"And now it's mine?" + +"And now it's yours." + +The Duke of St. Osmund's took off his monstrous wideawake, and passed +the back of his hairy hand across his forehead. The gesture was eloquent +of a mind appalled. + +"Have I no homestead on my own run?" he inquired at length. + +"You have several," said Claude, smiling; but he also hesitated. + +"Several in London?" cried the Duke, aghast again. + +"No--only one in town." + +"That's better! I say, though, why aren't we going there?" + +"Well, the fact is, they're not quite ready for you; I mean the +servants. They--we were all rather rushed, you know, and they don't +expect you to-night. Do you mind?" + +Claude had stated but one fact of many. That morning, when he stopped +his hansom at the house, he had told the servants not to expect his +Grace until he telegraphed. After seeing the Duke, he had resolved not +to telegraph at all; and certainly not to install him in his own house, +as he was, without consulting other members of the family. He still +considered that decision justified. Nevertheless, the Duke's reply came +as a great relief. + +"No, I'm just as glad," said Jack contentedly. His contentment was only +comparative, however. The first dim conception of his greatness had +strangely dashed him; he was no longer the man that he had been in the +train. + +An athlete in a frayed frock-coat, and no shirt, was sprinting behind +the cab with the customary intent; it was a glimpse of him, as they +turned a corner, that slew the oppressed Duke, and brought Happy Jack +back to life. + +"Stop the cab!" he roared; "there's a man on the track of my cats!" + +"Nonsense, my dear fellow; it's only a person who'll want sixpence for +not helping with the luggage." + +"Are you sure?" asked Jack suspiciously. "How do you know he isn't a +professional cat-stealer? I must ask the cabman if they are all right!" +He did so, and was reassured. + +"We're almost at the hotel now," said Claude, with misgivings; he was +bitterly anticipating the sensation to be caused there by the arrival of +such a Duke of St. Osmund's, and wondering whether it would be of any +use suggesting a further period of _incognito_. + +"Nearly there, are we? Then see here," said Jack, "I've got something to +insist on. I mean to have my way about one matter." + +Claude groaned inwardly. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"I'll tell you straight. I'm not going to do the Dook in this hotel. I'm +plain Jack Dillamore, or I don't go in." + +The delight of this deliverance nearly overcame the poet. + +"I think you're wise," was all he trusted himself to say. "I should be +inclined to take the same course were I in your place. You will escape a +great deal of the sort of adulation which turneth the soul sick. And for +one night, at all events, you will be able, as an alien outsider, to +form an unprejudiced opinion of our unlovely metropolis." + +In the bright light of his ineffable relief, Claude's little mannerisms +stood out once more, like shadows when the sun shines fitfully; but it +was a transient gleam. The arrival at the hotel was still embarrassing +enough. The wideawake attracted attention. The attention was neither of +a flattering character in itself nor otherwise desirable from any point +of view. It made Claude miserable. There was also trouble about the +cats. + +Jack insisted on having them with him in his room. The management +demurred. Jack threatened to go elsewhere. The management raised no +objection; but Claude did. He handed them his card, and this settled +the matter. There is but one race of Lafonts in England. So Jack had his +way. A room was taken; the cats were put into it; milk was set before +them; and Jack left the hotel in Claude's company, with the key of that +room in his pocket. + +Claude would have taken him to his club, but for both their sakes he did +not dare. Yet he was as anxious as ever to show every hospitality to the +Duke. Accordingly he had refused Jack's invitation to dine with him in +the hotel, and was taking him across to the Holborn instead. + +The dinner went wonderfully. Jack was delighted with the music, with the +electric lights, with the marble pillars, with the gilded balconies, +with the dinner itself, in fact with everything. There was but one item +which did not appeal to him: he stoutly refused to drink a drop of wine. + +"A promise is a promise," said he. "I gave you my colonial in the train, +and I mean to keep it; for a bit, at all events." + +Claude protested and tempted him in vain. Jack called for a +lemon-squash, and turned his wine-glasses upside down. He revenged +himself, however, upon the viands. + +"Which _entrée_, please, sir?" said the waiter. + +"Both!" cried Jack. "You may go on, mister, till I tell you to stop!" + +After dinner the cousins went aloft, and Claude took out his cigarette +case and ordered cigars for the Duke. He could not smoke them himself, +but neither, it appeared, could Jack. _He_ produced a cutty-pipe, black +and foul with age, and a cake of tobacco like a piece of shoe-leather, +which he began paring with his knife. Claude had soon to sit farther +away from him. + +Jack did not fancy a theatre; he was strongly in favour of a quiet +evening and a long talk; and it was he who proposed that they should +return, for this purpose, to the First Avenue. No sooner were they +comfortably settled in the hotel smoking-room, however, than the Duke +announced that he must run upstairs and see to his cats. And he came +down no more that night. + +Claude waited patiently for twenty minutes. Then he began a note to Lady +Caroline Sellwood. Then he remembered that he could, if he liked, see +Lady Caroline that night. It was merely a question of driving over to +his rooms in St. James's and putting himself into evening dress. On the +whole, this seemed worth doing. Claude therefore followed Jack upstairs +after an interval of half-an-hour. + +The Duke's rooms were on the first floor. Claude surprised a group of +first-floor servants laughing and whispering in the corridor. The little +that he heard as he passed made him hot all over. The exact words were: + +"Never see such a man in my life." "Nor me, my dear!" "And yet they call +this 'ere a decent 'otel!" + +Claude had no doubt in his own mind as to whom they were talking about. +Already the Duke inspired him with a sort of second-self-consciousness. +Prepared for anything, he hastened to the room and nervously knocked at +the door. + +"Come in!" cried Jack's voice. + +The door was unlocked; as Claude opened it the heat of the room fairly +staggered him. It was a sufficiently warm summer night, yet an enormous +fire was burning in the grate. + +"My _dear_ fellow!" panted Claude. + +Jack was in his trousers and shirt; the sleeves were rolled up over his +brawny arms; the open front revealed an estuary of hairy chest; and it +was plain at a glance that the Duke was perspiring at every pore. + +"It's all right," he said. "It's for the cats." + +"The cats!" said Claude. They were lying round about the fire. + +"Yes, poor devils! They had a fire every day in the hut, summer and +winter. They never had a single one at sea. They like to sleep by +it--they always did--all but Livingstone. He sleeps with me when he +isn't on the loose." + +"But you'll never be able to sleep in an atmosphere like this!" + +Jack was cutting up a pipeful of his black tobacco. + +"Well, it _is_ warm," he admitted. "And now you mention it, I may find +it a job to get asleep; but the cats like it, anyhow!" And he swore at +them affectionately as he lit his pipe. + +"Did you forget you'd left me downstairs?" asked Claude. + +"Clean! I apologise. I took this idea into my head, and I could think of +nothing else." + +"May we have another window open? Thank you. I'll smoke one cigarette; +then I must be off." + +"Where to?" + +"My chambers--to dress." + +"To _undress_, you mean!" + +"No, to dress. I've got to go out to a--to a party. I had almost +forgotten about it. The truth is, I want to see Lady Caroline Sellwood, +who, although not a near relation, is about the only woman in London +with our blood in her veins. She will want to see you. What's the +matter?" + +Jack's pipe had gone out in his hand; and there he stood, a pillar of +perspiring bewilderment. + +"A party!" he murmured. "At this time o' night!" + +Claude laughed. + +"It's not ten o'clock yet; if I'm there before half-past eleven I shall +be too early." + +"I give you best," said Jack, shaking his head, and putting another +light to his pipe. "It licks _me_! Who's the madman who gives parties in +the middle of the night?" + +"My dear fellow, everybody does! In this case it's a woman: the Countess +of Darlingford." + +"A live Countess!" + +"Well, but you're a live Duke." + +"But--I'm--a live--Dook!" + +Jack repeated the words as though the fact had momentarily escaped him. +His pipe went out again. This time he made no attempt to relight it, but +stood staring at Claude with his bare brown arms akimbo, and much +trouble in his rugged, honest face. + +"You can't get out of it," laughed Claude. + +"I can!" he cried. "I mean to get out of it! I'm not the man for the +billet. I wasn't dragged up to it. And I don't want it! I shall only +make a darned ass of myself and everybody else mixed up with me. I may +be the man by birth, but I'm not the man by anything else; and look +here, I want to back out of it while there's time; and you're the very +man to help me. I wasn't dragged up to it--but you were. I'm not the man +for the billet--but you are. The very man! You go to parties in the +middle of the night, and you think nothing of 'em. They'd be the death +of Happy Jack! The whole thing turns me sick with funk--the life, the +money, the responsibility. I never got a sight of it till to-day; and +now I don't want it at any price. You'd have got it if it hadn't been +for me; so take it now--for God's sake, take it now! If it's mine, it's +mine to give. I give it to you! Claude, old toucher, be the Dook +yourself. Let me and the cats clear back to the bush!" + +The poet had listened with amazement, with amusement, with compassion +and concern. He now shook his head. + +"You ask an impossibility. Without going into the thing, take my word +for it that what you propose is utterly and hopelessly out of the +question." + +"Couldn't I disappear?" said Jack eagerly. "Couldn't I do a bolt in the +night? It's a big chance for you; surely you won't lose it by refusing +to help me clear out?" + +Claude again shook his head. + +"In a week's time you will be laughing at what you are saying now. You +are one of the richest men in England; everything that money can buy you +can have. You own some of the loveliest seats in the whole country; wait +till I have shown you Maske Towers! You won't want to clear out then. +You won't ask me to be the Duke again!" + +He had purposely dwelt upon those material allurements which the +bushman's mind would most readily grasp. And it was obvious that his +arguments had hit the target, although not, perhaps, the bull's-eye. + +"Anyhow," said Jack doggedly, "it's an offer! And I repeat it. What's +more, I mean it too!" + +"Then I decline it," returned Claude, to humour him; "and there's an end +of the matter. Look here, though. One thing I promise. If you like, I'll +see you through!" + +"You will?" + +"I will with all my heart." + +"And you're quite sure you won't take on the whole show yourself?" + +"Quite sure," said Claude, smiling. + +"Still, you'll tell me what to do? You'll tell me what not to do? You'll +show me the ropes? You'll have hold of my sleeve?" + +"I'll do all that; at least, I'll do all I can. It may not be much. +Still I'll do it." + +Jack held out a hot, damp hand; yet, just then, he seemed to be +perspiring most freely under the eyes. + +"You're a good sort, Claudy!" said he hoarsely. + +"Good-night, old fellow," said Claude Lafont. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NOT IN THE PROGRAMME + + +Lady Caroline Sellwood's incomparable Wednesdays were so salient a +feature of those seasons during which her husband was in office, and her +town house in St. James's Square, that their standard is still quoted as +the ideal of its kind. These afternoons were never dull. Lady Caroline +cast a broad net, and her average draught included representatives of +every decent section of the community. But she also possessed some +secret recipe, the envy and the despair of other professional hostesses, +and in her rooms there was never an undue preponderance of any one +social ingredient. Every class--above a certain line, not drawn too +high--was represented; none was over done; nor was the mistake made of +"packing" the assembly with interesting people. The very necessary +complement of the merely interested was never wanting. One met beauty as +well as brains; wealth as well as wit; and quite as many colourless +nonentities as notorieties of every hue. The proportion was always +perfect, but not more so than the general good-temper of the guests. +They foregathered like long-lost brothers and sisters: the demagogue and +the divine; the judge and the junior; the oldest lady and the newest +woman; the amateur playwright and the actor-manager who had lost his +play; the minor novelist and the young lady who had never heard of him; +and my Lords and Ladies (whose carriages half-filled the Square) with +the very least of these. It was wonderful to see them together; it was a +solemn thought, but yet a fact, that their heavenly behaviour was due +simply and entirely to the administrative genius of Lady Caroline +Sellwood. + +The Home Secretary hated the Wednesdays; he was the one person who did; +and _he_ only hated them because they _were_ Wednesdays--and from the +period of his elderly infatuation for golf. It was his great day for a +round; and Lady Caroline had to make his excuses every week when it was +fine. This was another thing which her Ladyship did beautifully. She +would say, with a voice full of sympathy, equally divided between those +mutual losers, her guest and her husband, that poor dear George had to +address such and such a tiresome deputation; when, as a matter of fact, +he was "addressing" his golf-hall on Wimbledon Common, and enjoying +himself exceedingly. Now, among other Wednesdays, the Home Secretary was +down at Wimbledon (with a prominent member of the Opposition) on the +afternoon following the arrival in London of the ninth Duke of St. +Osmund's; and Mr. Sellwood never knew whether to pity his wife, or to +congratulate himself, on his absence from her side on that occasion. + +One of their constant ornaments, Claude Lafont, had been forced to +eschew these Wednesdays of late weeks. Lady Caroline Sellwood had never +been quite the same to him since the Easter Recess. She had treated him +from that time with a studied coolness quite inexplicable to his simple +mind; and finally, at Lady Darlingford's, she had been positively rude. +Claude, of course, had gone there expressly to prepare Lady Caroline for +the new Duke. This he conceived to be his immediate duty, and he +attempted to perform it, in the kindliest spirit imaginable, with all +the tact at his command. Lady Caroline declined to hear him out. She +chose to put a sinister construction upon his well-meant words, and to +interrupt them with the announcement that she intended, with Claude's +permission, to judge the Duke for herself. Was he married? Ha! then +where was he to be found? Claude told her, was coldly thanked, and went +home to writhe all that Tuesday night under the mortification of his +kinswoman's snub. + +Yet, on the Wednesday afternoon, Claude Lafont not only went to the +Sellwoods' as though nothing had happened, but he was there before the +time. And Lady Caroline was not only amazed, but (for the first time +since Easter) really pleased to see him: for already she had been given +cause to regret her insolent disregard of him overnight at Lady +Darlingford's. She was even composing an apology when the whiteness of +Claude's face brought her thoughts to a standstill. + +"Have you seen him?" he cried, as they met. + +"The Duke?" + +"Yes--haven't you seen him this morning?" + +"No, indeed! Haven't you?" + +Claude sat down with a groan, shaking his head, and never seeing the +glittering, plump, outstretched hand. + +"Haven't you?" repeated Lady Caroline, sitting down herself. + +"Not this morning. I made sure he would come here!" + +"So he ought to have done. I asked him to lunch. The note was written +and posted the instant we came in from the Darlingfords'. Claude, I +wasn't nice to you there! Can you forgive me? I thought you were +prejudiced. My dreadful temper rose in arms on the side of the absent +man; it always was my great weakness rightly or wrongly to take the part +of those who aren't there to stick up for themselves!" + +Her great weakness was of quite another character, but Claude bowed. He +was barely listening. + +"I've lost him," he said, looking at Lady Caroline, with a rolling eye. +"He's disappeared." + +"Never!" + +"This morning," said Claude. "I did so hope he was here!" + +"He sent no answer, not one word, and he never came. Who saw him last?" + +"The hotel people, early this morning. It seems he ordered a horse for +seven o'clock, shortly after I left him last night. So they got him one, +and off he went before breakfast in the flannel collar and the +outrageous bush wideawake in which he landed. And he's never come +back." + +A change came over Lady Caroline Sellwood. She drew her chair a little +nearer, and she favoured Claude Lafont with a kindlier glance than he +had had from her since Easter. + +"Something may have happened," whispered Lady Caroline hopefully. + +"That's just it. Something _must_ have happened." + +"But something dreadful! Only last season there was a man killed in the +Row! Was he--a _very_ rough diamond, Claude?" + +"Very." + +Lady Caroline sighed complacently. + +"But you can't help liking him," hastily added Claude, "and I hope to +goodness nothing serious is the matter!" + +"Of course, so do I. That goes without saying." + +"Nor is he at all a likely man to be thrown. He has lived his life in +the saddle. By the way, he brought his own old bush-saddle with him, and +it appears that he insisted on riding out in that too." + +"You see, Claude, it's a pity you didn't leave him in the bush; he's +evidently devoted to it still." + +"He is--that's the trouble; he has already spoken of bolting back there. +My fear is that he may even now be suiting the action to the word." + +"Don't tell me that," said Lady Caroline, whose head was still full of +her first theory. + +"It's what I fear; he's just the sort of fellow to go back by the first +boat, if the panic took him. He showed signs of a panic last night. You +see, he's only just beginning to realise what his position here will +mean. And it frightens him; it may have frightened him out of our sight +once and for all." + +Lady Caroline shook her head. + +"My fear is that he has broken his neck! And if he has, depend upon it, +sad as it would be, it would still be for the best. That's what I always +say: everything is for the best," repeated Lady Caroline, pensively +gazing at Claude's handsome head. "However," she added, as the door +opened, "here's Olivia; go and ask her what she thinks. _I_ am prepared +for the worst. And pray stop, dear Claude, and let us talk the matter +over after the others have gone. We may _know_ the worst by that time. +And we have seen nothing of you this season!" + +Olivia looked charming. She was also kind to Claude. But she entirely +declined to embrace her mother's dark view of the Duke's disappearance. +On the other hand, she was inconveniently inquisitive about his looks +and personality, and Claude had to say many words for his cousin before +he could get in one for himself. However, he did at length contrive to +speak of his new volume of poems. It was just out. He was having a copy +of the exceedingly limited large-paper edition specially bound in vellum +for Olivia's acceptance. Olivia seemed pleased, and apart from his +anxiety Claude had not felt so happy for weeks. They were allowed to +talk to each other until the rooms began to fill. + +It was a very good Wednesday; but then the season was at its height. The +gathering comprised the usual measure of interesting and interested +persons, and the former had made their names upon as many different +fields as ever. Claude had a chat with his friend, Edmund Stubbs, a +young man with an unhealthy skin and a vague reputation for immense +cleverness. They spoke of the poems. Stubbs expressed a wish to see the +large-paper edition, which was not yet for sale, as did Ivor Llewellyn, +the impressionist artist, who was responsible for the "decorations" in +most volumes of contemporary minor verse, Claude's included. Claude was +injudicious enough to invite both men to his rooms that night. The +Impressionist was the most remarkable-looking of all Lady Caroline's +guests. He wore a curled fringe and a flowing tie, and pince-nez +attached to his person by a broad black ribbon. His pale face was +prematurely drawn, and he showed his gums in a deathly grin at the many +hard things which Stubbs muttered at the expense of all present whom he +knew by sight. Claude had a high opinion of both these men, but for once +he was scarcely in tune for their talk, which was ever at a sort of +artistic-intellectual concert-pitch. The Duke was to be forgotten in the +society of Olivia only. Claude therefore edged away, trod on the skirts +of a titled divorcée, got jammed between an Irish member and a composer +of comic songs, and was finally engaged in conversation by the aged +police magistrate, Sir Joseph Todd. + +Sir Joseph had lowered his elephantine form into a chair beside the +tea-table, where he sat, with his great cane between his enormous legs, +munching cake like a school-boy and winking at his friends. He winked at +Claude. The magistrate had been a journalist, and a scandalous Bohemian, +so he said, in his young days; he had given Claude introductions and +advice when the latter took to his pen. He, also, inquired after the new +book, but rather grimly, and expressed himself with the rough edge of +his tongue on the subject of modern "poets" and "poetry": the inverted +commas were in his voice. + +"You young spring poets," said he, "are too tender by half; you're all +white meat together. You may say that's no reason why I should have my +knife in you. Why didn't you say it? A bad joke would be a positive +treat from you precious young fellows of to-day. And you give us bad +lyrics instead, in limited editions; that's the way it takes you now." + +Claude laughed; he was absurdly good-humoured under hostile criticism, a +quality of which some of his literary friends were apt to take +advantage. On this occasion, however, his unconcern was partly due to +inattention. While listening to his old friend he was thinking still of +the Duke. + +"I'm sorry you would be a poet, Claude," the magistrate continued. "The +price of poets has gone down since my day. And you'd have done so much +better in the House--by which, of course, I mean the House we all +thought you were bound for. Has he--has he turned up yet?" + +"Oh yes; he's in England," replied Claude, with discretion. + +Sir Joseph pricked his ears, but curbed his tongue. Of all the questions +that gathered on his lips, only one was admissible, even in so old a +friend as himself. + +"A family man?" + +"No; a bachelor." + +"Capital! We shall see some fun, eh?" chuckled Sir Joseph, gobbling the +last of his last slice. "What a quarry--what a prize! I was reminded of +him only this morning, Claude. I had an Australian up before me--a most +astounding fellow! An escaped bush-ranger, I should call him; looked as +if he'd been cut straight out of a penny dreadful; never saw such a man +in my life. However----" + +Claude was not listening; his preoccupation was this time palpable. The +mouth of him was open, and his eyes were fixed; the police magistrate +followed their lead, with double eye-glasses in thick gold frames; and +then _his_ mouth opened too. + +Her guests were making way for Lady Caroline Sellwood, who was leading +towards the tea-table, by his horny hand, none other than the ninth Duke +of St. Osmund's himself. Her Ladyship's face was radiant with smiles; +yet the Duke was just as he had been the day before, as unkempt, as +undressed (his Crimean shirt had a flannel collar, but no tie), as +round-shouldered; with his nose and ears still flayed by the sun; and +the notorious wideawake tucked under his arm. + +"He has come straight from the bush," her Ladyship informed everybody +(as though she meant some shrub in the Square garden), "and just as he +is. I call it so sweet of him! You know you'll never look so picturesque +again, my dear Duke!" + +Olivia followed with the best expression her frank face could muster. +Claude took his cousin's hand in a sudden hush. + +"Where in the world have you been?" broke from him before them all. + +"Been? I've been run in," replied the Duke, with a smack of his bearded +grinning lips. + +"Tea or coffee, Duke?" said Lady Caroline, all smiling tolerance. "Tea? +A cup of tea for the Duke of St. Osmund's. And _where_ do you say you +have been?" + +"Locked up!" said his Grace. "In choky, if you like it better!" + +Lady Caroline herself led the laugh. The situation was indeed worthy of +her finely tempered steel, her consummate tact, her instinctive +dexterity. Many a grander dame would have essayed to quell that +incriminating tongue. Not so Lady Caroline Sellwood. She took her +Australian wild bull very boldly by the horns. + +"I do believe," she cried, "that you are what we have all of us been +looking for--in real life--all our days. I do believe you are the +shocking Duke of those dreadful melodramas in the flesh at last! What +was your crime? Ah! I've no doubt you cannot tell us!" + +"Can I not?" cried the Duke, as Claude stopped him, unobserved, from +pouring his tea into the saucer. "I'll tell you all about it, and +perhaps you'll show me where the crime comes in, for I'm bothered if I +see it yet. All I did was to have a gallop along one of your streets; I +don't even know which street it was; but there's a round clearing at one +end, then a curve, and then another clearing at the far end." + +"Regent Street," murmured Claude. + +"That's the name. Well, it was quite early, there was hardly anybody +about, so I thought surely to goodness there could be no harm in a +gallop; and I had one from clearing to clearing. Blowed if they didn't +run me in for that! They kept me locked up all the morning. Then they +took me before a fat old joker who did nothing much but wink. That old +joker, though, he let me off, so I've nothing agen' _him_. He's a white +man, he is. So here I am at last, having got your invitation to lunch, +ma'am, just half-an-hour ago." + +Sir Joseph Todd had been making fruitless efforts to rise, unaided, from +his chair; he now caught Claude's arm, and simultaneously, the eye of +the Duke. + +"Jumping Moses!" roared Jack; "why, there he is! I beg your pardon, +mister; but who'd have thought of finding _you_ here?" + +"This is pleasing," muttered Edmund Stubbs, in the background, to his +friend the Impressionist. "I've seen the lion and the lamb lie down here +together before to-day. But nothing like this!" + +The Impressionist whipped out a pencil and bared a shirt-cuff. No one +saw him. All eyes were upon the Duke and the magistrate, who were +shaking hands. + +"You have paid me a valuable compliment," croaked Sir Joseph gayly. "Of +course I winked! Hadn't I my Lord Duke's little peccadillo to wink at?" + +And he bowed himself away under cover of his joke, which also helped +Lady Caroline enormously. The Duke mentioned the name by which he would +go down to posterity on a metropolitan charge-sheet. Most people resumed +their conversation. A few still laughed. And the less seriously the +whole matter was taken, the better, of course, for all concerned, +particularly the Duke. Olivia had him in hand now. And her mother found +time to exchange a few words with Claude Lafont. + +"A dear fellow, is he not? So natural! Such an example in that way to us +all! How many of us would carry ourselves as well in--in our bush +garments?" speculated her Ladyship, for the benefit of more ears than +Claude's. Then her voice sank and trembled. "Take him away, Claude," she +gasped below her breath. "Take him away!" + +"I intend to," he whispered, nodding, "when I get the chance." + +"But not only from here--from town as well. Carry him off to the Towers! +And when you get him there, for heaven's sake keep him there, and take +him in hand, and we will all come down in August to see what you have +done." + +"I'm quite agreeable, of course; but what if he isn't?" + +"He will be. _You_ can do what you like with him. I have discovered that +already; he asked at once if you were here, and said how he liked you. +Claude, you are so clever and so good! If any one can make him +presentable, it is you!" She was wringing her white hands whiter yet. + +"I'll do my best, for all our sakes. I must say I like my material." + +"Oh, he's a dear fellow!" cried Lady Caroline, dropping her hands and +uplifting her voice once more. "So original--in nothing more than in his +moral courage--his superiority to mere conventional appearances! _That_ +is a lesson----" + +Lady Caroline stopped with a little scream. In common with others, she +had heard the high, shrill mewing of a kitten; but cats were a special +aversion of her Ladyship's. + +"What was that?" she cried, tugging instinctively at her skirts. + +"Meow!" went the shrill small voice again; and all eyes fastened upon +the Duke of St. Osmund's, whose ready-made coat-tails were moving like a +bag of ferrets. + +The Duke burst into a hearty laugh, and diving in his coat-tail pocket, +produced the offending kitten in his great fist. Lady Caroline Sellwood +took a step backward; and because she did not lead it, there was no +laugh this time from her guests; and because there was no laugh but his +own, the Duke looked consciously awkward for the first time. In fact, it +was the worst moment yet; the next, however, Olivia's pink palms were +stretched out for the kitten, and Olivia's laughing voice was making the +sweetest music that ever had gladdened the heart of the Duke. + +"The little darling!" cried the girl with genuine delight. "Let me have +it, do!" + +He gave it to her without a word, but with eyes that clung as fast to +her face as the tiny claws did to her dress. Olivia's attention was all +for the kitten; she was serenely unconscious of that devouring gaze; but +Claude saw it, and winced. And Lady Caroline saw it too. + +"Poor mite!" pursued Olivia, stroking the bunch of black fur with a +cheek as soft. "What a shame to keep it smothered up in a stuffy pocket! +Are you fond of cats?" she asked the Duke. + +"Am I not! They were my only mates up the bush. I brought over three +besides the kitten." + +"You brought them from the bush?" + +"I did so!" + +Olivia looked at him; his eyes had never left her; she dropped hers, and +caressed the kitten. + +"I put that one in my pocket," continued the Duke, "because I learned +Livingstone to ride in front of me when he was just such another little +'un. But he'd done a bolt in the night; I found him just now with his +three working paws black with your London soot; but he wasn't there when +I got up, so I took the youngster. P'r'aps it wasn't over kind. It won't +happen again. He's yours!" + +"The kitten?" + +"Why, certainly." + +"To keep?" + +"If you will. I'd be proud!" + +"Then _I_ am proud. And I'll try to be as kind to it as you would have +been." + +"You're uncommon kind to me," remarked the Duke irrelevantly. "So are +you all," he added, in a ringing voice, as he drew himself up to his +last inch, and for once stood clear of the medium height. "I never knew +that there were so many of you here, or I'd have kept away. I'm just as +I stepped off of the ship. I went aboard pretty much as I left the bush; +if you'll make allowances for me this time, it sha'n't happen again. You +don't catch me twice in a rig like this! Meanwhile, it's very kind of +you all not to laugh at a fellow. I'm much obliged to you. I am so. And +I hope we shall know each other better before long!" + +Claude was not ashamed of him then. There was no truer dignity beneath +the ruffles and periwigs of their ancestors in the Maske picture-gallery +than that of the rude, blunt fellow who could face modestly and yet +kindly a whole roomful of well-dressed Londoners. It did not desert him +as he shook hands with Lady Caroline and Olivia. In another moment the +Duke was gone, and of his own accord, before he had been twenty minutes +in the house. And what remained of that Wednesday afternoon fell flat +and stale--always excepting the little formula with which Lady Caroline +Sellwood sped her parting guests. + +"Poor fellow," it ran, "he has roughed it so dreadfully in that horrible +bush! You won't know him the next time you see him. Yes, I assure you, +he went straight on board at that end and came straight to us at this! +Not a day for anything in Melbourne or here. Actually not one day! I +thought it so dear of him to come as he was. Didn't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WITH THE ELECT + + +The ragged beard had been trimmed to a point; the uncouth hair had been +cut, shampooed, and invested with a subtle, inoffensive aroma; and a +twenty-five-shilling Lincoln and Bennett crowned all without palpable +incongruity. The brown, chapped neck, on the other hand, did look +browner and rougher than before in the cold clutch of a gleaming +stand-up collar. And a like contrast was observable between the ample +cuffs of a brand-new shirt, and the Duke's hands, on whose hirsute backs +the yellow freckles now stood out like half-sovereigns. Jack drew the +line at gloves. On the whole, however, his docility had passed all +praise; he even consented to burden himself with a most superfluous +Inverness cape, all for the better concealment of the ready-made suit. +In fine, a few hours had made quite a painfully new man of him; yet +perhaps the only real loss was that of his good spirits; and these he +had left, not in any of the shops to which Claude had taken him before +dinner, but, since then, in his own house in Belgrave Square. + +Claude had shown him over it between nine and ten; they were now +arm-in-arm on their way from this errand, and the street-lamps shone +indifferently on the Duke's dejection and on Claude's relief. He had +threatened instant occupation of his own town-house; he had conceived +nightmare hospitalities towards all and sundry; and had stuck to his +guns against argument with an obstinacy which made Claude's hair stand +on end. Now the Duke had less to say. He had seen his house. The empty, +echoing, inhospitable rooms, with perhaps a handful of electric lights +freezing out of the darkness as they entered, had struck a chill to his +genial heart. And Claude knew it as he led the way to his own cosy +chambers; but was reminded of another thing as he approached them, and +became himself, on the spot, a different man. + +He had forgotten the two friends he had invited to come in for a private +view of the large-paper edition. He was reminded of them by seeing from +the street his open window filled with light; and his manner had +entirely altered when he detained the Duke below, and sought with +elaborate phrases to impress him beforehand with the transcendent merits +of the couple whom he was about to meet. Jack promptly offered to go +away. He had never heard tell of Impressionism, and artists were not in +his line. What about the other joker? What did _he_ do? + +"Nothing, my dear fellow; he's far too good a man to _do_ things," +explained Claude, whose changed speech inclined the other to flight +quite as much as his accounts of the men upstairs. "The really delicate +brains--the most highly sensitised souls--seldom spend themselves upon +mere creative work. They look on, and possibly criticise--that is, when +they meet with aught worthy their criticism. My friend, Edmund Stubbs, +is such an one. He has a sensitised soul, if you like! His artistic +standard is too high, he is too true to his ideals, to produce the +imperfect. He is full of ideas; but they are too big for brush, pen, or +chisel to express them. On the other hand, he's a very fountain of +inspiration, tempered by critical restraint, to many a man whose name +(as my own) is possibly a household word in Clapham, where poor Edmund's +is unknown. Not that I should pity him on that score; he has a holy +scorn for what himself would call a 'suburban popularity'; and, indeed, +I am not with him in his views as to the indignity of fame generally. +But there, he is a bright particular star who is content to shine for +the favoured few who have the privilege of calling him their friend." + +"You do talk like a book, and no error!" said the Duke. "I haven't ever +heard you gas on like that before." + +The bright particular star was discovered in Claude's easiest chair, +with the precious volume in one hand, and a tall glass, nearly empty, in +the other; the Impressionist was in the act of replacing the stopper in +the whisky-decanter; and Claude accepted the somewhat redundant +explanation, that they were making themselves at home, with every sign +of approval. Nor was he slow in introducing his friends; but for once +the Duke was refreshingly subdued, if not shy; and for the first few +minutes the others had their heads together over the large-paper +edition, for whose "decorations" the draftsman himself had not the least +to say, where all admired. At length Claude passed the open volume to +his cousin; needless to say it was open at the frontispiece; but the +first and only thing that Jack saw was the author's name in red capitals +on the title-page opposite. + +"Claude Lafont!" he read out. "Why, you don't ever mean--to tell +me--that's you, old brusher?" + +Claude smiled and coloured. + +"You an author!" continued the Duke in a wide-eyed wonder. "And you +never told me! Well, no wonder you can talk like a book when you can +write one, too! So this is your latest, is it?" + +"The limited large-paper edition," said Claude. "Only seventy-five +copies printed, and I sign them all. How does it strike you--physically, +I mean?" + +"'Physically' is quite pleasing," murmured Stubbs; and Claude helped him +to more whisky. + +Jack looked at the book. The back was of a pale brown cardboard; the +type had a curious, olden air about it; the paper was thick, and its +edges elaborately ragged. The Duke asked if it was a new book. It looked +to him a hundred years old, he said, and discovered that he had paid a +pretty compliment unawares. + +"There's one thing, however," he added: "we could chop leaves as well as +that in the back-blocks!" + +The Impressionist grinned; his friend drank deep, with a corrugated +brow; the poet expounded the beauties of the rough edge, and Jack gave +him back his book. + +"I know nothing about it," said he; "but still, I'm proud of you, I am +so. And I'm proud," he added, "to find myself in such company as yours, +gentlemen; though I don't mind telling you, if I'd known I'd be the only +plain man in the room I'd never have come upstairs!" + +And the Duke sat down in a corner, with his knife, his tobacco, and his +cutty-pipe, as shy as a great boy in a roomful of girls. Yet this wore +off, for the conversation of the elect did not, after all, rarefy the +atmosphere to oppression; indeed, that of the sensitised soul contained +more oaths than Jack had heard from one mouth since he left the bush, +and this alone was enough to put him at his ease. At the same time he +was repelled, for it appeared to be a characteristic of the great Stubbs +to turn up his nose at all men; and as that organ was _retroussé_ to +begin with, Jack was forcibly reminded of some ill-bred, snarling +bulldog, and he marvelled at the hound's reputation. He put in no word, +however, until the conversation turned on Claude's poems, and a +particularly cool, coarse thing was said of one of them, and Claude only +laughed. Then he did speak up. + +"See here, mister," he blurted out from his corner. "Could you do as +good?" + +Stubbs stared at the Duke, and drained his glass. + +"I shouldn't try," was his reply. + +"I wouldn't," retorted Jack. "I just wouldn't, if I were you." + +Stubbs could better have parried a less indelicate, a less childish +thrust; as it was, he reached for his hat. Claude interfered at once. + +"My dear old fellow," said he to Jack, "you mustn't mind what my friend +Edmund says of my stuff. I like it. He is always right, for one thing; +and then, only think of the privilege of having such a critic to tell +one exactly what he thinks." + +Jack looked from one man to the other. The sincerity of the last speech +was not absolutely convincing, but that of Claude's feeling for his +friend was obvious enough; and, with a laugh, the Duke put his back +against the door. The apology which he delivered in that position was in +all respects characteristic. It was unnecessarily full; it was informed +alike by an extravagant good-will towards mankind, and an irritating +personal humility; and it ended, somewhat to Claude's dismay, with a +direct invitation to both his friends to spend a month at Maske Towers. + +Perhaps these young men realised then, for the first time, who the rough +fellow was, after all, with whom they had been thrown in contact. At all +events the double invitation was accepted with alacrity; and no more +hard things were said of Claude's lyrics. The flow of soul was +henceforth as uninterrupted as that of the whisky down the visitors' +throats. And no further hitch would have occurred had the Impressionist +not made that surreptitious sketch of the Duke, which so delighted his +friends. + +"Oh, admirable!" cried Claude. "A most suggestive humouresque!" + +"It'll do," said Stubbs, the oracle. "It mightn't appeal to the suburbs, +damn them, but it does to us." + +"Grant the convention, and the art is perfect," continued Claude, with +the tail of his eye on Jack. + +"It is the caricature that is more like than life," pursued Stubbs, with +a sidelong glance in the same direction. + +Jack saw these looks; but from his corner he could not see the sketch, +nor had he any suspicion of its subject. All else that he noted was the +flush of triumph, or it may have been whisky, or just possibly both, on +the pale, fringed face of Impressionism. He held out his hand for the +half-sheet of paper on which the sketch had been made. + +"I hope it won't offend you," exclaimed the artist, hesitating. + +"Offend me! Why should it? Let's have a look!" + +And he looked for more than a minute at the five curves and a beard +which had expressed to quicker eyes the quintessence of his own outward +and visible personality. At first he could make nothing of them; even +when an interpretation dawned upon him, his face was puzzled as he +raised it to the trio hanging on his words. + +"It won't do, mister," said the Duke reluctantly. "You'll never get +saplings like them," tapping the five curves with his forefinger, "to +hold a nest like that," putting his thumb on the beard, "and don't you +believe it." + +There was a moment's silence. Then the Impressionist said thickly: + +"Give me that sketch." + +Jack handed it back. In another moment it was littering the ground in +four pieces, and the door had banged behind the indignant draftsman. + +"What on earth have I done?" cried the Duke, aghast. + +"You have offended Llewellyn," replied Claude shortly. + +"How? By what I said? I'll run after him this minute and apologise. I +never meant to hurt his feelings. Where's that stove-pipe hat?" + +"Let _me_ go," said Stubbs, getting up. "I understand the creative +animal; it is thin-skinned; but I'll tell our friend what you say." + +"I wish you would. Tell him I meant no harm. And fetch him down with you +just whenever you can come." + +"Thanks--that will be very pleasing. I daresay August will be our best +time, but we shall let you know. I'll put it all right with Ivor; but +these creative asses (saving your presence, Lafont) never can see a +joke." + +"A joke!" cried Jack, when he and Claude were alone. + +"Stubbs is ironical," said Claude severely. + +"Look here," said the Duke, "what are you givin' us, old boy? Seems to +me you clever touchers have been getting at a cove between you. Where +does this joke come in, eh?" + +And his good faith was so obvious that Claude picked up the four +quarters of torn paper, fitted them together, and entered upon yet +another explanation. This one, however, was somewhat impatiently given +and received. The Duke professed to think his likeness exceedingly +unlike--when, indeed, he could be got to see his own outlines at +all--and Claude disagreeing, a silence fell between the pair. Jack +sought to break it by taking off his collar (which had made him +miserable) and putting it in his pocket with a significant look; but the +act provoked no comment. So the two men sat, the one smoking cigarettes, +the other his cutty, but neither speaking, nor yet reading a line. And +the endless roar of Piccadilly, reaching them through the open windows, +emphasised their silence, until suddenly it sank beneath the midnight +chimes of the city clocks. In another minute a tiny, tinkling echo came +from Claude's chimney-piece, and the Duke put down his pipe and spoke. + +"My first whole day in London--a goner," he said; "and a pretty full day +it's been. Listen to this for one day's work," and as he rehearsed them, +he ticked off the events on his great brown fingers. "Got run in--that's +number one. Turned up among a lot of swells in my old duds--number two. +Riled the cleverest man you know--number three--so that he nearly +cleared out of your rooms; and, not content with that, hurt the feelings +of the second cleverest (present company excepted) so that he _did_ +clear--which is number four. Worst of all, riled you, old man, and hurt +your feelings too. That's the finisher. And see here, Claude, it isn't +good enough and it won't do. I won't wash in London, and I'm full up of +the hole; as for my own house, it gave me the fair hump the moment I put +my nose inside; and I'd be on to make tracks up the bush any day you +like--if it weren't for one thing." + +"What's that," said Claude, "if it's a fair question?" + +The other concealed his heightened colour by relighting his pipe and +puffing vigorously. + +"I'll tell you," said he; "it's that old girl and--what's the daughter's +name again?" + +"Olivia." + +"Olivia. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl! She's all that and +more." + +"And much more." + +"You see, she's as good inside as out; she has a kind heart." + +"I have always found it so," said Claude, "and I've known her since she +was a child." + +The two kinsmen, who had been so wide apart a few minutes since, were +now more than ever mutually akin. They drew their chairs together; but +the touchstone was deep down in either heart. + +"You knew her when she was a child!" repeated the Duke in a kind of awe. +"Yes; and I daresay, now, you used to play with her, and perhaps take +her on your knee, and even pull her hair and kiss her in them old days. +Yet there you sit smoking cigarettes!" + +His own pipe was out. He was in a reverie. Claude also had his own +thoughts. + +"The one thing was this," said the Duke at length: "would the old woman +and her daughter come to see us up the country?" + +Claude was torn two ways. The Towers scheme was no longer his first +anxiety. He returned to it by an effort. + +"They would," he said. "Lady Caroline told me so. They would come like a +shot in August. She said so herself." + +"Would you put me up to things in the meantime? Would you be showing me +the ropes?" + +"The very thing I should like to do, so far as I am able." + +"Then we'll start to-morrow--I mean to-day. That settles it. And +yet----" + +"Out with it," said Claude, smiling. + +"Well, I will. I mean no harm, you understand. Who am I to dare to look +at her? Only I do feel as if that girl would do me a deal of good down +there--you know, in making me more the sort of chap for my billet. But +if she's gone and got a sweetheart, he might very easily object; so I +just thought I'd like to know." + +"She hasn't one, to my knowledge," said Claude at length. + +"Is that a fact?" cried the Duke. "Well, I don't know what all you +fellows are thinking of, but I do know that I am jolly glad. Not from +any designs of my own, mind you--I haven't as much cheek as all +that--but to save trouble. Do you know, Claudy, I've had a beast of a +thought off and on all the night?" + +"No; what was that?" + +"Why, I half suspected she was your own girl." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A NEW LEAF + + +"The Duke of St. Osmund's and Mr. Claude Lafont left town yesterday for +Maske Towers, the family seat near Devenholme." So ran the announcement +in the morning papers of the next day but one. And the Duke was actually +exploring his inheritance when it appeared. + +Overnight the pair had arrived too late to see much more than the lofty, +antique hall and the respective rooms in which they were to sup and +sleep; but the birds awoke Jack in the early morning, and he was up and +out before seven o'clock. + +As yet he had seen little that attracted him within, and at this hour he +felt a childish horror of the dark colossal canvases overhanging the +grand staircase and the hall; like the sightless suits of armour +standing blind sentinel below, they froze him with the look of lifeless +life about the grim, gigantic figures. He was thankful to see one of the +great double doors standing open to the sun; it let him out into a +portico loftier than the hall; and folding his arms across a stone +balustrade, the whilom bushman looked forth between Corinthian columns +like the masts of a ship, and was monarch of all he beheld. + +A broad and stately terrace ran right and left below; beyond and below +this, acres of the smoothest, greenest sward were relieved by a few fine +elms, with the deer still in clusters about their trunks. The lawn +sloped quietly to the verdant shores of a noble lake; sun and dew had +dusted the grass with silver; sun and wind were rippling the lake with +flakes of flame like leaping gold-fish; and across the water, on the +rising ground, a plantation of young pines ran their points into the +radiant sky. These trees appealed to the Duke more than anything he had +seen yet. His last bush hut had been built among pines; and such is the +sentimental attraction of the human heart towards a former +condition--better or worse, if it be but beyond recall--that the Duke of +St. Osmund's had to inspect that plantation before anything else. +Leaving the Towers behind him, unnoticed and indeed forgotten, he +crossed the lawn, skirted the lake, and plunged amid the pine-trees as +his impulse spurred him. But on his way back, a little later, the mellow +grandeur of that ancient pile broke in upon him at last, and he stood +astounded in the wet grass, the blood of possession running hot in his +veins. + +The historic building stretched on this side for something like a +quarter of a mile from end to end. Here the blue sky sank deep between +turret and spire, and there it picked out a line of crumbling +battlements, or backed the upper branches of an elm that (from this +point) cut the expanse of stone in two. It had grown out of many +attempts in as many ages; thus, besides architectural discrepancies for +the eyes of the few, the shading of the walls was as finely graduated as +that of an aging beard, but the prevailing tint was a pearly gray, now +washed with purple, and exquisitely softened by the tender haze still +lingering in the dewy air. And from every window that Jack could see, +flashed a morning sun; for as he stood and looked, his shadow lay in +front of him along the milky grass. + +To one extremity of the building clung an enormous conservatory, +likewise ablaze from dome to masonry; at the other, the dark hues of a +shrubbery rested the eye; but that of the Duke was used to the sunlit +desert, and not readily dazzled. His quick glance went like a bullet +through the trees to a red gable and the gilt hands of a clock just +visible beyond. On the instant he recovered from his enchantment, and +set off for the shrubbery at a brisk walk; for he had heard much of the +Maske stables, and evidently there they were. + +As he was in the shrubbery, the stable clock struck eight after a +melodious chime sadly spoilt by the incessant barking of some small dog; +the last stroke reverberated as he emerged, and the dog had the morning +air to itself, to murder with its hideous clamour. But the Duke now saw +the exciting cause, and it excited _him_; for he had come out opposite +the stable-yard gates, which were shut, but from the top of which, with +its lame paw lifted, a vertical tail, and a back like a hedgehog asleep, +his own yellow cat spat defiance at an unseen foe. And between the barks +came the voice of a man inciting the dog with a filthy relish. + +"Set him off, Pickle! Now's your time. Try again. Oh, blow me, if you +can't you can't, and I'll have to lend you a hand." + +And one showed over the gate with the word, but the fingers grabbed the +air, for Jack had snatched his pet in the nick of time. He was now busy +with the ring of the latch, fumbling it in his fury. The breath came in +gusts through his set teeth and bristling beard. One hand clasped the +yellow cat in a fierce caress; the other knotted into a fist as the gate +flew open. + +In the yard a hulking, smooth-faced fellow, whose pendulous under-lip +had dropped in dismay, changed his stare for a grin when he saw the +Duke, who was the smaller as well as the rougher-looking man of the two; +for he had not only come out without his collar, which he discarded +whenever he could; but he had clapped on the old bush wideawake because +Claude was not up to stop him. + +"Well, and who are you?" began the other cheerfully. + +"You take off your coat and I'll show you," replied Jack, with a +blood-thirsty indistinctness. "I'm a better man than you are, whoever I +am; at least we'll have a see!" + +"Oh, will we?" said the fellow. "And you're the better man, are you? +What do _you_ think?" he added, turning to a stable-boy who stood handy +with thin brown arms akimbo, and thumbs in his belt. + +"I wonder 'oo 'e thinks 'e is w'en 'e's at 'ome?" said the lad. + +Jack never heard him. He had spied the saddle-room door standing open. +In an instant he was there, with the small dog yelping at his heels; in +another, he had locked the door between cat and dog, pocketed the key, +and returned to his man, stripping off his own coat and waistcoat as he +came. He flung them into a corner, and after them his bush hat. + +"Now let's see you take off yours! If you don't," added Jack, with a big +bush oath, "I'll have to hide you with it on!" + +But man and boy had been consulting while his back was turned, and Jack +now found himself between the two of them; not that he gave the lad a +thought. + +"Look you here; I'll tell you who _I_ am," said the man. "My name's Matt +Hunt, and Matt can fight, as you wouldn't need telling if you belonged +to these parts. But he don't take on stray tramps like you; so, unless +you hook it slippy, we're just going to run you out o' this yard quicker +than you come in." + +"Not till I've shown you how to treat dumb animals----" + +"Then here goes!" + +And with that the man Hunt seized one of Jack's arms, while the +stable-boy nipped the other from behind, and made a dive at Jack's +pocket for the saddle-room key. But a flat-footed kick sent the lad +sprawling without harming him; and the man was driven so hard under the +nose that he too fell back, bearded with blood. + +"Come on!" roared Jack. "And you, my boy, keep out of the light unless +you want a whipping yourself!" + +He was rolling up the sleeves from his tanned and furry arms. Hunt +followed suit, a cascade of curses flowing with his blood; he had torn +off his coat, and a wrist-button tinkled on the cement as he caught up +Jack in his preparations. His arms were thicker than the bushman's, +though white and fleshy. Hunt was also the heavier weight, besides +standing fully six feet, as against the Duke's five-feet-nine when he +held himself up. Nor was there any lack of confidence in the dripping, +hairless, sinister face, when the two men finally squared up. + +They fell to work without niggling, for Jack rushed in like a bull, +leading most violently with his left. It was an inartistic start; the +big man was not touched; but neither did he touch Jack, who displayed, +at all events, a quick pair of legs. Yet it was this start that steadied +the Duke. It showed him that Hunt was by no means unskilled in the use +of his hands; and it put out of his head everything but the fight +itself, so that he heard no more the small tike barking outside the +saddle-room door, hitherto his angriest goad. Some cool sparring +ensued. Then Hunt let out from the shoulder, but the blow was avoided +with great agility; then Jack led off again, but with a lighter touch, +and this time he drew his man. The blows of the next minute it was +impossible to follow. They were given and returned with enormous +virulence. And there was no end to them until the big man tripped and +fell. + +"See here," said Jack, standing over him; "that was my cat, and I'd got +to go for you. But if you've had enough of this game, so have I, and +we'll cry quits." + +He was sucking a cut lip as he spoke. The other spat out a tooth and +blundered to his feet. + +"Quits, you scum? Wait a bit!" + +And they were at hotter work than ever. + +Meanwhile the yard was filling with stable-men and gardeners, who were +in time to see Hunt striding down on his unknown adversary, and the +latter retreating in good order; but the stride quickened, ending in a +rush, which the Duke eluded so successfully that he was able to hit Hunt +hard on the ear as he passed. + +It was afterwards a relief to the spectators to remember how they had +applauded this effort. To the Duke their sympathy was a comfort at the +time; though he no more suspected that his adversary was also his most +unpopular tenant, than the latter dreamt of his being the Duke. + +Hunt let out a bellow of pain, staggered, and resumed his infuriate +rush; but his punishment was now heavier than before. He had lost both +wind and head, and he was losing pluck. One of his eyes was already +retiring behind folds of livid flesh; and a final blow under the nose, +where the first of all had been delivered, knocked him howling into the +arms of a new-comer, who disengaged himself as Hunt fell. + +"What, Claude, is that you?" cried the Duke; and a flood of new +sensations so changed his voice, that Hunt looked up from where he lay, +a beaten, bleeding, blubbering mass. But in the silent revelation of +that moment there was at first no sound save the barking of the +fox-terrier outside the saddle-room door. This had never ceased. Then +the coachman's pipe fell from his mouth and was smashed. + +"My God!" said he. "It's his Grace himself!" + +He had driven the Duke from Devenholme the night before. + +"The Duke of St. Osmund's!" exclaimed Hunt from the ground. He had been +shedding blood and tears indifferently, and now he sat up with a slimy +stare in his uninjured eye. + +"Yes, that's right," said Jack, with a nod to the company. "So now you +all know what to expect for cruelty to cats, or any other dumb animals; +and don't you forget it!" + +He put on his coat and went over to the saddle-room. Claude followed +him, still at a loss for words. And Hunt's dog went into a wild ecstasy +as the key was put into the lock. + +"Hold him," said Jack. "The dog's all right; and I lay his master'll +think twice before he sets him on another cat o' mine." + +"Come away," said Claude hoarsely; "for all our sakes, come away before +you make bad worse!" + +"Well, I will. Only hold him tight. That's it. Poor little puss, +then--poor old Livingstone! Now I'm ready; come along." + +But Hunt was in their path; and Jack's heart smote him for the mischief +he had done, though his own lower lip was swollen like a sausage. + +"So you're the new Duke of St. Osmund's," said Hunt, with a singular +deliberation. "I wasn't to know that, of course; no, by gosh, not +likely!" + +"Well, you know it now," was the reply. "And--and I'm sorry I had to hit +you so hard, Hunt!" + +"Oh, don't apologise," said Hunt, with a sneer that showed a front tooth +missing. "Stop a bit, though; I'm not so sure," he added, with a glance +of evil insight. + +"Sure of what?" + +"Whether you oughtn't to apologise for not hitting a man of your own +age!" + +"Take no notice of him," whispered Claude strenuously; but he obtained +none himself. + +"Nonsense," said the Duke; "you're the younger man, at all events." + +"Am I? I was born in '59, _I_ was." + +"Then according to all accounts you're the younger man by four years." + +"By--four--years," repeated Hunt slowly. "So you was born in '55! Thank +you; I shall make a note of that, you may be sure--your Grace!" + +And Hunt was gone; they heard him whistling for his tike when he was +himself out of sight, and the dog went at last. Then the coachman +stepped forward, cap in hand. + +"If you please, your Grace, that man was here without my knowledge. He's +always putting in his nose where he isn't wanted; I've shifted him out +of this before to-day; and with your Grace's permission, I'll give +orders not to have him admitted again." + +"Who is he?" said Jack. "A tenant or what?" + +"Only a tenant, your Grace. Matt Hunt, they call him, of the Lower Farm; +but it might be of Maske Towers, by the way he goes on!" + +"He took a mighty interest in my age," remarked the Duke. "I never asked +to look at _his_ fangs--but I think you'll find one of them somewhere +about the yard. No; I'm not fond of fighting, my lads. Don't you run +away with that idea. But there's one thing I can't and won't suffer, and +that's cruelty to animals. You chaps in the stables recollect that! And +so good-morning to you all." + +Claude led the way through the shrubbery in a deep depression. The +guilty Duke took his arm with one hand, while with the other he hugged +the yellow cat that was eying the shrubbery birds over its master's +shoulder, much as the terrier had eyed it. + +"My dear old boy," said Jack, "I'm as sorry as sorry for what's +happened. But I couldn't help myself. Look at Livingstone; he'd have +been a stiff 'un by this time if I hadn't turned up when I did; so +naturally there was a row. Still I'm sorry. I know it's a bad beginning; +and I remember saying in the train that I'd turn over a new leaf down +here. Well, and so I will if you give me time. Don't judge me by this +morning, Claude. Give me another chance; and for God's sake don't look +like that!" + +"I can't help it, Jack," replied Claude, with a weary candour. "I'm +prepared for anything now. You make me a year older every day. How do I +know what you'll do next? I think the best thing I can do is to give you +up as a bad job." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DUKE'S PROGRESS + + +Claude's somewhat premature despair was not justified by the event; +nevertheless it did good. Excusable enough at the time, that little +human outbreak was also more effective than the longest lecture or the +most mellifluous reproof. Jack liked his cousin. The liking was by no +means unconnected with gratitude. And now Jack saw that he could best +show his gratitude by adopting a more suitable course of conduct than he +could claim to have pursued hitherto. He determined to make an effort. +He had everything to learn; it was a mountainous task that lay before +him; but he faced it with spirit, and made considerable progress in a +little space. + +He learnt how to treat the servants. The footmen had misbehaved when he +addressed them as "my boy" and "old toucher" from his place at table. He +consulted Claude, and dropped these familiarities as well as the +painfully respectful tone which he had at first employed towards old +Stebbings, the butler. Stebbings had been very many years in the family. +The deference inspired by his venerable presence was natural enough in +the new Duke of St. Osmund's; but it shocked and distressed Stebbings's +feudal soul. He complained to Claude, and he had not to complain twice. +For Jack discovered a special and a touching eagerness to master the +rudiments of etiquette; though in other respects (which certainly +mattered less) he was still incorrigible. + +His social "crammer" could no more cure him of his hatred of a collar +than of his liking for his cats. The latter were always with him; the +former, unhappily, was not. In these things the Duke was hopelessly +unregenerate; he was a stockman still at heart, and a stockman he +threatened to remain. The soft summer nights were nothing to the nights +in the bush; the fleecy English sky was not blue at all after the skies +of Riverina; and the Duke's ideal of a man was "my old boss." Claude +heard of "my old boss" until he was sick of the words, which constituted +a gratuitous reminder of a position most men would have been glad to +forget. Yet there was much to be thankful for. There were no more scenes +such as the Duke's set-to in his own stable-yard with one of his own +tenants. At least nothing of the sort happened again until Jack's next +collision with Matthew Hunt. And that was not yet. + +Matthew was from home when the Duke, making a round of the estate, with +his agent, visited the Lower Farm in its turn. Old Hunt, Matthew's +besotted father, received them in the kitchen with a bloodshot stare and +little else, for drink had long dimmed his forces. Not so the old man's +daughter-in-law, Matthew's wife, who showed the visitors all over the +farm in a noiseless manner that made Jack feel uneasy, because he never +knew when she was or was not at his elbow. Besides, he could not forget +the thrashing he had given her husband, nor yet suppose that she had +forgotten it either. The woman was of a gross type strangely accentuated +by her feline quietude. She had a continual smile, and sly eyes that +dropped when they encountered those of the Duke, whom they followed +sedulously at all other moments. Jack seemed to know it, too; at all +events he was not sorry to turn his back upon the Lower Farm. + +"A rum lot, the Hunts!" he said at lunch. "They're about the only folks +here that I haven't cottoned to on the spot. I shall get on fine with +all the others. But I can't suffer those Hunts!" + +"There's no reason why you should suffer them," observed the agent, in +his well-bred drawl; for he had a more aristocratic manner than Claude +himself. "They have the best farm on the property, and they pay the +smallest rent. You should think over my suggestion of this morning." + +"No, no," said the Duke. "He wants me to double the rent, Claude, and +clear them out if they won't pay. I can't do it." + +"Well, no; I hardly think you can," assented Claude. "Oddly enough, my +grandfather had quite a weakness for the Hunts; and then they are very +old tenants. That hoary-headed Silenus, whom you saw, was once in the +stables here; so was his son after him, in my time; and the old man's +sister was my grandmother's maid. You can't turn out people like that +_ex itinere_, so to speak--I mean to say in a hurry. It's too old a +connection altogether." + +"Exactly what they trade upon," said the agent. "They have been spoilt +for years, and they expect his Grace to go on spoiling them. I should +certainly get rid of the whole gang." + +"No, mister--no!" declared the Duke. "Claude is right. I can't do it. I +might if I hadn't given that fellow a hiding. After that I simply +can't; it would look too bad." + +The agent said no more, but his look and shrug were perhaps neither +politic nor polite. A strapping sportsman himself, and a person of some +polish into the bargain, he was in a position, as it were, to look down +on Claude with one eye, and on the Duke with the other. And he did so +with a freedom extraordinary in one of his wisdom and understanding. + +"One of these days," said Jack, "I shall give that joker his cheque. +He's not my notion of an overseer at all; if he's too good for the +billet let him roll up his swag and clear out; if he isn't, let him +treat the bosses as a blooming overseer should." + +"Why, what's the head and chief of his offending now?" asked Claude; for +this was one night in the billiard-room, when the agent had been making +an example of both cousins at pyramids; it was after he was gone, and +while the Duke was still tearing off his collar. + +"What has he said to-night?" continued the poet, less poetically. "I +heard nothing offensive." + +"You wouldn't," said the Duke; "you're such a good sort yourself. You'd +never see when a chap was pulling your leg, but I see fast enough, and +I won't have it. What did he say to-night? He talked through his neck +when we missed our shots. That about billiards in the bush I didn't +mind; me and the bush, we're fair game; but when he got on to your +poetry, old man, I felt inclined to run my cue through his gizzard. 'A +poet's shot,' he says, when you put yourself down; and 'you should write +a sonnet about that,' when you got them three balls in together. I don't +say it wasn't a fluke. That has nothing at all to do with it. The way +the fellow spoke is what I weaken on. He wouldn't have done for my old +boss, and I'm blowed if he'll do for me. One of these days I shall tell +him to come outside and take his coat off; and, by the looks of him, I +shouldn't be a bit surprised to see him put me through." + +Claude's anxiety overcame every other feeling. He implored the Duke not +to make another scene, least of all with such a man as the agent, whose +chaff, he truly protested, did not offend him in the least. Jack shook +his head, and was next accused of being more sensitive about the +"wretched poems" than was the poet himself. This could not have been. +But Claude was not so very far wrong. + +His slender book was being widely reviewed, or rather "noticed," for the +two things are not quite the same. The "notices," on the whole, were +good and kind, but "uninstructed," so Claude said with a sigh; +nevertheless, he appeared to obtain a sneaking satisfaction from their +perusal; and as for Jack, he would read them aloud, capering round the +room and shaking Claude by both hands in his delighted enthusiasm. To +him every printed compliment was a loud note blown from the trumpet of +fame into the ears of all the world. He would hear not a word against +the paper in which it appeared, but attributed every qualifying remark +of Claude's to the latter's modesty, and each favourable paragraph to +some great responsible critic voicing the feeling of the country in the +matter of these poems. Claude himself, however, though frequently +gratified, was not deceived; for the sweetest nothings came invariably +from the provincial press; and he at least knew too much to mistake a +"notice" for a "real review." + +The real reviews were a sadly different matter. There were very few of +them, in the first place; their scarcity was worse than their severity. +And they were generally very severe indeed; or they did not take the +book seriously, which, as Claude said, was the unkindest cut of all. + +"Only show me the skunk who wrote that," exclaimed Jack one morning, +looking over Claude's shoulder as he opened his press-cuttings, "and +I'll give him the biggest hiding ever he had in his life!" + +Another critic, the writer of a really sympathetic and exhaustive +review, the Duke desired to invite to Maske Towers by the next post, +"because," said Jack, "he must be a real good sort, and we ought to know +him." + +"I do know him," said Claude, with a groan, for he had thought of +keeping the fact to himself; "I know him to my cost. He owes me money. +This is payment on account. Oh, I am no good! I must give it up! +Ignorance and interest alone are at my back! Genuine enthusiasm there is +none!" + +There was Jack's. But was that genuine? The Duke himself was not sure. +He meant it to ring true, but then he meant to appreciate the poems, and +of many of them he could make little enough in his secret soul. + +All this, however, was but one side of the quiet life led by the cousins +at Maske Towers; and it had but one important effect--that of sowing in +Claude's heart a loyalty to Jack not unworthy of Jack's loyalty to him. + +There were other subjects of discussion upon which the pair were by no +means at one. There was Jack's open failure to appreciate the marble +halls, the resonant galleries, the darkling pictures of his princely +home; and there was the scatter-brained scheme by which he ultimately +sought to counteract the oppressive grandeur of his new surroundings. + +It was extremely irritating, especially to a man like Claude; but the +proudest possessions of their ancestors (whose superlative taste and +inferior morals had been the byword of so many ages) were those which +appealed least to that blameless Goth, the ninth Duke of St. Osmund's. +The most glaring case in point was that of the pictures, which alone +would make the worldwide fame of a less essentially noble seat than +Maske Towers. But Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea +del Sarto, Angeletti Vernet, and Claude Lorrain--all these were mere +names, and new ones, to Happy Jack. Claude Lafont, pointing to +magnificent examples of the work of one One Master after another, made +his observations with bated breath, as well he might, for where is there +such another private collection? Jack, however, was not impressed; he +was merely amazed at Claude, and his remarks in the picture-gallery are +entirely unworthy of reproduction. In the State Apartments he was still +more trying. He spoke of having the ancient tapestries (after Raphael's +Cartoons) taken out and "well shaken," which, as Claude said, would have +reduced them to immediate atoms. And he threatened to have the painted +ceilings whitewashed without delay. + +"Aurora Banishing Night, eh?" he cried, with horizontal beard and +upturned eyes. "She'd jolly soon banish _my_ night, certainly; it should +be, banishing sleep! And all those naked little nippers! They ought to +be papered over, for decency's sake; and that brute of a bed, who would +sleep in it, I should like to know? Not me. Not much! It must be +twenty-foot high and ten-foot wide; it gives me the hump to look at it, +and the ceilings give it me worse. See here, Claude, we'll lock up these +State Apartments, as you call them, and you shall keep the key. I'm full +of 'em; they'll give me bad dreams as it is." + +They were not, however, the only apartments of which the Duke +disapproved; the suite which had been done up entirely for his own use, +under Claude's direction, did not long commend itself to the +ex-stockman. Everything was far too good for him and his cats; they were +not accustomed to such splendour; it made them all four +uncomfortable--so Jack declared after taking Claude's breath away with +the eccentric plan on which he had set his heart. And for the remainder +of their solitary companionship each man had his own occupation; the +Duke preparing more congenial quarters for himself and the cats; and +Claude, with Jack's permission and the agent's skilled advice, +superintending the making of private golf-links for Mr. Sellwood's +peculiar behoof. For the Home Secretary had promised to join the Maske +party, for the week-ends at any rate, until (as he expressed it) the +Government "holed out." + +That party was now finally arranged. The Frekes were coming with the +Sellwoods, and the latter family were to have the luxurious suite which +the Duke himself disdained. This was his Grace's own idea. Moreover, he +interested himself personally in the right ordering of the rooms during +the last few days; but this he kept to himself until the eleventh hour; +in fact, until he was waiting for the drag to come round, which he was +himself going to tool over to Devenholme to meet his guests. It was then +that certain unexpected misgivings led Jack to seek out his cousin, in +order to take him to see what he had done. + +For Claude had shown him what _he_ was doing. He was producing a set of +exceedingly harmless verses, "To Olivia released from Mayfair," of +which the Duke had already heard the rough draft. The fair copy was in +the making even now; in the comparatively small room, at one end of the +library, that Jack had already christened the Poet's Corner. + +Claude wiped his pen with characteristic care, and then rose readily +enough. He followed Jack down the immensely long, galleried, book-lined +library, through a cross-fire of coloured lights from the stained-glass +windows, and so to the stairs. Overhead there was another long walk, +through corridor after corridor, which had always reminded Jack of the +hotel in town. But at last, in the newly decorated wing, the Duke took a +key from his pocket and put it in a certain door. And now it was Claude +who was reminded of the hotel; for a most striking atmospheric change +greeted him on the threshold; only this time it was not a gust of heat, +but the united perfume of many flowers, that came from within. + +The room was fairly flooded with fresh roses. It was as though they had +either blown through the open window, or fallen in a miraculous shower +from the dainty blue ceiling. They pranked the floor in a fine disorder. +They studded the table in tiny vases. They hid the mantelpiece, embedded +in moss; from the very grate below, they peeped like fairy flames, +breathing fragrance instead of warmth; and some in falling seemed to +have caught in the pictures on the walls, so artfully had they been +arranged. Only the white narrow bed had escaped the shower. And in the +midst of this, his handiwork, stood the Duke, and blushed like the roses +themselves. + +"Whose room is this?" asked Claude, though he knew so well. + +"Olivia's--I should say Miss Sellwood's. You see, old man, you were +writing these awfully clever verses for her; so I felt I should like to +have something ready too." + +"Your poem is the best!" exclaimed Claude, with envious, sparkling eyes. +And then he sighed. + +"Oh, rot!" said Jack, who was only too thankful for his offering to +receive the _cachet_ of Claude's approval. "All I wanted was to keep my +end up, too. Look here. What do you think of this?" + +And he took from a vase on the dressing-table an enormous white bouquet, +that opened Claude's eyes wider than before. + +"This is for her, too; I wanted to consult you about it," pursued Jack. +"Should I leave it here for her, or should I take it down to the station +and present it to her there? Or at dinner to-night? I want to know just +what you think." + +"No, not at dinner," replied Claude; "nor yet at the station." + +"Not at all, you mean! I see it in your face!" cried the Duke so that +Claude could not answer him. "But why not?" he added vehemently. "Where +does the harm come in? It's only a blooming nosegay. What's wrong with +it?" + +"Nothing," was the reply, "only it might embarrass Olivia." + +"Make her uncomfortable?" + +"Well, yes; it would be rather marked, you know. A bouquet like that is +only fit for a bride." + +"I don't see it," said Jack, much crestfallen; "still, if that's so, +it's just as well to know it. There was no harm meant. I wasn't thinking +of any rot of that kind. However, we don't want to make her +uncomfortable; that wasn't the idea at all; so the bouquet's off--like +me. Come and let me tool you as far as the boundary fence. I want to +show you how we drive four horses up the bush." + +The exhibition made Claude a little nervous; there was too much shouting +at the horses for his taste, and too much cracking of the whip. Jack +could crack a whip better than any man in his own stables. But he +accepted Claude's criticism with his usual docility, and dropped him at +the gates with his unfailing nod of pure good-humour. + +There he sat on the box, in loose rough tweeds of a decent cut, and with +the early August sun striking under the brim of a perfectly respectable +straw hat, but adding little to the broad light of his own honest, +beaming countenance. He waved his whip, and Claude his hand. Then the +whip cracked--but only once--and the poet strolled back to his verses, +steeped in thought. He had done his best. His soul divined vaguely what +the result might mean to him. But his actual thoughts were +characteristically permissible; he was merely wondering what Lady +Caroline and Olivia Sellwood would say now. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE OLD ADAM + + +Olivia said least. Her mother took Claude by the hand, and thanked him +with real tears in her eyes, for after all she was an Irishwoman, who +could be as emotional as possible when she chose. As for Mr. Sellwood, +he expressed himself as delightfully disappointed in the peer of whom he +had heard so much. Jack struck him as being an excellent fellow, +although not a golfer, which was a pity, and even apparently disinclined +to take up the game--which might signify some recondite flaw in his +character. So said the Home Secretary. But Olivia merely asked who had +put all those roses in her room; and when Claude told her, she simply +nodded and took hardly any notice of the Duke that night. Yet she wore a +handful of his flowers at her shapely waist. And she did thank him, in a +way. + +It was not the sweetest way in the world, as all her ways had been, +these many weeks, in Jack's imagination. He was grieved and +disappointed, but still more was he ashamed. He had taken a liberty. He +had alienated his friend. Thus he blamed himself, with bitter, wordless +thoughts, and would then fall back upon his disappointment. His feelings +were a little mixed. One moment she was not all that he had thought her; +the next, she was more than all. She was more beautiful. Often he had +tried to recall her face, and tried in vain, having seen her but once +before, and then only for a few minutes. Now he perceived that his first +impression, blurred and yet dear to him as it had been, had done but +meagre justice to Olivia. He had forgotten the delicate dark eyebrows, +so much darker than the hair. The girl's radiant colouring had also +escaped him. It was like the first faint flush of an Australian dawn. +Yet he had missed it in June, just as he had missed the liquid hazel of +her eyes; their absolute honesty was what he remembered best; and, by a +curious irony, that frank, fine look was the very one which she denied +him now. + +And so it was from the Friday evening, when the Sellwoods arrived, to +the Monday morning when duty recalled the Home Secretary to St. +Stephen's. He obeyed the call in no statesman-like frame of mind. He +had spent the Sabbath in open sin upon the new-made links, and had been +fitly punished by his own execrable play. The athletic agent had made an +example of him; he felt that he might just as well have been in church +(or rather in the private chapel attached to the Towers), reading the +lessons for his son-in-law, Francis Freke; and in the Saturday's +"foursome," with the reverend gentleman on his side, the Cabinet +Minister had done little better. So he had departed very sorely against +the grain, his white hairs bristling with discontent, a broken "driver" +hidden away in the depths of his portmanteau. And Olivia, seeing the +last of him from amid the tall columns of the portico, felt +heavy-hearted, because her father was also her friend. + +Jack watched her at a distance. It did not occur to him that the girl's +mother was already pitching him at the girl's head, daily and almost +hourly, until she was weary of the very sound of his name. And though he +felt he must have overstepped some mark in the matter of the flowers, he +little dreamt how Miss Sellwood's maid had looked when she saw them, or +what disgraceful satisfaction Lady Caroline had exhibited before her +daughter on that occasion. He only knew that her Ladyship was treating +him with a rather oppressive kindness, and that he would much sooner +have had half-a-dozen words from Olivia, such as the first she had ever +spoken to him. + +And now the girl was unhappy; it was plain enough, even to his untutored +eye; and he stepped forward with the determination of improving her +spirits, without thinking of his own, which were not a little flat. + +"You must find it dull up the country, Miss Sellwood, after London," +began Jack, not perhaps in his most natural manner. "I--I wish to +goodness you'd tell us of anything we could do to amuse you!" + +"You are very good," replied Olivia, "but I don't require to be amused +like a child. Thanks all the same. As to finding the country dull, I +never appreciate it so much as after a season in town." + +She was not looking at the Duke, but beyond him into the hall. And +encountering no other eyes there, her own grew softer, as did her tone, +even as she spoke. + +"You know this old place off by heart, Miss Sellwood, I expect?" pursued +Jack, who had taken off his straw hat in her presence, being in doubt as +to whether the portico ranked indoors or out. + +"Oh, well, I have stayed here pretty often, you know," said Olivia. +"What do you think of the place?" + +"I can't hardly say. I've never seen anything else like it. It's far too +good, though, for a chap like me; it's all so grand." + +"I have _sometimes_ felt it a little too grand," the girl ventured to +observe. + +"So have I!" cried Jack. "You can't think how glad I am to hear you say +that. It's my own feeling right down to the ground!" + +"I don't mean to be rude," continued Olivia confidentially, seeing that +they were still unobserved, "but I have often felt that I wouldn't care +to live here altogether." + +"No?" said the Duke, in a new tone; he felt vaguely dashed, but his +manner was rather one of apologetic sympathy. + +"No," she repeated; "shall you like it?" + +"Can't say. I haven't weakened on it yet, though it _is_ too fine and +large for a fellow. Shall I tell you what I've done? I've fixed up a +little place for myself outside, where I can go whenever I get full up +of the homestead here. I wonder--if it isn't too much to ask--whether +you would let me show you the little spot I mean?" + +"Where is it?" + +"In the pines yonder, on the far side o' the tank." + +"The tank!" + +"We call 'em tanks in Australia. I meant the lake. I could row you +across, Miss Sellwood, in a minute, if only you'd let me!" And he met +her doubtful look with one of frank, simple-hearted, irresistible +entreaty. + +"Come on!" said Olivia suddenly; and as she went, she never looked +behind; for she seemed to feel her mother's eyes upon her from an upper +window, and the hot shame of their certain approval made her tingle from +head to foot. So she trod the close, fine, sunlit grass as far as +possible from her companion's side. And he, falling back a little, was +enabled to watch her all the way. + +Olivia was very ordinarily attired. She wore a crisp white blouse, +speckled with tiny scarlet spots, and a plain skirt of navy blue, just +short enough to give free play to the small brown shoes whose high heels +the Duke had admired in the portico. Two scarlet bands, a narrow and a +broad, encircled her straw hat and her waist, with much the same +circumference: and yet this exceedingly average costume struck Jack as +the most delicious thing imaginable of its kind. He corrected another +impression before they reached the lake. Olivia was taller than he had +thought; she was at least five-feet-six; and she carried her slim, trim +figure in a fine upstanding fashion that took some of the roundness out +of his own shoulders as he noted it this August morning. + +"It's the back-block bend," he remarked elliptically, in the boat. + +His way with the oars was inelegant enough, without a pretence at +feathering; but it was quite effectual; and Olivia, in the stern-sheets, +had her back still presented to the Argus-eyes of the Towers. She +answered him with a puzzled look, as well she might, for he had done no +more than think aloud. + +"What is that?" she said. "And what are the back-blocks; and what _do_ +you mean?" for her puzzled look had lifted on a smile. + +"I was thinking of my round shoulders. You get them through being all +your time in the saddle, up in the back-blocks. All the country in +Riverina--that is, all the fenced country--is split up into ten-mile +blocks. And the back-blocks are the farthest from the rivers and from +civilisation. So that's why they call it the back-block bend; it came +into my head through seeing you. I never saw anybody hold themselves so +well, Miss Sellwood--if it isn't too like my cheek to say so!" + +The keel grounded as he spoke, and Olivia, as he handed her out, saw the +undulating battlements and toppling turrets of the olden pile +upside-down in the tremulous mirror of the lake. A moment later the +pine-trees had closed around her; and, sure enough, in a distant window, +Lady Caroline Sellwood lowered her opera-glasses with a sigh of +exceeding great contentment. + +"So you haven't forgotten your old life yet," said the girl, as they +stepped out briskly across the shortening shadows of the pines. "I wish +you would tell me something about it! I have heard it said that you +lived in ever such a little hut, away by yourself in the wilderness." + +"I did so; and in a clump of pines the dead spit of these here," said +Jack, with a relish. "When I saw these pines you can't think how glad I +was! They were like old friends to me; they made me feel at home. You +see, Miss Sellwood, that old life is the only one I ever knew, bar this; +often enough it seems the reallest of the two. Most nights I dream I'm +out there again; last night, for instance, we were lamb-marking. A nasty +job, that; I was covered with blood from head to heels, and I was just +counting the poor little beggars' tails, when one of the dead tails +wriggled in my hand, and blowed if it wasn't Livingstone's! No, there's +no forgetting the old life; I was at it too long; it's this one that's +most like a dream." + +"And the hut," said Olivia, with a rather wry face; "what sort of a +place was that?" + +"I'll show you," replied the Duke, in what struck the other as a +superfluously confidential tone. "It was a little bit of a place, all +one room, with a galvanised iron roof and mother-earth for floor. It was +built with the very pines that had been felled to make a clearing for +the hut: so many uprights, and horizontal slabs in between. A great +square hearth and chimney were built out at one end, like the far end of +a church; and over my bunk I'd got a lot of pictures from the +_Australasian Sketcher_ just stuck up anyhow; and if you weren't +looking, you knocked your head against the ration-bags that hung from +the cross-beams. You slept inside, but you kept your bucket and basin on +a bench----" + +"Good heavens!" cried Olivia. And she stood rooted to the ground before +a clearing and a hut which exactly tallied with the Duke's description. +The hut was indeed too new, the maker's stamp catching the eye on the +galvanised roofing; and, in the clearing, the pine-stumps were still +white from the axe; but the essentials were the same, even to the tin +basin on the bench outside the door, with a bucket of water underneath. +As for the wooden chimney, Olivia had never seen such a thing in her +life; yet real smoke was leaking out of it into the pale blue sky. + +"Is this a joke or a trick?" asked the girl, looking suspiciously on +Jack. + +"Neither; it's meant for the dead image of my old hut up the bush; and +it's the little place I've fixed up for myself, here on the run, that I +wanted to show you." + +"You've had it built during these last few weeks?" + +"Under my own eye; and bits of it with my own hand. Old Claude thought +it sheer cussedness, I know; perhaps you will, too; but come in, and +have a look for yourself." + +And unlocking the padlock that secured it, he opened the door and stood +aside for the young girl to enter. Olivia did so with alacrity; her +first amazement had given way to undiluted interest; and the Duke +followed her, straw hat in hand. There was a tantalising insufficiency +of light within. Two small windows there were, but both had been filled +with opaque folds of sackcloth in lieu of glass; yet the Duke pointed to +them, as might his ancestors to the stained-glass lights in chapel and +library, with peculiar pride; and, indeed, his strange delight in the +hut, who cared so little for the Towers close at hand, made Olivia +marvel when she came to think about it. Meanwhile she found everything +as she had heard it described in the Australian hut, with one exception: +there were no ration-bags to knock one's head against, because nobody +made meals here. Also the pictures over the bunk were from the +_Illustrated London News_, not from the _Sketcher_, which Jack had been +unable to obtain in England; and they were somewhat unconvincingly clean +and well-arranged. But the bunk itself was all that it might have been +in the real bush; for it was covered over with Jack's own old blanket; +whereon lay a purring, yellow ball, like a shabby sand-bank in a sea of +faded blue. + +"So this is Livingstone!" exclaimed the girl, stooping to scratch that +celebrity's head. + +"Yes; and there's old Tom and Black Maria in front of the fire. I lock +them all three up during the day, for it isn't so like the bush in some +ways as it is in others. They might get stolen any day, with so many +people about; that's the worst of the old country; there was no other +camp within five miles of me, on Carara." + +"It must have been dreadfully lonely!" + +"You get used to it. And then every few months you would tramp into the +homestead and--and speak to the boss," said Jack, changing his mind and +his sentence as he remembered how he had once shocked Claude Lafont. + +Olivia took notice of the cats, at which Jack stood by beaming. The +kitten she had brought down from town in a basket. It lived in Olivia's +room, but she now suggested restoring it to its own people. Jack, +however, reminded her that it was hers, in such a tender voice; and +proceeded to refer to her kindness at their first meeting, in so +embarrassing a fashion; that the girl, seeking a change of subject, +found one in the long, low bunk. + +"I see," said she, "that you come here for your afternoon siesta." + +"I come here for my night's sleep," he replied. + +"Never!" + +"Every night in life. You seem surprised. I did ask old Claude not to +mention it--and--oh, well, it's no use keeping the thing a secret, after +all. It suits me best--the open country and the solitude. It's what I'm +accustomed to. The wind in the pines all around, I wake up and hear it +every night, just like I did in the old hut. It's almost the same thing +as going back to the bush to sleep; there's not two penn'orth of +difference." + +"You'd like to go back altogether," said the girl, affirming it as a +fact; and yet her sweet eyes, gravely unsatisfied, seemed to peer +through his into his soul. + +"I don't say that, Miss Sellwood," he protested. "Of course it's a great +thing for me to have come in for all this fortune and power--and it'll +be a greater thing still once I can believe it's true! That's the +trouble. The whole show's so like a dream. And that's where this little +hut helps me; _it's_ real, anyway; I can sight _it_. As for all the +rest, it's too many measles for me--as yet; what's more, if I was to +wake up this minute on Carara I shouldn't so very much mind." + +"I wonder," said Olivia, with her fine eyes looking through him still. +"I just wonder!" And her tone set him wondering too. + +"Of course," he faltered, "I should be mighty sorry to wake up and find +I'd only dreamt _you_!" + +"Of course," she returned, with a laughing bow; but there had been an +instant's pause; and she was studying the picture-gallery over the bunk +when she continued, "I see you've been long enough in England to acquire +the art of making pretty speeches. And I must tell you at once that +they never amuse me. At least," she added more kindly, again facing him, +"not when they come from a person as a rule so candid as yourself." + +"But you mistake me; I was perfectly candid," protested poor Jack. + +"It won't do," said the girl. "And it's time we went." + +Olivia felt that she had made excellent friends with the Duke; that the +more she saw of him, the better she would probably like him; and that +she could possibly be of use to him, in little ways, if he would be +sensible, and make no more than a friend of her. She was not so sure of +him, however, as she could have wished; and she was anxious to leave +well alone. It was thus the worst of luck that at this last moment she +should perceive the suggestively white bouquet upon the high deal +chimney-piece. + +"You've been to a wedding," she cried, "and I've never heard a word +about it! Whose was the wedding? Some of the tenantry, of course, or the +bride would hardly have presented you with her bouquet!" + +And she reached it down, and widened her pretty nostrils over the fading +flowers; but they smelt of death; and their waxen whiteness had here +and there the tarnish of a half-eaten apple. + +"There was no bride," said Jack, "and no wedding." + +"Then why this bride's bouquet? No! I beg your pardon; it isn't a fair +question." + +"It is--perfectly. I had it made for a young lady. The head-gardener +made it, but I told him first what I wanted. There was no word of a +wedding; I only thought a nosegay would be the right sort of thing to +give a young lady, to show her she was mighty welcome; and I thought +white was a nice clean sort of colour. But it turned out I was wrong; +she wouldn't have liked it; it would only have made her uncomfortable; +so, when I found out that, I just let it rest." + +"I see," said Olivia, seeing only too clearly. "Still, I'm not sure you +were right: if I had been the girl----" + +"Yes?" + +The quick word altered the speech it had also interrupted. + +"I should have thought it exceedingly kind of you," said Olivia, after a +moment's reflection. + +She replaced the flowers on the chimney-board, and then led the way out +among the pines. + +"I'm sorry you were in such a hurry," he said, overtaking her when he +had locked up the hut. "I might have made you some billy-tea. The +billy's the can you make it in up the bush. I had such a work to get one +over here! I keep some tea in the hut, and billy-tea's not like any +other kind; I call it better; but you must come again and sample it for +yourself." + +"We'll see," said Olivia smilingly; but with that she lost her tongue; +and together they crossed the lake in mutually low spirits. It was as +though the delicate spell of simple friendship had been snapped as soon +as spun between them, and the friends were friends no more. + +On the lawn, however, in a hammock under an elm, they found a young man +smoking. It was Mr. Edmund Stubbs, who had arrived, with his friend the +Impressionist, on the Saturday afternoon. He was smoking a pipe; but the +ground beneath him was defiled with the ends of many cigarettes; and +close at hand a deck-chair stood empty. + +"I smell the blood of Mr. Llewellyn," said Olivia, coming up with the +glooming Duke. "He smokes far too many cigarettes!" + +"He has gone for more," said the man in the hammock. + +"I wonder you don't interfere, Mr. Stubbs; it must be so bad for him." + +"On the contrary, Miss Sellwood, it is the best thing in the world for +him. A man must smoke something. And an artist must smoke cigarettes. +You can tell what he does smoke, however, from his work. Pipe-work is +inevitably coarse, banal, obvious, and only fit to hang in the front +parlours of Brixton and Upper Tooting. Cigar-work is little better; but +that of the cigarette is delicate, suggestive, fantastic if you will, +but always artistic. Ivor Llewellyn's is typical cigarette-work." + +"How very interesting," said Olivia. + +"My colonial!" muttered the Duke. + +At the same time they caught each other's eyes, turned away with one +consent, nor made a sound between them until they were out of earshot of +the hammock. And then they only laughed; yet the spell that had been +broken was even thus made whole. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN ANONYMOUS LETTER + + +It is comparatively easy to read a character from a face. This is always +a scientific possibility. To fit the face to a given character is +obviously the reverse. And those who knew the worst of Lady Caroline +Sellwood, before making her acquaintance, received, on that occasion, +something like a shock. They had nourished visions of a tall and stately +figure with a hook-nose and an exquisitely supercilious smile; whereas +her Ladyship was decidedly short, and extremely stout, with as plebeian +a snub-nose and as broad a grin as any in her own back-kitchen. Instead +of the traditionally frigid leader of society, she was a warm-hearted +woman where her own interests were not concerned; where they were, she +was just what expedience made her, and her heart then took its +temperature from her head, like the excellent servant it had always +been. A case very much in point is that of her relations with Claude +Lafont, whom, however, Lady Caroline had now her own reasons for +fearing no more. As for the Duke of St. Osmund's, her heart had been a +perfect oven to him from the first. + +Nor did she make any pretence about the matter--it was this that so +repelled Olivia. But the very falsity of the woman was frank to the +verge of a virtue; and the honest dishonesty of her front hair (which +was of the same shade as Olivia's, only much more elaborately curled) +was as bluntly emblematic as a pirate's flag. Lady Caroline Sellwood was +honestly dishonest to the last ounce of her two hundredweight of +avoirdupois. + +This was the kind of thing she thought nothing of doing. She had been +engaged for months upon an egregious smoking-cap for Claude Lafont. That +is to say she had from time to time put in a few golden stitches, in +front of Claude, which her maid had been obliged to pick out and put in +again behind the scenes. Claude, at any rate, had always understood that +the cap was for him--until one evening here in the conservatory, when he +saw Lady Caroline coolly trying it on the Duke. + +"It never did fit you, Claude," she explained serenely. "It was always +too small, and I must make you another. Only see how it fits the dear +Duke!" + +The dear Duke was made the recipient of many another mark of unblushing +favour. He could do no wrong. His every solecism of act or word, and +they still cropped up at times, was simply "sweet" in the eyes of Lady +Caroline Sellwood, and his name was seldom on her lips without that +epithet. + +Moreover, she would speak her mind to him on every conceivable topic, +and this with a freedom often embarrassing for Jack; as, for example, on +the first Sunday after church. + +"I simply don't know how Francis dared!" Lady Caroline exclaimed, as she +took Jack's arm on the sunlit terrace. "Twenty-one minutes by my +watch--and such drivel! It didn't seem so to you? Ah, you're so sweet! +But twenty-one minutes was an outrage, and I shall tell the little idiot +exactly what I think of him." + +"I rather like him," said Jack, who put it thus mildly out of pure +politeness to his companion; "and I rather liked what he said." + +"Oh, he's no worse than the rest of them," rejoined Lady Caroline. "Of +course I swear by the sweet Established Church, but the parsons +personally, with very few exceptions, I never could endure. Still, it's +useful to have one in the family; he does everything for us. He +christens the grandchildren, and he'll bury the lot of us if he's +spared, to say nothing of marrying poor Olivia when her time comes. Ah +well, let's hope that won't be yet! She is my ewe lamb. And all men are +not such dear sweet fellows as you!" + +This sort of speech he found unanswerable; and although treated by her +Ladyship with unflagging consideration, amounting almost to devotion, +Jack was never at his ease in such interviews. + +One of these took place in the hut. Lady Caroline insisted on seeing it, +accompanied by Olivia. Of course the whole idea charmed her to +ecstasies; it was so original; it showed such a simple heart; and the +hut itself was as "sweet" as everything else connected with the Duke. So +was the pannikin of tea which Jack was entreated to brew for her in the +"billy": indeed, this was too sweet for Lady Caroline, who emptied most +of hers upon the earth behind her camp-stool--an act which Jack +pretended not to detect, and did not in the least resent. On the +contrary, he put a characteristic construction upon the incident, which +he attributed exclusively to Lady Caroline's delicate reluctance to hurt +his feelings by expressing her real opinion of the tea; for though +personally oppressed by her persistent kindness, he was much too +unsophisticated, and had perhaps too good a heart of his own, ever to +suspect an underlying motive. + +Towards the end of that week, in fact on the Friday afternoon, they were +all taking tea on the terrace; or rather all but the two talented young +men, who were understood never to touch it, and who, indeed, were +somewhat out of their element at the Towers, except late at night, when +the ladies had gone to bed. "I can't think why you asked them down," +said Lady Caroline to Claude. "I didn't," was the reply; "it was you, +Jack." "Of course it was me," cried the astonished Jack, "and why not? +Didn't they use to go to your rooms, old man, and to your house, Lady +Caroline?" "Ah," said her Ladyship, with her indulgent smile, "but that +was rather a different thing--you dear kind fellow!" All this, however, +was not on the Friday afternoon, when Lady Caroline was absorbed in very +different thoughts. They were not of the conversation, although she put +in her word here and there; the subject, that of the Nottingham murder, +being one of peculiar interest. The horrible case in question, which had +filled the papers all that week, had ended the previous day in an +inevitable conviction. And even Claude was moved to the expression of a +strong opinion as he put down the _Times_. + +"I must say that I agree with the judge," he remarked with a shudder. +"'Unparalleled barbarity' is the only word for it! What on earth, +though, was there to become 'almost inaudible with emotion' about, in +passing sentence? If I could see any man hanged with equanimity, or +indeed at all, I confess it would be this loathly wretch." + +"Claude," said Lady Caroline, "I'm ashamed of you. He is an innocent +man. He shall not die." + +"Who's to prevent it?" asked Jack. + +"I am," replied Lady Caroline calmly. + +"There'll probably be a petition, you see," exclaimed Claude. "Then the +Home Secretary decides." + +"And I decide the Home Secretary," said Lady Caroline Sellwood. + +It was grossly untrue, and Olivia shook her head in answer to the Duke's +astounded stare, but her mother's eyes were again fixed thoughtfully on +lawn and lake. The short dry grass was overrun with wild thyme, +innumerable butterflies played close to it, as spray, and the air hummed +with bees likewise in love with the aroma, whose fragrance reached even +to the terrace. But Lady Caroline noted none of these things, nor yet +the shadows of spire and turret encroaching on the lawn--nor yet the +sunlight strong as ever on the lake beyond. She was already pondering on +the best way of bringing a certain matter to a head. This quiet country +life, with so tiny a house-party, and with one day so like another, was +excellent so far as it went, but the chances were that it would not go +the whole way. It lacked excitement and incentive. It was the kind of +life in which an attachment might too easily stagnate in mere foolish +friendship. It needed an event; a something to prepare for, to look +forward to; a something to tighten the nerves and slacken the tongue; +and yet nothing that should give the Duke an opportunity of appearing at +a public disadvantage. + +So this was the difficulty. It disqualified the dance, the dinner-party, +even the entertaining of the county from 3.30 to 6.30 in the grounds. +But Lady Caroline overcame it, as she overcame most difficulties, by the +patient application of her ingenious mind. And her outward scheme was +presently unfolded in the fewest and apparently the most spontaneous +words. + +"He is not guilty, and he shall not die," she suddenly observed, as +though the Nottingham murder had all this time monopolised her +thoughts. "But let us speak of something else; I had, indeed, a very +different matter upon my mind, until the papers came and banished +everything with this ghastly business. The fact is, dear Duke, that you +should really do something to entertain your tenantry, and possibly a +few neighbours also, before they begin to talk. They will expect it +sooner or later, and in these things it is always better to take time by +the forelock. Mind, I don't mean an elaborate matter at all--except from +their point of view. I would just give them the run of the place for the +afternoon, and feed the multitude later on. Francis, don't look shocked! +I hope you'll be there to ask a blessing. Then, Duke, you could have a +band on the lawn, and fireworks, and indeed anything you like. It's +always good policy to do the civil to one's tenantry, though no doubt a +bore; but you needn't shake hands with them, you know, and you could +leaven the lower orders with a few parsons and their wives from the +surrounding rectories. It's only a suggestion, of course, and that from +one who has really no right to put in her oar at all; still I know you +won't misunderstand it--coming from _me_." + +He did not; his face had long been alight and aglow with the red-heat +of his enthusiasm; and now his words leapt forth like flames. + +"The very ticket!" he cried, starting to his feet. "A general muster of +all sorts, and we'll do 'em real well. Fizz and fireworks! A dance on +the lawn! And I'll make 'em a speech to wind up with!" + +"That would be beautiful," said Lady Caroline with an inward shudder. +"What a dear fellow you are, to be sure, to take up my poor little +suggestion like this!" + +"Take it up," cried Jack, "I should think I would take it up! It'll be +the best sport out. Lady Caroline, you're one in two or three! I'm truly +thankful for the tip. Here's my hand on it!" + +His hand was pressed without delay. + +"It really is an excellent suggestion," said Claude Lafont, in his +deliberate way, after mature consideration. "It only remains to settle +the date." + +"And the brand of fizz, old man, and the sort of fireworks! I'll leave +all that to you. And the date, too; any day will do me; the sooner the +better." + +"Well," said Lady Caroline, as though it had only just struck her, +"Olivia's birthday is the twentieth----" + +"Mamma!" cried that young lady, with real indignation. + +"And it's her twenty-first birthday," pursued the other, "and she is my +ewe lamb. I must confess I should like to honour that occasion----" + +"Same here! By all manner o' means!" broke in the Duke. "Now, Miss +Sellwood, it's no use your saying one word; this thing's a fixture for +the twentieth as ever is." + +The girl was furious. The inevitable, nay, the intentional linking of +her name with that of the Duke of St. Osmund's, entailed by the +arrangement thus mooted and made, galled her pride to the quick. And yet +it was but one more twang of the catapult that was daily and almost +hourly throwing her at his head; neither was it his fault any more than +hers; so she made shift to thank him, as kindly as she could at the +moment, for the compliment he was so ready to pay her--at her mother's +suggestion. + +"You could hardly get out of it, however, after what was said," she +added, not perhaps inexcusably in the circumstances. + +"No more can you," retorted the Duke. "And here comes the very man we +must all consult," he added, as the agent appeared, a taking figure in +his wrinkled riding breeches, and with his spurs trailing on the +dead-smooth flags. + +The agent handed Jack a soiled note, and then sat down to talk to the +ladies. This he did at all times excellently, having assurance and a +certain well-bred familiarity of manner, which, as the saying is, went +down. In this respect he was a contrast to all the other men present. He +inquired when the Home Secretary would be back and ready for his revenge +on the links. And he heard of the plans for the twentieth with interest +and a somewhat superfluous approval. Meanwhile the Duke had read his +note more than once, and now he looked up. + +"Where did you get this?" he asked, displaying the crumpled envelope, +which had also a hole through the middle. + +"In rather a rum place," replied the agent. "It was nailed to a tree +just outside the north gates." + +"Well, see here," said Jack, who stood facing the party, with his back +to the stone bulwark of the terrace, and a hard look on his face; +"that's just the sort of place where I should have expected you to find +it, for it's an anonymous letter that some fellows might keep to +themselves--but not me! I'm for getting to the bottom of things, +whether they're nice or whether they're nasty. Listen to this: 'To the +DUKE of St. Osmund's'--he prints 'Duke' in big letters, as much as to +say I'm not one. 'A word in your GRACE'S ear'--he prints that the same. +'They say,' he says, 'that you hail from Australia, and _I_ say you're +not the first claimant to titles and estates that has sprung from there. +Take a friendly tip and put on as few frills as possible till you're +quite sure you are not going to be bowled out for a second Tichborne. A +WELL-WISHER.' Now what does it all mean? Is it simple cheek, or isn't +it? I recollect all about Tichborne. I recollect seeing him in Wagga +when I was a lad, and we took a great interest in his case up the bush; +but why am I like him? Where does the likeness come in? I've heard fat +men called second Tichbornes, but I don't turn twelve stone. Then what +can he mean? Does he mean I'm not a Duke? I know I'm not fit to be one; +but that's another matter; and if it comes to that, I never claimed to +be one either; it was Claude here who yarded me up into this pen! Then +what's it all about? Can any lady or gentleman help me? I'll pass the +letter round, and I'll be mightily obliged if they can!" + +They could: it was pure insolence, not to be taken seriously for a +single moment. So they all said with one consent; and Jack was further +advised to steel himself forthwith against anonymous letters, of which +persons in his station received hundreds every year. The agent added +that he believed he knew who had written this one; at least he had his +suspicions. + +In a word, the affair was treated by all in the very common-sense light +of a mere idle insult; any serious sympathy that was evinced being due +entirely to the fact that Jack himself seemed to take it rather to +heart. Lady Caroline Sellwood dismissed the matter with the fewest words +of all; nevertheless, Jack detected her in a curious, penetrating, +speculative scrutiny of himself, which he could not fathom at the time; +and her Ladyship had a word to say to Claude Lafont after obtaining his +arm as far as the house. + +"That sort of thing is never pleasant," she observed confidentially, +"and I can't help wishing the dear fellow had kept his letter to +himself. It gives one such disagreeable ideas! I am the last person to +be influenced by such pieces of impudence, as a general rule; still I +could not help thinking what a very awkward thing it would be if your +Mr. Cripps had made a big mistake after all! Not awkward from _every_ +point of view, dear Claude"--and here she pressed his arm--"but--but of +course he had every substantial proof?" + +"Of course," said Claude. "I looked into it, as a matter of form, on +Cripps's return; though his word was really quite sufficient. Well, he +had copies of the certificate of Jack's birth, and of that of my uncle's +marriage, besides proof positive that Jack was Jack. And that was good +enough for me." + +"And for me too," said Lady Caroline, dropping his arm. "He is a dear +fellow; I hardly know which is greater, my regard for him or my sympathy +with you!" And her Ladyship marched upstairs. + +Meantime the agent had led Jack aside on the terrace. + +"I know who sent that letter," said he. "I had my suspicions all along, +and I recognised the disguised hand in a moment. It was Matthew Hunt." + +"Well?" said Jack. + +"Well, it was meant merely as an annoyance: a petty revenge for the +handsome thrashing you gave the fellow six weeks ago--I wish I'd seen +it! But that's not the point. The point is that I think I could bring it +home to the brute; and I want your Grace to let me try." + +"I can't. What's the good? Leave bad alone; we should only make it +worse." + +"Then mayn't I raise the rent of the Lower Farm?" + +"No; not yet, at any rate. I mean to give the fellow a chance." + +"And an invitation for the twentieth too?" + +"Certainly; he's a tenant, or his father is; we can't possibly leave +them out." + +"Very well; your Grace knows best." + +And the agent went his way. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"DEAD NUTS" + + +It was three o'clock in the early morning of the twentieth of August. A +single jet of gas, lighting a torch in the mailed hand of a life-size +man-at-arms, burnt audibly in the silent hall; making the worst of each +lugubrious feature, like a match struck in a cavern. And Claude Lafont +was sitting up alone, in the Poet's Corner, at work upon his birthday +offering to Olivia Sellwood. + +At three, however, it was finished in the rough. The poet then stretched +his fingers, took a clean sheet of paper, and started upon the fair copy +in his prettiest hand. It began-- + + "What songs have I to sing you? + What tales have I to tell?" + +And there it stuck, as though these questions were indeed unanswerable; +the fact being, there was another still to come, which, however, +involved an execrable couplet as it stood. Claude twisted it about for +half-an-hour; realised its gratuitous badness; tried not to ask this +inane question at all, hunted his rhyming dictionary up and down, and +found he must; and finally, with a prayer that it might impose upon +Olivia, and another for forgiveness from the Muse, finished his first +stanza with-- + + "What garlands can I bring you + From Fancy's fairest dell? + Before the world grew old, dear, + The lute was lightlier strung; + Now all the tales are told, dear, + And all the songs are sung." + +It is needless to quote more. The sentiments were superior to their +setting. An affectionate _camaraderie_ was employed, with success, as a +cloak for those warmer feelings of whose existence in his own bosom the +poor poet was now practically convinced. And the lines in themselves +were not all or wholly bad; there was a certain knack in them, and here +and there some charm. But if infinite pains could have made them a work +of genius, that they would have been. It was almost five when Claude +made his best signature at the foot of the last verse; yet there were +but four of these, or thirty-two lines in all. + +He put them in an envelope which he sealed deliberately with his +signet-ring. The deliberation of all his private doings was enormous; +neither the hour nor an empty stomach could induce briskness at the +expense of pains. Yet Claude was exceedingly hungry, and the night had +put an edge on his nerves. As he paced the floor the undue distinction +between his steps, so soft on the rugs, and so loud on the parquetry, +became exaggerated in his nervous ears; and all the silence and all the +darkness of the sleeping Towers seemed to press upon that single +lamp-lit, sounding room, like fathoms of wide sea upon a diver's helm. +Claude had not thought of such things while he was still at work; he had +rather overdone matters, and he poured out a sparing measure of whisky +from the decanter upon the table. + +There were other glasses with dregs at the bottom. The air was tainted +with stale smoke, and within the fender lay the remains of many +cigarettes. This was why Claude was so late. He had been late in making +a start. Stubbs and Llewellyn had sat up with him till the small hours. +The Poet's Corner was the one spot in which these young men seemed +really at home. Here, by midnight, but seldom before, they could manage +to create unto themselves their own element; for their Philistine host +went early to his eccentric lair; but there were always his easy-chairs +to lounge in, his whisky to drink, and Claude Lafont to listen to their +talk. + +Not that the poet was so good a listener as he had been once; the truth +being, that he found himself a little out of touch with his clever +friends--he hardly knew why. It might be the living under one roof with +them; he himself would never have asked them down. Or it might be the +simultaneous hourly contact with an opposite type of man--the kindly, +unaffected dunce--the unburnished nugget, reeking yet of the Australian +soil, but with the gold wearing brighter every day. + +Certain it was that the benefit of the cousins' close companionship had +not been all on one side. If the force of example had toned down some of +Jack's pristine roughness of speech and manner, it had taken a like +effect upon sundry peculiarities of a converse character in Claude. In a +word, there had been an ideal interchange between the two, founded on a +mutual liking. The amelioration of the Duke was sufficiently obvious to +all; that of Claude struck Olivia especially, who had never been blind +to his faults; needless to add, he was himself the last to see how he +had changed. Yet he divined something of it now. As he thought of the +verses he had just written, and of the critic to whom he would have +submitted them in all humility a couple of months ago, he knew that he +was no longer as he had been then; for he had not the faintest intention +of allowing that critic to see these verses at all. + +So Claude calmed his nerves, eating biscuits the while, and sipping +soda-water merely tinctured with whisky; until all at once the lamp +began to flicker and to smell, and the song of the birds, singing in +Olivia's birthday, came at last to his ears through the plate-glass and +rich curtains of the octagonal window. Then he rose; and in half a +minute the lamp was out, the curtains drawn, a sash thrown up, and the +risen sun shining mercilessly on the dishevelled head and blue chin and +battered shirt-front of Claude Lafont. + +The cool, fresh scene inspired him with delight; it was indeed a +disgraceful novelty to the poet. He thought nothing of rhyming "morn" +with "dawn," and yet of this phenomenon itself he had little or no +experience. He would gain some now; he also promised himself the unique +pleasure of rousing the early-rising Jack. So he got out of the window, +and soaked his feet in the dew, only to meet Jack emerging from his hut, +with towels on his arm, as he approached it. Nor was the Duke's +surprise very flattering; but his chaff was fair enough. He was himself +about to bathe in the creek at the north end of the tank. Would Claude +join him and then go back to the hut for an early pannikin of bush tea? +Claude would, and did, feeling (as all felt at Jack's hut) that he had +been flashed through the thick of the earth, and come out in the wilds +of Australia. + +In the hut a log fire had burnt well up by the time they returned with +wet towels and glowing skins. Over the flames hung the billy-can, with +boiling water throbbing against the side. Jack lifted it down with a +stick, and threw a handful of tea among the bubbles. "Shall I sweeten +it?" he then asked; and, at Claude's nod, threw in another handful of +brown sugar. + +"There, that's real bush tea for you," continued the Duke, in a simmer +of satisfaction himself as he stirred the mixture with the stick. "Now +take the pannikin and dip it in. There's no milk, mind; that wouldn't be +the thing at all. Here are some biscuits, and they aren't the thing +either. I'd have made you a damper, only I never could strike a +camp-oven; it's been trouble enough to raise the plant I've got. What do +you think of the tea?" + +"Capital!" cried Claude, who was seated on the bunk. And indeed the +whole thing appealed to his poetic palate; for he could not forget that +this hut was within half a mile of the Towers themselves, in which the +Duke took evidently far less pleasure; and the many-sided contrast +amused his literary sense, even while it piqued his family pride. + +"How I wish it was the real thing!" said Jack, with a sigh. "I'd have a +camp-oven, then, and you should have your mutton chop and damper served +up hot. I used to be an artist at a damper. Then after breakfast I'd +take you with me round the paddocks, and you'd help me muster a mob and +drive them to the tank; and you'd hear them bleat and see them start to +run when they smelt the water. My colonial oath, I can see 'em and hear +'em now! Then we'd give our mokes a drink in the middle of 'em, and we'd +take a pull at our own water-bags. Then we might camp under the nearest +hop-bush for a snack, and I should yard you up at the homestead, and +make you know my old boss before the day was over. What a day it would +be for you! You wouldn't believe the sky could get so blue or your face +so red. But it's no use talking--here we are again!" And he set down his +empty pannikin with another sigh. + +"You wouldn't really prefer that life to this?" + +"No; perhaps not; but I like to think of it, as you can see." + +"Surely you like your new life best by this time? You wouldn't go back +there now?" + +"I like my new friends best; I wouldn't go back on them. Olivia and you, +for instance." + +"It's her birthday," said Claude; but a silence had intervened. + +"So it is. God bless her! I haven't got her anything, because I seemed +to make a mull of it with those flowers. Have you?" + +"Yes, I have a trifle for her; it's rather a different thing on her +birthday, you know. And--and I've written her a few verses; that's what +I've been doing all night." + +"Clever dog!" said Jack enviously. "See what it is to be a man of +genius; here's where it comes in so handy. And has Llewellyn done her +something, too?" + +"Yes; a portrait of herself." + +"Well, let him label it to that effect, or she may put her foot in it +like me. He never shows me his blooming drawings now. But I wish you'd +let me see your poem." + +"It's not all that; it's only verses, and pretty bad ones too; still, +you shall hear them if you like, and if I can remember them," said +Claude, who would have found much more difficulty in forgetting them so +soon. "I only wish they were better! There are some lamentable lines +here and there. I tried to iron them out, but they wouldn't all come." + +"Go on!" cried Jack, lighting his pipe. "I'll tell you whether they're +good or bad. You go ahead!" + +And Claude did so, only too glad of a second opinion of any kind; for he +had little or no intellectual self-reliance, and was ever ready to think +his productions good or bad with their latest critic. On this occasion, +however, he would have been better pleased with the general enthusiasm +of the Duke, had not the latter proceeded to point out particular +merits, when it transpired that the ingenuity of the rhymes was what +impressed him most. Knowing where they came from, the poet himself was +unable to take much pride in this feature. + +"They're splendid!" reiterated Jack. "You ought to be the laureate, old +man, and I've a good mind to tell 'em so in the House of Lords. You're +far and away ahead of Shakespeare at rhyming; he hardly ever rhymes at +all; I know that; because there used to be a copy of him in my old hut. +I say, I like that about the garlands from Fancy's dell; that's real +poetry, that is. But do you mind giving me the last four lines again?" + +Claude gave them-- + + "While yet the world was young, dear, + Your minstrel might be bold: + Now all the songs are sung, dear, + And all the tales are told." + +"First-chop," said Jack, whose look, however, was preoccupied. "But +what's that you're driving at about the minstrel being bolder? What was +it you'd have said if only you'd had the cheek? Say it to me. Out with +it!" + +"I don't know, really," said Claude, laughing. + +"Then I do: you're dead nuts on Olivia!" + +"What's that?" + +"You like her!" + +"Naturally." + +"As much as I do!" + +"That all depends how much you like her, Jack." + +There was a moment's pause. The Duke was sitting on his heels in front +of the fire, into which he was also staring fixedly; so that it was +impossible to tell whether the red light upon his face was spontaneous +or reflected. And he spoke out now without turning his head. + +"Old man," he said, "I've wanted a straight word with you this long +time--about Olivia. Of course I know I oughtn't to call her Olivia +behind her back, when I daren't to her face; but that's what she is in +my own heart, you see--and that's where she's pegged out a claim for +good and all. Understand? We can't all talk like books, old man! Still I +want to make myself as plain as possible." + +"You do so. I understand perfectly," said Claude Lafont. + +"That's all right. Well, as I was saying, she's pegged out a claim that +no other woman is ever going to jump. And what I was going to say was +this: you remember that night in your rooms in town? I mean when I said +I meant no harm, and all that; because I spoke too soon. Worse still, I +felt mean when I did speak; it didn't ring true; and long I've known +that even then there was only one thing that would have held me back. +That was--if she'd been your girl! I gave you a chance of saying if she +was, but you only laughed; and sometimes I've thought your laugh wasn't +any truer than my word. So I've got to have it in plain English before I +go the whole hog. Claude--old man--she never was--your girl?" + +"Never," said Claude decidedly. + +"You never asked her--what I think of asking one of these days?" + +"Never." + +"Thank God, old man. I'm dead nuts on her myself, I tell you frankly; +and I mean to tell _her_ when I can rake together the pluck. I'm not +sure I can keep it to myself much longer. The one thing I'm sure of is +that she'll laugh in my face--if she isn't too riled! I hear her doing +it every night of my life as I lie where you're sitting and listen to +the pines outside. I hear her saying every blessed thing but 'yes!' Yet +it isn't such cheek as all that, is it, Claude? I want your candid +opinion. I'm not such a larrikin as I was that day you met me, am I?" + +And he turned to the other with a simple, strong humility, very touching +in him; but Claude jumped up, and getting behind him so that their eyes +should not meet, laid his hands affectionately on the Duke's shoulders. + +"You are not the same man," he said with a laugh; "yet you are the same +good fellow! I could wish Olivia no better fate--than the one you think +of. So I wish you luck--from my heart. And now let us go." + +On the lawn they found the Home Secretary driving a dozen golf-balls +into space from an impromptu tee. He had come for good now, the session +being over at last. And this was his daily exercise before breakfast, +and his valet's daily grievance, whose duty it was to recover the balls. + +Mr. Sellwood accompanied the younger men into the house, where Claude +had still to shave and dress; but the Duke was the uninterested witness +of an interesting scene, between the Home Secretary and his wife, before +any one else came down to breakfast. The subject was that of the +Nottingham murder. + +"They are making an example of you!" said Lady Caroline bitterly, +looking up from her husband's daily stack of press-cuttings, which she +always opened. + +"Let them," said Mr. Sellwood, from the depths of the _Sportsman_, which +he read before any of his letters. + +"They call it a judicial murder--and upon my word, so do I! Your +decision is most unpopular; they clamour for your resignation--and I +must say that I should do the same. Here's a cartoon of you playing golf +with a human skull for the ball!" + +"Exactly how I mean to spend my day--barring the skull." + +"They know it, too; it's a public scandal; even if it wasn't, I should +be ashamed of myself, with that poor man awaiting his end!" + +"He was hanged five minutes ago," declared the Home Secretary, +consulting his watch. "And I may as well tell you, my dear, that I had +his full confession in my pocket when I gave my decision the night +before last. It appears in this morning's papers. And I fancy that's my +hole," added Mr. Sellwood, nodding at Jack. + +But Jack had no more to say than Lady Caroline, utterly routed for once. +The Duke did not perhaps appreciate the situation, or perhaps he was not +listening; for his eyes hung very wistfully on Olivia's plate, which was +laden and surrounded by birthday offerings of many descriptions. There +were several packets by post, and an open cheque from the Home +Secretary. Claude had added his beautifully sealed envelope before going +upstairs, and now Llewellyn came in with his "likeness of a lady." The +lady was evidently lost in a fog; the likeness did not exist; and the +whole production was exactly like a photographic failure which is both +out of focus and "over-exposed." But it was better than poor Jack's +contribution of nothing at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH + + +A loose chain of fairy lights marked the brink of the lake; another was +drawn tight from end to end of the balustrade rimming the terrace; and +between the two, incited by champagne and the Hungarian band, the rank +and file of the tenantry cut happy capers in the opening eye of the +harvest moon. + +At one end of the terrace the fire-workers awaited the word to rake and +split the still serenity of the heavens; at the other, the fairy +footlights picked out the twinkling diamonds and glaring shirt-fronts of +the house-party, the footmen's gilt buttons and powdered heads; for the +men had just come out of the dining-room, and tea was being handed +round. + +"It is going beautifully--beautifully!" whispered Lady Caroline, +swooping down upon the Duke, who had himself made straight for her +daughter's side. "Inside and out, high and low, all are happy, it is one +huge success. How could it be otherwise? You make such a charming host! +My dear Jack, I congratulate you from my heart; and the occasion must be +my excuse for the familiarity." + +"No excuse needed; I like it," replied the Duke. "I only wish you'd all +call me Jack," he added, with a sidelong look at Olivia; "surely we're +all pretty much in the same family boat! Well, I'm glad you think it's a +success, and I'm glad I make a decent host; but I shouldn't if I hadn't +got the loan of such an excellent hostess, Lady Caroline." + +"You are so sweet!" + +"Nay, it's you that's so jolly kind," laughed Jack. "The fact is, Lady +Caroline, I can get along all right at my own table so long as I don't +have to carve--and when I make up my mind to go straight through cold +water. I was sorry not to drink Miss Sellwood's health in anything +stronger; but it's better so." + +"So fine of you," murmured Lady Caroline; "such a noble example! You +can't think how I've admired it in you from the first!" + +Yet she looked to see whether his remarks had been overheard. They had +not; even Olivia had turned away before they were made, and her mother +now followed her example. She was rewarded by seeing the Duke at the +girl's side again when next she looked round. + +They were standing against the balustrade, a little apart from the rest. +They had set their cups upon the broad stone rim. Jack began to stir his +tea with the impotent emphasis of one possessed by the inexpressible. +But Olivia gave him no assistance; she seemed more interested in the +noisy dancers on the sward below the terrace. + +"I hope you've had a good time, on the whole," he began, ineptly enough, +at last. "All this is in your honour, you know!" + +"Surely not all," replied the girl, laughing. "Still I don't know when I +had such a delightful birthday, and I want to thank you for everything +with all my heart." + +"Everything!" laughed Jack nervously. "I've done nothing at all; why, I +didn't even give you a present. That was through a stupid mistake of +mine, which we needn't go into, because now's the time to rectify it. +I've been waiting for a chance all the evening. The thing only came a +few minutes before dinner. But better late than never, they say, and so +I hope you'll still accept this trifle from me, Miss Sellwood, with +every possible good wish for all the years to come. May they be long +and--and very happy!" + +His voice vibrated with the commonplace words. As he ceased speaking he +took from his waistcoat pocket something that was certainly trifling in +size, and he set it on the balustrade between the two tea-cups. It was a +tiny leathern case, and Olivia held her breath. Next moment an exquisite +ring, diamonds and emeralds, scintillated in the light of the nearest +fairy lamp. + +"This is never for me?" she cried, aghast. + +"That it is--if you will take it." + +She was deeply moved: how could she take a ring from him? And yet how +could she refuse, or how explain! Each alternative was harder than the +last. + +"It is far too good for me," she murmured, "for a mere birthday present! +You are too generous. I can't dream of letting you give me anything half +so good!" + +"What nonsense! It is not half good enough; it's only the best I could +get from Devenholme. I sent in the dogcart for the crack jeweller of the +place; it brought him back with a bagful of things, and this was the +best of a bad lot. I wish I'd kept the fellow! You might have chosen +something else." + +She saw her loophole and made no reply. + +"Would you prefer something else?" he asked eagerly. + +"Well, if you insist on giving me a present, it must be something not +half so good." + +"That's my affair." + +"And perhaps not a ring." + +"That's another matter, and on one condition I'm on: you must let me +drive you in to-morrow to choose for yourself." + +She consented gratefully. Her gratitude was the more profuse from, it +may be, an exaggerated sense of the dilemma in which she had found +herself a moment before; at all events it was very kindly and charmingly +expressed. So Jack pocketed the ring and swallowed his tea in excellent +heart; longing already for the morrow, for the expedition to Devenholme +with Olivia alone at his side. + +"That excellent follow seems very busy with our Olivia. Is there +anything in it?" asked Mr. Sellwood of his wife. + +"I have no idea," replied Lady Caroline; "you know I never interfere in +such matters. I'm glad you think him an excellent fellow, though. He is +simply sweet." + +"In fact we might do worse from every point of view; is that it?" said +the Home Secretary dryly. "I'm inclined to agree with you. I hope he +won't foozle his shot by being in too great a hurry." + +The fireworks had begun. Rocket after rocket split the sky and descended +in a shower of stars. A set-piece stood out against the lake; it +represented six French eagles on a shield. + +"Come and have a look at the family fowls," said Jack, rejoining Olivia, +who had been talking to Claude. "I'd swop the lot for one respectable +emu; it would be a good deal more appropriate for a Duke like me." + +Among other things he had learnt at last to pronounce his own title +correctly. Also, he looked well at all times in evening dress, but he +had never looked better than he did to-night. Claude had these +consolations as he watched the pair go down and mingle with the throng. + +As a matter of fact the Duke of St. Osmund's had never been in higher +spirits in the whole course of his chequered career. Olivia had not, +indeed, accepted his offering, but she had done much better, for now he +was sure of having her to himself for hours the next day. And what might +not happen in those hours? This was one factor in his present content; +her little hand within his arm was another that thrilled him even more; +but there were further and smaller factors which yet astonished him, +each with its unexpected measure of gratification. There were the people +bowing and curtseying as he came among them with Olivia on his arm. +There were the momentary glimpses of the stately Towers, seen from end +to end in a flash, as a bursting rocket spattered the sky with a million +sparks that changed colour as they floated to the earth. And there was +the feeling, never before this moment entirely unmixed, that after all +it was better to be the Duke of St. Osmund's than Happy Jack of New +South Wales. + +"You were right!" he exclaimed, in an attempt to voice what he felt to +Olivia; "you were quite right that day in the hut to say 'I wonder,' to +what I said about not minding if I woke up and found myself on Carara +after all. You set _me_ wondering at the time, and now I rather think +that I should mind a good deal. This place grows upon you. I feel it +more and more every morning when I get the first glimpse of it, coming +through the pines. But I never felt it as I do to-night--look at that!" + +The entire front of the building was lit up by an enormous Roman candle, +playing like a fountain on the terrace. Turret and spire and battlement +were stamped sharp and grey against the darkling sky. The six Corinthian +columns of the portico stood out like sentinels who had taken a step +forward as one man. And in the tympanum overhead the shield of the six +eagles that was carved there showed so plainly that Olivia and Jack +pointed it out to each other at the same moment. + +"You mustn't think I've no respect for the fowls," said the Duke, when +they were both left blinking in the chaste light of the reproving moon; +"I'm proud enough of them at the bottom of my heart. I may be slow at +catching on to new ideas. I know I didn't at first take to everything +like a duck to water. I couldn't, after the life I'd led; it was too +much for one man. But I am getting used to it now. As old Claude says, +I'm beginning to appreciate it. I am so! This has been the proudest day +of my life; I'm proud of everything, of the place, the people----" + +"And yourself most of all!" cried a thick voice at his elbow, while +Olivia's fingers tightened on his other arm. + +It was Matthew Hunt. He was flushed with wine, but steady enough on his +legs. Only his tongue was beyond control, and a crowd was at his heels +to hear what he would say next. + +"Yes, I remember you," he continued savagely. "I shan't forget that +morning in a hurry----" + +"Yet you seem to have forgotten who you are speaking to," put in the +Duke quietly. + +Hunt laughed horribly. + +"Forgotten? I never knew! All I know is as I'm _not_ speaking to his +Grace the Duke----" + +Olivia was not shaken off. She only felt a quivering in the arm she +held; she only guessed it was the other arm that shot out too quick for +her sight from his further shoulder: and all she saw was the dropping of +Hunt at their feet, as if with a bullet through his brain. She conquered +her impulse to scream, and she found herself saying instead, "Well done! +It served him right!" And the voice sounded strange in her own ears. + +But her opinion was freely echoed by those who had followed in Hunt's +wake. A dozen hands raised him roughly, and kept their hold of him even +when he was firm upon his feet, half stunned still, but wholly sobered. +He tried to shake them off, but they answered that he must first +apologise to his Grace. He refused, and they threatened him with the +pond. He gave in then, in a way, speaking one thing, but looking +another, which was yet the plainer of the two to the Duke. It meant that +all was not yet over between him and Hunt. And Jack was very silent as +he led Olivia back to the terrace. + +"You were quite right," she said as they went; "had I been a man I would +have done it for you." + +"You're a splendid girl," he replied, to her confusion; but that was +all; nor did he seem conscious of what he said. + +Already it was late, and in another hour the band had stopped; the +fireworks were over; the people all gone, and gone the memory of their +ringing cheers from the heart of the Duke, who stood alone with Claude +Lafont on the moonlit terrace. Claude had heard of Hunt's insolence and +summary chastisement; he regretted the incident extremely; but his state +of mind was nothing to that of the Duke, who was now a prey to +reactionary depression of the severest order. + +"Are there any revolvers in the house?" said he. "I shall want a loaded +one to-night." + +"What in the world for?" cried Claude in dismay. + +"Not for my own brains; you needn't alarm yourself. But you see what a +bitter enemy I've made; he might get me at his mercy out there at the +hut. There was murder in his eye to-night, or else truth in his words, +and that you won't allow. But there was one or the other. So I want a +shooter before I go over." + +"If only you wouldn't go over at all! What's the use, when there are +dozens of good rooms lying idle in the house? It does seem a madness!" + +"Well, I am half thinking of giving it up; but not to-night, or that +brute may go killing my cats. He's capable of anything. Give me a +revolver like a good chap." + +Claude fetched one from the gun-room. He it was who still knew the +whereabouts of all things, who kept the keys, and who arranged most +matters for the Duke. He was Jack's major-domo as well as his guide, +philosopher, and friend. + +To-night they walked together as far as the shores of the lake. Claude +then returned, but for some reason the pair shook hands first. No word +was said, save between eye and eye in the pale light of the new harvest +moon. But Claude had never yet seen his cousin gaze so kindly on the +home of their common ancestors as he did to-night before they separated. +And that look was a consolation to the poet as he returned alone to the +house. + +"This is the last link with that miserable bush life," said Claude to +himself; "and it's very nearly worn through. He's beginning to see that +there wasn't so much after all in the inheritance of Esau. After +to-night we shall have no more of this nonsense of camping out in a +make-believe bush hut; he will sleep under his own roof, like a sane +man, and I'll get him to burn the bush hut down. After that--after +that--well, I suppose the wedding-bells and the altar rails are only a +question of time!" + +And Claude went within, to talk of art and of books until bookman and +artist went to bed; but he himself returned to the terrace instead of +following their example. A dark depression was brooding over his spirit, +his mind was full of vague forebodings. He had also a hundred regrets, +and yet the last and the least of these was for the moment the most +poignant too. He was sorry he had yielded to Jack in the matter of that +revolver. And even as the thought came into his head--by some strange +prescience--surely never by coincidence--he heard a shot far away in the +direction of the lake. He held his breath, and heard a single throb of +his own heart; then another shot; and then another and another until he +had counted five. + +Now it was a five-chambered revolver that Claude had handed fully loaded +to his cousin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE WRONG MAN + + +The Duke had proceeded to his hut with the slow and slouching gait of a +man bemused; yet the strings of his body were as those of a lute, and +there was an inordinate keen edge to his every sense. He heard the deer +cropping the grass far behind him; and he counted the very +reverberations of the stable clock striking a half-hour in the still +air. It was the half-hour after midnight. The moon still slanted among +the pines, and Jack followed his own shadow, with his beard splayed +against his shirt-front, until within a few yards of his hut. Then he +looked quickly up and about. But the hut was obviously intact; there was +the moon twinkling in the padlock of which the key was in his pocket; +and Jack returned to his examination of the ground. + +He was a very old bushman; he had a black-fellow's eye for a footprint, +and he had struck a trail here which he knew to be recent and not his +own. He followed it to the padlocked door, and round the hut and back to +the door. He found the two heel-marks where the man had sat down to +think some matter over. Then he took out his key and went within, but +left the door wide open; and while his back was still turned to it, for +he could not find his matches, there was a slight noise there, and the +moon's influx was stemmed by a man's body. + +"Good morning, Hunt," said Jack, without turning round. + +The tone, no less than the words, took the intruder all aback. He had +planned a pretty surprise, only to receive a prettier for his pains. + +"How did you know it was me?" he cried. + +"By your voice," was the reply; and the matches were found at last. + +"But before that?" + +"I expected you. Why didn't you go on sitting there with your back to +the door?" + +"You saw me!" cried Hunt, coming in. + +"I saw your tracks. Hullo! Be good enough to step outside again." + +"I've come to talk to you----" + +"Quite so; but we'll talk outside." + +And Hunt had to go with what grace he might. Jack followed with a couple +of camp-stools, pulled the door to, sat down on one of the stools, and +motioned Hunt to the other. The great smooth face shook slowly in reply; +and the moonlight showed a bulbous bruise between the eyes, which made +its author frown and feel at fault. + +"Yes, you may look!" said Hunt through the gap in his set teeth which +was a piece of the same handiwork. "You hit hard enough, but I can hit +harder where it hurts more. A fine Duke _you_ are! Oh, yes; double your +fists again--do. You won't hit me this time. There's no one looking on!" + +"Don't be too sure, my boy," replied Jack. "Don't you make any mistake!" + +Hunt stuck a foot upon his camp-stool and leant forward over his knee. + +"Recollect why you struck me to-night?" + +"Perfectly." + +"Well, I deserved it--for being such a fool as to say what I had to say +at a time like that. It was the drink said it, not me; I apologise again +for saying it there, I apologise to you and me too. I was keeping it to +say here." + +"Out with it," said Jack, who to his own astonishment was preserving a +perfect calm; as he spoke he began filling a pipe that he had brought +out with the matches. + +"One thing at a time," said Hunt, producing a greasy bank-book. "I'll +out with this first. You may have heard that the old Duke had a kind of +weakness for my folks?" + +"I have heard something of the sort." + +"Then I'll trouble you to run your eye over this here pass-book. It +belongs to my old dad. It'll show you his account with the London and +Provincial Bank at Devenholme. It's a small account. This here book goes +back over ten years, and there's some blank leaves yet. But look at it +for yourself; keep your eye on the left-hand page from first to last; +and you'll see what you'll see." + +Jack did so; and what he saw on every left-hand page was this: "per +Maitland, £50." There were other entries, "by cheque" and "by cash," but +they were few and small. Clearly Maitland was the backbone of the +account; and a closer inspection revealed the further fact that his name +appeared punctually every quarter, and always in connection with the sum +of fifty pounds received. + +"Ever heard of Maitland, Hollis, Cripps and Co.?" inquired Hunt. + +Jack started; so this was the Maitland. "They are my solicitors," he +said. + +"They were the old Duke's too," replied Hunt. "Now have a look at the +other side of the account. You know the Lower Farm; then look and see +what we pay for rent." + +"I know the figure," said Jack, handing back the pass-book. "It is half +the value." + +"Less than half--though I say it! And what does all this mean--two +hundred a year paid up without fail by Maitland, Hollis, Cripps and Co., +and the Lower Farm very near rent free? It means," said Hunt, leaning +forward, with an evil gleam on either side of his angry bruise--"it +means that something's bought of us as doesn't appear. You can guess +what for yourself. Our silence! Two hundred a year, and the Lower Farm +at a nominal rent, all for keeping a solitary secret!" + +"Then I should advise you to go on keeping it," said Jack, with cool +point; yet for all his nonchalance, his heart was in a flutter enough +now; for he knew what was coming--he caught himself wondering how much +or how little it surprised him. + +"All very fine," he heard Hunt saying--a long way off as it seemed to +him--whereas he was really bending farther forward than before. "All +very fine! But what if this secret has improved in value with keeping? +Improved, did I say? Lord's truth, it's gone up a thousand per cent. in +the last few weeks; and who do you suppose sent it up? Why, you! I'll +tell you how. I dessay you can guess; still I'll tell you, then there'll +be no mistakes. You've heard things of your father? You know the sort he +was? You won't knock me down again for mentioning it, will you? I +thought not! Well, when the Red Marquis, as they used to call him, was a +young man about the house here, my old dad was in the stables; and my +old dad's young sister was the Duchess's own maid--a slapping fine girl, +they tell me, but she was dead before I can remember. Well, and +something happened; something often does. But this was something choice. +Guess what!" + +"He married her." + +"He did. He married her at the parish church of Chelsea, in the name of +Augustus William Greville Maske, his real name all but the title; still, +he married the girl." + +"Quite right too!" + +"Oh, quite right, was it? Stop a bit. You were born in 1855. You told me +so yourself; you may remember the time, and you stake your life _I_ +don't forget it. It was the sweetest music I ever heard, was that there +date! Shall I tell you why? Why, because them two--the Red Marquis and +his mother's maid--were married on October 22d, 1853." + +"Well?" + +Hunt took out a handful of cigars which had been provided for all comers +in the evening; he had filled his pockets with them; and now he selected +one by the light of the setting moon and lit it deliberately. Then he +puffed a mouthful of smoke in Jack's direction, and grinned. + +"'Well,' says you; and you may well 'well!' For the Red Marquis deserted +his wife and went out to Australia before he'd been married a month. And +out there he married again. _But you were five years old, my fine +fellow, before his first wife died, and was buried in this here parish!_ +You can look at her tombstone for yourself. She died and was buried as +Eliza Hunt; and just that much was worth two hundred a year to us for +good and all; because, you see, I'm sorry to say she never had a child." + +Both in substance and in tone this last statement was the most +convincing of all. Here was an insolent exultation tempered by a still +more insolent regret; and the very incompleteness of the triumph +engraved it the deeper with the stamp of harsh reality. + +Jack saw his position steadily in all its bearings. He was nobody. A +little time ago he had stepped into Claude's shoes, but now Claude would +step into his. Well, thank God that it was Claude! And yet--and +yet--that saving fact made facts of all the rest. + +"I've no doubt your yarn is quite true," said Jack, still in a tone that +amazed himself. "But of course you have some proofs on paper?" + +"Plenty." + +"Then why couldn't you come out with all this before?" + +Hunt gave so broad a grin that a volume of smoke escaped haphazard from +his gaping mouth. + +"You'd punished me," he said, admiring the red end of his cigar; "I'd +got you to punish in your turn, and with interest. So I gave you time to +get to like the old country in general, and this here spot in +particular; to say nothing of coming the Duke; I meant that to grow on +you too. I hope as I gave you time enough? This here hut don't look +altogether like it, you know!" + +Jack's right hand was caressing the loaded revolver in the breast-pocket +of his dress-coat; it was the cold, solid power of the little living +weapon that kept the man himself cool and strong in his extremity. + +"Quite fair," he remarked. "Any other reason?" + +"One other." + +"What was that?" + +"Well, you see, it's like this"--and Hunt dropped his insolence for a +confidential tone far harder to brook. "It's like this," he repeated, +plumping down on the camp-stool in front of Jack: "there's nobody knows +of that there marriage but us Hunts. We've kep' it a dead secret for +nearly forty years, and we don't want to let it out now. But, as I say, +the secret's gone up in value. Surely it's worth more than two hundred a +year to you? You don't want to be knocked sideways by that there Claude +Lafont, do you? Yet he's the next man. You'd never let yourself be +chucked out by a chap like that?" + +"That's my business. What's your price?" + +"Two thousand." + +"A year?" + +"Two thousand a year. Come, it's worth that to you if it's worth a +penny-piece. Think of your income!" + +"Think of yours. Two hundred on condition you kept a single secret! That +was the condition, wasn't it?" + +"Well?" + +"You've let the secret out, you cur!" cried Jack, jumping to his feet. +"And you've lost your income by it for good and all. Two thousand! +You'll never see another two hundred. What, did you take me for a dirty +skunk like yourself? Do you think I got in this position through my own +fault or of my own accord? Do you think I'm so sweet on it as to sit +tight at the mercy of a thing like you? Not me! What you've told me +to-night the real Duke and his lawyers shall hear to-morrow; and think +yourself lucky if you aren't run in for your shot at a damnable +conspiracy! Did you really suppose I cared as much as all that? Do you +think--oh! for God's sake, clear out, man, before I do you any more +damage!" + +"Oh, you're good at that," said Hunt through his broken tooth. He had +risen, and now he retreated a few paces. "You're not bad with your +fists, you fool, but I've come prepared for you this time!" and he drew +a knife; but the revolver covered him next instant. + +"And I for you," retorted Jack. "I give you five seconds to clear out +in. One--two----" + +"My God, are there such fools----" + +"Three--four----" + +The man was gone. At a safer range he stopped again to threaten and +gloat, to curse and to coax alternately. But Jack took no more notice; +he turned into the hut, flung the pistol on the table, and stood +motionless until the railing died away. Yet he had heeded never a word +of it, but was rather reminded that it had been by its very cessation, +as one notes the stopping of a clock. It made him look out once more, +however; and, looking, he saw the last of Matthew Hunt in the moonlit +spaces among the pines. His retreating steps died slowly away. The +snapping of a twig was just audible a little after. And then in the +mellow distance the stable clock chimed and struck one; and again Jack +found himself keeping an imaginary count of the reverberations until all +was still. + +He stood at the door a moment longer. The feathered barbs of the +pine-trees were drawn in ink upon a starry slate. The night was as mild +and clear and silent as many a one in the Riverina itself; and Jack +tried to think himself there; to regard this English summer as the +bushman's dream that he had so often imagined it here in his model bush +hut. But his imagination was very stubborn to-night. The stately home +which was not his rose in his mind's eye between him and the stars; once +more he saw it illumined in a flash from spire to terrace; once more the +portico columns marched forward as one man, while the six eagles flew +out in the tympanum above; and though a purring arose from his feet, and +something soft and warm rubbed kindly against his shins, he could no +longer forget where he was and who he was not. He was not the Duke. He +was the wrong man after all. And the hut that he had built and +inhabited, as a protest against all this grandeur, was a monument of +irony such as the hand of man had never reared in all the world before. + +The wrong man! He flung himself upon the elaborately rude bed to grapple +with those three words until he might grasp what they meant to himself. +And as he lay, his little cat leapt softly up and purred upon his heart, +as if it knew the aching need there of a sympathy beyond the reach of +words. + +Only one aspect of his case came home to him now, but that was its worst +aspect. The life he was to lose mattered little after all. He might miss +it more than he had once thought; it was probable he would but truly +appreciate it when it was a life of the past, as is the way of a man. +Yet even that could be borne. The losing of the girl was different and a +million times worse. But lose her he must: for what was he now? Instead +of a Duke a nobody; not even a decently born peasant; a nameless husk of +humanity, a derelict, a nonentity, the natural son of a notorious rake. +Must he go back then to the bush, and back alone? Must he put himself +beyond the reach of soft words and softer eyes for ever? He could feel +again that little hand within his arm; and it was worse a hundredfold +than the vision of the Towers lit from end to end by the light of a +bursting rocket. Would not the grave itself---- + +Wait. + +There was the pistol on the table. The pale light lay along the barrel. +He held his breath and lay gazing at the faint gleam until it grew into +a blinding sun that scorched him to the soul. And he hardly knew what he +had done when Claude Lafont found him wandering outside with the hot +pistol still in his hand. + +Jack looked upon the breathless poet with dull eyes that slowly +brightened; then he pressed the lever, shot out the empty cartridges, +blew through the chambers, and handed the revolver back to Claude. + +"I've no more use for it. I'm much obliged to you. No, I've done no +damage with it; that's just the point. I was emptying it for safety's +sake. I'm so sorry you heard. I--I _did_ think of emptying it--through +my own head." + +"In Heaven's name, why?" + +"Only for a moment, though. It would have been a poor trick after all. +Still I had to empty it first and see that afterwards." + +"But why? What on earth has happened?" + +"I'm not the man after all." + +"What man?" + +"The Duke of St. Osmund's." + +And Claude was made to hear everything before he was allowed the free +expression of his astonishment and incredulity. Then he laughed. His +incredulity remained. + +"My dear fellow," he cried, "there's not a word of truth in the whole +story. It's one colossal fraud. Hunt's a blackguard. I wouldn't believe +his oath in a court of justice." + +"What about the bank-book?" + +"A fraud within a fraud!" + +"Not it. I'll answer for that. Oh, no; we could have inquired at the +bank. Hunt's a blackguard, but no fool. And you know what my father was; +from all accounts he wasn't the man to think twice about a little job +like bigamy." + +"I wouldn't say that; few men of our sort would be so reckless in such a +matter," declared the poet. "Now, from all _I_ know of him, I should +have said it was most inconsistent with his character to marry the girl +at all. Everything but that! And surely it's quite possible to explain +even that two hundred a year without swallowing such a camel as +downright bigamy. My grandfather was a sort of puritanical monomaniac; +even in the days of his mental vigour I can remember him as a sterner +moralist than any of one's school-masters or college dons. Then, too, he +was morbidly sensitive about the family failings and traditions, and +painfully anxious to improve the tone of our house. Bear that in mind +and conceive as gross a scandal as you like--but not bigamy. Do you mean +to tell me that a man like my grandfather would have thought two hundred +a year for all time too much to pay for hushing such a thing up for all +time? Not he--not he!" There fell a heavy hand upon Claude's back. + +"Claude, old boy, I always said you were a genius. Do you know, I never +thought of that?" + +"It's obvious; besides, there's the Eliza Hunt on the gravestone, I've +seen it myself. But look here--I'll tell you what I'll do." + +"What, old man?" + +"I'll run up to town to-morrow and see Maitland, Hollis, Cripps about +the whole matter. They've paid the money; they are the men to know all +about it. Stop a moment! Hunt was clever enough to have an exact date +for the marriage. What was it again?" + +"October 22d, 1853." + +"I think he said Chelsea _parish_ church?" + +"He did." + +Claude scribbled a note of each point on his shirt-cuff. + +"That's all I want," said he. "I'll run up by the first train, and back +by the last. Meanwhile, take my word for it, you're as safe as the Queen +upon her throne." + +"And you?" said Jack. + +"Oh, never mind me; I'm very well as I am." + +Claude was fully conscious of his semi-heroic attitude; indeed he +enjoyed it, as he had enjoyed many a less inevitable pose in his day. +But that he could not help; and Jack was perhaps the last person in the +world to probe beneath the surface of a kind action. His great hand +found Claude's, and his deep voice quivered with emotion. + +"I don't know how it is," he faltered, "but this thing has got at me +more than I meant it to. Hark at that! Three o'clock; it'll be light +before we know where we are; you won't leave a fellow till it is, will +you? I'm in a funk! I've got to believe the worst till I know +otherwise--that's all about it. The day I shan't mind tackling by +myself, but for God's sake don't go and leave me to-night. You've got +to go in the morning; stop the rest of the night out here with me. You +shall have the bunk, and I'll doss down on the floor. I'll light the +fire and brew a billy of tea this minute if only you'll stay with me +now. Didn't you once say you'd have hold of my sleeve? And so you have +had, old man, so you have had: only now's your time--more than ever." + +Claude was deeply moved by the spectacle of a stronger man than himself +so stricken in every nerve. He looked very compassionately upon the +eager open face. There were a few grey hairs about either temple, but in +the faint starlight they looked perfectly white; and there were +crow's-feet under the eyes that seemed to have escaped his attention +till now. He consented to remain on one condition: he must go back and +put out the lights, and close the windows in the Poet's Corner. So Jack +went with him; and those lights were the only sign of life in all the +vast expanse of ancient masonry, that still belonged to one of them, +though they knew not now to which. It was this thought, perhaps, that +kept both men silent on the terrace when the lights had been put out and +the windows shut. Then Jack ran his arm affectionately through that of +Claude, and together they turned their backs upon those debatable +stones. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE INTERREGNUM + + +Lady Caroline Sellwood was delighted to find Jack in the hall on making +her descent next morning. He appeared lost, however, in a gloomy +admiration of the ghostly guard in armour. The attitude and the +expression were alike so foreign to him that Lady Caroline halted on the +stairs. But only for a moment; the next, Jack was overwhelmed by the +soft tempest of her good-will, and making prodigious efforts to return +her smiles. + +Suddenly she became severe. + +"You're knocked up! You look as if you hadn't had a wink of sleep. Oh, I +knew how it would be after all that racket; you dear, naughty Duke, you +should have spared yourself more!" + +"I was a fool," admitted Jack. "But--but I say, Lady Caroline, I do wish +you wouldn't Duke me!" + +"How sweet of you," murmured Lady Caroline. + +"You know you didn't last night!" he hastily reminded her. + +"But that was an occasion." + +"So is this!" exclaimed Jack, and his tone struck the other more than +she showed. + +"Where is Claude?" inquired Lady Caroline suddenly. + +"On his way to Devenholme." + +"Devenholme!" + +"And London, for the day. He had to catch the 9.40." + +"So he has gone up to town! Odd that one never heard anything about +it--I mean to say he could have made himself so useful to one. May I ask +when he decided to go?" + +Jack hesitated. He had been charged to keep a discreet tongue during +Claude's absence; he had been supplied with a number of reasons and +excuses ready-made; but perfect frankness was an instinctive need of +this primitive soul, whose present thoughts stood out in easy print upon +his face, even as he resolved to resist his instincts for once. + +"He decided--this morning," said Jack at last; and he took from his +pocket a lengthy newspaper cutting attached to a pale green slip: "This +is an article on him and his books, that has just appeared in the +_Parthenon_. What wouldn't I give to lay a hold of the brute who wrote +it! I call it the sort of thing to answer with a hiding. It's one of a +series headed 'Our Minor Poets,' which Claude says has been bad enough +all through; but this article on him is the worst and most brutal of the +lot. And--and--and old Claude took it to heart, of course; and--and he's +run up to town for the day." + +"Because of a severe criticism! I should have thought he was used to +them by now. Poor dear Claude, he can string a pretty rhyme, but he +never was a poet. And you, Jack--since you insist--you never were an +actor--until to-day!" + +Jack hung his head. + +"You don't do it well enough, you dear fellow," continued Lady Caroline +caressingly. "As if you could impose upon me! You must first come to me +for lessons. Candidly now: what has taken him up to town in such a +hurry? The same thing that--kept you awake all night?" + +"Candidly, then," said Jack, raising his haggard face doggedly, "it was! +And if you'll come out upon the terrace for five minutes I'll tell you +exactly what's wrong. You have a right to know; and I can trust _you_ +not to let it go any further for the moment. Even if I couldn't, I'd +have to tell you straight! I hate keeping things up my sleeve; I can't +do it; so let me make a clean breast of the whole shoot, Lady Caroline, +and be done with it till Claude comes back." + +Lady Caroline took a discouraging view of the situation. The Red Marquis +had been capable of anything; related though they had been, she could +not help telling Jack that her parents had forbidden her to dance with +his father as a young girl. This might be painful hearing, but in such a +crisis it was necessary to face the possibilities; and Lady Caroline, +drawing a little away from her companion in order to see how he was +facing them, forgot to take his arm any more as they sauntered in the +sun. She undertook, however, to keep the matter to herself until +Claude's return, at the mention of whose name she begged to look at the +cutting from the _Parthenon_. + +"A most repulsive article," her mother informed Olivia after breakfast, +but not until she had repeated to the girl the entire substance of the +late conversation on the terrace. "I never read anything more venomously +ill-bred in my life; and so untrue! To say he is no poet--our Claude! +But we who know him, thank goodness we know better. It is the true +poetry, not only in but between every line, that distinguishes dear +Claude from the mere stringers of pretty rhymes of whom the papers +sicken one in these latter days. But where are you going, my love?" + +"To get ready to go with--Jack." + +"To go where, pray?" + +"Why, to Devenholme, as we arranged last night," replied Olivia, with +spirit. "He said he would drive me over; and _you_ said 'how sweet of +him,' and beamed upon us both!" + +Lady Caroline winced. "You impertinent chit!" she cried viciously; "you +know as well as I do that what I have told you alters everything. Once +and for all, Olivia, I forbid you to drive into Devenholme +with--with--with--that common man!" + +"Very well; the drive's off," said the girl with swift decision; and she +left her mother without another word. + +She put on her habit and went straight to Jack. + +"Do you mind if we _ride_ into Devenholme instead of driving?" + +"Mind! I should like it even better." + +"Then suppose we go to the stable-yard and see about our horses +ourselves; and while we are there, we may as well stay and start by the +back road, which will save at least a quarter of a mile." + +"My oath," said Jack without further provocation, "you might have been +dragged up in the bush!" + +"I wish I had been!" exclaimed Olivia bitterly. He could not understand +her tone. Nor did he ever know the meaning of the momentary fighting +glitter in the brave brown eyes of the girl. + +He rode as an inveterate bushman, entirely on the snaffle, with +inelegantly short stirrups and a regrettable example of the back-block +bend; nor did his well-broken hack give him a chance of exhibiting any +of the finer qualities of the rough-riding school. But indeed for the +most part the couple sat at ease in their saddles, while the horses +dawdled with loose reins and lazy necks in the cool shadows of the +roadside trees. By mutual consent they had dispensed with an attendant +groom. And Olivia had never been so kind to Jack, as on this day when he +was under so black a cloud, with so heavy a seal upon his lips. + +For once she talked to him; as a rule she liked better to listen, with +large eyes intent and sympathetic lips apart--ever ready with the +helpful word. But to-day she was wishful to entertain, to take him out +of himself, to console without letting him suspect that she knew as much +as he had told her mother. In a sense she knew more, for Lady Caroline +had duly exaggerated his frank confession; and the girl's heart bled for +her friend, on the brink of a disillusion without parallel in her +knowledge. So she told him of her life in town and elsewhere; of the +treadmill round of toilsome pleasure; of the penance of dressing and +smiling with unflagging prettiness; of the hollow friendships and +hollower loves of that garish life, and the unutterable staleness of the +whole conventional routine. No doubt she overstated her case; and +certainly her strictures were themselves conventional; but she was +perfectly aware of both facts, and would have been exceedingly sorry to +have had this conversation recorded against her. Olivia had a healthy +horror of superiority, either of the moral or the intellectual order. +But she was conducting a conversation with an obvious purpose; and it +was only when he told her again, and more earnestly than before, how +suited she was for the bush, that she proposed the canter which brought +them a mile nearer Devenholme. + +"Now it's you to play," she told him as they drew rein; "and I want to +hear some of your adventures. You've never told us any, yet you must +have had heaps. So far I've only heard about the hut, the sheep, the +homestead, and your old boss." + +"A white man!" cried Jack. "I wish you knew him." + +"So do I; but I can quite picture him, and just now I would much rather +hear about some of your own adventures. So begin." + +Jack laughed. + +"Really, Miss Sellwood, I never had one in my life!" + +"Then really, my Lord Duke, I can't believe a word----" + +Jack was laughing no more. + +"Don't call me that," he said. "It would be so much kinder to call me +Jack!" + +She had forgotten. Her heart smote her now, and the difficulty was to +conceal her unsuspected sympathy. So she insisted on his calling her +Olivia, to conclude the bargain. And the double innovation made them +both so self-conscious, that she forgot her thirst for his adventures, +while he brooded heavily upon his bitter-sweet advancement won loo late. + +So they came into Devenholme as the sun was shining fore and aft along +the quaint old English streets. And in the town, where he was well +enough known by this time, poor Jack was received with a cruel +consideration that would have hurt him even more than it did had he +dreamt how it affected his companion. The tender-hearted girl was +inexpressibly grieved, and never more than when the jeweller mentioned a +hundred guineas as the price of the ring to be changed; indeed, the +situation in the jeweller's shop was perilously charged with hidden +emotions. In this terribly equivocal position, Jack could not press upon +Olivia things for which he might never be able to pay; neither could +Olivia now refuse any present at all, nor yet lead him as low as she +would have liked in the price, for fear of revealing her illicit +knowledge. So at last they hit upon a curb-bracelet that fastened with a +tiny padlock. It cost but forty-five shillings. And when he had locked +it upon her right wrist, he pocketed the key without a remark, then paid +ready money and left the shop in a throbbing agony of shame. The poor +jeweller stood bowing them out with the hundred-guinea ring still in his +hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +JACK AND HIS MASTER + + +It was necessary to bait the horses; it was equally essential for the +pair themselves to have something to eat. So they rode under the olden +arch of the oak-lined Falcon, and it was "your Grace" at every step, +with ironic iteration very hard for either of them to bear without a +word to the other. They dismounted therefore with the less delay; and +Olivia turned her back upon the coffee-room window, and on an elderly, +bald, well-dressed man, whose cool fixed stare made the girl extremely +angry, when Jack at her side gave a shout of delight. + +"So help me never! _it's the boss himself!_" + +Olivia turned, and there was the objectionable old fellow in the window +smiling and waving to her enchanted companion. And this was the man of +whom she had heard so often! She did not stop to consider how he came to +be here; the back-blockers were already at explanations, but Olivia was +not listening. She was thinking of the bearded, jovial, hearty squatter +of her imagination; and she was glancing askance at the massive chin and +forehead, and at the white moustache cropped close over the bad mouth of +the real man. + +"Mr. Dalrymple--my old boss--Miss Sellwood!" shouted Jack, introducing +them with a wealth of pantomime. "We're coming up to lunch with you, +sir; that is, you're to lunch with me; it's my shout!" + +And poor Olivia found herself swept off her feet, as it were, into the +presence of a man whom all her instincts had pronounced odious at sight. + +But the higher court of the girl's intellect reversed this judgment on +the appeal of her trained perceptions. The elderly squatter was not +after all a man to be summed up at a glance or in a word: his undoubted +assurance was tempered and redeemed by so many graces of manner and +address as to upset entirely the girl's preconceptions of his class. At +table he treated her with a princely courtesy, imperceptibly including +her in a conversation which poor Jack would have conducted very +differently if left to himself. After the first few minutes, indeed, +Olivia could see but two faults in the squatter; the first was the +fierce light his charming manners reflected on those of Jack; and the +second was a mouth which made the girl regret the austere cut of his +moustache whenever she looked at Mr. Dalrymple. + +"So you left before shearing, sir!" cried Jack, who was grossly eager +for all station news. "I wonder you did that. They must be in the thick +of it now!" + +"They were to begin on the fifth of this month. The shearing, Miss +Sellwood, is the one divine, far-off event towards which the whole +sheep-station moves," added Mr. Dalrymple, with a glibness worthy of +Claude Lafont. + +"And don't you forget the lamb-marking," chimed in Jack. "I hope it was +a good lambing this year, sir?" + +"Seventy-nine per cent.," replied Dalrymple. "I'm afraid that's Greek to +you, Miss Sellwood--and perhaps better so." + +"You see, I'm as keen as ever on the old blocks!" cried Jack. It was a +superfluous boast. + +"So I do see; and I must say, Jack, you surprise me. Do you notice how +he 'sirs' me, Miss Sellwood? I was on my way to pay homage to the Duke +of St. Osmund's, not to receive it from Happy Jack of Carara!" + +"Do you often come over to England, Mr. Dalrymple?" asked Olivia +quickly. For the girl had seen the spasm in Jack's face, and she knew +how the anæsthetic of this happy encounter had exhaled with the +squatter's last speech. + +"No, indeed!" was the reply. "I haven't been home for more years than I +care to count; and the chances are that I shouldn't be here now but for +our friend the Duke. He unsettled me. You see, Miss Sellwood, how +jealous are the hearts of men! _I_ had no inheritance to come home to; +but I had my native land, and here I am." + +"And you have friends in Devenholme?" + +"I have one friend; I wish that I dared say two," replied the squatter, +looking from Jack to Olivia in his most engaging manner. "No, to tell +you frankly, I was on a little inquisitive pilgrimage to Maske Towers. I +did not wait for an invitation, for I knew that I should bring my own +welcome with me." + +"Of course, of course; come out to-morrow!" exclaimed Jack nervously. +"I'll send in for you, and you must stay as long as ever you can. If +only I'd driven in, as I meant to, we'd have taken you back with us. Yet +on the whole to-morrow will be best; you must give us time to do you +well, you know, Mr. Dalrymple. It'll be a proud day for me! I little +expected to live to entertain my own boss!" + +Indeed, his pride was genuine enough, and truly characteristic of the +man; but at the back of it there was a great uneasiness which did not +escape the clear, light eye of Dalrymple. Not that the squatter betrayed +his prescience by word or sign; on the contrary, he drank Jack's health +in the champagne provided by him, and included Olivia's name in a very +graceful speech. But Jack drank nothing at all; and having reduced his +roll to a heap of crumbs, he was now employed in converting the crumbs +into a pile of pellets. + +Olivia pitied his condition; that tremulous brown hand, with the great +bush freckles still showing at the gnarled finger-roots, touched her +inexpressibly as it lay fidgeting on the white table-cloth. She strained +every nerve to keep the squatter engaged and unobservant; and she found +herself fluctuating, in a rather irritating manner, between her first +instinctive antipathy and her later liking for the man. He was extremely +nice to her; he had an obvious kindness for poor Jack; and she +apprehended a personal magnetism, a unique individuality, quite powerful +enough to account for Jack's devotion to him. She felt the influence +herself. Yet there was something--she could not say what. + +The way in which her last vague prejudice was removed, however, made a +deep impression upon Olivia, besides giving her a startling glimpse of +her own feelings. And it all came of a casual remark of Dalrymple's, in +elucidation of his prompt expedition to the district, to the effect that +the Duke of St. Osmund's had once saved his life. + +"Your life!" cried Olivia, while Jack ceased meddling with his bread. + +"To be sure. Is it possible he has never told you the story?" + +"Not a word of it! And only this morning, as we rode in, I asked him if +he had never had any adventures!" + +Her face was a flushed reproach. + +"I'd forgotten that one," said Jack sheepishly. "I really had. It's so +long ago; and it wasn't much when you come----" + +"Not much!" interjected Dalrymple. "I should be very sorry to find +myself in such a tight place again! It's some thirteen years ago, Miss +Sellwood. I was thinking of taking up some cattle country in the +unfenced part of Queensland. I had gone up to have a look at the place, +and the blacks attacked us while I was there. We were three strong in +an iron store: the owner, a stray shearer, and myself. The shearer had +his horse hung up outside; he could have got away quite easily in the +beginning; but our horses were all turned out, and he wouldn't leave us. +So we dragged his horse inside, and we set to work to defend the store." + +"I know that shearer!" cried Olivia proudly. "Yet he hangs his head! Oh, +go on, Mr. Dalrymple, go on!" + +"From daybreak to sundown," continued the squatter, "we defended +ourselves with a Winchester, a double-barrelled shot-gun, and an old +muzzle-loading rifle. The blacks came on by the score, but they couldn't +get in, and they couldn't set fire to the corrugated iron. It was +riddled like a sieve, and each of us three had a hole in him too; but +there was a wall of dead blacks up against the iron outside, and they +were as good as sandbags. We should have beaten the fellows off before +midnight if our powder had held out. It didn't; so I assure you we shook +hands, and were going to blow up the place with a twenty-gallon tin of +petroleum, that was luckily inside, when our friend the shearer came out +with an idea. His horse had a ball in its body and was screaming like a +woman, so that _it_ was no use. I recollect we put it out of its pain +with our last charge. But there was long dry grass all round up to +within some fifteen yards of the store; and after dark the shearer ran +out three or four times with a bucket of petroleum, and once with a box +of matches. The last time but one the blacks saw him. They had +surrounded the place at a pretty respectful radius, and they were having +what we call a spell; but they saw him the last time but one. And when +he went out again and struck his matches they had something to aim at. +Well, his first match went out, and there was a sheaf of spears sticking +in the sand and three new holes through the house. We waited; not +another thing could we see. We didn't know whether he was dead or alive, +and we heard the blacks starting to rush us. But we also heard the +scratch of a second match; in another instant the thing flared up like a +circular lamp--and us in the middle of the burner! The country was burnt +black for miles all round, and we ourselves had a hot time of it, Miss +Sellwood; but here are two of us, at all events, to tell the tale." + +Olivia bowed to him; she could not speak. Then for a little she turned +her wet eyes, wet with enthusiasm, upon the awkward hero of the tale. +And without more words the party broke up. + +Jack was still remonstrating with Dalrymple when the girl rejoined them +outside. + +"Come now!" she said. "Was it true, or wasn't it?" + +"More or less," admitted Jack. + +"Was it true about the horse and the petroleum and the spears?" + +He confessed that it was, but discredited his memory as a clumsy +qualification. Olivia turned away from him, and said no more until she +was in her saddle; then while Jack was mounting she rode up to the +squatter. + +"I am truly grateful to you, Mr. Dalrymple," she said; "and all the +others will be as grateful as I am, and will look forward to your visit. +But for you, we might all have gone on being entertained by a hero +unawares. You must tell us more. Meanwhile I for one can thank you most +heartily!" + +And she leant over and frankly pressed his hand; but said very little +all the long ride home. Jack assured her, however, that he had never +thought of his wound for years, although he must have a bullet in him +somewhere to that day; he also told her that the fight with the blacks +had been the beginning of his connection with his old boss, whose +service he had never left until the end. And for miles he spoke of no +one else; he was so grateful to Olivia for liking his friend, and he had +so many stories of Dalrymple to set as well as he could against that one +of himself. So the ride drew to an end in the golden afternoon, with +never a tender word between the pair, though his heart was as full as +hers; but she could not speak; and the great seal lay yet upon his +lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +END OF THE INTERREGNUM + + +Nobody was about when they dismounted, so Jack himself led the horses +back to the stables, while Olivia gathered up her habit and scaled the +steps. The stable clock struck five as the former was returning by way +of the shrubbery; another seven hours, and Claude would come home with +the news. For such an issue, it was still an eternity to wait. But Jack +felt that the suspense would be easily endurable so long as he could +have sight and speech of Olivia Sellwood; without her, even for these +few minutes, it was hardly to be borne. + +Yet this stage of his ordeal was made up of such minutes. He returned to +desolate rooms. Olivia had disappeared; nor could he pitch upon a soul +to tell him where she was. Door after door was thrown open in vain; each +presented an empty void to his exacting eyes. He ran outside and stood +listening on the terrace. And there, through an open upper window he +heard a raised voice railing, which he could not but recognise as that +of Lady Caroline. Her words were indistinguishable. But as Jack looked +aloft for the window, one was passionately shut, and he neither heard +nor saw any more. + +The first persons he ultimately encountered were Mr. Sellwood and the +agent. They had golf-clubs in their hands and wholesome sweat upon their +brows. The agent treated Jack as usual; the Home Secretary did not. He +stated that he had at last won a round; but his manner was singularly +free from exultation; indeed, it was quite awkward, as though perfect +cordiality had suddenly become a difficult matter, and he was ashamed to +find it so. Certainly there had been no difficulty of the kind before. +And Jack noted the change, but was too honourable himself to suspect the +cause. + +He next fell in with the Frekes. This excellent couple loved Jack for +his goodness to their children, who were not universally popular. They +now carried him off to tea in the nursery, where he stayed until it was +time to dress for dinner. Jack liked the children; it was not his fault +that they were so seldom in evidence. They were obviously spoilt; but +Jack thought they were taken too seriously by all but their parents, +who certainly did not take them seriously enough. So he had many a romp +with the little outcasts, but never a wilder one than this afternoon, +for the children took him out of himself. Their society, had he but +known it, was even better for him in the circumstances than that of +Olivia herself; it was almost as good as another meeting with Dalrymple +of Carara. He rose at length from under his oppressors, dusty, +dishevelled and perspiring, but for the moment as light-hearted as +themselves. And there were the grave, sympathetic eyes of the parents +resting sadly upon him to recall his trouble. Why should they look sad +or sympathetic? Everybody had changed towards him; this was the +difference in the Frekes. Could they have divined the truth? No +suspicion of a broken confidence entered his head; yet it was +sufficiently puzzled as he dressed, with unusual care, to make a +creditable last appearance at the head of the table which would prove +never to have been his at all. He had quite made up his mind to that; he +found it appreciably harder to reconcile himself to the keen +disappointment which awaited him in the dining-room. + +Olivia was not coming down. + +"She has knocked herself up," explained Lady Caroline tersely. "So would +any girl--not an Australian--who rode so far on such a day. Your Grace +might have known better!" + +Jack stared at her like a wounded stag; then he uttered an abject +apology, for which, however, he obtained no sort of a receipt. Lady +Caroline had turned and was talking to some one else. But it was not +this that cut him to the heart; it was her mode of addressing him, after +their conversation of the early morning. + +Later in the evening he remembered that railing voice and the shutting +of the window upstairs; and with a burning indignation he divined, all +at once, who it was that had been so spoken to, and why, with the true +cause of Olivia's indisposition. + +This was in the darkness of his hut, with Livingstone asleep in his lap. +In another minute Jack was striding through the pines, on his way to the +drawing-room for a few plain words with Lady Caroline Sellwood. He never +had them. Lady Caroline was gone to bed. It was almost eleven; within an +hour Claude would be back, and a moral certainty become an absolute +fact. Hunt's tale was true. Had it been otherwise, Claude would have +telegraphed. He had left, indeed, on the distinct understanding that he +should do no such thing; his mission was to be kept a secret, and a +telegram might excite suspicion; yet even so he would have sent one had +all been well. Jack was sure of it; his exhausted spirit had surrendered +utterly to an ineluctable despair. + +In this humour he sought the Poet's Corner, and found its two _habitués_ +furtively chuckling over some newspaper. Their gaiety cut him to the +quick. Yet he longed to enter into it. + +"What's the joke?" he asked. "I want something to make me laugh!" + +"This wouldn't," replied Edmund Stubbs. "It's not benign enough for +you." + +"It's only a piece of smart scribbling," explained Llewellyn, lighting a +fresh cigarette with the stump of the last. + +Jack was behind them; quite innocently he put his head between theirs +and looked for himself. The paper was the _Parthenon_. There was but one +article on the open page. It was headed-- + + OUR MINOR POETS. + + XXVIII. MR. CLAUDE LAFONT. + +"So that amuses you?" said Jack at last. + +"Quite," said Llewellyn. + +"You think it just, eh?" + +"Oh, hang justice! It's awfully nice copy. That's all it has any right +to be. Justice doesn't matter a hang; the _Parthenon's_ not written for +the virtuous shopkeeper; it isn't meant to appeal to the Nonconformist +Conscience." + +"Besides, the article _is_ just," protested Stubbs. "We know what Lafont +is, between ourselves; he's an excellent chap, but his poetry--save the +mark!--would hardly impose on Clapham and Wandsworth. His manner's cheap +enough, but his matter goes one cheaper; it's the sort of thing for +which there should be no charge." Stubbs drained his glass. + +Jack was blazing. + +"I don't know what you mean by 'cheap,'" he cried; "but from reading +that article, which I happen to have seen before, I should call it a +jolly 'cheap' word. I don't set up to be a clever man. I only know what +I like, and I like everything of Claude's that--that I can understand. +But even if I didn't I should be sorry to go about saying so in his own +house!" + +"_His_ own house!" exclaimed the Impressionist. + +"We didn't know it was his," said Stubbs. + +"What's mine is Claude's," replied Jack, colouring. "It was before I +turned up, and it will be again when--whenever I peg out." + +With that he was gone. + +"Sounds suicidal," remarked Llewellyn. + +"Or celibate," said Stubbs, replenishing his glass. + +"Poor beast!" concluded the artist. + +Here their host returned. + +"I'm very sorry, you fellows," said he, with absurd humility. "I'm all +off colour to-night, and I know I've made a rude ruffian of myself. Some +of these days you'll understand; meantime will you forgive me?" + +"_I_ have nothing to forgive," replied Llewellyn. + +"We'll say no more about it," said Stubbs. + +And Jack shook hands with them both before leaving them for good; then +he hurried through the length of the building to the great conservatory, +where Stebbings was putting out the lights. The conservatory was at that +extreme of the Towers which the dogcart would pass first. Here, too, was +room and air for a man distraught. So Jack called out to Stebbings to +leave the lights on longer. + +"And light some more," he added suddenly. "Light up every lamp in the +place! I shall stay here until Mr. Lafont returns." + +"Yes, your Grace." + +"Stebbings!" + +"Your Grace?" + +"For God's sake don't call me that again! I--I'm not used to it, +Stebbings--any more than you're used to me," added Jack inconsequently; +and he fled into the grounds until the old man should be gone. + +The night was very dark and heavy; clouds obscured the moon, shedding a +fine rain softly upon drive and terrace. Jack raised his face, and a +grateful sprinkling cooled its fever. He longed for a far heavier fall, +with the ancient longing of those prehistoric days when a grey sky and +an honest wetting were the rarest joys in life. Could he indeed return +to that rough routine after all these weeks of aristocratic ease? The +bushman might exchange his wideawake for a coronet, but could the peer +go back to the bush? Time must show. The only question was whether Hunt +had lied or told the truth; and the answer could not be much longer +delayed. Already it was half-past eleven; there was the clang creeping +lazily through the night, round quarter of a mile of intervening wall, +and half a hundred angles. + +He would have gone down the drive to meet the dogcart; but the night was +too dark; and beside him blazed the great conservatory like a palace of +fire. He entered it again, and now he had it to himself; the statues +among the tree-ferns were his only companions. But in his absence old +Stebbings had placed a little table with brandy and soda-water set out +upon it; even the butler had seen and pitied his condition. + +The third quarter struck. The sound just carried to the conservatory, +for now the rain was heavier, and the rattle overheard warred +successfully against all other noises. The dogcart might drive by +without Jack's hearing it. The suspense was horrible, but a surprise +would be more horrible still. He was becoming unstrung; why should he +not tune himself up with the brandy? His voluntary teetotalism was too +absurd; he had made no promise, taken no pledge, but only a private +pride in his self-discipline as it had gone on from day to day. Not a +drop had he touched since that afternoon at Dover so long, so long ago! +As he reckoned up the time, the forgotten lust possessed him; it had +been even so on Carara, when the periodical need of a cheque would first +steal over his lonely spirit. He thought now of those occasions and +their results; he knew himself of old; but he was no longer the same +man--resistance would be ridiculous now. He took another look at the +night; then he filled a wine-glass with raw brandy--raised it--and +impulsively dashed the whole upon the marble flags. The brandy widened +in a shallow amber flood; the broken glass lay glittering under the +lamps; and in Jack's ears the patter of the rain (which had never +abated) broke out anew. + +He could not account for his act; he did not know it for the culmination +of a highly nervous condition induced by the twenty-four sleepless hours +of unrelieved suspense. It was neither more nor less, and yet it enabled +him to hold up his head once more. And as he did so, there--through the +swimming crystal walls--between a palm-tree and a Norfolk Island +pine--were the two red eyes of the dogcart dilating in the dark. + +The great moment had come, and it was not so great after all. Jack's +little outburst had left him strangely calm. He went to the door and +hailed the dogcart in a loud, cheery voice. The lamps stopped. Claude +came within range of those in the conservatory, and shook himself on the +steps. Then he entered, looking unusually healthy, but dripping still. + +"A brute of a night for you," said Jack apologetically. "Take off that +coat, and have some brandy. Mind where you go. I've had a spill." + +This was the reaction. Claude understood. + +"Then you don't want to hear the news?" + +"I know it. I've known it for hours." + +"That I can see you haven't. Listen to me. There was no English +marriage. Give me your hand!" + +It was limp and cold. + +"You don't believe me!" said Claude severely. + +Jack subsided in a chair. + +"I can't," he whispered. "I can't." + +"You soon will. I wish to goodness I'd taken you with me to-day. Now +listen: there was some truth in Hunt's story, but more lies. The +marriage was a lie. There never was a marriage. There was something +rather worse at the time, but a good deal better now. My grandfather +patched it up, exactly as I thought. He packed my uncle out to +Australia, and he settled two hundred a year on the Hunts, on the single +condition of 'perpetual silence as to the connection between the two +families.' I've seen the covenant, and those are the very words. The +condition has been broken after all these years. And the Hunts' income +stops to-day." + +Jack had roused himself a little; he was no longer apathetic, but +neither was he yet convinced. + +"It seems a lot of money to hush up so small a matter," he objected. +"Are they sure there was no more in it than that?" + +"Maitland and Cripps? Perfectly sure; they've been paying that money for +nearly forty years, and there's never been a hint at a marriage until +now. Certainly there's none in the settlement. But to make assurance +surer, young Maitland took a cab and drove off to see his father--who +was a partner in '53, but has since retired--about the whole matter. And +I took another cab, and drove straight to the old parish church facing +the river at Chelsea. I found the clerk, and he showed me the marriage +register, but there was no such marriage on that date (or any other) in +_that_ church; so why in any? One lie means dozens. Surely you'll agree +with me there?" + +"I must; it's only the money that sticks with me. It seems such a case +of paying through the nose. But what had old Maitland to say?" + +"Everything," cried Claude. "He remembered the whole business perfectly, +and even saying to my grandfather much what you're saying to me now. But +I've told you the kind of man the old Duke was; he was a purist of the +purists, besides being as proud as Lucifer, and a scandal so near home +hit him, as you would say, in both eyes at once. He considered he got +good value for his money when he hushed it up. They showed me a letter +in which he said as much. Young Maitland unearthed it after he had seen +his father, and with it others of a later date, in which the Duke +refused to revoke or even to curtail the allowance on the woman's death. +That's all; but surely it's conclusive enough! Here we have a +first-class firm of solicitors on the one hand, and a clumsy scoundrel +on the other. Which do you believe? By the way, they're anxious to +prosecute Hunt on all sorts of grounds if you'll let them." + +"I won't." + +"I think you ought to," said Claude. + +"No, no; too much mud has been stirred up already; we'll let it rest for +a bit." + +"But surely you'll get rid of the Hunts after this?" + +"I'll see." + +Claude was disappointed; he had looked for a different reception of his +news. + +"Do you mean to say you're not convinced yet?" he cried. + +"No," said Jack, "I'm quite satisfied now; you hem the thing in on every +side. But I wish to goodness all this had never happened!" + +"So do we all; but if there was a doubt, surely it was best to set it at +rest? If I were you, I should feel as one does after a bad dream." + +Jack was on his feet. + +"My dear old mate," he cried, "and so I do! But I'm only half woke up; +that's what's the matter with me, and you must give me time to pull +myself together. You don't know what a day I've had; you never will +know. And you--my meat's your poison, and yet you've been doing all this +for me just as if it was the other way round; and not a word of thanks +at the end of it. Claude--old man--forgive me! Thanks won't do. They're +no good at all in a case like this. What can a fellow say? If it was +you, you'd say plenty----" + +"I hope not," interrupted Claude, laughing. "Wait till you do me a good +turn. You've done me many a one already, and I've never said a word." + +But Jack would shake hands, and even Claude's face was shining with a +tender light as a soft step fell upon the marble, and Lady Caroline +Sellwood entered from the drawing-room. The door had been left open. But +it was instantly evident that her Ladyship had not been eavesdropping, +or at least not to any useful purpose; for she planted herself before +the two men in obvious ignorance as to which was the man for her. She +was still in the handsome dress that she had worn all the evening; and +between her plump, white, glittering fingers she nursed the purple +smoking-cap that had always been--and was still--intended for the Duke +of St. Osmund's. + +"It was no good," she cried tragically, looking from Claude to Jack and +back again at Claude. "I simply couldn't go to bed until I knew. And +now--and now I'm torn two ways; for pity's sake, put me out of _one_ +misery." + +"It's all up," said Jack deliberately. He owed Lady Caroline a grudge +for the shrill scolding he had heard upstairs, and another for Olivia's +absence from the dinner-table. He was also curious to see what Lady +Caroline would do. + +She sailed straight to Claude, holding the smoking-cap at arm's length. + +"My dear, dear Claude! _How_ I congratulate you! I find, after all, that +the smoking-cap, which was originally intended----" + +"Dear Lady Caroline," interposed Claude hastily, "everything is as it +was. Hunt's story is a complete fabrication; I'd no idea that you knew +anything about it." + +"I couldn't help telling Lady Caroline," said Jack. Lady Caroline turned +upon him with hot suspicion. + +"You said it was all----" + +He interrupted her. + +"I was _going_ to say that it was all up with Hunt. He loses two hundred +a year for his pains." + +"Is that possible?" cried her Ladyship. + +"It's the case," said Claude; "so everything is as it was, and as it +should be." + +Lady Caroline exhibited no further trace of her discomfiture. + +"I wish we hadn't all interrupted each other," she laughed. "_I_ was +about to remark that the smoking-cap, which was originally intended to +have what one may term a frieze, as well as a dado, of gold lace, will +look much better without the frieze, so there's really no more to do to +it. Take it, my dear, dear Jack, and wear it sometimes for my sake. And +forgive a mother for what one said about Olivia's ride. Claude, I shall +make another cap for you; meanwhile, let me congratulate you--again--on +your noble conduct of to-day. Ah, you neither of you congratulate me on +mine! Yet I am a woman, and I've kept your joint secret--most +religiously--from nine in the morning to this very hour!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"LOVE THE GIFT" + + +Her answer was altogether astonishing; she leant back in the boat and +looked him full in the face. A quick flush tinged her own, and the +incomparable eyebrows were raised and arched; but underneath there was +an honest tenderness which Olivia was not the girl to conceal. + +"Was that your water-lilies?" said she; but this was not the astonishing +speech. He had lured her afloat on impudently false pretences; she had a +right to twit him with that. + +"There are no water-lilies," he confessed; "at least, never mind them if +there are. Oh, I was obliged to make some excuse! There was nowhere else +where we could talk so well. I tell you again I have the cheek to love +you! I can't help it; I've loved you ever since that day in London, and +you've got to know it for good or bad. If it makes you very angry, I'll +row you back this minute." He was resting on his oars under cover of +the little island; the Towers were out of sight. + +"Why in the world didn't you speak yesterday?" was Olivia's +extraordinary reply. + +"Yesterday?" faltered Jack. + +"It was such a chance!" + +"Not for me! My tongue was tied. Olivia, I was under a frightful cloud +yesterday! You don't understand----" + +"What if I do? What if I did at the time?" + +"I don't see how you could," said Jack. + +"Instinctively," replied Olivia, to screen her mother. "I knew something +was wrong, and I have since been told what. If only you had spoken +then!" + +She dropped her eyes swiftly; the tear ran down her cheek. + +"But why? Why then, better than now?" + +"Because _I_ care, too," she whispered, so that the words just travelled +to his ear. + +"Olivia! My--do you know what you've said? Do you mean it?" + +"Of course I care. I mean that much. You are different from everybody +else." + +"Then----" + +"There must be no 'then.'" + +"But you said you cared. Tell me--I don't understand." + +"I can never marry you," said Olivia, looking him once more in the face. +And her eyes were dry. + +"Why not, if it is true--that you care?" + +"Because you are what you are--and I--oh! how can I say it even to you? +I am so ashamed. I have been thrown at your head from the very +first--no, I have no right to say that. How I hate everything I say! You +must understand; I am sure you do. Well, in the beginning I couldn't +bear to speak to you, because I knew--what was hoped--and I seemed to +see and hear it in every look and word. It hurt me more than I ever can +tell you. The same sort of thing had happened before, but I had never +minded it then. I suppose all mothers are like that; it's natural +enough, when you come to think, and I'm sure I never resented it before. +I wouldn't have minded it in your case either; I wouldn't have minded +anything if I hadn't----" + +The words would not come. + +"Hadn't what?" he said. + +"If I hadn't liked you--off my own bat!" + +"But if you really do, my glorious girl, surely that fixes it? We have +nothing to do with anybody else. What does it matter how they take it?" + +"It matters to my pride." + +"I don't see where your pride comes in." + +"Of course you don't; you are not behind the scenes. And I can't make +you see. I'm not going to give my own people away to that extent, not +even to you. But--I can just picture my mother's face if we went in this +very minute and told her we were engaged! She would fall upon both our +necks!" + +"That wouldn't matter," said Jack stolidly. "That would be all right." + +"It would be dreadful--dreadful. I couldn't bear it when I know that +yesterday----" + +She checked herself firmly. + +"Well, what of yesterday?" + +"It would have been quite a different thing." + +"What! if I'd spoken then?" + +"I--think so." + +"You would have said----" + +"I should have found out what your trouble was. You would have told me +everything. And then--and then----" + +He leant still further forward. + +"If you had wanted me very much----" + +"I _do_ want you very much." + +"I should have found it easier to say 'yes'"--the word was hardly +audible--"than I ever shall now!" + +"But why, Olivia? Tell me why!" + +"You force it from me, word by word," complained the girl. + +"Then let me see. I think I begin to see. You like me in myself almost +well enough to marry me. Well, thank God for that much! But you don't +want to marry the Duke of St. Osmund's, because you're mortally afraid +of what people will say. You think they'll say you're doing it for the +main chance. And so they will--and so they may! They wouldn't say it, +and you wouldn't think it, of any other man in my position; no, it's +because I'm not fit for my billet, that's how it is! Not fit for it, and +not fit for you; so they'd naturally think you were marrying me for what +I'd got, and that you couldn't bear. Ah, yes, I see hard enough; it's as +plain as a pikestaff now!" + +The girl saw, too; with the unconscious bluntness of a singularly direct +nature, he had stripped her scruples bare, and their littleness +horrified Olivia. The moral cowardice of her hesitation came home to her +with an insupportable pang, and her mind was made up before his last +sentences put her face in flames. + +"You are wrong," she could only murmur; "oh, you are dreadfully wrong!" + +"I am right," he answered bitterly, "and _you_ are right. No wonder you +dread the hard things that would be said of you! Take away the name and +the money, and what am I? A back-block larrikin--a common stockman!" + +"The man for me," said Olivia hoarsely. + +"Ah, yes, if I were not such a public match!" + +"Whatever you are--whatever you may be--if you want me still----" + +"Want you! I have wanted you from the first. I shall want you till the +last!" + +Her reply was indistinct; her tears were falling fast; he took her two +white hands, but even them he did not touch with his lips. A great +silence held them both, and all the world; the island willows kissed the +stream; in the sheet of gold beyond, a fish leapt, and the ripple +reached the boat in one long thin fold. The girl spoke first. + +"We need not be in a hurry to tell everybody," she began; but the words +were retracted in the same breath. "What am I saying? Of course we will +tell. Oh, what a contempt you must have for me!" + +"I love you," he answered simply. "I am too happy to live. It's all too +good to be true. Me of all men--the old bushman!" + +She looked lovingly on his bearded and sunburnt face, shining as she had +never seen it shine before. + +"No; it's the other way about," she said. "I am not half good enough for +you--you who were so brave yesterday in your trouble--who have been so +simple always in your prosperity. It was enough to turn any one's head, +but you--ah, I don't only love you. I admire you, dear; may God help me +to make you happy!" + +They stayed much longer on the lake, finally disembarking on its +uttermost shore, because Olivia was curious to see how the hut would +look in the first rosy light of her incredible happiness. And when they +came to it, the sunlight glinted on the new iron roofing; the pine-trees +exhaled their resin in the noon-day heat following the midnight rain; +and the shadows were shot with golden shafts, where all was golden to +the lovers' eyes. + +Jack made a diffident swain; it was the girl who slipped her hand into +his. + +"You will never pull it down?" she said. "We will use it for a +summer-house, and to remind you of your old life. And one day you will +take me out to the Riverina, and show me the hut you really lived in, +and all your old haunts. Oh, I shouldn't mind if we had both to go out +there for good! A hut would take far less looking after than the Towers, +and I should have you much more to myself. What fun it would be!" + +Jack thought this a pretty speech, but the girl herself was made +presently aware of its insincerity. They had retraced their steps, and +there in front of them, cool and grey in the mellow August sunshine, +with every buttress thrown up by its shadow, and the very spires +perfectly reflected in the sleeping lake, stood the stately home which +would be theirs for ever. Olivia saw it with a decidedly new thrill. She +was looking on her future home, and yet her husband would be this simple +fellow! Wealth could not cloy, nor grandeur overpower, with such a mate; +that was perhaps the substance of her thought. It simplified itself next +moment. What had she done to deserve such happiness? What could she ever +do? And a possible tabernacle in the bush entered into neither question, +nor engaged her fancy any more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AN ANTI-TOXINE + + +They rowed over, and were in mid-water when the landau drove up to the +house. It had been sent in for Mr. Dalrymple early in the forenoon. They +saw nothing, however, until they landed, when the equipage was +proceeding on its way to the stables, having deposited the guest. At +this discovery, the Duke's excitement knew no bounds, so Olivia urged +him to run on and leave her; and he took her advice, chiefly regretting +that he had missed the proud moment of welcoming his old boss in the +hall. + +Jack regretted this the more when he reached the house. There was +Dalrymple of Carara beginning his visit by roundly abusing the butler in +the very portico! The guest was in a towering passion, the butler in a +palsy of senile agitation; and between them on the step lay Dalrymple's +Gladstone bag. + +"What _is_ the matter?" cried Jack, rushing up with a very blank face. +"Stebbings, what's this? What has he done, Mr. Dalrymple?" + +"Refused to take in my bag! Says it's the footman's place!" + +"Then what's he here for? The man must be drunk. Are you, Stebbings?" + +The butler murmured an inarticulate reply. + +"Get to your pantry, sir!" roared Jack. "You shall hear more of this +when you are sober. Old servant or new servant, out you clear!" + +And he took up the bag himself, as Stebbings gave a glassy stare and +staggered off without a word. + +"I'm extremely sorry for losing my temper," said Dalrymple, taking +Jack's arm as they entered the house; "but it always was rather short, +as I fear I needn't remind _you_. Really, though, your disgraceful old +retainer would have provoked a saint. Drunk as fool in the middle of the +day; drunk and insolent. Has the man been with you long?" + +"Only fifty years or so with the family," replied Jack savagely; "but, +by the living Lord, he may roll up his swag!" + +"Ah! I wouldn't be hasty," said Dalrymple. "One must make allowances for +one's old retainers; they're a privileged class. How good of you, by +the way, to send in for me in such style! It prepared me for much. But I +am bound to say it didn't prepare me for all this. No, I never should +have pictured you in such an absolute palace had I not seen it with my +own eyes!" + +And now the visitor was so plainly impressed by all he saw, that Jack +readily forgave him the liberty he had taken in rating Stebbings on his +own account. Still the incident rankled. Dalrymple was the one man in +the world before whom the Duke of St. Osmund's really did desire to play +his new part creditably; and what could be said for a peer of the realm +who kept a drunken butler to insult his guests? Jack could have shaken +the old reprobate until the bones rattled again in his shrivelled skin. +Dalrymple, however, seemed to think no more about the matter. He was +entirely taken up with the suits of armour here in the hall: indeed +Olivia discovered him lecturing Jack on his own trophies in a manner +that would have led a stranger to mistake the guest for the host. + +It may be said at once that this was Dalrymple's manner from first to +last. It was that of the school-master to whom the boy who once trembled +at his frown is a boy for evermore. And it greatly irritated Jack's +friends, though Jack himself saw nothing to resent. + +The Duke led his guest into the great drawing-room, and introduced him +with gusto to Lady Caroline Sellwood and to Claude Lafont. But all his +pride was in the visitor, who, with his handsome cynical face, his +distinguished bearing, and his faultless summer suit, should show them +that at least one "perfect gentleman" could come out of Riverina. Jack +waited a moment to enjoy the easy speeches and the quiet assurance of +Dalrymple; then he left the squatter to Lady Caroline and to Claude. It +was within a few minutes of the luncheon hour. Jack wanted a word with +Stebbings alone. The more he thought of it, the less able was he to +understand the old butler's extraordinary outbreak. Could he have been +ill instead of drunk? A charitable explanation was just conceivable to +Jack until he opened the pantry door; it fell to the ground that moment; +for not only did he catch Stebbings in the act of filling a wine-glass +with brandy, but the butler's breath was foul already with the spirit. + +"Very well, my man," said Jack slowly. "Drink as much as you like! +You'll hear from me when you're sober. But show so much as the tip of +your nose in the dining-room, and I'll throw you through the window with +my own hands!" + +The upshot of the matter was indirect and a little startling; for this +was the reason why Dalrymple of Carara took the head of his old hand's +table at luncheon on the day of his arrival; and obviously it was +Dalrymple's temporary occupation of that position, added to his +unforgettable past relations with his host, which led him to behave +exactly as though the table were his own. + +A difficulty about the carving was the more immediate cause of the +transposition. In the ordinary course, this was Stebbings's business, +which he conducted on the sideboard with due skill; in his absence, +however, the footmen had placed the dishes on the table; and as these +included a brace of cold grouse, and neither Jack nor Claude was an even +moderate practitioner with the carving-knife, there was a little hitch. +Mr. Sellwood was not present; he took his lunch on the links; and Jack +made no secret of his relief when the squatter offered to fill the +breach. + +"Capital!" he cried; "you take my place, sir, and I wish you joy of the +billet." And so the thing fell out. + +It had the merit of seating the Duke and Olivia side by side; and the +happy pair were made distinctly happier by the mutual discovery that +neither had as yet confided in a third soul. At the foot of the table, +in the position which Jack had begged her to assume at the outset of her +visit, sat Lady Caroline Sellwood. The clever young men were on opposite +sides, as usual; nor did they fail to exchange those looks of neglected +merit and of intellectual boredom which were another feature of their +public appearances. Their visit had not been altogether a success. It +was a mystery why they prolonged it. They had been invited, however, to +spend a month at Maske Towers, which, after all, was neither an +uncomfortable resting-place nor a discreditable temporary address. + +Francis Freke said a Latin grace inaudibly, and then the squatter went +to work at the birds. These were a present from afar; there were no +moors "on" Maske, as Jack explained, with a proud eye on Dalrymple's +knife. It flashed through the joints as though the bird had been already +"boned"; on either side the breast fell away in creamy flakes; and +Dalrymple talked as he carved, with the light touch and the easy grace +of a many-sided man of the world. At first he seemed to join in +everybody's conversation in turns; but he was only getting his team +together; and in a little everybody was listening to him. Yet he talked +with such tact that it was possible for all to put in their word; +indeed, he would appeal first to one, then to another, so that the +general temper of the party rose to a high level. Only Olivia and Claude +Lafont felt that this stranger was taking rather much upon himself. +Otherwise it was a pleasure to listen to him; he was excellently well +informed; before the end of the meal it came out that he had actually +read Claude's poems. + +"And lived to tell the tale!" he added with characteristic familiarity. +"I can tell you I felt it a risk after reading that terrible +depreciation of you in the _Parthenon_; you see, I've been in England a +few days, and have been getting abreast of things at my hotel while my +tailors were making me externally presentable. By the way, I ran across +a young Australian journalist who is over here now, and who occasionally +scribbles for the _Parthenon_. I asked him if he knew who had made that +scurrilous attack upon you, Mr. Lafont. I was interested, because I knew +you must be one of Jack's relations." + +"And did you find out?" inquired Claude, with pardonable curiosity. + +"He found out for me. The culprit was a man of your name, Mr. Stubbs; no +relation, I hope?" + +"I hope not," said Stubbs, emptying his glass; and his pallid complexion +turned a sicklier yellow, as though his blood were nicotine, and the +nicotine had mounted to his face. + +"I should like to hear that name in full," said Lady Caroline down the +length of the table. "I read the article myself. It was a disgrace to +journalism. It is only fair to our Mr. Stubbs that we should hear his +namesake's Christian name." + +"I think I can oblige," said Dalrymple, producing his pocket-book. "His +name was--ah! here it is! His name was Edmund. Edmund Stubbs!" + +Edmund Stubbs was not unequal to the occasion. He looked straight at +Jack. + +"Will you kindly make it convenient to send me in to Devenholme in time +for the next train?" he said. "If the Australian--gentleman--is going to +stay in your house, I, for one, shall trespass no longer on your +hospitality." + +"Nor I, for another!" Llewellyn chimed in. + +And without further ceremony the mordant couple left the table and the +room. Jack looked embarrassed, and Claude felt sorry for Jack. As for +Olivia, she had felt vaguely indignant with Dalrymple ever since he had +taken the head of the table; and this scene put a point to her feelings, +while it also revived her first prejudice against the squatter. Lady +Caroline, however, congratulated him upon an excellent piece of work. + +"You have performed a public service, my dear Mr. Dalrymple," said she. +"Dear Jack will, I know, forgive me when I say that those two young men +have never been in their element here. They are all right in a London +drawing-room, as representatives of a certain type. In a country house +they are impossible; and, for my part, I shall certainly never send them +another card." + +Jack also was ceasing to disapprove of the humiliation of Edmund Stubbs, +whose remarks overnight in the Poet's Corner had suddenly recurred to +his mind. + +"Did you know it was the same man?" said he, pushing back his chair. + +"I'm afraid I did," replied the squatter, as he rose. "They told me he +was staying down here, and I could hardly avoid exposing the fellow. I +hope, my dear Jack, that you will forgive the liberty I undoubtedly took +in doing so. I am the germ that expels the other germs--a sort of +anti-toxine in cuffs. _Similia similibus_, if my memory serves me, Mr. +Lafont. Before long you may have to inject a fresh bacillus to expel +_me_! Meantime, my dear Jack, let me offer you a cigar to show there's +no ill-feeling." + +"No, thanks," said Jack, for once rather shortly; "you've got to smoke +one of mine. It's my house!" he added, with a grin. + +And the remark was much appreciated by those to whom it was not +addressed; on Dalrymple it produced no effect at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HECKLING A MINISTER + + +The engagement became known in the course of the afternoon, and the news +was received in a manner after all very gratifying to the happy pair. +Lady Caroline Sellwood did indeed insist on kissing her future +son-in-law, but the obvious attitude she now assumed did not impose upon +him for a moment. He had seen through her the night before; he could +never believe in the woman again. In any case, however, her affectation +of blank surprise, and her motherly qualms concerning the prospective +loss of her ewe lamb, were a little over-acted, even for so +inexperienced an observer as the Duke of St. Osmund's. She knew it, too, +and hated Jack with all her hollow heart for having found her out; to +him, it was, after this, a relief to listen to the somewhat guarded +observations of Mr. Sellwood, whose feelings in the matter were just a +little mixed. + +Of the rest, Francis Freke volunteered his services for the great +event, and both he and his wife (who brought down her entire speaking +family to say good-night to "Uncle Jack") were consumed with that +genuine delight in the happiness of others which was their strongest +point. Claude, too, was not only "very nice about it," as Olivia said, +but his behaviour, in what was for him a rather delicate situation, +showed both tact and self-control. Never for a moment did look or word +of his suggest the unsuccessful suitor: though to be sure he had +scarcely qualified for such a _rôle_. Olivia and he had never been more +than friends. On her side, at least, the friendship had been of that +perfectly frank and chronic character which is least likely to develop +into love. And no one knew this better than Claude himself, who, +moreover, was not even yet absolutely sure that his own undoubted +affections were inspired by the divine impulse for which his poet's +heart had so often yearned. At all events he had thought upon the one +maiden for very many months; and putting it no higher than this, his +present conduct was that of a tolerably magnanimous man. + +The one person who raised an unsympathetic eyebrow was Dalrymple the +squatter. He seemed surprised at the news and, for the moment, rather +annoyed; but Jack recalled the deplorably cynical view of women for +which the owner of Carara had been quite notorious in the back-blocks, +and the squatter's displeasure did not rankle. Nor was it expressed a +second time. Either the sight of the pair together, who made no secret +of their happiness; either this pretty spectacle, or the dictates of +good taste, moved Dalrymple, ultimately, to the most graceful +congratulations they had yet received. And it was characteristic of the +man that his remarks took the form of an unsolicited speech at the +dinner-table. + +He had been only a few hours in the house, yet to all but Mr. Sellwood +(who did not meet him until evening) the hours seemed days. For the +squatter was one of those men who carry with them the weight of their +own presence, the breath of an intrinsic power, subtly felt from the +first; thus the little house-party had taken more notice of him in one +afternoon than the normal stranger would have attracted in a week; and +to them it already seemed inevitable that he should lead and that they +should follow whether they would or no. Accordingly, they were not in +the least surprised to see Dalrymple on his legs when the crumb-cloth +had been removed; though all but Jack deemed the act a liberty; and the +squatter still adopted the tone of a master felicitating his men, rather +than that of a guest congratulating his host. + +Yet the speech was fluent and full of point; and the speaker himself +made a sufficiently taking figure, leaning slightly forward, with the +tips of his well-shaped fingers just resting on the black oak board that +dimly reflected them. An unexceptionable shirt-front sat perfectly on +his full, deep chest, a single pearl glistening in its centre; and there +was a gleam of even teeth between the close-cropped, white moustache and +the ugly, mobile, nether lip, whence every word fell distinct and clear +of its predecessor. The Home Secretary had heard a worse delivery from +his own front bench; and he was certainly interested in the story of the +iron hut and the savages of Northern Queensland, which Dalrymple +repeated with the happiest effect. Olivia forgave him certain earlier +passages on the strength of these; her heart was full; only she could +not lift her eyes from the simple chain about her wrist, for they were +dim. The speech closed with the dramatic climax of the tale; there had +been but one interruption to the flow of well-chosen words, and that was +when the speaker stopped to blow out a smoking candle without appealing +to his host. + +The health of the pair was then drunk with appropriate enthusiasm; poor +Jack blurted out a few honest words, hardly intelligible from his +emotion; and the three ladies left the room. + +"There's one more point to that yarn," said Dalrymple, closing the door +he had held open, "that I don't think you yourself are aware of, Jack. +It was when you got back to the store, with your shirt burnt off your +back, and the country in a blaze all round, that I first noticed the +legend on your chest. As you probably know, Mr. Sellwood, the Duke has +one of his own eagles tattooed upon his chest. I saw it that day for the +first time. I felt sure it meant something. And years afterwards, when I +heard that a London solicitor was scouring the Colonies for the unknown +Duke of St. Osmund's, it was the sudden recollection of that mark which +made me to some extent the happy instrument of his discovery." + +"To every extent!" cried Jack, wringing his benefactor's hand. "I've +always said so. Mr. Sellwood, I owe him everything, and yet he makes a +song about my scaring away a few blackfellows with a bush-fire! By the +hokey, I've a good mind to have him live happily with us ever after for +his pains!" + +The Home Secretary bent his snowy head: his rosy face was the seat of +that peculiarly grim expression with which political caricaturists have +familiarised the world. Dalrymple's light eyes twinkled like polished +flints; here was high game worthy of his gun. He took the empty chair on +Mr. Sellwood's left. + +"I understand, sir, that you are fatally bitten with golf?" began the +squatter in his airiest manner. The other lit a cigarette with insolent +deliberation before replying. + +"I'm fond of the game," he said at length, "if that's what you mean." + +"That was precisely what I did mean. Pardon me if I used an +unparliamentary expression. I have read a great deal in your English +papers--with which I never permit myself to lose touch--of the +far-reaching ravages of the game. Certainly the disease must be +widespread when one finds a Cabinet Minister down with the--golf!" + +"We don't pronounce the _l_," Mr. Sellwood observed. "We call it +_goff_." For though in political life an imperturbable temper was one of +his most salient virtues, the Home Secretary was notoriously touchy on +the subject of his only game. + +Dalrymple laughed outright. + +"A sure symptom, my dear sir, of a thoroughly dangerous case! But pray +excuse my levity; I fear we become a little too addicted to chaff in the +uncivilised wilds. I am honestly most curious about the game. I'm an old +fogey myself, and I might like to take it up if it really has any +merits----" + +"It has many," put in Claude cheerily, to divert an attack which Mr. +Sell wood was quite certain to resent. + +"Has it?" said the squatter incredulously. "For the life of one I can't +see where those merits come in. To lay yourself out to hit a sitting +ball! I'd as soon shoot a roosting hen!" + +"Hear, hear!" cried Jack. "That's exactly what _I_ say, Mr. Dalrymple." + +The discussion had in fact assumed the constituent elements of a +"foursome," which may have been the reason why the Home Secretary was +unable any longer to maintain the silence of dignified disdain. + +"I should like to take you out, the two of you," he said, "with a driver +and a ball between you. I should like to see which of you would hit that +sitting ball first, and how far!" + +"We'll take you on to-morrow!" exclaimed Jack. + +But the Home Secretary made no reply. + +"I'm not keen," remarked Dalrymple. "It can't be a first-class game." + +"You're hardly qualified to judge," snapped Sellwood, "since you've +never played." + +"Exactly why I _am_ qualified. I'm not down with the disease." + +"Then pray let us adopt the Duke's suggestion, and play a foursome +to-morrow--like as we sit. Eh, Mr.--I beg your pardon, but I quite +forget your name?" + +"Dalrymple," replied the squatter; "and yours, once more?" + +"Look in Whitaker," growled the Home Secretary, rising; and he left the +table doubly angered by the weakness of his retort, where indeed it was +weak to have replied at all. + +Decidedly the squatter was no comfortable guest. Apart from his +monstrous freedom of speech and action, which might pass perhaps on a +bush station, but certainly not in an English country house, he was +continually falling foul of somebody. Now it was the butler, now a +fellow guest, and lastly a connection of his host, and one of Her +Majesty's Ministers into the bargain. In each case, to be sure, the +other side was primarily in the wrong. The butler was the worse for +drink; the _Parthenon_ man had indulged in gratuitous abuse of his +friend; even Mr. Sellwood had taken amiss what was meant as pure chaff, +and had been the first to begin the game of downright rudeness at which +the old Australian had soon beaten him. Yet the fact remained that +Dalrymple was the moving spirit in each unpleasantness; he had been a +moving spirit since the moment he set foot in the house, and this was +exactly what the other guests resented. But it was becoming painfully +apparent that Jack himself would take nothing amiss; that he was +constitutionally unable to regard Dalrymple in any other light than that +of his old king, who could still do no wrong. And this being so, it was +impossible for another to complain. + +Indeed, when Mr. Sellwood joined the ladies, who happened to be in the +conservatory, with savage words upon his lips, his wife stuck up for the +maligned Colonist. That, however, was partly from the instinct of +conjugal opposition, and partly because Lady Caroline was herself afraid +of "this fellow Dalrymple," as her husband could call him fluently +enough behind his back. The other men were not long in joining the +indignant Minister. They had finished their cigarettes, but Jack had +donned his gorgeous smoking-cap by special request of Lady Caroline, +who beamed upon him and it from her chair. + +"Hallo! have you come in for that thing?" exclaimed Mr. Sellwood, who +was in the mood to hail with delight any target for hostile criticism. +"I always thought you intended it for Claude, my dear Caroline?" + +"It turned out to be a little too small for Claude," replied her +Ladyship sweetly. + +"Claude, you've had an escape," said the Home Secretary. "Jack, my boy, +you have my sympathy." + +"I don't require it, thank you, sir," laughed the Duke. "I'm proud of +myself, I tell you! This'd knock 'em up at Jumping Sandhills, wouldn't +it, Mr. Dalrymple?" + +"It would indeed: so the cap goes with the coronet, does it?" added the +squatter, but with such good-humour that it was impossible to take open +umbrage at his words. "I wonder how it would fit me?" And he lifted the +thing off Jack's head by the golden tassel, and dropped it upon his own. + +"Too small again," said Jack: indeed the purple monstrosity sat upon the +massive hairless head like a thimble on a billiard-ball. + +"And it doesn't suit you a bit," added Olivia, who was once more in a +simmer of indignation with her lover's exasperating friend. + +"No more would the coronet," replied Dalrymple, replacing the +smoking-cap on its owner's head. "By the way, Jack, where do you keep +your coronet?" + +"Where do I keep my coronet?" asked the Duke of his major-domo. "I've +never set eyes on it." + +"I fancy they have it at the bank," said Claude. + +"And much good it does you there!" exclaimed Dalrymple. "Shall I tell +you what I'd do with it if it were mine?" + +"Yes, do," said Jack, smiling in advance. + +"Then come outside and you shall hear. I am afraid I have shocked your +friends sufficiently for one night. And there's a very fascinating +moon." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE CAT AND THE MOUSE + + +"You're a lucky fellow," said the squatter as they sauntered down the +drive. "Give me another of those cigars; they are better than mine, +after all." + +"They ought to be," replied Jack complacently. "I told old Claude to pay +all he could for 'em." + +"He seems to have done so. What an income you must have!" + +"About fifteen bob a minute, so they tell me." + +"After a pound a week in the bush!" + +"It does sound rummy, doesn't it? After you with the match, sir." + +"It's incredible." + +"Yet it's astonishing how used you get to it in time--you'd be +surprised! At first the whole thing knocked me sideways; it was tucker I +couldn't digest. But once you take to the soft tack, there's nothing +like it in the world. You may guess who's made me take to it quicker +than I might have done!" + +Dalrymple shrugged his massive shoulders, and raised a contemplative eye +to the moon, that lay curled like a silver shaving in the lucid heavens. + +"Oh, yes, I can guess," he said sardonically. "And mind you I've nothing +against the girl--I meant you were lucky there. The girl's all right--if +you must marry. I don't dislike a woman who'll show fight; and she +looked like showing it when I tried on that cracker-night-cap thing of +yours. Oh, certainly! If you were to marry, you couldn't have done +better; the girl's worth fifty of her mother, at any rate." + +"Fifty million!" cried Jack, somewhat warmly. + +"Fifty million I meant to say," and the squatter ran his arm through +that of his host. "Come, don't you mind _me_, Jack, my boy! You know +what an old heathen I am in those little matters; and we have lots of +other things to talk about, in any case." + +Jack was mollified in a moment. + +"Lots!" he cried. "I don't seem to have seen anything of you yet, and +I'm sure you haven't seen much of the place. Isn't it a place and a +half? Look at the terrace in the moonlight--and the spires--and the +windows--hundreds of 'em--and the lawn and the tank! Then there's the +inside; you've seen the hall; but I must show you the picture-gallery +and the State Apartments. Such pictures! They say it's one of the finest +private collections in the world; there's hardly one of them that isn't +by some old master or another. I've heard the pictures alone are worth +half a million of money!" + +"They are," said Dalrymple. + +"You've heard so too?" + +"Of course; my good fellow, your possessions are celebrated all the +world over; that's what you don't appear to have realised yet." + +"I can't," said Jack. "It puts me in a sick funk when I try! So it would +you if you were suddenly to come in for a windfall like mine--that is, +if you were a chap like me. But you aren't; you'd be the very man for +the billet." + +And Jack stepped back to admire his hero, who chuckled softly as he +smoked, standing at his full height, with both hands in his pockets, and +the moon like limelight on his shirt. + +"It's not a billet I should care about," said the squatter; "but it's +great fun to find you filling it so admirably----" + +"I don't; I wish I did," said Jack, throwing away the cigar which he had +lighted to keep his guest company. + +"You do, though. And if it isn't a rude question----" Dalrymple +hesitated, staring hard-- + +"I daresay you're very happy in your new life?" + +"Of course I'm very happy _now_. None happier!" + +"But apart from the girl?" + +"You can't get apart from her; that's just it. If I'm to go on being +happy in my position, I'll have to learn to fill it without making +myself a laughing-stock; and the one person who can teach me will be my +wife." + +"I see. Then you begin to like your position for its own sake?" + +"That's so," replied Jack. He was paring a cake of very black tobacco +for the pipe which he had stuck between his teeth. Dalrymple watched him +with interest. + +"And yet," said the squatter, "you have neither acquired a taste for +your own most excellent cigars, nor conquered your addiction to the vile +twist we used to keep on the station!" + +"Well, and that's so, too," laughed Jack. "You must give a fellow time, +Mr. Dalrymple!" + +"Do you know what I thought when I met you yesterday?" continued +Dalrymple, turning his back to the moon, and looking very hard at Jack +while he sucked at his cigar with his thick, strong lips. "Do you know +how you struck me then? I thought you'd neither acquired a taste for +your new life nor conquered your affection for the old. That's how you +struck me in Devenholme yesterday." + +Jack made no haste to reply. He was not at all astonished at the +impression he had created the day before. But his old boss was still the +one man before whom he was anxious to display a modicum of dignity, even +at the expense of a pose. And it is noteworthy that he had neither +confided in Dalrymple concerning his dilemma of the previous day, nor +yet so much as mentioned in his hearing the model hut among the pines. + +"I don't wonder," he said at length; "it was the way I was likely to +strike you just then. Don't you see? I hadn't got it out at the time!" + +"So it was only the girl that was on your nerves?" said Dalrymple in +disgust. + +"And wasn't that enough? If I'm a different man to-day, you know the +reason why. As for being happy in my position, and all that, I'm simply +in paradise at this moment. Think of it! Think of me as I was, and look +at me as I am; think of my little hut on Carara, and look behind you at +Maske Towers!" + +They were on the terrace now, leaning idly against the balustrade. +Dalrymple turned and looked: like Melrose Abbey, the grand grey building +was at its best in the "pale moonlight"; the lichened embrasures met the +soft sky softly; the piercing spires were sheathed in darkness; and the +mountainous pile wore one uniform tint, from which the lighted windows +stood out like pictures on a wall. Dalrymple looked, and looked again; +then his hard eyes fell upon the rude ecstasy of the face beside him; +and they were less hard than before. + +"You may make yourself easy," said the squatter. "I shan't stay long." + +"What the blazes do you mean?" cried Jack. "I want you to stay as long +as ever you can." + +"You may; your friends do not." + +"Hang my friends!" + +"I should enjoy nothing better; but it isn't practicable. Besides, +they're a good deal more than your friends now; they are--her people. +And they don't like the man who was once your boss; he offends their +pride----" + +"Mr. Dalrymple----" + +"Enough said, my boy. I know my room, and I'm going to turn in. We'll +talk it over again in the morning; but my mind is made up. Good-night!" + +"I'll come in with you." + +"As you like." + +They parted at the visitor's door. + +"You'll disappoint me cruel if you _do_ go," said Jack, shaking hands. +"I'm quite sure you're mistaken about my friends; Olivia, for one, +thinks no end of you. However, as you say, we can talk it over in the +morning--when you've got to see the pictures as well, and don't you +forget it! So long, sir, till then." + +"So long, Jack. I'll be your man in the morning, at all events. And I +shall look forward to a great treat in your famous picture-gallery." + +But Jack was engaged; and he realised it in the morning as he had not +done before. Olivia lured him from the squatter's side; she had every +intention of so doing. The pair went for a little stroll. Neither wore a +watch; the little stroll lengthened into miles; it carried them beyond +the sound of the stable clock; they forgot the world, and were absurdly +late for lunch. Lady Caroline Sellwood had taken it upon herself to +conduct the meal without them. Dalrymple was in his place; his +expression was grimly cynical; he had seen the pictures, under Claude +Lafont's skilled escort, and, with the ladies' permission, he would now +leave the table, as he had still to put in his things. + +His things! Was he going, then? Jack's knife and fork fell with a +clatter. + +"I thought you knew," said Claude. "He is going up to town by the +afternoon train. I have ordered the landau, as I thought you would like +him to go as he came." + +When Jack heard this he, too, left the table, and bounded upstairs. He +found Dalrymple on the point of packing his dress-clothes, with the +assistance of none other than Stebbings. Jack glared at the disrated +butler, and ordered him out of the room. + +"I wouldn't have done that," remarked the squatter, pausing in his work. +"The fellow came to know if he could do anything for me, with tears in +his eyes, and he has made me a handsome apology. He didn't ask me to beg +him off, but I mean to try my luck in that way before I go." + +"You mustn't go!" + +"I must. Will you forgive the old man?" + +"Not if you clear." + +"My good fellow, this is unreasonable----" + +"So it is, Mr. Dalrymple, on _your_ part," rejoined Jack warmly. "It's +too bad of you. Bother Stebbings! I shan't be hard on him, you may be +sure; and you mustn't be hard on me. Surely you can make allowances for +a chap who's engaged to a girl like mine? I _did_ want to speak to you +this morning; but she came first. I want to speak to you now--more than +you suppose. Mr. Dalrymple, I wasn't straight with you last night; not +altogether. But I can't suffer steering crooked; it gives me the hump; +and as sure as I do it I've got to go over the ground again. You are the +man I owe my all to; I can't end up crooked with _you_!" + +Dalrymple sat on the bedside in his shirt-sleeves; he had turned up the +cuffs; his strong and shapely wrists lay along his thighs; and his grey +eyebrows, but not his lips, asked for more. + +"I mean," continued Jack, "about what was bothering me that day I ran +against you in Devenholme. It was only the day before yesterday, but +Lord! it seems like the week before last." + +And with that he unfolded, with much rapid detail, the whole episode of +Matthew Hunt, from the morning in the stable-yard to the midnight at the +hut. The story within that story was also told with particular care and +circumstance; but long before the end was reached Dalrymple had emptied +his bag upon the bed, and had himself rung to countermand the carriage. +He was interested; he would stay another day. + +Downstairs in the drawing-room the Sellwood family and Claude Lafont +were even then congratulating themselves upon the imminent departure of +the unpopular guest. Their faces were so many sights when Jack entered +in the highest spirits to tell them of his successful appeal to the +better feelings of "good old Dalrymple," who after all was not going to +leave them just yet. Jack was out again in an instant; and they next saw +him, from the drawing-room windows, going in the direction of the hut +with his odious old friend at his side. Whereupon Claude Lafont said a +strong thing, for him; and the most sensible of engaged young women +retired in tears to her room. + +"There's one thing you must let me do," Dalrymple was saying; "if you +don't, I shall insist. You must let me have the privilege of sorting +that scoundrel, Mark Hunt." + +"Matthew," said Jack. + +"Matthew, then. I knew it was one of you evangelists." + +"What would you do?" asked the Duke. + +"See that he annoyed you no more. And I'll guarantee that he doesn't if +you'll leave him to me." + +"I didn't want to clear them out----" + +"I think you must." + +"Or to prosecute; it's so public, and a bit revengeful too." + +"There I agree with you. I'm not even sure that you'd get a conviction. +It would be difficult, in any case, and would make a public scandal of +it, as you say." + +"Then I will leave him to you. You're the smartest man I know, Mr. +Dalrymple, and always have been. What you do will be right. I'll bother +my head no more about it. Besides, anything to keep you with us a few +days longer!" + +Dalrymple shrugged his shoulders, but Jack did not see the gesture, for +he was leading the way through the pines. A moment later they were at +the hut. + +The hut amused the squatter. He called it a colourable imitation. But it +did not delight him as it had delighted Jack; the master bushman failed +to share his old hand's sentimental regard for all that pertained to the +bush. Dalrymple sat on the bunk and smoked a cigar, a cynical spectator +of some simple passages between Jack and his cats. Livingstone was +exhibited with great pride; he had put on flesh in the old country; at +which the squatter remarked that had he stayed on Carara, he would have +put on an ounce of lead. + +"You're a wonderful man, Jack!" he exclaimed at length. "I wouldn't have +believed a fellow _could_ take a windfall as you have done, if I hadn't +seen it with my own eyes. I used to think of you a good deal after you +had gone. I thought of you playing the deuce to any extent, but I must +say I little dreamt of your building a bush hut to get back to your old +way of life! I pictured the town crimson and the country carmine--both +painted by you--but I never imagined _this_!" + +And he looked round the hut in his amused, sardonic way; but there was a +ring--or perhaps it was only a suspicion--of disappointment in his tone. +The next words were merely perplexed. + +"And yet," added Dalrymple, "you profess yourself well pleased with your +lot!" + +"So I am--now." + +"I begin to wish I hadn't changed my mind about going this afternoon." + +"Why, on earth?" + +"Because I also begin--to envy you! Come, let's make tracks for the +house; I shall have huts enough to look at when I go back to the place +that you need never see again." + +"But I mean to see it again," said Jack as he locked up. "I intend to +take my wife out, one of these days; we shall expect to come on a long +visit to Carara; and the greatest treat you could give me would be to +let me ride my old boundaries and camp in my old hut for a week!" + +"Nonsense; you stay where you are," was the squatter's only comment. He +seemed depressed; his cynical aplomb had quite deserted him. They +returned in silence to the house. + +A shabby-looking vehicle stood in front of the porch; the man said that +he had brought a gentleman from Devenholme, and was to wait. The Duke +and Dalrymple mounted the steps together. The first person they +encountered in the hall was Claude Lafont, looking strangely scared; but +a new-comer was in the act of taking off his coat; and, as he turned his +face, Dalrymple and Jack started simultaneously. Both knew the man. It +was Cripps the lawyer. And he, too, looked pale, nervous, and alarmed. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +"LOVE THE DEBT" + + +Olivia was not a little tired; this was the true explanation of the +tears which had driven her upstairs. It was also the one excuse she saw +for herself when she thought the matter over in her own room. Jack had +devoted the whole morning to her; it was the squatter's turn; and, of +course, Jack must invite whom he liked to stay as long as he pleased. To +think of limiting his freedom in any such matter at the very outset of +their engagement! Yet she had been guilty of that thought; but she was +tired; she would lie down for an hour. + +She lay down for two or three. Excitement had worn her out. It was after +five when she awoke and went downstairs. As she did so Claude and Cripps +crossed the hall and put on their hats. She hailed Claude. + +"What have you done with Jack?" + +"I think you'll find him in the little study at the end of the +library." + +"Thanks." + +Olivia glanced at Cripps. She had never met him. She wondered who he +was, and why Claude did not introduce him to her, and what made both of +them so glum. They hurried out of the house as though they were afraid +of her. What could it mean? She would find out from Jack; she felt a +renewed right to him now, and thought of hints, as she went, for Mr. +Dalrymple, if they were still together. But Jack was alone; he was +sitting in the dejected attitude engendered by a peculiarly long and low +arm-chair. + +"Well?" said Olivia briskly. + +"Well?" responded Jack; but he looked at her without rising and without +a smile; and both omissions were unlike the lover and the man. + +"I half expected to find Mr. Dalrymple with you. I'm so glad he isn't! +I--it's my turn, I think!" + +"I haven't seen Dalrymple for over an hour," said Jack, with his heavy, +absent eyes upon her all the time. "I wonder where he is?" + +Olivia would not ask him what the matter was; she preferred to find out +for herself, and then tell _him_. She looked about her. On a salver were +a decanter and three wine-glasses; one was unused; and on the floor +there lay an end of pink tape. She picked and held it up between finger +and thumb. + +"Lawyers!" she cried. + +"Yes, I've had a solicitor here." + +"Not to make your will!" + +"No. On a--on a local matter. Don't look at me like that! It's nothing +much: nothing new, at all events." + +"But you are worried." + +She knelt beside his chair, and rested her elbows on the arm, studying +his pale set profile. His eyes met hers no longer. + +"I am," he admitted; "but that's my own fault. As I say--it's nothing +new!" + +"Who was the lawyer?" + +"You wouldn't know him." + +"I mean to know who he was. Mr. Cripps?" + +Jack did not answer. He rolled his head from side to side against the +back of the chair. His eyes remained fast upon the opposite wall. + +"It is--the old trouble," Olivia whispered. "The trouble of two nights +ago!" + +His silence told her much. The drops upon his forehead added more. Yet +her voice was calm and undismayed; it enabled him at last to use his +own. + +"Yes!" he said hoarsely. "Claude made a mistake. It was true after +all!" + +"Hunt's story, darling?" + +"Hunt's story. There _was_ an English marriage as well as an Australian +one. He had a wife at each side of the world! Claude made a mistake. He +went to the wrong church at Chelsea--to a church by the river. He had +always thought it was the parish church. It is not. St. Luke's is the +parish church, and there in the book they have the marriage down in +black and white. Cripps found it; but he first found it somewhere else, +where he says they have the records of every marriage in the country +since 1850. He would have looked there the day Claude was up, but he +left it too late. He looked yesterday, and found it, sure enough, on the +date Hunt gave. October 22d, 1853. And he has been to Chelsea and seen +it there. So there's no mistake about it this time; and you see how we +stand." + +"I see. My poor boy!" + +"It's Claude after all. Poor chap, he's awfully cut up. He blames +himself so for the mistake between the two churches; but Cripps tells me +it was the most natural mistake in the world. Chelsea Old Church--that +was where Claude went. And he says he'll never forgive himself." + +"But I forgive him," said Olivia, with the first sign of emotion in her +voice. She was holding one of his hands; her other was in his hair. +Still he stared straight in front of him. + +"Of course you forgive him," he said gently. "When you come to think of +it, there's nothing to forgive. Claude didn't make the facts. He only +failed to discover them." + +"I am glad he _did_ fail," whispered Olivia. + +"Glad? You can't be glad! Why do you say that?" + +And now he turned his face to her, in his astonishment; and suddenly it +was she who could not meet his gaze. + +"How can you be glad?" he continued to demand. + +"Because--otherwise--you would never--have--spoken----" + +"Spoken? Of course I shouldn't! It's a thousand pities I did. It makes +it all the harder--now!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"Surely you see?" + +They had risen with a common instinct. The ice was broken; there were no +more shamefaced glances. The girl stood proudly at her full height. + +"I see nothing. You say our engagement makes this all the harder for +you; it _should_ be just the opposite." + +"Will nothing make you see?" cried Jack. "Oh, how am I to say it? It--it +can't go on--our engagement!" + +"And why not?" + +"I am nothing--nobody--a nameless----" + +"What does it matter?" interrupted Olivia passionately. "Do you really +think it was the name I wanted after all? You pay me a high compliment! +I know exactly what you mean--know exactly what this means to you. To me +it makes no difference at all. You are the man you have always been; you +are the man--I--love." + +His eyes glistened. + +"God bless you for saying so! You are the one to love a man the better +when he's down on his luck. I know that. Yet we must never----" + +"Never what?" + +"Marry." + +"Not--marry?" She stared at him in sheer amazement. "Not when we +promised--only yesterday? You may break your word if you like. Mine I +would never break!" + +"Then I must. It is not to be thought of any more. Surely you see? It's +not that I have lost the money and the title; oh! you must see what it +is!" + +"Of course I see. But I don't allow the objection." + +"Your people would never hear of it now; and quite right too." + +"My people! I am of age. I have a little money of my own, enough for us +both. I can do exactly what I like. Besides, I'm not so sure about my +people; you don't know my father as I know him." + +"He is a man of the world. He would not hear of it." + +"Then I must act for myself." + +"You must not!" + +"I must. Do you think I am only a fair-weather girl? I gave you my +promise when all was different. I would rather die than break it now." + +"But I release you! I set you free! Everything has altered. Oh, can't +you put yourself in my place? I should deserve shooting if I married you +now. I release you because I must." + +"And I refuse to be released." + +They regarded one another with hopeless faces. Their eyes were dim with +love--yet here they stood apart. This was the dead-lock. Nothing could +come of this contest of honour against honour, of one unselfish love +against another. It was like striking flint upon flint, and steel upon +steel. A gong sounded in the distance; it was the signal to dress for +dinner. Olivia beat the floor impatiently with one foot; her lips +trembled; her eyes filled with tears. + +"If you cared for me," she cried passionately, "half as much as you said +you did, you wouldn't be so ready to lose me now!" + +"If I cared less," he answered, "I would take you at your word--God +knows how you tempt me to!--and you should be my wife in spite of all. I +would mind less how I dragged you down--what became of us in the end. +But I love you too well to spoil your life. Don't you know that, +Olivia?" + +"Ah, yes! I know it! I know--I know----" + +He took her in his arms at last. He was shaking all over. Her head lay +back upon his shoulder. He smoothed the hair from the high, white +forehead; he looked tenderly and long into the wild wet eyes. His arm +tightened about her; he could not help it. + +"Sweetheart," he faltered, "you must help me to be strong. It is hard +enough as it is. Only help me, or it will be far harder. Help me now--at +dinner. I am going to take the head of the table for the last time. Help +me by being bright! We can talk afterwards. There is time enough. Only +help me now!" + +"I will do my best," whispered Olivia, disengaging herself from his +trembling arms. "I will try to be as brave as you. Oh, there is no one +in the world like you! Yes, do let us talk about it afterwards; there is +so much to say and to decide. But I give you fair warning: I shall +never--never--never let you go. Darling, you will need me now! And I +cannot give you up--much less after this. Shall I tell you why? You have +gone the wrong way to work; you have made me love you more than ever--my +hero--my darling--my all!" + +She stood a moment at the open door, kissing her hand to him--a rosy +flush upon her face--the great tears standing in her eyes. Then she was +gone. He watched her down the length of the library; the stained windows +dappled her, as she passed, with rubies and sapphires, huge and watery; +at the farther door she turned, and kissed her hand again--and fled. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BAR SINISTER + + +It was a close night; the men were smoking their cigarettes on the +terrace. Cripps was one of them; he was staying the night; he wished +himself a hundred miles away. But Francis Freke took him in hand; they +disappeared together, and a minute later the billiard-room windows burnt +out of the night. + +Mr. Sellwood was left a little in the cold. Claude and Jack were pacing +the terrace with linked arms and lowered voices, and he wished to speak +to Jack. Mr. Sellwood knew all. He was deeply sorry for Jack, for whom +he had done his best at dinner by talking incessantly from grace to +grace. The Home Secretary could be immensely entertaining when he chose. +He had chosen to-night, as much for his daughter's sake as for Jack's. +Olivia was his favourite child. + +But then Dalrymple had not been there to heckle and insult his superior; +he was gone nobody knew where. Not that he was gone for good, the luck +stopped short of that. It appeared, however, that he had been excluded +by a majority of two to one from the triangular council in the Poet's +Corner. Since then he had not been seen; but his bag was still in his +room, and it was only another of his liberties to absent himself from +dinner without a word. + +Olivia was playing the piano in the drawing-room. The windows were wide +open, and Mr. Sellwood listened with his white head bent in sorrowful +perplexity. The execution was faulty, as usual, because Olivia was an +idle musician; but there was feeling in her fingers, she had a certain +"touch," and her attempts were better to listen to than some +performances. To-night they went to her father's heart. The imperfect +music spoke to him with the eloquence of broken words. It told him of +his child's necessity for action in the stress of her anguish. It told +him also of her love; and here was this poor fellow so taken up with +Claude that it was impossible to say to him what must be said as soon as +possible. + +Mr. Sellwood gave it up for the present, and went to look for his wife. + +"There's only one more thing, old man," Jack was saying, "and then I'm +done. I don't want to load you up to the eyes with messages and all +that. But I should like you to take care of this little bit of a key, +and give it to her as soon as ever you think fit. It belongs to that +chain bracelet business I got her for her birthday. As you know, I first +wanted to give her a ring, but she wouldn't have it; and when I changed +it for the bracelet, which cost about half as many shillings as the ring +did pounds, I couldn't look poor Hopgood in the face. It was such a sell +for him. So we were going back to-morrow to get that ring for our +engagement, and to look old Hopgood in the face. That was one of our +plans; we made so many when we were out this morning! I never knew a +morning go at such a lick. But I remember it all--I remember everything. +I've started going over every word we've said, so that I shan't forget +anything. There's not such a vast lot to keep in your head. Only a day +and a half of an engagement; but I've got to live on those thirty odd +hours for the rest of my time." + +Claude looked away; the drawing-room windows were a blur to his eyes; +and Olivia's erratic rendering of Chopin filled in the pause. It was the +incoherent expression of unutterable emotion. Jack listened also, +nodding time with his head. The calmness and the nobility of despair +had settled on his spirit, as on that of a captain going down with his +ship. + +He talked on, and his tone was entirely his own. It was neither bitter, +querulous, nor wilfully pathetic; but chiefly contemplative, with a +reminiscence here and the discovery of some consolation there. He +recalled the humours of the situation, and laughed outright but +staccato, as at remembered sayings of the newly dead. Beyond the loss of +Olivia he had little to regret; even that would make another man of him +for ever and a day. (So he talked.) And his English summer would be +something to look back on always; it was pleasure to the good, which +nothing could undo or take away; the experience of a second lifetime had +been crammed into those few weeks. Let him remember that when he got +back to the bush. Suppose he had never left the bush? Then he would +never have seen the old country, and seen it (as he said) from the front +seats; he would never have found his own soul, nor known the love of a +lovely girl, nor the joy of life as he knew it now. So he was really to +be congratulated to the end; there was no occasion to pity him at all. + +Claude, however, was not comforted; he had never been so wretched in +his life. And he showed it so plainly, and was withal so conscious of +the display, that he felt quite sure that Jack's ingenious consolations +were not meant entirely for Jack. He was ashamed of himself on this, as +on every other score. He was to blame for the whole business, since it +was he who had scoured Australia for the Red Marquis's son. Nor could he +believe the other's protestations of personal solace and resignation; +they had been made with wistful glances at the lighted windows, glances +that Claude had seen as they both leant back against the balustrade. + +"Aha!" said Jack suddenly. "Here are Mr. Sellwood and Lady Caroline +coming to have it out with me. Better leave me to them, old man." + +"All right," said Claude, "but we have lots more to talk about. Where +can I find you, and when?" + +Jack hesitated; the Sellwoods were within earshot as he whispered, +"Twelve o'clock at the hut!" And Claude walked away, with his hand +aching from a sudden and most crushing grip. + +"My wife and I would like to speak to you," said the Home Secretary, +halting in front of Jack with Lady Caroline on his arm. "My dear +fellow, we are so very sorry for you: we know everything." + +"Everything!" echoed Lady Caroline, with slow dramatic force. + +"Thanks to Jack," put in her husband sharply; "it was he who gave +instructions that we should be told at once. It was so very good of you, +Jack, my boy, to think of us in your trouble. You have behaved +splendidly all through; that's what makes us all feel this so keenly; +and I am quite sure that you will behave nobly now. My dear fellow, it +isn't the fact of your not being the Duke of St. Osmund's that forces me +to take this tone; it's the unfortunate circumstances of your birth, +which have now been proved, I am afraid, beyond the possibility of that +doubt which nobody would welcome more thankfully than myself. We are all +very fond of you. I for one have learned to admire you too. But this +most miserable discovery must alter everything except our feeling +towards you. We are bound to consider our daughter." + +"Our youngest child," said Lady Caroline. "Our ewe lamb!" + +"Of course," replied Jack. "I see what you mean. What do you want me to +do?" + +"It may seem very hard," said Mr. Sellwood, "but we wish you to release +Olivia from her engagement." + +"To release her instantly!" cried Lady Caroline. + +"I have done that already," said Jack with some disdain. "Did you really +think, sir, that I should wait to be told?" + +Mr. Sellwood muttered an oath as he held out his hand. + +"I have made a mistake; I hope you will forgive me," he said; and his +hand was crushed in its turn. + +"And what did she say?" asked Lady Caroline. + +"She refused to be released." + +"I knew it! George, the girl is mad. And pray what do you propose to do +now?" + +"What do you think I ought to do?" + +"Ought?" cried Lady Caroline. "I think you ought to go away and never +see her again!" + +"Or, rather, let us take her away," said Mr. Sellwood. "It may seem hard +and abominable, but there's no doubt that from our point of view a +separation is the most desirable course." + +"It _is_ hard," replied Jack; "but, as it happens, it's the very plan I +hit on for myself. Not a word, sir, if you please. You're perfectly +right. She could not marry me now; and I would not marry her, knowing +what I am. It's out of the question altogether. But Olivia is quite on +to do it--at least she thought she was before dinner. I haven't seen her +since. I'm not going to see her again. She's just the sort of angel who +would swap heaven for hell to stand by the man she was fond of! But she +mustn't be let. I agree with you there. It was the first thing I thought +of myself. I made up my mind to clear out; and, if you want to know, I'm +off now." + +"Now!" cried Mr. Sellwood. + +Lady Caroline said nothing. + +"Yes, now; there's no more to be said; and the sooner I get it over the +better for all concerned." + +"But, my dear fellow, where are you going, and what do you intend to do? +Have you made any plans? I wouldn't do anything in a hurry if I were +you; we're a family party here; and all our wits put together would +surely be better than yours! We might fix up something between us." + +Jack shook his head. + +"You're very kind," he said; "but it's all fixed up. I'm going straight +back to the bush. This is Thursday; I can't catch to-morrow's steamer, +but I can do better. I can take the overland express to-morrow night, +and join last week's boat at Brindisi. I'm going to sleep the +night--never mind where. I don't want old Claude on my tracks; I've said +good-bye to him too, though he doesn't know it either. He wants to do +too much for me altogether. If you stay up with him till twelve, he'll +tell you he's got to look me up at the hut; and you may tell him, sir, +if you'll be so good, to sit tight, for he won't find me _there_. Say +good-bye to him for me, and tell him he's been the best mate I've ever +struck; but don't let him come up and see me off. Cripps I'm to meet in +town. I'm going to let them finance me out again, since they fetched me +home in the beginning; but not another red cent will I touch. Why should +I? I've had a good run for my money--that is, for theirs. I'm no worse +off than I was before. I should even be sure of the same old billet on +Carara that used to suit me well enough, if I only could see Mr. +Dalrymple before I start; but I'm bothered if I know where he's got to." + +Mr. Sellwood was heavy with thought; his wife had left them; and he had +heard a sob in her throat as she turned away. He had an inkling of her +treatment of this poor fellow; he did not know everything, but he knew +enough to hail his wife's sob with a thankful thrill. So there was a +heart in her somewhere still! He had thought otherwise for some years; +in another moment he doubted it once more. Lady Caroline appeared at the +drawing-room window, shut it, and drew down the blind. And yet--and yet +her husband had himself been wishing for somebody to do that very thing! + +Olivia was still at the piano, and her performance had sounded a little +too near at hand until now. It was near enough still; but the shutting +of the window deadened the sound. Chopin had merged into Mendelssohn. +Olivia happened to be note-perfect in one or two of the Lieder. Her +father had never heard her play them so well. But Jack had no music in +his soul--could not whistle two bars in tune--and though, even while +speaking, he listened visibly, it was not to the music as music, but to +the last sound of Olivia he was ever to hear. Her footstep in the +distance would have done as well. + +"I wouldn't go to-night, old fellow," the Home Secretary said at length. +"I see no point in it. To-morrow would be time enough." + +"Ah, you must think I find it easy work!" exclaimed Jack, a little +bitterly for once. "It's not so easy as all that: it's got to be done at +once, when you're screwed up to it, or it may never come off at all. +Don't you try to keep me; don't let anybody else try either! Let me go +while I'm on to go--alone. I might take it different to-morrow!" + +He spoke hoarsely; the voice was as significant as the words. Mr. +Sellwood was impressed by both; he followed the other to the nearest +flight of steps leading down to the lawn. + +"Let me come with you," he urged. "Surely there is something one can do! +And I've never seen the hut; I should like to." + +"Wait till I've gone," was the reply. "I want you to stand in my tracks +and block anybody from following me. Head them another way! Only give me +quarter of an hour to clear out of the hut, and another quarter's start, +and I'm--and I'm----" + +He lost himself in a sudden absence of mind. The music had stopped, and +the night seemed insolently still. Jack was half-way down the steps; the +Home Secretary leaned over the balustrade above. Jack reached up his +hand. + +"Good-bye," he said. + +Mr. Sellwood, hesitating, kept his hand. The window that had been shut +was thrown up again. + +"Papa, is that you?" + +"Yes, my dear." + +Mr. Sellwood had turned round. + +"And where is Jack?" + +"Not here," whispered Jack. + +"Not here," repeated Mr. Sellwood; and, looking behind him, he found +that he had spoken the truth. + +"Then I'm coming down to you, and you must help me----" + +Jack lost the rest as he ran. He thought he heard his own name again, +but he was not sure. He stopped under the nearest tree. Mercifully there +was no moon. Olivia could not have seen him, for he himself could see no +more of the Towers than the lighted windows and their reflections upon +the terrace. On that dim stage the silhouette of Mr. Sellwood was still +discernible: another joined it: the two figures became one: and in the +utter stillness not only the girl's sobs but her father's broken words +were audible under the tree. + +Jack fled. + +He ran hard to the hut, and lighted it up as it had never been lighted +before. He cut up a candle in half-inch sections, and stuck them all +over with their own grease. Thoroughness was an object as well as +despatch; nothing must be missed; but his first act was to change his +clothes. He put on the ready-made suit and the wideawake in which he had +landed; he had kept them in the hut. Then he pulled from under the bunk +the cage his cats had travelled in, and he bundled the cats into it once +more. Lastly he rolled up his swag, less neatly, perhaps, than of old, +but with the blue blanket outermost as before, and the little straps +reefed round it and buckled tight. He would want these things in the +bush; besides, the whim was upon him to go exactly as he had come. Only +one item of his original impedimenta he decided to leave behind: the old +bush saddle would be a needless encumbrance; but with his swag, and his +cats, and his wideawake, he set forth duly, after blowing out all the +candle ends. + +The night seemed darker than ever; neither moon nor star was to be seen, +and Jack had to stop and consider when he got outside. He desired to +strike a straight line to the gates; he knew how they lay from the hut, +though he had never been over the ground before. To a bushman, however, +even without a star to help him, such a task could present no +difficulties. He computed the distance at something less than a mile; +but in Australia he had gone as the crow flies through league upon +league of untrodden scrub. Out there he had enjoyed the reputation of +being "a good bushman," and he meant to enjoy it again. + +But his head was hot with other thoughts, and he was out of practice. +Instead of hitting the wall, and following it up to the gates, as he +intended, he erred the other way, and came out upon the drive at no +great distance from the house. This was a false start, indeed, and a +humiliation also; but his thoughts had strayed back to Olivia, and it +was as if his feet had followed their lead. He would think of her no +more to-night. + +The drive was undesirable, for obvious reasons; still it was the safest +policy to keep to it now, and the chances were that he would meet +nobody. Yet he did; a footstep first, and then the striking of a match, +came to his ears as he was nearing the gates. He crept under the trees. +The match was struck again, and yet again, before it lit. Then Jack came +out of hiding, and strode forward without further qualms, for the flame +was lighting the cigar and illumining the face of his friend Dalrymple. + +"Hallo, sir!" began Jack, "I'd given you up." + +"Why, Jack, is that you? I can't see an inch front of my cigar," said +the squatter, as the match burnt itself out on the gravel where it had +been thrown. + +"Yes, it's me; where have you been?" + +"Where are you going?" + +"Mine first," said Jack. + +"All right. I've been talking to Master Hunt. _Now_ where are you +going?" + +"Back to Australia!" + +Jack waited for an exclamation; for some seconds there was none; then +the squatter laughed softly to himself. + +"I thought as much!" said he. "I knew exactly what the lawyer came to +say, for I saw it in his face. Now tell me, and we'll see if I'm right." + +And it appeared that he was, by the way in which he kept nodding his +head as Jack told him all. Meanwhile they had retired under the trees, +and by the red end of his cigar the squatter had seen Jack's wideawake; +using his cigar as a lantern he had examined the cage of cats; whereon +his face would have proved a sufficiently severe commentary had there +been any other light for Jack to see it by. + +"Now," said Dalrymple, "stand tight. _I've_ got something to tell _you_, +my boy!" And he told it in the fewest whispered words. + +Jack was speechless. + +"Nonsense! I don't believe it," he cried when he found his tongue. + +"But I'm in a position to prove it," replied the squatter. "I'll give +you a particular or two as we walk back to the house. What! you +hesitate? Come, come; surely my word is good enough for that! Do be +sensible; leave your infernal cats where they are, and come you along +with me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DE MORTUIS + + +The Home Secretary had never spent a more uncomfortable hour. His +favourite daughter had stanched her tears, and gone straight to the root +of the very delicate matter at issue between them. Much as her tears had +depressed him, however, Mr. Sellwood preferred them to the subsequent +attitude. It was too independent for his old-fashioned notions, and yet +it made him think all the more of Olivia. Indeed she was her father's +child in argument--spirited and keen and fair. His point of view she +took for granted, and proceeded to expound her own. Much that she said +was unanswerable; a little made him fidget--for between the sexes there +is no such shyness as that which a father finds in his heart towards his +grown-up girls. But a certain bluntness of speech was not the least +refreshing trait in Olivia's downright character, and decidedly this was +not a matter to be glossed over with synonyms for a spade. She wanted +to know how the circumstances of the birth affected the value of the +man--and so forth. Mr. Sellwood replied as a man of the world, and +detested his replies. But the worst was his guilty knowledge of Jack's +flight. This made him detest himself; it made him lie; and it filled him +with a relief greater than his surprise when voices came out of the +darkness of the drive, and one of them was Jack's. + +Olivia ran forward. + +"At last! Oh, Jack, where _have_ you been?" + +Mr. Sellwood never heard the answer; he was bristling at the touch of +Dalrymple, who had led him aside. + +"Entirely my doing," explained the squatter; "but I can justify it. I +mean to do so at once. Am I right in understanding the bar sinister to +be your only objection to our friend?" + +"You may put it so," said Mr. Sellwood shortly. + +"Then I shall have the pleasure of removing the objection: the bar +doesn't exist." + +"Your grounds for thinking so, Mr. Dalrymple?" + +"I don't think. I know. And I'm here to prove what I know. Good heavens, +do you suppose he was no more to me than one of my ordinary station +hands? He was the son--at all events, the stepson--of one of my oldest +friends." + +"The stepson! May I ask the name of your friend?" + +"It is unnecessary. You have guessed it. I have a good deal to explain. +Where can we go? I should like Lafont and Cripps to hear what I've got +to say. Cripps especially--he will be able to check half my facts." + +"I think we ought all to hear them," remarked Sellwood; "we are all +interested and concerned." + +"You mean the ladies? I would rather not; you can tell them afterwards; +and as to the young lady, you may make your mind easy about her. If that +was the only obstacle, I undertake to remove it. You can afford to trust +her out of your sight." + +"I shall mind my own business," snapped the Home Secretary; +nevertheless, he led the way indoors with no more than a glance towards +Olivia and her lover, who were still within hail; and five minutes +later, as many gentlemen were empanelled in the billiard-room. Claude +and Cripps and Mr. Sellwood occupied the couches at one end; Francis +Freke palpitated in a corner; and Dalrymple leant against the table, his +legs crossed, his arms folded, a quiet smile upon his face. He was +waiting for a clock over the chimney-piece to finish striking; the hour +was eleven. + +"Well, gentlemen," he began, "I shall not detain you many minutes. I +have certain statements to make, and any proofs that you may want I +shall be happy to supply to-morrow or any time you like. Those +statements will ignore, as far as possible, my own relations with the +notorious Lord Maske. These I shall explain later, and you will then +understand why I have hitherto held my peace concerning them. I have +known all along that our friend outside--shall we call him John +Dillamore?--was not and never could be the Duke of St. Osmund's; and +though Mr. Cripps may look as black as his boots, he never consulted my +opinion when he took John Dillamore away from my station, and it was no +business of mine to interfere. Mr. Cripps seemed sufficiently positive +about the matter; and, knowing what I know, I really don't blame Mr. +Cripps. But this by the way. I shall first confine myself to those +incidents in the Marquis's career, of which, occurring as they did at +the antipodes, and as long ago as the fifties, very little has hitherto +been known here in England. And I repeat that I shall afterwards be +prepared to prove every word I am about to say. + +"The Marquis of Maske landed in Melbourne in the early part of 1854. +There for a time he cut a great dash, spent an enormous quantity of +money, and indeed reached the end of his resources by the middle of the +year. He then tried his luck on the Ballarat gold-fields, but his luck +was out. At the diggings he sailed under an alias, and under an alias he +drifted to Tasmania as early as July, 1854. And at Hobart Town, as it +was then called, he met the lady for whose sake he broke, though +unwittingly, one of the criminal laws of his native land. + +"Now, I happen to know a good deal about that lady; but the more +impersonally one enters into details of this kind the more chance has +one of making such details perfectly clear to you. As it is you will +find some little complications here and there. But I shall do my best to +present them as intelligibly as possible; and where I fail, you will +perhaps make a note of the point, and call my attention to it presently. +The lady's name was Greenfield. Mrs. Greenfield was a young widow with +one male child; but not, as you might suppose, a young widow with money. +And the Marquis married her at Hobart under peculiar, and really rather +extenuating circumstances. + +"Of course, he had a wife all the time. You know all about that. It has +leaked out through another channel--a channel I happen to have spent the +last few hours in exploring. I have only just returned from the Lower +Farm. I find the first wife died in 1860. But you may take my word for +one thing: her husband had reason to believe she was already dead when +he married for the second time in 1854. + +"As a matter of fact, Eliza Hunt, as she was called, was actually at +death's door in June of the latter year. On a day of which she was not +expected to see the close, the late Duke wrote to his son (I happen to +possess the letter, Mr. Cripps), telling him, with perhaps a pardonable +satisfaction, that the end was only a question of hours; and making +certain overtures which I fear only excited Lord Maske's contempt and +disdain. The Marquis did not profess to be a pious man; his father did. +They had parted in anger, and in anger Maske tore up his father's +letter; but I collected the fragments, and preserved them--and I shall +justify _that_ before I'm done. Maske tore the letter to little bits. +But that very week he married again on the strength of it. And I needn't +tell you there was trouble when the next mail came in! The woman was +still alive; though still hopelessly--or rather hopefully--ill. + +"So the couple in Tasmania lay low until their child was born--an event +which proved fatal to the mother, and brought the Marquis up with a +round turn, as the saying is. He was, as you may have heard, a very +heartless man; but I happen to know that he was reasonably fond of his +second wife, and reasonably grieved at her death. As a matter of fact, +it drove him almost crazy at the time, and embittered him for the rest +of his days. The point is, however, that he was thus left with two +boys--a new-born weakling and an absolutely hardy child of two, the +issue of its mother's first--and only legal--marriage. The weakling he +registered as he would have done had the marriage been really valid; +and, mark you, for all he knew it might be valid still. After that +second letter, saying that the English wife was still hopelessly ill, he +never heard again, either as to her recovery or her death, until the +latter occurred some few years later. But it might have occurred while +the second letter was still on the sea, for it was only a month behind +the first, and they took two or three months coming in those days. And +this is a point worth noting," said Dalrymple, uncrossing his arms, and +for the first time making a gesture. + +"It is a nice point," conceded Mr. Sellwood. + +"In a nasty story!" cried the squatter, with his sardonic laugh. "No, +not quite that; it's too strong a word. Still I am not here to whitewash +the Marquis of Maske; indeed, the next feature of the case is wholly +indefensible. You must know that all this time the exile nourished the +most venomous feelings towards his family in general and the old Duke in +particular. Unlovely as they were, however, I still think there was some +excuse for such sentiments; the boy had been harshly treated; he was +literally forced to desert his first wife; had they lived together, in +England or elsewhere, not a penny-piece would have been theirs until the +death of the Duke. Hence the silence of the Hunts--for the consideration +you wot of. It wasn't the sort of arrangement that would have gone on +very long had the woman lived, or left a child; but she died childless, +as you know; and the Hunts' subsequent policy was obvious even to the +Hunts. Nor was it an arrangement calculated to increase a young man's +respect for his father; in the case of Maske it intensified contempt, +and created the craving for revenge. I have heard him speak so often of +that revenge! He would spring an Australian heir upon the family; that +was his first, and, as you know, his very last idea. He even spoke of +it, as I understand, in the letter that was pinned to the tree under +which he was found dead in the bush! You see it was his dominant idea in +life. But the heir he spoke of was not his son at all. And that's the +indefensible feature of which I spoke." + +"If not his son, who was he, pray?" asked Cripps, with indignant +incredulity; for his own repute was in question here. + +The squatter smiled. "Can you ask? The elder of the two boys; the son of +Mrs. Greenfield by her first marriage," he quietly replied. + +"And what of his own son?" + +"Dead." + +"You will find that difficult to prove!" cried the lawyer hotly. + +"Yes? I think not; he died in Sydney, where the father migrated after +the mother's death; he was dead within six months of his birth. You saw +the certificate of the birth in Hobart, I believe?" + +"Certainly I did." + +"Then here is that of the death; better keep it; you will have more use +for it than I." + +And the squatter turned round, and rolled the red ball up and down the +board, with his quiet sinister smile, while the men on the lounges +examined the document he had put in the solicitor's hands. + +"It looks all right," said Cripps at length, in a tone that made +Dalrymple laugh heartily as he faced about. + +"It looks all right, eh? _That's_ all right! Mr. Cripps, your +discernment--but excuse me! We are not here to bark and bite; we are +here to clear up a mystery, at least I am. Is there any other point, +gentlemen, which I can elucidate before we go any further?" + +"I think there is one," said Claude, speaking nervously. "I have seen +the last letter my uncle wrote, in which he mentioned an heir. I +presume, in order to carry out the revenge you speak of, he called the +living child by the dead child's name----" + +"Exactly. He did it deliberately. I was coming to that." + +"But he seemed uncertain as to the living child's whereabouts. My point +is this: where was the so-called heir at the time that last letter was +written?" + +"Lost," said Dalrymple, shutting his ugly lips as you shut a window. +"Lost in the bush, like Maske himself, only the child's body was not +found. The father had tattooed one of the eagles of his crest upon the +little chap's chest--I am afraid, to further his deception. I was in all +his secrets, as you see; indeed, you may call me his accomplice without +offending me; and I'm bound to say I considered the tattooing a smart +idea. However, a judgment was at hand. The child was lost for many +years. And the rest is easily told; it refers to _me_." + +The squatter looked at Mr. Sellwood--not for the first time. As on the +other occasions, however, he ran his eyes against an absolutely +impassive, pink countenance. + +"Mr. Sellwood may remember my little anecdote of the iron store, the +Queensland blacks, and the French eagle on the chest of the stray +shearer who saved all our lives?" + +Mr. Sellwood very slightly inclined his head. + +"Well, that was the finding of the _soi-disant_ Jack Dillamore. I knew +all about him. For his father's sake, I never lost sight of him again; +for his father's sake (and also because the idea appealed to me +personally) I allowed my old chum's very reprehensible plan to come off, +and our friend Mr. Cripps to lay hold of my Happy Jack for the live Duke +of St. Osmund's: and for the sake of some fun for my pains, I came home +myself to see how matters were progressing. I'm bound to say I was +disappointed. Happy Jack had grown tamer than I could have believed +possible in the time. And hang me if the fellow wasn't in love! My +disgust was such that I was on the point of taking myself off this very +afternoon, and leaving the suppositious Duke (whom it wasn't _my_ +business to depose) to marry and save the Upper House by the example of +high morality he seemed certain to set; but at the last moment I +discovered his trouble. He was found out without my assistance; he was +cutting a worse figure than was in any way necessary; and was about to +lose, not only the title and emoluments he had enjoyed for some months, +but the charming girl whom he had fairly won in love. That seemed a +trifle too hard! I determined to speak out. I have done so: and I am +prepared to prove every word I have said. The certificate now in your +pocket, Mr. Cripps, was not the only one I had in mine. At the moment, +however, there's no more to be said--except a few words with reference +to Jack Greenfield's future. He has suffered enough. I have been, if not +at the bottom of it, at all events to blame in the matter. I have a +little inadequate scheme of reparation, which I shall submit to you, +gentlemen, in order that you may use your influence with Jack, if +necessary. The point is that I am never going back to Australia any +more. I was born and brought up in the old country, and I've got the +taste for it again during the few days I've been home. Indeed, I had +never lost the taste; but I don't intend to run the risk any more. I am +lucky enough to own one of the crack sheep-stations of New South Wales. +I shall want a permanent manager in my absence. I needn't tell you who +is the very man for _that_ billet. Jack Greenfield--if he'll take it." + +"A good house?" said Mr. Sellwood casually. + +"The best homestead in the Riverina. Trust me for that." + +Mr. Sellwood said no more. His mind was made up: better lose his +daughter than have her break her heart. He could not forget the earlier +experiences of the evening. The surprises of this hour were enchanting +compared with the embarrassments of the last. Then he had no reason to +doubt Dalrymple's word as to Jack's actual antecedents; where he doubted +it, was in another matter altogether. At this point in his reflections, +however, and with the inevitable discussion of the immaterial points +still raging around him, Mr. Sellwood was brought to his feet by the +violent opening of the billiard-room door and an agitated apparition of +his wife upon the threshold. Something was the matter: had the lovers +eloped? No; with Mary Freke they were at the heels of Lady Caroline, who +came the length of the room at something ludicrously like a run--her +very fringe awry, and a horrified glance shooting from the corner of +each eye at the nonchalant, well-preserved figure of Dalrymple the +squatter. + +"Do you know what they are saying downstairs?" cried her Ladyship, +looking as far as was possible at everybody at once. "Matthew Hunt is +here, and do you know what _he_ is saying? That neither Jack nor Claude +is the Duke of St. Osmund's, but you--you--you!" And she turned like a +podgy tigress upon none other than the squatter himself. + +"I could have told him that," remarked Mr. Sellwood calmly; he had +arrived at the conclusion exactly ten seconds before. + +"I shall tell him something he doesn't bargain for--the born idiot!" +added the squatter _sotto voce_. + +"Then you believe it?" cried Lady Caroline to her husband. "You must be +mad!" + +"Your Ladyship is so right; it would indeed be madness to dream of +entertaining so preposterous a notion!" cried Mr. Cripps, who was +literally dancing with disbelief. "Even Mr. Dalrymple will hardly go as +far as that. He has gone farther already than the law will follow him; +we'll do him the justice to hold him irresponsible for this absurd +report! He knows as well as we do that the Marquis of Maske was found +dead in the bush; of that we have absolute proof. Even if we hadn't, who +has recognized him? Has he one single witness to his identity? If so, +let him be called!" + +"The gentleman is excited," remarked Dalrymple, ringing the bell. "Does +it really not occur to him that I might have _found myself_ dead in the +bush, and authenticated my own death by very obvious methods? Is it +inconceivable that a young man with my then reputation should jump at +the chance of dying on paper--if you will permit the expression? Such a +death offers unusual advantages, a second birth among others. However, I +never meant to be born again, least of all in this rather melodramatic +manner; but I couldn't resist coming home to see the fun, and it serves +me right to have to stop and pay the score. Witnesses? I had certainly +no intention of calling any to-night; but now that my hand has been +forced it can't be helped. The elder Hunt is one; knew me at sight; and +here comes Stebbings for another. Shut the door behind you, Stebbings, +and answer a couple of questions. It's generally supposed that you were +drunk yesterday when I arrived. Were you, or were you not?" + +"I was not, your Grace." + +"'Your Grace,' you see!" repeated the squatter. "I'm afraid that was +premature, Stebbings! However, if you were not drunk, and you certainly +conveyed that impression, what was the matter with you?" + +"Nervousness!" cried Stebbings, who was sufficiently nervous now. "I had +seen the dead! I had recognised your Grace!" + +"Exactly; and I swore at you as a blind, to explain the complete state +of collapse that you were in. That's all, Stebbings; you may go. Jack, I +see your face! You wonder you didn't spot it at the time? Stebbings +backed me up, or else you would have done; for my part, I confess I was +more frightened when you found us talking together in my room, when I +was packing. I assure you all, I meant to clear out then; believe it or +not, it's the case. In spite of what I said just now, I'm not so wedded +to an English life as I fancied Jack was; and I had no idea at the time +that his position was at all insecure. Yes, my boy, you were welcome to +the whole thing! I was going back to the bush----" + +"_You_ were going back!" cried Jack, coming forward; and Olivia came +also, flushed with a joy that rendered her uniquely indifferent to the +great disclosure. Jack was hers. What did it matter who was the Duke? + +"To be sure I was," said the squatter; "but now I think it will have to +be you after all. What do you say to managing Carara? What do you say, +Miss Sellwood, to helping him to try? You must talk to your father about +it. And for heaven's sake, Jack, don't thank _me_; I've been the worst +friend you ever had in your life." + +Mr. Sellwood was already speaking to his wife. Jack and their daughter +stood hand-in-hand beside them. The new Duke turned his back and joined +Claude on his lounge. The solicitor had beaten a retreat; the Frekes had +done so before him; and the rest of their party, including Jack, did so +now. But Jack returned before either Claude or the squatter had left the +room. + +"The worst friend I ever had!" said he reproachfully, as he took his old +master's hand. "What should I be doing to-night if it hadn't been for +you? You may say what you like; you've helped to make me the happiest +man in all the world. I can marry her after all! Mr. Sellwood's as white +a man as I know; even Lady Caroline has just given us best! But +you"--and he laid an affectionate rough hand on Claude's shoulder--"dear +old boy, what can I say to you? I'm ashamed to look you in the face. +You've lost everything!" + +Claude was very pale; the other's honest eyes were shining with sympathy +beneath their bushy brows; but the new Duke laughed aloud. + +"Lost everything?" he cried. "Not a bit of it! I'm not going to live for +ever, and Claude's exactly where he was--the next man in. You think not? +And have you known me all these years, and do you really and truly +expect me to marry again? Jack--my boy--have I to tell you how it is +with me? I have been a bad old lot in my time; but one woman I once +loved well enough to spoil me for ever for all the rest." + +He paused an instant, and it was quite a tender hand he laid on Jack's +shoulder. + +"And there's one man I love for her sake!" + + * * * * * + +By E. W. HORNUNG. + + +THE ROGUE'S MARCH. A Romance. 12mo. $1.50. + +A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH. [Ivory Series.] 16mo. 75 cents. + +IRRAELI'S BUSHRANGER. A Story of Australian Adventure. [Ivory Series.] +16mo. 75 cents. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lord Duke, by E. W. 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W. Hornung. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lord Duke, by E. W. Hornung + +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: My Lord Duke + +Author: E. W. Hornung + +Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LORD DUKE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>MY LORD DUKE</h1> + +<h2>BY E. W. HORNUNG</h2> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +1897</p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY<br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p> + +<p class="center">Norwood Press<br /> +J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith<br /> +Norwood Mass. U.S.A.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table width="50%"> +<tr><td align="right">I. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">The Head of the Family</span> </a></td><td align="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">"<span class="smcap">Happy Jack</span>" </a></td><td align="right">16</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">A Chance Lost</span> </a></td><td align="right">31</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">Not in the Programme</span> </a></td><td align="right">44</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">With the Elect</span> </a></td><td align="right">63</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">A New Leaf</span> </a></td><td align="right">77</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">The Duke's Progress</span> </a></td><td align="right">90</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">The Old Adam</span> </a></td><td align="right">105</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">An Anonymous Letter</span> </a></td><td align="right">122</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">"<span class="smcap">Dead Nuts</span>" </a></td><td align="right">137</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">The Night of the Twentieth</span> </a></td><td align="right">151</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">The Wrong Man</span> </a></td><td align="right">163</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">The Interregnum</span> </a></td><td align="right">180</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">Jack and his Master</span> </a></td><td align="right">189</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">End of the Interregnum</span> </a></td><td align="right">199</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">"<span class="smcap">Love the Gift</span>" </a></td><td align="right">215</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">An Anti-Toxine</span> </a></td><td align="right">223</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">Heckling a Minister</span> </a></td><td align="right">233</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">The Cat and the Mouse</span> </a></td><td align="right">244</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">"<span class="smcap">Love the Debt</span>" </a></td><td align="right">257</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">The Bar Sinister</span> </a></td><td align="right">266</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">De Mortuis</span> </a></td><td align="right">282</td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MY LORD DUKE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY</h3> + + +<p>The Home Secretary leant his golf-clubs against a chair. His was the +longest face of all.</p> + +<p>"I am only sorry it should have come now," said Claude apologetically.</p> + +<p>"Just as we were starting for the links! Our first day, too!" muttered +the Home Secretary.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> think of Claude," remarked his wife. "I can never tell you, Claude, +how much I feel for you! We shall miss you dreadfully, of course; but we +couldn't expect to enjoy ourselves after this; and I think, in the +circumstances, that you are quite right to go up to town at once."</p> + +<p>"Why?" cried the Home Secretary warmly. "What good can he do in the +Easter holidays? Everybody will be away; he'd much better come with me +and fill his lungs with fresh air."</p> + +<p>"I can never tell you how much I feel for you," repeated Lady Caroline +to Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>"Nor I," said Olivia. "It's too horrible! I don't believe it. To think +of their finding him after all! I don't believe they <i>have</i> found him. +You've made some mistake, Claude. You've forgotten your code; the cable +really means that they've <i>not</i> found him, and are giving up the +search!"</p> + +<p>Claude Lafont shook his head.</p> + +<p>"There may be something in what Olivia says," remarked the Home +Secretary. "The mistake may have been made at the other end. It would +bear talking over on the links."</p> + +<p>Claude shook his head again.</p> + +<p>"We have no reason to suppose there has been a mistake at all, Mr. +Sellwood. Cripps is not the kind of man to make mistakes; and I can +swear to my code. The word means, 'Duke found—I sail with him at +once.'"</p> + +<p>"An Australian Duke!" exclaimed Olivia.</p> + +<p>"A blackamoor, no doubt," said Lady Caroline with conviction.</p> + +<p>"Your kinsman, in any case," said Claude Lafont, laughing; "and my +cousin; and the head of the family from this day forth."</p> + +<p>"It was madness!" cried Lady Caroline softly. "Simple madness—but then +all you poets <i>are</i> mad! Excuse me, Claude, but you remind me of the +Lafont blood in my own veins—you make it boil. I feel as if I never +could forgive you! To turn up your nose at one of the oldest titles in +the three kingdoms; to think twice about a purely hypothetical heir at +the antipodes; and actually to send out your solicitor to hunt him up! +If that was not Quixotic lunacy, I should like to know what is?"</p> + +<p>The Right Honourable George Sellwood took a new golf-ball from his +pocket, and bowed his white head mournfully as he stripped off the +tissue paper.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lady Caroline, <i>noblesse oblige</i>—and a man must do his obvious +duty," he heard Claude saying, in his slightly pedantic fashion. +"Besides, I should have cut a very sorry figure had I jumped at the +throne, as it were, and sat there until I was turned out. One knew there +<i>had</i> been an heir in Australia; the only thing was to find out if he +was still alive; and Cripps has done so. I'm bound to say I had given +him up. Cripps has written quite hopelessly of late. He must have found +the scent and followed it up during the last six weeks; but in another +six he will be here to tell us all about it—and we shall see the Duke. +Meanwhile, pray don't waste your sympathies upon <i>me</i>. To be perfectly +frank, this is in many ways a relief to me—I am only sorry it has come +now. You know my tastes; but I have hitherto found it expedient to make +a little secret of my opinions. Now, however, there can be no harm in my +saying that they are not entirely in harmony with the hereditary +principle. You hold up your hands, dear Lady Caroline, but I assure you +that my seat in the Upper Chamber would have been a seat of +conscientious thorns. In fact I have been in a difficulty, ever since my +grandfather's death, which I am very thankful to have removed. On the +other hand, I love my—may I say my art? And luckily I have enough to +cultivate the muse on, at all events, the best of oatmeal; so I am not +to be pitied. A good quatrain, Olivia, is more to me than coronets; and +the society of my literary friends is dearer to my heart than that of +all the peers in Christendom."</p> + +<p>Claude was a poet; when he forgot this fact he was also an excellent +fellow. His affectations ended with his talk. In appearance he was +distinctly desirable. He had long, clean limbs, a handsome, shaven, +mild-eyed face, and dark hair as short as another's. He would have made +an admirable Duke.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood looked up a little sharply from his dazzling new golf-ball.</p> + +<p>"Why go to town at all?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Well, the truth is, I have been in a false position all these months," +replied Claude, forgetting his poetry and becoming natural at once. "I +want to get out of it without a day's unnecessary delay. This thing must +be made public."</p> + +<p>The statesman considered.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it must," said he, judicially.</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly," said Lady Caroline, looking from Olivia to Claude. "The +sooner the better."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said the Home Secretary. "It has kept nearly a year. +Surely it can keep another week? Look here, my good fellow. I come down +here expressly to play golf with you, and you want to bunker me in the +very house! I take it for the week for nothing else, and you want to +desert me the very first morning. You shan't do either, so that's all +about it."</p> + +<p>"You're a perfect tyrant!" cried Lady Caroline. "I'm ashamed of you, +George; and I hope Claude will do exactly as he likes. <i>I</i> shall be +sorry enough to lose him, goodness knows!"</p> + +<p>"So shall I," said Olivia simply.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline shuddered.</p> + +<p>"Look at the day!" cried Mr. Sellwood, jumping up with his pink face +glowing beneath his virile silver hair. "Look at the sea! Look at the +sand! Look at the sea-breeze lifting the very carpet under our feet! Was +there ever such a day for golf?"</p> + +<p>Claude wavered visibly.</p> + +<p>"Come on," said Mr. Sellwood, catching up his clubs. "I'm awfully sorry +for you, my boy. But come on!"</p> + +<p>"You will have to give in, Claude," said Olivia, who loved her father.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline shrugged her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said she, "I hope he will; still I don't think our own +selfish considerations should detain him against his better judgment."</p> + +<p>"I am eager to see Cripps's partners," said Claude vacillating. "They +may know more about it."</p> + +<p>"And solicitors are such trying people," remarked Lady Caroline +sympathetically; "one always does want to see them personally, to know +what they really mean."</p> + +<p>"That's what I feel," said Claude.</p> + +<p>"But what on earth has he to consult them about?" demanded the Home +Secretary. "Everything will keep—except the golf. Besides, my dear +fellow, you are perfectly safe in the hands of Maitland, Hollis, Cripps +and Company. A fine steady firm, and yet pushing too. I recollect they +were the first solicitors in London—"</p> + +<p>"Were!" said his wife significantly.</p> + +<p>"To supply us with typewritten briefs, my love. Now there is little +else. In such hands, my dear Claude, your interests are quite +undramatically safe."</p> + +<p>"Still," said Claude, "it's an important matter; and I am, after all, +for the moment, the head of—"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what you are," cried the politician, with a burst of that +hot brutality which had formerly made him the wholesome terror of the +Junior Bar; "you're a confounded minor Cockney poet! If you want to go +back to your putrid midnight oil, go back to it; if you want to get out +of the golf, get out of it! I'm off. I shouldn't like to be rude to you, +Claude, my boy, and I may be if I remain. No doubt I shall be able to +pick up somebody down at the links."</p> + +<p>Claude struck his flag.</p> + +<p>A minute later, Olivia, from the broad bay window, watched the lank, +handsome poet and the sturdy, white-haired statesman hurrying along the +Marina arm-in-arm; both in knickerbockers and Norfolk jackets; and each +carrying a quiverful of golf-clubs in his outer hand.</p> + +<p>The girl was lost in thought.</p> + +<p>"Olivia," said a voice behind her, "your father behaved like a brute!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't think so; it was all in good part. And it will do him so much +good!"</p> + +<p>"Do whom?"</p> + +<p>"Poor Claude! Of course he is dreadfully cut up."</p> + +<p>"Then why did he pretend to be pleased?"</p> + +<p>"That was his pluck. He took it splendidly. I never admired him so +much!"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again without a +word. Her daughter's slight figure was silhouetted against the middle +window of the bow; the sun put a golden crown upon the fair young head; +yet the head was bent, and the girl's whole attitude one of pity and of +thought. Lady Caroline Sellwood rose quietly, and left the room.</p> + +<p>That species of low cunning, which was one of her Ladyship's traits, had +placed her for the moment in a rather neat dilemma. Claude Lafont had +cast poet's eyes at Olivia for months and years; and for weeks and +months Olivia's mother had wished there were less poetry and more +passion in the composition of that aristocrat. He would not say what +nobody else, not even Lady Caroline, could say for him. He was content +to dangle and admire; he had called Olivia his "faëry queen," with his +lips and with his pen, in private and in print; but he had betrayed no +immediate desire to call her his wife. Lady Caroline had recommended him +to marry, and he had denounced marriage as "the death of romance." Quite +sure in her own mind that she was dealing with none other than the Duke +of St. Osmund's, it was her Ladyship who had planned the present small +party (which her distinguished husband would call a "foursome") for the +Easter Recess. Flatly disbelieving in the existence of the alleged +Australian heir, she had seen the merit of engaging Olivia to Claude +before the latter assumed his title in the eyes of the world. That the +title was his to assume, when he liked, had been the opinion of all the +Lafonts, save Claude himself, from the very first; and, when it suited +her, Lady Caroline Sellwood was very well pleased to consider herself a +Lafont. In point of fact, her mother had borne that illustrious name +before her marriage with the impecunious Earl Clennell of Ballycawley; +and Lady Caroline was herself a great-granddaughter of the sixth Duke of +St. Osmund's.</p> + +<p>The sixth Duke (who exerted himself to make the second half of the last +century rather wickeder than the first) had two sons, of whom her +present Ladyship's grandfather was the younger. The elder became the +seventh Duke, and begot the eighth (and most respectable) Duke of St. +Osmund's—the aged peer lately deceased. The eighth Duke, again, had but +two sons, who both predeceased him. These two sons were, respectively, +Claude's father and the unmentionable Marquis of Maske. The Marquis was +a man after the heart of his worst ancestor, a fascinating blackguard, +neither more nor less. At twenty-four he had raised the temperature of +his native air to a degree incompatible with his own safety; and had +fled the country never to return. Word of his death was received from +Australia in the year 1866. He had died horribly, from thirst in the +wilderness, and yet a proper compassion was impossible even after that. +For the news was accompanied by a letter from the dead man's +hand—scrawled at his last gasp, and pinned with his knife to the tree +under which the body was found—yet composed in a vein of revolting +cynicism, and containing further news of the most embarrassing +description. The Marquis was leaving behind him—somewhere in +Australia—at the moment he really could not say where—a small +Viscount Dillamore to inherit ultimately the title and estates. He gave +no dates, but said his wife was dead. To the best of his belief, +however, the lad was alive; and might be known by the French eagle of +the Lafonts, which the father had himself tattooed upon his little +chest.</p> + +<p>This was all the clue which had been left to Claude, to follow on a bad +man's bare word, or to ignore at his own discretion. For reasons best +known to himself, the old Duke had taken no steps to discover the little +Marquis. Unluckily, however, his late Grace had not been entirely +himself for many years before his death; and those reasons had never +transpired. Claude, on the other hand, was a man of fastidious +temperament, a person of infinite scruples, with a morbid horror of the +incorrect. He would spend half the morning deciding between a semicolon +and a full stop; and he was consistently conscientious in matters of +real moment, as, for example, in that of his marriage. He had been +asking himself, for quite a twelve-month, whether he really loved +Olivia; he had no intention of asking <i>her</i> until he was quite convinced +on the point. To such a man there was but one course possible on the old +Duke's death. And Claude had taken it with the worst results.</p> + +<p>"He has no sympathy for <i>me</i>," said Lady Caroline bitterly, as she went +upstairs. "He has cut his own throat, and there's an end of it; except +that if he thinks he's going to marry any daughter of mine, after this, +he is very much mistaken."</p> + +<p>It was extremely mortifying all the same; to have prepared the ground so +carefully, to have arranged every preliminary for a match which had now +to be abandoned altogether; and worse still, to have turned away half +the eligible young men in town for the sake of a Duke who was not a Duke +at all. Lady Caroline Sellwood had three daughters. The eldest had made +a good, solid, military marriage, and enjoyed in India a social position +that was not unworthy of her. The second daughter had not done quite so +well; still, her husband, the Rev. Francis Freke, was a divine whose +birth was better than his attainments, so that there was every chance of +seeing his little legs in gaiters before either foot was in his grave. +But Olivia was her youngest ("my ewe lamb," Lady Caroline used to call +her, although no other kind had graced her fold), and in her mother's +opinion she was fitted for a better fate than that which had befallen +either of her sisters. Olivia was the prettiest of the three. Her little +fair head, "sunning over with curls," as Claude never tired of saying, +was made by nature with a self-evident view to strawberry-leaves and +twinkling tiaras. And Lady Caroline meant it to wear them yet.</p> + +<p>She had done her best to encourage Claude in his inclination to run up +to town at once. The situation at the seaside had become charged with +danger. Not only did it appear to Lady Caroline that the poet was at +last satisfied with the state of his own affections, but she had reason +to fear that Claude Lafont would have a better chance with Olivia than +would the Duke of St. Osmund's. The child was peculiar. She had read too +much, and there was a suspiciously sentimental strain in her. Her acute +mother did not imagine her "vulgarly in love" (as she called it) with +the æsthetic Claude; but she had heard him tell the girl that "pity from +her" was "more dear than that from another"; and it was precisely this +pity which Lady Caroline now dreaded as fervently as she would have +welcomed it the day before. Her stupid husband had outwitted her in the +matter of Claude's departure. Lady Caroline was hardly at the top of the +stairs before she had made up the masterly mind which she considered at +least a match for her stupid husband's. He would not allow her to get +rid of Claude? Very well; nothing simpler. She would get rid of Olivia +instead.</p> + +<p>The means suggested itself almost as quickly as the end.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline took a little walk to the post-office, and said she had +been on the pier. In a couple of hours a telegram arrived from Mrs. +Freke, begging Olivia to go to her at once. Lady Caroline was apparently +overwhelmed with surprise. But she despatched her ewe lamb by the next +train.</p> + +<p>"Olivia, I won both rounds!" called out the Home Secretary, when he +strutted in towards evening, pink and beaming. Claude also looked the +better and the brighter for his day; but Lady Caroline took the +brightness out of him in an instant; and the Home Secretary beamed no +more that night.</p> + +<p>"It is no use your calling Olivia," said her Ladyship calmly; "by this +time she must be a hundred miles away. You needn't look so startled, +George. You know the state to which poor Francis reduces himself by the +end of Lent, and you know that dear Mary's baby is not thriving as it +ought. I shouldn't wonder if he makes <i>it</i> fast, too! At all events +Mary telegraphed for Olivia this morning, and I let her go. Now it's no +use being angry with any of us! With a young baby and a half-starved +husband it was a very natural request. There's the telegram on the +mantelpiece for you to see for yourself what she says."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>"HAPPY JACK"</h3> + + +<p>A dilettante in letters, a laggard in love, and a pedant in much of his +speech, Claude Lafont was nevertheless possessed of certain graces of +the heart and head which entitled him at all events to the kindly +consideration of his friends. He had enthusiasm and some soul; he had an +open hand and an essentially simple mind. These were the merits of the +man. They were less evident than his foibles, which, indeed, continually +obscured them. He would have been the better for one really bad fault: +but nature had not salted him with a single vice.</p> + +<p>Unpopular at Eton, he had found his feet perhaps a little too firmly at +Oxford. There his hair had grown long and his views outrageous. Had the +old Duke of St. Osmund's been in his right mind at the time, he would +certainly have quitted it at the report of some of his grandson's +contributions to the university debates. Claude, however, had the +courage of his most extravagant opinions, and even at Oxford he was a +man whom it was possible to respect. The era of Toynbee Hall and a +gentlemanly, kid-gloved Socialism came a little later; there were other +and intermediate phases, into which it is unnecessary to enter. Claude +came through them all with two things, at least, as good as new: his +ready enthusiasm and his excellent heart.</p> + +<p>Whether he really did view the new twist in his life with the +satisfaction which he professed is an open and immaterial question; all +that is certain or important is the fact that he did not permit himself +to repine. He was never in better spirits than in the six weeks' +interval between the receipt of Mr. Cripps's cable and that gentleman's +arrival with the new Duke. Claude divided the time between the proofs of +his new volume of poems and conscientious preparations for the proper +reception of his noble cousin. He had the mansion in Belgrave Square, +which had fallen of late years into disuse, elaborately done up, +repapered, and fitted throughout with new hangings and the electric +light. He felt it his duty to hand over the house in a cleanly and +habitable state; and he was accustomed to work his duty rather hard. He +ran down to Maske Towers, the principal family seat, repeatedly, and had +certain renovations carried out as far as possible under his own eye. In +every direction he did more than he need have done. And so the time +passed very busily, quite happily, and with an interest that was kept +green to the last by the utter absence of any shred of information +concerning the ninth Duke of St. Osmund's.</p> + +<p>Claude had even no idea as to whether he was a married man. So he +legislated for a wife and family. And his worst visions were of a +hulking, genial, sheep-farming Duke, with a tribe of very terrible +little Lords and Ladies, duly frightened of their gigantic father, but +paying not the slightest attention to the anæmic Duchess who all day +scolded them through her freckled nose.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cripps's letters continued to arrive by each week's mail; but they +were still written with a shake of the head and a growing deprecation of +the wild-goose chase in which the lawyer now believed himself to be +unworthily engaged. Towards the end of May, however, the letters +stopped. The last one was written on the eve of an expedition up the +country, on a mere off-chance, to find out more about one John +Dillamore, whom Mr. Cripps had heard of as a resident of the Riverina. +Claude Lafont knew well what had come of that off-chance. It had turned +the tide of his life. But no letter came from the Riverina; the next +communication was a telegram from Brindisi, saying they had left the +ship and were travelling overland; and the next after that, another +telegram stating the hour at which they hoped to land at Dover.</p> + +<p>Claude Lafont had just time enough to put on his hat, to stop the hansom +for an instant at the house in Belgrave Square, and to catch the 12.0 +from Victoria.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely day in early June. There was neither a cloud in the sky +nor the white crest of a wave out at sea; the one was as serenely blue +as the other; and the <i>Calais-Douvre</i> rode in with a high-bred calm and +dignity all in key with the occasion. Claude boarded her before he had +any right, with a sudden dereliction of his characteristic caution. And +there was old Cripps, sunburnt and grim, with a soft felt hat on his +head, and a strange spasmodic twitching at the corners of the mouth.</p> + +<p>"Here you are!" cried Claude, gripping hands. "Well, where is he?"</p> + +<p>The lawyer's lips went in and out, and a rough-looking bystander +chuckled audibly.</p> + +<p>"One thing quickly," whispered Claude: "is he a married man?"</p> + +<p>"No, he isn't."</p> + +<p>The bystander laughed outright. Claude favoured him with a haughty +glance.</p> + +<p>"His servant, I presume?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Cripps hoarsely. "I must introduce you. The Duke of St. +Osmund's—your kinsman, Mr. Claude Lafont."</p> + +<p>Claude felt the painful pressure of a horny fist, and gasped.</p> + +<p>"Proud to meet you, mister," said the Duke.</p> + +<p>"So delighted to meet and welcome <i>you</i>, Duke," said Claude faintly.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'm a bit of a larrikin," continued the Duke. "You'd have +done as well to leave me where I was—but now I'm here you've got to +call me Jack."</p> + +<p>"You knew, of course, what would happen sooner or later?" said Claude, +with a sickly smile.</p> + +<p>"Not me. My colonial oath, I did <i>not</i>! Never dreamt of it till I seen +<i>him</i>"—with a jerk of his wideawake towards Mr. Cripps. It was a very +different felt hat from that gentleman's; the crown rose like a +sugar-loaf, nine inches from the head; the brim was nearly as many +inches wide; and where the felt touched the temples it was stained +through and through with ancient perspiration.</p> + +<p>"And I can't sight it now!" added his Grace.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless it's true," said Mr. Cripps.</p> + +<p>Claude was taking in the matted beard, the peeled nose, and the round +shoulders of the ninth Duke. He was a bushman from top to toe.</p> + +<p>"What luggage have you?" exclaimed Claude, with a sudden effort. "We +must get it ashore."</p> + +<p>"This is all," said the Duke, with a grin.</p> + +<p>It lay on the deck at their feet: a long cylinder whose outer case was +an old blue blanket, very neatly rolled and strapped; an Australian +saddle, with enormous knee-pads, black with age; and an extraordinary +cage like a rabbit-hutch. The cage was full of cats. The Duke insisted +on carrying it ashore himself.</p> + +<p>"This <i>is</i> the man?" whispered Claude, jealously, to Mr. Cripps.</p> + +<p>"The man himself; there's an eagle on his chest as large as life."</p> + +<p>"But it might be a coincidence——"</p> + +<p>"It might be, but it isn't," replied Cripps shortly. "He's the Duke all +right; the papers I shall show you are quite conclusive. I own he +doesn't look the part. He's not tractable. He would come as he is. I +heaved one old hat overboard; but he had a worse in his swag. However, +no one on board knew who he was. I took care of that."</p> + +<p>"God bless you, Cripps!" said Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>He had reserved a first-class carriage. The Duke took up half of it with +his cat-cage, which he stoutly declined to trust out of his sight. There +were still a few minutes before the train would start. Claude and Cripps +exchanged sympathetic glances.</p> + +<p>"I think we ought to drink the Duke's health," said Claude, who for once +felt the need of a stimulant himself.</p> + +<p>"I think so too," said Mr. Cripps.</p> + +<p>"Then make 'em lock the door," stipulated his Grace. "I wouldn't risk my +cats being shook, not for drinks as long as your leg!"</p> + +<p>A grinning guard came forward with his key. The Duke "mistered" him, and +mentioned where his cats came from as he got out.</p> + +<p>"Very kind of you to shout for me," he continued as they filed into the +refreshment room; "but why the blazes don't you call me Jack? Happy +Jack's my name, that's what they used to call me up the bush. I'm not +going to stop being Jack, or happy either, 'cause I'm a Dook; if I did +I'd jolly soon sling it. Now, my dear, what are you givin' us? Why don't +you let me help myself, like they do up the bush? English fashion, is +it? And you call that drop a nobbler, do you, in the old country? Well, +well, here's fun!"</p> + +<p>The Duke's custodians were not sorry to get him back beside his cats. +They were really glad when the train started. The Duke was in high +spirits. The whisky had loosened his tongue.</p> + +<p>"Like cats, old man?" he inquired of Claude. "Then I hope you'll make +friends with mine. They were my only mates, year in, year out, up at the +hut. I wasn't going to leave 'em there when they'd stood by me so long; +not likely; so here they are. See that black 'un in the corner? I call +her Black Maria, and that's her kitten. She went and had a large family +at sea, but this poor little beggar's the only one what lived to tell +the tale. That great big Tom, he's the father. I don't think much of +Tom, but it would have been a shame to leave him behind. No, sir, my +favourite's the little tortoise-shell with the game leg. He got cotched +in a rabbit trap last shearing-time; he's the most adventurous little +cat that ever was, so I call him Livingstone. I've known him explore +five miles from the hut, when there wasn't a drop of water or a blade of +feed in the paddicks, and yet come back as fat as butter. A little +caution, I tell you! Out you come, Livingstone!"</p> + +<p>Claude thought he had never seen a more ill-favoured animal. To call it +tortoise-shell was to misuse the word. It was simply yellow; it ran on +three legs; and its nose had been recently scarified by an enemy's +claws.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm full up of Tom," pursued the Duke, fondling his pet. "Look what +he done on board to Livingstone's nose! I nearly slung him over the +side. Poor little puss, then, poor little puss! You may well purr, old +toucher; there's a live Lord scratching your head."</p> + +<p>"Meaning me?" said Claude genially; there was a kindness in the rugged +face, as it bent over the little yellow horror, that appealed to the +poet.</p> + +<p>"Meaning you, of course."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not one."</p> + +<p>"You're not? What a darned shame! Why, you ought to be a Dook. You'd +make a better one than me!"</p> + +<p>The family solicitor was half-hidden behind that morning's <i>Times</i>; as +Jack spoke, he hid himself entirely. Claude, for his part, saw nothing +to laugh at. The Duke's face was earnest. The Duke's eyes were dark and +kind. Like Claude himself, he had the long Lafont nose, though sun and +wind had peeled it red; and a pair of shaggy brown eyebrows gave +strength at all events to the hairy face. Claude was thinking that +half-an-hour at Truefitt's, a pot of vaseline, and the best attentions +of his own tailors in Maddox Street would make a new man of Happy Jack. +Not that his suit was on a par with his abominable wideawake. He could +not have worn these clothes in the bush. They were obviously his best; +and, as obviously, ready-made.</p> + +<p>Happy Jack was meantime apostrophising his pet.</p> + +<p>"Ah! but you was with me when that there gentleman found me, wasn't you, +Livingstone? You should tell the other gentleman about that. We never +thought we was a Dook, did we? We thought ourselves a blooming ordinary +common man. My colonial oath, and so we are! But you recollect that last +bu'st of ours, Livingstone? I mean the time we went to knock down the +thirty-one pound cheque what never got knocked down properly at all. We +had a rare thirst on us——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Cripps in his corner smacked down the <i>Times</i> on his knees.</p> + +<p>"Look there!" he cried. "Did ever you see such grass as that, Jack? +You've nothing like it in New South Wales. I declare it does my old +heart good to see an honest green field again!"</p> + +<p>Jack looked out for an instant only.</p> + +<p>"Ten sheep to the acre," said he. "Wonderful, isn't it, Livingstone? And +you an' me used to ten acres to the sheep! But we were talking about +that last little spree; you want your Uncle Claude to hear all about it, +I see you do; you're not the cat to make yourself out better than what +you are; not you, Livingstone! Well, as I was saying——"</p> + +<p>"Those red-tiled roofs are simply charming!" exclaimed the solicitor.</p> + +<p>"A perfect poem," said Claude.</p> + +<p>"And that May-tree in full bloom!"</p> + +<p>"A living lyric," said Claude.</p> + +<p>It was really apple-blossom.</p> + +<p>"And you," cried the Duke to his cat, "you're a comic song, that's what +<i>you</i> are! Tell 'em you won't be talked down, Livingstone. Tell this +gentleman he's got to hear the worst. Tell him that when the other +gentleman found us"—the solicitor raised his <i>Times</i> with a shrug—"one +of us was drunk, drunk, drunk; and the other was watching over him—and +the other was my little cat!"</p> + +<p>"You're joking, of course?" said Claude, with a flush.</p> + +<p>"Not me, mister. That's a fact. You see, it was like this——"</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Claude hastily; "but I'd far rather not know."</p> + +<p>"Why not, old toucher?"</p> + +<p>"It would hurt me," said Claude, with a shudder.</p> + +<p>"Hurt you! Hear that, Livingstone? It would hurt him to hear how we +knocked down our last little cheque! That's the best one <i>I</i>'ve heard +since I left the ship!"</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless it's the case."</p> + +<p>"And do you mean to tell me you were never like that yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Never in my life."</p> + +<p>"Well, shoot me dead!" whispered the Duke in his amazement.</p> + +<p>"It ought not to surprise you," said Claude, in a tone that set the +<i>Times</i> shaking in the far corner of the carriage.</p> + +<p>"It does, though. I can't help it. You're the first I've ever met that +could say as much."</p> + +<p>"Pray let us drop the subject. I prefer to hear no more. You pain me +more than I can say!"</p> + +<p>Claude's flush had deepened; his supersensitive soul was indeed +scandalised, and so visibly that an answering flush showed upon the +Duke's mahogany features, like an extra coat of polish.</p> + +<p>"I pain you!" he echoed, dropping his cat. "I'm very sorry then. I am +so! I had no intention of doing any such thing. All I wanted was to fly +my true flag at once, like, and have done with it. And I've pained you; +and you bet I'll go on paining you all the time! How can I help it? I'm +not what us back-blockers call a parlour-man, though I may be a Dook; +but neither the one nor the other is my fault. You should have let me be +in the bush. I was all right there—all right with my hut and my cats. +I'd never known anything better. I never knew who I was. What did it +matter if I knocked down my cheque when I got full up of the cats and +the hut? Nobody thinks anything of that up the bush. The boss used +always to take me on again; some day I'll tell you about my old boss; he +was the best friend ever I had. A real gentleman, who thought no worse +of you so long's it only happened now and then. But see here! It shall +never happen again. It didn't matter in the boundary rider, but p'r'aps +it might in the Dook. Anyhow I'm strict T T from this moment; that +whisky at Dover shall be my last. And I'm darned sorry I pained you, +and—and dash it, here's my fist on it for good and all!"</p> + +<p>It is difficult to say which hand wrung the harder. Claude was not +pleased with himself; the conscious lack of some quality, which the +other possessed, was afflicting him with a novel and entirely unexpected +sense of inferiority. He was as yet unsure what the missing quality was; +he hardly suspected it of being a virtue; but it was new to Claude to +have these feelings at all.</p> + +<p>He said not another word upon the embarrassing subject, but fell +presently into a train of thought that kept him silent until they +steamed into Victoria. There the conquering Cripps was met by his wife +and daughters; but Claude managed to get a few more words with him as +they were waiting to have the baggage passed.</p> + +<p>"I like him," said Claude.</p> + +<p>"So do I," was the reply, "and I know him well."</p> + +<p>"I like his honesty."</p> + +<p>"He is honesty itself. I did my best just now to keep him from giving +himself away—but that was his deliberate game. Mark you, what he +insisted on telling you was quite true; but on the whole he has behaved +excellently ever since."</p> + +<p>"Well, as long as he doesn't confess his sins to everybody he meets!"</p> + +<p>"No fear of that; he looks on you as still the head of the family, with +a sort of <i>ex officio</i> right to know the worst. His own position he +doesn't realise a bit. Yet some day I expect to see him at least as fit +to occupy it as one or two others; and you are the man to make him so. +You will only require two things."</p> + +<p>The great doors opened inwards, and the travellers surged in to claim +their luggage, with Mr. Cripps at their head. Claude caught him by the +elbow as he was pointing out his trunks.</p> + +<p>"Those two things?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Yes, those two, with my initials on each."</p> + +<p>"No, but the two things that I shall need?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, those! Plenty of patience, and plenty of time."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>A CHANCE LOST</h3> + + +<p>It was the pink of the evening when the cousins drove off in a +four-wheeler with the cats on top. Claude had been in many minds about +their destination, until the Duke had asked him to recommend an hotel. +At that he had hesitated a little, and finally pitched upon the First +Avenue. A variety of feelings guided his choice, chief among them being +a vague impression that his wild kinsman would provoke less attention in +Holborn than in Northumberland Avenue. To Holborn, at all events, they +were now on their way.</p> + +<p>Claude sat far back in the cab; he felt thankful it was not a hansom. In +the Mall they met a string of them, taking cloaked women and +white-breasted men out to dinner. Claude saw one or two faces he knew, +but was himself unseen. He saw them stare and smile at the tanned and +bearded visage beneath that villainous wideawake, which was thrust from +one window to the other with the eager and unrestrained excitement of a +child. He felt ashamed of poor Jack. He was sincerely ashamed of this +very feeling.</p> + +<p>"What streets!" whispered the Duke in an awestruck whisper. "We've +nothing like 'em in Melbourne. They'd knock spots off Sydney. I've been +in both."</p> + +<p>Claude had a sudden thought. "For you," he said, "these streets should +have a special interest."</p> + +<p>"How's that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, many of them belong to you."</p> + +<p>"WHAT?"</p> + +<p>"You are the ground landlord of some of the streets and squares we have +already passed."</p> + +<p>The brown beard had fallen in dismay; now, however, a mouthful of good +teeth showed themselves in a frankly incredulous grin.</p> + +<p>"What are you givin' us?" laughed Jack. "I see, you think you've got a +loan of a new chum! Well, so you have. Go ahead!"</p> + +<p>"Not if you don't choose to believe me," replied Claude stiffly. "I +meant what I said; I usually do. The property has been in our family for +hundreds of years."</p> + +<p>"And now it's mine?"</p> + +<p>"And now it's yours."</p> + +<p>The Duke of St. Osmund's took off his monstrous wideawake, and passed +the back of his hairy hand across his forehead. The gesture was eloquent +of a mind appalled.</p> + +<p>"Have I no homestead on my own run?" he inquired at length.</p> + +<p>"You have several," said Claude, smiling; but he also hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Several in London?" cried the Duke, aghast again.</p> + +<p>"No—only one in town."</p> + +<p>"That's better! I say, though, why aren't we going there?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the fact is, they're not quite ready for you; I mean the +servants. They—we were all rather rushed, you know, and they don't +expect you to-night. Do you mind?"</p> + +<p>Claude had stated but one fact of many. That morning, when he stopped +his hansom at the house, he had told the servants not to expect his +Grace until he telegraphed. After seeing the Duke, he had resolved not +to telegraph at all; and certainly not to install him in his own house, +as he was, without consulting other members of the family. He still +considered that decision justified. Nevertheless, the Duke's reply came +as a great relief.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm just as glad," said Jack contentedly. His contentment was only +comparative, however. The first dim conception of his greatness had +strangely dashed him; he was no longer the man that he had been in the +train.</p> + +<p>An athlete in a frayed frock-coat, and no shirt, was sprinting behind +the cab with the customary intent; it was a glimpse of him, as they +turned a corner, that slew the oppressed Duke, and brought Happy Jack +back to life.</p> + +<p>"Stop the cab!" he roared; "there's a man on the track of my cats!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, my dear fellow; it's only a person who'll want sixpence for +not helping with the luggage."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" asked Jack suspiciously. "How do you know he isn't a +professional cat-stealer? I must ask the cabman if they are all right!" +He did so, and was reassured.</p> + +<p>"We're almost at the hotel now," said Claude, with misgivings; he was +bitterly anticipating the sensation to be caused there by the arrival of +such a Duke of St. Osmund's, and wondering whether it would be of any +use suggesting a further period of <i>incognito</i>.</p> + +<p>"Nearly there, are we? Then see here," said Jack, "I've got something to +insist on. I mean to have my way about one matter."</p> + +<p>Claude groaned inwardly.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you straight. I'm not going to do the Dook in this hotel. I'm +plain Jack Dillamore, or I don't go in."</p> + +<p>The delight of this deliverance nearly overcame the poet.</p> + +<p>"I think you're wise," was all he trusted himself to say. "I should be +inclined to take the same course were I in your place. You will escape a +great deal of the sort of adulation which turneth the soul sick. And for +one night, at all events, you will be able, as an alien outsider, to +form an unprejudiced opinion of our unlovely metropolis."</p> + +<p>In the bright light of his ineffable relief, Claude's little mannerisms +stood out once more, like shadows when the sun shines fitfully; but it +was a transient gleam. The arrival at the hotel was still embarrassing +enough. The wideawake attracted attention. The attention was neither of +a flattering character in itself nor otherwise desirable from any point +of view. It made Claude miserable. There was also trouble about the +cats.</p> + +<p>Jack insisted on having them with him in his room. The management +demurred. Jack threatened to go elsewhere. The management raised no +objection; but Claude did. He handed them his card, and this settled +the matter. There is but one race of Lafonts in England. So Jack had his +way. A room was taken; the cats were put into it; milk was set before +them; and Jack left the hotel in Claude's company, with the key of that +room in his pocket.</p> + +<p>Claude would have taken him to his club, but for both their sakes he did +not dare. Yet he was as anxious as ever to show every hospitality to the +Duke. Accordingly he had refused Jack's invitation to dine with him in +the hotel, and was taking him across to the Holborn instead.</p> + +<p>The dinner went wonderfully. Jack was delighted with the music, with the +electric lights, with the marble pillars, with the gilded balconies, +with the dinner itself, in fact with everything. There was but one item +which did not appeal to him: he stoutly refused to drink a drop of wine.</p> + +<p>"A promise is a promise," said he. "I gave you my colonial in the train, +and I mean to keep it; for a bit, at all events."</p> + +<p>Claude protested and tempted him in vain. Jack called for a +lemon-squash, and turned his wine-glasses upside down. He revenged +himself, however, upon the viands.</p> + +<p>"Which <i>entrée</i>, please, sir?" said the waiter.</p> + +<p>"Both!" cried Jack. "You may go on, mister, till I tell you to stop!"</p> + +<p>After dinner the cousins went aloft, and Claude took out his cigarette +case and ordered cigars for the Duke. He could not smoke them himself, +but neither, it appeared, could Jack. <i>He</i> produced a cutty-pipe, black +and foul with age, and a cake of tobacco like a piece of shoe-leather, +which he began paring with his knife. Claude had soon to sit farther +away from him.</p> + +<p>Jack did not fancy a theatre; he was strongly in favour of a quiet +evening and a long talk; and it was he who proposed that they should +return, for this purpose, to the First Avenue. No sooner were they +comfortably settled in the hotel smoking-room, however, than the Duke +announced that he must run upstairs and see to his cats. And he came +down no more that night.</p> + +<p>Claude waited patiently for twenty minutes. Then he began a note to Lady +Caroline Sellwood. Then he remembered that he could, if he liked, see +Lady Caroline that night. It was merely a question of driving over to +his rooms in St. James's and putting himself into evening dress. On the +whole, this seemed worth doing. Claude therefore followed Jack upstairs +after an interval of half-an-hour.</p> + +<p>The Duke's rooms were on the first floor. Claude surprised a group of +first-floor servants laughing and whispering in the corridor. The little +that he heard as he passed made him hot all over. The exact words were:</p> + +<p>"Never see such a man in my life." "Nor me, my dear!" "And yet they call +this 'ere a decent 'otel!"</p> + +<p>Claude had no doubt in his own mind as to whom they were talking about. +Already the Duke inspired him with a sort of second-self-consciousness. +Prepared for anything, he hastened to the room and nervously knocked at +the door.</p> + +<p>"Come in!" cried Jack's voice.</p> + +<p>The door was unlocked; as Claude opened it the heat of the room fairly +staggered him. It was a sufficiently warm summer night, yet an enormous +fire was burning in the grate.</p> + +<p>"My <i>dear</i> fellow!" panted Claude.</p> + +<p>Jack was in his trousers and shirt; the sleeves were rolled up over his +brawny arms; the open front revealed an estuary of hairy chest; and it +was plain at a glance that the Duke was perspiring at every pore.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," he said. "It's for the cats."</p> + +<p>"The cats!" said Claude. They were lying round about the fire.</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor devils! They had a fire every day in the hut, summer and +winter. They never had a single one at sea. They like to sleep by +it—they always did—all but Livingstone. He sleeps with me when he +isn't on the loose."</p> + +<p>"But you'll never be able to sleep in an atmosphere like this!"</p> + +<p>Jack was cutting up a pipeful of his black tobacco.</p> + +<p>"Well, it <i>is</i> warm," he admitted. "And now you mention it, I may find +it a job to get asleep; but the cats like it, anyhow!" And he swore at +them affectionately as he lit his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Did you forget you'd left me downstairs?" asked Claude.</p> + +<p>"Clean! I apologise. I took this idea into my head, and I could think of +nothing else."</p> + +<p>"May we have another window open? Thank you. I'll smoke one cigarette; +then I must be off."</p> + +<p>"Where to?"</p> + +<p>"My chambers—to dress."</p> + +<p>"To <i>undress</i>, you mean!"</p> + +<p>"No, to dress. I've got to go out to a—to a party. I had almost +forgotten about it. The truth is, I want to see Lady Caroline Sellwood, +who, although not a near relation, is about the only woman in London +with our blood in her veins. She will want to see you. What's the +matter?"</p> + +<p>Jack's pipe had gone out in his hand; and there he stood, a pillar of +perspiring bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"A party!" he murmured. "At this time o' night!"</p> + +<p>Claude laughed.</p> + +<p>"It's not ten o'clock yet; if I'm there before half-past eleven I shall +be too early."</p> + +<p>"I give you best," said Jack, shaking his head, and putting another +light to his pipe. "It licks <i>me</i>! Who's the madman who gives parties in +the middle of the night?"</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow, everybody does! In this case it's a woman: the Countess +of Darlingford."</p> + +<p>"A live Countess!"</p> + +<p>"Well, but you're a live Duke."</p> + +<p>"But—I'm—a live—Dook!"</p> + +<p>Jack repeated the words as though the fact had momentarily escaped him. +His pipe went out again. This time he made no attempt to relight it, but +stood staring at Claude with his bare brown arms akimbo, and much +trouble in his rugged, honest face.</p> + +<p>"You can't get out of it," laughed Claude.</p> + +<p>"I can!" he cried. "I mean to get out of it! I'm not the man for the +billet. I wasn't dragged up to it. And I don't want it! I shall only +make a darned ass of myself and everybody else mixed up with me. I may +be the man by birth, but I'm not the man by anything else; and look +here, I want to back out of it while there's time; and you're the very +man to help me. I wasn't dragged up to it—but you were. I'm not the man +for the billet—but you are. The very man! You go to parties in the +middle of the night, and you think nothing of 'em. They'd be the death +of Happy Jack! The whole thing turns me sick with funk—the life, the +money, the responsibility. I never got a sight of it till to-day; and +now I don't want it at any price. You'd have got it if it hadn't been +for me; so take it now—for God's sake, take it now! If it's mine, it's +mine to give. I give it to you! Claude, old toucher, be the Dook +yourself. Let me and the cats clear back to the bush!"</p> + +<p>The poet had listened with amazement, with amusement, with compassion +and concern. He now shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You ask an impossibility. Without going into the thing, take my word +for it that what you propose is utterly and hopelessly out of the +question."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I disappear?" said Jack eagerly. "Couldn't I do a bolt in the +night? It's a big chance for you; surely you won't lose it by refusing +to help me clear out?"</p> + +<p>Claude again shook his head.</p> + +<p>"In a week's time you will be laughing at what you are saying now. You +are one of the richest men in England; everything that money can buy you +can have. You own some of the loveliest seats in the whole country; wait +till I have shown you Maske Towers! You won't want to clear out then. +You won't ask me to be the Duke again!"</p> + +<p>He had purposely dwelt upon those material allurements which the +bushman's mind would most readily grasp. And it was obvious that his +arguments had hit the target, although not, perhaps, the bull's-eye.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow," said Jack doggedly, "it's an offer! And I repeat it. What's +more, I mean it too!"</p> + +<p>"Then I decline it," returned Claude, to humour him; "and there's an end +of the matter. Look here, though. One thing I promise. If you like, I'll +see you through!"</p> + +<p>"You will?"</p> + +<p>"I will with all my heart."</p> + +<p>"And you're quite sure you won't take on the whole show yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Quite sure," said Claude, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Still, you'll tell me what to do? You'll tell me what not to do? You'll +show me the ropes? You'll have hold of my sleeve?"</p> + +<p>"I'll do all that; at least, I'll do all I can. It may not be much. +Still I'll do it."</p> + +<p>Jack held out a hot, damp hand; yet, just then, he seemed to be +perspiring most freely under the eyes.</p> + +<p>"You're a good sort, Claudy!" said he hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, old fellow," said Claude Lafont.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>NOT IN THE PROGRAMME</h3> + + +<p>Lady Caroline Sellwood's incomparable Wednesdays were so salient a +feature of those seasons during which her husband was in office, and her +town house in St. James's Square, that their standard is still quoted as +the ideal of its kind. These afternoons were never dull. Lady Caroline +cast a broad net, and her average draught included representatives of +every decent section of the community. But she also possessed some +secret recipe, the envy and the despair of other professional hostesses, +and in her rooms there was never an undue preponderance of any one +social ingredient. Every class—above a certain line, not drawn too +high—was represented; none was over done; nor was the mistake made of +"packing" the assembly with interesting people. The very necessary +complement of the merely interested was never wanting. One met beauty as +well as brains; wealth as well as wit; and quite as many colourless +nonentities as notorieties of every hue. The proportion was always +perfect, but not more so than the general good-temper of the guests. +They foregathered like long-lost brothers and sisters: the demagogue and +the divine; the judge and the junior; the oldest lady and the newest +woman; the amateur playwright and the actor-manager who had lost his +play; the minor novelist and the young lady who had never heard of him; +and my Lords and Ladies (whose carriages half-filled the Square) with +the very least of these. It was wonderful to see them together; it was a +solemn thought, but yet a fact, that their heavenly behaviour was due +simply and entirely to the administrative genius of Lady Caroline +Sellwood.</p> + +<p>The Home Secretary hated the Wednesdays; he was the one person who did; +and <i>he</i> only hated them because they <i>were</i> Wednesdays—and from the +period of his elderly infatuation for golf. It was his great day for a +round; and Lady Caroline had to make his excuses every week when it was +fine. This was another thing which her Ladyship did beautifully. She +would say, with a voice full of sympathy, equally divided between those +mutual losers, her guest and her husband, that poor dear George had to +address such and such a tiresome deputation; when, as a matter of fact, +he was "addressing" his golf-hall on Wimbledon Common, and enjoying +himself exceedingly. Now, among other Wednesdays, the Home Secretary was +down at Wimbledon (with a prominent member of the Opposition) on the +afternoon following the arrival in London of the ninth Duke of St. +Osmund's; and Mr. Sellwood never knew whether to pity his wife, or to +congratulate himself, on his absence from her side on that occasion.</p> + +<p>One of their constant ornaments, Claude Lafont, had been forced to +eschew these Wednesdays of late weeks. Lady Caroline Sellwood had never +been quite the same to him since the Easter Recess. She had treated him +from that time with a studied coolness quite inexplicable to his simple +mind; and finally, at Lady Darlingford's, she had been positively rude. +Claude, of course, had gone there expressly to prepare Lady Caroline for +the new Duke. This he conceived to be his immediate duty, and he +attempted to perform it, in the kindliest spirit imaginable, with all +the tact at his command. Lady Caroline declined to hear him out. She +chose to put a sinister construction upon his well-meant words, and to +interrupt them with the announcement that she intended, with Claude's +permission, to judge the Duke for herself. Was he married? Ha! then +where was he to be found? Claude told her, was coldly thanked, and went +home to writhe all that Tuesday night under the mortification of his +kinswoman's snub.</p> + +<p>Yet, on the Wednesday afternoon, Claude Lafont not only went to the +Sellwoods' as though nothing had happened, but he was there before the +time. And Lady Caroline was not only amazed, but (for the first time +since Easter) really pleased to see him: for already she had been given +cause to regret her insolent disregard of him overnight at Lady +Darlingford's. She was even composing an apology when the whiteness of +Claude's face brought her thoughts to a standstill.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen him?" he cried, as they met.</p> + +<p>"The Duke?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—haven't you seen him this morning?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed! Haven't you?"</p> + +<p>Claude sat down with a groan, shaking his head, and never seeing the +glittering, plump, outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you?" repeated Lady Caroline, sitting down herself.</p> + +<p>"Not this morning. I made sure he would come here!"</p> + +<p>"So he ought to have done. I asked him to lunch. The note was written +and posted the instant we came in from the Darlingfords'. Claude, I +wasn't nice to you there! Can you forgive me? I thought you were +prejudiced. My dreadful temper rose in arms on the side of the absent +man; it always was my great weakness rightly or wrongly to take the part +of those who aren't there to stick up for themselves!"</p> + +<p>Her great weakness was of quite another character, but Claude bowed. He +was barely listening.</p> + +<p>"I've lost him," he said, looking at Lady Caroline, with a rolling eye. +"He's disappeared."</p> + +<p>"Never!"</p> + +<p>"This morning," said Claude. "I did so hope he was here!"</p> + +<p>"He sent no answer, not one word, and he never came. Who saw him last?"</p> + +<p>"The hotel people, early this morning. It seems he ordered a horse for +seven o'clock, shortly after I left him last night. So they got him one, +and off he went before breakfast in the flannel collar and the +outrageous bush wideawake in which he landed. And he's never come +back."</p> + +<p>A change came over Lady Caroline Sellwood. She drew her chair a little +nearer, and she favoured Claude Lafont with a kindlier glance than he +had had from her since Easter.</p> + +<p>"Something may have happened," whispered Lady Caroline hopefully.</p> + +<p>"That's just it. Something <i>must</i> have happened."</p> + +<p>"But something dreadful! Only last season there was a man killed in the +Row! Was he—a <i>very</i> rough diamond, Claude?"</p> + +<p>"Very."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline sighed complacently.</p> + +<p>"But you can't help liking him," hastily added Claude, "and I hope to +goodness nothing serious is the matter!"</p> + +<p>"Of course, so do I. That goes without saying."</p> + +<p>"Nor is he at all a likely man to be thrown. He has lived his life in +the saddle. By the way, he brought his own old bush-saddle with him, and +it appears that he insisted on riding out in that too."</p> + +<p>"You see, Claude, it's a pity you didn't leave him in the bush; he's +evidently devoted to it still."</p> + +<p>"He is—that's the trouble; he has already spoken of bolting back there. +My fear is that he may even now be suiting the action to the word."</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me that," said Lady Caroline, whose head was still full of +her first theory.</p> + +<p>"It's what I fear; he's just the sort of fellow to go back by the first +boat, if the panic took him. He showed signs of a panic last night. You +see, he's only just beginning to realise what his position here will +mean. And it frightens him; it may have frightened him out of our sight +once and for all."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline shook her head.</p> + +<p>"My fear is that he has broken his neck! And if he has, depend upon it, +sad as it would be, it would still be for the best. That's what I always +say: everything is for the best," repeated Lady Caroline, pensively +gazing at Claude's handsome head. "However," she added, as the door +opened, "here's Olivia; go and ask her what she thinks. <i>I</i> am prepared +for the worst. And pray stop, dear Claude, and let us talk the matter +over after the others have gone. We may <i>know</i> the worst by that time. +And we have seen nothing of you this season!"</p> + +<p>Olivia looked charming. She was also kind to Claude. But she entirely +declined to embrace her mother's dark view of the Duke's disappearance. +On the other hand, she was inconveniently inquisitive about his looks +and personality, and Claude had to say many words for his cousin before +he could get in one for himself. However, he did at length contrive to +speak of his new volume of poems. It was just out. He was having a copy +of the exceedingly limited large-paper edition specially bound in vellum +for Olivia's acceptance. Olivia seemed pleased, and apart from his +anxiety Claude had not felt so happy for weeks. They were allowed to +talk to each other until the rooms began to fill.</p> + +<p>It was a very good Wednesday; but then the season was at its height. The +gathering comprised the usual measure of interesting and interested +persons, and the former had made their names upon as many different +fields as ever. Claude had a chat with his friend, Edmund Stubbs, a +young man with an unhealthy skin and a vague reputation for immense +cleverness. They spoke of the poems. Stubbs expressed a wish to see the +large-paper edition, which was not yet for sale, as did Ivor Llewellyn, +the impressionist artist, who was responsible for the "decorations" in +most volumes of contemporary minor verse, Claude's included. Claude was +injudicious enough to invite both men to his rooms that night. The +Impressionist was the most remarkable-looking of all Lady Caroline's +guests. He wore a curled fringe and a flowing tie, and pince-nez +attached to his person by a broad black ribbon. His pale face was +prematurely drawn, and he showed his gums in a deathly grin at the many +hard things which Stubbs muttered at the expense of all present whom he +knew by sight. Claude had a high opinion of both these men, but for once +he was scarcely in tune for their talk, which was ever at a sort of +artistic-intellectual concert-pitch. The Duke was to be forgotten in the +society of Olivia only. Claude therefore edged away, trod on the skirts +of a titled divorcée, got jammed between an Irish member and a composer +of comic songs, and was finally engaged in conversation by the aged +police magistrate, Sir Joseph Todd.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph had lowered his elephantine form into a chair beside the +tea-table, where he sat, with his great cane between his enormous legs, +munching cake like a school-boy and winking at his friends. He winked at +Claude. The magistrate had been a journalist, and a scandalous Bohemian, +so he said, in his young days; he had given Claude introductions and +advice when the latter took to his pen. He, also, inquired after the new +book, but rather grimly, and expressed himself with the rough edge of +his tongue on the subject of modern "poets" and "poetry": the inverted +commas were in his voice.</p> + +<p>"You young spring poets," said he, "are too tender by half; you're all +white meat together. You may say that's no reason why I should have my +knife in you. Why didn't you say it? A bad joke would be a positive +treat from you precious young fellows of to-day. And you give us bad +lyrics instead, in limited editions; that's the way it takes you now."</p> + +<p>Claude laughed; he was absurdly good-humoured under hostile criticism, a +quality of which some of his literary friends were apt to take +advantage. On this occasion, however, his unconcern was partly due to +inattention. While listening to his old friend he was thinking still of +the Duke.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you would be a poet, Claude," the magistrate continued. "The +price of poets has gone down since my day. And you'd have done so much +better in the House—by which, of course, I mean the House we all +thought you were bound for. Has he—has he turned up yet?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes; he's in England," replied Claude, with discretion.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph pricked his ears, but curbed his tongue. Of all the questions +that gathered on his lips, only one was admissible, even in so old a +friend as himself.</p> + +<p>"A family man?"</p> + +<p>"No; a bachelor."</p> + +<p>"Capital! We shall see some fun, eh?" chuckled Sir Joseph, gobbling the +last of his last slice. "What a quarry—what a prize! I was reminded of +him only this morning, Claude. I had an Australian up before me—a most +astounding fellow! An escaped bush-ranger, I should call him; looked as +if he'd been cut straight out of a penny dreadful; never saw such a man +in my life. However——"</p> + +<p>Claude was not listening; his preoccupation was this time palpable. The +mouth of him was open, and his eyes were fixed; the police magistrate +followed their lead, with double eye-glasses in thick gold frames; and +then <i>his</i> mouth opened too.</p> + +<p>Her guests were making way for Lady Caroline Sellwood, who was leading +towards the tea-table, by his horny hand, none other than the ninth Duke +of St. Osmund's himself. Her Ladyship's face was radiant with smiles; +yet the Duke was just as he had been the day before, as unkempt, as +undressed (his Crimean shirt had a flannel collar, but no tie), as +round-shouldered; with his nose and ears still flayed by the sun; and +the notorious wideawake tucked under his arm.</p> + +<p>"He has come straight from the bush," her Ladyship informed everybody +(as though she meant some shrub in the Square garden), "and just as he +is. I call it so sweet of him! You know you'll never look so picturesque +again, my dear Duke!"</p> + +<p>Olivia followed with the best expression her frank face could muster. +Claude took his cousin's hand in a sudden hush.</p> + +<p>"Where in the world have you been?" broke from him before them all.</p> + +<p>"Been? I've been run in," replied the Duke, with a smack of his bearded +grinning lips.</p> + +<p>"Tea or coffee, Duke?" said Lady Caroline, all smiling tolerance. "Tea? +A cup of tea for the Duke of St. Osmund's. And <i>where</i> do you say you +have been?"</p> + +<p>"Locked up!" said his Grace. "In choky, if you like it better!"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline herself led the laugh. The situation was indeed worthy of +her finely tempered steel, her consummate tact, her instinctive +dexterity. Many a grander dame would have essayed to quell that +incriminating tongue. Not so Lady Caroline Sellwood. She took her +Australian wild bull very boldly by the horns.</p> + +<p>"I do believe," she cried, "that you are what we have all of us been +looking for—in real life—all our days. I do believe you are the +shocking Duke of those dreadful melodramas in the flesh at last! What +was your crime? Ah! I've no doubt you cannot tell us!"</p> + +<p>"Can I not?" cried the Duke, as Claude stopped him, unobserved, from +pouring his tea into the saucer. "I'll tell you all about it, and +perhaps you'll show me where the crime comes in, for I'm bothered if I +see it yet. All I did was to have a gallop along one of your streets; I +don't even know which street it was; but there's a round clearing at one +end, then a curve, and then another clearing at the far end."</p> + +<p>"Regent Street," murmured Claude.</p> + +<p>"That's the name. Well, it was quite early, there was hardly anybody +about, so I thought surely to goodness there could be no harm in a +gallop; and I had one from clearing to clearing. Blowed if they didn't +run me in for that! They kept me locked up all the morning. Then they +took me before a fat old joker who did nothing much but wink. That old +joker, though, he let me off, so I've nothing agen' <i>him</i>. He's a white +man, he is. So here I am at last, having got your invitation to lunch, +ma'am, just half-an-hour ago."</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph Todd had been making fruitless efforts to rise, unaided, from +his chair; he now caught Claude's arm, and simultaneously, the eye of +the Duke.</p> + +<p>"Jumping Moses!" roared Jack; "why, there he is! I beg your pardon, +mister; but who'd have thought of finding <i>you</i> here?"</p> + +<p>"This is pleasing," muttered Edmund Stubbs, in the background, to his +friend the Impressionist. "I've seen the lion and the lamb lie down here +together before to-day. But nothing like this!"</p> + +<p>The Impressionist whipped out a pencil and bared a shirt-cuff. No one +saw him. All eyes were upon the Duke and the magistrate, who were +shaking hands.</p> + +<p>"You have paid me a valuable compliment," croaked Sir Joseph gayly. "Of +course I winked! Hadn't I my Lord Duke's little peccadillo to wink at?"</p> + +<p>And he bowed himself away under cover of his joke, which also helped +Lady Caroline enormously. The Duke mentioned the name by which he would +go down to posterity on a metropolitan charge-sheet. Most people resumed +their conversation. A few still laughed. And the less seriously the +whole matter was taken, the better, of course, for all concerned, +particularly the Duke. Olivia had him in hand now. And her mother found +time to exchange a few words with Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>"A dear fellow, is he not? So natural! Such an example in that way to us +all! How many of us would carry ourselves as well in—in our bush +garments?" speculated her Ladyship, for the benefit of more ears than +Claude's. Then her voice sank and trembled. "Take him away, Claude," she +gasped below her breath. "Take him away!"</p> + +<p>"I intend to," he whispered, nodding, "when I get the chance."</p> + +<p>"But not only from here—from town as well. Carry him off to the Towers! +And when you get him there, for heaven's sake keep him there, and take +him in hand, and we will all come down in August to see what you have +done."</p> + +<p>"I'm quite agreeable, of course; but what if he isn't?"</p> + +<p>"He will be. <i>You</i> can do what you like with him. I have discovered that +already; he asked at once if you were here, and said how he liked you. +Claude, you are so clever and so good! If any one can make him +presentable, it is you!" She was wringing her white hands whiter yet.</p> + +<p>"I'll do my best, for all our sakes. I must say I like my material."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's a dear fellow!" cried Lady Caroline, dropping her hands and +uplifting her voice once more. "So original—in nothing more than in his +moral courage—his superiority to mere conventional appearances! <i>That</i> +is a lesson——"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline stopped with a little scream. In common with others, she +had heard the high, shrill mewing of a kitten; but cats were a special +aversion of her Ladyship's.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" she cried, tugging instinctively at her skirts.</p> + +<p>"Meow!" went the shrill small voice again; and all eyes fastened upon +the Duke of St. Osmund's, whose ready-made coat-tails were moving like a +bag of ferrets.</p> + +<p>The Duke burst into a hearty laugh, and diving in his coat-tail pocket, +produced the offending kitten in his great fist. Lady Caroline Sellwood +took a step backward; and because she did not lead it, there was no +laugh this time from her guests; and because there was no laugh but his +own, the Duke looked consciously awkward for the first time. In fact, it +was the worst moment yet; the next, however, Olivia's pink palms were +stretched out for the kitten, and Olivia's laughing voice was making the +sweetest music that ever had gladdened the heart of the Duke.</p> + +<p>"The little darling!" cried the girl with genuine delight. "Let me have +it, do!"</p> + +<p>He gave it to her without a word, but with eyes that clung as fast to +her face as the tiny claws did to her dress. Olivia's attention was all +for the kitten; she was serenely unconscious of that devouring gaze; but +Claude saw it, and winced. And Lady Caroline saw it too.</p> + +<p>"Poor mite!" pursued Olivia, stroking the bunch of black fur with a +cheek as soft. "What a shame to keep it smothered up in a stuffy pocket! +Are you fond of cats?" she asked the Duke.</p> + +<p>"Am I not! They were my only mates up the bush. I brought over three +besides the kitten."</p> + +<p>"You brought them from the bush?"</p> + +<p>"I did so!"</p> + +<p>Olivia looked at him; his eyes had never left her; she dropped hers, and +caressed the kitten.</p> + +<p>"I put that one in my pocket," continued the Duke, "because I learned +Livingstone to ride in front of me when he was just such another little +'un. But he'd done a bolt in the night; I found him just now with his +three working paws black with your London soot; but he wasn't there when +I got up, so I took the youngster. P'r'aps it wasn't over kind. It won't +happen again. He's yours!"</p> + +<p>"The kitten?"</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly."</p> + +<p>"To keep?"</p> + +<p>"If you will. I'd be proud!"</p> + +<p>"Then <i>I</i> am proud. And I'll try to be as kind to it as you would have +been."</p> + +<p>"You're uncommon kind to me," remarked the Duke irrelevantly. "So are +you all," he added, in a ringing voice, as he drew himself up to his +last inch, and for once stood clear of the medium height. "I never knew +that there were so many of you here, or I'd have kept away. I'm just as +I stepped off of the ship. I went aboard pretty much as I left the bush; +if you'll make allowances for me this time, it sha'n't happen again. You +don't catch me twice in a rig like this! Meanwhile, it's very kind of +you all not to laugh at a fellow. I'm much obliged to you. I am so. And +I hope we shall know each other better before long!"</p> + +<p>Claude was not ashamed of him then. There was no truer dignity beneath +the ruffles and periwigs of their ancestors in the Maske picture-gallery +than that of the rude, blunt fellow who could face modestly and yet +kindly a whole roomful of well-dressed Londoners. It did not desert him +as he shook hands with Lady Caroline and Olivia. In another moment the +Duke was gone, and of his own accord, before he had been twenty minutes +in the house. And what remained of that Wednesday afternoon fell flat +and stale—always excepting the little formula with which Lady Caroline +Sellwood sped her parting guests.</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow," it ran, "he has roughed it so dreadfully in that horrible +bush! You won't know him the next time you see him. Yes, I assure you, +he went straight on board at that end and came straight to us at this! +Not a day for anything in Melbourne or here. Actually not one day! I +thought it so dear of him to come as he was. Didn't you?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>WITH THE ELECT</h3> + + +<p>The ragged beard had been trimmed to a point; the uncouth hair had been +cut, shampooed, and invested with a subtle, inoffensive aroma; and a +twenty-five-shilling Lincoln and Bennett crowned all without palpable +incongruity. The brown, chapped neck, on the other hand, did look +browner and rougher than before in the cold clutch of a gleaming +stand-up collar. And a like contrast was observable between the ample +cuffs of a brand-new shirt, and the Duke's hands, on whose hirsute backs +the yellow freckles now stood out like half-sovereigns. Jack drew the +line at gloves. On the whole, however, his docility had passed all +praise; he even consented to burden himself with a most superfluous +Inverness cape, all for the better concealment of the ready-made suit. +In fine, a few hours had made quite a painfully new man of him; yet +perhaps the only real loss was that of his good spirits; and these he +had left, not in any of the shops to which Claude had taken him before +dinner, but, since then, in his own house in Belgrave Square.</p> + +<p>Claude had shown him over it between nine and ten; they were now +arm-in-arm on their way from this errand, and the street-lamps shone +indifferently on the Duke's dejection and on Claude's relief. He had +threatened instant occupation of his own town-house; he had conceived +nightmare hospitalities towards all and sundry; and had stuck to his +guns against argument with an obstinacy which made Claude's hair stand +on end. Now the Duke had less to say. He had seen his house. The empty, +echoing, inhospitable rooms, with perhaps a handful of electric lights +freezing out of the darkness as they entered, had struck a chill to his +genial heart. And Claude knew it as he led the way to his own cosy +chambers; but was reminded of another thing as he approached them, and +became himself, on the spot, a different man.</p> + +<p>He had forgotten the two friends he had invited to come in for a private +view of the large-paper edition. He was reminded of them by seeing from +the street his open window filled with light; and his manner had +entirely altered when he detained the Duke below, and sought with +elaborate phrases to impress him beforehand with the transcendent merits +of the couple whom he was about to meet. Jack promptly offered to go +away. He had never heard tell of Impressionism, and artists were not in +his line. What about the other joker? What did <i>he</i> do?</p> + +<p>"Nothing, my dear fellow; he's far too good a man to <i>do</i> things," +explained Claude, whose changed speech inclined the other to flight +quite as much as his accounts of the men upstairs. "The really delicate +brains—the most highly sensitised souls—seldom spend themselves upon +mere creative work. They look on, and possibly criticise—that is, when +they meet with aught worthy their criticism. My friend, Edmund Stubbs, +is such an one. He has a sensitised soul, if you like! His artistic +standard is too high, he is too true to his ideals, to produce the +imperfect. He is full of ideas; but they are too big for brush, pen, or +chisel to express them. On the other hand, he's a very fountain of +inspiration, tempered by critical restraint, to many a man whose name +(as my own) is possibly a household word in Clapham, where poor Edmund's +is unknown. Not that I should pity him on that score; he has a holy +scorn for what himself would call a 'suburban popularity'; and, indeed, +I am not with him in his views as to the indignity of fame generally. +But there, he is a bright particular star who is content to shine for +the favoured few who have the privilege of calling him their friend."</p> + +<p>"You do talk like a book, and no error!" said the Duke. "I haven't ever +heard you gas on like that before."</p> + +<p>The bright particular star was discovered in Claude's easiest chair, +with the precious volume in one hand, and a tall glass, nearly empty, in +the other; the Impressionist was in the act of replacing the stopper in +the whisky-decanter; and Claude accepted the somewhat redundant +explanation, that they were making themselves at home, with every sign +of approval. Nor was he slow in introducing his friends; but for once +the Duke was refreshingly subdued, if not shy; and for the first few +minutes the others had their heads together over the large-paper +edition, for whose "decorations" the draftsman himself had not the least +to say, where all admired. At length Claude passed the open volume to +his cousin; needless to say it was open at the frontispiece; but the +first and only thing that Jack saw was the author's name in red capitals +on the title-page opposite.</p> + +<p>"Claude Lafont!" he read out. "Why, you don't ever mean—to tell +me—that's you, old brusher?"</p> + +<p>Claude smiled and coloured.</p> + +<p>"You an author!" continued the Duke in a wide-eyed wonder. "And you +never told me! Well, no wonder you can talk like a book when you can +write one, too! So this is your latest, is it?"</p> + +<p>"The limited large-paper edition," said Claude. "Only seventy-five +copies printed, and I sign them all. How does it strike you—physically, +I mean?"</p> + +<p>"'Physically' is quite pleasing," murmured Stubbs; and Claude helped him +to more whisky.</p> + +<p>Jack looked at the book. The back was of a pale brown cardboard; the +type had a curious, olden air about it; the paper was thick, and its +edges elaborately ragged. The Duke asked if it was a new book. It looked +to him a hundred years old, he said, and discovered that he had paid a +pretty compliment unawares.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing, however," he added: "we could chop leaves as well as +that in the back-blocks!"</p> + +<p>The Impressionist grinned; his friend drank deep, with a corrugated +brow; the poet expounded the beauties of the rough edge, and Jack gave +him back his book.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about it," said he; "but still, I'm proud of you, I am +so. And I'm proud," he added, "to find myself in such company as yours, +gentlemen; though I don't mind telling you, if I'd known I'd be the only +plain man in the room I'd never have come upstairs!"</p> + +<p>And the Duke sat down in a corner, with his knife, his tobacco, and his +cutty-pipe, as shy as a great boy in a roomful of girls. Yet this wore +off, for the conversation of the elect did not, after all, rarefy the +atmosphere to oppression; indeed, that of the sensitised soul contained +more oaths than Jack had heard from one mouth since he left the bush, +and this alone was enough to put him at his ease. At the same time he +was repelled, for it appeared to be a characteristic of the great Stubbs +to turn up his nose at all men; and as that organ was <i>retroussé</i> to +begin with, Jack was forcibly reminded of some ill-bred, snarling +bulldog, and he marvelled at the hound's reputation. He put in no word, +however, until the conversation turned on Claude's poems, and a +particularly cool, coarse thing was said of one of them, and Claude only +laughed. Then he did speak up.</p> + +<p>"See here, mister," he blurted out from his corner. "Could you do as +good?"</p> + +<p>Stubbs stared at the Duke, and drained his glass.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't try," was his reply.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't," retorted Jack. "I just wouldn't, if I were you."</p> + +<p>Stubbs could better have parried a less indelicate, a less childish +thrust; as it was, he reached for his hat. Claude interfered at once.</p> + +<p>"My dear old fellow," said he to Jack, "you mustn't mind what my friend +Edmund says of my stuff. I like it. He is always right, for one thing; +and then, only think of the privilege of having such a critic to tell +one exactly what he thinks."</p> + +<p>Jack looked from one man to the other. The sincerity of the last speech +was not absolutely convincing, but that of Claude's feeling for his +friend was obvious enough; and, with a laugh, the Duke put his back +against the door. The apology which he delivered in that position was in +all respects characteristic. It was unnecessarily full; it was informed +alike by an extravagant good-will towards mankind, and an irritating +personal humility; and it ended, somewhat to Claude's dismay, with a +direct invitation to both his friends to spend a month at Maske Towers.</p> + +<p>Perhaps these young men realised then, for the first time, who the rough +fellow was, after all, with whom they had been thrown in contact. At all +events the double invitation was accepted with alacrity; and no more +hard things were said of Claude's lyrics. The flow of soul was +henceforth as uninterrupted as that of the whisky down the visitors' +throats. And no further hitch would have occurred had the Impressionist +not made that surreptitious sketch of the Duke, which so delighted his +friends.</p> + +<p>"Oh, admirable!" cried Claude. "A most suggestive humouresque!"</p> + +<p>"It'll do," said Stubbs, the oracle. "It mightn't appeal to the suburbs, +damn them, but it does to us."</p> + +<p>"Grant the convention, and the art is perfect," continued Claude, with +the tail of his eye on Jack.</p> + +<p>"It is the caricature that is more like than life," pursued Stubbs, with +a sidelong glance in the same direction.</p> + +<p>Jack saw these looks; but from his corner he could not see the sketch, +nor had he any suspicion of its subject. All else that he noted was the +flush of triumph, or it may have been whisky, or just possibly both, on +the pale, fringed face of Impressionism. He held out his hand for the +half-sheet of paper on which the sketch had been made.</p> + +<p>"I hope it won't offend you," exclaimed the artist, hesitating.</p> + +<p>"Offend me! Why should it? Let's have a look!"</p> + +<p>And he looked for more than a minute at the five curves and a beard +which had expressed to quicker eyes the quintessence of his own outward +and visible personality. At first he could make nothing of them; even +when an interpretation dawned upon him, his face was puzzled as he +raised it to the trio hanging on his words.</p> + +<p>"It won't do, mister," said the Duke reluctantly. "You'll never get +saplings like them," tapping the five curves with his forefinger, "to +hold a nest like that," putting his thumb on the beard, "and don't you +believe it."</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence. Then the Impressionist said thickly:</p> + +<p>"Give me that sketch."</p> + +<p>Jack handed it back. In another moment it was littering the ground in +four pieces, and the door had banged behind the indignant draftsman.</p> + +<p>"What on earth have I done?" cried the Duke, aghast.</p> + +<p>"You have offended Llewellyn," replied Claude shortly.</p> + +<p>"How? By what I said? I'll run after him this minute and apologise. I +never meant to hurt his feelings. Where's that stove-pipe hat?"</p> + +<p>"Let <i>me</i> go," said Stubbs, getting up. "I understand the creative +animal; it is thin-skinned; but I'll tell our friend what you say."</p> + +<p>"I wish you would. Tell him I meant no harm. And fetch him down with you +just whenever you can come."</p> + +<p>"Thanks—that will be very pleasing. I daresay August will be our best +time, but we shall let you know. I'll put it all right with Ivor; but +these creative asses (saving your presence, Lafont) never can see a +joke."</p> + +<p>"A joke!" cried Jack, when he and Claude were alone.</p> + +<p>"Stubbs is ironical," said Claude severely.</p> + +<p>"Look here," said the Duke, "what are you givin' us, old boy? Seems to +me you clever touchers have been getting at a cove between you. Where +does this joke come in, eh?"</p> + +<p>And his good faith was so obvious that Claude picked up the four +quarters of torn paper, fitted them together, and entered upon yet +another explanation. This one, however, was somewhat impatiently given +and received. The Duke professed to think his likeness exceedingly +unlike—when, indeed, he could be got to see his own outlines at +all—and Claude disagreeing, a silence fell between the pair. Jack +sought to break it by taking off his collar (which had made him +miserable) and putting it in his pocket with a significant look; but the +act provoked no comment. So the two men sat, the one smoking cigarettes, +the other his cutty, but neither speaking, nor yet reading a line. And +the endless roar of Piccadilly, reaching them through the open windows, +emphasised their silence, until suddenly it sank beneath the midnight +chimes of the city clocks. In another minute a tiny, tinkling echo came +from Claude's chimney-piece, and the Duke put down his pipe and spoke.</p> + +<p>"My first whole day in London—a goner," he said; "and a pretty full day +it's been. Listen to this for one day's work," and as he rehearsed them, +he ticked off the events on his great brown fingers. "Got run in—that's +number one. Turned up among a lot of swells in my old duds—number two. +Riled the cleverest man you know—number three—so that he nearly +cleared out of your rooms; and, not content with that, hurt the feelings +of the second cleverest (present company excepted) so that he <i>did</i> +clear—which is number four. Worst of all, riled you, old man, and hurt +your feelings too. That's the finisher. And see here, Claude, it isn't +good enough and it won't do. I won't wash in London, and I'm full up of +the hole; as for my own house, it gave me the fair hump the moment I put +my nose inside; and I'd be on to make tracks up the bush any day you +like—if it weren't for one thing."</p> + +<p>"What's that," said Claude, "if it's a fair question?"</p> + +<p>The other concealed his heightened colour by relighting his pipe and +puffing vigorously.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," said he; "it's that old girl and—what's the daughter's +name again?"</p> + +<p>"Olivia."</p> + +<p>"Olivia. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl! She's all that and +more."</p> + +<p>"And much more."</p> + +<p>"You see, she's as good inside as out; she has a kind heart."</p> + +<p>"I have always found it so," said Claude, "and I've known her since she +was a child."</p> + +<p>The two kinsmen, who had been so wide apart a few minutes since, were +now more than ever mutually akin. They drew their chairs together; but +the touchstone was deep down in either heart.</p> + +<p>"You knew her when she was a child!" repeated the Duke in a kind of awe. +"Yes; and I daresay, now, you used to play with her, and perhaps take +her on your knee, and even pull her hair and kiss her in them old days. +Yet there you sit smoking cigarettes!"</p> + +<p>His own pipe was out. He was in a reverie. Claude also had his own +thoughts.</p> + +<p>"The one thing was this," said the Duke at length: "would the old woman +and her daughter come to see us up the country?"</p> + +<p>Claude was torn two ways. The Towers scheme was no longer his first +anxiety. He returned to it by an effort.</p> + +<p>"They would," he said. "Lady Caroline told me so. They would come like a +shot in August. She said so herself."</p> + +<p>"Would you put me up to things in the meantime? Would you be showing me +the ropes?"</p> + +<p>"The very thing I should like to do, so far as I am able."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll start to-morrow—I mean to-day. That settles it. And +yet——"</p> + +<p>"Out with it," said Claude, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Well, I will. I mean no harm, you understand. Who am I to dare to look +at her? Only I do feel as if that girl would do me a deal of good down +there—you know, in making me more the sort of chap for my billet. But +if she's gone and got a sweetheart, he might very easily object; so I +just thought I'd like to know."</p> + +<p>"She hasn't one, to my knowledge," said Claude at length.</p> + +<p>"Is that a fact?" cried the Duke. "Well, I don't know what all you +fellows are thinking of, but I do know that I am jolly glad. Not from +any designs of my own, mind you—I haven't as much cheek as all +that—but to save trouble. Do you know, Claudy, I've had a beast of a +thought off and on all the night?"</p> + +<p>"No; what was that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I half suspected she was your own girl."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>A NEW LEAF</h3> + + +<p>"The Duke of St. Osmund's and Mr. Claude Lafont left town yesterday for +Maske Towers, the family seat near Devenholme." So ran the announcement +in the morning papers of the next day but one. And the Duke was actually +exploring his inheritance when it appeared.</p> + +<p>Overnight the pair had arrived too late to see much more than the lofty, +antique hall and the respective rooms in which they were to sup and +sleep; but the birds awoke Jack in the early morning, and he was up and +out before seven o'clock.</p> + +<p>As yet he had seen little that attracted him within, and at this hour he +felt a childish horror of the dark colossal canvases overhanging the +grand staircase and the hall; like the sightless suits of armour +standing blind sentinel below, they froze him with the look of lifeless +life about the grim, gigantic figures. He was thankful to see one of the +great double doors standing open to the sun; it let him out into a +portico loftier than the hall; and folding his arms across a stone +balustrade, the whilom bushman looked forth between Corinthian columns +like the masts of a ship, and was monarch of all he beheld.</p> + +<p>A broad and stately terrace ran right and left below; beyond and below +this, acres of the smoothest, greenest sward were relieved by a few fine +elms, with the deer still in clusters about their trunks. The lawn +sloped quietly to the verdant shores of a noble lake; sun and dew had +dusted the grass with silver; sun and wind were rippling the lake with +flakes of flame like leaping gold-fish; and across the water, on the +rising ground, a plantation of young pines ran their points into the +radiant sky. These trees appealed to the Duke more than anything he had +seen yet. His last bush hut had been built among pines; and such is the +sentimental attraction of the human heart towards a former +condition—better or worse, if it be but beyond recall—that the Duke of +St. Osmund's had to inspect that plantation before anything else. +Leaving the Towers behind him, unnoticed and indeed forgotten, he +crossed the lawn, skirted the lake, and plunged amid the pine-trees as +his impulse spurred him. But on his way back, a little later, the mellow +grandeur of that ancient pile broke in upon him at last, and he stood +astounded in the wet grass, the blood of possession running hot in his +veins.</p> + +<p>The historic building stretched on this side for something like a +quarter of a mile from end to end. Here the blue sky sank deep between +turret and spire, and there it picked out a line of crumbling +battlements, or backed the upper branches of an elm that (from this +point) cut the expanse of stone in two. It had grown out of many +attempts in as many ages; thus, besides architectural discrepancies for +the eyes of the few, the shading of the walls was as finely graduated as +that of an aging beard, but the prevailing tint was a pearly gray, now +washed with purple, and exquisitely softened by the tender haze still +lingering in the dewy air. And from every window that Jack could see, +flashed a morning sun; for as he stood and looked, his shadow lay in +front of him along the milky grass.</p> + +<p>To one extremity of the building clung an enormous conservatory, +likewise ablaze from dome to masonry; at the other, the dark hues of a +shrubbery rested the eye; but that of the Duke was used to the sunlit +desert, and not readily dazzled. His quick glance went like a bullet +through the trees to a red gable and the gilt hands of a clock just +visible beyond. On the instant he recovered from his enchantment, and +set off for the shrubbery at a brisk walk; for he had heard much of the +Maske stables, and evidently there they were.</p> + +<p>As he was in the shrubbery, the stable clock struck eight after a +melodious chime sadly spoilt by the incessant barking of some small dog; +the last stroke reverberated as he emerged, and the dog had the morning +air to itself, to murder with its hideous clamour. But the Duke now saw +the exciting cause, and it excited <i>him</i>; for he had come out opposite +the stable-yard gates, which were shut, but from the top of which, with +its lame paw lifted, a vertical tail, and a back like a hedgehog asleep, +his own yellow cat spat defiance at an unseen foe. And between the barks +came the voice of a man inciting the dog with a filthy relish.</p> + +<p>"Set him off, Pickle! Now's your time. Try again. Oh, blow me, if you +can't you can't, and I'll have to lend you a hand."</p> + +<p>And one showed over the gate with the word, but the fingers grabbed the +air, for Jack had snatched his pet in the nick of time. He was now busy +with the ring of the latch, fumbling it in his fury. The breath came in +gusts through his set teeth and bristling beard. One hand clasped the +yellow cat in a fierce caress; the other knotted into a fist as the gate +flew open.</p> + +<p>In the yard a hulking, smooth-faced fellow, whose pendulous under-lip +had dropped in dismay, changed his stare for a grin when he saw the +Duke, who was the smaller as well as the rougher-looking man of the two; +for he had not only come out without his collar, which he discarded +whenever he could; but he had clapped on the old bush wideawake because +Claude was not up to stop him.</p> + +<p>"Well, and who are you?" began the other cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"You take off your coat and I'll show you," replied Jack, with a +blood-thirsty indistinctness. "I'm a better man than you are, whoever I +am; at least we'll have a see!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, will we?" said the fellow. "And you're the better man, are you? +What do <i>you</i> think?" he added, turning to a stable-boy who stood handy +with thin brown arms akimbo, and thumbs in his belt.</p> + +<p>"I wonder 'oo 'e thinks 'e is w'en 'e's at 'ome?" said the lad.</p> + +<p>Jack never heard him. He had spied the saddle-room door standing open. +In an instant he was there, with the small dog yelping at his heels; in +another, he had locked the door between cat and dog, pocketed the key, +and returned to his man, stripping off his own coat and waistcoat as he +came. He flung them into a corner, and after them his bush hat.</p> + +<p>"Now let's see you take off yours! If you don't," added Jack, with a big +bush oath, "I'll have to hide you with it on!"</p> + +<p>But man and boy had been consulting while his back was turned, and Jack +now found himself between the two of them; not that he gave the lad a +thought.</p> + +<p>"Look you here; I'll tell you who <i>I</i> am," said the man. "My name's Matt +Hunt, and Matt can fight, as you wouldn't need telling if you belonged +to these parts. But he don't take on stray tramps like you; so, unless +you hook it slippy, we're just going to run you out o' this yard quicker +than you come in."</p> + +<p>"Not till I've shown you how to treat dumb animals——"</p> + +<p>"Then here goes!"</p> + +<p>And with that the man Hunt seized one of Jack's arms, while the +stable-boy nipped the other from behind, and made a dive at Jack's +pocket for the saddle-room key. But a flat-footed kick sent the lad +sprawling without harming him; and the man was driven so hard under the +nose that he too fell back, bearded with blood.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" roared Jack. "And you, my boy, keep out of the light unless +you want a whipping yourself!"</p> + +<p>He was rolling up the sleeves from his tanned and furry arms. Hunt +followed suit, a cascade of curses flowing with his blood; he had torn +off his coat, and a wrist-button tinkled on the cement as he caught up +Jack in his preparations. His arms were thicker than the bushman's, +though white and fleshy. Hunt was also the heavier weight, besides +standing fully six feet, as against the Duke's five-feet-nine when he +held himself up. Nor was there any lack of confidence in the dripping, +hairless, sinister face, when the two men finally squared up.</p> + +<p>They fell to work without niggling, for Jack rushed in like a bull, +leading most violently with his left. It was an inartistic start; the +big man was not touched; but neither did he touch Jack, who displayed, +at all events, a quick pair of legs. Yet it was this start that steadied +the Duke. It showed him that Hunt was by no means unskilled in the use +of his hands; and it put out of his head everything but the fight +itself, so that he heard no more the small tike barking outside the +saddle-room door, hitherto his angriest goad. Some cool sparring +ensued. Then Hunt let out from the shoulder, but the blow was avoided +with great agility; then Jack led off again, but with a lighter touch, +and this time he drew his man. The blows of the next minute it was +impossible to follow. They were given and returned with enormous +virulence. And there was no end to them until the big man tripped and +fell.</p> + +<p>"See here," said Jack, standing over him; "that was my cat, and I'd got +to go for you. But if you've had enough of this game, so have I, and +we'll cry quits."</p> + +<p>He was sucking a cut lip as he spoke. The other spat out a tooth and +blundered to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Quits, you scum? Wait a bit!"</p> + +<p>And they were at hotter work than ever.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the yard was filling with stable-men and gardeners, who were +in time to see Hunt striding down on his unknown adversary, and the +latter retreating in good order; but the stride quickened, ending in a +rush, which the Duke eluded so successfully that he was able to hit Hunt +hard on the ear as he passed.</p> + +<p>It was afterwards a relief to the spectators to remember how they had +applauded this effort. To the Duke their sympathy was a comfort at the +time; though he no more suspected that his adversary was also his most +unpopular tenant, than the latter dreamt of his being the Duke.</p> + +<p>Hunt let out a bellow of pain, staggered, and resumed his infuriate +rush; but his punishment was now heavier than before. He had lost both +wind and head, and he was losing pluck. One of his eyes was already +retiring behind folds of livid flesh; and a final blow under the nose, +where the first of all had been delivered, knocked him howling into the +arms of a new-comer, who disengaged himself as Hunt fell.</p> + +<p>"What, Claude, is that you?" cried the Duke; and a flood of new +sensations so changed his voice, that Hunt looked up from where he lay, +a beaten, bleeding, blubbering mass. But in the silent revelation of +that moment there was at first no sound save the barking of the +fox-terrier outside the saddle-room door. This had never ceased. Then +the coachman's pipe fell from his mouth and was smashed.</p> + +<p>"My God!" said he. "It's his Grace himself!"</p> + +<p>He had driven the Duke from Devenholme the night before.</p> + +<p>"The Duke of St. Osmund's!" exclaimed Hunt from the ground. He had been +shedding blood and tears indifferently, and now he sat up with a slimy +stare in his uninjured eye.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's right," said Jack, with a nod to the company. "So now you +all know what to expect for cruelty to cats, or any other dumb animals; +and don't you forget it!"</p> + +<p>He put on his coat and went over to the saddle-room. Claude followed +him, still at a loss for words. And Hunt's dog went into a wild ecstasy +as the key was put into the lock.</p> + +<p>"Hold him," said Jack. "The dog's all right; and I lay his master'll +think twice before he sets him on another cat o' mine."</p> + +<p>"Come away," said Claude hoarsely; "for all our sakes, come away before +you make bad worse!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I will. Only hold him tight. That's it. Poor little puss, +then—poor old Livingstone! Now I'm ready; come along."</p> + +<p>But Hunt was in their path; and Jack's heart smote him for the mischief +he had done, though his own lower lip was swollen like a sausage.</p> + +<p>"So you're the new Duke of St. Osmund's," said Hunt, with a singular +deliberation. "I wasn't to know that, of course; no, by gosh, not +likely!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you know it now," was the reply. "And—and I'm sorry I had to hit +you so hard, Hunt!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't apologise," said Hunt, with a sneer that showed a front tooth +missing. "Stop a bit, though; I'm not so sure," he added, with a glance +of evil insight.</p> + +<p>"Sure of what?"</p> + +<p>"Whether you oughtn't to apologise for not hitting a man of your own +age!"</p> + +<p>"Take no notice of him," whispered Claude strenuously; but he obtained +none himself.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said the Duke; "you're the younger man, at all events."</p> + +<p>"Am I? I was born in '59, <i>I</i> was."</p> + +<p>"Then according to all accounts you're the younger man by four years."</p> + +<p>"By—four—years," repeated Hunt slowly. "So you was born in '55! Thank +you; I shall make a note of that, you may be sure—your Grace!"</p> + +<p>And Hunt was gone; they heard him whistling for his tike when he was +himself out of sight, and the dog went at last. Then the coachman +stepped forward, cap in hand.</p> + +<p>"If you please, your Grace, that man was here without my knowledge. He's +always putting in his nose where he isn't wanted; I've shifted him out +of this before to-day; and with your Grace's permission, I'll give +orders not to have him admitted again."</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" said Jack. "A tenant or what?"</p> + +<p>"Only a tenant, your Grace. Matt Hunt, they call him, of the Lower Farm; +but it might be of Maske Towers, by the way he goes on!"</p> + +<p>"He took a mighty interest in my age," remarked the Duke. "I never asked +to look at <i>his</i> fangs—but I think you'll find one of them somewhere +about the yard. No; I'm not fond of fighting, my lads. Don't you run +away with that idea. But there's one thing I can't and won't suffer, and +that's cruelty to animals. You chaps in the stables recollect that! And +so good-morning to you all."</p> + +<p>Claude led the way through the shrubbery in a deep depression. The +guilty Duke took his arm with one hand, while with the other he hugged +the yellow cat that was eying the shrubbery birds over its master's +shoulder, much as the terrier had eyed it.</p> + +<p>"My dear old boy," said Jack, "I'm as sorry as sorry for what's +happened. But I couldn't help myself. Look at Livingstone; he'd have +been a stiff 'un by this time if I hadn't turned up when I did; so +naturally there was a row. Still I'm sorry. I know it's a bad beginning; +and I remember saying in the train that I'd turn over a new leaf down +here. Well, and so I will if you give me time. Don't judge me by this +morning, Claude. Give me another chance; and for God's sake don't look +like that!"</p> + +<p>"I can't help it, Jack," replied Claude, with a weary candour. "I'm +prepared for anything now. You make me a year older every day. How do I +know what you'll do next? I think the best thing I can do is to give you +up as a bad job."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE DUKE'S PROGRESS</h3> + + +<p>Claude's somewhat premature despair was not justified by the event; +nevertheless it did good. Excusable enough at the time, that little +human outbreak was also more effective than the longest lecture or the +most mellifluous reproof. Jack liked his cousin. The liking was by no +means unconnected with gratitude. And now Jack saw that he could best +show his gratitude by adopting a more suitable course of conduct than he +could claim to have pursued hitherto. He determined to make an effort. +He had everything to learn; it was a mountainous task that lay before +him; but he faced it with spirit, and made considerable progress in a +little space.</p> + +<p>He learnt how to treat the servants. The footmen had misbehaved when he +addressed them as "my boy" and "old toucher" from his place at table. He +consulted Claude, and dropped these familiarities as well as the +painfully respectful tone which he had at first employed towards old +Stebbings, the butler. Stebbings had been very many years in the family. +The deference inspired by his venerable presence was natural enough in +the new Duke of St. Osmund's; but it shocked and distressed Stebbings's +feudal soul. He complained to Claude, and he had not to complain twice. +For Jack discovered a special and a touching eagerness to master the +rudiments of etiquette; though in other respects (which certainly +mattered less) he was still incorrigible.</p> + +<p>His social "crammer" could no more cure him of his hatred of a collar +than of his liking for his cats. The latter were always with him; the +former, unhappily, was not. In these things the Duke was hopelessly +unregenerate; he was a stockman still at heart, and a stockman he +threatened to remain. The soft summer nights were nothing to the nights +in the bush; the fleecy English sky was not blue at all after the skies +of Riverina; and the Duke's ideal of a man was "my old boss." Claude +heard of "my old boss" until he was sick of the words, which constituted +a gratuitous reminder of a position most men would have been glad to +forget. Yet there was much to be thankful for. There were no more scenes +such as the Duke's set-to in his own stable-yard with one of his own +tenants. At least nothing of the sort happened again until Jack's next +collision with Matthew Hunt. And that was not yet.</p> + +<p>Matthew was from home when the Duke, making a round of the estate, with +his agent, visited the Lower Farm in its turn. Old Hunt, Matthew's +besotted father, received them in the kitchen with a bloodshot stare and +little else, for drink had long dimmed his forces. Not so the old man's +daughter-in-law, Matthew's wife, who showed the visitors all over the +farm in a noiseless manner that made Jack feel uneasy, because he never +knew when she was or was not at his elbow. Besides, he could not forget +the thrashing he had given her husband, nor yet suppose that she had +forgotten it either. The woman was of a gross type strangely accentuated +by her feline quietude. She had a continual smile, and sly eyes that +dropped when they encountered those of the Duke, whom they followed +sedulously at all other moments. Jack seemed to know it, too; at all +events he was not sorry to turn his back upon the Lower Farm.</p> + +<p>"A rum lot, the Hunts!" he said at lunch. "They're about the only folks +here that I haven't cottoned to on the spot. I shall get on fine with +all the others. But I can't suffer those Hunts!"</p> + +<p>"There's no reason why you should suffer them," observed the agent, in +his well-bred drawl; for he had a more aristocratic manner than Claude +himself. "They have the best farm on the property, and they pay the +smallest rent. You should think over my suggestion of this morning."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said the Duke. "He wants me to double the rent, Claude, and +clear them out if they won't pay. I can't do it."</p> + +<p>"Well, no; I hardly think you can," assented Claude. "Oddly enough, my +grandfather had quite a weakness for the Hunts; and then they are very +old tenants. That hoary-headed Silenus, whom you saw, was once in the +stables here; so was his son after him, in my time; and the old man's +sister was my grandmother's maid. You can't turn out people like that +<i>ex itinere</i>, so to speak—I mean to say in a hurry. It's too old a +connection altogether."</p> + +<p>"Exactly what they trade upon," said the agent. "They have been spoilt +for years, and they expect his Grace to go on spoiling them. I should +certainly get rid of the whole gang."</p> + +<p>"No, mister—no!" declared the Duke. "Claude is right. I can't do it. I +might if I hadn't given that fellow a hiding. After that I simply +can't; it would look too bad."</p> + +<p>The agent said no more, but his look and shrug were perhaps neither +politic nor polite. A strapping sportsman himself, and a person of some +polish into the bargain, he was in a position, as it were, to look down +on Claude with one eye, and on the Duke with the other. And he did so +with a freedom extraordinary in one of his wisdom and understanding.</p> + +<p>"One of these days," said Jack, "I shall give that joker his cheque. +He's not my notion of an overseer at all; if he's too good for the +billet let him roll up his swag and clear out; if he isn't, let him +treat the bosses as a blooming overseer should."</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the head and chief of his offending now?" asked Claude; for +this was one night in the billiard-room, when the agent had been making +an example of both cousins at pyramids; it was after he was gone, and +while the Duke was still tearing off his collar.</p> + +<p>"What has he said to-night?" continued the poet, less poetically. "I +heard nothing offensive."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't," said the Duke; "you're such a good sort yourself. You'd +never see when a chap was pulling your leg, but I see fast enough, and +I won't have it. What did he say to-night? He talked through his neck +when we missed our shots. That about billiards in the bush I didn't +mind; me and the bush, we're fair game; but when he got on to your +poetry, old man, I felt inclined to run my cue through his gizzard. 'A +poet's shot,' he says, when you put yourself down; and 'you should write +a sonnet about that,' when you got them three balls in together. I don't +say it wasn't a fluke. That has nothing at all to do with it. The way +the fellow spoke is what I weaken on. He wouldn't have done for my old +boss, and I'm blowed if he'll do for me. One of these days I shall tell +him to come outside and take his coat off; and, by the looks of him, I +shouldn't be a bit surprised to see him put me through."</p> + +<p>Claude's anxiety overcame every other feeling. He implored the Duke not +to make another scene, least of all with such a man as the agent, whose +chaff, he truly protested, did not offend him in the least. Jack shook +his head, and was next accused of being more sensitive about the +"wretched poems" than was the poet himself. This could not have been. +But Claude was not so very far wrong.</p> + +<p>His slender book was being widely reviewed, or rather "noticed," for the +two things are not quite the same. The "notices," on the whole, were +good and kind, but "uninstructed," so Claude said with a sigh; +nevertheless, he appeared to obtain a sneaking satisfaction from their +perusal; and as for Jack, he would read them aloud, capering round the +room and shaking Claude by both hands in his delighted enthusiasm. To +him every printed compliment was a loud note blown from the trumpet of +fame into the ears of all the world. He would hear not a word against +the paper in which it appeared, but attributed every qualifying remark +of Claude's to the latter's modesty, and each favourable paragraph to +some great responsible critic voicing the feeling of the country in the +matter of these poems. Claude himself, however, though frequently +gratified, was not deceived; for the sweetest nothings came invariably +from the provincial press; and he at least knew too much to mistake a +"notice" for a "real review."</p> + +<p>The real reviews were a sadly different matter. There were very few of +them, in the first place; their scarcity was worse than their severity. +And they were generally very severe indeed; or they did not take the +book seriously, which, as Claude said, was the unkindest cut of all.</p> + +<p>"Only show me the skunk who wrote that," exclaimed Jack one morning, +looking over Claude's shoulder as he opened his press-cuttings, "and +I'll give him the biggest hiding ever he had in his life!"</p> + +<p>Another critic, the writer of a really sympathetic and exhaustive +review, the Duke desired to invite to Maske Towers by the next post, +"because," said Jack, "he must be a real good sort, and we ought to know +him."</p> + +<p>"I do know him," said Claude, with a groan, for he had thought of +keeping the fact to himself; "I know him to my cost. He owes me money. +This is payment on account. Oh, I am no good! I must give it up! +Ignorance and interest alone are at my back! Genuine enthusiasm there is +none!"</p> + +<p>There was Jack's. But was that genuine? The Duke himself was not sure. +He meant it to ring true, but then he meant to appreciate the poems, and +of many of them he could make little enough in his secret soul.</p> + +<p>All this, however, was but one side of the quiet life led by the cousins +at Maske Towers; and it had but one important effect—that of sowing in +Claude's heart a loyalty to Jack not unworthy of Jack's loyalty to him.</p> + +<p>There were other subjects of discussion upon which the pair were by no +means at one. There was Jack's open failure to appreciate the marble +halls, the resonant galleries, the darkling pictures of his princely +home; and there was the scatter-brained scheme by which he ultimately +sought to counteract the oppressive grandeur of his new surroundings.</p> + +<p>It was extremely irritating, especially to a man like Claude; but the +proudest possessions of their ancestors (whose superlative taste and +inferior morals had been the byword of so many ages) were those which +appealed least to that blameless Goth, the ninth Duke of St. Osmund's. +The most glaring case in point was that of the pictures, which alone +would make the worldwide fame of a less essentially noble seat than +Maske Towers. But Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea +del Sarto, Angeletti Vernet, and Claude Lorrain—all these were mere +names, and new ones, to Happy Jack. Claude Lafont, pointing to +magnificent examples of the work of one One Master after another, made +his observations with bated breath, as well he might, for where is there +such another private collection? Jack, however, was not impressed; he +was merely amazed at Claude, and his remarks in the picture-gallery are +entirely unworthy of reproduction. In the State Apartments he was still +more trying. He spoke of having the ancient tapestries (after Raphael's +Cartoons) taken out and "well shaken," which, as Claude said, would have +reduced them to immediate atoms. And he threatened to have the painted +ceilings whitewashed without delay.</p> + +<p>"Aurora Banishing Night, eh?" he cried, with horizontal beard and +upturned eyes. "She'd jolly soon banish <i>my</i> night, certainly; it should +be, banishing sleep! And all those naked little nippers! They ought to +be papered over, for decency's sake; and that brute of a bed, who would +sleep in it, I should like to know? Not me. Not much! It must be +twenty-foot high and ten-foot wide; it gives me the hump to look at it, +and the ceilings give it me worse. See here, Claude, we'll lock up these +State Apartments, as you call them, and you shall keep the key. I'm full +of 'em; they'll give me bad dreams as it is."</p> + +<p>They were not, however, the only apartments of which the Duke +disapproved; the suite which had been done up entirely for his own use, +under Claude's direction, did not long commend itself to the +ex-stockman. Everything was far too good for him and his cats; they were +not accustomed to such splendour; it made them all four +uncomfortable—so Jack declared after taking Claude's breath away with +the eccentric plan on which he had set his heart. And for the remainder +of their solitary companionship each man had his own occupation; the +Duke preparing more congenial quarters for himself and the cats; and +Claude, with Jack's permission and the agent's skilled advice, +superintending the making of private golf-links for Mr. Sellwood's +peculiar behoof. For the Home Secretary had promised to join the Maske +party, for the week-ends at any rate, until (as he expressed it) the +Government "holed out."</p> + +<p>That party was now finally arranged. The Frekes were coming with the +Sellwoods, and the latter family were to have the luxurious suite which +the Duke himself disdained. This was his Grace's own idea. Moreover, he +interested himself personally in the right ordering of the rooms during +the last few days; but this he kept to himself until the eleventh hour; +in fact, until he was waiting for the drag to come round, which he was +himself going to tool over to Devenholme to meet his guests. It was then +that certain unexpected misgivings led Jack to seek out his cousin, in +order to take him to see what he had done.</p> + +<p>For Claude had shown him what <i>he</i> was doing. He was producing a set of +exceedingly harmless verses, "To Olivia released from Mayfair," of +which the Duke had already heard the rough draft. The fair copy was in +the making even now; in the comparatively small room, at one end of the +library, that Jack had already christened the Poet's Corner.</p> + +<p>Claude wiped his pen with characteristic care, and then rose readily +enough. He followed Jack down the immensely long, galleried, book-lined +library, through a cross-fire of coloured lights from the stained-glass +windows, and so to the stairs. Overhead there was another long walk, +through corridor after corridor, which had always reminded Jack of the +hotel in town. But at last, in the newly decorated wing, the Duke took a +key from his pocket and put it in a certain door. And now it was Claude +who was reminded of the hotel; for a most striking atmospheric change +greeted him on the threshold; only this time it was not a gust of heat, +but the united perfume of many flowers, that came from within.</p> + +<p>The room was fairly flooded with fresh roses. It was as though they had +either blown through the open window, or fallen in a miraculous shower +from the dainty blue ceiling. They pranked the floor in a fine disorder. +They studded the table in tiny vases. They hid the mantelpiece, embedded +in moss; from the very grate below, they peeped like fairy flames, +breathing fragrance instead of warmth; and some in falling seemed to +have caught in the pictures on the walls, so artfully had they been +arranged. Only the white narrow bed had escaped the shower. And in the +midst of this, his handiwork, stood the Duke, and blushed like the roses +themselves.</p> + +<p>"Whose room is this?" asked Claude, though he knew so well.</p> + +<p>"Olivia's—I should say Miss Sellwood's. You see, old man, you were +writing these awfully clever verses for her; so I felt I should like to +have something ready too."</p> + +<p>"Your poem is the best!" exclaimed Claude, with envious, sparkling eyes. +And then he sighed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, rot!" said Jack, who was only too thankful for his offering to +receive the <i>cachet</i> of Claude's approval. "All I wanted was to keep my +end up, too. Look here. What do you think of this?"</p> + +<p>And he took from a vase on the dressing-table an enormous white bouquet, +that opened Claude's eyes wider than before.</p> + +<p>"This is for her, too; I wanted to consult you about it," pursued Jack. +"Should I leave it here for her, or should I take it down to the station +and present it to her there? Or at dinner to-night? I want to know just +what you think."</p> + +<p>"No, not at dinner," replied Claude; "nor yet at the station."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, you mean! I see it in your face!" cried the Duke so that +Claude could not answer him. "But why not?" he added vehemently. "Where +does the harm come in? It's only a blooming nosegay. What's wrong with +it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," was the reply, "only it might embarrass Olivia."</p> + +<p>"Make her uncomfortable?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes; it would be rather marked, you know. A bouquet like that is +only fit for a bride."</p> + +<p>"I don't see it," said Jack, much crestfallen; "still, if that's so, +it's just as well to know it. There was no harm meant. I wasn't thinking +of any rot of that kind. However, we don't want to make her +uncomfortable; that wasn't the idea at all; so the bouquet's off—like +me. Come and let me tool you as far as the boundary fence. I want to +show you how we drive four horses up the bush."</p> + +<p>The exhibition made Claude a little nervous; there was too much shouting +at the horses for his taste, and too much cracking of the whip. Jack +could crack a whip better than any man in his own stables. But he +accepted Claude's criticism with his usual docility, and dropped him at +the gates with his unfailing nod of pure good-humour.</p> + +<p>There he sat on the box, in loose rough tweeds of a decent cut, and with +the early August sun striking under the brim of a perfectly respectable +straw hat, but adding little to the broad light of his own honest, +beaming countenance. He waved his whip, and Claude his hand. Then the +whip cracked—but only once—and the poet strolled back to his verses, +steeped in thought. He had done his best. His soul divined vaguely what +the result might mean to him. But his actual thoughts were +characteristically permissible; he was merely wondering what Lady +Caroline and Olivia Sellwood would say now.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE OLD ADAM</h3> + + +<p>Olivia said least. Her mother took Claude by the hand, and thanked him +with real tears in her eyes, for after all she was an Irishwoman, who +could be as emotional as possible when she chose. As for Mr. Sellwood, +he expressed himself as delightfully disappointed in the peer of whom he +had heard so much. Jack struck him as being an excellent fellow, +although not a golfer, which was a pity, and even apparently disinclined +to take up the game—which might signify some recondite flaw in his +character. So said the Home Secretary. But Olivia merely asked who had +put all those roses in her room; and when Claude told her, she simply +nodded and took hardly any notice of the Duke that night. Yet she wore a +handful of his flowers at her shapely waist. And she did thank him, in a +way.</p> + +<p>It was not the sweetest way in the world, as all her ways had been, +these many weeks, in Jack's imagination. He was grieved and +disappointed, but still more was he ashamed. He had taken a liberty. He +had alienated his friend. Thus he blamed himself, with bitter, wordless +thoughts, and would then fall back upon his disappointment. His feelings +were a little mixed. One moment she was not all that he had thought her; +the next, she was more than all. She was more beautiful. Often he had +tried to recall her face, and tried in vain, having seen her but once +before, and then only for a few minutes. Now he perceived that his first +impression, blurred and yet dear to him as it had been, had done but +meagre justice to Olivia. He had forgotten the delicate dark eyebrows, +so much darker than the hair. The girl's radiant colouring had also +escaped him. It was like the first faint flush of an Australian dawn. +Yet he had missed it in June, just as he had missed the liquid hazel of +her eyes; their absolute honesty was what he remembered best; and, by a +curious irony, that frank, fine look was the very one which she denied +him now.</p> + +<p>And so it was from the Friday evening, when the Sellwoods arrived, to +the Monday morning when duty recalled the Home Secretary to St. +Stephen's. He obeyed the call in no statesman-like frame of mind. He +had spent the Sabbath in open sin upon the new-made links, and had been +fitly punished by his own execrable play. The athletic agent had made an +example of him; he felt that he might just as well have been in church +(or rather in the private chapel attached to the Towers), reading the +lessons for his son-in-law, Francis Freke; and in the Saturday's +"foursome," with the reverend gentleman on his side, the Cabinet +Minister had done little better. So he had departed very sorely against +the grain, his white hairs bristling with discontent, a broken "driver" +hidden away in the depths of his portmanteau. And Olivia, seeing the +last of him from amid the tall columns of the portico, felt +heavy-hearted, because her father was also her friend.</p> + +<p>Jack watched her at a distance. It did not occur to him that the girl's +mother was already pitching him at the girl's head, daily and almost +hourly, until she was weary of the very sound of his name. And though he +felt he must have overstepped some mark in the matter of the flowers, he +little dreamt how Miss Sellwood's maid had looked when she saw them, or +what disgraceful satisfaction Lady Caroline had exhibited before her +daughter on that occasion. He only knew that her Ladyship was treating +him with a rather oppressive kindness, and that he would much sooner +have had half-a-dozen words from Olivia, such as the first she had ever +spoken to him.</p> + +<p>And now the girl was unhappy; it was plain enough, even to his untutored +eye; and he stepped forward with the determination of improving her +spirits, without thinking of his own, which were not a little flat.</p> + +<p>"You must find it dull up the country, Miss Sellwood, after London," +began Jack, not perhaps in his most natural manner. "I—I wish to +goodness you'd tell us of anything we could do to amuse you!"</p> + +<p>"You are very good," replied Olivia, "but I don't require to be amused +like a child. Thanks all the same. As to finding the country dull, I +never appreciate it so much as after a season in town."</p> + +<p>She was not looking at the Duke, but beyond him into the hall. And +encountering no other eyes there, her own grew softer, as did her tone, +even as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"You know this old place off by heart, Miss Sellwood, I expect?" pursued +Jack, who had taken off his straw hat in her presence, being in doubt as +to whether the portico ranked indoors or out.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I have stayed here pretty often, you know," said Olivia. +"What do you think of the place?"</p> + +<p>"I can't hardly say. I've never seen anything else like it. It's far too +good, though, for a chap like me; it's all so grand."</p> + +<p>"I have <i>sometimes</i> felt it a little too grand," the girl ventured to +observe.</p> + +<p>"So have I!" cried Jack. "You can't think how glad I am to hear you say +that. It's my own feeling right down to the ground!"</p> + +<p>"I don't mean to be rude," continued Olivia confidentially, seeing that +they were still unobserved, "but I have often felt that I wouldn't care +to live here altogether."</p> + +<p>"No?" said the Duke, in a new tone; he felt vaguely dashed, but his +manner was rather one of apologetic sympathy.</p> + +<p>"No," she repeated; "shall you like it?"</p> + +<p>"Can't say. I haven't weakened on it yet, though it <i>is</i> too fine and +large for a fellow. Shall I tell you what I've done? I've fixed up a +little place for myself outside, where I can go whenever I get full up +of the homestead here. I wonder—if it isn't too much to ask—whether +you would let me show you the little spot I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Where is it?"</p> + +<p>"In the pines yonder, on the far side o' the tank."</p> + +<p>"The tank!"</p> + +<p>"We call 'em tanks in Australia. I meant the lake. I could row you +across, Miss Sellwood, in a minute, if only you'd let me!" And he met +her doubtful look with one of frank, simple-hearted, irresistible +entreaty.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" said Olivia suddenly; and as she went, she never looked +behind; for she seemed to feel her mother's eyes upon her from an upper +window, and the hot shame of their certain approval made her tingle from +head to foot. So she trod the close, fine, sunlit grass as far as +possible from her companion's side. And he, falling back a little, was +enabled to watch her all the way.</p> + +<p>Olivia was very ordinarily attired. She wore a crisp white blouse, +speckled with tiny scarlet spots, and a plain skirt of navy blue, just +short enough to give free play to the small brown shoes whose high heels +the Duke had admired in the portico. Two scarlet bands, a narrow and a +broad, encircled her straw hat and her waist, with much the same +circumference: and yet this exceedingly average costume struck Jack as +the most delicious thing imaginable of its kind. He corrected another +impression before they reached the lake. Olivia was taller than he had +thought; she was at least five-feet-six; and she carried her slim, trim +figure in a fine upstanding fashion that took some of the roundness out +of his own shoulders as he noted it this August morning.</p> + +<p>"It's the back-block bend," he remarked elliptically, in the boat.</p> + +<p>His way with the oars was inelegant enough, without a pretence at +feathering; but it was quite effectual; and Olivia, in the stern-sheets, +had her back still presented to the Argus-eyes of the Towers. She +answered him with a puzzled look, as well she might, for he had done no +more than think aloud.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" she said. "And what are the back-blocks; and what <i>do</i> +you mean?" for her puzzled look had lifted on a smile.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of my round shoulders. You get them through being all +your time in the saddle, up in the back-blocks. All the country in +Riverina—that is, all the fenced country—is split up into ten-mile +blocks. And the back-blocks are the farthest from the rivers and from +civilisation. So that's why they call it the back-block bend; it came +into my head through seeing you. I never saw anybody hold themselves so +well, Miss Sellwood—if it isn't too like my cheek to say so!"</p> + +<p>The keel grounded as he spoke, and Olivia, as he handed her out, saw the +undulating battlements and toppling turrets of the olden pile +upside-down in the tremulous mirror of the lake. A moment later the +pine-trees had closed around her; and, sure enough, in a distant window, +Lady Caroline Sellwood lowered her opera-glasses with a sigh of +exceeding great contentment.</p> + +<p>"So you haven't forgotten your old life yet," said the girl, as they +stepped out briskly across the shortening shadows of the pines. "I wish +you would tell me something about it! I have heard it said that you +lived in ever such a little hut, away by yourself in the wilderness."</p> + +<p>"I did so; and in a clump of pines the dead spit of these here," said +Jack, with a relish. "When I saw these pines you can't think how glad I +was! They were like old friends to me; they made me feel at home. You +see, Miss Sellwood, that old life is the only one I ever knew, bar this; +often enough it seems the reallest of the two. Most nights I dream I'm +out there again; last night, for instance, we were lamb-marking. A nasty +job, that; I was covered with blood from head to heels, and I was just +counting the poor little beggars' tails, when one of the dead tails +wriggled in my hand, and blowed if it wasn't Livingstone's! No, there's +no forgetting the old life; I was at it too long; it's this one that's +most like a dream."</p> + +<p>"And the hut," said Olivia, with a rather wry face; "what sort of a +place was that?"</p> + +<p>"I'll show you," replied the Duke, in what struck the other as a +superfluously confidential tone. "It was a little bit of a place, all +one room, with a galvanised iron roof and mother-earth for floor. It was +built with the very pines that had been felled to make a clearing for +the hut: so many uprights, and horizontal slabs in between. A great +square hearth and chimney were built out at one end, like the far end of +a church; and over my bunk I'd got a lot of pictures from the +<i>Australasian Sketcher</i> just stuck up anyhow; and if you weren't +looking, you knocked your head against the ration-bags that hung from +the cross-beams. You slept inside, but you kept your bucket and basin on +a bench——"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" cried Olivia. And she stood rooted to the ground before +a clearing and a hut which exactly tallied with the Duke's description. +The hut was indeed too new, the maker's stamp catching the eye on the +galvanised roofing; and, in the clearing, the pine-stumps were still +white from the axe; but the essentials were the same, even to the tin +basin on the bench outside the door, with a bucket of water underneath. +As for the wooden chimney, Olivia had never seen such a thing in her +life; yet real smoke was leaking out of it into the pale blue sky.</p> + +<p>"Is this a joke or a trick?" asked the girl, looking suspiciously on +Jack.</p> + +<p>"Neither; it's meant for the dead image of my old hut up the bush; and +it's the little place I've fixed up for myself, here on the run, that I +wanted to show you."</p> + +<p>"You've had it built during these last few weeks?"</p> + +<p>"Under my own eye; and bits of it with my own hand. Old Claude thought +it sheer cussedness, I know; perhaps you will, too; but come in, and +have a look for yourself."</p> + +<p>And unlocking the padlock that secured it, he opened the door and stood +aside for the young girl to enter. Olivia did so with alacrity; her +first amazement had given way to undiluted interest; and the Duke +followed her, straw hat in hand. There was a tantalising insufficiency +of light within. Two small windows there were, but both had been filled +with opaque folds of sackcloth in lieu of glass; yet the Duke pointed to +them, as might his ancestors to the stained-glass lights in chapel and +library, with peculiar pride; and, indeed, his strange delight in the +hut, who cared so little for the Towers close at hand, made Olivia +marvel when she came to think about it. Meanwhile she found everything +as she had heard it described in the Australian hut, with one exception: +there were no ration-bags to knock one's head against, because nobody +made meals here. Also the pictures over the bunk were from the +<i>Illustrated London News</i>, not from the <i>Sketcher</i>, which Jack had been +unable to obtain in England; and they were somewhat unconvincingly clean +and well-arranged. But the bunk itself was all that it might have been +in the real bush; for it was covered over with Jack's own old blanket; +whereon lay a purring, yellow ball, like a shabby sand-bank in a sea of +faded blue.</p> + +<p>"So this is Livingstone!" exclaimed the girl, stooping to scratch that +celebrity's head.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and there's old Tom and Black Maria in front of the fire. I lock +them all three up during the day, for it isn't so like the bush in some +ways as it is in others. They might get stolen any day, with so many +people about; that's the worst of the old country; there was no other +camp within five miles of me, on Carara."</p> + +<p>"It must have been dreadfully lonely!"</p> + +<p>"You get used to it. And then every few months you would tramp into the +homestead and—and speak to the boss," said Jack, changing his mind and +his sentence as he remembered how he had once shocked Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>Olivia took notice of the cats, at which Jack stood by beaming. The +kitten she had brought down from town in a basket. It lived in Olivia's +room, but she now suggested restoring it to its own people. Jack, +however, reminded her that it was hers, in such a tender voice; and +proceeded to refer to her kindness at their first meeting, in so +embarrassing a fashion; that the girl, seeking a change of subject, +found one in the long, low bunk.</p> + +<p>"I see," said she, "that you come here for your afternoon siesta."</p> + +<p>"I come here for my night's sleep," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Never!"</p> + +<p>"Every night in life. You seem surprised. I did ask old Claude not to +mention it—and—oh, well, it's no use keeping the thing a secret, after +all. It suits me best—the open country and the solitude. It's what I'm +accustomed to. The wind in the pines all around, I wake up and hear it +every night, just like I did in the old hut. It's almost the same thing +as going back to the bush to sleep; there's not two penn'orth of +difference."</p> + +<p>"You'd like to go back altogether," said the girl, affirming it as a +fact; and yet her sweet eyes, gravely unsatisfied, seemed to peer +through his into his soul.</p> + +<p>"I don't say that, Miss Sellwood," he protested. "Of course it's a great +thing for me to have come in for all this fortune and power—and it'll +be a greater thing still once I can believe it's true! That's the +trouble. The whole show's so like a dream. And that's where this little +hut helps me; <i>it's</i> real, anyway; I can sight <i>it</i>. As for all the +rest, it's too many measles for me—as yet; what's more, if I was to +wake up this minute on Carara I shouldn't so very much mind."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Olivia, with her fine eyes looking through him still. +"I just wonder!" And her tone set him wondering too.</p> + +<p>"Of course," he faltered, "I should be mighty sorry to wake up and find +I'd only dreamt <i>you</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Of course," she returned, with a laughing bow; but there had been an +instant's pause; and she was studying the picture-gallery over the bunk +when she continued, "I see you've been long enough in England to acquire +the art of making pretty speeches. And I must tell you at once that +they never amuse me. At least," she added more kindly, again facing him, +"not when they come from a person as a rule so candid as yourself."</p> + +<p>"But you mistake me; I was perfectly candid," protested poor Jack.</p> + +<p>"It won't do," said the girl. "And it's time we went."</p> + +<p>Olivia felt that she had made excellent friends with the Duke; that the +more she saw of him, the better she would probably like him; and that +she could possibly be of use to him, in little ways, if he would be +sensible, and make no more than a friend of her. She was not so sure of +him, however, as she could have wished; and she was anxious to leave +well alone. It was thus the worst of luck that at this last moment she +should perceive the suggestively white bouquet upon the high deal +chimney-piece.</p> + +<p>"You've been to a wedding," she cried, "and I've never heard a word +about it! Whose was the wedding? Some of the tenantry, of course, or the +bride would hardly have presented you with her bouquet!"</p> + +<p>And she reached it down, and widened her pretty nostrils over the fading +flowers; but they smelt of death; and their waxen whiteness had here +and there the tarnish of a half-eaten apple.</p> + +<p>"There was no bride," said Jack, "and no wedding."</p> + +<p>"Then why this bride's bouquet? No! I beg your pardon; it isn't a fair +question."</p> + +<p>"It is—perfectly. I had it made for a young lady. The head-gardener +made it, but I told him first what I wanted. There was no word of a +wedding; I only thought a nosegay would be the right sort of thing to +give a young lady, to show her she was mighty welcome; and I thought +white was a nice clean sort of colour. But it turned out I was wrong; +she wouldn't have liked it; it would only have made her uncomfortable; +so, when I found out that, I just let it rest."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Olivia, seeing only too clearly. "Still, I'm not sure you +were right: if I had been the girl——"</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>The quick word altered the speech it had also interrupted.</p> + +<p>"I should have thought it exceedingly kind of you," said Olivia, after a +moment's reflection.</p> + +<p>She replaced the flowers on the chimney-board, and then led the way out +among the pines.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you were in such a hurry," he said, overtaking her when he +had locked up the hut. "I might have made you some billy-tea. The +billy's the can you make it in up the bush. I had such a work to get one +over here! I keep some tea in the hut, and billy-tea's not like any +other kind; I call it better; but you must come again and sample it for +yourself."</p> + +<p>"We'll see," said Olivia smilingly; but with that she lost her tongue; +and together they crossed the lake in mutually low spirits. It was as +though the delicate spell of simple friendship had been snapped as soon +as spun between them, and the friends were friends no more.</p> + +<p>On the lawn, however, in a hammock under an elm, they found a young man +smoking. It was Mr. Edmund Stubbs, who had arrived, with his friend the +Impressionist, on the Saturday afternoon. He was smoking a pipe; but the +ground beneath him was defiled with the ends of many cigarettes; and +close at hand a deck-chair stood empty.</p> + +<p>"I smell the blood of Mr. Llewellyn," said Olivia, coming up with the +glooming Duke. "He smokes far too many cigarettes!"</p> + +<p>"He has gone for more," said the man in the hammock.</p> + +<p>"I wonder you don't interfere, Mr. Stubbs; it must be so bad for him."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, Miss Sellwood, it is the best thing in the world for +him. A man must smoke something. And an artist must smoke cigarettes. +You can tell what he does smoke, however, from his work. Pipe-work is +inevitably coarse, banal, obvious, and only fit to hang in the front +parlours of Brixton and Upper Tooting. Cigar-work is little better; but +that of the cigarette is delicate, suggestive, fantastic if you will, +but always artistic. Ivor Llewellyn's is typical cigarette-work."</p> + +<p>"How very interesting," said Olivia.</p> + +<p>"My colonial!" muttered the Duke.</p> + +<p>At the same time they caught each other's eyes, turned away with one +consent, nor made a sound between them until they were out of earshot of +the hammock. And then they only laughed; yet the spell that had been +broken was even thus made whole.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>AN ANONYMOUS LETTER</h3> + + +<p>It is comparatively easy to read a character from a face. This is always +a scientific possibility. To fit the face to a given character is +obviously the reverse. And those who knew the worst of Lady Caroline +Sellwood, before making her acquaintance, received, on that occasion, +something like a shock. They had nourished visions of a tall and stately +figure with a hook-nose and an exquisitely supercilious smile; whereas +her Ladyship was decidedly short, and extremely stout, with as plebeian +a snub-nose and as broad a grin as any in her own back-kitchen. Instead +of the traditionally frigid leader of society, she was a warm-hearted +woman where her own interests were not concerned; where they were, she +was just what expedience made her, and her heart then took its +temperature from her head, like the excellent servant it had always +been. A case very much in point is that of her relations with Claude +Lafont, whom, however, Lady Caroline had now her own reasons for +fearing no more. As for the Duke of St. Osmund's, her heart had been a +perfect oven to him from the first.</p> + +<p>Nor did she make any pretence about the matter—it was this that so +repelled Olivia. But the very falsity of the woman was frank to the +verge of a virtue; and the honest dishonesty of her front hair (which +was of the same shade as Olivia's, only much more elaborately curled) +was as bluntly emblematic as a pirate's flag. Lady Caroline Sellwood was +honestly dishonest to the last ounce of her two hundredweight of +avoirdupois.</p> + +<p>This was the kind of thing she thought nothing of doing. She had been +engaged for months upon an egregious smoking-cap for Claude Lafont. That +is to say she had from time to time put in a few golden stitches, in +front of Claude, which her maid had been obliged to pick out and put in +again behind the scenes. Claude, at any rate, had always understood that +the cap was for him—until one evening here in the conservatory, when he +saw Lady Caroline coolly trying it on the Duke.</p> + +<p>"It never did fit you, Claude," she explained serenely. "It was always +too small, and I must make you another. Only see how it fits the dear +Duke!"</p> + +<p>The dear Duke was made the recipient of many another mark of unblushing +favour. He could do no wrong. His every solecism of act or word, and +they still cropped up at times, was simply "sweet" in the eyes of Lady +Caroline Sellwood, and his name was seldom on her lips without that +epithet.</p> + +<p>Moreover, she would speak her mind to him on every conceivable topic, +and this with a freedom often embarrassing for Jack; as, for example, on +the first Sunday after church.</p> + +<p>"I simply don't know how Francis dared!" Lady Caroline exclaimed, as she +took Jack's arm on the sunlit terrace. "Twenty-one minutes by my +watch—and such drivel! It didn't seem so to you? Ah, you're so sweet! +But twenty-one minutes was an outrage, and I shall tell the little idiot +exactly what I think of him."</p> + +<p>"I rather like him," said Jack, who put it thus mildly out of pure +politeness to his companion; "and I rather liked what he said."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's no worse than the rest of them," rejoined Lady Caroline. "Of +course I swear by the sweet Established Church, but the parsons +personally, with very few exceptions, I never could endure. Still, it's +useful to have one in the family; he does everything for us. He +christens the grandchildren, and he'll bury the lot of us if he's +spared, to say nothing of marrying poor Olivia when her time comes. Ah +well, let's hope that won't be yet! She is my ewe lamb. And all men are +not such dear sweet fellows as you!"</p> + +<p>This sort of speech he found unanswerable; and although treated by her +Ladyship with unflagging consideration, amounting almost to devotion, +Jack was never at his ease in such interviews.</p> + +<p>One of these took place in the hut. Lady Caroline insisted on seeing it, +accompanied by Olivia. Of course the whole idea charmed her to +ecstasies; it was so original; it showed such a simple heart; and the +hut itself was as "sweet" as everything else connected with the Duke. So +was the pannikin of tea which Jack was entreated to brew for her in the +"billy": indeed, this was too sweet for Lady Caroline, who emptied most +of hers upon the earth behind her camp-stool—an act which Jack +pretended not to detect, and did not in the least resent. On the +contrary, he put a characteristic construction upon the incident, which +he attributed exclusively to Lady Caroline's delicate reluctance to hurt +his feelings by expressing her real opinion of the tea; for though +personally oppressed by her persistent kindness, he was much too +unsophisticated, and had perhaps too good a heart of his own, ever to +suspect an underlying motive.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of that week, in fact on the Friday afternoon, they were +all taking tea on the terrace; or rather all but the two talented young +men, who were understood never to touch it, and who, indeed, were +somewhat out of their element at the Towers, except late at night, when +the ladies had gone to bed. "I can't think why you asked them down," +said Lady Caroline to Claude. "I didn't," was the reply; "it was you, +Jack." "Of course it was me," cried the astonished Jack, "and why not? +Didn't they use to go to your rooms, old man, and to your house, Lady +Caroline?" "Ah," said her Ladyship, with her indulgent smile, "but that +was rather a different thing—you dear kind fellow!" All this, however, +was not on the Friday afternoon, when Lady Caroline was absorbed in very +different thoughts. They were not of the conversation, although she put +in her word here and there; the subject, that of the Nottingham murder, +being one of peculiar interest. The horrible case in question, which had +filled the papers all that week, had ended the previous day in an +inevitable conviction. And even Claude was moved to the expression of a +strong opinion as he put down the <i>Times</i>.</p> + +<p>"I must say that I agree with the judge," he remarked with a shudder. +"'Unparalleled barbarity' is the only word for it! What on earth, +though, was there to become 'almost inaudible with emotion' about, in +passing sentence? If I could see any man hanged with equanimity, or +indeed at all, I confess it would be this loathly wretch."</p> + +<p>"Claude," said Lady Caroline, "I'm ashamed of you. He is an innocent +man. He shall not die."</p> + +<p>"Who's to prevent it?" asked Jack.</p> + +<p>"I am," replied Lady Caroline calmly.</p> + +<p>"There'll probably be a petition, you see," exclaimed Claude. "Then the +Home Secretary decides."</p> + +<p>"And I decide the Home Secretary," said Lady Caroline Sellwood.</p> + +<p>It was grossly untrue, and Olivia shook her head in answer to the Duke's +astounded stare, but her mother's eyes were again fixed thoughtfully on +lawn and lake. The short dry grass was overrun with wild thyme, +innumerable butterflies played close to it, as spray, and the air hummed +with bees likewise in love with the aroma, whose fragrance reached even +to the terrace. But Lady Caroline noted none of these things, nor yet +the shadows of spire and turret encroaching on the lawn—nor yet the +sunlight strong as ever on the lake beyond. She was already pondering on +the best way of bringing a certain matter to a head. This quiet country +life, with so tiny a house-party, and with one day so like another, was +excellent so far as it went, but the chances were that it would not go +the whole way. It lacked excitement and incentive. It was the kind of +life in which an attachment might too easily stagnate in mere foolish +friendship. It needed an event; a something to prepare for, to look +forward to; a something to tighten the nerves and slacken the tongue; +and yet nothing that should give the Duke an opportunity of appearing at +a public disadvantage.</p> + +<p>So this was the difficulty. It disqualified the dance, the dinner-party, +even the entertaining of the county from 3.30 to 6.30 in the grounds. +But Lady Caroline overcame it, as she overcame most difficulties, by the +patient application of her ingenious mind. And her outward scheme was +presently unfolded in the fewest and apparently the most spontaneous +words.</p> + +<p>"He is not guilty, and he shall not die," she suddenly observed, as +though the Nottingham murder had all this time monopolised her +thoughts. "But let us speak of something else; I had, indeed, a very +different matter upon my mind, until the papers came and banished +everything with this ghastly business. The fact is, dear Duke, that you +should really do something to entertain your tenantry, and possibly a +few neighbours also, before they begin to talk. They will expect it +sooner or later, and in these things it is always better to take time by +the forelock. Mind, I don't mean an elaborate matter at all—except from +their point of view. I would just give them the run of the place for the +afternoon, and feed the multitude later on. Francis, don't look shocked! +I hope you'll be there to ask a blessing. Then, Duke, you could have a +band on the lawn, and fireworks, and indeed anything you like. It's +always good policy to do the civil to one's tenantry, though no doubt a +bore; but you needn't shake hands with them, you know, and you could +leaven the lower orders with a few parsons and their wives from the +surrounding rectories. It's only a suggestion, of course, and that from +one who has really no right to put in her oar at all; still I know you +won't misunderstand it—coming from <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>He did not; his face had long been alight and aglow with the red-heat +of his enthusiasm; and now his words leapt forth like flames.</p> + +<p>"The very ticket!" he cried, starting to his feet. "A general muster of +all sorts, and we'll do 'em real well. Fizz and fireworks! A dance on +the lawn! And I'll make 'em a speech to wind up with!"</p> + +<p>"That would be beautiful," said Lady Caroline with an inward shudder. +"What a dear fellow you are, to be sure, to take up my poor little +suggestion like this!"</p> + +<p>"Take it up," cried Jack, "I should think I would take it up! It'll be +the best sport out. Lady Caroline, you're one in two or three! I'm truly +thankful for the tip. Here's my hand on it!"</p> + +<p>His hand was pressed without delay.</p> + +<p>"It really is an excellent suggestion," said Claude Lafont, in his +deliberate way, after mature consideration. "It only remains to settle +the date."</p> + +<p>"And the brand of fizz, old man, and the sort of fireworks! I'll leave +all that to you. And the date, too; any day will do me; the sooner the +better."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lady Caroline, as though it had only just struck her, +"Olivia's birthday is the twentieth——"</p> + +<p>"Mamma!" cried that young lady, with real indignation.</p> + +<p>"And it's her twenty-first birthday," pursued the other, "and she is my +ewe lamb. I must confess I should like to honour that occasion——"</p> + +<p>"Same here! By all manner o' means!" broke in the Duke. "Now, Miss +Sellwood, it's no use your saying one word; this thing's a fixture for +the twentieth as ever is."</p> + +<p>The girl was furious. The inevitable, nay, the intentional linking of +her name with that of the Duke of St. Osmund's, entailed by the +arrangement thus mooted and made, galled her pride to the quick. And yet +it was but one more twang of the catapult that was daily and almost +hourly throwing her at his head; neither was it his fault any more than +hers; so she made shift to thank him, as kindly as she could at the +moment, for the compliment he was so ready to pay her—at her mother's +suggestion.</p> + +<p>"You could hardly get out of it, however, after what was said," she +added, not perhaps inexcusably in the circumstances.</p> + +<p>"No more can you," retorted the Duke. "And here comes the very man we +must all consult," he added, as the agent appeared, a taking figure in +his wrinkled riding breeches, and with his spurs trailing on the +dead-smooth flags.</p> + +<p>The agent handed Jack a soiled note, and then sat down to talk to the +ladies. This he did at all times excellently, having assurance and a +certain well-bred familiarity of manner, which, as the saying is, went +down. In this respect he was a contrast to all the other men present. He +inquired when the Home Secretary would be back and ready for his revenge +on the links. And he heard of the plans for the twentieth with interest +and a somewhat superfluous approval. Meanwhile the Duke had read his +note more than once, and now he looked up.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get this?" he asked, displaying the crumpled envelope, +which had also a hole through the middle.</p> + +<p>"In rather a rum place," replied the agent. "It was nailed to a tree +just outside the north gates."</p> + +<p>"Well, see here," said Jack, who stood facing the party, with his back +to the stone bulwark of the terrace, and a hard look on his face; +"that's just the sort of place where I should have expected you to find +it, for it's an anonymous letter that some fellows might keep to +themselves—but not me! I'm for getting to the bottom of things, +whether they're nice or whether they're nasty. Listen to this: 'To the +<span class="smcap">Duke</span> of St. Osmund's'—he prints 'Duke' in big letters, as much as to +say I'm not one. 'A word in your <span class="smcap">Grace's</span> ear'—he prints that the same. +'They say,' he says, 'that you hail from Australia, and <i>I</i> say you're +not the first claimant to titles and estates that has sprung from there. +Take a friendly tip and put on as few frills as possible till you're +quite sure you are not going to be bowled out for a second Tichborne. A +<span class="smcap">well-wisher</span>.' Now what does it all mean? Is it simple cheek, or isn't +it? I recollect all about Tichborne. I recollect seeing him in Wagga +when I was a lad, and we took a great interest in his case up the bush; +but why am I like him? Where does the likeness come in? I've heard fat +men called second Tichbornes, but I don't turn twelve stone. Then what +can he mean? Does he mean I'm not a Duke? I know I'm not fit to be one; +but that's another matter; and if it comes to that, I never claimed to +be one either; it was Claude here who yarded me up into this pen! Then +what's it all about? Can any lady or gentleman help me? I'll pass the +letter round, and I'll be mightily obliged if they can!"</p> + +<p>They could: it was pure insolence, not to be taken seriously for a +single moment. So they all said with one consent; and Jack was further +advised to steel himself forthwith against anonymous letters, of which +persons in his station received hundreds every year. The agent added +that he believed he knew who had written this one; at least he had his +suspicions.</p> + +<p>In a word, the affair was treated by all in the very common-sense light +of a mere idle insult; any serious sympathy that was evinced being due +entirely to the fact that Jack himself seemed to take it rather to +heart. Lady Caroline Sellwood dismissed the matter with the fewest words +of all; nevertheless, Jack detected her in a curious, penetrating, +speculative scrutiny of himself, which he could not fathom at the time; +and her Ladyship had a word to say to Claude Lafont after obtaining his +arm as far as the house.</p> + +<p>"That sort of thing is never pleasant," she observed confidentially, +"and I can't help wishing the dear fellow had kept his letter to +himself. It gives one such disagreeable ideas! I am the last person to +be influenced by such pieces of impudence, as a general rule; still I +could not help thinking what a very awkward thing it would be if your +Mr. Cripps had made a big mistake after all! Not awkward from <i>every</i> +point of view, dear Claude"—and here she pressed his arm—"but—but of +course he had every substantial proof?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Claude. "I looked into it, as a matter of form, on +Cripps's return; though his word was really quite sufficient. Well, he +had copies of the certificate of Jack's birth, and of that of my uncle's +marriage, besides proof positive that Jack was Jack. And that was good +enough for me."</p> + +<p>"And for me too," said Lady Caroline, dropping his arm. "He is a dear +fellow; I hardly know which is greater, my regard for him or my sympathy +with you!" And her Ladyship marched upstairs.</p> + +<p>Meantime the agent had led Jack aside on the terrace.</p> + +<p>"I know who sent that letter," said he. "I had my suspicions all along, +and I recognised the disguised hand in a moment. It was Matthew Hunt."</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Well, it was meant merely as an annoyance: a petty revenge for the +handsome thrashing you gave the fellow six weeks ago—I wish I'd seen +it! But that's not the point. The point is that I think I could bring it +home to the brute; and I want your Grace to let me try."</p> + +<p>"I can't. What's the good? Leave bad alone; we should only make it +worse."</p> + +<p>"Then mayn't I raise the rent of the Lower Farm?"</p> + +<p>"No; not yet, at any rate. I mean to give the fellow a chance."</p> + +<p>"And an invitation for the twentieth too?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly; he's a tenant, or his father is; we can't possibly leave +them out."</p> + +<p>"Very well; your Grace knows best."</p> + +<p>And the agent went his way.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>"DEAD NUTS"</h3> + + +<p>It was three o'clock in the early morning of the twentieth of August. A +single jet of gas, lighting a torch in the mailed hand of a life-size +man-at-arms, burnt audibly in the silent hall; making the worst of each +lugubrious feature, like a match struck in a cavern. And Claude Lafont +was sitting up alone, in the Poet's Corner, at work upon his birthday +offering to Olivia Sellwood.</p> + +<p>At three, however, it was finished in the rough. The poet then stretched +his fingers, took a clean sheet of paper, and started upon the fair copy +in his prettiest hand. It began—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What songs have I to sing you?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What tales have I to tell?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And there it stuck, as though these questions were indeed unanswerable; +the fact being, there was another still to come, which, however, +involved an execrable couplet as it stood. Claude twisted it about for +half-an-hour; realised its gratuitous badness; tried not to ask this +inane question at all, hunted his rhyming dictionary up and down, and +found he must; and finally, with a prayer that it might impose upon +Olivia, and another for forgiveness from the Muse, finished his first +stanza with—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What garlands can I bring you<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Fancy's fairest dell?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the world grew old, dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The lute was lightlier strung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all the tales are told, dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all the songs are sung."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is needless to quote more. The sentiments were superior to their +setting. An affectionate <i>camaraderie</i> was employed, with success, as a +cloak for those warmer feelings of whose existence in his own bosom the +poor poet was now practically convinced. And the lines in themselves +were not all or wholly bad; there was a certain knack in them, and here +and there some charm. But if infinite pains could have made them a work +of genius, that they would have been. It was almost five when Claude +made his best signature at the foot of the last verse; yet there were +but four of these, or thirty-two lines in all.</p> + +<p>He put them in an envelope which he sealed deliberately with his +signet-ring. The deliberation of all his private doings was enormous; +neither the hour nor an empty stomach could induce briskness at the +expense of pains. Yet Claude was exceedingly hungry, and the night had +put an edge on his nerves. As he paced the floor the undue distinction +between his steps, so soft on the rugs, and so loud on the parquetry, +became exaggerated in his nervous ears; and all the silence and all the +darkness of the sleeping Towers seemed to press upon that single +lamp-lit, sounding room, like fathoms of wide sea upon a diver's helm. +Claude had not thought of such things while he was still at work; he had +rather overdone matters, and he poured out a sparing measure of whisky +from the decanter upon the table.</p> + +<p>There were other glasses with dregs at the bottom. The air was tainted +with stale smoke, and within the fender lay the remains of many +cigarettes. This was why Claude was so late. He had been late in making +a start. Stubbs and Llewellyn had sat up with him till the small hours. +The Poet's Corner was the one spot in which these young men seemed +really at home. Here, by midnight, but seldom before, they could manage +to create unto themselves their own element; for their Philistine host +went early to his eccentric lair; but there were always his easy-chairs +to lounge in, his whisky to drink, and Claude Lafont to listen to their +talk.</p> + +<p>Not that the poet was so good a listener as he had been once; the truth +being, that he found himself a little out of touch with his clever +friends—he hardly knew why. It might be the living under one roof with +them; he himself would never have asked them down. Or it might be the +simultaneous hourly contact with an opposite type of man—the kindly, +unaffected dunce—the unburnished nugget, reeking yet of the Australian +soil, but with the gold wearing brighter every day.</p> + +<p>Certain it was that the benefit of the cousins' close companionship had +not been all on one side. If the force of example had toned down some of +Jack's pristine roughness of speech and manner, it had taken a like +effect upon sundry peculiarities of a converse character in Claude. In a +word, there had been an ideal interchange between the two, founded on a +mutual liking. The amelioration of the Duke was sufficiently obvious to +all; that of Claude struck Olivia especially, who had never been blind +to his faults; needless to add, he was himself the last to see how he +had changed. Yet he divined something of it now. As he thought of the +verses he had just written, and of the critic to whom he would have +submitted them in all humility a couple of months ago, he knew that he +was no longer as he had been then; for he had not the faintest intention +of allowing that critic to see these verses at all.</p> + +<p>So Claude calmed his nerves, eating biscuits the while, and sipping +soda-water merely tinctured with whisky; until all at once the lamp +began to flicker and to smell, and the song of the birds, singing in +Olivia's birthday, came at last to his ears through the plate-glass and +rich curtains of the octagonal window. Then he rose; and in half a +minute the lamp was out, the curtains drawn, a sash thrown up, and the +risen sun shining mercilessly on the dishevelled head and blue chin and +battered shirt-front of Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>The cool, fresh scene inspired him with delight; it was indeed a +disgraceful novelty to the poet. He thought nothing of rhyming "morn" +with "dawn," and yet of this phenomenon itself he had little or no +experience. He would gain some now; he also promised himself the unique +pleasure of rousing the early-rising Jack. So he got out of the window, +and soaked his feet in the dew, only to meet Jack emerging from his hut, +with towels on his arm, as he approached it. Nor was the Duke's +surprise very flattering; but his chaff was fair enough. He was himself +about to bathe in the creek at the north end of the tank. Would Claude +join him and then go back to the hut for an early pannikin of bush tea? +Claude would, and did, feeling (as all felt at Jack's hut) that he had +been flashed through the thick of the earth, and come out in the wilds +of Australia.</p> + +<p>In the hut a log fire had burnt well up by the time they returned with +wet towels and glowing skins. Over the flames hung the billy-can, with +boiling water throbbing against the side. Jack lifted it down with a +stick, and threw a handful of tea among the bubbles. "Shall I sweeten +it?" he then asked; and, at Claude's nod, threw in another handful of +brown sugar.</p> + +<p>"There, that's real bush tea for you," continued the Duke, in a simmer +of satisfaction himself as he stirred the mixture with the stick. "Now +take the pannikin and dip it in. There's no milk, mind; that wouldn't be +the thing at all. Here are some biscuits, and they aren't the thing +either. I'd have made you a damper, only I never could strike a +camp-oven; it's been trouble enough to raise the plant I've got. What do +you think of the tea?"</p> + +<p>"Capital!" cried Claude, who was seated on the bunk. And indeed the +whole thing appealed to his poetic palate; for he could not forget that +this hut was within half a mile of the Towers themselves, in which the +Duke took evidently far less pleasure; and the many-sided contrast +amused his literary sense, even while it piqued his family pride.</p> + +<p>"How I wish it was the real thing!" said Jack, with a sigh. "I'd have a +camp-oven, then, and you should have your mutton chop and damper served +up hot. I used to be an artist at a damper. Then after breakfast I'd +take you with me round the paddocks, and you'd help me muster a mob and +drive them to the tank; and you'd hear them bleat and see them start to +run when they smelt the water. My colonial oath, I can see 'em and hear +'em now! Then we'd give our mokes a drink in the middle of 'em, and we'd +take a pull at our own water-bags. Then we might camp under the nearest +hop-bush for a snack, and I should yard you up at the homestead, and +make you know my old boss before the day was over. What a day it would +be for you! You wouldn't believe the sky could get so blue or your face +so red. But it's no use talking—here we are again!" And he set down his +empty pannikin with another sigh.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't really prefer that life to this?"</p> + +<p>"No; perhaps not; but I like to think of it, as you can see."</p> + +<p>"Surely you like your new life best by this time? You wouldn't go back +there now?"</p> + +<p>"I like my new friends best; I wouldn't go back on them. Olivia and you, +for instance."</p> + +<p>"It's her birthday," said Claude; but a silence had intervened.</p> + +<p>"So it is. God bless her! I haven't got her anything, because I seemed +to make a mull of it with those flowers. Have you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have a trifle for her; it's rather a different thing on her +birthday, you know. And—and I've written her a few verses; that's what +I've been doing all night."</p> + +<p>"Clever dog!" said Jack enviously. "See what it is to be a man of +genius; here's where it comes in so handy. And has Llewellyn done her +something, too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; a portrait of herself."</p> + +<p>"Well, let him label it to that effect, or she may put her foot in it +like me. He never shows me his blooming drawings now. But I wish you'd +let me see your poem."</p> + +<p>"It's not all that; it's only verses, and pretty bad ones too; still, +you shall hear them if you like, and if I can remember them," said +Claude, who would have found much more difficulty in forgetting them so +soon. "I only wish they were better! There are some lamentable lines +here and there. I tried to iron them out, but they wouldn't all come."</p> + +<p>"Go on!" cried Jack, lighting his pipe. "I'll tell you whether they're +good or bad. You go ahead!"</p> + +<p>And Claude did so, only too glad of a second opinion of any kind; for he +had little or no intellectual self-reliance, and was ever ready to think +his productions good or bad with their latest critic. On this occasion, +however, he would have been better pleased with the general enthusiasm +of the Duke, had not the latter proceeded to point out particular +merits, when it transpired that the ingenuity of the rhymes was what +impressed him most. Knowing where they came from, the poet himself was +unable to take much pride in this feature.</p> + +<p>"They're splendid!" reiterated Jack. "You ought to be the laureate, old +man, and I've a good mind to tell 'em so in the House of Lords. You're +far and away ahead of Shakespeare at rhyming; he hardly ever rhymes at +all; I know that; because there used to be a copy of him in my old hut. +I say, I like that about the garlands from Fancy's dell; that's real +poetry, that is. But do you mind giving me the last four lines again?"</p> + +<p>Claude gave them—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"While yet the world was young, dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Your minstrel might be bold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all the songs are sung, dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all the tales are told."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"First-chop," said Jack, whose look, however, was preoccupied. "But +what's that you're driving at about the minstrel being bolder? What was +it you'd have said if only you'd had the cheek? Say it to me. Out with +it!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, really," said Claude, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Then I do: you're dead nuts on Olivia!"</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"You like her!"</p> + +<p>"Naturally."</p> + +<p>"As much as I do!"</p> + +<p>"That all depends how much you like her, Jack."</p> + +<p>There was a moment's pause. The Duke was sitting on his heels in front +of the fire, into which he was also staring fixedly; so that it was +impossible to tell whether the red light upon his face was spontaneous +or reflected. And he spoke out now without turning his head.</p> + +<p>"Old man," he said, "I've wanted a straight word with you this long +time—about Olivia. Of course I know I oughtn't to call her Olivia +behind her back, when I daren't to her face; but that's what she is in +my own heart, you see—and that's where she's pegged out a claim for +good and all. Understand? We can't all talk like books, old man! Still I +want to make myself as plain as possible."</p> + +<p>"You do so. I understand perfectly," said Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>"That's all right. Well, as I was saying, she's pegged out a claim that +no other woman is ever going to jump. And what I was going to say was +this: you remember that night in your rooms in town? I mean when I said +I meant no harm, and all that; because I spoke too soon. Worse still, I +felt mean when I did speak; it didn't ring true; and long I've known +that even then there was only one thing that would have held me back. +That was—if she'd been your girl! I gave you a chance of saying if she +was, but you only laughed; and sometimes I've thought your laugh wasn't +any truer than my word. So I've got to have it in plain English before I +go the whole hog. Claude—old man—she never was—your girl?"</p> + +<p>"Never," said Claude decidedly.</p> + +<p>"You never asked her—what I think of asking one of these days?"</p> + +<p>"Never."</p> + +<p>"Thank God, old man. I'm dead nuts on her myself, I tell you frankly; +and I mean to tell <i>her</i> when I can rake together the pluck. I'm not +sure I can keep it to myself much longer. The one thing I'm sure of is +that she'll laugh in my face—if she isn't too riled! I hear her doing +it every night of my life as I lie where you're sitting and listen to +the pines outside. I hear her saying every blessed thing but 'yes!' Yet +it isn't such cheek as all that, is it, Claude? I want your candid +opinion. I'm not such a larrikin as I was that day you met me, am I?"</p> + +<p>And he turned to the other with a simple, strong humility, very touching +in him; but Claude jumped up, and getting behind him so that their eyes +should not meet, laid his hands affectionately on the Duke's shoulders.</p> + +<p>"You are not the same man," he said with a laugh; "yet you are the same +good fellow! I could wish Olivia no better fate—than the one you think +of. So I wish you luck—from my heart. And now let us go."</p> + +<p>On the lawn they found the Home Secretary driving a dozen golf-balls +into space from an impromptu tee. He had come for good now, the session +being over at last. And this was his daily exercise before breakfast, +and his valet's daily grievance, whose duty it was to recover the balls.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood accompanied the younger men into the house, where Claude +had still to shave and dress; but the Duke was the uninterested witness +of an interesting scene, between the Home Secretary and his wife, before +any one else came down to breakfast. The subject was that of the +Nottingham murder.</p> + +<p>"They are making an example of you!" said Lady Caroline bitterly, +looking up from her husband's daily stack of press-cuttings, which she +always opened.</p> + +<p>"Let them," said Mr. Sellwood, from the depths of the <i>Sportsman</i>, which +he read before any of his letters.</p> + +<p>"They call it a judicial murder—and upon my word, so do I! Your +decision is most unpopular; they clamour for your resignation—and I +must say that I should do the same. Here's a cartoon of you playing golf +with a human skull for the ball!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly how I mean to spend my day—barring the skull."</p> + +<p>"They know it, too; it's a public scandal; even if it wasn't, I should +be ashamed of myself, with that poor man awaiting his end!"</p> + +<p>"He was hanged five minutes ago," declared the Home Secretary, +consulting his watch. "And I may as well tell you, my dear, that I had +his full confession in my pocket when I gave my decision the night +before last. It appears in this morning's papers. And I fancy that's my +hole," added Mr. Sellwood, nodding at Jack.</p> + +<p>But Jack had no more to say than Lady Caroline, utterly routed for once. +The Duke did not perhaps appreciate the situation, or perhaps he was not +listening; for his eyes hung very wistfully on Olivia's plate, which was +laden and surrounded by birthday offerings of many descriptions. There +were several packets by post, and an open cheque from the Home +Secretary. Claude had added his beautifully sealed envelope before going +upstairs, and now Llewellyn came in with his "likeness of a lady." The +lady was evidently lost in a fog; the likeness did not exist; and the +whole production was exactly like a photographic failure which is both +out of focus and "over-exposed." But it was better than poor Jack's +contribution of nothing at all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH</h3> + + +<p>A loose chain of fairy lights marked the brink of the lake; another was +drawn tight from end to end of the balustrade rimming the terrace; and +between the two, incited by champagne and the Hungarian band, the rank +and file of the tenantry cut happy capers in the opening eye of the +harvest moon.</p> + +<p>At one end of the terrace the fire-workers awaited the word to rake and +split the still serenity of the heavens; at the other, the fairy +footlights picked out the twinkling diamonds and glaring shirt-fronts of +the house-party, the footmen's gilt buttons and powdered heads; for the +men had just come out of the dining-room, and tea was being handed +round.</p> + +<p>"It is going beautifully—beautifully!" whispered Lady Caroline, +swooping down upon the Duke, who had himself made straight for her +daughter's side. "Inside and out, high and low, all are happy, it is one +huge success. How could it be otherwise? You make such a charming host! +My dear Jack, I congratulate you from my heart; and the occasion must be +my excuse for the familiarity."</p> + +<p>"No excuse needed; I like it," replied the Duke. "I only wish you'd all +call me Jack," he added, with a sidelong look at Olivia; "surely we're +all pretty much in the same family boat! Well, I'm glad you think it's a +success, and I'm glad I make a decent host; but I shouldn't if I hadn't +got the loan of such an excellent hostess, Lady Caroline."</p> + +<p>"You are so sweet!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, it's you that's so jolly kind," laughed Jack. "The fact is, Lady +Caroline, I can get along all right at my own table so long as I don't +have to carve—and when I make up my mind to go straight through cold +water. I was sorry not to drink Miss Sellwood's health in anything +stronger; but it's better so."</p> + +<p>"So fine of you," murmured Lady Caroline; "such a noble example! You +can't think how I've admired it in you from the first!"</p> + +<p>Yet she looked to see whether his remarks had been overheard. They had +not; even Olivia had turned away before they were made, and her mother +now followed her example. She was rewarded by seeing the Duke at the +girl's side again when next she looked round.</p> + +<p>They were standing against the balustrade, a little apart from the rest. +They had set their cups upon the broad stone rim. Jack began to stir his +tea with the impotent emphasis of one possessed by the inexpressible. +But Olivia gave him no assistance; she seemed more interested in the +noisy dancers on the sward below the terrace.</p> + +<p>"I hope you've had a good time, on the whole," he began, ineptly enough, +at last. "All this is in your honour, you know!"</p> + +<p>"Surely not all," replied the girl, laughing. "Still I don't know when I +had such a delightful birthday, and I want to thank you for everything +with all my heart."</p> + +<p>"Everything!" laughed Jack nervously. "I've done nothing at all; why, I +didn't even give you a present. That was through a stupid mistake of +mine, which we needn't go into, because now's the time to rectify it. +I've been waiting for a chance all the evening. The thing only came a +few minutes before dinner. But better late than never, they say, and so +I hope you'll still accept this trifle from me, Miss Sellwood, with +every possible good wish for all the years to come. May they be long +and—and very happy!"</p> + +<p>His voice vibrated with the commonplace words. As he ceased speaking he +took from his waistcoat pocket something that was certainly trifling in +size, and he set it on the balustrade between the two tea-cups. It was a +tiny leathern case, and Olivia held her breath. Next moment an exquisite +ring, diamonds and emeralds, scintillated in the light of the nearest +fairy lamp.</p> + +<p>"This is never for me?" she cried, aghast.</p> + +<p>"That it is—if you will take it."</p> + +<p>She was deeply moved: how could she take a ring from him? And yet how +could she refuse, or how explain! Each alternative was harder than the +last.</p> + +<p>"It is far too good for me," she murmured, "for a mere birthday present! +You are too generous. I can't dream of letting you give me anything half +so good!"</p> + +<p>"What nonsense! It is not half good enough; it's only the best I could +get from Devenholme. I sent in the dogcart for the crack jeweller of the +place; it brought him back with a bagful of things, and this was the +best of a bad lot. I wish I'd kept the fellow! You might have chosen +something else."</p> + +<p>She saw her loophole and made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Would you prefer something else?" he asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you insist on giving me a present, it must be something not +half so good."</p> + +<p>"That's my affair."</p> + +<p>"And perhaps not a ring."</p> + +<p>"That's another matter, and on one condition I'm on: you must let me +drive you in to-morrow to choose for yourself."</p> + +<p>She consented gratefully. Her gratitude was the more profuse from, it +may be, an exaggerated sense of the dilemma in which she had found +herself a moment before; at all events it was very kindly and charmingly +expressed. So Jack pocketed the ring and swallowed his tea in excellent +heart; longing already for the morrow, for the expedition to Devenholme +with Olivia alone at his side.</p> + +<p>"That excellent follow seems very busy with our Olivia. Is there +anything in it?" asked Mr. Sellwood of his wife.</p> + +<p>"I have no idea," replied Lady Caroline; "you know I never interfere in +such matters. I'm glad you think him an excellent fellow, though. He is +simply sweet."</p> + +<p>"In fact we might do worse from every point of view; is that it?" said +the Home Secretary dryly. "I'm inclined to agree with you. I hope he +won't foozle his shot by being in too great a hurry."</p> + +<p>The fireworks had begun. Rocket after rocket split the sky and descended +in a shower of stars. A set-piece stood out against the lake; it +represented six French eagles on a shield.</p> + +<p>"Come and have a look at the family fowls," said Jack, rejoining Olivia, +who had been talking to Claude. "I'd swop the lot for one respectable +emu; it would be a good deal more appropriate for a Duke like me."</p> + +<p>Among other things he had learnt at last to pronounce his own title +correctly. Also, he looked well at all times in evening dress, but he +had never looked better than he did to-night. Claude had these +consolations as he watched the pair go down and mingle with the throng.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact the Duke of St. Osmund's had never been in higher +spirits in the whole course of his chequered career. Olivia had not, +indeed, accepted his offering, but she had done much better, for now he +was sure of having her to himself for hours the next day. And what might +not happen in those hours? This was one factor in his present content; +her little hand within his arm was another that thrilled him even more; +but there were further and smaller factors which yet astonished him, +each with its unexpected measure of gratification. There were the people +bowing and curtseying as he came among them with Olivia on his arm. +There were the momentary glimpses of the stately Towers, seen from end +to end in a flash, as a bursting rocket spattered the sky with a million +sparks that changed colour as they floated to the earth. And there was +the feeling, never before this moment entirely unmixed, that after all +it was better to be the Duke of St. Osmund's than Happy Jack of New +South Wales.</p> + +<p>"You were right!" he exclaimed, in an attempt to voice what he felt to +Olivia; "you were quite right that day in the hut to say 'I wonder,' to +what I said about not minding if I woke up and found myself on Carara +after all. You set <i>me</i> wondering at the time, and now I rather think +that I should mind a good deal. This place grows upon you. I feel it +more and more every morning when I get the first glimpse of it, coming +through the pines. But I never felt it as I do to-night—look at that!"</p> + +<p>The entire front of the building was lit up by an enormous Roman candle, +playing like a fountain on the terrace. Turret and spire and battlement +were stamped sharp and grey against the darkling sky. The six Corinthian +columns of the portico stood out like sentinels who had taken a step +forward as one man. And in the tympanum overhead the shield of the six +eagles that was carved there showed so plainly that Olivia and Jack +pointed it out to each other at the same moment.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't think I've no respect for the fowls," said the Duke, when +they were both left blinking in the chaste light of the reproving moon; +"I'm proud enough of them at the bottom of my heart. I may be slow at +catching on to new ideas. I know I didn't at first take to everything +like a duck to water. I couldn't, after the life I'd led; it was too +much for one man. But I am getting used to it now. As old Claude says, +I'm beginning to appreciate it. I am so! This has been the proudest day +of my life; I'm proud of everything, of the place, the people——"</p> + +<p>"And yourself most of all!" cried a thick voice at his elbow, while +Olivia's fingers tightened on his other arm.</p> + +<p>It was Matthew Hunt. He was flushed with wine, but steady enough on his +legs. Only his tongue was beyond control, and a crowd was at his heels +to hear what he would say next.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember you," he continued savagely. "I shan't forget that +morning in a hurry——"</p> + +<p>"Yet you seem to have forgotten who you are speaking to," put in the +Duke quietly.</p> + +<p>Hunt laughed horribly.</p> + +<p>"Forgotten? I never knew! All I know is as I'm <i>not</i> speaking to his +Grace the Duke——"</p> + +<p>Olivia was not shaken off. She only felt a quivering in the arm she +held; she only guessed it was the other arm that shot out too quick for +her sight from his further shoulder: and all she saw was the dropping of +Hunt at their feet, as if with a bullet through his brain. She conquered +her impulse to scream, and she found herself saying instead, "Well done! +It served him right!" And the voice sounded strange in her own ears.</p> + +<p>But her opinion was freely echoed by those who had followed in Hunt's +wake. A dozen hands raised him roughly, and kept their hold of him even +when he was firm upon his feet, half stunned still, but wholly sobered. +He tried to shake them off, but they answered that he must first +apologise to his Grace. He refused, and they threatened him with the +pond. He gave in then, in a way, speaking one thing, but looking +another, which was yet the plainer of the two to the Duke. It meant that +all was not yet over between him and Hunt. And Jack was very silent as +he led Olivia back to the terrace.</p> + +<p>"You were quite right," she said as they went; "had I been a man I would +have done it for you."</p> + +<p>"You're a splendid girl," he replied, to her confusion; but that was +all; nor did he seem conscious of what he said.</p> + +<p>Already it was late, and in another hour the band had stopped; the +fireworks were over; the people all gone, and gone the memory of their +ringing cheers from the heart of the Duke, who stood alone with Claude +Lafont on the moonlit terrace. Claude had heard of Hunt's insolence and +summary chastisement; he regretted the incident extremely; but his state +of mind was nothing to that of the Duke, who was now a prey to +reactionary depression of the severest order.</p> + +<p>"Are there any revolvers in the house?" said he. "I shall want a loaded +one to-night."</p> + +<p>"What in the world for?" cried Claude in dismay.</p> + +<p>"Not for my own brains; you needn't alarm yourself. But you see what a +bitter enemy I've made; he might get me at his mercy out there at the +hut. There was murder in his eye to-night, or else truth in his words, +and that you won't allow. But there was one or the other. So I want a +shooter before I go over."</p> + +<p>"If only you wouldn't go over at all! What's the use, when there are +dozens of good rooms lying idle in the house? It does seem a madness!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I am half thinking of giving it up; but not to-night, or that +brute may go killing my cats. He's capable of anything. Give me a +revolver like a good chap."</p> + +<p>Claude fetched one from the gun-room. He it was who still knew the +whereabouts of all things, who kept the keys, and who arranged most +matters for the Duke. He was Jack's major-domo as well as his guide, +philosopher, and friend.</p> + +<p>To-night they walked together as far as the shores of the lake. Claude +then returned, but for some reason the pair shook hands first. No word +was said, save between eye and eye in the pale light of the new harvest +moon. But Claude had never yet seen his cousin gaze so kindly on the +home of their common ancestors as he did to-night before they separated. +And that look was a consolation to the poet as he returned alone to the +house.</p> + +<p>"This is the last link with that miserable bush life," said Claude to +himself; "and it's very nearly worn through. He's beginning to see that +there wasn't so much after all in the inheritance of Esau. After +to-night we shall have no more of this nonsense of camping out in a +make-believe bush hut; he will sleep under his own roof, like a sane +man, and I'll get him to burn the bush hut down. After that—after +that—well, I suppose the wedding-bells and the altar rails are only a +question of time!"</p> + +<p>And Claude went within, to talk of art and of books until bookman and +artist went to bed; but he himself returned to the terrace instead of +following their example. A dark depression was brooding over his spirit, +his mind was full of vague forebodings. He had also a hundred regrets, +and yet the last and the least of these was for the moment the most +poignant too. He was sorry he had yielded to Jack in the matter of that +revolver. And even as the thought came into his head—by some strange +prescience—surely never by coincidence—he heard a shot far away in the +direction of the lake. He held his breath, and heard a single throb of +his own heart; then another shot; and then another and another until he +had counted five.</p> + +<p>Now it was a five-chambered revolver that Claude had handed fully loaded +to his cousin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE WRONG MAN</h3> + + +<p>The Duke had proceeded to his hut with the slow and slouching gait of a +man bemused; yet the strings of his body were as those of a lute, and +there was an inordinate keen edge to his every sense. He heard the deer +cropping the grass far behind him; and he counted the very +reverberations of the stable clock striking a half-hour in the still +air. It was the half-hour after midnight. The moon still slanted among +the pines, and Jack followed his own shadow, with his beard splayed +against his shirt-front, until within a few yards of his hut. Then he +looked quickly up and about. But the hut was obviously intact; there was +the moon twinkling in the padlock of which the key was in his pocket; +and Jack returned to his examination of the ground.</p> + +<p>He was a very old bushman; he had a black-fellow's eye for a footprint, +and he had struck a trail here which he knew to be recent and not his +own. He followed it to the padlocked door, and round the hut and back to +the door. He found the two heel-marks where the man had sat down to +think some matter over. Then he took out his key and went within, but +left the door wide open; and while his back was still turned to it, for +he could not find his matches, there was a slight noise there, and the +moon's influx was stemmed by a man's body.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Hunt," said Jack, without turning round.</p> + +<p>The tone, no less than the words, took the intruder all aback. He had +planned a pretty surprise, only to receive a prettier for his pains.</p> + +<p>"How did you know it was me?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"By your voice," was the reply; and the matches were found at last.</p> + +<p>"But before that?"</p> + +<p>"I expected you. Why didn't you go on sitting there with your back to +the door?"</p> + +<p>"You saw me!" cried Hunt, coming in.</p> + +<p>"I saw your tracks. Hullo! Be good enough to step outside again."</p> + +<p>"I've come to talk to you——"</p> + +<p>"Quite so; but we'll talk outside."</p> + +<p>And Hunt had to go with what grace he might. Jack followed with a couple +of camp-stools, pulled the door to, sat down on one of the stools, and +motioned Hunt to the other. The great smooth face shook slowly in reply; +and the moonlight showed a bulbous bruise between the eyes, which made +its author frown and feel at fault.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you may look!" said Hunt through the gap in his set teeth which +was a piece of the same handiwork. "You hit hard enough, but I can hit +harder where it hurts more. A fine Duke <i>you</i> are! Oh, yes; double your +fists again—do. You won't hit me this time. There's no one looking on!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be too sure, my boy," replied Jack. "Don't you make any mistake!"</p> + +<p>Hunt stuck a foot upon his camp-stool and leant forward over his knee.</p> + +<p>"Recollect why you struck me to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly."</p> + +<p>"Well, I deserved it—for being such a fool as to say what I had to say +at a time like that. It was the drink said it, not me; I apologise again +for saying it there, I apologise to you and me too. I was keeping it to +say here."</p> + +<p>"Out with it," said Jack, who to his own astonishment was preserving a +perfect calm; as he spoke he began filling a pipe that he had brought +out with the matches.</p> + +<p>"One thing at a time," said Hunt, producing a greasy bank-book. "I'll +out with this first. You may have heard that the old Duke had a kind of +weakness for my folks?"</p> + +<p>"I have heard something of the sort."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll trouble you to run your eye over this here pass-book. It +belongs to my old dad. It'll show you his account with the London and +Provincial Bank at Devenholme. It's a small account. This here book goes +back over ten years, and there's some blank leaves yet. But look at it +for yourself; keep your eye on the left-hand page from first to last; +and you'll see what you'll see."</p> + +<p>Jack did so; and what he saw on every left-hand page was this: "per +Maitland, £50." There were other entries, "by cheque" and "by cash," but +they were few and small. Clearly Maitland was the backbone of the +account; and a closer inspection revealed the further fact that his name +appeared punctually every quarter, and always in connection with the sum +of fifty pounds received.</p> + +<p>"Ever heard of Maitland, Hollis, Cripps and Co.?" inquired Hunt.</p> + +<p>Jack started; so this was the Maitland. "They are my solicitors," he +said.</p> + +<p>"They were the old Duke's too," replied Hunt. "Now have a look at the +other side of the account. You know the Lower Farm; then look and see +what we pay for rent."</p> + +<p>"I know the figure," said Jack, handing back the pass-book. "It is half +the value."</p> + +<p>"Less than half—though I say it! And what does all this mean—two +hundred a year paid up without fail by Maitland, Hollis, Cripps and Co., +and the Lower Farm very near rent free? It means," said Hunt, leaning +forward, with an evil gleam on either side of his angry bruise—"it +means that something's bought of us as doesn't appear. You can guess +what for yourself. Our silence! Two hundred a year, and the Lower Farm +at a nominal rent, all for keeping a solitary secret!"</p> + +<p>"Then I should advise you to go on keeping it," said Jack, with cool +point; yet for all his nonchalance, his heart was in a flutter enough +now; for he knew what was coming—he caught himself wondering how much +or how little it surprised him.</p> + +<p>"All very fine," he heard Hunt saying—a long way off as it seemed to +him—whereas he was really bending farther forward than before. "All +very fine! But what if this secret has improved in value with keeping? +Improved, did I say? Lord's truth, it's gone up a thousand per cent. in +the last few weeks; and who do you suppose sent it up? Why, you! I'll +tell you how. I dessay you can guess; still I'll tell you, then there'll +be no mistakes. You've heard things of your father? You know the sort he +was? You won't knock me down again for mentioning it, will you? I +thought not! Well, when the Red Marquis, as they used to call him, was a +young man about the house here, my old dad was in the stables; and my +old dad's young sister was the Duchess's own maid—a slapping fine girl, +they tell me, but she was dead before I can remember. Well, and +something happened; something often does. But this was something choice. +Guess what!"</p> + +<p>"He married her."</p> + +<p>"He did. He married her at the parish church of Chelsea, in the name of +Augustus William Greville Maske, his real name all but the title; still, +he married the girl."</p> + +<p>"Quite right too!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, quite right, was it? Stop a bit. You were born in 1855. You told me +so yourself; you may remember the time, and you stake your life <i>I</i> +don't forget it. It was the sweetest music I ever heard, was that there +date! Shall I tell you why? Why, because them two—the Red Marquis and +his mother's maid—were married on October 22d, 1853."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>Hunt took out a handful of cigars which had been provided for all comers +in the evening; he had filled his pockets with them; and now he selected +one by the light of the setting moon and lit it deliberately. Then he +puffed a mouthful of smoke in Jack's direction, and grinned.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' says you; and you may well 'well!' For the Red Marquis deserted +his wife and went out to Australia before he'd been married a month. And +out there he married again. <i>But you were five years old, my fine +fellow, before his first wife died, and was buried in this here parish!</i> +You can look at her tombstone for yourself. She died and was buried as +Eliza Hunt; and just that much was worth two hundred a year to us for +good and all; because, you see, I'm sorry to say she never had a child."</p> + +<p>Both in substance and in tone this last statement was the most +convincing of all. Here was an insolent exultation tempered by a still +more insolent regret; and the very incompleteness of the triumph +engraved it the deeper with the stamp of harsh reality.</p> + +<p>Jack saw his position steadily in all its bearings. He was nobody. A +little time ago he had stepped into Claude's shoes, but now Claude would +step into his. Well, thank God that it was Claude! And yet—and +yet—that saving fact made facts of all the rest.</p> + +<p>"I've no doubt your yarn is quite true," said Jack, still in a tone that +amazed himself. "But of course you have some proofs on paper?"</p> + +<p>"Plenty."</p> + +<p>"Then why couldn't you come out with all this before?"</p> + +<p>Hunt gave so broad a grin that a volume of smoke escaped haphazard from +his gaping mouth.</p> + +<p>"You'd punished me," he said, admiring the red end of his cigar; "I'd +got you to punish in your turn, and with interest. So I gave you time to +get to like the old country in general, and this here spot in +particular; to say nothing of coming the Duke; I meant that to grow on +you too. I hope as I gave you time enough? This here hut don't look +altogether like it, you know!"</p> + +<p>Jack's right hand was caressing the loaded revolver in the breast-pocket +of his dress-coat; it was the cold, solid power of the little living +weapon that kept the man himself cool and strong in his extremity.</p> + +<p>"Quite fair," he remarked. "Any other reason?"</p> + +<p>"One other."</p> + +<p>"What was that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, it's like this"—and Hunt dropped his insolence for a +confidential tone far harder to brook. "It's like this," he repeated, +plumping down on the camp-stool in front of Jack: "there's nobody knows +of that there marriage but us Hunts. We've kep' it a dead secret for +nearly forty years, and we don't want to let it out now. But, as I say, +the secret's gone up in value. Surely it's worth more than two hundred a +year to you? You don't want to be knocked sideways by that there Claude +Lafont, do you? Yet he's the next man. You'd never let yourself be +chucked out by a chap like that?"</p> + +<p>"That's my business. What's your price?"</p> + +<p>"Two thousand."</p> + +<p>"A year?"</p> + +<p>"Two thousand a year. Come, it's worth that to you if it's worth a +penny-piece. Think of your income!"</p> + +<p>"Think of yours. Two hundred on condition you kept a single secret! That +was the condition, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"You've let the secret out, you cur!" cried Jack, jumping to his feet. +"And you've lost your income by it for good and all. Two thousand! +You'll never see another two hundred. What, did you take me for a dirty +skunk like yourself? Do you think I got in this position through my own +fault or of my own accord? Do you think I'm so sweet on it as to sit +tight at the mercy of a thing like you? Not me! What you've told me +to-night the real Duke and his lawyers shall hear to-morrow; and think +yourself lucky if you aren't run in for your shot at a damnable +conspiracy! Did you really suppose I cared as much as all that? Do you +think—oh! for God's sake, clear out, man, before I do you any more +damage!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're good at that," said Hunt through his broken tooth. He had +risen, and now he retreated a few paces. "You're not bad with your +fists, you fool, but I've come prepared for you this time!" and he drew +a knife; but the revolver covered him next instant.</p> + +<p>"And I for you," retorted Jack. "I give you five seconds to clear out +in. One—two——"</p> + +<p>"My God, are there such fools——"</p> + +<p>"Three—four——"</p> + +<p>The man was gone. At a safer range he stopped again to threaten and +gloat, to curse and to coax alternately. But Jack took no more notice; +he turned into the hut, flung the pistol on the table, and stood +motionless until the railing died away. Yet he had heeded never a word +of it, but was rather reminded that it had been by its very cessation, +as one notes the stopping of a clock. It made him look out once more, +however; and, looking, he saw the last of Matthew Hunt in the moonlit +spaces among the pines. His retreating steps died slowly away. The +snapping of a twig was just audible a little after. And then in the +mellow distance the stable clock chimed and struck one; and again Jack +found himself keeping an imaginary count of the reverberations until all +was still.</p> + +<p>He stood at the door a moment longer. The feathered barbs of the +pine-trees were drawn in ink upon a starry slate. The night was as mild +and clear and silent as many a one in the Riverina itself; and Jack +tried to think himself there; to regard this English summer as the +bushman's dream that he had so often imagined it here in his model bush +hut. But his imagination was very stubborn to-night. The stately home +which was not his rose in his mind's eye between him and the stars; once +more he saw it illumined in a flash from spire to terrace; once more the +portico columns marched forward as one man, while the six eagles flew +out in the tympanum above; and though a purring arose from his feet, and +something soft and warm rubbed kindly against his shins, he could no +longer forget where he was and who he was not. He was not the Duke. He +was the wrong man after all. And the hut that he had built and +inhabited, as a protest against all this grandeur, was a monument of +irony such as the hand of man had never reared in all the world before.</p> + +<p>The wrong man! He flung himself upon the elaborately rude bed to grapple +with those three words until he might grasp what they meant to himself. +And as he lay, his little cat leapt softly up and purred upon his heart, +as if it knew the aching need there of a sympathy beyond the reach of +words.</p> + +<p>Only one aspect of his case came home to him now, but that was its worst +aspect. The life he was to lose mattered little after all. He might miss +it more than he had once thought; it was probable he would but truly +appreciate it when it was a life of the past, as is the way of a man. +Yet even that could be borne. The losing of the girl was different and a +million times worse. But lose her he must: for what was he now? Instead +of a Duke a nobody; not even a decently born peasant; a nameless husk of +humanity, a derelict, a nonentity, the natural son of a notorious rake. +Must he go back then to the bush, and back alone? Must he put himself +beyond the reach of soft words and softer eyes for ever? He could feel +again that little hand within his arm; and it was worse a hundredfold +than the vision of the Towers lit from end to end by the light of a +bursting rocket. Would not the grave itself——</p> + +<p>Wait.</p> + +<p>There was the pistol on the table. The pale light lay along the barrel. +He held his breath and lay gazing at the faint gleam until it grew into +a blinding sun that scorched him to the soul. And he hardly knew what he +had done when Claude Lafont found him wandering outside with the hot +pistol still in his hand.</p> + +<p>Jack looked upon the breathless poet with dull eyes that slowly +brightened; then he pressed the lever, shot out the empty cartridges, +blew through the chambers, and handed the revolver back to Claude.</p> + +<p>"I've no more use for it. I'm much obliged to you. No, I've done no +damage with it; that's just the point. I was emptying it for safety's +sake. I'm so sorry you heard. I—I <i>did</i> think of emptying it—through +my own head."</p> + +<p>"In Heaven's name, why?"</p> + +<p>"Only for a moment, though. It would have been a poor trick after all. +Still I had to empty it first and see that afterwards."</p> + +<p>"But why? What on earth has happened?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not the man after all."</p> + +<p>"What man?"</p> + +<p>"The Duke of St. Osmund's."</p> + +<p>And Claude was made to hear everything before he was allowed the free +expression of his astonishment and incredulity. Then he laughed. His +incredulity remained.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," he cried, "there's not a word of truth in the whole +story. It's one colossal fraud. Hunt's a blackguard. I wouldn't believe +his oath in a court of justice."</p> + +<p>"What about the bank-book?"</p> + +<p>"A fraud within a fraud!"</p> + +<p>"Not it. I'll answer for that. Oh, no; we could have inquired at the +bank. Hunt's a blackguard, but no fool. And you know what my father was; +from all accounts he wasn't the man to think twice about a little job +like bigamy."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't say that; few men of our sort would be so reckless in such a +matter," declared the poet. "Now, from all <i>I</i> know of him, I should +have said it was most inconsistent with his character to marry the girl +at all. Everything but that! And surely it's quite possible to explain +even that two hundred a year without swallowing such a camel as +downright bigamy. My grandfather was a sort of puritanical monomaniac; +even in the days of his mental vigour I can remember him as a sterner +moralist than any of one's school-masters or college dons. Then, too, he +was morbidly sensitive about the family failings and traditions, and +painfully anxious to improve the tone of our house. Bear that in mind +and conceive as gross a scandal as you like—but not bigamy. Do you mean +to tell me that a man like my grandfather would have thought two hundred +a year for all time too much to pay for hushing such a thing up for all +time? Not he—not he!" There fell a heavy hand upon Claude's back.</p> + +<p>"Claude, old boy, I always said you were a genius. Do you know, I never +thought of that?"</p> + +<p>"It's obvious; besides, there's the Eliza Hunt on the gravestone, I've +seen it myself. But look here—I'll tell you what I'll do."</p> + +<p>"What, old man?"</p> + +<p>"I'll run up to town to-morrow and see Maitland, Hollis, Cripps about +the whole matter. They've paid the money; they are the men to know all +about it. Stop a moment! Hunt was clever enough to have an exact date +for the marriage. What was it again?"</p> + +<p>"October 22d, 1853."</p> + +<p>"I think he said Chelsea <i>parish</i> church?"</p> + +<p>"He did."</p> + +<p>Claude scribbled a note of each point on his shirt-cuff.</p> + +<p>"That's all I want," said he. "I'll run up by the first train, and back +by the last. Meanwhile, take my word for it, you're as safe as the Queen +upon her throne."</p> + +<p>"And you?" said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind me; I'm very well as I am."</p> + +<p>Claude was fully conscious of his semi-heroic attitude; indeed he +enjoyed it, as he had enjoyed many a less inevitable pose in his day. +But that he could not help; and Jack was perhaps the last person in the +world to probe beneath the surface of a kind action. His great hand +found Claude's, and his deep voice quivered with emotion.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how it is," he faltered, "but this thing has got at me +more than I meant it to. Hark at that! Three o'clock; it'll be light +before we know where we are; you won't leave a fellow till it is, will +you? I'm in a funk! I've got to believe the worst till I know +otherwise—that's all about it. The day I shan't mind tackling by +myself, but for God's sake don't go and leave me to-night. You've got +to go in the morning; stop the rest of the night out here with me. You +shall have the bunk, and I'll doss down on the floor. I'll light the +fire and brew a billy of tea this minute if only you'll stay with me +now. Didn't you once say you'd have hold of my sleeve? And so you have +had, old man, so you have had: only now's your time—more than ever."</p> + +<p>Claude was deeply moved by the spectacle of a stronger man than himself +so stricken in every nerve. He looked very compassionately upon the +eager open face. There were a few grey hairs about either temple, but in +the faint starlight they looked perfectly white; and there were +crow's-feet under the eyes that seemed to have escaped his attention +till now. He consented to remain on one condition: he must go back and +put out the lights, and close the windows in the Poet's Corner. So Jack +went with him; and those lights were the only sign of life in all the +vast expanse of ancient masonry, that still belonged to one of them, +though they knew not now to which. It was this thought, perhaps, that +kept both men silent on the terrace when the lights had been put out and +the windows shut. Then Jack ran his arm affectionately through that of +Claude, and together they turned their backs upon those debatable +stones.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE INTERREGNUM</h3> + + +<p>Lady Caroline Sellwood was delighted to find Jack in the hall on making +her descent next morning. He appeared lost, however, in a gloomy +admiration of the ghostly guard in armour. The attitude and the +expression were alike so foreign to him that Lady Caroline halted on the +stairs. But only for a moment; the next, Jack was overwhelmed by the +soft tempest of her good-will, and making prodigious efforts to return +her smiles.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she became severe.</p> + +<p>"You're knocked up! You look as if you hadn't had a wink of sleep. Oh, I +knew how it would be after all that racket; you dear, naughty Duke, you +should have spared yourself more!"</p> + +<p>"I was a fool," admitted Jack. "But—but I say, Lady Caroline, I do wish +you wouldn't Duke me!"</p> + +<p>"How sweet of you," murmured Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"You know you didn't last night!" he hastily reminded her.</p> + +<p>"But that was an occasion."</p> + +<p>"So is this!" exclaimed Jack, and his tone struck the other more than +she showed.</p> + +<p>"Where is Claude?" inquired Lady Caroline suddenly.</p> + +<p>"On his way to Devenholme."</p> + +<p>"Devenholme!"</p> + +<p>"And London, for the day. He had to catch the 9.40."</p> + +<p>"So he has gone up to town! Odd that one never heard anything about +it—I mean to say he could have made himself so useful to one. May I ask +when he decided to go?"</p> + +<p>Jack hesitated. He had been charged to keep a discreet tongue during +Claude's absence; he had been supplied with a number of reasons and +excuses ready-made; but perfect frankness was an instinctive need of +this primitive soul, whose present thoughts stood out in easy print upon +his face, even as he resolved to resist his instincts for once.</p> + +<p>"He decided—this morning," said Jack at last; and he took from his +pocket a lengthy newspaper cutting attached to a pale green slip: "This +is an article on him and his books, that has just appeared in the +<i>Parthenon</i>. What wouldn't I give to lay a hold of the brute who wrote +it! I call it the sort of thing to answer with a hiding. It's one of a +series headed 'Our Minor Poets,' which Claude says has been bad enough +all through; but this article on him is the worst and most brutal of the +lot. And—and—and old Claude took it to heart, of course; and—and he's +run up to town for the day."</p> + +<p>"Because of a severe criticism! I should have thought he was used to +them by now. Poor dear Claude, he can string a pretty rhyme, but he +never was a poet. And you, Jack—since you insist—you never were an +actor—until to-day!"</p> + +<p>Jack hung his head.</p> + +<p>"You don't do it well enough, you dear fellow," continued Lady Caroline +caressingly. "As if you could impose upon me! You must first come to me +for lessons. Candidly now: what has taken him up to town in such a +hurry? The same thing that—kept you awake all night?"</p> + +<p>"Candidly, then," said Jack, raising his haggard face doggedly, "it was! +And if you'll come out upon the terrace for five minutes I'll tell you +exactly what's wrong. You have a right to know; and I can trust <i>you</i> +not to let it go any further for the moment. Even if I couldn't, I'd +have to tell you straight! I hate keeping things up my sleeve; I can't +do it; so let me make a clean breast of the whole shoot, Lady Caroline, +and be done with it till Claude comes back."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline took a discouraging view of the situation. The Red Marquis +had been capable of anything; related though they had been, she could +not help telling Jack that her parents had forbidden her to dance with +his father as a young girl. This might be painful hearing, but in such a +crisis it was necessary to face the possibilities; and Lady Caroline, +drawing a little away from her companion in order to see how he was +facing them, forgot to take his arm any more as they sauntered in the +sun. She undertook, however, to keep the matter to herself until +Claude's return, at the mention of whose name she begged to look at the +cutting from the <i>Parthenon</i>.</p> + +<p>"A most repulsive article," her mother informed Olivia after breakfast, +but not until she had repeated to the girl the entire substance of the +late conversation on the terrace. "I never read anything more venomously +ill-bred in my life; and so untrue! To say he is no poet—our Claude! +But we who know him, thank goodness we know better. It is the true +poetry, not only in but between every line, that distinguishes dear +Claude from the mere stringers of pretty rhymes of whom the papers +sicken one in these latter days. But where are you going, my love?"</p> + +<p>"To get ready to go with—Jack."</p> + +<p>"To go where, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to Devenholme, as we arranged last night," replied Olivia, with +spirit. "He said he would drive me over; and <i>you</i> said 'how sweet of +him,' and beamed upon us both!"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline winced. "You impertinent chit!" she cried viciously; "you +know as well as I do that what I have told you alters everything. Once +and for all, Olivia, I forbid you to drive into Devenholme +with—with—with—that common man!"</p> + +<p>"Very well; the drive's off," said the girl with swift decision; and she +left her mother without another word.</p> + +<p>She put on her habit and went straight to Jack.</p> + +<p>"Do you mind if we <i>ride</i> into Devenholme instead of driving?"</p> + +<p>"Mind! I should like it even better."</p> + +<p>"Then suppose we go to the stable-yard and see about our horses +ourselves; and while we are there, we may as well stay and start by the +back road, which will save at least a quarter of a mile."</p> + +<p>"My oath," said Jack without further provocation, "you might have been +dragged up in the bush!"</p> + +<p>"I wish I had been!" exclaimed Olivia bitterly. He could not understand +her tone. Nor did he ever know the meaning of the momentary fighting +glitter in the brave brown eyes of the girl.</p> + +<p>He rode as an inveterate bushman, entirely on the snaffle, with +inelegantly short stirrups and a regrettable example of the back-block +bend; nor did his well-broken hack give him a chance of exhibiting any +of the finer qualities of the rough-riding school. But indeed for the +most part the couple sat at ease in their saddles, while the horses +dawdled with loose reins and lazy necks in the cool shadows of the +roadside trees. By mutual consent they had dispensed with an attendant +groom. And Olivia had never been so kind to Jack, as on this day when he +was under so black a cloud, with so heavy a seal upon his lips.</p> + +<p>For once she talked to him; as a rule she liked better to listen, with +large eyes intent and sympathetic lips apart—ever ready with the +helpful word. But to-day she was wishful to entertain, to take him out +of himself, to console without letting him suspect that she knew as much +as he had told her mother. In a sense she knew more, for Lady Caroline +had duly exaggerated his frank confession; and the girl's heart bled for +her friend, on the brink of a disillusion without parallel in her +knowledge. So she told him of her life in town and elsewhere; of the +treadmill round of toilsome pleasure; of the penance of dressing and +smiling with unflagging prettiness; of the hollow friendships and +hollower loves of that garish life, and the unutterable staleness of the +whole conventional routine. No doubt she overstated her case; and +certainly her strictures were themselves conventional; but she was +perfectly aware of both facts, and would have been exceedingly sorry to +have had this conversation recorded against her. Olivia had a healthy +horror of superiority, either of the moral or the intellectual order. +But she was conducting a conversation with an obvious purpose; and it +was only when he told her again, and more earnestly than before, how +suited she was for the bush, that she proposed the canter which brought +them a mile nearer Devenholme.</p> + +<p>"Now it's you to play," she told him as they drew rein; "and I want to +hear some of your adventures. You've never told us any, yet you must +have had heaps. So far I've only heard about the hut, the sheep, the +homestead, and your old boss."</p> + +<p>"A white man!" cried Jack. "I wish you knew him."</p> + +<p>"So do I; but I can quite picture him, and just now I would much rather +hear about some of your own adventures. So begin."</p> + +<p>Jack laughed.</p> + +<p>"Really, Miss Sellwood, I never had one in my life!"</p> + +<p>"Then really, my Lord Duke, I can't believe a word——"</p> + +<p>Jack was laughing no more.</p> + +<p>"Don't call me that," he said. "It would be so much kinder to call me +Jack!"</p> + +<p>She had forgotten. Her heart smote her now, and the difficulty was to +conceal her unsuspected sympathy. So she insisted on his calling her +Olivia, to conclude the bargain. And the double innovation made them +both so self-conscious, that she forgot her thirst for his adventures, +while he brooded heavily upon his bitter-sweet advancement won loo late.</p> + +<p>So they came into Devenholme as the sun was shining fore and aft along +the quaint old English streets. And in the town, where he was well +enough known by this time, poor Jack was received with a cruel +consideration that would have hurt him even more than it did had he +dreamt how it affected his companion. The tender-hearted girl was +inexpressibly grieved, and never more than when the jeweller mentioned a +hundred guineas as the price of the ring to be changed; indeed, the +situation in the jeweller's shop was perilously charged with hidden +emotions. In this terribly equivocal position, Jack could not press upon +Olivia things for which he might never be able to pay; neither could +Olivia now refuse any present at all, nor yet lead him as low as she +would have liked in the price, for fear of revealing her illicit +knowledge. So at last they hit upon a curb-bracelet that fastened with a +tiny padlock. It cost but forty-five shillings. And when he had locked +it upon her right wrist, he pocketed the key without a remark, then paid +ready money and left the shop in a throbbing agony of shame. The poor +jeweller stood bowing them out with the hundred-guinea ring still in his +hand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>JACK AND HIS MASTER</h3> + + +<p>It was necessary to bait the horses; it was equally essential for the +pair themselves to have something to eat. So they rode under the olden +arch of the oak-lined Falcon, and it was "your Grace" at every step, +with ironic iteration very hard for either of them to bear without a +word to the other. They dismounted therefore with the less delay; and +Olivia turned her back upon the coffee-room window, and on an elderly, +bald, well-dressed man, whose cool fixed stare made the girl extremely +angry, when Jack at her side gave a shout of delight.</p> + +<p>"So help me never! <i>it's the boss himself!</i>"</p> + +<p>Olivia turned, and there was the objectionable old fellow in the window +smiling and waving to her enchanted companion. And this was the man of +whom she had heard so often! She did not stop to consider how he came to +be here; the back-blockers were already at explanations, but Olivia was +not listening. She was thinking of the bearded, jovial, hearty squatter +of her imagination; and she was glancing askance at the massive chin and +forehead, and at the white moustache cropped close over the bad mouth of +the real man.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dalrymple—my old boss—Miss Sellwood!" shouted Jack, introducing +them with a wealth of pantomime. "We're coming up to lunch with you, +sir; that is, you're to lunch with me; it's my shout!"</p> + +<p>And poor Olivia found herself swept off her feet, as it were, into the +presence of a man whom all her instincts had pronounced odious at sight.</p> + +<p>But the higher court of the girl's intellect reversed this judgment on +the appeal of her trained perceptions. The elderly squatter was not +after all a man to be summed up at a glance or in a word: his undoubted +assurance was tempered and redeemed by so many graces of manner and +address as to upset entirely the girl's preconceptions of his class. At +table he treated her with a princely courtesy, imperceptibly including +her in a conversation which poor Jack would have conducted very +differently if left to himself. After the first few minutes, indeed, +Olivia could see but two faults in the squatter; the first was the +fierce light his charming manners reflected on those of Jack; and the +second was a mouth which made the girl regret the austere cut of his +moustache whenever she looked at Mr. Dalrymple.</p> + +<p>"So you left before shearing, sir!" cried Jack, who was grossly eager +for all station news. "I wonder you did that. They must be in the thick +of it now!"</p> + +<p>"They were to begin on the fifth of this month. The shearing, Miss +Sellwood, is the one divine, far-off event towards which the whole +sheep-station moves," added Mr. Dalrymple, with a glibness worthy of +Claude Lafont.</p> + +<p>"And don't you forget the lamb-marking," chimed in Jack. "I hope it was +a good lambing this year, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Seventy-nine per cent.," replied Dalrymple. "I'm afraid that's Greek to +you, Miss Sellwood—and perhaps better so."</p> + +<p>"You see, I'm as keen as ever on the old blocks!" cried Jack. It was a +superfluous boast.</p> + +<p>"So I do see; and I must say, Jack, you surprise me. Do you notice how +he 'sirs' me, Miss Sellwood? I was on my way to pay homage to the Duke +of St. Osmund's, not to receive it from Happy Jack of Carara!"</p> + +<p>"Do you often come over to England, Mr. Dalrymple?" asked Olivia +quickly. For the girl had seen the spasm in Jack's face, and she knew +how the anæsthetic of this happy encounter had exhaled with the +squatter's last speech.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!" was the reply. "I haven't been home for more years than I +care to count; and the chances are that I shouldn't be here now but for +our friend the Duke. He unsettled me. You see, Miss Sellwood, how +jealous are the hearts of men! <i>I</i> had no inheritance to come home to; +but I had my native land, and here I am."</p> + +<p>"And you have friends in Devenholme?"</p> + +<p>"I have one friend; I wish that I dared say two," replied the squatter, +looking from Jack to Olivia in his most engaging manner. "No, to tell +you frankly, I was on a little inquisitive pilgrimage to Maske Towers. I +did not wait for an invitation, for I knew that I should bring my own +welcome with me."</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course; come out to-morrow!" exclaimed Jack nervously. +"I'll send in for you, and you must stay as long as ever you can. If +only I'd driven in, as I meant to, we'd have taken you back with us. Yet +on the whole to-morrow will be best; you must give us time to do you +well, you know, Mr. Dalrymple. It'll be a proud day for me! I little +expected to live to entertain my own boss!"</p> + +<p>Indeed, his pride was genuine enough, and truly characteristic of the +man; but at the back of it there was a great uneasiness which did not +escape the clear, light eye of Dalrymple. Not that the squatter betrayed +his prescience by word or sign; on the contrary, he drank Jack's health +in the champagne provided by him, and included Olivia's name in a very +graceful speech. But Jack drank nothing at all; and having reduced his +roll to a heap of crumbs, he was now employed in converting the crumbs +into a pile of pellets.</p> + +<p>Olivia pitied his condition; that tremulous brown hand, with the great +bush freckles still showing at the gnarled finger-roots, touched her +inexpressibly as it lay fidgeting on the white table-cloth. She strained +every nerve to keep the squatter engaged and unobservant; and she found +herself fluctuating, in a rather irritating manner, between her first +instinctive antipathy and her later liking for the man. He was extremely +nice to her; he had an obvious kindness for poor Jack; and she +apprehended a personal magnetism, a unique individuality, quite powerful +enough to account for Jack's devotion to him. She felt the influence +herself. Yet there was something—she could not say what.</p> + +<p>The way in which her last vague prejudice was removed, however, made a +deep impression upon Olivia, besides giving her a startling glimpse of +her own feelings. And it all came of a casual remark of Dalrymple's, in +elucidation of his prompt expedition to the district, to the effect that +the Duke of St. Osmund's had once saved his life.</p> + +<p>"Your life!" cried Olivia, while Jack ceased meddling with his bread.</p> + +<p>"To be sure. Is it possible he has never told you the story?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word of it! And only this morning, as we rode in, I asked him if +he had never had any adventures!"</p> + +<p>Her face was a flushed reproach.</p> + +<p>"I'd forgotten that one," said Jack sheepishly. "I really had. It's so +long ago; and it wasn't much when you come——"</p> + +<p>"Not much!" interjected Dalrymple. "I should be very sorry to find +myself in such a tight place again! It's some thirteen years ago, Miss +Sellwood. I was thinking of taking up some cattle country in the +unfenced part of Queensland. I had gone up to have a look at the place, +and the blacks attacked us while I was there. We were three strong in +an iron store: the owner, a stray shearer, and myself. The shearer had +his horse hung up outside; he could have got away quite easily in the +beginning; but our horses were all turned out, and he wouldn't leave us. +So we dragged his horse inside, and we set to work to defend the store."</p> + +<p>"I know that shearer!" cried Olivia proudly. "Yet he hangs his head! Oh, +go on, Mr. Dalrymple, go on!"</p> + +<p>"From daybreak to sundown," continued the squatter, "we defended +ourselves with a Winchester, a double-barrelled shot-gun, and an old +muzzle-loading rifle. The blacks came on by the score, but they couldn't +get in, and they couldn't set fire to the corrugated iron. It was +riddled like a sieve, and each of us three had a hole in him too; but +there was a wall of dead blacks up against the iron outside, and they +were as good as sandbags. We should have beaten the fellows off before +midnight if our powder had held out. It didn't; so I assure you we shook +hands, and were going to blow up the place with a twenty-gallon tin of +petroleum, that was luckily inside, when our friend the shearer came out +with an idea. His horse had a ball in its body and was screaming like a +woman, so that <i>it</i> was no use. I recollect we put it out of its pain +with our last charge. But there was long dry grass all round up to +within some fifteen yards of the store; and after dark the shearer ran +out three or four times with a bucket of petroleum, and once with a box +of matches. The last time but one the blacks saw him. They had +surrounded the place at a pretty respectful radius, and they were having +what we call a spell; but they saw him the last time but one. And when +he went out again and struck his matches they had something to aim at. +Well, his first match went out, and there was a sheaf of spears sticking +in the sand and three new holes through the house. We waited; not +another thing could we see. We didn't know whether he was dead or alive, +and we heard the blacks starting to rush us. But we also heard the +scratch of a second match; in another instant the thing flared up like a +circular lamp—and us in the middle of the burner! The country was burnt +black for miles all round, and we ourselves had a hot time of it, Miss +Sellwood; but here are two of us, at all events, to tell the tale."</p> + +<p>Olivia bowed to him; she could not speak. Then for a little she turned +her wet eyes, wet with enthusiasm, upon the awkward hero of the tale. +And without more words the party broke up.</p> + +<p>Jack was still remonstrating with Dalrymple when the girl rejoined them +outside.</p> + +<p>"Come now!" she said. "Was it true, or wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"More or less," admitted Jack.</p> + +<p>"Was it true about the horse and the petroleum and the spears?"</p> + +<p>He confessed that it was, but discredited his memory as a clumsy +qualification. Olivia turned away from him, and said no more until she +was in her saddle; then while Jack was mounting she rode up to the +squatter.</p> + +<p>"I am truly grateful to you, Mr. Dalrymple," she said; "and all the +others will be as grateful as I am, and will look forward to your visit. +But for you, we might all have gone on being entertained by a hero +unawares. You must tell us more. Meanwhile I for one can thank you most +heartily!"</p> + +<p>And she leant over and frankly pressed his hand; but said very little +all the long ride home. Jack assured her, however, that he had never +thought of his wound for years, although he must have a bullet in him +somewhere to that day; he also told her that the fight with the blacks +had been the beginning of his connection with his old boss, whose +service he had never left until the end. And for miles he spoke of no +one else; he was so grateful to Olivia for liking his friend, and he had +so many stories of Dalrymple to set as well as he could against that one +of himself. So the ride drew to an end in the golden afternoon, with +never a tender word between the pair, though his heart was as full as +hers; but she could not speak; and the great seal lay yet upon his +lips.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>END OF THE INTERREGNUM</h3> + + +<p>Nobody was about when they dismounted, so Jack himself led the horses +back to the stables, while Olivia gathered up her habit and scaled the +steps. The stable clock struck five as the former was returning by way +of the shrubbery; another seven hours, and Claude would come home with +the news. For such an issue, it was still an eternity to wait. But Jack +felt that the suspense would be easily endurable so long as he could +have sight and speech of Olivia Sellwood; without her, even for these +few minutes, it was hardly to be borne.</p> + +<p>Yet this stage of his ordeal was made up of such minutes. He returned to +desolate rooms. Olivia had disappeared; nor could he pitch upon a soul +to tell him where she was. Door after door was thrown open in vain; each +presented an empty void to his exacting eyes. He ran outside and stood +listening on the terrace. And there, through an open upper window he +heard a raised voice railing, which he could not but recognise as that +of Lady Caroline. Her words were indistinguishable. But as Jack looked +aloft for the window, one was passionately shut, and he neither heard +nor saw any more.</p> + +<p>The first persons he ultimately encountered were Mr. Sellwood and the +agent. They had golf-clubs in their hands and wholesome sweat upon their +brows. The agent treated Jack as usual; the Home Secretary did not. He +stated that he had at last won a round; but his manner was singularly +free from exultation; indeed, it was quite awkward, as though perfect +cordiality had suddenly become a difficult matter, and he was ashamed to +find it so. Certainly there had been no difficulty of the kind before. +And Jack noted the change, but was too honourable himself to suspect the +cause.</p> + +<p>He next fell in with the Frekes. This excellent couple loved Jack for +his goodness to their children, who were not universally popular. They +now carried him off to tea in the nursery, where he stayed until it was +time to dress for dinner. Jack liked the children; it was not his fault +that they were so seldom in evidence. They were obviously spoilt; but +Jack thought they were taken too seriously by all but their parents, +who certainly did not take them seriously enough. So he had many a romp +with the little outcasts, but never a wilder one than this afternoon, +for the children took him out of himself. Their society, had he but +known it, was even better for him in the circumstances than that of +Olivia herself; it was almost as good as another meeting with Dalrymple +of Carara. He rose at length from under his oppressors, dusty, +dishevelled and perspiring, but for the moment as light-hearted as +themselves. And there were the grave, sympathetic eyes of the parents +resting sadly upon him to recall his trouble. Why should they look sad +or sympathetic? Everybody had changed towards him; this was the +difference in the Frekes. Could they have divined the truth? No +suspicion of a broken confidence entered his head; yet it was +sufficiently puzzled as he dressed, with unusual care, to make a +creditable last appearance at the head of the table which would prove +never to have been his at all. He had quite made up his mind to that; he +found it appreciably harder to reconcile himself to the keen +disappointment which awaited him in the dining-room.</p> + +<p>Olivia was not coming down.</p> + +<p>"She has knocked herself up," explained Lady Caroline tersely. "So would +any girl—not an Australian—who rode so far on such a day. Your Grace +might have known better!"</p> + +<p>Jack stared at her like a wounded stag; then he uttered an abject +apology, for which, however, he obtained no sort of a receipt. Lady +Caroline had turned and was talking to some one else. But it was not +this that cut him to the heart; it was her mode of addressing him, after +their conversation of the early morning.</p> + +<p>Later in the evening he remembered that railing voice and the shutting +of the window upstairs; and with a burning indignation he divined, all +at once, who it was that had been so spoken to, and why, with the true +cause of Olivia's indisposition.</p> + +<p>This was in the darkness of his hut, with Livingstone asleep in his lap. +In another minute Jack was striding through the pines, on his way to the +drawing-room for a few plain words with Lady Caroline Sellwood. He never +had them. Lady Caroline was gone to bed. It was almost eleven; within an +hour Claude would be back, and a moral certainty become an absolute +fact. Hunt's tale was true. Had it been otherwise, Claude would have +telegraphed. He had left, indeed, on the distinct understanding that he +should do no such thing; his mission was to be kept a secret, and a +telegram might excite suspicion; yet even so he would have sent one had +all been well. Jack was sure of it; his exhausted spirit had surrendered +utterly to an ineluctable despair.</p> + +<p>In this humour he sought the Poet's Corner, and found its two <i>habitués</i> +furtively chuckling over some newspaper. Their gaiety cut him to the +quick. Yet he longed to enter into it.</p> + +<p>"What's the joke?" he asked. "I want something to make me laugh!"</p> + +<p>"This wouldn't," replied Edmund Stubbs. "It's not benign enough for +you."</p> + +<p>"It's only a piece of smart scribbling," explained Llewellyn, lighting a +fresh cigarette with the stump of the last.</p> + +<p>Jack was behind them; quite innocently he put his head between theirs +and looked for himself. The paper was the <i>Parthenon</i>. There was but one +article on the open page. It was headed—</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Our Minor Poets.</span></p> + +<p class="center">XXVIII. <span class="smcap">Mr. Claude Lafont.</span></p> + +<p>"So that amuses you?" said Jack at last.</p> + +<p>"Quite," said Llewellyn.</p> + +<p>"You think it just, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hang justice! It's awfully nice copy. That's all it has any right +to be. Justice doesn't matter a hang; the <i>Parthenon's</i> not written for +the virtuous shopkeeper; it isn't meant to appeal to the Nonconformist +Conscience."</p> + +<p>"Besides, the article <i>is</i> just," protested Stubbs. "We know what Lafont +is, between ourselves; he's an excellent chap, but his poetry—save the +mark!—would hardly impose on Clapham and Wandsworth. His manner's cheap +enough, but his matter goes one cheaper; it's the sort of thing for +which there should be no charge." Stubbs drained his glass.</p> + +<p>Jack was blazing.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean by 'cheap,'" he cried; "but from reading +that article, which I happen to have seen before, I should call it a +jolly 'cheap' word. I don't set up to be a clever man. I only know what +I like, and I like everything of Claude's that—that I can understand. +But even if I didn't I should be sorry to go about saying so in his own +house!"</p> + +<p>"<i>His</i> own house!" exclaimed the Impressionist.</p> + +<p>"We didn't know it was his," said Stubbs.</p> + +<p>"What's mine is Claude's," replied Jack, colouring. "It was before I +turned up, and it will be again when—whenever I peg out."</p> + +<p>With that he was gone.</p> + +<p>"Sounds suicidal," remarked Llewellyn.</p> + +<p>"Or celibate," said Stubbs, replenishing his glass.</p> + +<p>"Poor beast!" concluded the artist.</p> + +<p>Here their host returned.</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry, you fellows," said he, with absurd humility. "I'm all +off colour to-night, and I know I've made a rude ruffian of myself. Some +of these days you'll understand; meantime will you forgive me?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> have nothing to forgive," replied Llewellyn.</p> + +<p>"We'll say no more about it," said Stubbs.</p> + +<p>And Jack shook hands with them both before leaving them for good; then +he hurried through the length of the building to the great conservatory, +where Stebbings was putting out the lights. The conservatory was at that +extreme of the Towers which the dogcart would pass first. Here, too, was +room and air for a man distraught. So Jack called out to Stebbings to +leave the lights on longer.</p> + +<p>"And light some more," he added suddenly. "Light up every lamp in the +place! I shall stay here until Mr. Lafont returns."</p> + +<p>"Yes, your Grace."</p> + +<p>"Stebbings!"</p> + +<p>"Your Grace?"</p> + +<p>"For God's sake don't call me that again! I—I'm not used to it, +Stebbings—any more than you're used to me," added Jack inconsequently; +and he fled into the grounds until the old man should be gone.</p> + +<p>The night was very dark and heavy; clouds obscured the moon, shedding a +fine rain softly upon drive and terrace. Jack raised his face, and a +grateful sprinkling cooled its fever. He longed for a far heavier fall, +with the ancient longing of those prehistoric days when a grey sky and +an honest wetting were the rarest joys in life. Could he indeed return +to that rough routine after all these weeks of aristocratic ease? The +bushman might exchange his wideawake for a coronet, but could the peer +go back to the bush? Time must show. The only question was whether Hunt +had lied or told the truth; and the answer could not be much longer +delayed. Already it was half-past eleven; there was the clang creeping +lazily through the night, round quarter of a mile of intervening wall, +and half a hundred angles.</p> + +<p>He would have gone down the drive to meet the dogcart; but the night was +too dark; and beside him blazed the great conservatory like a palace of +fire. He entered it again, and now he had it to himself; the statues +among the tree-ferns were his only companions. But in his absence old +Stebbings had placed a little table with brandy and soda-water set out +upon it; even the butler had seen and pitied his condition.</p> + +<p>The third quarter struck. The sound just carried to the conservatory, +for now the rain was heavier, and the rattle overheard warred +successfully against all other noises. The dogcart might drive by +without Jack's hearing it. The suspense was horrible, but a surprise +would be more horrible still. He was becoming unstrung; why should he +not tune himself up with the brandy? His voluntary teetotalism was too +absurd; he had made no promise, taken no pledge, but only a private +pride in his self-discipline as it had gone on from day to day. Not a +drop had he touched since that afternoon at Dover so long, so long ago! +As he reckoned up the time, the forgotten lust possessed him; it had +been even so on Carara, when the periodical need of a cheque would first +steal over his lonely spirit. He thought now of those occasions and +their results; he knew himself of old; but he was no longer the same +man—resistance would be ridiculous now. He took another look at the +night; then he filled a wine-glass with raw brandy—raised it—and +impulsively dashed the whole upon the marble flags. The brandy widened +in a shallow amber flood; the broken glass lay glittering under the +lamps; and in Jack's ears the patter of the rain (which had never +abated) broke out anew.</p> + +<p>He could not account for his act; he did not know it for the culmination +of a highly nervous condition induced by the twenty-four sleepless hours +of unrelieved suspense. It was neither more nor less, and yet it enabled +him to hold up his head once more. And as he did so, there—through the +swimming crystal walls—between a palm-tree and a Norfolk Island +pine—were the two red eyes of the dogcart dilating in the dark.</p> + +<p>The great moment had come, and it was not so great after all. Jack's +little outburst had left him strangely calm. He went to the door and +hailed the dogcart in a loud, cheery voice. The lamps stopped. Claude +came within range of those in the conservatory, and shook himself on the +steps. Then he entered, looking unusually healthy, but dripping still.</p> + +<p>"A brute of a night for you," said Jack apologetically. "Take off that +coat, and have some brandy. Mind where you go. I've had a spill."</p> + +<p>This was the reaction. Claude understood.</p> + +<p>"Then you don't want to hear the news?"</p> + +<p>"I know it. I've known it for hours."</p> + +<p>"That I can see you haven't. Listen to me. There was no English +marriage. Give me your hand!"</p> + +<p>It was limp and cold.</p> + +<p>"You don't believe me!" said Claude severely.</p> + +<p>Jack subsided in a chair.</p> + +<p>"I can't," he whispered. "I can't."</p> + +<p>"You soon will. I wish to goodness I'd taken you with me to-day. Now +listen: there was some truth in Hunt's story, but more lies. The +marriage was a lie. There never was a marriage. There was something +rather worse at the time, but a good deal better now. My grandfather +patched it up, exactly as I thought. He packed my uncle out to +Australia, and he settled two hundred a year on the Hunts, on the single +condition of 'perpetual silence as to the connection between the two +families.' I've seen the covenant, and those are the very words. The +condition has been broken after all these years. And the Hunts' income +stops to-day."</p> + +<p>Jack had roused himself a little; he was no longer apathetic, but +neither was he yet convinced.</p> + +<p>"It seems a lot of money to hush up so small a matter," he objected. +"Are they sure there was no more in it than that?"</p> + +<p>"Maitland and Cripps? Perfectly sure; they've been paying that money for +nearly forty years, and there's never been a hint at a marriage until +now. Certainly there's none in the settlement. But to make assurance +surer, young Maitland took a cab and drove off to see his father—who +was a partner in '53, but has since retired—about the whole matter. And +I took another cab, and drove straight to the old parish church facing +the river at Chelsea. I found the clerk, and he showed me the marriage +register, but there was no such marriage on that date (or any other) in +<i>that</i> church; so why in any? One lie means dozens. Surely you'll agree +with me there?"</p> + +<p>"I must; it's only the money that sticks with me. It seems such a case +of paying through the nose. But what had old Maitland to say?"</p> + +<p>"Everything," cried Claude. "He remembered the whole business perfectly, +and even saying to my grandfather much what you're saying to me now. But +I've told you the kind of man the old Duke was; he was a purist of the +purists, besides being as proud as Lucifer, and a scandal so near home +hit him, as you would say, in both eyes at once. He considered he got +good value for his money when he hushed it up. They showed me a letter +in which he said as much. Young Maitland unearthed it after he had seen +his father, and with it others of a later date, in which the Duke +refused to revoke or even to curtail the allowance on the woman's death. +That's all; but surely it's conclusive enough! Here we have a +first-class firm of solicitors on the one hand, and a clumsy scoundrel +on the other. Which do you believe? By the way, they're anxious to +prosecute Hunt on all sorts of grounds if you'll let them."</p> + +<p>"I won't."</p> + +<p>"I think you ought to," said Claude.</p> + +<p>"No, no; too much mud has been stirred up already; we'll let it rest for +a bit."</p> + +<p>"But surely you'll get rid of the Hunts after this?"</p> + +<p>"I'll see."</p> + +<p>Claude was disappointed; he had looked for a different reception of his +news.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you're not convinced yet?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"No," said Jack, "I'm quite satisfied now; you hem the thing in on every +side. But I wish to goodness all this had never happened!"</p> + +<p>"So do we all; but if there was a doubt, surely it was best to set it at +rest? If I were you, I should feel as one does after a bad dream."</p> + +<p>Jack was on his feet.</p> + +<p>"My dear old mate," he cried, "and so I do! But I'm only half woke up; +that's what's the matter with me, and you must give me time to pull +myself together. You don't know what a day I've had; you never will +know. And you—my meat's your poison, and yet you've been doing all this +for me just as if it was the other way round; and not a word of thanks +at the end of it. Claude—old man—forgive me! Thanks won't do. They're +no good at all in a case like this. What can a fellow say? If it was +you, you'd say plenty——"</p> + +<p>"I hope not," interrupted Claude, laughing. "Wait till you do me a good +turn. You've done me many a one already, and I've never said a word."</p> + +<p>But Jack would shake hands, and even Claude's face was shining with a +tender light as a soft step fell upon the marble, and Lady Caroline +Sellwood entered from the drawing-room. The door had been left open. But +it was instantly evident that her Ladyship had not been eavesdropping, +or at least not to any useful purpose; for she planted herself before +the two men in obvious ignorance as to which was the man for her. She +was still in the handsome dress that she had worn all the evening; and +between her plump, white, glittering fingers she nursed the purple +smoking-cap that had always been—and was still—intended for the Duke +of St. Osmund's.</p> + +<p>"It was no good," she cried tragically, looking from Claude to Jack and +back again at Claude. "I simply couldn't go to bed until I knew. And +now—and now I'm torn two ways; for pity's sake, put me out of <i>one</i> +misery."</p> + +<p>"It's all up," said Jack deliberately. He owed Lady Caroline a grudge +for the shrill scolding he had heard upstairs, and another for Olivia's +absence from the dinner-table. He was also curious to see what Lady +Caroline would do.</p> + +<p>She sailed straight to Claude, holding the smoking-cap at arm's length.</p> + +<p>"My dear, dear Claude! <i>How</i> I congratulate you! I find, after all, that +the smoking-cap, which was originally intended——"</p> + +<p>"Dear Lady Caroline," interposed Claude hastily, "everything is as it +was. Hunt's story is a complete fabrication; I'd no idea that you knew +anything about it."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't help telling Lady Caroline," said Jack. Lady Caroline turned +upon him with hot suspicion.</p> + +<p>"You said it was all——"</p> + +<p>He interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"I was <i>going</i> to say that it was all up with Hunt. He loses two hundred +a year for his pains."</p> + +<p>"Is that possible?" cried her Ladyship.</p> + +<p>"It's the case," said Claude; "so everything is as it was, and as it +should be."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline exhibited no further trace of her discomfiture.</p> + +<p>"I wish we hadn't all interrupted each other," she laughed. "<i>I</i> was +about to remark that the smoking-cap, which was originally intended to +have what one may term a frieze, as well as a dado, of gold lace, will +look much better without the frieze, so there's really no more to do to +it. Take it, my dear, dear Jack, and wear it sometimes for my sake. And +forgive a mother for what one said about Olivia's ride. Claude, I shall +make another cap for you; meanwhile, let me congratulate you—again—on +your noble conduct of to-day. Ah, you neither of you congratulate me on +mine! Yet I am a woman, and I've kept your joint secret—most +religiously—from nine in the morning to this very hour!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>"LOVE THE GIFT"</h3> + + +<p>Her answer was altogether astonishing; she leant back in the boat and +looked him full in the face. A quick flush tinged her own, and the +incomparable eyebrows were raised and arched; but underneath there was +an honest tenderness which Olivia was not the girl to conceal.</p> + +<p>"Was that your water-lilies?" said she; but this was not the astonishing +speech. He had lured her afloat on impudently false pretences; she had a +right to twit him with that.</p> + +<p>"There are no water-lilies," he confessed; "at least, never mind them if +there are. Oh, I was obliged to make some excuse! There was nowhere else +where we could talk so well. I tell you again I have the cheek to love +you! I can't help it; I've loved you ever since that day in London, and +you've got to know it for good or bad. If it makes you very angry, I'll +row you back this minute." He was resting on his oars under cover of +the little island; the Towers were out of sight.</p> + +<p>"Why in the world didn't you speak yesterday?" was Olivia's +extraordinary reply.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday?" faltered Jack.</p> + +<p>"It was such a chance!"</p> + +<p>"Not for me! My tongue was tied. Olivia, I was under a frightful cloud +yesterday! You don't understand——"</p> + +<p>"What if I do? What if I did at the time?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you could," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Instinctively," replied Olivia, to screen her mother. "I knew something +was wrong, and I have since been told what. If only you had spoken +then!"</p> + +<p>She dropped her eyes swiftly; the tear ran down her cheek.</p> + +<p>"But why? Why then, better than now?"</p> + +<p>"Because <i>I</i> care, too," she whispered, so that the words just travelled +to his ear.</p> + +<p>"Olivia! My—do you know what you've said? Do you mean it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I care. I mean that much. You are different from everybody +else."</p> + +<p>"Then——"</p> + +<p>"There must be no 'then.'"</p> + +<p>"But you said you cared. Tell me—I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"I can never marry you," said Olivia, looking him once more in the face. +And her eyes were dry.</p> + +<p>"Why not, if it is true—that you care?"</p> + +<p>"Because you are what you are—and I—oh! how can I say it even to you? +I am so ashamed. I have been thrown at your head from the very +first—no, I have no right to say that. How I hate everything I say! You +must understand; I am sure you do. Well, in the beginning I couldn't +bear to speak to you, because I knew—what was hoped—and I seemed to +see and hear it in every look and word. It hurt me more than I ever can +tell you. The same sort of thing had happened before, but I had never +minded it then. I suppose all mothers are like that; it's natural +enough, when you come to think, and I'm sure I never resented it before. +I wouldn't have minded it in your case either; I wouldn't have minded +anything if I hadn't——"</p> + +<p>The words would not come.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't what?" he said.</p> + +<p>"If I hadn't liked you—off my own bat!"</p> + +<p>"But if you really do, my glorious girl, surely that fixes it? We have +nothing to do with anybody else. What does it matter how they take it?"</p> + +<p>"It matters to my pride."</p> + +<p>"I don't see where your pride comes in."</p> + +<p>"Of course you don't; you are not behind the scenes. And I can't make +you see. I'm not going to give my own people away to that extent, not +even to you. But—I can just picture my mother's face if we went in this +very minute and told her we were engaged! She would fall upon both our +necks!"</p> + +<p>"That wouldn't matter," said Jack stolidly. "That would be all right."</p> + +<p>"It would be dreadful—dreadful. I couldn't bear it when I know that +yesterday——"</p> + +<p>She checked herself firmly.</p> + +<p>"Well, what of yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"It would have been quite a different thing."</p> + +<p>"What! if I'd spoken then?"</p> + +<p>"I—think so."</p> + +<p>"You would have said——"</p> + +<p>"I should have found out what your trouble was. You would have told me +everything. And then—and then——"</p> + +<p>He leant still further forward.</p> + +<p>"If you had wanted me very much——"</p> + +<p>"I <i>do</i> want you very much."</p> + +<p>"I should have found it easier to say 'yes'"—the word was hardly +audible—"than I ever shall now!"</p> + +<p>"But why, Olivia? Tell me why!"</p> + +<p>"You force it from me, word by word," complained the girl.</p> + +<p>"Then let me see. I think I begin to see. You like me in myself almost +well enough to marry me. Well, thank God for that much! But you don't +want to marry the Duke of St. Osmund's, because you're mortally afraid +of what people will say. You think they'll say you're doing it for the +main chance. And so they will—and so they may! They wouldn't say it, +and you wouldn't think it, of any other man in my position; no, it's +because I'm not fit for my billet, that's how it is! Not fit for it, and +not fit for you; so they'd naturally think you were marrying me for what +I'd got, and that you couldn't bear. Ah, yes, I see hard enough; it's as +plain as a pikestaff now!"</p> + +<p>The girl saw, too; with the unconscious bluntness of a singularly direct +nature, he had stripped her scruples bare, and their littleness +horrified Olivia. The moral cowardice of her hesitation came home to her +with an insupportable pang, and her mind was made up before his last +sentences put her face in flames.</p> + +<p>"You are wrong," she could only murmur; "oh, you are dreadfully wrong!"</p> + +<p>"I am right," he answered bitterly, "and <i>you</i> are right. No wonder you +dread the hard things that would be said of you! Take away the name and +the money, and what am I? A back-block larrikin—a common stockman!"</p> + +<p>"The man for me," said Olivia hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, if I were not such a public match!"</p> + +<p>"Whatever you are—whatever you may be—if you want me still——"</p> + +<p>"Want you! I have wanted you from the first. I shall want you till the +last!"</p> + +<p>Her reply was indistinct; her tears were falling fast; he took her two +white hands, but even them he did not touch with his lips. A great +silence held them both, and all the world; the island willows kissed the +stream; in the sheet of gold beyond, a fish leapt, and the ripple +reached the boat in one long thin fold. The girl spoke first.</p> + +<p>"We need not be in a hurry to tell everybody," she began; but the words +were retracted in the same breath. "What am I saying? Of course we will +tell. Oh, what a contempt you must have for me!"</p> + +<p>"I love you," he answered simply. "I am too happy to live. It's all too +good to be true. Me of all men—the old bushman!"</p> + +<p>She looked lovingly on his bearded and sunburnt face, shining as she had +never seen it shine before.</p> + +<p>"No; it's the other way about," she said. "I am not half good enough for +you—you who were so brave yesterday in your trouble—who have been so +simple always in your prosperity. It was enough to turn any one's head, +but you—ah, I don't only love you. I admire you, dear; may God help me +to make you happy!"</p> + +<p>They stayed much longer on the lake, finally disembarking on its +uttermost shore, because Olivia was curious to see how the hut would +look in the first rosy light of her incredible happiness. And when they +came to it, the sunlight glinted on the new iron roofing; the pine-trees +exhaled their resin in the noon-day heat following the midnight rain; +and the shadows were shot with golden shafts, where all was golden to +the lovers' eyes.</p> + +<p>Jack made a diffident swain; it was the girl who slipped her hand into +his.</p> + +<p>"You will never pull it down?" she said. "We will use it for a +summer-house, and to remind you of your old life. And one day you will +take me out to the Riverina, and show me the hut you really lived in, +and all your old haunts. Oh, I shouldn't mind if we had both to go out +there for good! A hut would take far less looking after than the Towers, +and I should have you much more to myself. What fun it would be!"</p> + +<p>Jack thought this a pretty speech, but the girl herself was made +presently aware of its insincerity. They had retraced their steps, and +there in front of them, cool and grey in the mellow August sunshine, +with every buttress thrown up by its shadow, and the very spires +perfectly reflected in the sleeping lake, stood the stately home which +would be theirs for ever. Olivia saw it with a decidedly new thrill. She +was looking on her future home, and yet her husband would be this simple +fellow! Wealth could not cloy, nor grandeur overpower, with such a mate; +that was perhaps the substance of her thought. It simplified itself next +moment. What had she done to deserve such happiness? What could she ever +do? And a possible tabernacle in the bush entered into neither question, +nor engaged her fancy any more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>AN ANTI-TOXINE</h3> + + +<p>They rowed over, and were in mid-water when the landau drove up to the +house. It had been sent in for Mr. Dalrymple early in the forenoon. They +saw nothing, however, until they landed, when the equipage was +proceeding on its way to the stables, having deposited the guest. At +this discovery, the Duke's excitement knew no bounds, so Olivia urged +him to run on and leave her; and he took her advice, chiefly regretting +that he had missed the proud moment of welcoming his old boss in the +hall.</p> + +<p>Jack regretted this the more when he reached the house. There was +Dalrymple of Carara beginning his visit by roundly abusing the butler in +the very portico! The guest was in a towering passion, the butler in a +palsy of senile agitation; and between them on the step lay Dalrymple's +Gladstone bag.</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> the matter?" cried Jack, rushing up with a very blank face. +"Stebbings, what's this? What has he done, Mr. Dalrymple?"</p> + +<p>"Refused to take in my bag! Says it's the footman's place!"</p> + +<p>"Then what's he here for? The man must be drunk. Are you, Stebbings?"</p> + +<p>The butler murmured an inarticulate reply.</p> + +<p>"Get to your pantry, sir!" roared Jack. "You shall hear more of this +when you are sober. Old servant or new servant, out you clear!"</p> + +<p>And he took up the bag himself, as Stebbings gave a glassy stare and +staggered off without a word.</p> + +<p>"I'm extremely sorry for losing my temper," said Dalrymple, taking +Jack's arm as they entered the house; "but it always was rather short, +as I fear I needn't remind <i>you</i>. Really, though, your disgraceful old +retainer would have provoked a saint. Drunk as fool in the middle of the +day; drunk and insolent. Has the man been with you long?"</p> + +<p>"Only fifty years or so with the family," replied Jack savagely; "but, +by the living Lord, he may roll up his swag!"</p> + +<p>"Ah! I wouldn't be hasty," said Dalrymple. "One must make allowances for +one's old retainers; they're a privileged class. How good of you, by +the way, to send in for me in such style! It prepared me for much. But I +am bound to say it didn't prepare me for all this. No, I never should +have pictured you in such an absolute palace had I not seen it with my +own eyes!"</p> + +<p>And now the visitor was so plainly impressed by all he saw, that Jack +readily forgave him the liberty he had taken in rating Stebbings on his +own account. Still the incident rankled. Dalrymple was the one man in +the world before whom the Duke of St. Osmund's really did desire to play +his new part creditably; and what could be said for a peer of the realm +who kept a drunken butler to insult his guests? Jack could have shaken +the old reprobate until the bones rattled again in his shrivelled skin. +Dalrymple, however, seemed to think no more about the matter. He was +entirely taken up with the suits of armour here in the hall: indeed +Olivia discovered him lecturing Jack on his own trophies in a manner +that would have led a stranger to mistake the guest for the host.</p> + +<p>It may be said at once that this was Dalrymple's manner from first to +last. It was that of the school-master to whom the boy who once trembled +at his frown is a boy for evermore. And it greatly irritated Jack's +friends, though Jack himself saw nothing to resent.</p> + +<p>The Duke led his guest into the great drawing-room, and introduced him +with gusto to Lady Caroline Sellwood and to Claude Lafont. But all his +pride was in the visitor, who, with his handsome cynical face, his +distinguished bearing, and his faultless summer suit, should show them +that at least one "perfect gentleman" could come out of Riverina. Jack +waited a moment to enjoy the easy speeches and the quiet assurance of +Dalrymple; then he left the squatter to Lady Caroline and to Claude. It +was within a few minutes of the luncheon hour. Jack wanted a word with +Stebbings alone. The more he thought of it, the less able was he to +understand the old butler's extraordinary outbreak. Could he have been +ill instead of drunk? A charitable explanation was just conceivable to +Jack until he opened the pantry door; it fell to the ground that moment; +for not only did he catch Stebbings in the act of filling a wine-glass +with brandy, but the butler's breath was foul already with the spirit.</p> + +<p>"Very well, my man," said Jack slowly. "Drink as much as you like! +You'll hear from me when you're sober. But show so much as the tip of +your nose in the dining-room, and I'll throw you through the window with +my own hands!"</p> + +<p>The upshot of the matter was indirect and a little startling; for this +was the reason why Dalrymple of Carara took the head of his old hand's +table at luncheon on the day of his arrival; and obviously it was +Dalrymple's temporary occupation of that position, added to his +unforgettable past relations with his host, which led him to behave +exactly as though the table were his own.</p> + +<p>A difficulty about the carving was the more immediate cause of the +transposition. In the ordinary course, this was Stebbings's business, +which he conducted on the sideboard with due skill; in his absence, +however, the footmen had placed the dishes on the table; and as these +included a brace of cold grouse, and neither Jack nor Claude was an even +moderate practitioner with the carving-knife, there was a little hitch. +Mr. Sellwood was not present; he took his lunch on the links; and Jack +made no secret of his relief when the squatter offered to fill the +breach.</p> + +<p>"Capital!" he cried; "you take my place, sir, and I wish you joy of the +billet." And so the thing fell out.</p> + +<p>It had the merit of seating the Duke and Olivia side by side; and the +happy pair were made distinctly happier by the mutual discovery that +neither had as yet confided in a third soul. At the foot of the table, +in the position which Jack had begged her to assume at the outset of her +visit, sat Lady Caroline Sellwood. The clever young men were on opposite +sides, as usual; nor did they fail to exchange those looks of neglected +merit and of intellectual boredom which were another feature of their +public appearances. Their visit had not been altogether a success. It +was a mystery why they prolonged it. They had been invited, however, to +spend a month at Maske Towers, which, after all, was neither an +uncomfortable resting-place nor a discreditable temporary address.</p> + +<p>Francis Freke said a Latin grace inaudibly, and then the squatter went +to work at the birds. These were a present from afar; there were no +moors "on" Maske, as Jack explained, with a proud eye on Dalrymple's +knife. It flashed through the joints as though the bird had been already +"boned"; on either side the breast fell away in creamy flakes; and +Dalrymple talked as he carved, with the light touch and the easy grace +of a many-sided man of the world. At first he seemed to join in +everybody's conversation in turns; but he was only getting his team +together; and in a little everybody was listening to him. Yet he talked +with such tact that it was possible for all to put in their word; +indeed, he would appeal first to one, then to another, so that the +general temper of the party rose to a high level. Only Olivia and Claude +Lafont felt that this stranger was taking rather much upon himself. +Otherwise it was a pleasure to listen to him; he was excellently well +informed; before the end of the meal it came out that he had actually +read Claude's poems.</p> + +<p>"And lived to tell the tale!" he added with characteristic familiarity. +"I can tell you I felt it a risk after reading that terrible +depreciation of you in the <i>Parthenon</i>; you see, I've been in England a +few days, and have been getting abreast of things at my hotel while my +tailors were making me externally presentable. By the way, I ran across +a young Australian journalist who is over here now, and who occasionally +scribbles for the <i>Parthenon</i>. I asked him if he knew who had made that +scurrilous attack upon you, Mr. Lafont. I was interested, because I knew +you must be one of Jack's relations."</p> + +<p>"And did you find out?" inquired Claude, with pardonable curiosity.</p> + +<p>"He found out for me. The culprit was a man of your name, Mr. Stubbs; no +relation, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"I hope not," said Stubbs, emptying his glass; and his pallid complexion +turned a sicklier yellow, as though his blood were nicotine, and the +nicotine had mounted to his face.</p> + +<p>"I should like to hear that name in full," said Lady Caroline down the +length of the table. "I read the article myself. It was a disgrace to +journalism. It is only fair to our Mr. Stubbs that we should hear his +namesake's Christian name."</p> + +<p>"I think I can oblige," said Dalrymple, producing his pocket-book. "His +name was—ah! here it is! His name was Edmund. Edmund Stubbs!"</p> + +<p>Edmund Stubbs was not unequal to the occasion. He looked straight at +Jack.</p> + +<p>"Will you kindly make it convenient to send me in to Devenholme in time +for the next train?" he said. "If the Australian—gentleman—is going to +stay in your house, I, for one, shall trespass no longer on your +hospitality."</p> + +<p>"Nor I, for another!" Llewellyn chimed in.</p> + +<p>And without further ceremony the mordant couple left the table and the +room. Jack looked embarrassed, and Claude felt sorry for Jack. As for +Olivia, she had felt vaguely indignant with Dalrymple ever since he had +taken the head of the table; and this scene put a point to her feelings, +while it also revived her first prejudice against the squatter. Lady +Caroline, however, congratulated him upon an excellent piece of work.</p> + +<p>"You have performed a public service, my dear Mr. Dalrymple," said she. +"Dear Jack will, I know, forgive me when I say that those two young men +have never been in their element here. They are all right in a London +drawing-room, as representatives of a certain type. In a country house +they are impossible; and, for my part, I shall certainly never send them +another card."</p> + +<p>Jack also was ceasing to disapprove of the humiliation of Edmund Stubbs, +whose remarks overnight in the Poet's Corner had suddenly recurred to +his mind.</p> + +<p>"Did you know it was the same man?" said he, pushing back his chair.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I did," replied the squatter, as he rose. "They told me he +was staying down here, and I could hardly avoid exposing the fellow. I +hope, my dear Jack, that you will forgive the liberty I undoubtedly took +in doing so. I am the germ that expels the other germs—a sort of +anti-toxine in cuffs. <i>Similia similibus</i>, if my memory serves me, Mr. +Lafont. Before long you may have to inject a fresh bacillus to expel +<i>me</i>! Meantime, my dear Jack, let me offer you a cigar to show there's +no ill-feeling."</p> + +<p>"No, thanks," said Jack, for once rather shortly; "you've got to smoke +one of mine. It's my house!" he added, with a grin.</p> + +<p>And the remark was much appreciated by those to whom it was not +addressed; on Dalrymple it produced no effect at all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>HECKLING A MINISTER</h3> + + +<p>The engagement became known in the course of the afternoon, and the news +was received in a manner after all very gratifying to the happy pair. +Lady Caroline Sellwood did indeed insist on kissing her future +son-in-law, but the obvious attitude she now assumed did not impose upon +him for a moment. He had seen through her the night before; he could +never believe in the woman again. In any case, however, her affectation +of blank surprise, and her motherly qualms concerning the prospective +loss of her ewe lamb, were a little over-acted, even for so +inexperienced an observer as the Duke of St. Osmund's. She knew it, too, +and hated Jack with all her hollow heart for having found her out; to +him, it was, after this, a relief to listen to the somewhat guarded +observations of Mr. Sellwood, whose feelings in the matter were just a +little mixed.</p> + +<p>Of the rest, Francis Freke volunteered his services for the great +event, and both he and his wife (who brought down her entire speaking +family to say good-night to "Uncle Jack") were consumed with that +genuine delight in the happiness of others which was their strongest +point. Claude, too, was not only "very nice about it," as Olivia said, +but his behaviour, in what was for him a rather delicate situation, +showed both tact and self-control. Never for a moment did look or word +of his suggest the unsuccessful suitor: though to be sure he had +scarcely qualified for such a <i>rôle</i>. Olivia and he had never been more +than friends. On her side, at least, the friendship had been of that +perfectly frank and chronic character which is least likely to develop +into love. And no one knew this better than Claude himself, who, +moreover, was not even yet absolutely sure that his own undoubted +affections were inspired by the divine impulse for which his poet's +heart had so often yearned. At all events he had thought upon the one +maiden for very many months; and putting it no higher than this, his +present conduct was that of a tolerably magnanimous man.</p> + +<p>The one person who raised an unsympathetic eyebrow was Dalrymple the +squatter. He seemed surprised at the news and, for the moment, rather +annoyed; but Jack recalled the deplorably cynical view of women for +which the owner of Carara had been quite notorious in the back-blocks, +and the squatter's displeasure did not rankle. Nor was it expressed a +second time. Either the sight of the pair together, who made no secret +of their happiness; either this pretty spectacle, or the dictates of +good taste, moved Dalrymple, ultimately, to the most graceful +congratulations they had yet received. And it was characteristic of the +man that his remarks took the form of an unsolicited speech at the +dinner-table.</p> + +<p>He had been only a few hours in the house, yet to all but Mr. Sellwood +(who did not meet him until evening) the hours seemed days. For the +squatter was one of those men who carry with them the weight of their +own presence, the breath of an intrinsic power, subtly felt from the +first; thus the little house-party had taken more notice of him in one +afternoon than the normal stranger would have attracted in a week; and +to them it already seemed inevitable that he should lead and that they +should follow whether they would or no. Accordingly, they were not in +the least surprised to see Dalrymple on his legs when the crumb-cloth +had been removed; though all but Jack deemed the act a liberty; and the +squatter still adopted the tone of a master felicitating his men, rather +than that of a guest congratulating his host.</p> + +<p>Yet the speech was fluent and full of point; and the speaker himself +made a sufficiently taking figure, leaning slightly forward, with the +tips of his well-shaped fingers just resting on the black oak board that +dimly reflected them. An unexceptionable shirt-front sat perfectly on +his full, deep chest, a single pearl glistening in its centre; and there +was a gleam of even teeth between the close-cropped, white moustache and +the ugly, mobile, nether lip, whence every word fell distinct and clear +of its predecessor. The Home Secretary had heard a worse delivery from +his own front bench; and he was certainly interested in the story of the +iron hut and the savages of Northern Queensland, which Dalrymple +repeated with the happiest effect. Olivia forgave him certain earlier +passages on the strength of these; her heart was full; only she could +not lift her eyes from the simple chain about her wrist, for they were +dim. The speech closed with the dramatic climax of the tale; there had +been but one interruption to the flow of well-chosen words, and that was +when the speaker stopped to blow out a smoking candle without appealing +to his host.</p> + +<p>The health of the pair was then drunk with appropriate enthusiasm; poor +Jack blurted out a few honest words, hardly intelligible from his +emotion; and the three ladies left the room.</p> + +<p>"There's one more point to that yarn," said Dalrymple, closing the door +he had held open, "that I don't think you yourself are aware of, Jack. +It was when you got back to the store, with your shirt burnt off your +back, and the country in a blaze all round, that I first noticed the +legend on your chest. As you probably know, Mr. Sellwood, the Duke has +one of his own eagles tattooed upon his chest. I saw it that day for the +first time. I felt sure it meant something. And years afterwards, when I +heard that a London solicitor was scouring the Colonies for the unknown +Duke of St. Osmund's, it was the sudden recollection of that mark which +made me to some extent the happy instrument of his discovery."</p> + +<p>"To every extent!" cried Jack, wringing his benefactor's hand. "I've +always said so. Mr. Sellwood, I owe him everything, and yet he makes a +song about my scaring away a few blackfellows with a bush-fire! By the +hokey, I've a good mind to have him live happily with us ever after for +his pains!"</p> + +<p>The Home Secretary bent his snowy head: his rosy face was the seat of +that peculiarly grim expression with which political caricaturists have +familiarised the world. Dalrymple's light eyes twinkled like polished +flints; here was high game worthy of his gun. He took the empty chair on +Mr. Sellwood's left.</p> + +<p>"I understand, sir, that you are fatally bitten with golf?" began the +squatter in his airiest manner. The other lit a cigarette with insolent +deliberation before replying.</p> + +<p>"I'm fond of the game," he said at length, "if that's what you mean."</p> + +<p>"That was precisely what I did mean. Pardon me if I used an +unparliamentary expression. I have read a great deal in your English +papers—with which I never permit myself to lose touch—of the +far-reaching ravages of the game. Certainly the disease must be +widespread when one finds a Cabinet Minister down with the—golf!"</p> + +<p>"We don't pronounce the <i>l</i>," Mr. Sellwood observed. "We call it +<i>goff</i>." For though in political life an imperturbable temper was one of +his most salient virtues, the Home Secretary was notoriously touchy on +the subject of his only game.</p> + +<p>Dalrymple laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"A sure symptom, my dear sir, of a thoroughly dangerous case! But pray +excuse my levity; I fear we become a little too addicted to chaff in the +uncivilised wilds. I am honestly most curious about the game. I'm an old +fogey myself, and I might like to take it up if it really has any +merits——"</p> + +<p>"It has many," put in Claude cheerily, to divert an attack which Mr. +Sell wood was quite certain to resent.</p> + +<p>"Has it?" said the squatter incredulously. "For the life of one I can't +see where those merits come in. To lay yourself out to hit a sitting +ball! I'd as soon shoot a roosting hen!"</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear!" cried Jack. "That's exactly what <i>I</i> say, Mr. Dalrymple."</p> + +<p>The discussion had in fact assumed the constituent elements of a +"foursome," which may have been the reason why the Home Secretary was +unable any longer to maintain the silence of dignified disdain.</p> + +<p>"I should like to take you out, the two of you," he said, "with a driver +and a ball between you. I should like to see which of you would hit that +sitting ball first, and how far!"</p> + +<p>"We'll take you on to-morrow!" exclaimed Jack.</p> + +<p>But the Home Secretary made no reply.</p> + +<p>"I'm not keen," remarked Dalrymple. "It can't be a first-class game."</p> + +<p>"You're hardly qualified to judge," snapped Sellwood, "since you've +never played."</p> + +<p>"Exactly why I <i>am</i> qualified. I'm not down with the disease."</p> + +<p>"Then pray let us adopt the Duke's suggestion, and play a foursome +to-morrow—like as we sit. Eh, Mr.—I beg your pardon, but I quite +forget your name?"</p> + +<p>"Dalrymple," replied the squatter; "and yours, once more?"</p> + +<p>"Look in Whitaker," growled the Home Secretary, rising; and he left the +table doubly angered by the weakness of his retort, where indeed it was +weak to have replied at all.</p> + +<p>Decidedly the squatter was no comfortable guest. Apart from his +monstrous freedom of speech and action, which might pass perhaps on a +bush station, but certainly not in an English country house, he was +continually falling foul of somebody. Now it was the butler, now a +fellow guest, and lastly a connection of his host, and one of Her +Majesty's Ministers into the bargain. In each case, to be sure, the +other side was primarily in the wrong. The butler was the worse for +drink; the <i>Parthenon</i> man had indulged in gratuitous abuse of his +friend; even Mr. Sellwood had taken amiss what was meant as pure chaff, +and had been the first to begin the game of downright rudeness at which +the old Australian had soon beaten him. Yet the fact remained that +Dalrymple was the moving spirit in each unpleasantness; he had been a +moving spirit since the moment he set foot in the house, and this was +exactly what the other guests resented. But it was becoming painfully +apparent that Jack himself would take nothing amiss; that he was +constitutionally unable to regard Dalrymple in any other light than that +of his old king, who could still do no wrong. And this being so, it was +impossible for another to complain.</p> + +<p>Indeed, when Mr. Sellwood joined the ladies, who happened to be in the +conservatory, with savage words upon his lips, his wife stuck up for the +maligned Colonist. That, however, was partly from the instinct of +conjugal opposition, and partly because Lady Caroline was herself afraid +of "this fellow Dalrymple," as her husband could call him fluently +enough behind his back. The other men were not long in joining the +indignant Minister. They had finished their cigarettes, but Jack had +donned his gorgeous smoking-cap by special request of Lady Caroline, +who beamed upon him and it from her chair.</p> + +<p>"Hallo! have you come in for that thing?" exclaimed Mr. Sellwood, who +was in the mood to hail with delight any target for hostile criticism. +"I always thought you intended it for Claude, my dear Caroline?"</p> + +<p>"It turned out to be a little too small for Claude," replied her +Ladyship sweetly.</p> + +<p>"Claude, you've had an escape," said the Home Secretary. "Jack, my boy, +you have my sympathy."</p> + +<p>"I don't require it, thank you, sir," laughed the Duke. "I'm proud of +myself, I tell you! This'd knock 'em up at Jumping Sandhills, wouldn't +it, Mr. Dalrymple?"</p> + +<p>"It would indeed: so the cap goes with the coronet, does it?" added the +squatter, but with such good-humour that it was impossible to take open +umbrage at his words. "I wonder how it would fit me?" And he lifted the +thing off Jack's head by the golden tassel, and dropped it upon his own.</p> + +<p>"Too small again," said Jack: indeed the purple monstrosity sat upon the +massive hairless head like a thimble on a billiard-ball.</p> + +<p>"And it doesn't suit you a bit," added Olivia, who was once more in a +simmer of indignation with her lover's exasperating friend.</p> + +<p>"No more would the coronet," replied Dalrymple, replacing the +smoking-cap on its owner's head. "By the way, Jack, where do you keep +your coronet?"</p> + +<p>"Where do I keep my coronet?" asked the Duke of his major-domo. "I've +never set eyes on it."</p> + +<p>"I fancy they have it at the bank," said Claude.</p> + +<p>"And much good it does you there!" exclaimed Dalrymple. "Shall I tell +you what I'd do with it if it were mine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, do," said Jack, smiling in advance.</p> + +<p>"Then come outside and you shall hear. I am afraid I have shocked your +friends sufficiently for one night. And there's a very fascinating +moon."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE CAT AND THE MOUSE</h3> + + +<p>"You're a lucky fellow," said the squatter as they sauntered down the +drive. "Give me another of those cigars; they are better than mine, +after all."</p> + +<p>"They ought to be," replied Jack complacently. "I told old Claude to pay +all he could for 'em."</p> + +<p>"He seems to have done so. What an income you must have!"</p> + +<p>"About fifteen bob a minute, so they tell me."</p> + +<p>"After a pound a week in the bush!"</p> + +<p>"It does sound rummy, doesn't it? After you with the match, sir."</p> + +<p>"It's incredible."</p> + +<p>"Yet it's astonishing how used you get to it in time—you'd be +surprised! At first the whole thing knocked me sideways; it was tucker I +couldn't digest. But once you take to the soft tack, there's nothing +like it in the world. You may guess who's made me take to it quicker +than I might have done!"</p> + +<p>Dalrymple shrugged his massive shoulders, and raised a contemplative eye +to the moon, that lay curled like a silver shaving in the lucid heavens.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I can guess," he said sardonically. "And mind you I've nothing +against the girl—I meant you were lucky there. The girl's all right—if +you must marry. I don't dislike a woman who'll show fight; and she +looked like showing it when I tried on that cracker-night-cap thing of +yours. Oh, certainly! If you were to marry, you couldn't have done +better; the girl's worth fifty of her mother, at any rate."</p> + +<p>"Fifty million!" cried Jack, somewhat warmly.</p> + +<p>"Fifty million I meant to say," and the squatter ran his arm through +that of his host. "Come, don't you mind <i>me</i>, Jack, my boy! You know +what an old heathen I am in those little matters; and we have lots of +other things to talk about, in any case."</p> + +<p>Jack was mollified in a moment.</p> + +<p>"Lots!" he cried. "I don't seem to have seen anything of you yet, and +I'm sure you haven't seen much of the place. Isn't it a place and a +half? Look at the terrace in the moonlight—and the spires—and the +windows—hundreds of 'em—and the lawn and the tank! Then there's the +inside; you've seen the hall; but I must show you the picture-gallery +and the State Apartments. Such pictures! They say it's one of the finest +private collections in the world; there's hardly one of them that isn't +by some old master or another. I've heard the pictures alone are worth +half a million of money!"</p> + +<p>"They are," said Dalrymple.</p> + +<p>"You've heard so too?"</p> + +<p>"Of course; my good fellow, your possessions are celebrated all the +world over; that's what you don't appear to have realised yet."</p> + +<p>"I can't," said Jack. "It puts me in a sick funk when I try! So it would +you if you were suddenly to come in for a windfall like mine—that is, +if you were a chap like me. But you aren't; you'd be the very man for +the billet."</p> + +<p>And Jack stepped back to admire his hero, who chuckled softly as he +smoked, standing at his full height, with both hands in his pockets, and +the moon like limelight on his shirt.</p> + +<p>"It's not a billet I should care about," said the squatter; "but it's +great fun to find you filling it so admirably——"</p> + +<p>"I don't; I wish I did," said Jack, throwing away the cigar which he had +lighted to keep his guest company.</p> + +<p>"You do, though. And if it isn't a rude question——" Dalrymple +hesitated, staring hard—</p> + +<p>"I daresay you're very happy in your new life?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I'm very happy <i>now</i>. None happier!"</p> + +<p>"But apart from the girl?"</p> + +<p>"You can't get apart from her; that's just it. If I'm to go on being +happy in my position, I'll have to learn to fill it without making +myself a laughing-stock; and the one person who can teach me will be my +wife."</p> + +<p>"I see. Then you begin to like your position for its own sake?"</p> + +<p>"That's so," replied Jack. He was paring a cake of very black tobacco +for the pipe which he had stuck between his teeth. Dalrymple watched him +with interest.</p> + +<p>"And yet," said the squatter, "you have neither acquired a taste for +your own most excellent cigars, nor conquered your addiction to the vile +twist we used to keep on the station!"</p> + +<p>"Well, and that's so, too," laughed Jack. "You must give a fellow time, +Mr. Dalrymple!"</p> + +<p>"Do you know what I thought when I met you yesterday?" continued +Dalrymple, turning his back to the moon, and looking very hard at Jack +while he sucked at his cigar with his thick, strong lips. "Do you know +how you struck me then? I thought you'd neither acquired a taste for +your new life nor conquered your affection for the old. That's how you +struck me in Devenholme yesterday."</p> + +<p>Jack made no haste to reply. He was not at all astonished at the +impression he had created the day before. But his old boss was still the +one man before whom he was anxious to display a modicum of dignity, even +at the expense of a pose. And it is noteworthy that he had neither +confided in Dalrymple concerning his dilemma of the previous day, nor +yet so much as mentioned in his hearing the model hut among the pines.</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder," he said at length; "it was the way I was likely to +strike you just then. Don't you see? I hadn't got it out at the time!"</p> + +<p>"So it was only the girl that was on your nerves?" said Dalrymple in +disgust.</p> + +<p>"And wasn't that enough? If I'm a different man to-day, you know the +reason why. As for being happy in my position, and all that, I'm simply +in paradise at this moment. Think of it! Think of me as I was, and look +at me as I am; think of my little hut on Carara, and look behind you at +Maske Towers!"</p> + +<p>They were on the terrace now, leaning idly against the balustrade. +Dalrymple turned and looked: like Melrose Abbey, the grand grey building +was at its best in the "pale moonlight"; the lichened embrasures met the +soft sky softly; the piercing spires were sheathed in darkness; and the +mountainous pile wore one uniform tint, from which the lighted windows +stood out like pictures on a wall. Dalrymple looked, and looked again; +then his hard eyes fell upon the rude ecstasy of the face beside him; +and they were less hard than before.</p> + +<p>"You may make yourself easy," said the squatter. "I shan't stay long."</p> + +<p>"What the blazes do you mean?" cried Jack. "I want you to stay as long +as ever you can."</p> + +<p>"You may; your friends do not."</p> + +<p>"Hang my friends!"</p> + +<p>"I should enjoy nothing better; but it isn't practicable. Besides, +they're a good deal more than your friends now; they are—her people. +And they don't like the man who was once your boss; he offends their +pride——"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dalrymple——"</p> + +<p>"Enough said, my boy. I know my room, and I'm going to turn in. We'll +talk it over again in the morning; but my mind is made up. Good-night!"</p> + +<p>"I'll come in with you."</p> + +<p>"As you like."</p> + +<p>They parted at the visitor's door.</p> + +<p>"You'll disappoint me cruel if you <i>do</i> go," said Jack, shaking hands. +"I'm quite sure you're mistaken about my friends; Olivia, for one, +thinks no end of you. However, as you say, we can talk it over in the +morning—when you've got to see the pictures as well, and don't you +forget it! So long, sir, till then."</p> + +<p>"So long, Jack. I'll be your man in the morning, at all events. And I +shall look forward to a great treat in your famous picture-gallery."</p> + +<p>But Jack was engaged; and he realised it in the morning as he had not +done before. Olivia lured him from the squatter's side; she had every +intention of so doing. The pair went for a little stroll. Neither wore a +watch; the little stroll lengthened into miles; it carried them beyond +the sound of the stable clock; they forgot the world, and were absurdly +late for lunch. Lady Caroline Sellwood had taken it upon herself to +conduct the meal without them. Dalrymple was in his place; his +expression was grimly cynical; he had seen the pictures, under Claude +Lafont's skilled escort, and, with the ladies' permission, he would now +leave the table, as he had still to put in his things.</p> + +<p>His things! Was he going, then? Jack's knife and fork fell with a +clatter.</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew," said Claude. "He is going up to town by the +afternoon train. I have ordered the landau, as I thought you would like +him to go as he came."</p> + +<p>When Jack heard this he, too, left the table, and bounded upstairs. He +found Dalrymple on the point of packing his dress-clothes, with the +assistance of none other than Stebbings. Jack glared at the disrated +butler, and ordered him out of the room.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have done that," remarked the squatter, pausing in his work. +"The fellow came to know if he could do anything for me, with tears in +his eyes, and he has made me a handsome apology. He didn't ask me to beg +him off, but I mean to try my luck in that way before I go."</p> + +<p>"You mustn't go!"</p> + +<p>"I must. Will you forgive the old man?"</p> + +<p>"Not if you clear."</p> + +<p>"My good fellow, this is unreasonable——"</p> + +<p>"So it is, Mr. Dalrymple, on <i>your</i> part," rejoined Jack warmly. "It's +too bad of you. Bother Stebbings! I shan't be hard on him, you may be +sure; and you mustn't be hard on me. Surely you can make allowances for +a chap who's engaged to a girl like mine? I <i>did</i> want to speak to you +this morning; but she came first. I want to speak to you now—more than +you suppose. Mr. Dalrymple, I wasn't straight with you last night; not +altogether. But I can't suffer steering crooked; it gives me the hump; +and as sure as I do it I've got to go over the ground again. You are the +man I owe my all to; I can't end up crooked with <i>you</i>!"</p> + +<p>Dalrymple sat on the bedside in his shirt-sleeves; he had turned up the +cuffs; his strong and shapely wrists lay along his thighs; and his grey +eyebrows, but not his lips, asked for more.</p> + +<p>"I mean," continued Jack, "about what was bothering me that day I ran +against you in Devenholme. It was only the day before yesterday, but +Lord! it seems like the week before last."</p> + +<p>And with that he unfolded, with much rapid detail, the whole episode of +Matthew Hunt, from the morning in the stable-yard to the midnight at the +hut. The story within that story was also told with particular care and +circumstance; but long before the end was reached Dalrymple had emptied +his bag upon the bed, and had himself rung to countermand the carriage. +He was interested; he would stay another day.</p> + +<p>Downstairs in the drawing-room the Sellwood family and Claude Lafont +were even then congratulating themselves upon the imminent departure of +the unpopular guest. Their faces were so many sights when Jack entered +in the highest spirits to tell them of his successful appeal to the +better feelings of "good old Dalrymple," who after all was not going to +leave them just yet. Jack was out again in an instant; and they next saw +him, from the drawing-room windows, going in the direction of the hut +with his odious old friend at his side. Whereupon Claude Lafont said a +strong thing, for him; and the most sensible of engaged young women +retired in tears to her room.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing you must let me do," Dalrymple was saying; "if you +don't, I shall insist. You must let me have the privilege of sorting +that scoundrel, Mark Hunt."</p> + +<p>"Matthew," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Matthew, then. I knew it was one of you evangelists."</p> + +<p>"What would you do?" asked the Duke.</p> + +<p>"See that he annoyed you no more. And I'll guarantee that he doesn't if +you'll leave him to me."</p> + +<p>"I didn't want to clear them out——"</p> + +<p>"I think you must."</p> + +<p>"Or to prosecute; it's so public, and a bit revengeful too."</p> + +<p>"There I agree with you. I'm not even sure that you'd get a conviction. +It would be difficult, in any case, and would make a public scandal of +it, as you say."</p> + +<p>"Then I will leave him to you. You're the smartest man I know, Mr. +Dalrymple, and always have been. What you do will be right. I'll bother +my head no more about it. Besides, anything to keep you with us a few +days longer!"</p> + +<p>Dalrymple shrugged his shoulders, but Jack did not see the gesture, for +he was leading the way through the pines. A moment later they were at +the hut.</p> + +<p>The hut amused the squatter. He called it a colourable imitation. But it +did not delight him as it had delighted Jack; the master bushman failed +to share his old hand's sentimental regard for all that pertained to the +bush. Dalrymple sat on the bunk and smoked a cigar, a cynical spectator +of some simple passages between Jack and his cats. Livingstone was +exhibited with great pride; he had put on flesh in the old country; at +which the squatter remarked that had he stayed on Carara, he would have +put on an ounce of lead.</p> + +<p>"You're a wonderful man, Jack!" he exclaimed at length. "I wouldn't have +believed a fellow <i>could</i> take a windfall as you have done, if I hadn't +seen it with my own eyes. I used to think of you a good deal after you +had gone. I thought of you playing the deuce to any extent, but I must +say I little dreamt of your building a bush hut to get back to your old +way of life! I pictured the town crimson and the country carmine—both +painted by you—but I never imagined <i>this</i>!"</p> + +<p>And he looked round the hut in his amused, sardonic way; but there was a +ring—or perhaps it was only a suspicion—of disappointment in his tone. +The next words were merely perplexed.</p> + +<p>"And yet," added Dalrymple, "you profess yourself well pleased with your +lot!"</p> + +<p>"So I am—now."</p> + +<p>"I begin to wish I hadn't changed my mind about going this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Why, on earth?"</p> + +<p>"Because I also begin—to envy you! Come, let's make tracks for the +house; I shall have huts enough to look at when I go back to the place +that you need never see again."</p> + +<p>"But I mean to see it again," said Jack as he locked up. "I intend to +take my wife out, one of these days; we shall expect to come on a long +visit to Carara; and the greatest treat you could give me would be to +let me ride my old boundaries and camp in my old hut for a week!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense; you stay where you are," was the squatter's only comment. He +seemed depressed; his cynical aplomb had quite deserted him. They +returned in silence to the house.</p> + +<p>A shabby-looking vehicle stood in front of the porch; the man said that +he had brought a gentleman from Devenholme, and was to wait. The Duke +and Dalrymple mounted the steps together. The first person they +encountered in the hall was Claude Lafont, looking strangely scared; but +a new-comer was in the act of taking off his coat; and, as he turned his +face, Dalrymple and Jack started simultaneously. Both knew the man. It +was Cripps the lawyer. And he, too, looked pale, nervous, and alarmed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>"LOVE THE DEBT"</h3> + + +<p>Olivia was not a little tired; this was the true explanation of the +tears which had driven her upstairs. It was also the one excuse she saw +for herself when she thought the matter over in her own room. Jack had +devoted the whole morning to her; it was the squatter's turn; and, of +course, Jack must invite whom he liked to stay as long as he pleased. To +think of limiting his freedom in any such matter at the very outset of +their engagement! Yet she had been guilty of that thought; but she was +tired; she would lie down for an hour.</p> + +<p>She lay down for two or three. Excitement had worn her out. It was after +five when she awoke and went downstairs. As she did so Claude and Cripps +crossed the hall and put on their hats. She hailed Claude.</p> + +<p>"What have you done with Jack?"</p> + +<p>"I think you'll find him in the little study at the end of the +library."</p> + +<p>"Thanks."</p> + +<p>Olivia glanced at Cripps. She had never met him. She wondered who he +was, and why Claude did not introduce him to her, and what made both of +them so glum. They hurried out of the house as though they were afraid +of her. What could it mean? She would find out from Jack; she felt a +renewed right to him now, and thought of hints, as she went, for Mr. +Dalrymple, if they were still together. But Jack was alone; he was +sitting in the dejected attitude engendered by a peculiarly long and low +arm-chair.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Olivia briskly.</p> + +<p>"Well?" responded Jack; but he looked at her without rising and without +a smile; and both omissions were unlike the lover and the man.</p> + +<p>"I half expected to find Mr. Dalrymple with you. I'm so glad he isn't! +I—it's my turn, I think!"</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen Dalrymple for over an hour," said Jack, with his heavy, +absent eyes upon her all the time. "I wonder where he is?"</p> + +<p>Olivia would not ask him what the matter was; she preferred to find out +for herself, and then tell <i>him</i>. She looked about her. On a salver were +a decanter and three wine-glasses; one was unused; and on the floor +there lay an end of pink tape. She picked and held it up between finger +and thumb.</p> + +<p>"Lawyers!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've had a solicitor here."</p> + +<p>"Not to make your will!"</p> + +<p>"No. On a—on a local matter. Don't look at me like that! It's nothing +much: nothing new, at all events."</p> + +<p>"But you are worried."</p> + +<p>She knelt beside his chair, and rested her elbows on the arm, studying +his pale set profile. His eyes met hers no longer.</p> + +<p>"I am," he admitted; "but that's my own fault. As I say—it's nothing +new!"</p> + +<p>"Who was the lawyer?"</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't know him."</p> + +<p>"I mean to know who he was. Mr. Cripps?"</p> + +<p>Jack did not answer. He rolled his head from side to side against the +back of the chair. His eyes remained fast upon the opposite wall.</p> + +<p>"It is—the old trouble," Olivia whispered. "The trouble of two nights +ago!"</p> + +<p>His silence told her much. The drops upon his forehead added more. Yet +her voice was calm and undismayed; it enabled him at last to use his +own.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" he said hoarsely. "Claude made a mistake. It was true after +all!"</p> + +<p>"Hunt's story, darling?"</p> + +<p>"Hunt's story. There <i>was</i> an English marriage as well as an Australian +one. He had a wife at each side of the world! Claude made a mistake. He +went to the wrong church at Chelsea—to a church by the river. He had +always thought it was the parish church. It is not. St. Luke's is the +parish church, and there in the book they have the marriage down in +black and white. Cripps found it; but he first found it somewhere else, +where he says they have the records of every marriage in the country +since 1850. He would have looked there the day Claude was up, but he +left it too late. He looked yesterday, and found it, sure enough, on the +date Hunt gave. October 22d, 1853. And he has been to Chelsea and seen +it there. So there's no mistake about it this time; and you see how we +stand."</p> + +<p>"I see. My poor boy!"</p> + +<p>"It's Claude after all. Poor chap, he's awfully cut up. He blames +himself so for the mistake between the two churches; but Cripps tells me +it was the most natural mistake in the world. Chelsea Old Church—that +was where Claude went. And he says he'll never forgive himself."</p> + +<p>"But I forgive him," said Olivia, with the first sign of emotion in her +voice. She was holding one of his hands; her other was in his hair. +Still he stared straight in front of him.</p> + +<p>"Of course you forgive him," he said gently. "When you come to think of +it, there's nothing to forgive. Claude didn't make the facts. He only +failed to discover them."</p> + +<p>"I am glad he <i>did</i> fail," whispered Olivia.</p> + +<p>"Glad? You can't be glad! Why do you say that?"</p> + +<p>And now he turned his face to her, in his astonishment; and suddenly it +was she who could not meet his gaze.</p> + +<p>"How can you be glad?" he continued to demand.</p> + +<p>"Because—otherwise—you would never—have—spoken——"</p> + +<p>"Spoken? Of course I shouldn't! It's a thousand pities I did. It makes +it all the harder—now!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Surely you see?"</p> + +<p>They had risen with a common instinct. The ice was broken; there were no +more shamefaced glances. The girl stood proudly at her full height.</p> + +<p>"I see nothing. You say our engagement makes this all the harder for +you; it <i>should</i> be just the opposite."</p> + +<p>"Will nothing make you see?" cried Jack. "Oh, how am I to say it? It—it +can't go on—our engagement!"</p> + +<p>"And why not?"</p> + +<p>"I am nothing—nobody—a nameless——"</p> + +<p>"What does it matter?" interrupted Olivia passionately. "Do you really +think it was the name I wanted after all? You pay me a high compliment! +I know exactly what you mean—know exactly what this means to you. To me +it makes no difference at all. You are the man you have always been; you +are the man—I—love."</p> + +<p>His eyes glistened.</p> + +<p>"God bless you for saying so! You are the one to love a man the better +when he's down on his luck. I know that. Yet we must never——"</p> + +<p>"Never what?"</p> + +<p>"Marry."</p> + +<p>"Not—marry?" She stared at him in sheer amazement. "Not when we +promised—only yesterday? You may break your word if you like. Mine I +would never break!"</p> + +<p>"Then I must. It is not to be thought of any more. Surely you see? It's +not that I have lost the money and the title; oh! you must see what it +is!"</p> + +<p>"Of course I see. But I don't allow the objection."</p> + +<p>"Your people would never hear of it now; and quite right too."</p> + +<p>"My people! I am of age. I have a little money of my own, enough for us +both. I can do exactly what I like. Besides, I'm not so sure about my +people; you don't know my father as I know him."</p> + +<p>"He is a man of the world. He would not hear of it."</p> + +<p>"Then I must act for myself."</p> + +<p>"You must not!"</p> + +<p>"I must. Do you think I am only a fair-weather girl? I gave you my +promise when all was different. I would rather die than break it now."</p> + +<p>"But I release you! I set you free! Everything has altered. Oh, can't +you put yourself in my place? I should deserve shooting if I married you +now. I release you because I must."</p> + +<p>"And I refuse to be released."</p> + +<p>They regarded one another with hopeless faces. Their eyes were dim with +love—yet here they stood apart. This was the dead-lock. Nothing could +come of this contest of honour against honour, of one unselfish love +against another. It was like striking flint upon flint, and steel upon +steel. A gong sounded in the distance; it was the signal to dress for +dinner. Olivia beat the floor impatiently with one foot; her lips +trembled; her eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"If you cared for me," she cried passionately, "half as much as you said +you did, you wouldn't be so ready to lose me now!"</p> + +<p>"If I cared less," he answered, "I would take you at your word—God +knows how you tempt me to!—and you should be my wife in spite of all. I +would mind less how I dragged you down—what became of us in the end. +But I love you too well to spoil your life. Don't you know that, +Olivia?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes! I know it! I know—I know——"</p> + +<p>He took her in his arms at last. He was shaking all over. Her head lay +back upon his shoulder. He smoothed the hair from the high, white +forehead; he looked tenderly and long into the wild wet eyes. His arm +tightened about her; he could not help it.</p> + +<p>"Sweetheart," he faltered, "you must help me to be strong. It is hard +enough as it is. Only help me, or it will be far harder. Help me now—at +dinner. I am going to take the head of the table for the last time. Help +me by being bright! We can talk afterwards. There is time enough. Only +help me now!"</p> + +<p>"I will do my best," whispered Olivia, disengaging herself from his +trembling arms. "I will try to be as brave as you. Oh, there is no one +in the world like you! Yes, do let us talk about it afterwards; there is +so much to say and to decide. But I give you fair warning: I shall +never—never—never let you go. Darling, you will need me now! And I +cannot give you up—much less after this. Shall I tell you why? You have +gone the wrong way to work; you have made me love you more than ever—my +hero—my darling—my all!"</p> + +<p>She stood a moment at the open door, kissing her hand to him—a rosy +flush upon her face—the great tears standing in her eyes. Then she was +gone. He watched her down the length of the library; the stained windows +dappled her, as she passed, with rubies and sapphires, huge and watery; +at the farther door she turned, and kissed her hand again—and fled.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE BAR SINISTER</h3> + + +<p>It was a close night; the men were smoking their cigarettes on the +terrace. Cripps was one of them; he was staying the night; he wished +himself a hundred miles away. But Francis Freke took him in hand; they +disappeared together, and a minute later the billiard-room windows burnt +out of the night.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood was left a little in the cold. Claude and Jack were pacing +the terrace with linked arms and lowered voices, and he wished to speak +to Jack. Mr. Sellwood knew all. He was deeply sorry for Jack, for whom +he had done his best at dinner by talking incessantly from grace to +grace. The Home Secretary could be immensely entertaining when he chose. +He had chosen to-night, as much for his daughter's sake as for Jack's. +Olivia was his favourite child.</p> + +<p>But then Dalrymple had not been there to heckle and insult his superior; +he was gone nobody knew where. Not that he was gone for good, the luck +stopped short of that. It appeared, however, that he had been excluded +by a majority of two to one from the triangular council in the Poet's +Corner. Since then he had not been seen; but his bag was still in his +room, and it was only another of his liberties to absent himself from +dinner without a word.</p> + +<p>Olivia was playing the piano in the drawing-room. The windows were wide +open, and Mr. Sellwood listened with his white head bent in sorrowful +perplexity. The execution was faulty, as usual, because Olivia was an +idle musician; but there was feeling in her fingers, she had a certain +"touch," and her attempts were better to listen to than some +performances. To-night they went to her father's heart. The imperfect +music spoke to him with the eloquence of broken words. It told him of +his child's necessity for action in the stress of her anguish. It told +him also of her love; and here was this poor fellow so taken up with +Claude that it was impossible to say to him what must be said as soon as +possible.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood gave it up for the present, and went to look for his wife.</p> + +<p>"There's only one more thing, old man," Jack was saying, "and then I'm +done. I don't want to load you up to the eyes with messages and all +that. But I should like you to take care of this little bit of a key, +and give it to her as soon as ever you think fit. It belongs to that +chain bracelet business I got her for her birthday. As you know, I first +wanted to give her a ring, but she wouldn't have it; and when I changed +it for the bracelet, which cost about half as many shillings as the ring +did pounds, I couldn't look poor Hopgood in the face. It was such a sell +for him. So we were going back to-morrow to get that ring for our +engagement, and to look old Hopgood in the face. That was one of our +plans; we made so many when we were out this morning! I never knew a +morning go at such a lick. But I remember it all—I remember everything. +I've started going over every word we've said, so that I shan't forget +anything. There's not such a vast lot to keep in your head. Only a day +and a half of an engagement; but I've got to live on those thirty odd +hours for the rest of my time."</p> + +<p>Claude looked away; the drawing-room windows were a blur to his eyes; +and Olivia's erratic rendering of Chopin filled in the pause. It was the +incoherent expression of unutterable emotion. Jack listened also, +nodding time with his head. The calmness and the nobility of despair +had settled on his spirit, as on that of a captain going down with his +ship.</p> + +<p>He talked on, and his tone was entirely his own. It was neither bitter, +querulous, nor wilfully pathetic; but chiefly contemplative, with a +reminiscence here and the discovery of some consolation there. He +recalled the humours of the situation, and laughed outright but +staccato, as at remembered sayings of the newly dead. Beyond the loss of +Olivia he had little to regret; even that would make another man of him +for ever and a day. (So he talked.) And his English summer would be +something to look back on always; it was pleasure to the good, which +nothing could undo or take away; the experience of a second lifetime had +been crammed into those few weeks. Let him remember that when he got +back to the bush. Suppose he had never left the bush? Then he would +never have seen the old country, and seen it (as he said) from the front +seats; he would never have found his own soul, nor known the love of a +lovely girl, nor the joy of life as he knew it now. So he was really to +be congratulated to the end; there was no occasion to pity him at all.</p> + +<p>Claude, however, was not comforted; he had never been so wretched in +his life. And he showed it so plainly, and was withal so conscious of +the display, that he felt quite sure that Jack's ingenious consolations +were not meant entirely for Jack. He was ashamed of himself on this, as +on every other score. He was to blame for the whole business, since it +was he who had scoured Australia for the Red Marquis's son. Nor could he +believe the other's protestations of personal solace and resignation; +they had been made with wistful glances at the lighted windows, glances +that Claude had seen as they both leant back against the balustrade.</p> + +<p>"Aha!" said Jack suddenly. "Here are Mr. Sellwood and Lady Caroline +coming to have it out with me. Better leave me to them, old man."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Claude, "but we have lots more to talk about. Where +can I find you, and when?"</p> + +<p>Jack hesitated; the Sellwoods were within earshot as he whispered, +"Twelve o'clock at the hut!" And Claude walked away, with his hand +aching from a sudden and most crushing grip.</p> + +<p>"My wife and I would like to speak to you," said the Home Secretary, +halting in front of Jack with Lady Caroline on his arm. "My dear +fellow, we are so very sorry for you: we know everything."</p> + +<p>"Everything!" echoed Lady Caroline, with slow dramatic force.</p> + +<p>"Thanks to Jack," put in her husband sharply; "it was he who gave +instructions that we should be told at once. It was so very good of you, +Jack, my boy, to think of us in your trouble. You have behaved +splendidly all through; that's what makes us all feel this so keenly; +and I am quite sure that you will behave nobly now. My dear fellow, it +isn't the fact of your not being the Duke of St. Osmund's that forces me +to take this tone; it's the unfortunate circumstances of your birth, +which have now been proved, I am afraid, beyond the possibility of that +doubt which nobody would welcome more thankfully than myself. We are all +very fond of you. I for one have learned to admire you too. But this +most miserable discovery must alter everything except our feeling +towards you. We are bound to consider our daughter."</p> + +<p>"Our youngest child," said Lady Caroline. "Our ewe lamb!"</p> + +<p>"Of course," replied Jack. "I see what you mean. What do you want me to +do?"</p> + +<p>"It may seem very hard," said Mr. Sellwood, "but we wish you to release +Olivia from her engagement."</p> + +<p>"To release her instantly!" cried Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"I have done that already," said Jack with some disdain. "Did you really +think, sir, that I should wait to be told?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood muttered an oath as he held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"I have made a mistake; I hope you will forgive me," he said; and his +hand was crushed in its turn.</p> + +<p>"And what did she say?" asked Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"She refused to be released."</p> + +<p>"I knew it! George, the girl is mad. And pray what do you propose to do +now?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think I ought to do?"</p> + +<p>"Ought?" cried Lady Caroline. "I think you ought to go away and never +see her again!"</p> + +<p>"Or, rather, let us take her away," said Mr. Sellwood. "It may seem hard +and abominable, but there's no doubt that from our point of view a +separation is the most desirable course."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> hard," replied Jack; "but, as it happens, it's the very plan I +hit on for myself. Not a word, sir, if you please. You're perfectly +right. She could not marry me now; and I would not marry her, knowing +what I am. It's out of the question altogether. But Olivia is quite on +to do it—at least she thought she was before dinner. I haven't seen her +since. I'm not going to see her again. She's just the sort of angel who +would swap heaven for hell to stand by the man she was fond of! But she +mustn't be let. I agree with you there. It was the first thing I thought +of myself. I made up my mind to clear out; and, if you want to know, I'm +off now."</p> + +<p>"Now!" cried Mr. Sellwood.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Yes, now; there's no more to be said; and the sooner I get it over the +better for all concerned."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear fellow, where are you going, and what do you intend to do? +Have you made any plans? I wouldn't do anything in a hurry if I were +you; we're a family party here; and all our wits put together would +surely be better than yours! We might fix up something between us."</p> + +<p>Jack shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You're very kind," he said; "but it's all fixed up. I'm going straight +back to the bush. This is Thursday; I can't catch to-morrow's steamer, +but I can do better. I can take the overland express to-morrow night, +and join last week's boat at Brindisi. I'm going to sleep the +night—never mind where. I don't want old Claude on my tracks; I've said +good-bye to him too, though he doesn't know it either. He wants to do +too much for me altogether. If you stay up with him till twelve, he'll +tell you he's got to look me up at the hut; and you may tell him, sir, +if you'll be so good, to sit tight, for he won't find me <i>there</i>. Say +good-bye to him for me, and tell him he's been the best mate I've ever +struck; but don't let him come up and see me off. Cripps I'm to meet in +town. I'm going to let them finance me out again, since they fetched me +home in the beginning; but not another red cent will I touch. Why should +I? I've had a good run for my money—that is, for theirs. I'm no worse +off than I was before. I should even be sure of the same old billet on +Carara that used to suit me well enough, if I only could see Mr. +Dalrymple before I start; but I'm bothered if I know where he's got to."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood was heavy with thought; his wife had left them; and he had +heard a sob in her throat as she turned away. He had an inkling of her +treatment of this poor fellow; he did not know everything, but he knew +enough to hail his wife's sob with a thankful thrill. So there was a +heart in her somewhere still! He had thought otherwise for some years; +in another moment he doubted it once more. Lady Caroline appeared at the +drawing-room window, shut it, and drew down the blind. And yet—and yet +her husband had himself been wishing for somebody to do that very thing!</p> + +<p>Olivia was still at the piano, and her performance had sounded a little +too near at hand until now. It was near enough still; but the shutting +of the window deadened the sound. Chopin had merged into Mendelssohn. +Olivia happened to be note-perfect in one or two of the Lieder. Her +father had never heard her play them so well. But Jack had no music in +his soul—could not whistle two bars in tune—and though, even while +speaking, he listened visibly, it was not to the music as music, but to +the last sound of Olivia he was ever to hear. Her footstep in the +distance would have done as well.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't go to-night, old fellow," the Home Secretary said at length. +"I see no point in it. To-morrow would be time enough."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you must think I find it easy work!" exclaimed Jack, a little +bitterly for once. "It's not so easy as all that: it's got to be done at +once, when you're screwed up to it, or it may never come off at all. +Don't you try to keep me; don't let anybody else try either! Let me go +while I'm on to go—alone. I might take it different to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>He spoke hoarsely; the voice was as significant as the words. Mr. +Sellwood was impressed by both; he followed the other to the nearest +flight of steps leading down to the lawn.</p> + +<p>"Let me come with you," he urged. "Surely there is something one can do! +And I've never seen the hut; I should like to."</p> + +<p>"Wait till I've gone," was the reply. "I want you to stand in my tracks +and block anybody from following me. Head them another way! Only give me +quarter of an hour to clear out of the hut, and another quarter's start, +and I'm—and I'm——"</p> + +<p>He lost himself in a sudden absence of mind. The music had stopped, and +the night seemed insolently still. Jack was half-way down the steps; the +Home Secretary leaned over the balustrade above. Jack reached up his +hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," he said.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood, hesitating, kept his hand. The window that had been shut +was thrown up again.</p> + +<p>"Papa, is that you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood had turned round.</p> + +<p>"And where is Jack?"</p> + +<p>"Not here," whispered Jack.</p> + +<p>"Not here," repeated Mr. Sellwood; and, looking behind him, he found +that he had spoken the truth.</p> + +<p>"Then I'm coming down to you, and you must help me——"</p> + +<p>Jack lost the rest as he ran. He thought he heard his own name again, +but he was not sure. He stopped under the nearest tree. Mercifully there +was no moon. Olivia could not have seen him, for he himself could see no +more of the Towers than the lighted windows and their reflections upon +the terrace. On that dim stage the silhouette of Mr. Sellwood was still +discernible: another joined it: the two figures became one: and in the +utter stillness not only the girl's sobs but her father's broken words +were audible under the tree.</p> + +<p>Jack fled.</p> + +<p>He ran hard to the hut, and lighted it up as it had never been lighted +before. He cut up a candle in half-inch sections, and stuck them all +over with their own grease. Thoroughness was an object as well as +despatch; nothing must be missed; but his first act was to change his +clothes. He put on the ready-made suit and the wideawake in which he had +landed; he had kept them in the hut. Then he pulled from under the bunk +the cage his cats had travelled in, and he bundled the cats into it once +more. Lastly he rolled up his swag, less neatly, perhaps, than of old, +but with the blue blanket outermost as before, and the little straps +reefed round it and buckled tight. He would want these things in the +bush; besides, the whim was upon him to go exactly as he had come. Only +one item of his original impedimenta he decided to leave behind: the old +bush saddle would be a needless encumbrance; but with his swag, and his +cats, and his wideawake, he set forth duly, after blowing out all the +candle ends.</p> + +<p>The night seemed darker than ever; neither moon nor star was to be seen, +and Jack had to stop and consider when he got outside. He desired to +strike a straight line to the gates; he knew how they lay from the hut, +though he had never been over the ground before. To a bushman, however, +even without a star to help him, such a task could present no +difficulties. He computed the distance at something less than a mile; +but in Australia he had gone as the crow flies through league upon +league of untrodden scrub. Out there he had enjoyed the reputation of +being "a good bushman," and he meant to enjoy it again.</p> + +<p>But his head was hot with other thoughts, and he was out of practice. +Instead of hitting the wall, and following it up to the gates, as he +intended, he erred the other way, and came out upon the drive at no +great distance from the house. This was a false start, indeed, and a +humiliation also; but his thoughts had strayed back to Olivia, and it +was as if his feet had followed their lead. He would think of her no +more to-night.</p> + +<p>The drive was undesirable, for obvious reasons; still it was the safest +policy to keep to it now, and the chances were that he would meet +nobody. Yet he did; a footstep first, and then the striking of a match, +came to his ears as he was nearing the gates. He crept under the trees. +The match was struck again, and yet again, before it lit. Then Jack came +out of hiding, and strode forward without further qualms, for the flame +was lighting the cigar and illumining the face of his friend Dalrymple.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, sir!" began Jack, "I'd given you up."</p> + +<p>"Why, Jack, is that you? I can't see an inch front of my cigar," said +the squatter, as the match burnt itself out on the gravel where it had +been thrown.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's me; where have you been?"</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Mine first," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"All right. I've been talking to Master Hunt. <i>Now</i> where are you +going?"</p> + +<p>"Back to Australia!"</p> + +<p>Jack waited for an exclamation; for some seconds there was none; then +the squatter laughed softly to himself.</p> + +<p>"I thought as much!" said he. "I knew exactly what the lawyer came to +say, for I saw it in his face. Now tell me, and we'll see if I'm right."</p> + +<p>And it appeared that he was, by the way in which he kept nodding his +head as Jack told him all. Meanwhile they had retired under the trees, +and by the red end of his cigar the squatter had seen Jack's wideawake; +using his cigar as a lantern he had examined the cage of cats; whereon +his face would have proved a sufficiently severe commentary had there +been any other light for Jack to see it by.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Dalrymple, "stand tight. <i>I've</i> got something to tell <i>you</i>, +my boy!" And he told it in the fewest whispered words.</p> + +<p>Jack was speechless.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! I don't believe it," he cried when he found his tongue.</p> + +<p>"But I'm in a position to prove it," replied the squatter. "I'll give +you a particular or two as we walk back to the house. What! you +hesitate? Come, come; surely my word is good enough for that! Do be +sensible; leave your infernal cats where they are, and come you along +with me!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>DE MORTUIS</h3> + + +<p>The Home Secretary had never spent a more uncomfortable hour. His +favourite daughter had stanched her tears, and gone straight to the root +of the very delicate matter at issue between them. Much as her tears had +depressed him, however, Mr. Sellwood preferred them to the subsequent +attitude. It was too independent for his old-fashioned notions, and yet +it made him think all the more of Olivia. Indeed she was her father's +child in argument—spirited and keen and fair. His point of view she +took for granted, and proceeded to expound her own. Much that she said +was unanswerable; a little made him fidget—for between the sexes there +is no such shyness as that which a father finds in his heart towards his +grown-up girls. But a certain bluntness of speech was not the least +refreshing trait in Olivia's downright character, and decidedly this was +not a matter to be glossed over with synonyms for a spade. She wanted +to know how the circumstances of the birth affected the value of the +man—and so forth. Mr. Sellwood replied as a man of the world, and +detested his replies. But the worst was his guilty knowledge of Jack's +flight. This made him detest himself; it made him lie; and it filled him +with a relief greater than his surprise when voices came out of the +darkness of the drive, and one of them was Jack's.</p> + +<p>Olivia ran forward.</p> + +<p>"At last! Oh, Jack, where <i>have</i> you been?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood never heard the answer; he was bristling at the touch of +Dalrymple, who had led him aside.</p> + +<p>"Entirely my doing," explained the squatter; "but I can justify it. I +mean to do so at once. Am I right in understanding the bar sinister to +be your only objection to our friend?"</p> + +<p>"You may put it so," said Mr. Sellwood shortly.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall have the pleasure of removing the objection: the bar +doesn't exist."</p> + +<p>"Your grounds for thinking so, Mr. Dalrymple?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think. I know. And I'm here to prove what I know. Good heavens, +do you suppose he was no more to me than one of my ordinary station +hands? He was the son—at all events, the stepson—of one of my oldest +friends."</p> + +<p>"The stepson! May I ask the name of your friend?"</p> + +<p>"It is unnecessary. You have guessed it. I have a good deal to explain. +Where can we go? I should like Lafont and Cripps to hear what I've got +to say. Cripps especially—he will be able to check half my facts."</p> + +<p>"I think we ought all to hear them," remarked Sellwood; "we are all +interested and concerned."</p> + +<p>"You mean the ladies? I would rather not; you can tell them afterwards; +and as to the young lady, you may make your mind easy about her. If that +was the only obstacle, I undertake to remove it. You can afford to trust +her out of your sight."</p> + +<p>"I shall mind my own business," snapped the Home Secretary; +nevertheless, he led the way indoors with no more than a glance towards +Olivia and her lover, who were still within hail; and five minutes +later, as many gentlemen were empanelled in the billiard-room. Claude +and Cripps and Mr. Sellwood occupied the couches at one end; Francis +Freke palpitated in a corner; and Dalrymple leant against the table, his +legs crossed, his arms folded, a quiet smile upon his face. He was +waiting for a clock over the chimney-piece to finish striking; the hour +was eleven.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen," he began, "I shall not detain you many minutes. I +have certain statements to make, and any proofs that you may want I +shall be happy to supply to-morrow or any time you like. Those +statements will ignore, as far as possible, my own relations with the +notorious Lord Maske. These I shall explain later, and you will then +understand why I have hitherto held my peace concerning them. I have +known all along that our friend outside—shall we call him John +Dillamore?—was not and never could be the Duke of St. Osmund's; and +though Mr. Cripps may look as black as his boots, he never consulted my +opinion when he took John Dillamore away from my station, and it was no +business of mine to interfere. Mr. Cripps seemed sufficiently positive +about the matter; and, knowing what I know, I really don't blame Mr. +Cripps. But this by the way. I shall first confine myself to those +incidents in the Marquis's career, of which, occurring as they did at +the antipodes, and as long ago as the fifties, very little has hitherto +been known here in England. And I repeat that I shall afterwards be +prepared to prove every word I am about to say.</p> + +<p>"The Marquis of Maske landed in Melbourne in the early part of 1854. +There for a time he cut a great dash, spent an enormous quantity of +money, and indeed reached the end of his resources by the middle of the +year. He then tried his luck on the Ballarat gold-fields, but his luck +was out. At the diggings he sailed under an alias, and under an alias he +drifted to Tasmania as early as July, 1854. And at Hobart Town, as it +was then called, he met the lady for whose sake he broke, though +unwittingly, one of the criminal laws of his native land.</p> + +<p>"Now, I happen to know a good deal about that lady; but the more +impersonally one enters into details of this kind the more chance has +one of making such details perfectly clear to you. As it is you will +find some little complications here and there. But I shall do my best to +present them as intelligibly as possible; and where I fail, you will +perhaps make a note of the point, and call my attention to it presently. +The lady's name was Greenfield. Mrs. Greenfield was a young widow with +one male child; but not, as you might suppose, a young widow with money. +And the Marquis married her at Hobart under peculiar, and really rather +extenuating circumstances.</p> + +<p>"Of course, he had a wife all the time. You know all about that. It has +leaked out through another channel—a channel I happen to have spent the +last few hours in exploring. I have only just returned from the Lower +Farm. I find the first wife died in 1860. But you may take my word for +one thing: her husband had reason to believe she was already dead when +he married for the second time in 1854.</p> + +<p>"As a matter of fact, Eliza Hunt, as she was called, was actually at +death's door in June of the latter year. On a day of which she was not +expected to see the close, the late Duke wrote to his son (I happen to +possess the letter, Mr. Cripps), telling him, with perhaps a pardonable +satisfaction, that the end was only a question of hours; and making +certain overtures which I fear only excited Lord Maske's contempt and +disdain. The Marquis did not profess to be a pious man; his father did. +They had parted in anger, and in anger Maske tore up his father's +letter; but I collected the fragments, and preserved them—and I shall +justify <i>that</i> before I'm done. Maske tore the letter to little bits. +But that very week he married again on the strength of it. And I needn't +tell you there was trouble when the next mail came in! The woman was +still alive; though still hopelessly—or rather hopefully—ill.</p> + +<p>"So the couple in Tasmania lay low until their child was born—an event +which proved fatal to the mother, and brought the Marquis up with a +round turn, as the saying is. He was, as you may have heard, a very +heartless man; but I happen to know that he was reasonably fond of his +second wife, and reasonably grieved at her death. As a matter of fact, +it drove him almost crazy at the time, and embittered him for the rest +of his days. The point is, however, that he was thus left with two +boys—a new-born weakling and an absolutely hardy child of two, the +issue of its mother's first—and only legal—marriage. The weakling he +registered as he would have done had the marriage been really valid; +and, mark you, for all he knew it might be valid still. After that +second letter, saying that the English wife was still hopelessly ill, he +never heard again, either as to her recovery or her death, until the +latter occurred some few years later. But it might have occurred while +the second letter was still on the sea, for it was only a month behind +the first, and they took two or three months coming in those days. And +this is a point worth noting," said Dalrymple, uncrossing his arms, and +for the first time making a gesture.</p> + +<p>"It is a nice point," conceded Mr. Sellwood.</p> + +<p>"In a nasty story!" cried the squatter, with his sardonic laugh. "No, +not quite that; it's too strong a word. Still I am not here to whitewash +the Marquis of Maske; indeed, the next feature of the case is wholly +indefensible. You must know that all this time the exile nourished the +most venomous feelings towards his family in general and the old Duke in +particular. Unlovely as they were, however, I still think there was some +excuse for such sentiments; the boy had been harshly treated; he was +literally forced to desert his first wife; had they lived together, in +England or elsewhere, not a penny-piece would have been theirs until the +death of the Duke. Hence the silence of the Hunts—for the consideration +you wot of. It wasn't the sort of arrangement that would have gone on +very long had the woman lived, or left a child; but she died childless, +as you know; and the Hunts' subsequent policy was obvious even to the +Hunts. Nor was it an arrangement calculated to increase a young man's +respect for his father; in the case of Maske it intensified contempt, +and created the craving for revenge. I have heard him speak so often of +that revenge! He would spring an Australian heir upon the family; that +was his first, and, as you know, his very last idea. He even spoke of +it, as I understand, in the letter that was pinned to the tree under +which he was found dead in the bush! You see it was his dominant idea in +life. But the heir he spoke of was not his son at all. And that's the +indefensible feature of which I spoke."</p> + +<p>"If not his son, who was he, pray?" asked Cripps, with indignant +incredulity; for his own repute was in question here.</p> + +<p>The squatter smiled. "Can you ask? The elder of the two boys; the son of +Mrs. Greenfield by her first marriage," he quietly replied.</p> + +<p>"And what of his own son?"</p> + +<p>"Dead."</p> + +<p>"You will find that difficult to prove!" cried the lawyer hotly.</p> + +<p>"Yes? I think not; he died in Sydney, where the father migrated after +the mother's death; he was dead within six months of his birth. You saw +the certificate of the birth in Hobart, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I did."</p> + +<p>"Then here is that of the death; better keep it; you will have more use +for it than I."</p> + +<p>And the squatter turned round, and rolled the red ball up and down the +board, with his quiet sinister smile, while the men on the lounges +examined the document he had put in the solicitor's hands.</p> + +<p>"It looks all right," said Cripps at length, in a tone that made +Dalrymple laugh heartily as he faced about.</p> + +<p>"It looks all right, eh? <i>That's</i> all right! Mr. Cripps, your +discernment—but excuse me! We are not here to bark and bite; we are +here to clear up a mystery, at least I am. Is there any other point, +gentlemen, which I can elucidate before we go any further?"</p> + +<p>"I think there is one," said Claude, speaking nervously. "I have seen +the last letter my uncle wrote, in which he mentioned an heir. I +presume, in order to carry out the revenge you speak of, he called the +living child by the dead child's name——"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. He did it deliberately. I was coming to that."</p> + +<p>"But he seemed uncertain as to the living child's whereabouts. My point +is this: where was the so-called heir at the time that last letter was +written?"</p> + +<p>"Lost," said Dalrymple, shutting his ugly lips as you shut a window. +"Lost in the bush, like Maske himself, only the child's body was not +found. The father had tattooed one of the eagles of his crest upon the +little chap's chest—I am afraid, to further his deception. I was in all +his secrets, as you see; indeed, you may call me his accomplice without +offending me; and I'm bound to say I considered the tattooing a smart +idea. However, a judgment was at hand. The child was lost for many +years. And the rest is easily told; it refers to <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>The squatter looked at Mr. Sellwood—not for the first time. As on the +other occasions, however, he ran his eyes against an absolutely +impassive, pink countenance.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Sellwood may remember my little anecdote of the iron store, the +Queensland blacks, and the French eagle on the chest of the stray +shearer who saved all our lives?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood very slightly inclined his head.</p> + +<p>"Well, that was the finding of the <i>soi-disant</i> Jack Dillamore. I knew +all about him. For his father's sake, I never lost sight of him again; +for his father's sake (and also because the idea appealed to me +personally) I allowed my old chum's very reprehensible plan to come off, +and our friend Mr. Cripps to lay hold of my Happy Jack for the live Duke +of St. Osmund's: and for the sake of some fun for my pains, I came home +myself to see how matters were progressing. I'm bound to say I was +disappointed. Happy Jack had grown tamer than I could have believed +possible in the time. And hang me if the fellow wasn't in love! My +disgust was such that I was on the point of taking myself off this very +afternoon, and leaving the suppositious Duke (whom it wasn't <i>my</i> +business to depose) to marry and save the Upper House by the example of +high morality he seemed certain to set; but at the last moment I +discovered his trouble. He was found out without my assistance; he was +cutting a worse figure than was in any way necessary; and was about to +lose, not only the title and emoluments he had enjoyed for some months, +but the charming girl whom he had fairly won in love. That seemed a +trifle too hard! I determined to speak out. I have done so: and I am +prepared to prove every word I have said. The certificate now in your +pocket, Mr. Cripps, was not the only one I had in mine. At the moment, +however, there's no more to be said—except a few words with reference +to Jack Greenfield's future. He has suffered enough. I have been, if not +at the bottom of it, at all events to blame in the matter. I have a +little inadequate scheme of reparation, which I shall submit to you, +gentlemen, in order that you may use your influence with Jack, if +necessary. The point is that I am never going back to Australia any +more. I was born and brought up in the old country, and I've got the +taste for it again during the few days I've been home. Indeed, I had +never lost the taste; but I don't intend to run the risk any more. I am +lucky enough to own one of the crack sheep-stations of New South Wales. +I shall want a permanent manager in my absence. I needn't tell you who +is the very man for <i>that</i> billet. Jack Greenfield—if he'll take it."</p> + +<p>"A good house?" said Mr. Sellwood casually.</p> + +<p>"The best homestead in the Riverina. Trust me for that."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood said no more. His mind was made up: better lose his +daughter than have her break her heart. He could not forget the earlier +experiences of the evening. The surprises of this hour were enchanting +compared with the embarrassments of the last. Then he had no reason to +doubt Dalrymple's word as to Jack's actual antecedents; where he doubted +it, was in another matter altogether. At this point in his reflections, +however, and with the inevitable discussion of the immaterial points +still raging around him, Mr. Sellwood was brought to his feet by the +violent opening of the billiard-room door and an agitated apparition of +his wife upon the threshold. Something was the matter: had the lovers +eloped? No; with Mary Freke they were at the heels of Lady Caroline, who +came the length of the room at something ludicrously like a run—her +very fringe awry, and a horrified glance shooting from the corner of +each eye at the nonchalant, well-preserved figure of Dalrymple the +squatter.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what they are saying downstairs?" cried her Ladyship, +looking as far as was possible at everybody at once. "Matthew Hunt is +here, and do you know what <i>he</i> is saying? That neither Jack nor Claude +is the Duke of St. Osmund's, but you—you—you!" And she turned like a +podgy tigress upon none other than the squatter himself.</p> + +<p>"I could have told him that," remarked Mr. Sellwood calmly; he had +arrived at the conclusion exactly ten seconds before.</p> + +<p>"I shall tell him something he doesn't bargain for—the born idiot!" +added the squatter <i>sotto voce</i>.</p> + +<p>"Then you believe it?" cried Lady Caroline to her husband. "You must be +mad!"</p> + +<p>"Your Ladyship is so right; it would indeed be madness to dream of +entertaining so preposterous a notion!" cried Mr. Cripps, who was +literally dancing with disbelief. "Even Mr. Dalrymple will hardly go as +far as that. He has gone farther already than the law will follow him; +we'll do him the justice to hold him irresponsible for this absurd +report! He knows as well as we do that the Marquis of Maske was found +dead in the bush; of that we have absolute proof. Even if we hadn't, who +has recognized him? Has he one single witness to his identity? If so, +let him be called!"</p> + +<p>"The gentleman is excited," remarked Dalrymple, ringing the bell. "Does +it really not occur to him that I might have <i>found myself</i> dead in the +bush, and authenticated my own death by very obvious methods? Is it +inconceivable that a young man with my then reputation should jump at +the chance of dying on paper—if you will permit the expression? Such a +death offers unusual advantages, a second birth among others. However, I +never meant to be born again, least of all in this rather melodramatic +manner; but I couldn't resist coming home to see the fun, and it serves +me right to have to stop and pay the score. Witnesses? I had certainly +no intention of calling any to-night; but now that my hand has been +forced it can't be helped. The elder Hunt is one; knew me at sight; and +here comes Stebbings for another. Shut the door behind you, Stebbings, +and answer a couple of questions. It's generally supposed that you were +drunk yesterday when I arrived. Were you, or were you not?"</p> + +<p>"I was not, your Grace."</p> + +<p>"'Your Grace,' you see!" repeated the squatter. "I'm afraid that was +premature, Stebbings! However, if you were not drunk, and you certainly +conveyed that impression, what was the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>"Nervousness!" cried Stebbings, who was sufficiently nervous now. "I had +seen the dead! I had recognised your Grace!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly; and I swore at you as a blind, to explain the complete state +of collapse that you were in. That's all, Stebbings; you may go. Jack, I +see your face! You wonder you didn't spot it at the time? Stebbings +backed me up, or else you would have done; for my part, I confess I was +more frightened when you found us talking together in my room, when I +was packing. I assure you all, I meant to clear out then; believe it or +not, it's the case. In spite of what I said just now, I'm not so wedded +to an English life as I fancied Jack was; and I had no idea at the time +that his position was at all insecure. Yes, my boy, you were welcome to +the whole thing! I was going back to the bush——"</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> were going back!" cried Jack, coming forward; and Olivia came +also, flushed with a joy that rendered her uniquely indifferent to the +great disclosure. Jack was hers. What did it matter who was the Duke?</p> + +<p>"To be sure I was," said the squatter; "but now I think it will have to +be you after all. What do you say to managing Carara? What do you say, +Miss Sellwood, to helping him to try? You must talk to your father about +it. And for heaven's sake, Jack, don't thank <i>me</i>; I've been the worst +friend you ever had in your life."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sellwood was already speaking to his wife. Jack and their daughter +stood hand-in-hand beside them. The new Duke turned his back and joined +Claude on his lounge. The solicitor had beaten a retreat; the Frekes had +done so before him; and the rest of their party, including Jack, did so +now. But Jack returned before either Claude or the squatter had left the +room.</p> + +<p>"The worst friend I ever had!" said he reproachfully, as he took his old +master's hand. "What should I be doing to-night if it hadn't been for +you? You may say what you like; you've helped to make me the happiest +man in all the world. I can marry her after all! Mr. Sellwood's as white +a man as I know; even Lady Caroline has just given us best! But +you"—and he laid an affectionate rough hand on Claude's shoulder—"dear +old boy, what can I say to you? I'm ashamed to look you in the face. +You've lost everything!"</p> + +<p>Claude was very pale; the other's honest eyes were shining with sympathy +beneath their bushy brows; but the new Duke laughed aloud.</p> + +<p>"Lost everything?" he cried. "Not a bit of it! I'm not going to live for +ever, and Claude's exactly where he was—the next man in. You think not? +And have you known me all these years, and do you really and truly +expect me to marry again? Jack—my boy—have I to tell you how it is +with me? I have been a bad old lot in my time; but one woman I once +loved well enough to spoil me for ever for all the rest."</p> + +<p>He paused an instant, and it was quite a tender hand he laid on Jack's +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"And there's one man I love for her sake!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>By E. W. HORNUNG.</h3> + + +<p>THE ROGUE'S MARCH. A Romance. 12mo. $1.50.</p> + +<p>A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH. [Ivory Series.] 16mo. 75 cents.</p> + +<p>IRRAELI'S BUSHRANGER. A Story of Australian Adventure. [Ivory Series.] +16mo. 75 cents.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lord Duke, by E. W. 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Hornung + +Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY LORD DUKE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + + MY LORD DUKE + + BY E. W. HORNUNG + + + NEW YORK + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + 1897 + + COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + Norwood Press + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY 1 + + II. "HAPPY JACK" 16 + + III. A CHANCE LOST 31 + + IV. NOT IN THE PROGRAMME 44 + + V. WITH THE ELECT 63 + + VI. A NEW LEAF 77 + + VII. THE DUKE'S PROGRESS 90 + + VIII. THE OLD ADAM 105 + + IX. AN ANONYMOUS LETTER 122 + + X. "DEAD NUTS" 137 + + XI. THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH 151 + + XII. THE WRONG MAN 163 + + XIII. THE INTERREGNUM 180 + + XIV. JACK AND HIS MASTER 189 + + XV. END OF THE INTERREGNUM 199 + + XVI. "LOVE THE GIFT" 215 + + XVII. AN ANTI-TOXINE 223 + + XVIII. HECKLING A MINISTER 233 + + XIX. THE CAT AND THE MOUSE 244 + + XX. "LOVE THE DEBT" 257 + + XXI. THE BAR SINISTER 266 + + XXII. DE MORTUIS 282 + + + + +MY LORD DUKE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY + + +The Home Secretary leant his golf-clubs against a chair. His was the +longest face of all. + +"I am only sorry it should have come now," said Claude apologetically. + +"Just as we were starting for the links! Our first day, too!" muttered +the Home Secretary. + +"_I_ think of Claude," remarked his wife. "I can never tell you, Claude, +how much I feel for you! We shall miss you dreadfully, of course; but we +couldn't expect to enjoy ourselves after this; and I think, in the +circumstances, that you are quite right to go up to town at once." + +"Why?" cried the Home Secretary warmly. "What good can he do in the +Easter holidays? Everybody will be away; he'd much better come with me +and fill his lungs with fresh air." + +"I can never tell you how much I feel for you," repeated Lady Caroline +to Claude Lafont. + +"Nor I," said Olivia. "It's too horrible! I don't believe it. To think +of their finding him after all! I don't believe they _have_ found him. +You've made some mistake, Claude. You've forgotten your code; the cable +really means that they've _not_ found him, and are giving up the +search!" + +Claude Lafont shook his head. + +"There may be something in what Olivia says," remarked the Home +Secretary. "The mistake may have been made at the other end. It would +bear talking over on the links." + +Claude shook his head again. + +"We have no reason to suppose there has been a mistake at all, Mr. +Sellwood. Cripps is not the kind of man to make mistakes; and I can +swear to my code. The word means, 'Duke found--I sail with him at +once.'" + +"An Australian Duke!" exclaimed Olivia. + +"A blackamoor, no doubt," said Lady Caroline with conviction. + +"Your kinsman, in any case," said Claude Lafont, laughing; "and my +cousin; and the head of the family from this day forth." + +"It was madness!" cried Lady Caroline softly. "Simple madness--but then +all you poets _are_ mad! Excuse me, Claude, but you remind me of the +Lafont blood in my own veins--you make it boil. I feel as if I never +could forgive you! To turn up your nose at one of the oldest titles in +the three kingdoms; to think twice about a purely hypothetical heir at +the antipodes; and actually to send out your solicitor to hunt him up! +If that was not Quixotic lunacy, I should like to know what is?" + +The Right Honourable George Sellwood took a new golf-ball from his +pocket, and bowed his white head mournfully as he stripped off the +tissue paper. + +"My dear Lady Caroline, _noblesse oblige_--and a man must do his obvious +duty," he heard Claude saying, in his slightly pedantic fashion. +"Besides, I should have cut a very sorry figure had I jumped at the +throne, as it were, and sat there until I was turned out. One knew there +_had_ been an heir in Australia; the only thing was to find out if he +was still alive; and Cripps has done so. I'm bound to say I had given +him up. Cripps has written quite hopelessly of late. He must have found +the scent and followed it up during the last six weeks; but in another +six he will be here to tell us all about it--and we shall see the Duke. +Meanwhile, pray don't waste your sympathies upon _me_. To be perfectly +frank, this is in many ways a relief to me--I am only sorry it has come +now. You know my tastes; but I have hitherto found it expedient to make +a little secret of my opinions. Now, however, there can be no harm in my +saying that they are not entirely in harmony with the hereditary +principle. You hold up your hands, dear Lady Caroline, but I assure you +that my seat in the Upper Chamber would have been a seat of +conscientious thorns. In fact I have been in a difficulty, ever since my +grandfather's death, which I am very thankful to have removed. On the +other hand, I love my--may I say my art? And luckily I have enough to +cultivate the muse on, at all events, the best of oatmeal; so I am not +to be pitied. A good quatrain, Olivia, is more to me than coronets; and +the society of my literary friends is dearer to my heart than that of +all the peers in Christendom." + +Claude was a poet; when he forgot this fact he was also an excellent +fellow. His affectations ended with his talk. In appearance he was +distinctly desirable. He had long, clean limbs, a handsome, shaven, +mild-eyed face, and dark hair as short as another's. He would have made +an admirable Duke. + +Mr. Sellwood looked up a little sharply from his dazzling new golf-ball. + +"Why go to town at all?" said he. + +"Well, the truth is, I have been in a false position all these months," +replied Claude, forgetting his poetry and becoming natural at once. "I +want to get out of it without a day's unnecessary delay. This thing must +be made public." + +The statesman considered. + +"I suppose it must," said he, judicially. + +"Undoubtedly," said Lady Caroline, looking from Olivia to Claude. "The +sooner the better." + +"Not at all," said the Home Secretary. "It has kept nearly a year. +Surely it can keep another week? Look here, my good fellow. I come down +here expressly to play golf with you, and you want to bunker me in the +very house! I take it for the week for nothing else, and you want to +desert me the very first morning. You shan't do either, so that's all +about it." + +"You're a perfect tyrant!" cried Lady Caroline. "I'm ashamed of you, +George; and I hope Claude will do exactly as he likes. _I_ shall be +sorry enough to lose him, goodness knows!" + +"So shall I," said Olivia simply. + +Lady Caroline shuddered. + +"Look at the day!" cried Mr. Sellwood, jumping up with his pink face +glowing beneath his virile silver hair. "Look at the sea! Look at the +sand! Look at the sea-breeze lifting the very carpet under our feet! Was +there ever such a day for golf?" + +Claude wavered visibly. + +"Come on," said Mr. Sellwood, catching up his clubs. "I'm awfully sorry +for you, my boy. But come on!" + +"You will have to give in, Claude," said Olivia, who loved her father. + +Lady Caroline shrugged her shoulders. + +"Of course," said she, "I hope he will; still I don't think our own +selfish considerations should detain him against his better judgment." + +"I am eager to see Cripps's partners," said Claude vacillating. "They +may know more about it." + +"And solicitors are such trying people," remarked Lady Caroline +sympathetically; "one always does want to see them personally, to know +what they really mean." + +"That's what I feel," said Claude. + +"But what on earth has he to consult them about?" demanded the Home +Secretary. "Everything will keep--except the golf. Besides, my dear +fellow, you are perfectly safe in the hands of Maitland, Hollis, Cripps +and Company. A fine steady firm, and yet pushing too. I recollect they +were the first solicitors in London--" + +"Were!" said his wife significantly. + +"To supply us with typewritten briefs, my love. Now there is little +else. In such hands, my dear Claude, your interests are quite +undramatically safe." + +"Still," said Claude, "it's an important matter; and I am, after all, +for the moment, the head of--" + +"I'll tell you what you are," cried the politician, with a burst of that +hot brutality which had formerly made him the wholesome terror of the +Junior Bar; "you're a confounded minor Cockney poet! If you want to go +back to your putrid midnight oil, go back to it; if you want to get out +of the golf, get out of it! I'm off. I shouldn't like to be rude to you, +Claude, my boy, and I may be if I remain. No doubt I shall be able to +pick up somebody down at the links." + +Claude struck his flag. + +A minute later, Olivia, from the broad bay window, watched the lank, +handsome poet and the sturdy, white-haired statesman hurrying along the +Marina arm-in-arm; both in knickerbockers and Norfolk jackets; and each +carrying a quiverful of golf-clubs in his outer hand. + +The girl was lost in thought. + +"Olivia," said a voice behind her, "your father behaved like a brute!" + +"I didn't think so; it was all in good part. And it will do him so much +good!" + +"Do whom?" + +"Poor Claude! Of course he is dreadfully cut up." + +"Then why did he pretend to be pleased?" + +"That was his pluck. He took it splendidly. I never admired him so +much!" + +Lady Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again without a +word. Her daughter's slight figure was silhouetted against the middle +window of the bow; the sun put a golden crown upon the fair young head; +yet the head was bent, and the girl's whole attitude one of pity and of +thought. Lady Caroline Sellwood rose quietly, and left the room. + +That species of low cunning, which was one of her Ladyship's traits, had +placed her for the moment in a rather neat dilemma. Claude Lafont had +cast poet's eyes at Olivia for months and years; and for weeks and +months Olivia's mother had wished there were less poetry and more +passion in the composition of that aristocrat. He would not say what +nobody else, not even Lady Caroline, could say for him. He was content +to dangle and admire; he had called Olivia his "faery queen," with his +lips and with his pen, in private and in print; but he had betrayed no +immediate desire to call her his wife. Lady Caroline had recommended him +to marry, and he had denounced marriage as "the death of romance." Quite +sure in her own mind that she was dealing with none other than the Duke +of St. Osmund's, it was her Ladyship who had planned the present small +party (which her distinguished husband would call a "foursome") for the +Easter Recess. Flatly disbelieving in the existence of the alleged +Australian heir, she had seen the merit of engaging Olivia to Claude +before the latter assumed his title in the eyes of the world. That the +title was his to assume, when he liked, had been the opinion of all the +Lafonts, save Claude himself, from the very first; and, when it suited +her, Lady Caroline Sellwood was very well pleased to consider herself a +Lafont. In point of fact, her mother had borne that illustrious name +before her marriage with the impecunious Earl Clennell of Ballycawley; +and Lady Caroline was herself a great-granddaughter of the sixth Duke of +St. Osmund's. + +The sixth Duke (who exerted himself to make the second half of the last +century rather wickeder than the first) had two sons, of whom her +present Ladyship's grandfather was the younger. The elder became the +seventh Duke, and begot the eighth (and most respectable) Duke of St. +Osmund's--the aged peer lately deceased. The eighth Duke, again, had but +two sons, who both predeceased him. These two sons were, respectively, +Claude's father and the unmentionable Marquis of Maske. The Marquis was +a man after the heart of his worst ancestor, a fascinating blackguard, +neither more nor less. At twenty-four he had raised the temperature of +his native air to a degree incompatible with his own safety; and had +fled the country never to return. Word of his death was received from +Australia in the year 1866. He had died horribly, from thirst in the +wilderness, and yet a proper compassion was impossible even after that. +For the news was accompanied by a letter from the dead man's +hand--scrawled at his last gasp, and pinned with his knife to the tree +under which the body was found--yet composed in a vein of revolting +cynicism, and containing further news of the most embarrassing +description. The Marquis was leaving behind him--somewhere in +Australia--at the moment he really could not say where--a small +Viscount Dillamore to inherit ultimately the title and estates. He gave +no dates, but said his wife was dead. To the best of his belief, +however, the lad was alive; and might be known by the French eagle of +the Lafonts, which the father had himself tattooed upon his little +chest. + +This was all the clue which had been left to Claude, to follow on a bad +man's bare word, or to ignore at his own discretion. For reasons best +known to himself, the old Duke had taken no steps to discover the little +Marquis. Unluckily, however, his late Grace had not been entirely +himself for many years before his death; and those reasons had never +transpired. Claude, on the other hand, was a man of fastidious +temperament, a person of infinite scruples, with a morbid horror of the +incorrect. He would spend half the morning deciding between a semicolon +and a full stop; and he was consistently conscientious in matters of +real moment, as, for example, in that of his marriage. He had been +asking himself, for quite a twelve-month, whether he really loved +Olivia; he had no intention of asking _her_ until he was quite convinced +on the point. To such a man there was but one course possible on the old +Duke's death. And Claude had taken it with the worst results. + +"He has no sympathy for _me_," said Lady Caroline bitterly, as she went +upstairs. "He has cut his own throat, and there's an end of it; except +that if he thinks he's going to marry any daughter of mine, after this, +he is very much mistaken." + +It was extremely mortifying all the same; to have prepared the ground so +carefully, to have arranged every preliminary for a match which had now +to be abandoned altogether; and worse still, to have turned away half +the eligible young men in town for the sake of a Duke who was not a Duke +at all. Lady Caroline Sellwood had three daughters. The eldest had made +a good, solid, military marriage, and enjoyed in India a social position +that was not unworthy of her. The second daughter had not done quite so +well; still, her husband, the Rev. Francis Freke, was a divine whose +birth was better than his attainments, so that there was every chance of +seeing his little legs in gaiters before either foot was in his grave. +But Olivia was her youngest ("my ewe lamb," Lady Caroline used to call +her, although no other kind had graced her fold), and in her mother's +opinion she was fitted for a better fate than that which had befallen +either of her sisters. Olivia was the prettiest of the three. Her little +fair head, "sunning over with curls," as Claude never tired of saying, +was made by nature with a self-evident view to strawberry-leaves and +twinkling tiaras. And Lady Caroline meant it to wear them yet. + +She had done her best to encourage Claude in his inclination to run up +to town at once. The situation at the seaside had become charged with +danger. Not only did it appear to Lady Caroline that the poet was at +last satisfied with the state of his own affections, but she had reason +to fear that Claude Lafont would have a better chance with Olivia than +would the Duke of St. Osmund's. The child was peculiar. She had read too +much, and there was a suspiciously sentimental strain in her. Her acute +mother did not imagine her "vulgarly in love" (as she called it) with +the aesthetic Claude; but she had heard him tell the girl that "pity from +her" was "more dear than that from another"; and it was precisely this +pity which Lady Caroline now dreaded as fervently as she would have +welcomed it the day before. Her stupid husband had outwitted her in the +matter of Claude's departure. Lady Caroline was hardly at the top of the +stairs before she had made up the masterly mind which she considered at +least a match for her stupid husband's. He would not allow her to get +rid of Claude? Very well; nothing simpler. She would get rid of Olivia +instead. + +The means suggested itself almost as quickly as the end. + +Lady Caroline took a little walk to the post-office, and said she had +been on the pier. In a couple of hours a telegram arrived from Mrs. +Freke, begging Olivia to go to her at once. Lady Caroline was apparently +overwhelmed with surprise. But she despatched her ewe lamb by the next +train. + +"Olivia, I won both rounds!" called out the Home Secretary, when he +strutted in towards evening, pink and beaming. Claude also looked the +better and the brighter for his day; but Lady Caroline took the +brightness out of him in an instant; and the Home Secretary beamed no +more that night. + +"It is no use your calling Olivia," said her Ladyship calmly; "by this +time she must be a hundred miles away. You needn't look so startled, +George. You know the state to which poor Francis reduces himself by the +end of Lent, and you know that dear Mary's baby is not thriving as it +ought. I shouldn't wonder if he makes _it_ fast, too! At all events +Mary telegraphed for Olivia this morning, and I let her go. Now it's no +use being angry with any of us! With a young baby and a half-starved +husband it was a very natural request. There's the telegram on the +mantelpiece for you to see for yourself what she says." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"HAPPY JACK" + + +A dilettante in letters, a laggard in love, and a pedant in much of his +speech, Claude Lafont was nevertheless possessed of certain graces of +the heart and head which entitled him at all events to the kindly +consideration of his friends. He had enthusiasm and some soul; he had an +open hand and an essentially simple mind. These were the merits of the +man. They were less evident than his foibles, which, indeed, continually +obscured them. He would have been the better for one really bad fault: +but nature had not salted him with a single vice. + +Unpopular at Eton, he had found his feet perhaps a little too firmly at +Oxford. There his hair had grown long and his views outrageous. Had the +old Duke of St. Osmund's been in his right mind at the time, he would +certainly have quitted it at the report of some of his grandson's +contributions to the university debates. Claude, however, had the +courage of his most extravagant opinions, and even at Oxford he was a +man whom it was possible to respect. The era of Toynbee Hall and a +gentlemanly, kid-gloved Socialism came a little later; there were other +and intermediate phases, into which it is unnecessary to enter. Claude +came through them all with two things, at least, as good as new: his +ready enthusiasm and his excellent heart. + +Whether he really did view the new twist in his life with the +satisfaction which he professed is an open and immaterial question; all +that is certain or important is the fact that he did not permit himself +to repine. He was never in better spirits than in the six weeks' +interval between the receipt of Mr. Cripps's cable and that gentleman's +arrival with the new Duke. Claude divided the time between the proofs of +his new volume of poems and conscientious preparations for the proper +reception of his noble cousin. He had the mansion in Belgrave Square, +which had fallen of late years into disuse, elaborately done up, +repapered, and fitted throughout with new hangings and the electric +light. He felt it his duty to hand over the house in a cleanly and +habitable state; and he was accustomed to work his duty rather hard. He +ran down to Maske Towers, the principal family seat, repeatedly, and had +certain renovations carried out as far as possible under his own eye. In +every direction he did more than he need have done. And so the time +passed very busily, quite happily, and with an interest that was kept +green to the last by the utter absence of any shred of information +concerning the ninth Duke of St. Osmund's. + +Claude had even no idea as to whether he was a married man. So he +legislated for a wife and family. And his worst visions were of a +hulking, genial, sheep-farming Duke, with a tribe of very terrible +little Lords and Ladies, duly frightened of their gigantic father, but +paying not the slightest attention to the anaemic Duchess who all day +scolded them through her freckled nose. + +Mr. Cripps's letters continued to arrive by each week's mail; but they +were still written with a shake of the head and a growing deprecation of +the wild-goose chase in which the lawyer now believed himself to be +unworthily engaged. Towards the end of May, however, the letters +stopped. The last one was written on the eve of an expedition up the +country, on a mere off-chance, to find out more about one John +Dillamore, whom Mr. Cripps had heard of as a resident of the Riverina. +Claude Lafont knew well what had come of that off-chance. It had turned +the tide of his life. But no letter came from the Riverina; the next +communication was a telegram from Brindisi, saying they had left the +ship and were travelling overland; and the next after that, another +telegram stating the hour at which they hoped to land at Dover. + +Claude Lafont had just time enough to put on his hat, to stop the hansom +for an instant at the house in Belgrave Square, and to catch the 12.0 +from Victoria. + +It was a lovely day in early June. There was neither a cloud in the sky +nor the white crest of a wave out at sea; the one was as serenely blue +as the other; and the _Calais-Douvre_ rode in with a high-bred calm and +dignity all in key with the occasion. Claude boarded her before he had +any right, with a sudden dereliction of his characteristic caution. And +there was old Cripps, sunburnt and grim, with a soft felt hat on his +head, and a strange spasmodic twitching at the corners of the mouth. + +"Here you are!" cried Claude, gripping hands. "Well, where is he?" + +The lawyer's lips went in and out, and a rough-looking bystander +chuckled audibly. + +"One thing quickly," whispered Claude: "is he a married man?" + +"No, he isn't." + +The bystander laughed outright. Claude favoured him with a haughty +glance. + +"His servant, I presume?" + +"No," said Cripps hoarsely. "I must introduce you. The Duke of St. +Osmund's--your kinsman, Mr. Claude Lafont." + +Claude felt the painful pressure of a horny fist, and gasped. + +"Proud to meet you, mister," said the Duke. + +"So delighted to meet and welcome _you_, Duke," said Claude faintly. + +"I'm afraid I'm a bit of a larrikin," continued the Duke. "You'd have +done as well to leave me where I was--but now I'm here you've got to +call me Jack." + +"You knew, of course, what would happen sooner or later?" said Claude, +with a sickly smile. + +"Not me. My colonial oath, I did _not_! Never dreamt of it till I seen +_him_"--with a jerk of his wideawake towards Mr. Cripps. It was a very +different felt hat from that gentleman's; the crown rose like a +sugar-loaf, nine inches from the head; the brim was nearly as many +inches wide; and where the felt touched the temples it was stained +through and through with ancient perspiration. + +"And I can't sight it now!" added his Grace. + +"Nevertheless it's true," said Mr. Cripps. + +Claude was taking in the matted beard, the peeled nose, and the round +shoulders of the ninth Duke. He was a bushman from top to toe. + +"What luggage have you?" exclaimed Claude, with a sudden effort. "We +must get it ashore." + +"This is all," said the Duke, with a grin. + +It lay on the deck at their feet: a long cylinder whose outer case was +an old blue blanket, very neatly rolled and strapped; an Australian +saddle, with enormous knee-pads, black with age; and an extraordinary +cage like a rabbit-hutch. The cage was full of cats. The Duke insisted +on carrying it ashore himself. + +"This _is_ the man?" whispered Claude, jealously, to Mr. Cripps. + +"The man himself; there's an eagle on his chest as large as life." + +"But it might be a coincidence----" + +"It might be, but it isn't," replied Cripps shortly. "He's the Duke all +right; the papers I shall show you are quite conclusive. I own he +doesn't look the part. He's not tractable. He would come as he is. I +heaved one old hat overboard; but he had a worse in his swag. However, +no one on board knew who he was. I took care of that." + +"God bless you, Cripps!" said Claude Lafont. + +He had reserved a first-class carriage. The Duke took up half of it with +his cat-cage, which he stoutly declined to trust out of his sight. There +were still a few minutes before the train would start. Claude and Cripps +exchanged sympathetic glances. + +"I think we ought to drink the Duke's health," said Claude, who for once +felt the need of a stimulant himself. + +"I think so too," said Mr. Cripps. + +"Then make 'em lock the door," stipulated his Grace. "I wouldn't risk my +cats being shook, not for drinks as long as your leg!" + +A grinning guard came forward with his key. The Duke "mistered" him, and +mentioned where his cats came from as he got out. + +"Very kind of you to shout for me," he continued as they filed into the +refreshment room; "but why the blazes don't you call me Jack? Happy +Jack's my name, that's what they used to call me up the bush. I'm not +going to stop being Jack, or happy either, 'cause I'm a Dook; if I did +I'd jolly soon sling it. Now, my dear, what are you givin' us? Why don't +you let me help myself, like they do up the bush? English fashion, is +it? And you call that drop a nobbler, do you, in the old country? Well, +well, here's fun!" + +The Duke's custodians were not sorry to get him back beside his cats. +They were really glad when the train started. The Duke was in high +spirits. The whisky had loosened his tongue. + +"Like cats, old man?" he inquired of Claude. "Then I hope you'll make +friends with mine. They were my only mates, year in, year out, up at the +hut. I wasn't going to leave 'em there when they'd stood by me so long; +not likely; so here they are. See that black 'un in the corner? I call +her Black Maria, and that's her kitten. She went and had a large family +at sea, but this poor little beggar's the only one what lived to tell +the tale. That great big Tom, he's the father. I don't think much of +Tom, but it would have been a shame to leave him behind. No, sir, my +favourite's the little tortoise-shell with the game leg. He got cotched +in a rabbit trap last shearing-time; he's the most adventurous little +cat that ever was, so I call him Livingstone. I've known him explore +five miles from the hut, when there wasn't a drop of water or a blade of +feed in the paddicks, and yet come back as fat as butter. A little +caution, I tell you! Out you come, Livingstone!" + +Claude thought he had never seen a more ill-favoured animal. To call it +tortoise-shell was to misuse the word. It was simply yellow; it ran on +three legs; and its nose had been recently scarified by an enemy's +claws. + +"No, I'm full up of Tom," pursued the Duke, fondling his pet. "Look what +he done on board to Livingstone's nose! I nearly slung him over the +side. Poor little puss, then, poor little puss! You may well purr, old +toucher; there's a live Lord scratching your head." + +"Meaning me?" said Claude genially; there was a kindness in the rugged +face, as it bent over the little yellow horror, that appealed to the +poet. + +"Meaning you, of course." + +"But I'm not one." + +"You're not? What a darned shame! Why, you ought to be a Dook. You'd +make a better one than me!" + +The family solicitor was half-hidden behind that morning's _Times_; as +Jack spoke, he hid himself entirely. Claude, for his part, saw nothing +to laugh at. The Duke's face was earnest. The Duke's eyes were dark and +kind. Like Claude himself, he had the long Lafont nose, though sun and +wind had peeled it red; and a pair of shaggy brown eyebrows gave +strength at all events to the hairy face. Claude was thinking that +half-an-hour at Truefitt's, a pot of vaseline, and the best attentions +of his own tailors in Maddox Street would make a new man of Happy Jack. +Not that his suit was on a par with his abominable wideawake. He could +not have worn these clothes in the bush. They were obviously his best; +and, as obviously, ready-made. + +Happy Jack was meantime apostrophising his pet. + +"Ah! but you was with me when that there gentleman found me, wasn't you, +Livingstone? You should tell the other gentleman about that. We never +thought we was a Dook, did we? We thought ourselves a blooming ordinary +common man. My colonial oath, and so we are! But you recollect that last +bu'st of ours, Livingstone? I mean the time we went to knock down the +thirty-one pound cheque what never got knocked down properly at all. We +had a rare thirst on us----" + +Mr. Cripps in his corner smacked down the _Times_ on his knees. + +"Look there!" he cried. "Did ever you see such grass as that, Jack? +You've nothing like it in New South Wales. I declare it does my old +heart good to see an honest green field again!" + +Jack looked out for an instant only. + +"Ten sheep to the acre," said he. "Wonderful, isn't it, Livingstone? And +you an' me used to ten acres to the sheep! But we were talking about +that last little spree; you want your Uncle Claude to hear all about it, +I see you do; you're not the cat to make yourself out better than what +you are; not you, Livingstone! Well, as I was saying----" + +"Those red-tiled roofs are simply charming!" exclaimed the solicitor. + +"A perfect poem," said Claude. + +"And that May-tree in full bloom!" + +"A living lyric," said Claude. + +It was really apple-blossom. + +"And you," cried the Duke to his cat, "you're a comic song, that's what +_you_ are! Tell 'em you won't be talked down, Livingstone. Tell this +gentleman he's got to hear the worst. Tell him that when the other +gentleman found us"--the solicitor raised his _Times_ with a shrug--"one +of us was drunk, drunk, drunk; and the other was watching over him--and +the other was my little cat!" + +"You're joking, of course?" said Claude, with a flush. + +"Not me, mister. That's a fact. You see, it was like this----" + +"Thanks," said Claude hastily; "but I'd far rather not know." + +"Why not, old toucher?" + +"It would hurt me," said Claude, with a shudder. + +"Hurt you! Hear that, Livingstone? It would hurt him to hear how we +knocked down our last little cheque! That's the best one _I_'ve heard +since I left the ship!" + +"Nevertheless it's the case." + +"And do you mean to tell me you were never like that yourself?" + +"Never in my life." + +"Well, shoot me dead!" whispered the Duke in his amazement. + +"It ought not to surprise you," said Claude, in a tone that set the +_Times_ shaking in the far corner of the carriage. + +"It does, though. I can't help it. You're the first I've ever met that +could say as much." + +"Pray let us drop the subject. I prefer to hear no more. You pain me +more than I can say!" + +Claude's flush had deepened; his supersensitive soul was indeed +scandalised, and so visibly that an answering flush showed upon the +Duke's mahogany features, like an extra coat of polish. + +"I pain you!" he echoed, dropping his cat. "I'm very sorry then. I am +so! I had no intention of doing any such thing. All I wanted was to fly +my true flag at once, like, and have done with it. And I've pained you; +and you bet I'll go on paining you all the time! How can I help it? I'm +not what us back-blockers call a parlour-man, though I may be a Dook; +but neither the one nor the other is my fault. You should have let me be +in the bush. I was all right there--all right with my hut and my cats. +I'd never known anything better. I never knew who I was. What did it +matter if I knocked down my cheque when I got full up of the cats and +the hut? Nobody thinks anything of that up the bush. The boss used +always to take me on again; some day I'll tell you about my old boss; he +was the best friend ever I had. A real gentleman, who thought no worse +of you so long's it only happened now and then. But see here! It shall +never happen again. It didn't matter in the boundary rider, but p'r'aps +it might in the Dook. Anyhow I'm strict T T from this moment; that +whisky at Dover shall be my last. And I'm darned sorry I pained you, +and--and dash it, here's my fist on it for good and all!" + +It is difficult to say which hand wrung the harder. Claude was not +pleased with himself; the conscious lack of some quality, which the +other possessed, was afflicting him with a novel and entirely unexpected +sense of inferiority. He was as yet unsure what the missing quality was; +he hardly suspected it of being a virtue; but it was new to Claude to +have these feelings at all. + +He said not another word upon the embarrassing subject, but fell +presently into a train of thought that kept him silent until they +steamed into Victoria. There the conquering Cripps was met by his wife +and daughters; but Claude managed to get a few more words with him as +they were waiting to have the baggage passed. + +"I like him," said Claude. + +"So do I," was the reply, "and I know him well." + +"I like his honesty." + +"He is honesty itself. I did my best just now to keep him from giving +himself away--but that was his deliberate game. Mark you, what he +insisted on telling you was quite true; but on the whole he has behaved +excellently ever since." + +"Well, as long as he doesn't confess his sins to everybody he meets!" + +"No fear of that; he looks on you as still the head of the family, with +a sort of _ex officio_ right to know the worst. His own position he +doesn't realise a bit. Yet some day I expect to see him at least as fit +to occupy it as one or two others; and you are the man to make him so. +You will only require two things." + +The great doors opened inwards, and the travellers surged in to claim +their luggage, with Mr. Cripps at their head. Claude caught him by the +elbow as he was pointing out his trunks. + +"Those two things?" said he. + +"Yes, those two, with my initials on each." + +"No, but the two things that I shall need?" + +"Oh, those! Plenty of patience, and plenty of time." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CHANCE LOST + + +It was the pink of the evening when the cousins drove off in a +four-wheeler with the cats on top. Claude had been in many minds about +their destination, until the Duke had asked him to recommend an hotel. +At that he had hesitated a little, and finally pitched upon the First +Avenue. A variety of feelings guided his choice, chief among them being +a vague impression that his wild kinsman would provoke less attention in +Holborn than in Northumberland Avenue. To Holborn, at all events, they +were now on their way. + +Claude sat far back in the cab; he felt thankful it was not a hansom. In +the Mall they met a string of them, taking cloaked women and +white-breasted men out to dinner. Claude saw one or two faces he knew, +but was himself unseen. He saw them stare and smile at the tanned and +bearded visage beneath that villainous wideawake, which was thrust from +one window to the other with the eager and unrestrained excitement of a +child. He felt ashamed of poor Jack. He was sincerely ashamed of this +very feeling. + +"What streets!" whispered the Duke in an awestruck whisper. "We've +nothing like 'em in Melbourne. They'd knock spots off Sydney. I've been +in both." + +Claude had a sudden thought. "For you," he said, "these streets should +have a special interest." + +"How's that?" + +"Well, many of them belong to you." + +"WHAT?" + +"You are the ground landlord of some of the streets and squares we have +already passed." + +The brown beard had fallen in dismay; now, however, a mouthful of good +teeth showed themselves in a frankly incredulous grin. + +"What are you givin' us?" laughed Jack. "I see, you think you've got a +loan of a new chum! Well, so you have. Go ahead!" + +"Not if you don't choose to believe me," replied Claude stiffly. "I +meant what I said; I usually do. The property has been in our family for +hundreds of years." + +"And now it's mine?" + +"And now it's yours." + +The Duke of St. Osmund's took off his monstrous wideawake, and passed +the back of his hairy hand across his forehead. The gesture was eloquent +of a mind appalled. + +"Have I no homestead on my own run?" he inquired at length. + +"You have several," said Claude, smiling; but he also hesitated. + +"Several in London?" cried the Duke, aghast again. + +"No--only one in town." + +"That's better! I say, though, why aren't we going there?" + +"Well, the fact is, they're not quite ready for you; I mean the +servants. They--we were all rather rushed, you know, and they don't +expect you to-night. Do you mind?" + +Claude had stated but one fact of many. That morning, when he stopped +his hansom at the house, he had told the servants not to expect his +Grace until he telegraphed. After seeing the Duke, he had resolved not +to telegraph at all; and certainly not to install him in his own house, +as he was, without consulting other members of the family. He still +considered that decision justified. Nevertheless, the Duke's reply came +as a great relief. + +"No, I'm just as glad," said Jack contentedly. His contentment was only +comparative, however. The first dim conception of his greatness had +strangely dashed him; he was no longer the man that he had been in the +train. + +An athlete in a frayed frock-coat, and no shirt, was sprinting behind +the cab with the customary intent; it was a glimpse of him, as they +turned a corner, that slew the oppressed Duke, and brought Happy Jack +back to life. + +"Stop the cab!" he roared; "there's a man on the track of my cats!" + +"Nonsense, my dear fellow; it's only a person who'll want sixpence for +not helping with the luggage." + +"Are you sure?" asked Jack suspiciously. "How do you know he isn't a +professional cat-stealer? I must ask the cabman if they are all right!" +He did so, and was reassured. + +"We're almost at the hotel now," said Claude, with misgivings; he was +bitterly anticipating the sensation to be caused there by the arrival of +such a Duke of St. Osmund's, and wondering whether it would be of any +use suggesting a further period of _incognito_. + +"Nearly there, are we? Then see here," said Jack, "I've got something to +insist on. I mean to have my way about one matter." + +Claude groaned inwardly. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"I'll tell you straight. I'm not going to do the Dook in this hotel. I'm +plain Jack Dillamore, or I don't go in." + +The delight of this deliverance nearly overcame the poet. + +"I think you're wise," was all he trusted himself to say. "I should be +inclined to take the same course were I in your place. You will escape a +great deal of the sort of adulation which turneth the soul sick. And for +one night, at all events, you will be able, as an alien outsider, to +form an unprejudiced opinion of our unlovely metropolis." + +In the bright light of his ineffable relief, Claude's little mannerisms +stood out once more, like shadows when the sun shines fitfully; but it +was a transient gleam. The arrival at the hotel was still embarrassing +enough. The wideawake attracted attention. The attention was neither of +a flattering character in itself nor otherwise desirable from any point +of view. It made Claude miserable. There was also trouble about the +cats. + +Jack insisted on having them with him in his room. The management +demurred. Jack threatened to go elsewhere. The management raised no +objection; but Claude did. He handed them his card, and this settled +the matter. There is but one race of Lafonts in England. So Jack had his +way. A room was taken; the cats were put into it; milk was set before +them; and Jack left the hotel in Claude's company, with the key of that +room in his pocket. + +Claude would have taken him to his club, but for both their sakes he did +not dare. Yet he was as anxious as ever to show every hospitality to the +Duke. Accordingly he had refused Jack's invitation to dine with him in +the hotel, and was taking him across to the Holborn instead. + +The dinner went wonderfully. Jack was delighted with the music, with the +electric lights, with the marble pillars, with the gilded balconies, +with the dinner itself, in fact with everything. There was but one item +which did not appeal to him: he stoutly refused to drink a drop of wine. + +"A promise is a promise," said he. "I gave you my colonial in the train, +and I mean to keep it; for a bit, at all events." + +Claude protested and tempted him in vain. Jack called for a +lemon-squash, and turned his wine-glasses upside down. He revenged +himself, however, upon the viands. + +"Which _entree_, please, sir?" said the waiter. + +"Both!" cried Jack. "You may go on, mister, till I tell you to stop!" + +After dinner the cousins went aloft, and Claude took out his cigarette +case and ordered cigars for the Duke. He could not smoke them himself, +but neither, it appeared, could Jack. _He_ produced a cutty-pipe, black +and foul with age, and a cake of tobacco like a piece of shoe-leather, +which he began paring with his knife. Claude had soon to sit farther +away from him. + +Jack did not fancy a theatre; he was strongly in favour of a quiet +evening and a long talk; and it was he who proposed that they should +return, for this purpose, to the First Avenue. No sooner were they +comfortably settled in the hotel smoking-room, however, than the Duke +announced that he must run upstairs and see to his cats. And he came +down no more that night. + +Claude waited patiently for twenty minutes. Then he began a note to Lady +Caroline Sellwood. Then he remembered that he could, if he liked, see +Lady Caroline that night. It was merely a question of driving over to +his rooms in St. James's and putting himself into evening dress. On the +whole, this seemed worth doing. Claude therefore followed Jack upstairs +after an interval of half-an-hour. + +The Duke's rooms were on the first floor. Claude surprised a group of +first-floor servants laughing and whispering in the corridor. The little +that he heard as he passed made him hot all over. The exact words were: + +"Never see such a man in my life." "Nor me, my dear!" "And yet they call +this 'ere a decent 'otel!" + +Claude had no doubt in his own mind as to whom they were talking about. +Already the Duke inspired him with a sort of second-self-consciousness. +Prepared for anything, he hastened to the room and nervously knocked at +the door. + +"Come in!" cried Jack's voice. + +The door was unlocked; as Claude opened it the heat of the room fairly +staggered him. It was a sufficiently warm summer night, yet an enormous +fire was burning in the grate. + +"My _dear_ fellow!" panted Claude. + +Jack was in his trousers and shirt; the sleeves were rolled up over his +brawny arms; the open front revealed an estuary of hairy chest; and it +was plain at a glance that the Duke was perspiring at every pore. + +"It's all right," he said. "It's for the cats." + +"The cats!" said Claude. They were lying round about the fire. + +"Yes, poor devils! They had a fire every day in the hut, summer and +winter. They never had a single one at sea. They like to sleep by +it--they always did--all but Livingstone. He sleeps with me when he +isn't on the loose." + +"But you'll never be able to sleep in an atmosphere like this!" + +Jack was cutting up a pipeful of his black tobacco. + +"Well, it _is_ warm," he admitted. "And now you mention it, I may find +it a job to get asleep; but the cats like it, anyhow!" And he swore at +them affectionately as he lit his pipe. + +"Did you forget you'd left me downstairs?" asked Claude. + +"Clean! I apologise. I took this idea into my head, and I could think of +nothing else." + +"May we have another window open? Thank you. I'll smoke one cigarette; +then I must be off." + +"Where to?" + +"My chambers--to dress." + +"To _undress_, you mean!" + +"No, to dress. I've got to go out to a--to a party. I had almost +forgotten about it. The truth is, I want to see Lady Caroline Sellwood, +who, although not a near relation, is about the only woman in London +with our blood in her veins. She will want to see you. What's the +matter?" + +Jack's pipe had gone out in his hand; and there he stood, a pillar of +perspiring bewilderment. + +"A party!" he murmured. "At this time o' night!" + +Claude laughed. + +"It's not ten o'clock yet; if I'm there before half-past eleven I shall +be too early." + +"I give you best," said Jack, shaking his head, and putting another +light to his pipe. "It licks _me_! Who's the madman who gives parties in +the middle of the night?" + +"My dear fellow, everybody does! In this case it's a woman: the Countess +of Darlingford." + +"A live Countess!" + +"Well, but you're a live Duke." + +"But--I'm--a live--Dook!" + +Jack repeated the words as though the fact had momentarily escaped him. +His pipe went out again. This time he made no attempt to relight it, but +stood staring at Claude with his bare brown arms akimbo, and much +trouble in his rugged, honest face. + +"You can't get out of it," laughed Claude. + +"I can!" he cried. "I mean to get out of it! I'm not the man for the +billet. I wasn't dragged up to it. And I don't want it! I shall only +make a darned ass of myself and everybody else mixed up with me. I may +be the man by birth, but I'm not the man by anything else; and look +here, I want to back out of it while there's time; and you're the very +man to help me. I wasn't dragged up to it--but you were. I'm not the man +for the billet--but you are. The very man! You go to parties in the +middle of the night, and you think nothing of 'em. They'd be the death +of Happy Jack! The whole thing turns me sick with funk--the life, the +money, the responsibility. I never got a sight of it till to-day; and +now I don't want it at any price. You'd have got it if it hadn't been +for me; so take it now--for God's sake, take it now! If it's mine, it's +mine to give. I give it to you! Claude, old toucher, be the Dook +yourself. Let me and the cats clear back to the bush!" + +The poet had listened with amazement, with amusement, with compassion +and concern. He now shook his head. + +"You ask an impossibility. Without going into the thing, take my word +for it that what you propose is utterly and hopelessly out of the +question." + +"Couldn't I disappear?" said Jack eagerly. "Couldn't I do a bolt in the +night? It's a big chance for you; surely you won't lose it by refusing +to help me clear out?" + +Claude again shook his head. + +"In a week's time you will be laughing at what you are saying now. You +are one of the richest men in England; everything that money can buy you +can have. You own some of the loveliest seats in the whole country; wait +till I have shown you Maske Towers! You won't want to clear out then. +You won't ask me to be the Duke again!" + +He had purposely dwelt upon those material allurements which the +bushman's mind would most readily grasp. And it was obvious that his +arguments had hit the target, although not, perhaps, the bull's-eye. + +"Anyhow," said Jack doggedly, "it's an offer! And I repeat it. What's +more, I mean it too!" + +"Then I decline it," returned Claude, to humour him; "and there's an end +of the matter. Look here, though. One thing I promise. If you like, I'll +see you through!" + +"You will?" + +"I will with all my heart." + +"And you're quite sure you won't take on the whole show yourself?" + +"Quite sure," said Claude, smiling. + +"Still, you'll tell me what to do? You'll tell me what not to do? You'll +show me the ropes? You'll have hold of my sleeve?" + +"I'll do all that; at least, I'll do all I can. It may not be much. +Still I'll do it." + +Jack held out a hot, damp hand; yet, just then, he seemed to be +perspiring most freely under the eyes. + +"You're a good sort, Claudy!" said he hoarsely. + +"Good-night, old fellow," said Claude Lafont. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NOT IN THE PROGRAMME + + +Lady Caroline Sellwood's incomparable Wednesdays were so salient a +feature of those seasons during which her husband was in office, and her +town house in St. James's Square, that their standard is still quoted as +the ideal of its kind. These afternoons were never dull. Lady Caroline +cast a broad net, and her average draught included representatives of +every decent section of the community. But she also possessed some +secret recipe, the envy and the despair of other professional hostesses, +and in her rooms there was never an undue preponderance of any one +social ingredient. Every class--above a certain line, not drawn too +high--was represented; none was over done; nor was the mistake made of +"packing" the assembly with interesting people. The very necessary +complement of the merely interested was never wanting. One met beauty as +well as brains; wealth as well as wit; and quite as many colourless +nonentities as notorieties of every hue. The proportion was always +perfect, but not more so than the general good-temper of the guests. +They foregathered like long-lost brothers and sisters: the demagogue and +the divine; the judge and the junior; the oldest lady and the newest +woman; the amateur playwright and the actor-manager who had lost his +play; the minor novelist and the young lady who had never heard of him; +and my Lords and Ladies (whose carriages half-filled the Square) with +the very least of these. It was wonderful to see them together; it was a +solemn thought, but yet a fact, that their heavenly behaviour was due +simply and entirely to the administrative genius of Lady Caroline +Sellwood. + +The Home Secretary hated the Wednesdays; he was the one person who did; +and _he_ only hated them because they _were_ Wednesdays--and from the +period of his elderly infatuation for golf. It was his great day for a +round; and Lady Caroline had to make his excuses every week when it was +fine. This was another thing which her Ladyship did beautifully. She +would say, with a voice full of sympathy, equally divided between those +mutual losers, her guest and her husband, that poor dear George had to +address such and such a tiresome deputation; when, as a matter of fact, +he was "addressing" his golf-hall on Wimbledon Common, and enjoying +himself exceedingly. Now, among other Wednesdays, the Home Secretary was +down at Wimbledon (with a prominent member of the Opposition) on the +afternoon following the arrival in London of the ninth Duke of St. +Osmund's; and Mr. Sellwood never knew whether to pity his wife, or to +congratulate himself, on his absence from her side on that occasion. + +One of their constant ornaments, Claude Lafont, had been forced to +eschew these Wednesdays of late weeks. Lady Caroline Sellwood had never +been quite the same to him since the Easter Recess. She had treated him +from that time with a studied coolness quite inexplicable to his simple +mind; and finally, at Lady Darlingford's, she had been positively rude. +Claude, of course, had gone there expressly to prepare Lady Caroline for +the new Duke. This he conceived to be his immediate duty, and he +attempted to perform it, in the kindliest spirit imaginable, with all +the tact at his command. Lady Caroline declined to hear him out. She +chose to put a sinister construction upon his well-meant words, and to +interrupt them with the announcement that she intended, with Claude's +permission, to judge the Duke for herself. Was he married? Ha! then +where was he to be found? Claude told her, was coldly thanked, and went +home to writhe all that Tuesday night under the mortification of his +kinswoman's snub. + +Yet, on the Wednesday afternoon, Claude Lafont not only went to the +Sellwoods' as though nothing had happened, but he was there before the +time. And Lady Caroline was not only amazed, but (for the first time +since Easter) really pleased to see him: for already she had been given +cause to regret her insolent disregard of him overnight at Lady +Darlingford's. She was even composing an apology when the whiteness of +Claude's face brought her thoughts to a standstill. + +"Have you seen him?" he cried, as they met. + +"The Duke?" + +"Yes--haven't you seen him this morning?" + +"No, indeed! Haven't you?" + +Claude sat down with a groan, shaking his head, and never seeing the +glittering, plump, outstretched hand. + +"Haven't you?" repeated Lady Caroline, sitting down herself. + +"Not this morning. I made sure he would come here!" + +"So he ought to have done. I asked him to lunch. The note was written +and posted the instant we came in from the Darlingfords'. Claude, I +wasn't nice to you there! Can you forgive me? I thought you were +prejudiced. My dreadful temper rose in arms on the side of the absent +man; it always was my great weakness rightly or wrongly to take the part +of those who aren't there to stick up for themselves!" + +Her great weakness was of quite another character, but Claude bowed. He +was barely listening. + +"I've lost him," he said, looking at Lady Caroline, with a rolling eye. +"He's disappeared." + +"Never!" + +"This morning," said Claude. "I did so hope he was here!" + +"He sent no answer, not one word, and he never came. Who saw him last?" + +"The hotel people, early this morning. It seems he ordered a horse for +seven o'clock, shortly after I left him last night. So they got him one, +and off he went before breakfast in the flannel collar and the +outrageous bush wideawake in which he landed. And he's never come +back." + +A change came over Lady Caroline Sellwood. She drew her chair a little +nearer, and she favoured Claude Lafont with a kindlier glance than he +had had from her since Easter. + +"Something may have happened," whispered Lady Caroline hopefully. + +"That's just it. Something _must_ have happened." + +"But something dreadful! Only last season there was a man killed in the +Row! Was he--a _very_ rough diamond, Claude?" + +"Very." + +Lady Caroline sighed complacently. + +"But you can't help liking him," hastily added Claude, "and I hope to +goodness nothing serious is the matter!" + +"Of course, so do I. That goes without saying." + +"Nor is he at all a likely man to be thrown. He has lived his life in +the saddle. By the way, he brought his own old bush-saddle with him, and +it appears that he insisted on riding out in that too." + +"You see, Claude, it's a pity you didn't leave him in the bush; he's +evidently devoted to it still." + +"He is--that's the trouble; he has already spoken of bolting back there. +My fear is that he may even now be suiting the action to the word." + +"Don't tell me that," said Lady Caroline, whose head was still full of +her first theory. + +"It's what I fear; he's just the sort of fellow to go back by the first +boat, if the panic took him. He showed signs of a panic last night. You +see, he's only just beginning to realise what his position here will +mean. And it frightens him; it may have frightened him out of our sight +once and for all." + +Lady Caroline shook her head. + +"My fear is that he has broken his neck! And if he has, depend upon it, +sad as it would be, it would still be for the best. That's what I always +say: everything is for the best," repeated Lady Caroline, pensively +gazing at Claude's handsome head. "However," she added, as the door +opened, "here's Olivia; go and ask her what she thinks. _I_ am prepared +for the worst. And pray stop, dear Claude, and let us talk the matter +over after the others have gone. We may _know_ the worst by that time. +And we have seen nothing of you this season!" + +Olivia looked charming. She was also kind to Claude. But she entirely +declined to embrace her mother's dark view of the Duke's disappearance. +On the other hand, she was inconveniently inquisitive about his looks +and personality, and Claude had to say many words for his cousin before +he could get in one for himself. However, he did at length contrive to +speak of his new volume of poems. It was just out. He was having a copy +of the exceedingly limited large-paper edition specially bound in vellum +for Olivia's acceptance. Olivia seemed pleased, and apart from his +anxiety Claude had not felt so happy for weeks. They were allowed to +talk to each other until the rooms began to fill. + +It was a very good Wednesday; but then the season was at its height. The +gathering comprised the usual measure of interesting and interested +persons, and the former had made their names upon as many different +fields as ever. Claude had a chat with his friend, Edmund Stubbs, a +young man with an unhealthy skin and a vague reputation for immense +cleverness. They spoke of the poems. Stubbs expressed a wish to see the +large-paper edition, which was not yet for sale, as did Ivor Llewellyn, +the impressionist artist, who was responsible for the "decorations" in +most volumes of contemporary minor verse, Claude's included. Claude was +injudicious enough to invite both men to his rooms that night. The +Impressionist was the most remarkable-looking of all Lady Caroline's +guests. He wore a curled fringe and a flowing tie, and pince-nez +attached to his person by a broad black ribbon. His pale face was +prematurely drawn, and he showed his gums in a deathly grin at the many +hard things which Stubbs muttered at the expense of all present whom he +knew by sight. Claude had a high opinion of both these men, but for once +he was scarcely in tune for their talk, which was ever at a sort of +artistic-intellectual concert-pitch. The Duke was to be forgotten in the +society of Olivia only. Claude therefore edged away, trod on the skirts +of a titled divorcee, got jammed between an Irish member and a composer +of comic songs, and was finally engaged in conversation by the aged +police magistrate, Sir Joseph Todd. + +Sir Joseph had lowered his elephantine form into a chair beside the +tea-table, where he sat, with his great cane between his enormous legs, +munching cake like a school-boy and winking at his friends. He winked at +Claude. The magistrate had been a journalist, and a scandalous Bohemian, +so he said, in his young days; he had given Claude introductions and +advice when the latter took to his pen. He, also, inquired after the new +book, but rather grimly, and expressed himself with the rough edge of +his tongue on the subject of modern "poets" and "poetry": the inverted +commas were in his voice. + +"You young spring poets," said he, "are too tender by half; you're all +white meat together. You may say that's no reason why I should have my +knife in you. Why didn't you say it? A bad joke would be a positive +treat from you precious young fellows of to-day. And you give us bad +lyrics instead, in limited editions; that's the way it takes you now." + +Claude laughed; he was absurdly good-humoured under hostile criticism, a +quality of which some of his literary friends were apt to take +advantage. On this occasion, however, his unconcern was partly due to +inattention. While listening to his old friend he was thinking still of +the Duke. + +"I'm sorry you would be a poet, Claude," the magistrate continued. "The +price of poets has gone down since my day. And you'd have done so much +better in the House--by which, of course, I mean the House we all +thought you were bound for. Has he--has he turned up yet?" + +"Oh yes; he's in England," replied Claude, with discretion. + +Sir Joseph pricked his ears, but curbed his tongue. Of all the questions +that gathered on his lips, only one was admissible, even in so old a +friend as himself. + +"A family man?" + +"No; a bachelor." + +"Capital! We shall see some fun, eh?" chuckled Sir Joseph, gobbling the +last of his last slice. "What a quarry--what a prize! I was reminded of +him only this morning, Claude. I had an Australian up before me--a most +astounding fellow! An escaped bush-ranger, I should call him; looked as +if he'd been cut straight out of a penny dreadful; never saw such a man +in my life. However----" + +Claude was not listening; his preoccupation was this time palpable. The +mouth of him was open, and his eyes were fixed; the police magistrate +followed their lead, with double eye-glasses in thick gold frames; and +then _his_ mouth opened too. + +Her guests were making way for Lady Caroline Sellwood, who was leading +towards the tea-table, by his horny hand, none other than the ninth Duke +of St. Osmund's himself. Her Ladyship's face was radiant with smiles; +yet the Duke was just as he had been the day before, as unkempt, as +undressed (his Crimean shirt had a flannel collar, but no tie), as +round-shouldered; with his nose and ears still flayed by the sun; and +the notorious wideawake tucked under his arm. + +"He has come straight from the bush," her Ladyship informed everybody +(as though she meant some shrub in the Square garden), "and just as he +is. I call it so sweet of him! You know you'll never look so picturesque +again, my dear Duke!" + +Olivia followed with the best expression her frank face could muster. +Claude took his cousin's hand in a sudden hush. + +"Where in the world have you been?" broke from him before them all. + +"Been? I've been run in," replied the Duke, with a smack of his bearded +grinning lips. + +"Tea or coffee, Duke?" said Lady Caroline, all smiling tolerance. "Tea? +A cup of tea for the Duke of St. Osmund's. And _where_ do you say you +have been?" + +"Locked up!" said his Grace. "In choky, if you like it better!" + +Lady Caroline herself led the laugh. The situation was indeed worthy of +her finely tempered steel, her consummate tact, her instinctive +dexterity. Many a grander dame would have essayed to quell that +incriminating tongue. Not so Lady Caroline Sellwood. She took her +Australian wild bull very boldly by the horns. + +"I do believe," she cried, "that you are what we have all of us been +looking for--in real life--all our days. I do believe you are the +shocking Duke of those dreadful melodramas in the flesh at last! What +was your crime? Ah! I've no doubt you cannot tell us!" + +"Can I not?" cried the Duke, as Claude stopped him, unobserved, from +pouring his tea into the saucer. "I'll tell you all about it, and +perhaps you'll show me where the crime comes in, for I'm bothered if I +see it yet. All I did was to have a gallop along one of your streets; I +don't even know which street it was; but there's a round clearing at one +end, then a curve, and then another clearing at the far end." + +"Regent Street," murmured Claude. + +"That's the name. Well, it was quite early, there was hardly anybody +about, so I thought surely to goodness there could be no harm in a +gallop; and I had one from clearing to clearing. Blowed if they didn't +run me in for that! They kept me locked up all the morning. Then they +took me before a fat old joker who did nothing much but wink. That old +joker, though, he let me off, so I've nothing agen' _him_. He's a white +man, he is. So here I am at last, having got your invitation to lunch, +ma'am, just half-an-hour ago." + +Sir Joseph Todd had been making fruitless efforts to rise, unaided, from +his chair; he now caught Claude's arm, and simultaneously, the eye of +the Duke. + +"Jumping Moses!" roared Jack; "why, there he is! I beg your pardon, +mister; but who'd have thought of finding _you_ here?" + +"This is pleasing," muttered Edmund Stubbs, in the background, to his +friend the Impressionist. "I've seen the lion and the lamb lie down here +together before to-day. But nothing like this!" + +The Impressionist whipped out a pencil and bared a shirt-cuff. No one +saw him. All eyes were upon the Duke and the magistrate, who were +shaking hands. + +"You have paid me a valuable compliment," croaked Sir Joseph gayly. "Of +course I winked! Hadn't I my Lord Duke's little peccadillo to wink at?" + +And he bowed himself away under cover of his joke, which also helped +Lady Caroline enormously. The Duke mentioned the name by which he would +go down to posterity on a metropolitan charge-sheet. Most people resumed +their conversation. A few still laughed. And the less seriously the +whole matter was taken, the better, of course, for all concerned, +particularly the Duke. Olivia had him in hand now. And her mother found +time to exchange a few words with Claude Lafont. + +"A dear fellow, is he not? So natural! Such an example in that way to us +all! How many of us would carry ourselves as well in--in our bush +garments?" speculated her Ladyship, for the benefit of more ears than +Claude's. Then her voice sank and trembled. "Take him away, Claude," she +gasped below her breath. "Take him away!" + +"I intend to," he whispered, nodding, "when I get the chance." + +"But not only from here--from town as well. Carry him off to the Towers! +And when you get him there, for heaven's sake keep him there, and take +him in hand, and we will all come down in August to see what you have +done." + +"I'm quite agreeable, of course; but what if he isn't?" + +"He will be. _You_ can do what you like with him. I have discovered that +already; he asked at once if you were here, and said how he liked you. +Claude, you are so clever and so good! If any one can make him +presentable, it is you!" She was wringing her white hands whiter yet. + +"I'll do my best, for all our sakes. I must say I like my material." + +"Oh, he's a dear fellow!" cried Lady Caroline, dropping her hands and +uplifting her voice once more. "So original--in nothing more than in his +moral courage--his superiority to mere conventional appearances! _That_ +is a lesson----" + +Lady Caroline stopped with a little scream. In common with others, she +had heard the high, shrill mewing of a kitten; but cats were a special +aversion of her Ladyship's. + +"What was that?" she cried, tugging instinctively at her skirts. + +"Meow!" went the shrill small voice again; and all eyes fastened upon +the Duke of St. Osmund's, whose ready-made coat-tails were moving like a +bag of ferrets. + +The Duke burst into a hearty laugh, and diving in his coat-tail pocket, +produced the offending kitten in his great fist. Lady Caroline Sellwood +took a step backward; and because she did not lead it, there was no +laugh this time from her guests; and because there was no laugh but his +own, the Duke looked consciously awkward for the first time. In fact, it +was the worst moment yet; the next, however, Olivia's pink palms were +stretched out for the kitten, and Olivia's laughing voice was making the +sweetest music that ever had gladdened the heart of the Duke. + +"The little darling!" cried the girl with genuine delight. "Let me have +it, do!" + +He gave it to her without a word, but with eyes that clung as fast to +her face as the tiny claws did to her dress. Olivia's attention was all +for the kitten; she was serenely unconscious of that devouring gaze; but +Claude saw it, and winced. And Lady Caroline saw it too. + +"Poor mite!" pursued Olivia, stroking the bunch of black fur with a +cheek as soft. "What a shame to keep it smothered up in a stuffy pocket! +Are you fond of cats?" she asked the Duke. + +"Am I not! They were my only mates up the bush. I brought over three +besides the kitten." + +"You brought them from the bush?" + +"I did so!" + +Olivia looked at him; his eyes had never left her; she dropped hers, and +caressed the kitten. + +"I put that one in my pocket," continued the Duke, "because I learned +Livingstone to ride in front of me when he was just such another little +'un. But he'd done a bolt in the night; I found him just now with his +three working paws black with your London soot; but he wasn't there when +I got up, so I took the youngster. P'r'aps it wasn't over kind. It won't +happen again. He's yours!" + +"The kitten?" + +"Why, certainly." + +"To keep?" + +"If you will. I'd be proud!" + +"Then _I_ am proud. And I'll try to be as kind to it as you would have +been." + +"You're uncommon kind to me," remarked the Duke irrelevantly. "So are +you all," he added, in a ringing voice, as he drew himself up to his +last inch, and for once stood clear of the medium height. "I never knew +that there were so many of you here, or I'd have kept away. I'm just as +I stepped off of the ship. I went aboard pretty much as I left the bush; +if you'll make allowances for me this time, it sha'n't happen again. You +don't catch me twice in a rig like this! Meanwhile, it's very kind of +you all not to laugh at a fellow. I'm much obliged to you. I am so. And +I hope we shall know each other better before long!" + +Claude was not ashamed of him then. There was no truer dignity beneath +the ruffles and periwigs of their ancestors in the Maske picture-gallery +than that of the rude, blunt fellow who could face modestly and yet +kindly a whole roomful of well-dressed Londoners. It did not desert him +as he shook hands with Lady Caroline and Olivia. In another moment the +Duke was gone, and of his own accord, before he had been twenty minutes +in the house. And what remained of that Wednesday afternoon fell flat +and stale--always excepting the little formula with which Lady Caroline +Sellwood sped her parting guests. + +"Poor fellow," it ran, "he has roughed it so dreadfully in that horrible +bush! You won't know him the next time you see him. Yes, I assure you, +he went straight on board at that end and came straight to us at this! +Not a day for anything in Melbourne or here. Actually not one day! I +thought it so dear of him to come as he was. Didn't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WITH THE ELECT + + +The ragged beard had been trimmed to a point; the uncouth hair had been +cut, shampooed, and invested with a subtle, inoffensive aroma; and a +twenty-five-shilling Lincoln and Bennett crowned all without palpable +incongruity. The brown, chapped neck, on the other hand, did look +browner and rougher than before in the cold clutch of a gleaming +stand-up collar. And a like contrast was observable between the ample +cuffs of a brand-new shirt, and the Duke's hands, on whose hirsute backs +the yellow freckles now stood out like half-sovereigns. Jack drew the +line at gloves. On the whole, however, his docility had passed all +praise; he even consented to burden himself with a most superfluous +Inverness cape, all for the better concealment of the ready-made suit. +In fine, a few hours had made quite a painfully new man of him; yet +perhaps the only real loss was that of his good spirits; and these he +had left, not in any of the shops to which Claude had taken him before +dinner, but, since then, in his own house in Belgrave Square. + +Claude had shown him over it between nine and ten; they were now +arm-in-arm on their way from this errand, and the street-lamps shone +indifferently on the Duke's dejection and on Claude's relief. He had +threatened instant occupation of his own town-house; he had conceived +nightmare hospitalities towards all and sundry; and had stuck to his +guns against argument with an obstinacy which made Claude's hair stand +on end. Now the Duke had less to say. He had seen his house. The empty, +echoing, inhospitable rooms, with perhaps a handful of electric lights +freezing out of the darkness as they entered, had struck a chill to his +genial heart. And Claude knew it as he led the way to his own cosy +chambers; but was reminded of another thing as he approached them, and +became himself, on the spot, a different man. + +He had forgotten the two friends he had invited to come in for a private +view of the large-paper edition. He was reminded of them by seeing from +the street his open window filled with light; and his manner had +entirely altered when he detained the Duke below, and sought with +elaborate phrases to impress him beforehand with the transcendent merits +of the couple whom he was about to meet. Jack promptly offered to go +away. He had never heard tell of Impressionism, and artists were not in +his line. What about the other joker? What did _he_ do? + +"Nothing, my dear fellow; he's far too good a man to _do_ things," +explained Claude, whose changed speech inclined the other to flight +quite as much as his accounts of the men upstairs. "The really delicate +brains--the most highly sensitised souls--seldom spend themselves upon +mere creative work. They look on, and possibly criticise--that is, when +they meet with aught worthy their criticism. My friend, Edmund Stubbs, +is such an one. He has a sensitised soul, if you like! His artistic +standard is too high, he is too true to his ideals, to produce the +imperfect. He is full of ideas; but they are too big for brush, pen, or +chisel to express them. On the other hand, he's a very fountain of +inspiration, tempered by critical restraint, to many a man whose name +(as my own) is possibly a household word in Clapham, where poor Edmund's +is unknown. Not that I should pity him on that score; he has a holy +scorn for what himself would call a 'suburban popularity'; and, indeed, +I am not with him in his views as to the indignity of fame generally. +But there, he is a bright particular star who is content to shine for +the favoured few who have the privilege of calling him their friend." + +"You do talk like a book, and no error!" said the Duke. "I haven't ever +heard you gas on like that before." + +The bright particular star was discovered in Claude's easiest chair, +with the precious volume in one hand, and a tall glass, nearly empty, in +the other; the Impressionist was in the act of replacing the stopper in +the whisky-decanter; and Claude accepted the somewhat redundant +explanation, that they were making themselves at home, with every sign +of approval. Nor was he slow in introducing his friends; but for once +the Duke was refreshingly subdued, if not shy; and for the first few +minutes the others had their heads together over the large-paper +edition, for whose "decorations" the draftsman himself had not the least +to say, where all admired. At length Claude passed the open volume to +his cousin; needless to say it was open at the frontispiece; but the +first and only thing that Jack saw was the author's name in red capitals +on the title-page opposite. + +"Claude Lafont!" he read out. "Why, you don't ever mean--to tell +me--that's you, old brusher?" + +Claude smiled and coloured. + +"You an author!" continued the Duke in a wide-eyed wonder. "And you +never told me! Well, no wonder you can talk like a book when you can +write one, too! So this is your latest, is it?" + +"The limited large-paper edition," said Claude. "Only seventy-five +copies printed, and I sign them all. How does it strike you--physically, +I mean?" + +"'Physically' is quite pleasing," murmured Stubbs; and Claude helped him +to more whisky. + +Jack looked at the book. The back was of a pale brown cardboard; the +type had a curious, olden air about it; the paper was thick, and its +edges elaborately ragged. The Duke asked if it was a new book. It looked +to him a hundred years old, he said, and discovered that he had paid a +pretty compliment unawares. + +"There's one thing, however," he added: "we could chop leaves as well as +that in the back-blocks!" + +The Impressionist grinned; his friend drank deep, with a corrugated +brow; the poet expounded the beauties of the rough edge, and Jack gave +him back his book. + +"I know nothing about it," said he; "but still, I'm proud of you, I am +so. And I'm proud," he added, "to find myself in such company as yours, +gentlemen; though I don't mind telling you, if I'd known I'd be the only +plain man in the room I'd never have come upstairs!" + +And the Duke sat down in a corner, with his knife, his tobacco, and his +cutty-pipe, as shy as a great boy in a roomful of girls. Yet this wore +off, for the conversation of the elect did not, after all, rarefy the +atmosphere to oppression; indeed, that of the sensitised soul contained +more oaths than Jack had heard from one mouth since he left the bush, +and this alone was enough to put him at his ease. At the same time he +was repelled, for it appeared to be a characteristic of the great Stubbs +to turn up his nose at all men; and as that organ was _retrousse_ to +begin with, Jack was forcibly reminded of some ill-bred, snarling +bulldog, and he marvelled at the hound's reputation. He put in no word, +however, until the conversation turned on Claude's poems, and a +particularly cool, coarse thing was said of one of them, and Claude only +laughed. Then he did speak up. + +"See here, mister," he blurted out from his corner. "Could you do as +good?" + +Stubbs stared at the Duke, and drained his glass. + +"I shouldn't try," was his reply. + +"I wouldn't," retorted Jack. "I just wouldn't, if I were you." + +Stubbs could better have parried a less indelicate, a less childish +thrust; as it was, he reached for his hat. Claude interfered at once. + +"My dear old fellow," said he to Jack, "you mustn't mind what my friend +Edmund says of my stuff. I like it. He is always right, for one thing; +and then, only think of the privilege of having such a critic to tell +one exactly what he thinks." + +Jack looked from one man to the other. The sincerity of the last speech +was not absolutely convincing, but that of Claude's feeling for his +friend was obvious enough; and, with a laugh, the Duke put his back +against the door. The apology which he delivered in that position was in +all respects characteristic. It was unnecessarily full; it was informed +alike by an extravagant good-will towards mankind, and an irritating +personal humility; and it ended, somewhat to Claude's dismay, with a +direct invitation to both his friends to spend a month at Maske Towers. + +Perhaps these young men realised then, for the first time, who the rough +fellow was, after all, with whom they had been thrown in contact. At all +events the double invitation was accepted with alacrity; and no more +hard things were said of Claude's lyrics. The flow of soul was +henceforth as uninterrupted as that of the whisky down the visitors' +throats. And no further hitch would have occurred had the Impressionist +not made that surreptitious sketch of the Duke, which so delighted his +friends. + +"Oh, admirable!" cried Claude. "A most suggestive humouresque!" + +"It'll do," said Stubbs, the oracle. "It mightn't appeal to the suburbs, +damn them, but it does to us." + +"Grant the convention, and the art is perfect," continued Claude, with +the tail of his eye on Jack. + +"It is the caricature that is more like than life," pursued Stubbs, with +a sidelong glance in the same direction. + +Jack saw these looks; but from his corner he could not see the sketch, +nor had he any suspicion of its subject. All else that he noted was the +flush of triumph, or it may have been whisky, or just possibly both, on +the pale, fringed face of Impressionism. He held out his hand for the +half-sheet of paper on which the sketch had been made. + +"I hope it won't offend you," exclaimed the artist, hesitating. + +"Offend me! Why should it? Let's have a look!" + +And he looked for more than a minute at the five curves and a beard +which had expressed to quicker eyes the quintessence of his own outward +and visible personality. At first he could make nothing of them; even +when an interpretation dawned upon him, his face was puzzled as he +raised it to the trio hanging on his words. + +"It won't do, mister," said the Duke reluctantly. "You'll never get +saplings like them," tapping the five curves with his forefinger, "to +hold a nest like that," putting his thumb on the beard, "and don't you +believe it." + +There was a moment's silence. Then the Impressionist said thickly: + +"Give me that sketch." + +Jack handed it back. In another moment it was littering the ground in +four pieces, and the door had banged behind the indignant draftsman. + +"What on earth have I done?" cried the Duke, aghast. + +"You have offended Llewellyn," replied Claude shortly. + +"How? By what I said? I'll run after him this minute and apologise. I +never meant to hurt his feelings. Where's that stove-pipe hat?" + +"Let _me_ go," said Stubbs, getting up. "I understand the creative +animal; it is thin-skinned; but I'll tell our friend what you say." + +"I wish you would. Tell him I meant no harm. And fetch him down with you +just whenever you can come." + +"Thanks--that will be very pleasing. I daresay August will be our best +time, but we shall let you know. I'll put it all right with Ivor; but +these creative asses (saving your presence, Lafont) never can see a +joke." + +"A joke!" cried Jack, when he and Claude were alone. + +"Stubbs is ironical," said Claude severely. + +"Look here," said the Duke, "what are you givin' us, old boy? Seems to +me you clever touchers have been getting at a cove between you. Where +does this joke come in, eh?" + +And his good faith was so obvious that Claude picked up the four +quarters of torn paper, fitted them together, and entered upon yet +another explanation. This one, however, was somewhat impatiently given +and received. The Duke professed to think his likeness exceedingly +unlike--when, indeed, he could be got to see his own outlines at +all--and Claude disagreeing, a silence fell between the pair. Jack +sought to break it by taking off his collar (which had made him +miserable) and putting it in his pocket with a significant look; but the +act provoked no comment. So the two men sat, the one smoking cigarettes, +the other his cutty, but neither speaking, nor yet reading a line. And +the endless roar of Piccadilly, reaching them through the open windows, +emphasised their silence, until suddenly it sank beneath the midnight +chimes of the city clocks. In another minute a tiny, tinkling echo came +from Claude's chimney-piece, and the Duke put down his pipe and spoke. + +"My first whole day in London--a goner," he said; "and a pretty full day +it's been. Listen to this for one day's work," and as he rehearsed them, +he ticked off the events on his great brown fingers. "Got run in--that's +number one. Turned up among a lot of swells in my old duds--number two. +Riled the cleverest man you know--number three--so that he nearly +cleared out of your rooms; and, not content with that, hurt the feelings +of the second cleverest (present company excepted) so that he _did_ +clear--which is number four. Worst of all, riled you, old man, and hurt +your feelings too. That's the finisher. And see here, Claude, it isn't +good enough and it won't do. I won't wash in London, and I'm full up of +the hole; as for my own house, it gave me the fair hump the moment I put +my nose inside; and I'd be on to make tracks up the bush any day you +like--if it weren't for one thing." + +"What's that," said Claude, "if it's a fair question?" + +The other concealed his heightened colour by relighting his pipe and +puffing vigorously. + +"I'll tell you," said he; "it's that old girl and--what's the daughter's +name again?" + +"Olivia." + +"Olivia. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl! She's all that and +more." + +"And much more." + +"You see, she's as good inside as out; she has a kind heart." + +"I have always found it so," said Claude, "and I've known her since she +was a child." + +The two kinsmen, who had been so wide apart a few minutes since, were +now more than ever mutually akin. They drew their chairs together; but +the touchstone was deep down in either heart. + +"You knew her when she was a child!" repeated the Duke in a kind of awe. +"Yes; and I daresay, now, you used to play with her, and perhaps take +her on your knee, and even pull her hair and kiss her in them old days. +Yet there you sit smoking cigarettes!" + +His own pipe was out. He was in a reverie. Claude also had his own +thoughts. + +"The one thing was this," said the Duke at length: "would the old woman +and her daughter come to see us up the country?" + +Claude was torn two ways. The Towers scheme was no longer his first +anxiety. He returned to it by an effort. + +"They would," he said. "Lady Caroline told me so. They would come like a +shot in August. She said so herself." + +"Would you put me up to things in the meantime? Would you be showing me +the ropes?" + +"The very thing I should like to do, so far as I am able." + +"Then we'll start to-morrow--I mean to-day. That settles it. And +yet----" + +"Out with it," said Claude, smiling. + +"Well, I will. I mean no harm, you understand. Who am I to dare to look +at her? Only I do feel as if that girl would do me a deal of good down +there--you know, in making me more the sort of chap for my billet. But +if she's gone and got a sweetheart, he might very easily object; so I +just thought I'd like to know." + +"She hasn't one, to my knowledge," said Claude at length. + +"Is that a fact?" cried the Duke. "Well, I don't know what all you +fellows are thinking of, but I do know that I am jolly glad. Not from +any designs of my own, mind you--I haven't as much cheek as all +that--but to save trouble. Do you know, Claudy, I've had a beast of a +thought off and on all the night?" + +"No; what was that?" + +"Why, I half suspected she was your own girl." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A NEW LEAF + + +"The Duke of St. Osmund's and Mr. Claude Lafont left town yesterday for +Maske Towers, the family seat near Devenholme." So ran the announcement +in the morning papers of the next day but one. And the Duke was actually +exploring his inheritance when it appeared. + +Overnight the pair had arrived too late to see much more than the lofty, +antique hall and the respective rooms in which they were to sup and +sleep; but the birds awoke Jack in the early morning, and he was up and +out before seven o'clock. + +As yet he had seen little that attracted him within, and at this hour he +felt a childish horror of the dark colossal canvases overhanging the +grand staircase and the hall; like the sightless suits of armour +standing blind sentinel below, they froze him with the look of lifeless +life about the grim, gigantic figures. He was thankful to see one of the +great double doors standing open to the sun; it let him out into a +portico loftier than the hall; and folding his arms across a stone +balustrade, the whilom bushman looked forth between Corinthian columns +like the masts of a ship, and was monarch of all he beheld. + +A broad and stately terrace ran right and left below; beyond and below +this, acres of the smoothest, greenest sward were relieved by a few fine +elms, with the deer still in clusters about their trunks. The lawn +sloped quietly to the verdant shores of a noble lake; sun and dew had +dusted the grass with silver; sun and wind were rippling the lake with +flakes of flame like leaping gold-fish; and across the water, on the +rising ground, a plantation of young pines ran their points into the +radiant sky. These trees appealed to the Duke more than anything he had +seen yet. His last bush hut had been built among pines; and such is the +sentimental attraction of the human heart towards a former +condition--better or worse, if it be but beyond recall--that the Duke of +St. Osmund's had to inspect that plantation before anything else. +Leaving the Towers behind him, unnoticed and indeed forgotten, he +crossed the lawn, skirted the lake, and plunged amid the pine-trees as +his impulse spurred him. But on his way back, a little later, the mellow +grandeur of that ancient pile broke in upon him at last, and he stood +astounded in the wet grass, the blood of possession running hot in his +veins. + +The historic building stretched on this side for something like a +quarter of a mile from end to end. Here the blue sky sank deep between +turret and spire, and there it picked out a line of crumbling +battlements, or backed the upper branches of an elm that (from this +point) cut the expanse of stone in two. It had grown out of many +attempts in as many ages; thus, besides architectural discrepancies for +the eyes of the few, the shading of the walls was as finely graduated as +that of an aging beard, but the prevailing tint was a pearly gray, now +washed with purple, and exquisitely softened by the tender haze still +lingering in the dewy air. And from every window that Jack could see, +flashed a morning sun; for as he stood and looked, his shadow lay in +front of him along the milky grass. + +To one extremity of the building clung an enormous conservatory, +likewise ablaze from dome to masonry; at the other, the dark hues of a +shrubbery rested the eye; but that of the Duke was used to the sunlit +desert, and not readily dazzled. His quick glance went like a bullet +through the trees to a red gable and the gilt hands of a clock just +visible beyond. On the instant he recovered from his enchantment, and +set off for the shrubbery at a brisk walk; for he had heard much of the +Maske stables, and evidently there they were. + +As he was in the shrubbery, the stable clock struck eight after a +melodious chime sadly spoilt by the incessant barking of some small dog; +the last stroke reverberated as he emerged, and the dog had the morning +air to itself, to murder with its hideous clamour. But the Duke now saw +the exciting cause, and it excited _him_; for he had come out opposite +the stable-yard gates, which were shut, but from the top of which, with +its lame paw lifted, a vertical tail, and a back like a hedgehog asleep, +his own yellow cat spat defiance at an unseen foe. And between the barks +came the voice of a man inciting the dog with a filthy relish. + +"Set him off, Pickle! Now's your time. Try again. Oh, blow me, if you +can't you can't, and I'll have to lend you a hand." + +And one showed over the gate with the word, but the fingers grabbed the +air, for Jack had snatched his pet in the nick of time. He was now busy +with the ring of the latch, fumbling it in his fury. The breath came in +gusts through his set teeth and bristling beard. One hand clasped the +yellow cat in a fierce caress; the other knotted into a fist as the gate +flew open. + +In the yard a hulking, smooth-faced fellow, whose pendulous under-lip +had dropped in dismay, changed his stare for a grin when he saw the +Duke, who was the smaller as well as the rougher-looking man of the two; +for he had not only come out without his collar, which he discarded +whenever he could; but he had clapped on the old bush wideawake because +Claude was not up to stop him. + +"Well, and who are you?" began the other cheerfully. + +"You take off your coat and I'll show you," replied Jack, with a +blood-thirsty indistinctness. "I'm a better man than you are, whoever I +am; at least we'll have a see!" + +"Oh, will we?" said the fellow. "And you're the better man, are you? +What do _you_ think?" he added, turning to a stable-boy who stood handy +with thin brown arms akimbo, and thumbs in his belt. + +"I wonder 'oo 'e thinks 'e is w'en 'e's at 'ome?" said the lad. + +Jack never heard him. He had spied the saddle-room door standing open. +In an instant he was there, with the small dog yelping at his heels; in +another, he had locked the door between cat and dog, pocketed the key, +and returned to his man, stripping off his own coat and waistcoat as he +came. He flung them into a corner, and after them his bush hat. + +"Now let's see you take off yours! If you don't," added Jack, with a big +bush oath, "I'll have to hide you with it on!" + +But man and boy had been consulting while his back was turned, and Jack +now found himself between the two of them; not that he gave the lad a +thought. + +"Look you here; I'll tell you who _I_ am," said the man. "My name's Matt +Hunt, and Matt can fight, as you wouldn't need telling if you belonged +to these parts. But he don't take on stray tramps like you; so, unless +you hook it slippy, we're just going to run you out o' this yard quicker +than you come in." + +"Not till I've shown you how to treat dumb animals----" + +"Then here goes!" + +And with that the man Hunt seized one of Jack's arms, while the +stable-boy nipped the other from behind, and made a dive at Jack's +pocket for the saddle-room key. But a flat-footed kick sent the lad +sprawling without harming him; and the man was driven so hard under the +nose that he too fell back, bearded with blood. + +"Come on!" roared Jack. "And you, my boy, keep out of the light unless +you want a whipping yourself!" + +He was rolling up the sleeves from his tanned and furry arms. Hunt +followed suit, a cascade of curses flowing with his blood; he had torn +off his coat, and a wrist-button tinkled on the cement as he caught up +Jack in his preparations. His arms were thicker than the bushman's, +though white and fleshy. Hunt was also the heavier weight, besides +standing fully six feet, as against the Duke's five-feet-nine when he +held himself up. Nor was there any lack of confidence in the dripping, +hairless, sinister face, when the two men finally squared up. + +They fell to work without niggling, for Jack rushed in like a bull, +leading most violently with his left. It was an inartistic start; the +big man was not touched; but neither did he touch Jack, who displayed, +at all events, a quick pair of legs. Yet it was this start that steadied +the Duke. It showed him that Hunt was by no means unskilled in the use +of his hands; and it put out of his head everything but the fight +itself, so that he heard no more the small tike barking outside the +saddle-room door, hitherto his angriest goad. Some cool sparring +ensued. Then Hunt let out from the shoulder, but the blow was avoided +with great agility; then Jack led off again, but with a lighter touch, +and this time he drew his man. The blows of the next minute it was +impossible to follow. They were given and returned with enormous +virulence. And there was no end to them until the big man tripped and +fell. + +"See here," said Jack, standing over him; "that was my cat, and I'd got +to go for you. But if you've had enough of this game, so have I, and +we'll cry quits." + +He was sucking a cut lip as he spoke. The other spat out a tooth and +blundered to his feet. + +"Quits, you scum? Wait a bit!" + +And they were at hotter work than ever. + +Meanwhile the yard was filling with stable-men and gardeners, who were +in time to see Hunt striding down on his unknown adversary, and the +latter retreating in good order; but the stride quickened, ending in a +rush, which the Duke eluded so successfully that he was able to hit Hunt +hard on the ear as he passed. + +It was afterwards a relief to the spectators to remember how they had +applauded this effort. To the Duke their sympathy was a comfort at the +time; though he no more suspected that his adversary was also his most +unpopular tenant, than the latter dreamt of his being the Duke. + +Hunt let out a bellow of pain, staggered, and resumed his infuriate +rush; but his punishment was now heavier than before. He had lost both +wind and head, and he was losing pluck. One of his eyes was already +retiring behind folds of livid flesh; and a final blow under the nose, +where the first of all had been delivered, knocked him howling into the +arms of a new-comer, who disengaged himself as Hunt fell. + +"What, Claude, is that you?" cried the Duke; and a flood of new +sensations so changed his voice, that Hunt looked up from where he lay, +a beaten, bleeding, blubbering mass. But in the silent revelation of +that moment there was at first no sound save the barking of the +fox-terrier outside the saddle-room door. This had never ceased. Then +the coachman's pipe fell from his mouth and was smashed. + +"My God!" said he. "It's his Grace himself!" + +He had driven the Duke from Devenholme the night before. + +"The Duke of St. Osmund's!" exclaimed Hunt from the ground. He had been +shedding blood and tears indifferently, and now he sat up with a slimy +stare in his uninjured eye. + +"Yes, that's right," said Jack, with a nod to the company. "So now you +all know what to expect for cruelty to cats, or any other dumb animals; +and don't you forget it!" + +He put on his coat and went over to the saddle-room. Claude followed +him, still at a loss for words. And Hunt's dog went into a wild ecstasy +as the key was put into the lock. + +"Hold him," said Jack. "The dog's all right; and I lay his master'll +think twice before he sets him on another cat o' mine." + +"Come away," said Claude hoarsely; "for all our sakes, come away before +you make bad worse!" + +"Well, I will. Only hold him tight. That's it. Poor little puss, +then--poor old Livingstone! Now I'm ready; come along." + +But Hunt was in their path; and Jack's heart smote him for the mischief +he had done, though his own lower lip was swollen like a sausage. + +"So you're the new Duke of St. Osmund's," said Hunt, with a singular +deliberation. "I wasn't to know that, of course; no, by gosh, not +likely!" + +"Well, you know it now," was the reply. "And--and I'm sorry I had to hit +you so hard, Hunt!" + +"Oh, don't apologise," said Hunt, with a sneer that showed a front tooth +missing. "Stop a bit, though; I'm not so sure," he added, with a glance +of evil insight. + +"Sure of what?" + +"Whether you oughtn't to apologise for not hitting a man of your own +age!" + +"Take no notice of him," whispered Claude strenuously; but he obtained +none himself. + +"Nonsense," said the Duke; "you're the younger man, at all events." + +"Am I? I was born in '59, _I_ was." + +"Then according to all accounts you're the younger man by four years." + +"By--four--years," repeated Hunt slowly. "So you was born in '55! Thank +you; I shall make a note of that, you may be sure--your Grace!" + +And Hunt was gone; they heard him whistling for his tike when he was +himself out of sight, and the dog went at last. Then the coachman +stepped forward, cap in hand. + +"If you please, your Grace, that man was here without my knowledge. He's +always putting in his nose where he isn't wanted; I've shifted him out +of this before to-day; and with your Grace's permission, I'll give +orders not to have him admitted again." + +"Who is he?" said Jack. "A tenant or what?" + +"Only a tenant, your Grace. Matt Hunt, they call him, of the Lower Farm; +but it might be of Maske Towers, by the way he goes on!" + +"He took a mighty interest in my age," remarked the Duke. "I never asked +to look at _his_ fangs--but I think you'll find one of them somewhere +about the yard. No; I'm not fond of fighting, my lads. Don't you run +away with that idea. But there's one thing I can't and won't suffer, and +that's cruelty to animals. You chaps in the stables recollect that! And +so good-morning to you all." + +Claude led the way through the shrubbery in a deep depression. The +guilty Duke took his arm with one hand, while with the other he hugged +the yellow cat that was eying the shrubbery birds over its master's +shoulder, much as the terrier had eyed it. + +"My dear old boy," said Jack, "I'm as sorry as sorry for what's +happened. But I couldn't help myself. Look at Livingstone; he'd have +been a stiff 'un by this time if I hadn't turned up when I did; so +naturally there was a row. Still I'm sorry. I know it's a bad beginning; +and I remember saying in the train that I'd turn over a new leaf down +here. Well, and so I will if you give me time. Don't judge me by this +morning, Claude. Give me another chance; and for God's sake don't look +like that!" + +"I can't help it, Jack," replied Claude, with a weary candour. "I'm +prepared for anything now. You make me a year older every day. How do I +know what you'll do next? I think the best thing I can do is to give you +up as a bad job." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DUKE'S PROGRESS + + +Claude's somewhat premature despair was not justified by the event; +nevertheless it did good. Excusable enough at the time, that little +human outbreak was also more effective than the longest lecture or the +most mellifluous reproof. Jack liked his cousin. The liking was by no +means unconnected with gratitude. And now Jack saw that he could best +show his gratitude by adopting a more suitable course of conduct than he +could claim to have pursued hitherto. He determined to make an effort. +He had everything to learn; it was a mountainous task that lay before +him; but he faced it with spirit, and made considerable progress in a +little space. + +He learnt how to treat the servants. The footmen had misbehaved when he +addressed them as "my boy" and "old toucher" from his place at table. He +consulted Claude, and dropped these familiarities as well as the +painfully respectful tone which he had at first employed towards old +Stebbings, the butler. Stebbings had been very many years in the family. +The deference inspired by his venerable presence was natural enough in +the new Duke of St. Osmund's; but it shocked and distressed Stebbings's +feudal soul. He complained to Claude, and he had not to complain twice. +For Jack discovered a special and a touching eagerness to master the +rudiments of etiquette; though in other respects (which certainly +mattered less) he was still incorrigible. + +His social "crammer" could no more cure him of his hatred of a collar +than of his liking for his cats. The latter were always with him; the +former, unhappily, was not. In these things the Duke was hopelessly +unregenerate; he was a stockman still at heart, and a stockman he +threatened to remain. The soft summer nights were nothing to the nights +in the bush; the fleecy English sky was not blue at all after the skies +of Riverina; and the Duke's ideal of a man was "my old boss." Claude +heard of "my old boss" until he was sick of the words, which constituted +a gratuitous reminder of a position most men would have been glad to +forget. Yet there was much to be thankful for. There were no more scenes +such as the Duke's set-to in his own stable-yard with one of his own +tenants. At least nothing of the sort happened again until Jack's next +collision with Matthew Hunt. And that was not yet. + +Matthew was from home when the Duke, making a round of the estate, with +his agent, visited the Lower Farm in its turn. Old Hunt, Matthew's +besotted father, received them in the kitchen with a bloodshot stare and +little else, for drink had long dimmed his forces. Not so the old man's +daughter-in-law, Matthew's wife, who showed the visitors all over the +farm in a noiseless manner that made Jack feel uneasy, because he never +knew when she was or was not at his elbow. Besides, he could not forget +the thrashing he had given her husband, nor yet suppose that she had +forgotten it either. The woman was of a gross type strangely accentuated +by her feline quietude. She had a continual smile, and sly eyes that +dropped when they encountered those of the Duke, whom they followed +sedulously at all other moments. Jack seemed to know it, too; at all +events he was not sorry to turn his back upon the Lower Farm. + +"A rum lot, the Hunts!" he said at lunch. "They're about the only folks +here that I haven't cottoned to on the spot. I shall get on fine with +all the others. But I can't suffer those Hunts!" + +"There's no reason why you should suffer them," observed the agent, in +his well-bred drawl; for he had a more aristocratic manner than Claude +himself. "They have the best farm on the property, and they pay the +smallest rent. You should think over my suggestion of this morning." + +"No, no," said the Duke. "He wants me to double the rent, Claude, and +clear them out if they won't pay. I can't do it." + +"Well, no; I hardly think you can," assented Claude. "Oddly enough, my +grandfather had quite a weakness for the Hunts; and then they are very +old tenants. That hoary-headed Silenus, whom you saw, was once in the +stables here; so was his son after him, in my time; and the old man's +sister was my grandmother's maid. You can't turn out people like that +_ex itinere_, so to speak--I mean to say in a hurry. It's too old a +connection altogether." + +"Exactly what they trade upon," said the agent. "They have been spoilt +for years, and they expect his Grace to go on spoiling them. I should +certainly get rid of the whole gang." + +"No, mister--no!" declared the Duke. "Claude is right. I can't do it. I +might if I hadn't given that fellow a hiding. After that I simply +can't; it would look too bad." + +The agent said no more, but his look and shrug were perhaps neither +politic nor polite. A strapping sportsman himself, and a person of some +polish into the bargain, he was in a position, as it were, to look down +on Claude with one eye, and on the Duke with the other. And he did so +with a freedom extraordinary in one of his wisdom and understanding. + +"One of these days," said Jack, "I shall give that joker his cheque. +He's not my notion of an overseer at all; if he's too good for the +billet let him roll up his swag and clear out; if he isn't, let him +treat the bosses as a blooming overseer should." + +"Why, what's the head and chief of his offending now?" asked Claude; for +this was one night in the billiard-room, when the agent had been making +an example of both cousins at pyramids; it was after he was gone, and +while the Duke was still tearing off his collar. + +"What has he said to-night?" continued the poet, less poetically. "I +heard nothing offensive." + +"You wouldn't," said the Duke; "you're such a good sort yourself. You'd +never see when a chap was pulling your leg, but I see fast enough, and +I won't have it. What did he say to-night? He talked through his neck +when we missed our shots. That about billiards in the bush I didn't +mind; me and the bush, we're fair game; but when he got on to your +poetry, old man, I felt inclined to run my cue through his gizzard. 'A +poet's shot,' he says, when you put yourself down; and 'you should write +a sonnet about that,' when you got them three balls in together. I don't +say it wasn't a fluke. That has nothing at all to do with it. The way +the fellow spoke is what I weaken on. He wouldn't have done for my old +boss, and I'm blowed if he'll do for me. One of these days I shall tell +him to come outside and take his coat off; and, by the looks of him, I +shouldn't be a bit surprised to see him put me through." + +Claude's anxiety overcame every other feeling. He implored the Duke not +to make another scene, least of all with such a man as the agent, whose +chaff, he truly protested, did not offend him in the least. Jack shook +his head, and was next accused of being more sensitive about the +"wretched poems" than was the poet himself. This could not have been. +But Claude was not so very far wrong. + +His slender book was being widely reviewed, or rather "noticed," for the +two things are not quite the same. The "notices," on the whole, were +good and kind, but "uninstructed," so Claude said with a sigh; +nevertheless, he appeared to obtain a sneaking satisfaction from their +perusal; and as for Jack, he would read them aloud, capering round the +room and shaking Claude by both hands in his delighted enthusiasm. To +him every printed compliment was a loud note blown from the trumpet of +fame into the ears of all the world. He would hear not a word against +the paper in which it appeared, but attributed every qualifying remark +of Claude's to the latter's modesty, and each favourable paragraph to +some great responsible critic voicing the feeling of the country in the +matter of these poems. Claude himself, however, though frequently +gratified, was not deceived; for the sweetest nothings came invariably +from the provincial press; and he at least knew too much to mistake a +"notice" for a "real review." + +The real reviews were a sadly different matter. There were very few of +them, in the first place; their scarcity was worse than their severity. +And they were generally very severe indeed; or they did not take the +book seriously, which, as Claude said, was the unkindest cut of all. + +"Only show me the skunk who wrote that," exclaimed Jack one morning, +looking over Claude's shoulder as he opened his press-cuttings, "and +I'll give him the biggest hiding ever he had in his life!" + +Another critic, the writer of a really sympathetic and exhaustive +review, the Duke desired to invite to Maske Towers by the next post, +"because," said Jack, "he must be a real good sort, and we ought to know +him." + +"I do know him," said Claude, with a groan, for he had thought of +keeping the fact to himself; "I know him to my cost. He owes me money. +This is payment on account. Oh, I am no good! I must give it up! +Ignorance and interest alone are at my back! Genuine enthusiasm there is +none!" + +There was Jack's. But was that genuine? The Duke himself was not sure. +He meant it to ring true, but then he meant to appreciate the poems, and +of many of them he could make little enough in his secret soul. + +All this, however, was but one side of the quiet life led by the cousins +at Maske Towers; and it had but one important effect--that of sowing in +Claude's heart a loyalty to Jack not unworthy of Jack's loyalty to him. + +There were other subjects of discussion upon which the pair were by no +means at one. There was Jack's open failure to appreciate the marble +halls, the resonant galleries, the darkling pictures of his princely +home; and there was the scatter-brained scheme by which he ultimately +sought to counteract the oppressive grandeur of his new surroundings. + +It was extremely irritating, especially to a man like Claude; but the +proudest possessions of their ancestors (whose superlative taste and +inferior morals had been the byword of so many ages) were those which +appealed least to that blameless Goth, the ninth Duke of St. Osmund's. +The most glaring case in point was that of the pictures, which alone +would make the worldwide fame of a less essentially noble seat than +Maske Towers. But Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea +del Sarto, Angeletti Vernet, and Claude Lorrain--all these were mere +names, and new ones, to Happy Jack. Claude Lafont, pointing to +magnificent examples of the work of one One Master after another, made +his observations with bated breath, as well he might, for where is there +such another private collection? Jack, however, was not impressed; he +was merely amazed at Claude, and his remarks in the picture-gallery are +entirely unworthy of reproduction. In the State Apartments he was still +more trying. He spoke of having the ancient tapestries (after Raphael's +Cartoons) taken out and "well shaken," which, as Claude said, would have +reduced them to immediate atoms. And he threatened to have the painted +ceilings whitewashed without delay. + +"Aurora Banishing Night, eh?" he cried, with horizontal beard and +upturned eyes. "She'd jolly soon banish _my_ night, certainly; it should +be, banishing sleep! And all those naked little nippers! They ought to +be papered over, for decency's sake; and that brute of a bed, who would +sleep in it, I should like to know? Not me. Not much! It must be +twenty-foot high and ten-foot wide; it gives me the hump to look at it, +and the ceilings give it me worse. See here, Claude, we'll lock up these +State Apartments, as you call them, and you shall keep the key. I'm full +of 'em; they'll give me bad dreams as it is." + +They were not, however, the only apartments of which the Duke +disapproved; the suite which had been done up entirely for his own use, +under Claude's direction, did not long commend itself to the +ex-stockman. Everything was far too good for him and his cats; they were +not accustomed to such splendour; it made them all four +uncomfortable--so Jack declared after taking Claude's breath away with +the eccentric plan on which he had set his heart. And for the remainder +of their solitary companionship each man had his own occupation; the +Duke preparing more congenial quarters for himself and the cats; and +Claude, with Jack's permission and the agent's skilled advice, +superintending the making of private golf-links for Mr. Sellwood's +peculiar behoof. For the Home Secretary had promised to join the Maske +party, for the week-ends at any rate, until (as he expressed it) the +Government "holed out." + +That party was now finally arranged. The Frekes were coming with the +Sellwoods, and the latter family were to have the luxurious suite which +the Duke himself disdained. This was his Grace's own idea. Moreover, he +interested himself personally in the right ordering of the rooms during +the last few days; but this he kept to himself until the eleventh hour; +in fact, until he was waiting for the drag to come round, which he was +himself going to tool over to Devenholme to meet his guests. It was then +that certain unexpected misgivings led Jack to seek out his cousin, in +order to take him to see what he had done. + +For Claude had shown him what _he_ was doing. He was producing a set of +exceedingly harmless verses, "To Olivia released from Mayfair," of +which the Duke had already heard the rough draft. The fair copy was in +the making even now; in the comparatively small room, at one end of the +library, that Jack had already christened the Poet's Corner. + +Claude wiped his pen with characteristic care, and then rose readily +enough. He followed Jack down the immensely long, galleried, book-lined +library, through a cross-fire of coloured lights from the stained-glass +windows, and so to the stairs. Overhead there was another long walk, +through corridor after corridor, which had always reminded Jack of the +hotel in town. But at last, in the newly decorated wing, the Duke took a +key from his pocket and put it in a certain door. And now it was Claude +who was reminded of the hotel; for a most striking atmospheric change +greeted him on the threshold; only this time it was not a gust of heat, +but the united perfume of many flowers, that came from within. + +The room was fairly flooded with fresh roses. It was as though they had +either blown through the open window, or fallen in a miraculous shower +from the dainty blue ceiling. They pranked the floor in a fine disorder. +They studded the table in tiny vases. They hid the mantelpiece, embedded +in moss; from the very grate below, they peeped like fairy flames, +breathing fragrance instead of warmth; and some in falling seemed to +have caught in the pictures on the walls, so artfully had they been +arranged. Only the white narrow bed had escaped the shower. And in the +midst of this, his handiwork, stood the Duke, and blushed like the roses +themselves. + +"Whose room is this?" asked Claude, though he knew so well. + +"Olivia's--I should say Miss Sellwood's. You see, old man, you were +writing these awfully clever verses for her; so I felt I should like to +have something ready too." + +"Your poem is the best!" exclaimed Claude, with envious, sparkling eyes. +And then he sighed. + +"Oh, rot!" said Jack, who was only too thankful for his offering to +receive the _cachet_ of Claude's approval. "All I wanted was to keep my +end up, too. Look here. What do you think of this?" + +And he took from a vase on the dressing-table an enormous white bouquet, +that opened Claude's eyes wider than before. + +"This is for her, too; I wanted to consult you about it," pursued Jack. +"Should I leave it here for her, or should I take it down to the station +and present it to her there? Or at dinner to-night? I want to know just +what you think." + +"No, not at dinner," replied Claude; "nor yet at the station." + +"Not at all, you mean! I see it in your face!" cried the Duke so that +Claude could not answer him. "But why not?" he added vehemently. "Where +does the harm come in? It's only a blooming nosegay. What's wrong with +it?" + +"Nothing," was the reply, "only it might embarrass Olivia." + +"Make her uncomfortable?" + +"Well, yes; it would be rather marked, you know. A bouquet like that is +only fit for a bride." + +"I don't see it," said Jack, much crestfallen; "still, if that's so, +it's just as well to know it. There was no harm meant. I wasn't thinking +of any rot of that kind. However, we don't want to make her +uncomfortable; that wasn't the idea at all; so the bouquet's off--like +me. Come and let me tool you as far as the boundary fence. I want to +show you how we drive four horses up the bush." + +The exhibition made Claude a little nervous; there was too much shouting +at the horses for his taste, and too much cracking of the whip. Jack +could crack a whip better than any man in his own stables. But he +accepted Claude's criticism with his usual docility, and dropped him at +the gates with his unfailing nod of pure good-humour. + +There he sat on the box, in loose rough tweeds of a decent cut, and with +the early August sun striking under the brim of a perfectly respectable +straw hat, but adding little to the broad light of his own honest, +beaming countenance. He waved his whip, and Claude his hand. Then the +whip cracked--but only once--and the poet strolled back to his verses, +steeped in thought. He had done his best. His soul divined vaguely what +the result might mean to him. But his actual thoughts were +characteristically permissible; he was merely wondering what Lady +Caroline and Olivia Sellwood would say now. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE OLD ADAM + + +Olivia said least. Her mother took Claude by the hand, and thanked him +with real tears in her eyes, for after all she was an Irishwoman, who +could be as emotional as possible when she chose. As for Mr. Sellwood, +he expressed himself as delightfully disappointed in the peer of whom he +had heard so much. Jack struck him as being an excellent fellow, +although not a golfer, which was a pity, and even apparently disinclined +to take up the game--which might signify some recondite flaw in his +character. So said the Home Secretary. But Olivia merely asked who had +put all those roses in her room; and when Claude told her, she simply +nodded and took hardly any notice of the Duke that night. Yet she wore a +handful of his flowers at her shapely waist. And she did thank him, in a +way. + +It was not the sweetest way in the world, as all her ways had been, +these many weeks, in Jack's imagination. He was grieved and +disappointed, but still more was he ashamed. He had taken a liberty. He +had alienated his friend. Thus he blamed himself, with bitter, wordless +thoughts, and would then fall back upon his disappointment. His feelings +were a little mixed. One moment she was not all that he had thought her; +the next, she was more than all. She was more beautiful. Often he had +tried to recall her face, and tried in vain, having seen her but once +before, and then only for a few minutes. Now he perceived that his first +impression, blurred and yet dear to him as it had been, had done but +meagre justice to Olivia. He had forgotten the delicate dark eyebrows, +so much darker than the hair. The girl's radiant colouring had also +escaped him. It was like the first faint flush of an Australian dawn. +Yet he had missed it in June, just as he had missed the liquid hazel of +her eyes; their absolute honesty was what he remembered best; and, by a +curious irony, that frank, fine look was the very one which she denied +him now. + +And so it was from the Friday evening, when the Sellwoods arrived, to +the Monday morning when duty recalled the Home Secretary to St. +Stephen's. He obeyed the call in no statesman-like frame of mind. He +had spent the Sabbath in open sin upon the new-made links, and had been +fitly punished by his own execrable play. The athletic agent had made an +example of him; he felt that he might just as well have been in church +(or rather in the private chapel attached to the Towers), reading the +lessons for his son-in-law, Francis Freke; and in the Saturday's +"foursome," with the reverend gentleman on his side, the Cabinet +Minister had done little better. So he had departed very sorely against +the grain, his white hairs bristling with discontent, a broken "driver" +hidden away in the depths of his portmanteau. And Olivia, seeing the +last of him from amid the tall columns of the portico, felt +heavy-hearted, because her father was also her friend. + +Jack watched her at a distance. It did not occur to him that the girl's +mother was already pitching him at the girl's head, daily and almost +hourly, until she was weary of the very sound of his name. And though he +felt he must have overstepped some mark in the matter of the flowers, he +little dreamt how Miss Sellwood's maid had looked when she saw them, or +what disgraceful satisfaction Lady Caroline had exhibited before her +daughter on that occasion. He only knew that her Ladyship was treating +him with a rather oppressive kindness, and that he would much sooner +have had half-a-dozen words from Olivia, such as the first she had ever +spoken to him. + +And now the girl was unhappy; it was plain enough, even to his untutored +eye; and he stepped forward with the determination of improving her +spirits, without thinking of his own, which were not a little flat. + +"You must find it dull up the country, Miss Sellwood, after London," +began Jack, not perhaps in his most natural manner. "I--I wish to +goodness you'd tell us of anything we could do to amuse you!" + +"You are very good," replied Olivia, "but I don't require to be amused +like a child. Thanks all the same. As to finding the country dull, I +never appreciate it so much as after a season in town." + +She was not looking at the Duke, but beyond him into the hall. And +encountering no other eyes there, her own grew softer, as did her tone, +even as she spoke. + +"You know this old place off by heart, Miss Sellwood, I expect?" pursued +Jack, who had taken off his straw hat in her presence, being in doubt as +to whether the portico ranked indoors or out. + +"Oh, well, I have stayed here pretty often, you know," said Olivia. +"What do you think of the place?" + +"I can't hardly say. I've never seen anything else like it. It's far too +good, though, for a chap like me; it's all so grand." + +"I have _sometimes_ felt it a little too grand," the girl ventured to +observe. + +"So have I!" cried Jack. "You can't think how glad I am to hear you say +that. It's my own feeling right down to the ground!" + +"I don't mean to be rude," continued Olivia confidentially, seeing that +they were still unobserved, "but I have often felt that I wouldn't care +to live here altogether." + +"No?" said the Duke, in a new tone; he felt vaguely dashed, but his +manner was rather one of apologetic sympathy. + +"No," she repeated; "shall you like it?" + +"Can't say. I haven't weakened on it yet, though it _is_ too fine and +large for a fellow. Shall I tell you what I've done? I've fixed up a +little place for myself outside, where I can go whenever I get full up +of the homestead here. I wonder--if it isn't too much to ask--whether +you would let me show you the little spot I mean?" + +"Where is it?" + +"In the pines yonder, on the far side o' the tank." + +"The tank!" + +"We call 'em tanks in Australia. I meant the lake. I could row you +across, Miss Sellwood, in a minute, if only you'd let me!" And he met +her doubtful look with one of frank, simple-hearted, irresistible +entreaty. + +"Come on!" said Olivia suddenly; and as she went, she never looked +behind; for she seemed to feel her mother's eyes upon her from an upper +window, and the hot shame of their certain approval made her tingle from +head to foot. So she trod the close, fine, sunlit grass as far as +possible from her companion's side. And he, falling back a little, was +enabled to watch her all the way. + +Olivia was very ordinarily attired. She wore a crisp white blouse, +speckled with tiny scarlet spots, and a plain skirt of navy blue, just +short enough to give free play to the small brown shoes whose high heels +the Duke had admired in the portico. Two scarlet bands, a narrow and a +broad, encircled her straw hat and her waist, with much the same +circumference: and yet this exceedingly average costume struck Jack as +the most delicious thing imaginable of its kind. He corrected another +impression before they reached the lake. Olivia was taller than he had +thought; she was at least five-feet-six; and she carried her slim, trim +figure in a fine upstanding fashion that took some of the roundness out +of his own shoulders as he noted it this August morning. + +"It's the back-block bend," he remarked elliptically, in the boat. + +His way with the oars was inelegant enough, without a pretence at +feathering; but it was quite effectual; and Olivia, in the stern-sheets, +had her back still presented to the Argus-eyes of the Towers. She +answered him with a puzzled look, as well she might, for he had done no +more than think aloud. + +"What is that?" she said. "And what are the back-blocks; and what _do_ +you mean?" for her puzzled look had lifted on a smile. + +"I was thinking of my round shoulders. You get them through being all +your time in the saddle, up in the back-blocks. All the country in +Riverina--that is, all the fenced country--is split up into ten-mile +blocks. And the back-blocks are the farthest from the rivers and from +civilisation. So that's why they call it the back-block bend; it came +into my head through seeing you. I never saw anybody hold themselves so +well, Miss Sellwood--if it isn't too like my cheek to say so!" + +The keel grounded as he spoke, and Olivia, as he handed her out, saw the +undulating battlements and toppling turrets of the olden pile +upside-down in the tremulous mirror of the lake. A moment later the +pine-trees had closed around her; and, sure enough, in a distant window, +Lady Caroline Sellwood lowered her opera-glasses with a sigh of +exceeding great contentment. + +"So you haven't forgotten your old life yet," said the girl, as they +stepped out briskly across the shortening shadows of the pines. "I wish +you would tell me something about it! I have heard it said that you +lived in ever such a little hut, away by yourself in the wilderness." + +"I did so; and in a clump of pines the dead spit of these here," said +Jack, with a relish. "When I saw these pines you can't think how glad I +was! They were like old friends to me; they made me feel at home. You +see, Miss Sellwood, that old life is the only one I ever knew, bar this; +often enough it seems the reallest of the two. Most nights I dream I'm +out there again; last night, for instance, we were lamb-marking. A nasty +job, that; I was covered with blood from head to heels, and I was just +counting the poor little beggars' tails, when one of the dead tails +wriggled in my hand, and blowed if it wasn't Livingstone's! No, there's +no forgetting the old life; I was at it too long; it's this one that's +most like a dream." + +"And the hut," said Olivia, with a rather wry face; "what sort of a +place was that?" + +"I'll show you," replied the Duke, in what struck the other as a +superfluously confidential tone. "It was a little bit of a place, all +one room, with a galvanised iron roof and mother-earth for floor. It was +built with the very pines that had been felled to make a clearing for +the hut: so many uprights, and horizontal slabs in between. A great +square hearth and chimney were built out at one end, like the far end of +a church; and over my bunk I'd got a lot of pictures from the +_Australasian Sketcher_ just stuck up anyhow; and if you weren't +looking, you knocked your head against the ration-bags that hung from +the cross-beams. You slept inside, but you kept your bucket and basin on +a bench----" + +"Good heavens!" cried Olivia. And she stood rooted to the ground before +a clearing and a hut which exactly tallied with the Duke's description. +The hut was indeed too new, the maker's stamp catching the eye on the +galvanised roofing; and, in the clearing, the pine-stumps were still +white from the axe; but the essentials were the same, even to the tin +basin on the bench outside the door, with a bucket of water underneath. +As for the wooden chimney, Olivia had never seen such a thing in her +life; yet real smoke was leaking out of it into the pale blue sky. + +"Is this a joke or a trick?" asked the girl, looking suspiciously on +Jack. + +"Neither; it's meant for the dead image of my old hut up the bush; and +it's the little place I've fixed up for myself, here on the run, that I +wanted to show you." + +"You've had it built during these last few weeks?" + +"Under my own eye; and bits of it with my own hand. Old Claude thought +it sheer cussedness, I know; perhaps you will, too; but come in, and +have a look for yourself." + +And unlocking the padlock that secured it, he opened the door and stood +aside for the young girl to enter. Olivia did so with alacrity; her +first amazement had given way to undiluted interest; and the Duke +followed her, straw hat in hand. There was a tantalising insufficiency +of light within. Two small windows there were, but both had been filled +with opaque folds of sackcloth in lieu of glass; yet the Duke pointed to +them, as might his ancestors to the stained-glass lights in chapel and +library, with peculiar pride; and, indeed, his strange delight in the +hut, who cared so little for the Towers close at hand, made Olivia +marvel when she came to think about it. Meanwhile she found everything +as she had heard it described in the Australian hut, with one exception: +there were no ration-bags to knock one's head against, because nobody +made meals here. Also the pictures over the bunk were from the +_Illustrated London News_, not from the _Sketcher_, which Jack had been +unable to obtain in England; and they were somewhat unconvincingly clean +and well-arranged. But the bunk itself was all that it might have been +in the real bush; for it was covered over with Jack's own old blanket; +whereon lay a purring, yellow ball, like a shabby sand-bank in a sea of +faded blue. + +"So this is Livingstone!" exclaimed the girl, stooping to scratch that +celebrity's head. + +"Yes; and there's old Tom and Black Maria in front of the fire. I lock +them all three up during the day, for it isn't so like the bush in some +ways as it is in others. They might get stolen any day, with so many +people about; that's the worst of the old country; there was no other +camp within five miles of me, on Carara." + +"It must have been dreadfully lonely!" + +"You get used to it. And then every few months you would tramp into the +homestead and--and speak to the boss," said Jack, changing his mind and +his sentence as he remembered how he had once shocked Claude Lafont. + +Olivia took notice of the cats, at which Jack stood by beaming. The +kitten she had brought down from town in a basket. It lived in Olivia's +room, but she now suggested restoring it to its own people. Jack, +however, reminded her that it was hers, in such a tender voice; and +proceeded to refer to her kindness at their first meeting, in so +embarrassing a fashion; that the girl, seeking a change of subject, +found one in the long, low bunk. + +"I see," said she, "that you come here for your afternoon siesta." + +"I come here for my night's sleep," he replied. + +"Never!" + +"Every night in life. You seem surprised. I did ask old Claude not to +mention it--and--oh, well, it's no use keeping the thing a secret, after +all. It suits me best--the open country and the solitude. It's what I'm +accustomed to. The wind in the pines all around, I wake up and hear it +every night, just like I did in the old hut. It's almost the same thing +as going back to the bush to sleep; there's not two penn'orth of +difference." + +"You'd like to go back altogether," said the girl, affirming it as a +fact; and yet her sweet eyes, gravely unsatisfied, seemed to peer +through his into his soul. + +"I don't say that, Miss Sellwood," he protested. "Of course it's a great +thing for me to have come in for all this fortune and power--and it'll +be a greater thing still once I can believe it's true! That's the +trouble. The whole show's so like a dream. And that's where this little +hut helps me; _it's_ real, anyway; I can sight _it_. As for all the +rest, it's too many measles for me--as yet; what's more, if I was to +wake up this minute on Carara I shouldn't so very much mind." + +"I wonder," said Olivia, with her fine eyes looking through him still. +"I just wonder!" And her tone set him wondering too. + +"Of course," he faltered, "I should be mighty sorry to wake up and find +I'd only dreamt _you_!" + +"Of course," she returned, with a laughing bow; but there had been an +instant's pause; and she was studying the picture-gallery over the bunk +when she continued, "I see you've been long enough in England to acquire +the art of making pretty speeches. And I must tell you at once that +they never amuse me. At least," she added more kindly, again facing him, +"not when they come from a person as a rule so candid as yourself." + +"But you mistake me; I was perfectly candid," protested poor Jack. + +"It won't do," said the girl. "And it's time we went." + +Olivia felt that she had made excellent friends with the Duke; that the +more she saw of him, the better she would probably like him; and that +she could possibly be of use to him, in little ways, if he would be +sensible, and make no more than a friend of her. She was not so sure of +him, however, as she could have wished; and she was anxious to leave +well alone. It was thus the worst of luck that at this last moment she +should perceive the suggestively white bouquet upon the high deal +chimney-piece. + +"You've been to a wedding," she cried, "and I've never heard a word +about it! Whose was the wedding? Some of the tenantry, of course, or the +bride would hardly have presented you with her bouquet!" + +And she reached it down, and widened her pretty nostrils over the fading +flowers; but they smelt of death; and their waxen whiteness had here +and there the tarnish of a half-eaten apple. + +"There was no bride," said Jack, "and no wedding." + +"Then why this bride's bouquet? No! I beg your pardon; it isn't a fair +question." + +"It is--perfectly. I had it made for a young lady. The head-gardener +made it, but I told him first what I wanted. There was no word of a +wedding; I only thought a nosegay would be the right sort of thing to +give a young lady, to show her she was mighty welcome; and I thought +white was a nice clean sort of colour. But it turned out I was wrong; +she wouldn't have liked it; it would only have made her uncomfortable; +so, when I found out that, I just let it rest." + +"I see," said Olivia, seeing only too clearly. "Still, I'm not sure you +were right: if I had been the girl----" + +"Yes?" + +The quick word altered the speech it had also interrupted. + +"I should have thought it exceedingly kind of you," said Olivia, after a +moment's reflection. + +She replaced the flowers on the chimney-board, and then led the way out +among the pines. + +"I'm sorry you were in such a hurry," he said, overtaking her when he +had locked up the hut. "I might have made you some billy-tea. The +billy's the can you make it in up the bush. I had such a work to get one +over here! I keep some tea in the hut, and billy-tea's not like any +other kind; I call it better; but you must come again and sample it for +yourself." + +"We'll see," said Olivia smilingly; but with that she lost her tongue; +and together they crossed the lake in mutually low spirits. It was as +though the delicate spell of simple friendship had been snapped as soon +as spun between them, and the friends were friends no more. + +On the lawn, however, in a hammock under an elm, they found a young man +smoking. It was Mr. Edmund Stubbs, who had arrived, with his friend the +Impressionist, on the Saturday afternoon. He was smoking a pipe; but the +ground beneath him was defiled with the ends of many cigarettes; and +close at hand a deck-chair stood empty. + +"I smell the blood of Mr. Llewellyn," said Olivia, coming up with the +glooming Duke. "He smokes far too many cigarettes!" + +"He has gone for more," said the man in the hammock. + +"I wonder you don't interfere, Mr. Stubbs; it must be so bad for him." + +"On the contrary, Miss Sellwood, it is the best thing in the world for +him. A man must smoke something. And an artist must smoke cigarettes. +You can tell what he does smoke, however, from his work. Pipe-work is +inevitably coarse, banal, obvious, and only fit to hang in the front +parlours of Brixton and Upper Tooting. Cigar-work is little better; but +that of the cigarette is delicate, suggestive, fantastic if you will, +but always artistic. Ivor Llewellyn's is typical cigarette-work." + +"How very interesting," said Olivia. + +"My colonial!" muttered the Duke. + +At the same time they caught each other's eyes, turned away with one +consent, nor made a sound between them until they were out of earshot of +the hammock. And then they only laughed; yet the spell that had been +broken was even thus made whole. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN ANONYMOUS LETTER + + +It is comparatively easy to read a character from a face. This is always +a scientific possibility. To fit the face to a given character is +obviously the reverse. And those who knew the worst of Lady Caroline +Sellwood, before making her acquaintance, received, on that occasion, +something like a shock. They had nourished visions of a tall and stately +figure with a hook-nose and an exquisitely supercilious smile; whereas +her Ladyship was decidedly short, and extremely stout, with as plebeian +a snub-nose and as broad a grin as any in her own back-kitchen. Instead +of the traditionally frigid leader of society, she was a warm-hearted +woman where her own interests were not concerned; where they were, she +was just what expedience made her, and her heart then took its +temperature from her head, like the excellent servant it had always +been. A case very much in point is that of her relations with Claude +Lafont, whom, however, Lady Caroline had now her own reasons for +fearing no more. As for the Duke of St. Osmund's, her heart had been a +perfect oven to him from the first. + +Nor did she make any pretence about the matter--it was this that so +repelled Olivia. But the very falsity of the woman was frank to the +verge of a virtue; and the honest dishonesty of her front hair (which +was of the same shade as Olivia's, only much more elaborately curled) +was as bluntly emblematic as a pirate's flag. Lady Caroline Sellwood was +honestly dishonest to the last ounce of her two hundredweight of +avoirdupois. + +This was the kind of thing she thought nothing of doing. She had been +engaged for months upon an egregious smoking-cap for Claude Lafont. That +is to say she had from time to time put in a few golden stitches, in +front of Claude, which her maid had been obliged to pick out and put in +again behind the scenes. Claude, at any rate, had always understood that +the cap was for him--until one evening here in the conservatory, when he +saw Lady Caroline coolly trying it on the Duke. + +"It never did fit you, Claude," she explained serenely. "It was always +too small, and I must make you another. Only see how it fits the dear +Duke!" + +The dear Duke was made the recipient of many another mark of unblushing +favour. He could do no wrong. His every solecism of act or word, and +they still cropped up at times, was simply "sweet" in the eyes of Lady +Caroline Sellwood, and his name was seldom on her lips without that +epithet. + +Moreover, she would speak her mind to him on every conceivable topic, +and this with a freedom often embarrassing for Jack; as, for example, on +the first Sunday after church. + +"I simply don't know how Francis dared!" Lady Caroline exclaimed, as she +took Jack's arm on the sunlit terrace. "Twenty-one minutes by my +watch--and such drivel! It didn't seem so to you? Ah, you're so sweet! +But twenty-one minutes was an outrage, and I shall tell the little idiot +exactly what I think of him." + +"I rather like him," said Jack, who put it thus mildly out of pure +politeness to his companion; "and I rather liked what he said." + +"Oh, he's no worse than the rest of them," rejoined Lady Caroline. "Of +course I swear by the sweet Established Church, but the parsons +personally, with very few exceptions, I never could endure. Still, it's +useful to have one in the family; he does everything for us. He +christens the grandchildren, and he'll bury the lot of us if he's +spared, to say nothing of marrying poor Olivia when her time comes. Ah +well, let's hope that won't be yet! She is my ewe lamb. And all men are +not such dear sweet fellows as you!" + +This sort of speech he found unanswerable; and although treated by her +Ladyship with unflagging consideration, amounting almost to devotion, +Jack was never at his ease in such interviews. + +One of these took place in the hut. Lady Caroline insisted on seeing it, +accompanied by Olivia. Of course the whole idea charmed her to +ecstasies; it was so original; it showed such a simple heart; and the +hut itself was as "sweet" as everything else connected with the Duke. So +was the pannikin of tea which Jack was entreated to brew for her in the +"billy": indeed, this was too sweet for Lady Caroline, who emptied most +of hers upon the earth behind her camp-stool--an act which Jack +pretended not to detect, and did not in the least resent. On the +contrary, he put a characteristic construction upon the incident, which +he attributed exclusively to Lady Caroline's delicate reluctance to hurt +his feelings by expressing her real opinion of the tea; for though +personally oppressed by her persistent kindness, he was much too +unsophisticated, and had perhaps too good a heart of his own, ever to +suspect an underlying motive. + +Towards the end of that week, in fact on the Friday afternoon, they were +all taking tea on the terrace; or rather all but the two talented young +men, who were understood never to touch it, and who, indeed, were +somewhat out of their element at the Towers, except late at night, when +the ladies had gone to bed. "I can't think why you asked them down," +said Lady Caroline to Claude. "I didn't," was the reply; "it was you, +Jack." "Of course it was me," cried the astonished Jack, "and why not? +Didn't they use to go to your rooms, old man, and to your house, Lady +Caroline?" "Ah," said her Ladyship, with her indulgent smile, "but that +was rather a different thing--you dear kind fellow!" All this, however, +was not on the Friday afternoon, when Lady Caroline was absorbed in very +different thoughts. They were not of the conversation, although she put +in her word here and there; the subject, that of the Nottingham murder, +being one of peculiar interest. The horrible case in question, which had +filled the papers all that week, had ended the previous day in an +inevitable conviction. And even Claude was moved to the expression of a +strong opinion as he put down the _Times_. + +"I must say that I agree with the judge," he remarked with a shudder. +"'Unparalleled barbarity' is the only word for it! What on earth, +though, was there to become 'almost inaudible with emotion' about, in +passing sentence? If I could see any man hanged with equanimity, or +indeed at all, I confess it would be this loathly wretch." + +"Claude," said Lady Caroline, "I'm ashamed of you. He is an innocent +man. He shall not die." + +"Who's to prevent it?" asked Jack. + +"I am," replied Lady Caroline calmly. + +"There'll probably be a petition, you see," exclaimed Claude. "Then the +Home Secretary decides." + +"And I decide the Home Secretary," said Lady Caroline Sellwood. + +It was grossly untrue, and Olivia shook her head in answer to the Duke's +astounded stare, but her mother's eyes were again fixed thoughtfully on +lawn and lake. The short dry grass was overrun with wild thyme, +innumerable butterflies played close to it, as spray, and the air hummed +with bees likewise in love with the aroma, whose fragrance reached even +to the terrace. But Lady Caroline noted none of these things, nor yet +the shadows of spire and turret encroaching on the lawn--nor yet the +sunlight strong as ever on the lake beyond. She was already pondering on +the best way of bringing a certain matter to a head. This quiet country +life, with so tiny a house-party, and with one day so like another, was +excellent so far as it went, but the chances were that it would not go +the whole way. It lacked excitement and incentive. It was the kind of +life in which an attachment might too easily stagnate in mere foolish +friendship. It needed an event; a something to prepare for, to look +forward to; a something to tighten the nerves and slacken the tongue; +and yet nothing that should give the Duke an opportunity of appearing at +a public disadvantage. + +So this was the difficulty. It disqualified the dance, the dinner-party, +even the entertaining of the county from 3.30 to 6.30 in the grounds. +But Lady Caroline overcame it, as she overcame most difficulties, by the +patient application of her ingenious mind. And her outward scheme was +presently unfolded in the fewest and apparently the most spontaneous +words. + +"He is not guilty, and he shall not die," she suddenly observed, as +though the Nottingham murder had all this time monopolised her +thoughts. "But let us speak of something else; I had, indeed, a very +different matter upon my mind, until the papers came and banished +everything with this ghastly business. The fact is, dear Duke, that you +should really do something to entertain your tenantry, and possibly a +few neighbours also, before they begin to talk. They will expect it +sooner or later, and in these things it is always better to take time by +the forelock. Mind, I don't mean an elaborate matter at all--except from +their point of view. I would just give them the run of the place for the +afternoon, and feed the multitude later on. Francis, don't look shocked! +I hope you'll be there to ask a blessing. Then, Duke, you could have a +band on the lawn, and fireworks, and indeed anything you like. It's +always good policy to do the civil to one's tenantry, though no doubt a +bore; but you needn't shake hands with them, you know, and you could +leaven the lower orders with a few parsons and their wives from the +surrounding rectories. It's only a suggestion, of course, and that from +one who has really no right to put in her oar at all; still I know you +won't misunderstand it--coming from _me_." + +He did not; his face had long been alight and aglow with the red-heat +of his enthusiasm; and now his words leapt forth like flames. + +"The very ticket!" he cried, starting to his feet. "A general muster of +all sorts, and we'll do 'em real well. Fizz and fireworks! A dance on +the lawn! And I'll make 'em a speech to wind up with!" + +"That would be beautiful," said Lady Caroline with an inward shudder. +"What a dear fellow you are, to be sure, to take up my poor little +suggestion like this!" + +"Take it up," cried Jack, "I should think I would take it up! It'll be +the best sport out. Lady Caroline, you're one in two or three! I'm truly +thankful for the tip. Here's my hand on it!" + +His hand was pressed without delay. + +"It really is an excellent suggestion," said Claude Lafont, in his +deliberate way, after mature consideration. "It only remains to settle +the date." + +"And the brand of fizz, old man, and the sort of fireworks! I'll leave +all that to you. And the date, too; any day will do me; the sooner the +better." + +"Well," said Lady Caroline, as though it had only just struck her, +"Olivia's birthday is the twentieth----" + +"Mamma!" cried that young lady, with real indignation. + +"And it's her twenty-first birthday," pursued the other, "and she is my +ewe lamb. I must confess I should like to honour that occasion----" + +"Same here! By all manner o' means!" broke in the Duke. "Now, Miss +Sellwood, it's no use your saying one word; this thing's a fixture for +the twentieth as ever is." + +The girl was furious. The inevitable, nay, the intentional linking of +her name with that of the Duke of St. Osmund's, entailed by the +arrangement thus mooted and made, galled her pride to the quick. And yet +it was but one more twang of the catapult that was daily and almost +hourly throwing her at his head; neither was it his fault any more than +hers; so she made shift to thank him, as kindly as she could at the +moment, for the compliment he was so ready to pay her--at her mother's +suggestion. + +"You could hardly get out of it, however, after what was said," she +added, not perhaps inexcusably in the circumstances. + +"No more can you," retorted the Duke. "And here comes the very man we +must all consult," he added, as the agent appeared, a taking figure in +his wrinkled riding breeches, and with his spurs trailing on the +dead-smooth flags. + +The agent handed Jack a soiled note, and then sat down to talk to the +ladies. This he did at all times excellently, having assurance and a +certain well-bred familiarity of manner, which, as the saying is, went +down. In this respect he was a contrast to all the other men present. He +inquired when the Home Secretary would be back and ready for his revenge +on the links. And he heard of the plans for the twentieth with interest +and a somewhat superfluous approval. Meanwhile the Duke had read his +note more than once, and now he looked up. + +"Where did you get this?" he asked, displaying the crumpled envelope, +which had also a hole through the middle. + +"In rather a rum place," replied the agent. "It was nailed to a tree +just outside the north gates." + +"Well, see here," said Jack, who stood facing the party, with his back +to the stone bulwark of the terrace, and a hard look on his face; +"that's just the sort of place where I should have expected you to find +it, for it's an anonymous letter that some fellows might keep to +themselves--but not me! I'm for getting to the bottom of things, +whether they're nice or whether they're nasty. Listen to this: 'To the +DUKE of St. Osmund's'--he prints 'Duke' in big letters, as much as to +say I'm not one. 'A word in your GRACE'S ear'--he prints that the same. +'They say,' he says, 'that you hail from Australia, and _I_ say you're +not the first claimant to titles and estates that has sprung from there. +Take a friendly tip and put on as few frills as possible till you're +quite sure you are not going to be bowled out for a second Tichborne. A +WELL-WISHER.' Now what does it all mean? Is it simple cheek, or isn't +it? I recollect all about Tichborne. I recollect seeing him in Wagga +when I was a lad, and we took a great interest in his case up the bush; +but why am I like him? Where does the likeness come in? I've heard fat +men called second Tichbornes, but I don't turn twelve stone. Then what +can he mean? Does he mean I'm not a Duke? I know I'm not fit to be one; +but that's another matter; and if it comes to that, I never claimed to +be one either; it was Claude here who yarded me up into this pen! Then +what's it all about? Can any lady or gentleman help me? I'll pass the +letter round, and I'll be mightily obliged if they can!" + +They could: it was pure insolence, not to be taken seriously for a +single moment. So they all said with one consent; and Jack was further +advised to steel himself forthwith against anonymous letters, of which +persons in his station received hundreds every year. The agent added +that he believed he knew who had written this one; at least he had his +suspicions. + +In a word, the affair was treated by all in the very common-sense light +of a mere idle insult; any serious sympathy that was evinced being due +entirely to the fact that Jack himself seemed to take it rather to +heart. Lady Caroline Sellwood dismissed the matter with the fewest words +of all; nevertheless, Jack detected her in a curious, penetrating, +speculative scrutiny of himself, which he could not fathom at the time; +and her Ladyship had a word to say to Claude Lafont after obtaining his +arm as far as the house. + +"That sort of thing is never pleasant," she observed confidentially, +"and I can't help wishing the dear fellow had kept his letter to +himself. It gives one such disagreeable ideas! I am the last person to +be influenced by such pieces of impudence, as a general rule; still I +could not help thinking what a very awkward thing it would be if your +Mr. Cripps had made a big mistake after all! Not awkward from _every_ +point of view, dear Claude"--and here she pressed his arm--"but--but of +course he had every substantial proof?" + +"Of course," said Claude. "I looked into it, as a matter of form, on +Cripps's return; though his word was really quite sufficient. Well, he +had copies of the certificate of Jack's birth, and of that of my uncle's +marriage, besides proof positive that Jack was Jack. And that was good +enough for me." + +"And for me too," said Lady Caroline, dropping his arm. "He is a dear +fellow; I hardly know which is greater, my regard for him or my sympathy +with you!" And her Ladyship marched upstairs. + +Meantime the agent had led Jack aside on the terrace. + +"I know who sent that letter," said he. "I had my suspicions all along, +and I recognised the disguised hand in a moment. It was Matthew Hunt." + +"Well?" said Jack. + +"Well, it was meant merely as an annoyance: a petty revenge for the +handsome thrashing you gave the fellow six weeks ago--I wish I'd seen +it! But that's not the point. The point is that I think I could bring it +home to the brute; and I want your Grace to let me try." + +"I can't. What's the good? Leave bad alone; we should only make it +worse." + +"Then mayn't I raise the rent of the Lower Farm?" + +"No; not yet, at any rate. I mean to give the fellow a chance." + +"And an invitation for the twentieth too?" + +"Certainly; he's a tenant, or his father is; we can't possibly leave +them out." + +"Very well; your Grace knows best." + +And the agent went his way. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"DEAD NUTS" + + +It was three o'clock in the early morning of the twentieth of August. A +single jet of gas, lighting a torch in the mailed hand of a life-size +man-at-arms, burnt audibly in the silent hall; making the worst of each +lugubrious feature, like a match struck in a cavern. And Claude Lafont +was sitting up alone, in the Poet's Corner, at work upon his birthday +offering to Olivia Sellwood. + +At three, however, it was finished in the rough. The poet then stretched +his fingers, took a clean sheet of paper, and started upon the fair copy +in his prettiest hand. It began-- + + "What songs have I to sing you? + What tales have I to tell?" + +And there it stuck, as though these questions were indeed unanswerable; +the fact being, there was another still to come, which, however, +involved an execrable couplet as it stood. Claude twisted it about for +half-an-hour; realised its gratuitous badness; tried not to ask this +inane question at all, hunted his rhyming dictionary up and down, and +found he must; and finally, with a prayer that it might impose upon +Olivia, and another for forgiveness from the Muse, finished his first +stanza with-- + + "What garlands can I bring you + From Fancy's fairest dell? + Before the world grew old, dear, + The lute was lightlier strung; + Now all the tales are told, dear, + And all the songs are sung." + +It is needless to quote more. The sentiments were superior to their +setting. An affectionate _camaraderie_ was employed, with success, as a +cloak for those warmer feelings of whose existence in his own bosom the +poor poet was now practically convinced. And the lines in themselves +were not all or wholly bad; there was a certain knack in them, and here +and there some charm. But if infinite pains could have made them a work +of genius, that they would have been. It was almost five when Claude +made his best signature at the foot of the last verse; yet there were +but four of these, or thirty-two lines in all. + +He put them in an envelope which he sealed deliberately with his +signet-ring. The deliberation of all his private doings was enormous; +neither the hour nor an empty stomach could induce briskness at the +expense of pains. Yet Claude was exceedingly hungry, and the night had +put an edge on his nerves. As he paced the floor the undue distinction +between his steps, so soft on the rugs, and so loud on the parquetry, +became exaggerated in his nervous ears; and all the silence and all the +darkness of the sleeping Towers seemed to press upon that single +lamp-lit, sounding room, like fathoms of wide sea upon a diver's helm. +Claude had not thought of such things while he was still at work; he had +rather overdone matters, and he poured out a sparing measure of whisky +from the decanter upon the table. + +There were other glasses with dregs at the bottom. The air was tainted +with stale smoke, and within the fender lay the remains of many +cigarettes. This was why Claude was so late. He had been late in making +a start. Stubbs and Llewellyn had sat up with him till the small hours. +The Poet's Corner was the one spot in which these young men seemed +really at home. Here, by midnight, but seldom before, they could manage +to create unto themselves their own element; for their Philistine host +went early to his eccentric lair; but there were always his easy-chairs +to lounge in, his whisky to drink, and Claude Lafont to listen to their +talk. + +Not that the poet was so good a listener as he had been once; the truth +being, that he found himself a little out of touch with his clever +friends--he hardly knew why. It might be the living under one roof with +them; he himself would never have asked them down. Or it might be the +simultaneous hourly contact with an opposite type of man--the kindly, +unaffected dunce--the unburnished nugget, reeking yet of the Australian +soil, but with the gold wearing brighter every day. + +Certain it was that the benefit of the cousins' close companionship had +not been all on one side. If the force of example had toned down some of +Jack's pristine roughness of speech and manner, it had taken a like +effect upon sundry peculiarities of a converse character in Claude. In a +word, there had been an ideal interchange between the two, founded on a +mutual liking. The amelioration of the Duke was sufficiently obvious to +all; that of Claude struck Olivia especially, who had never been blind +to his faults; needless to add, he was himself the last to see how he +had changed. Yet he divined something of it now. As he thought of the +verses he had just written, and of the critic to whom he would have +submitted them in all humility a couple of months ago, he knew that he +was no longer as he had been then; for he had not the faintest intention +of allowing that critic to see these verses at all. + +So Claude calmed his nerves, eating biscuits the while, and sipping +soda-water merely tinctured with whisky; until all at once the lamp +began to flicker and to smell, and the song of the birds, singing in +Olivia's birthday, came at last to his ears through the plate-glass and +rich curtains of the octagonal window. Then he rose; and in half a +minute the lamp was out, the curtains drawn, a sash thrown up, and the +risen sun shining mercilessly on the dishevelled head and blue chin and +battered shirt-front of Claude Lafont. + +The cool, fresh scene inspired him with delight; it was indeed a +disgraceful novelty to the poet. He thought nothing of rhyming "morn" +with "dawn," and yet of this phenomenon itself he had little or no +experience. He would gain some now; he also promised himself the unique +pleasure of rousing the early-rising Jack. So he got out of the window, +and soaked his feet in the dew, only to meet Jack emerging from his hut, +with towels on his arm, as he approached it. Nor was the Duke's +surprise very flattering; but his chaff was fair enough. He was himself +about to bathe in the creek at the north end of the tank. Would Claude +join him and then go back to the hut for an early pannikin of bush tea? +Claude would, and did, feeling (as all felt at Jack's hut) that he had +been flashed through the thick of the earth, and come out in the wilds +of Australia. + +In the hut a log fire had burnt well up by the time they returned with +wet towels and glowing skins. Over the flames hung the billy-can, with +boiling water throbbing against the side. Jack lifted it down with a +stick, and threw a handful of tea among the bubbles. "Shall I sweeten +it?" he then asked; and, at Claude's nod, threw in another handful of +brown sugar. + +"There, that's real bush tea for you," continued the Duke, in a simmer +of satisfaction himself as he stirred the mixture with the stick. "Now +take the pannikin and dip it in. There's no milk, mind; that wouldn't be +the thing at all. Here are some biscuits, and they aren't the thing +either. I'd have made you a damper, only I never could strike a +camp-oven; it's been trouble enough to raise the plant I've got. What do +you think of the tea?" + +"Capital!" cried Claude, who was seated on the bunk. And indeed the +whole thing appealed to his poetic palate; for he could not forget that +this hut was within half a mile of the Towers themselves, in which the +Duke took evidently far less pleasure; and the many-sided contrast +amused his literary sense, even while it piqued his family pride. + +"How I wish it was the real thing!" said Jack, with a sigh. "I'd have a +camp-oven, then, and you should have your mutton chop and damper served +up hot. I used to be an artist at a damper. Then after breakfast I'd +take you with me round the paddocks, and you'd help me muster a mob and +drive them to the tank; and you'd hear them bleat and see them start to +run when they smelt the water. My colonial oath, I can see 'em and hear +'em now! Then we'd give our mokes a drink in the middle of 'em, and we'd +take a pull at our own water-bags. Then we might camp under the nearest +hop-bush for a snack, and I should yard you up at the homestead, and +make you know my old boss before the day was over. What a day it would +be for you! You wouldn't believe the sky could get so blue or your face +so red. But it's no use talking--here we are again!" And he set down his +empty pannikin with another sigh. + +"You wouldn't really prefer that life to this?" + +"No; perhaps not; but I like to think of it, as you can see." + +"Surely you like your new life best by this time? You wouldn't go back +there now?" + +"I like my new friends best; I wouldn't go back on them. Olivia and you, +for instance." + +"It's her birthday," said Claude; but a silence had intervened. + +"So it is. God bless her! I haven't got her anything, because I seemed +to make a mull of it with those flowers. Have you?" + +"Yes, I have a trifle for her; it's rather a different thing on her +birthday, you know. And--and I've written her a few verses; that's what +I've been doing all night." + +"Clever dog!" said Jack enviously. "See what it is to be a man of +genius; here's where it comes in so handy. And has Llewellyn done her +something, too?" + +"Yes; a portrait of herself." + +"Well, let him label it to that effect, or she may put her foot in it +like me. He never shows me his blooming drawings now. But I wish you'd +let me see your poem." + +"It's not all that; it's only verses, and pretty bad ones too; still, +you shall hear them if you like, and if I can remember them," said +Claude, who would have found much more difficulty in forgetting them so +soon. "I only wish they were better! There are some lamentable lines +here and there. I tried to iron them out, but they wouldn't all come." + +"Go on!" cried Jack, lighting his pipe. "I'll tell you whether they're +good or bad. You go ahead!" + +And Claude did so, only too glad of a second opinion of any kind; for he +had little or no intellectual self-reliance, and was ever ready to think +his productions good or bad with their latest critic. On this occasion, +however, he would have been better pleased with the general enthusiasm +of the Duke, had not the latter proceeded to point out particular +merits, when it transpired that the ingenuity of the rhymes was what +impressed him most. Knowing where they came from, the poet himself was +unable to take much pride in this feature. + +"They're splendid!" reiterated Jack. "You ought to be the laureate, old +man, and I've a good mind to tell 'em so in the House of Lords. You're +far and away ahead of Shakespeare at rhyming; he hardly ever rhymes at +all; I know that; because there used to be a copy of him in my old hut. +I say, I like that about the garlands from Fancy's dell; that's real +poetry, that is. But do you mind giving me the last four lines again?" + +Claude gave them-- + + "While yet the world was young, dear, + Your minstrel might be bold: + Now all the songs are sung, dear, + And all the tales are told." + +"First-chop," said Jack, whose look, however, was preoccupied. "But +what's that you're driving at about the minstrel being bolder? What was +it you'd have said if only you'd had the cheek? Say it to me. Out with +it!" + +"I don't know, really," said Claude, laughing. + +"Then I do: you're dead nuts on Olivia!" + +"What's that?" + +"You like her!" + +"Naturally." + +"As much as I do!" + +"That all depends how much you like her, Jack." + +There was a moment's pause. The Duke was sitting on his heels in front +of the fire, into which he was also staring fixedly; so that it was +impossible to tell whether the red light upon his face was spontaneous +or reflected. And he spoke out now without turning his head. + +"Old man," he said, "I've wanted a straight word with you this long +time--about Olivia. Of course I know I oughtn't to call her Olivia +behind her back, when I daren't to her face; but that's what she is in +my own heart, you see--and that's where she's pegged out a claim for +good and all. Understand? We can't all talk like books, old man! Still I +want to make myself as plain as possible." + +"You do so. I understand perfectly," said Claude Lafont. + +"That's all right. Well, as I was saying, she's pegged out a claim that +no other woman is ever going to jump. And what I was going to say was +this: you remember that night in your rooms in town? I mean when I said +I meant no harm, and all that; because I spoke too soon. Worse still, I +felt mean when I did speak; it didn't ring true; and long I've known +that even then there was only one thing that would have held me back. +That was--if she'd been your girl! I gave you a chance of saying if she +was, but you only laughed; and sometimes I've thought your laugh wasn't +any truer than my word. So I've got to have it in plain English before I +go the whole hog. Claude--old man--she never was--your girl?" + +"Never," said Claude decidedly. + +"You never asked her--what I think of asking one of these days?" + +"Never." + +"Thank God, old man. I'm dead nuts on her myself, I tell you frankly; +and I mean to tell _her_ when I can rake together the pluck. I'm not +sure I can keep it to myself much longer. The one thing I'm sure of is +that she'll laugh in my face--if she isn't too riled! I hear her doing +it every night of my life as I lie where you're sitting and listen to +the pines outside. I hear her saying every blessed thing but 'yes!' Yet +it isn't such cheek as all that, is it, Claude? I want your candid +opinion. I'm not such a larrikin as I was that day you met me, am I?" + +And he turned to the other with a simple, strong humility, very touching +in him; but Claude jumped up, and getting behind him so that their eyes +should not meet, laid his hands affectionately on the Duke's shoulders. + +"You are not the same man," he said with a laugh; "yet you are the same +good fellow! I could wish Olivia no better fate--than the one you think +of. So I wish you luck--from my heart. And now let us go." + +On the lawn they found the Home Secretary driving a dozen golf-balls +into space from an impromptu tee. He had come for good now, the session +being over at last. And this was his daily exercise before breakfast, +and his valet's daily grievance, whose duty it was to recover the balls. + +Mr. Sellwood accompanied the younger men into the house, where Claude +had still to shave and dress; but the Duke was the uninterested witness +of an interesting scene, between the Home Secretary and his wife, before +any one else came down to breakfast. The subject was that of the +Nottingham murder. + +"They are making an example of you!" said Lady Caroline bitterly, +looking up from her husband's daily stack of press-cuttings, which she +always opened. + +"Let them," said Mr. Sellwood, from the depths of the _Sportsman_, which +he read before any of his letters. + +"They call it a judicial murder--and upon my word, so do I! Your +decision is most unpopular; they clamour for your resignation--and I +must say that I should do the same. Here's a cartoon of you playing golf +with a human skull for the ball!" + +"Exactly how I mean to spend my day--barring the skull." + +"They know it, too; it's a public scandal; even if it wasn't, I should +be ashamed of myself, with that poor man awaiting his end!" + +"He was hanged five minutes ago," declared the Home Secretary, +consulting his watch. "And I may as well tell you, my dear, that I had +his full confession in my pocket when I gave my decision the night +before last. It appears in this morning's papers. And I fancy that's my +hole," added Mr. Sellwood, nodding at Jack. + +But Jack had no more to say than Lady Caroline, utterly routed for once. +The Duke did not perhaps appreciate the situation, or perhaps he was not +listening; for his eyes hung very wistfully on Olivia's plate, which was +laden and surrounded by birthday offerings of many descriptions. There +were several packets by post, and an open cheque from the Home +Secretary. Claude had added his beautifully sealed envelope before going +upstairs, and now Llewellyn came in with his "likeness of a lady." The +lady was evidently lost in a fog; the likeness did not exist; and the +whole production was exactly like a photographic failure which is both +out of focus and "over-exposed." But it was better than poor Jack's +contribution of nothing at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH + + +A loose chain of fairy lights marked the brink of the lake; another was +drawn tight from end to end of the balustrade rimming the terrace; and +between the two, incited by champagne and the Hungarian band, the rank +and file of the tenantry cut happy capers in the opening eye of the +harvest moon. + +At one end of the terrace the fire-workers awaited the word to rake and +split the still serenity of the heavens; at the other, the fairy +footlights picked out the twinkling diamonds and glaring shirt-fronts of +the house-party, the footmen's gilt buttons and powdered heads; for the +men had just come out of the dining-room, and tea was being handed +round. + +"It is going beautifully--beautifully!" whispered Lady Caroline, +swooping down upon the Duke, who had himself made straight for her +daughter's side. "Inside and out, high and low, all are happy, it is one +huge success. How could it be otherwise? You make such a charming host! +My dear Jack, I congratulate you from my heart; and the occasion must be +my excuse for the familiarity." + +"No excuse needed; I like it," replied the Duke. "I only wish you'd all +call me Jack," he added, with a sidelong look at Olivia; "surely we're +all pretty much in the same family boat! Well, I'm glad you think it's a +success, and I'm glad I make a decent host; but I shouldn't if I hadn't +got the loan of such an excellent hostess, Lady Caroline." + +"You are so sweet!" + +"Nay, it's you that's so jolly kind," laughed Jack. "The fact is, Lady +Caroline, I can get along all right at my own table so long as I don't +have to carve--and when I make up my mind to go straight through cold +water. I was sorry not to drink Miss Sellwood's health in anything +stronger; but it's better so." + +"So fine of you," murmured Lady Caroline; "such a noble example! You +can't think how I've admired it in you from the first!" + +Yet she looked to see whether his remarks had been overheard. They had +not; even Olivia had turned away before they were made, and her mother +now followed her example. She was rewarded by seeing the Duke at the +girl's side again when next she looked round. + +They were standing against the balustrade, a little apart from the rest. +They had set their cups upon the broad stone rim. Jack began to stir his +tea with the impotent emphasis of one possessed by the inexpressible. +But Olivia gave him no assistance; she seemed more interested in the +noisy dancers on the sward below the terrace. + +"I hope you've had a good time, on the whole," he began, ineptly enough, +at last. "All this is in your honour, you know!" + +"Surely not all," replied the girl, laughing. "Still I don't know when I +had such a delightful birthday, and I want to thank you for everything +with all my heart." + +"Everything!" laughed Jack nervously. "I've done nothing at all; why, I +didn't even give you a present. That was through a stupid mistake of +mine, which we needn't go into, because now's the time to rectify it. +I've been waiting for a chance all the evening. The thing only came a +few minutes before dinner. But better late than never, they say, and so +I hope you'll still accept this trifle from me, Miss Sellwood, with +every possible good wish for all the years to come. May they be long +and--and very happy!" + +His voice vibrated with the commonplace words. As he ceased speaking he +took from his waistcoat pocket something that was certainly trifling in +size, and he set it on the balustrade between the two tea-cups. It was a +tiny leathern case, and Olivia held her breath. Next moment an exquisite +ring, diamonds and emeralds, scintillated in the light of the nearest +fairy lamp. + +"This is never for me?" she cried, aghast. + +"That it is--if you will take it." + +She was deeply moved: how could she take a ring from him? And yet how +could she refuse, or how explain! Each alternative was harder than the +last. + +"It is far too good for me," she murmured, "for a mere birthday present! +You are too generous. I can't dream of letting you give me anything half +so good!" + +"What nonsense! It is not half good enough; it's only the best I could +get from Devenholme. I sent in the dogcart for the crack jeweller of the +place; it brought him back with a bagful of things, and this was the +best of a bad lot. I wish I'd kept the fellow! You might have chosen +something else." + +She saw her loophole and made no reply. + +"Would you prefer something else?" he asked eagerly. + +"Well, if you insist on giving me a present, it must be something not +half so good." + +"That's my affair." + +"And perhaps not a ring." + +"That's another matter, and on one condition I'm on: you must let me +drive you in to-morrow to choose for yourself." + +She consented gratefully. Her gratitude was the more profuse from, it +may be, an exaggerated sense of the dilemma in which she had found +herself a moment before; at all events it was very kindly and charmingly +expressed. So Jack pocketed the ring and swallowed his tea in excellent +heart; longing already for the morrow, for the expedition to Devenholme +with Olivia alone at his side. + +"That excellent follow seems very busy with our Olivia. Is there +anything in it?" asked Mr. Sellwood of his wife. + +"I have no idea," replied Lady Caroline; "you know I never interfere in +such matters. I'm glad you think him an excellent fellow, though. He is +simply sweet." + +"In fact we might do worse from every point of view; is that it?" said +the Home Secretary dryly. "I'm inclined to agree with you. I hope he +won't foozle his shot by being in too great a hurry." + +The fireworks had begun. Rocket after rocket split the sky and descended +in a shower of stars. A set-piece stood out against the lake; it +represented six French eagles on a shield. + +"Come and have a look at the family fowls," said Jack, rejoining Olivia, +who had been talking to Claude. "I'd swop the lot for one respectable +emu; it would be a good deal more appropriate for a Duke like me." + +Among other things he had learnt at last to pronounce his own title +correctly. Also, he looked well at all times in evening dress, but he +had never looked better than he did to-night. Claude had these +consolations as he watched the pair go down and mingle with the throng. + +As a matter of fact the Duke of St. Osmund's had never been in higher +spirits in the whole course of his chequered career. Olivia had not, +indeed, accepted his offering, but she had done much better, for now he +was sure of having her to himself for hours the next day. And what might +not happen in those hours? This was one factor in his present content; +her little hand within his arm was another that thrilled him even more; +but there were further and smaller factors which yet astonished him, +each with its unexpected measure of gratification. There were the people +bowing and curtseying as he came among them with Olivia on his arm. +There were the momentary glimpses of the stately Towers, seen from end +to end in a flash, as a bursting rocket spattered the sky with a million +sparks that changed colour as they floated to the earth. And there was +the feeling, never before this moment entirely unmixed, that after all +it was better to be the Duke of St. Osmund's than Happy Jack of New +South Wales. + +"You were right!" he exclaimed, in an attempt to voice what he felt to +Olivia; "you were quite right that day in the hut to say 'I wonder,' to +what I said about not minding if I woke up and found myself on Carara +after all. You set _me_ wondering at the time, and now I rather think +that I should mind a good deal. This place grows upon you. I feel it +more and more every morning when I get the first glimpse of it, coming +through the pines. But I never felt it as I do to-night--look at that!" + +The entire front of the building was lit up by an enormous Roman candle, +playing like a fountain on the terrace. Turret and spire and battlement +were stamped sharp and grey against the darkling sky. The six Corinthian +columns of the portico stood out like sentinels who had taken a step +forward as one man. And in the tympanum overhead the shield of the six +eagles that was carved there showed so plainly that Olivia and Jack +pointed it out to each other at the same moment. + +"You mustn't think I've no respect for the fowls," said the Duke, when +they were both left blinking in the chaste light of the reproving moon; +"I'm proud enough of them at the bottom of my heart. I may be slow at +catching on to new ideas. I know I didn't at first take to everything +like a duck to water. I couldn't, after the life I'd led; it was too +much for one man. But I am getting used to it now. As old Claude says, +I'm beginning to appreciate it. I am so! This has been the proudest day +of my life; I'm proud of everything, of the place, the people----" + +"And yourself most of all!" cried a thick voice at his elbow, while +Olivia's fingers tightened on his other arm. + +It was Matthew Hunt. He was flushed with wine, but steady enough on his +legs. Only his tongue was beyond control, and a crowd was at his heels +to hear what he would say next. + +"Yes, I remember you," he continued savagely. "I shan't forget that +morning in a hurry----" + +"Yet you seem to have forgotten who you are speaking to," put in the +Duke quietly. + +Hunt laughed horribly. + +"Forgotten? I never knew! All I know is as I'm _not_ speaking to his +Grace the Duke----" + +Olivia was not shaken off. She only felt a quivering in the arm she +held; she only guessed it was the other arm that shot out too quick for +her sight from his further shoulder: and all she saw was the dropping of +Hunt at their feet, as if with a bullet through his brain. She conquered +her impulse to scream, and she found herself saying instead, "Well done! +It served him right!" And the voice sounded strange in her own ears. + +But her opinion was freely echoed by those who had followed in Hunt's +wake. A dozen hands raised him roughly, and kept their hold of him even +when he was firm upon his feet, half stunned still, but wholly sobered. +He tried to shake them off, but they answered that he must first +apologise to his Grace. He refused, and they threatened him with the +pond. He gave in then, in a way, speaking one thing, but looking +another, which was yet the plainer of the two to the Duke. It meant that +all was not yet over between him and Hunt. And Jack was very silent as +he led Olivia back to the terrace. + +"You were quite right," she said as they went; "had I been a man I would +have done it for you." + +"You're a splendid girl," he replied, to her confusion; but that was +all; nor did he seem conscious of what he said. + +Already it was late, and in another hour the band had stopped; the +fireworks were over; the people all gone, and gone the memory of their +ringing cheers from the heart of the Duke, who stood alone with Claude +Lafont on the moonlit terrace. Claude had heard of Hunt's insolence and +summary chastisement; he regretted the incident extremely; but his state +of mind was nothing to that of the Duke, who was now a prey to +reactionary depression of the severest order. + +"Are there any revolvers in the house?" said he. "I shall want a loaded +one to-night." + +"What in the world for?" cried Claude in dismay. + +"Not for my own brains; you needn't alarm yourself. But you see what a +bitter enemy I've made; he might get me at his mercy out there at the +hut. There was murder in his eye to-night, or else truth in his words, +and that you won't allow. But there was one or the other. So I want a +shooter before I go over." + +"If only you wouldn't go over at all! What's the use, when there are +dozens of good rooms lying idle in the house? It does seem a madness!" + +"Well, I am half thinking of giving it up; but not to-night, or that +brute may go killing my cats. He's capable of anything. Give me a +revolver like a good chap." + +Claude fetched one from the gun-room. He it was who still knew the +whereabouts of all things, who kept the keys, and who arranged most +matters for the Duke. He was Jack's major-domo as well as his guide, +philosopher, and friend. + +To-night they walked together as far as the shores of the lake. Claude +then returned, but for some reason the pair shook hands first. No word +was said, save between eye and eye in the pale light of the new harvest +moon. But Claude had never yet seen his cousin gaze so kindly on the +home of their common ancestors as he did to-night before they separated. +And that look was a consolation to the poet as he returned alone to the +house. + +"This is the last link with that miserable bush life," said Claude to +himself; "and it's very nearly worn through. He's beginning to see that +there wasn't so much after all in the inheritance of Esau. After +to-night we shall have no more of this nonsense of camping out in a +make-believe bush hut; he will sleep under his own roof, like a sane +man, and I'll get him to burn the bush hut down. After that--after +that--well, I suppose the wedding-bells and the altar rails are only a +question of time!" + +And Claude went within, to talk of art and of books until bookman and +artist went to bed; but he himself returned to the terrace instead of +following their example. A dark depression was brooding over his spirit, +his mind was full of vague forebodings. He had also a hundred regrets, +and yet the last and the least of these was for the moment the most +poignant too. He was sorry he had yielded to Jack in the matter of that +revolver. And even as the thought came into his head--by some strange +prescience--surely never by coincidence--he heard a shot far away in the +direction of the lake. He held his breath, and heard a single throb of +his own heart; then another shot; and then another and another until he +had counted five. + +Now it was a five-chambered revolver that Claude had handed fully loaded +to his cousin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE WRONG MAN + + +The Duke had proceeded to his hut with the slow and slouching gait of a +man bemused; yet the strings of his body were as those of a lute, and +there was an inordinate keen edge to his every sense. He heard the deer +cropping the grass far behind him; and he counted the very +reverberations of the stable clock striking a half-hour in the still +air. It was the half-hour after midnight. The moon still slanted among +the pines, and Jack followed his own shadow, with his beard splayed +against his shirt-front, until within a few yards of his hut. Then he +looked quickly up and about. But the hut was obviously intact; there was +the moon twinkling in the padlock of which the key was in his pocket; +and Jack returned to his examination of the ground. + +He was a very old bushman; he had a black-fellow's eye for a footprint, +and he had struck a trail here which he knew to be recent and not his +own. He followed it to the padlocked door, and round the hut and back to +the door. He found the two heel-marks where the man had sat down to +think some matter over. Then he took out his key and went within, but +left the door wide open; and while his back was still turned to it, for +he could not find his matches, there was a slight noise there, and the +moon's influx was stemmed by a man's body. + +"Good morning, Hunt," said Jack, without turning round. + +The tone, no less than the words, took the intruder all aback. He had +planned a pretty surprise, only to receive a prettier for his pains. + +"How did you know it was me?" he cried. + +"By your voice," was the reply; and the matches were found at last. + +"But before that?" + +"I expected you. Why didn't you go on sitting there with your back to +the door?" + +"You saw me!" cried Hunt, coming in. + +"I saw your tracks. Hullo! Be good enough to step outside again." + +"I've come to talk to you----" + +"Quite so; but we'll talk outside." + +And Hunt had to go with what grace he might. Jack followed with a couple +of camp-stools, pulled the door to, sat down on one of the stools, and +motioned Hunt to the other. The great smooth face shook slowly in reply; +and the moonlight showed a bulbous bruise between the eyes, which made +its author frown and feel at fault. + +"Yes, you may look!" said Hunt through the gap in his set teeth which +was a piece of the same handiwork. "You hit hard enough, but I can hit +harder where it hurts more. A fine Duke _you_ are! Oh, yes; double your +fists again--do. You won't hit me this time. There's no one looking on!" + +"Don't be too sure, my boy," replied Jack. "Don't you make any mistake!" + +Hunt stuck a foot upon his camp-stool and leant forward over his knee. + +"Recollect why you struck me to-night?" + +"Perfectly." + +"Well, I deserved it--for being such a fool as to say what I had to say +at a time like that. It was the drink said it, not me; I apologise again +for saying it there, I apologise to you and me too. I was keeping it to +say here." + +"Out with it," said Jack, who to his own astonishment was preserving a +perfect calm; as he spoke he began filling a pipe that he had brought +out with the matches. + +"One thing at a time," said Hunt, producing a greasy bank-book. "I'll +out with this first. You may have heard that the old Duke had a kind of +weakness for my folks?" + +"I have heard something of the sort." + +"Then I'll trouble you to run your eye over this here pass-book. It +belongs to my old dad. It'll show you his account with the London and +Provincial Bank at Devenholme. It's a small account. This here book goes +back over ten years, and there's some blank leaves yet. But look at it +for yourself; keep your eye on the left-hand page from first to last; +and you'll see what you'll see." + +Jack did so; and what he saw on every left-hand page was this: "per +Maitland, L50." There were other entries, "by cheque" and "by cash," but +they were few and small. Clearly Maitland was the backbone of the +account; and a closer inspection revealed the further fact that his name +appeared punctually every quarter, and always in connection with the sum +of fifty pounds received. + +"Ever heard of Maitland, Hollis, Cripps and Co.?" inquired Hunt. + +Jack started; so this was the Maitland. "They are my solicitors," he +said. + +"They were the old Duke's too," replied Hunt. "Now have a look at the +other side of the account. You know the Lower Farm; then look and see +what we pay for rent." + +"I know the figure," said Jack, handing back the pass-book. "It is half +the value." + +"Less than half--though I say it! And what does all this mean--two +hundred a year paid up without fail by Maitland, Hollis, Cripps and Co., +and the Lower Farm very near rent free? It means," said Hunt, leaning +forward, with an evil gleam on either side of his angry bruise--"it +means that something's bought of us as doesn't appear. You can guess +what for yourself. Our silence! Two hundred a year, and the Lower Farm +at a nominal rent, all for keeping a solitary secret!" + +"Then I should advise you to go on keeping it," said Jack, with cool +point; yet for all his nonchalance, his heart was in a flutter enough +now; for he knew what was coming--he caught himself wondering how much +or how little it surprised him. + +"All very fine," he heard Hunt saying--a long way off as it seemed to +him--whereas he was really bending farther forward than before. "All +very fine! But what if this secret has improved in value with keeping? +Improved, did I say? Lord's truth, it's gone up a thousand per cent. in +the last few weeks; and who do you suppose sent it up? Why, you! I'll +tell you how. I dessay you can guess; still I'll tell you, then there'll +be no mistakes. You've heard things of your father? You know the sort he +was? You won't knock me down again for mentioning it, will you? I +thought not! Well, when the Red Marquis, as they used to call him, was a +young man about the house here, my old dad was in the stables; and my +old dad's young sister was the Duchess's own maid--a slapping fine girl, +they tell me, but she was dead before I can remember. Well, and +something happened; something often does. But this was something choice. +Guess what!" + +"He married her." + +"He did. He married her at the parish church of Chelsea, in the name of +Augustus William Greville Maske, his real name all but the title; still, +he married the girl." + +"Quite right too!" + +"Oh, quite right, was it? Stop a bit. You were born in 1855. You told me +so yourself; you may remember the time, and you stake your life _I_ +don't forget it. It was the sweetest music I ever heard, was that there +date! Shall I tell you why? Why, because them two--the Red Marquis and +his mother's maid--were married on October 22d, 1853." + +"Well?" + +Hunt took out a handful of cigars which had been provided for all comers +in the evening; he had filled his pockets with them; and now he selected +one by the light of the setting moon and lit it deliberately. Then he +puffed a mouthful of smoke in Jack's direction, and grinned. + +"'Well,' says you; and you may well 'well!' For the Red Marquis deserted +his wife and went out to Australia before he'd been married a month. And +out there he married again. _But you were five years old, my fine +fellow, before his first wife died, and was buried in this here parish!_ +You can look at her tombstone for yourself. She died and was buried as +Eliza Hunt; and just that much was worth two hundred a year to us for +good and all; because, you see, I'm sorry to say she never had a child." + +Both in substance and in tone this last statement was the most +convincing of all. Here was an insolent exultation tempered by a still +more insolent regret; and the very incompleteness of the triumph +engraved it the deeper with the stamp of harsh reality. + +Jack saw his position steadily in all its bearings. He was nobody. A +little time ago he had stepped into Claude's shoes, but now Claude would +step into his. Well, thank God that it was Claude! And yet--and +yet--that saving fact made facts of all the rest. + +"I've no doubt your yarn is quite true," said Jack, still in a tone that +amazed himself. "But of course you have some proofs on paper?" + +"Plenty." + +"Then why couldn't you come out with all this before?" + +Hunt gave so broad a grin that a volume of smoke escaped haphazard from +his gaping mouth. + +"You'd punished me," he said, admiring the red end of his cigar; "I'd +got you to punish in your turn, and with interest. So I gave you time to +get to like the old country in general, and this here spot in +particular; to say nothing of coming the Duke; I meant that to grow on +you too. I hope as I gave you time enough? This here hut don't look +altogether like it, you know!" + +Jack's right hand was caressing the loaded revolver in the breast-pocket +of his dress-coat; it was the cold, solid power of the little living +weapon that kept the man himself cool and strong in his extremity. + +"Quite fair," he remarked. "Any other reason?" + +"One other." + +"What was that?" + +"Well, you see, it's like this"--and Hunt dropped his insolence for a +confidential tone far harder to brook. "It's like this," he repeated, +plumping down on the camp-stool in front of Jack: "there's nobody knows +of that there marriage but us Hunts. We've kep' it a dead secret for +nearly forty years, and we don't want to let it out now. But, as I say, +the secret's gone up in value. Surely it's worth more than two hundred a +year to you? You don't want to be knocked sideways by that there Claude +Lafont, do you? Yet he's the next man. You'd never let yourself be +chucked out by a chap like that?" + +"That's my business. What's your price?" + +"Two thousand." + +"A year?" + +"Two thousand a year. Come, it's worth that to you if it's worth a +penny-piece. Think of your income!" + +"Think of yours. Two hundred on condition you kept a single secret! That +was the condition, wasn't it?" + +"Well?" + +"You've let the secret out, you cur!" cried Jack, jumping to his feet. +"And you've lost your income by it for good and all. Two thousand! +You'll never see another two hundred. What, did you take me for a dirty +skunk like yourself? Do you think I got in this position through my own +fault or of my own accord? Do you think I'm so sweet on it as to sit +tight at the mercy of a thing like you? Not me! What you've told me +to-night the real Duke and his lawyers shall hear to-morrow; and think +yourself lucky if you aren't run in for your shot at a damnable +conspiracy! Did you really suppose I cared as much as all that? Do you +think--oh! for God's sake, clear out, man, before I do you any more +damage!" + +"Oh, you're good at that," said Hunt through his broken tooth. He had +risen, and now he retreated a few paces. "You're not bad with your +fists, you fool, but I've come prepared for you this time!" and he drew +a knife; but the revolver covered him next instant. + +"And I for you," retorted Jack. "I give you five seconds to clear out +in. One--two----" + +"My God, are there such fools----" + +"Three--four----" + +The man was gone. At a safer range he stopped again to threaten and +gloat, to curse and to coax alternately. But Jack took no more notice; +he turned into the hut, flung the pistol on the table, and stood +motionless until the railing died away. Yet he had heeded never a word +of it, but was rather reminded that it had been by its very cessation, +as one notes the stopping of a clock. It made him look out once more, +however; and, looking, he saw the last of Matthew Hunt in the moonlit +spaces among the pines. His retreating steps died slowly away. The +snapping of a twig was just audible a little after. And then in the +mellow distance the stable clock chimed and struck one; and again Jack +found himself keeping an imaginary count of the reverberations until all +was still. + +He stood at the door a moment longer. The feathered barbs of the +pine-trees were drawn in ink upon a starry slate. The night was as mild +and clear and silent as many a one in the Riverina itself; and Jack +tried to think himself there; to regard this English summer as the +bushman's dream that he had so often imagined it here in his model bush +hut. But his imagination was very stubborn to-night. The stately home +which was not his rose in his mind's eye between him and the stars; once +more he saw it illumined in a flash from spire to terrace; once more the +portico columns marched forward as one man, while the six eagles flew +out in the tympanum above; and though a purring arose from his feet, and +something soft and warm rubbed kindly against his shins, he could no +longer forget where he was and who he was not. He was not the Duke. He +was the wrong man after all. And the hut that he had built and +inhabited, as a protest against all this grandeur, was a monument of +irony such as the hand of man had never reared in all the world before. + +The wrong man! He flung himself upon the elaborately rude bed to grapple +with those three words until he might grasp what they meant to himself. +And as he lay, his little cat leapt softly up and purred upon his heart, +as if it knew the aching need there of a sympathy beyond the reach of +words. + +Only one aspect of his case came home to him now, but that was its worst +aspect. The life he was to lose mattered little after all. He might miss +it more than he had once thought; it was probable he would but truly +appreciate it when it was a life of the past, as is the way of a man. +Yet even that could be borne. The losing of the girl was different and a +million times worse. But lose her he must: for what was he now? Instead +of a Duke a nobody; not even a decently born peasant; a nameless husk of +humanity, a derelict, a nonentity, the natural son of a notorious rake. +Must he go back then to the bush, and back alone? Must he put himself +beyond the reach of soft words and softer eyes for ever? He could feel +again that little hand within his arm; and it was worse a hundredfold +than the vision of the Towers lit from end to end by the light of a +bursting rocket. Would not the grave itself---- + +Wait. + +There was the pistol on the table. The pale light lay along the barrel. +He held his breath and lay gazing at the faint gleam until it grew into +a blinding sun that scorched him to the soul. And he hardly knew what he +had done when Claude Lafont found him wandering outside with the hot +pistol still in his hand. + +Jack looked upon the breathless poet with dull eyes that slowly +brightened; then he pressed the lever, shot out the empty cartridges, +blew through the chambers, and handed the revolver back to Claude. + +"I've no more use for it. I'm much obliged to you. No, I've done no +damage with it; that's just the point. I was emptying it for safety's +sake. I'm so sorry you heard. I--I _did_ think of emptying it--through +my own head." + +"In Heaven's name, why?" + +"Only for a moment, though. It would have been a poor trick after all. +Still I had to empty it first and see that afterwards." + +"But why? What on earth has happened?" + +"I'm not the man after all." + +"What man?" + +"The Duke of St. Osmund's." + +And Claude was made to hear everything before he was allowed the free +expression of his astonishment and incredulity. Then he laughed. His +incredulity remained. + +"My dear fellow," he cried, "there's not a word of truth in the whole +story. It's one colossal fraud. Hunt's a blackguard. I wouldn't believe +his oath in a court of justice." + +"What about the bank-book?" + +"A fraud within a fraud!" + +"Not it. I'll answer for that. Oh, no; we could have inquired at the +bank. Hunt's a blackguard, but no fool. And you know what my father was; +from all accounts he wasn't the man to think twice about a little job +like bigamy." + +"I wouldn't say that; few men of our sort would be so reckless in such a +matter," declared the poet. "Now, from all _I_ know of him, I should +have said it was most inconsistent with his character to marry the girl +at all. Everything but that! And surely it's quite possible to explain +even that two hundred a year without swallowing such a camel as +downright bigamy. My grandfather was a sort of puritanical monomaniac; +even in the days of his mental vigour I can remember him as a sterner +moralist than any of one's school-masters or college dons. Then, too, he +was morbidly sensitive about the family failings and traditions, and +painfully anxious to improve the tone of our house. Bear that in mind +and conceive as gross a scandal as you like--but not bigamy. Do you mean +to tell me that a man like my grandfather would have thought two hundred +a year for all time too much to pay for hushing such a thing up for all +time? Not he--not he!" There fell a heavy hand upon Claude's back. + +"Claude, old boy, I always said you were a genius. Do you know, I never +thought of that?" + +"It's obvious; besides, there's the Eliza Hunt on the gravestone, I've +seen it myself. But look here--I'll tell you what I'll do." + +"What, old man?" + +"I'll run up to town to-morrow and see Maitland, Hollis, Cripps about +the whole matter. They've paid the money; they are the men to know all +about it. Stop a moment! Hunt was clever enough to have an exact date +for the marriage. What was it again?" + +"October 22d, 1853." + +"I think he said Chelsea _parish_ church?" + +"He did." + +Claude scribbled a note of each point on his shirt-cuff. + +"That's all I want," said he. "I'll run up by the first train, and back +by the last. Meanwhile, take my word for it, you're as safe as the Queen +upon her throne." + +"And you?" said Jack. + +"Oh, never mind me; I'm very well as I am." + +Claude was fully conscious of his semi-heroic attitude; indeed he +enjoyed it, as he had enjoyed many a less inevitable pose in his day. +But that he could not help; and Jack was perhaps the last person in the +world to probe beneath the surface of a kind action. His great hand +found Claude's, and his deep voice quivered with emotion. + +"I don't know how it is," he faltered, "but this thing has got at me +more than I meant it to. Hark at that! Three o'clock; it'll be light +before we know where we are; you won't leave a fellow till it is, will +you? I'm in a funk! I've got to believe the worst till I know +otherwise--that's all about it. The day I shan't mind tackling by +myself, but for God's sake don't go and leave me to-night. You've got +to go in the morning; stop the rest of the night out here with me. You +shall have the bunk, and I'll doss down on the floor. I'll light the +fire and brew a billy of tea this minute if only you'll stay with me +now. Didn't you once say you'd have hold of my sleeve? And so you have +had, old man, so you have had: only now's your time--more than ever." + +Claude was deeply moved by the spectacle of a stronger man than himself +so stricken in every nerve. He looked very compassionately upon the +eager open face. There were a few grey hairs about either temple, but in +the faint starlight they looked perfectly white; and there were +crow's-feet under the eyes that seemed to have escaped his attention +till now. He consented to remain on one condition: he must go back and +put out the lights, and close the windows in the Poet's Corner. So Jack +went with him; and those lights were the only sign of life in all the +vast expanse of ancient masonry, that still belonged to one of them, +though they knew not now to which. It was this thought, perhaps, that +kept both men silent on the terrace when the lights had been put out and +the windows shut. Then Jack ran his arm affectionately through that of +Claude, and together they turned their backs upon those debatable +stones. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE INTERREGNUM + + +Lady Caroline Sellwood was delighted to find Jack in the hall on making +her descent next morning. He appeared lost, however, in a gloomy +admiration of the ghostly guard in armour. The attitude and the +expression were alike so foreign to him that Lady Caroline halted on the +stairs. But only for a moment; the next, Jack was overwhelmed by the +soft tempest of her good-will, and making prodigious efforts to return +her smiles. + +Suddenly she became severe. + +"You're knocked up! You look as if you hadn't had a wink of sleep. Oh, I +knew how it would be after all that racket; you dear, naughty Duke, you +should have spared yourself more!" + +"I was a fool," admitted Jack. "But--but I say, Lady Caroline, I do wish +you wouldn't Duke me!" + +"How sweet of you," murmured Lady Caroline. + +"You know you didn't last night!" he hastily reminded her. + +"But that was an occasion." + +"So is this!" exclaimed Jack, and his tone struck the other more than +she showed. + +"Where is Claude?" inquired Lady Caroline suddenly. + +"On his way to Devenholme." + +"Devenholme!" + +"And London, for the day. He had to catch the 9.40." + +"So he has gone up to town! Odd that one never heard anything about +it--I mean to say he could have made himself so useful to one. May I ask +when he decided to go?" + +Jack hesitated. He had been charged to keep a discreet tongue during +Claude's absence; he had been supplied with a number of reasons and +excuses ready-made; but perfect frankness was an instinctive need of +this primitive soul, whose present thoughts stood out in easy print upon +his face, even as he resolved to resist his instincts for once. + +"He decided--this morning," said Jack at last; and he took from his +pocket a lengthy newspaper cutting attached to a pale green slip: "This +is an article on him and his books, that has just appeared in the +_Parthenon_. What wouldn't I give to lay a hold of the brute who wrote +it! I call it the sort of thing to answer with a hiding. It's one of a +series headed 'Our Minor Poets,' which Claude says has been bad enough +all through; but this article on him is the worst and most brutal of the +lot. And--and--and old Claude took it to heart, of course; and--and he's +run up to town for the day." + +"Because of a severe criticism! I should have thought he was used to +them by now. Poor dear Claude, he can string a pretty rhyme, but he +never was a poet. And you, Jack--since you insist--you never were an +actor--until to-day!" + +Jack hung his head. + +"You don't do it well enough, you dear fellow," continued Lady Caroline +caressingly. "As if you could impose upon me! You must first come to me +for lessons. Candidly now: what has taken him up to town in such a +hurry? The same thing that--kept you awake all night?" + +"Candidly, then," said Jack, raising his haggard face doggedly, "it was! +And if you'll come out upon the terrace for five minutes I'll tell you +exactly what's wrong. You have a right to know; and I can trust _you_ +not to let it go any further for the moment. Even if I couldn't, I'd +have to tell you straight! I hate keeping things up my sleeve; I can't +do it; so let me make a clean breast of the whole shoot, Lady Caroline, +and be done with it till Claude comes back." + +Lady Caroline took a discouraging view of the situation. The Red Marquis +had been capable of anything; related though they had been, she could +not help telling Jack that her parents had forbidden her to dance with +his father as a young girl. This might be painful hearing, but in such a +crisis it was necessary to face the possibilities; and Lady Caroline, +drawing a little away from her companion in order to see how he was +facing them, forgot to take his arm any more as they sauntered in the +sun. She undertook, however, to keep the matter to herself until +Claude's return, at the mention of whose name she begged to look at the +cutting from the _Parthenon_. + +"A most repulsive article," her mother informed Olivia after breakfast, +but not until she had repeated to the girl the entire substance of the +late conversation on the terrace. "I never read anything more venomously +ill-bred in my life; and so untrue! To say he is no poet--our Claude! +But we who know him, thank goodness we know better. It is the true +poetry, not only in but between every line, that distinguishes dear +Claude from the mere stringers of pretty rhymes of whom the papers +sicken one in these latter days. But where are you going, my love?" + +"To get ready to go with--Jack." + +"To go where, pray?" + +"Why, to Devenholme, as we arranged last night," replied Olivia, with +spirit. "He said he would drive me over; and _you_ said 'how sweet of +him,' and beamed upon us both!" + +Lady Caroline winced. "You impertinent chit!" she cried viciously; "you +know as well as I do that what I have told you alters everything. Once +and for all, Olivia, I forbid you to drive into Devenholme +with--with--with--that common man!" + +"Very well; the drive's off," said the girl with swift decision; and she +left her mother without another word. + +She put on her habit and went straight to Jack. + +"Do you mind if we _ride_ into Devenholme instead of driving?" + +"Mind! I should like it even better." + +"Then suppose we go to the stable-yard and see about our horses +ourselves; and while we are there, we may as well stay and start by the +back road, which will save at least a quarter of a mile." + +"My oath," said Jack without further provocation, "you might have been +dragged up in the bush!" + +"I wish I had been!" exclaimed Olivia bitterly. He could not understand +her tone. Nor did he ever know the meaning of the momentary fighting +glitter in the brave brown eyes of the girl. + +He rode as an inveterate bushman, entirely on the snaffle, with +inelegantly short stirrups and a regrettable example of the back-block +bend; nor did his well-broken hack give him a chance of exhibiting any +of the finer qualities of the rough-riding school. But indeed for the +most part the couple sat at ease in their saddles, while the horses +dawdled with loose reins and lazy necks in the cool shadows of the +roadside trees. By mutual consent they had dispensed with an attendant +groom. And Olivia had never been so kind to Jack, as on this day when he +was under so black a cloud, with so heavy a seal upon his lips. + +For once she talked to him; as a rule she liked better to listen, with +large eyes intent and sympathetic lips apart--ever ready with the +helpful word. But to-day she was wishful to entertain, to take him out +of himself, to console without letting him suspect that she knew as much +as he had told her mother. In a sense she knew more, for Lady Caroline +had duly exaggerated his frank confession; and the girl's heart bled for +her friend, on the brink of a disillusion without parallel in her +knowledge. So she told him of her life in town and elsewhere; of the +treadmill round of toilsome pleasure; of the penance of dressing and +smiling with unflagging prettiness; of the hollow friendships and +hollower loves of that garish life, and the unutterable staleness of the +whole conventional routine. No doubt she overstated her case; and +certainly her strictures were themselves conventional; but she was +perfectly aware of both facts, and would have been exceedingly sorry to +have had this conversation recorded against her. Olivia had a healthy +horror of superiority, either of the moral or the intellectual order. +But she was conducting a conversation with an obvious purpose; and it +was only when he told her again, and more earnestly than before, how +suited she was for the bush, that she proposed the canter which brought +them a mile nearer Devenholme. + +"Now it's you to play," she told him as they drew rein; "and I want to +hear some of your adventures. You've never told us any, yet you must +have had heaps. So far I've only heard about the hut, the sheep, the +homestead, and your old boss." + +"A white man!" cried Jack. "I wish you knew him." + +"So do I; but I can quite picture him, and just now I would much rather +hear about some of your own adventures. So begin." + +Jack laughed. + +"Really, Miss Sellwood, I never had one in my life!" + +"Then really, my Lord Duke, I can't believe a word----" + +Jack was laughing no more. + +"Don't call me that," he said. "It would be so much kinder to call me +Jack!" + +She had forgotten. Her heart smote her now, and the difficulty was to +conceal her unsuspected sympathy. So she insisted on his calling her +Olivia, to conclude the bargain. And the double innovation made them +both so self-conscious, that she forgot her thirst for his adventures, +while he brooded heavily upon his bitter-sweet advancement won loo late. + +So they came into Devenholme as the sun was shining fore and aft along +the quaint old English streets. And in the town, where he was well +enough known by this time, poor Jack was received with a cruel +consideration that would have hurt him even more than it did had he +dreamt how it affected his companion. The tender-hearted girl was +inexpressibly grieved, and never more than when the jeweller mentioned a +hundred guineas as the price of the ring to be changed; indeed, the +situation in the jeweller's shop was perilously charged with hidden +emotions. In this terribly equivocal position, Jack could not press upon +Olivia things for which he might never be able to pay; neither could +Olivia now refuse any present at all, nor yet lead him as low as she +would have liked in the price, for fear of revealing her illicit +knowledge. So at last they hit upon a curb-bracelet that fastened with a +tiny padlock. It cost but forty-five shillings. And when he had locked +it upon her right wrist, he pocketed the key without a remark, then paid +ready money and left the shop in a throbbing agony of shame. The poor +jeweller stood bowing them out with the hundred-guinea ring still in his +hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +JACK AND HIS MASTER + + +It was necessary to bait the horses; it was equally essential for the +pair themselves to have something to eat. So they rode under the olden +arch of the oak-lined Falcon, and it was "your Grace" at every step, +with ironic iteration very hard for either of them to bear without a +word to the other. They dismounted therefore with the less delay; and +Olivia turned her back upon the coffee-room window, and on an elderly, +bald, well-dressed man, whose cool fixed stare made the girl extremely +angry, when Jack at her side gave a shout of delight. + +"So help me never! _it's the boss himself!_" + +Olivia turned, and there was the objectionable old fellow in the window +smiling and waving to her enchanted companion. And this was the man of +whom she had heard so often! She did not stop to consider how he came to +be here; the back-blockers were already at explanations, but Olivia was +not listening. She was thinking of the bearded, jovial, hearty squatter +of her imagination; and she was glancing askance at the massive chin and +forehead, and at the white moustache cropped close over the bad mouth of +the real man. + +"Mr. Dalrymple--my old boss--Miss Sellwood!" shouted Jack, introducing +them with a wealth of pantomime. "We're coming up to lunch with you, +sir; that is, you're to lunch with me; it's my shout!" + +And poor Olivia found herself swept off her feet, as it were, into the +presence of a man whom all her instincts had pronounced odious at sight. + +But the higher court of the girl's intellect reversed this judgment on +the appeal of her trained perceptions. The elderly squatter was not +after all a man to be summed up at a glance or in a word: his undoubted +assurance was tempered and redeemed by so many graces of manner and +address as to upset entirely the girl's preconceptions of his class. At +table he treated her with a princely courtesy, imperceptibly including +her in a conversation which poor Jack would have conducted very +differently if left to himself. After the first few minutes, indeed, +Olivia could see but two faults in the squatter; the first was the +fierce light his charming manners reflected on those of Jack; and the +second was a mouth which made the girl regret the austere cut of his +moustache whenever she looked at Mr. Dalrymple. + +"So you left before shearing, sir!" cried Jack, who was grossly eager +for all station news. "I wonder you did that. They must be in the thick +of it now!" + +"They were to begin on the fifth of this month. The shearing, Miss +Sellwood, is the one divine, far-off event towards which the whole +sheep-station moves," added Mr. Dalrymple, with a glibness worthy of +Claude Lafont. + +"And don't you forget the lamb-marking," chimed in Jack. "I hope it was +a good lambing this year, sir?" + +"Seventy-nine per cent.," replied Dalrymple. "I'm afraid that's Greek to +you, Miss Sellwood--and perhaps better so." + +"You see, I'm as keen as ever on the old blocks!" cried Jack. It was a +superfluous boast. + +"So I do see; and I must say, Jack, you surprise me. Do you notice how +he 'sirs' me, Miss Sellwood? I was on my way to pay homage to the Duke +of St. Osmund's, not to receive it from Happy Jack of Carara!" + +"Do you often come over to England, Mr. Dalrymple?" asked Olivia +quickly. For the girl had seen the spasm in Jack's face, and she knew +how the anaesthetic of this happy encounter had exhaled with the +squatter's last speech. + +"No, indeed!" was the reply. "I haven't been home for more years than I +care to count; and the chances are that I shouldn't be here now but for +our friend the Duke. He unsettled me. You see, Miss Sellwood, how +jealous are the hearts of men! _I_ had no inheritance to come home to; +but I had my native land, and here I am." + +"And you have friends in Devenholme?" + +"I have one friend; I wish that I dared say two," replied the squatter, +looking from Jack to Olivia in his most engaging manner. "No, to tell +you frankly, I was on a little inquisitive pilgrimage to Maske Towers. I +did not wait for an invitation, for I knew that I should bring my own +welcome with me." + +"Of course, of course; come out to-morrow!" exclaimed Jack nervously. +"I'll send in for you, and you must stay as long as ever you can. If +only I'd driven in, as I meant to, we'd have taken you back with us. Yet +on the whole to-morrow will be best; you must give us time to do you +well, you know, Mr. Dalrymple. It'll be a proud day for me! I little +expected to live to entertain my own boss!" + +Indeed, his pride was genuine enough, and truly characteristic of the +man; but at the back of it there was a great uneasiness which did not +escape the clear, light eye of Dalrymple. Not that the squatter betrayed +his prescience by word or sign; on the contrary, he drank Jack's health +in the champagne provided by him, and included Olivia's name in a very +graceful speech. But Jack drank nothing at all; and having reduced his +roll to a heap of crumbs, he was now employed in converting the crumbs +into a pile of pellets. + +Olivia pitied his condition; that tremulous brown hand, with the great +bush freckles still showing at the gnarled finger-roots, touched her +inexpressibly as it lay fidgeting on the white table-cloth. She strained +every nerve to keep the squatter engaged and unobservant; and she found +herself fluctuating, in a rather irritating manner, between her first +instinctive antipathy and her later liking for the man. He was extremely +nice to her; he had an obvious kindness for poor Jack; and she +apprehended a personal magnetism, a unique individuality, quite powerful +enough to account for Jack's devotion to him. She felt the influence +herself. Yet there was something--she could not say what. + +The way in which her last vague prejudice was removed, however, made a +deep impression upon Olivia, besides giving her a startling glimpse of +her own feelings. And it all came of a casual remark of Dalrymple's, in +elucidation of his prompt expedition to the district, to the effect that +the Duke of St. Osmund's had once saved his life. + +"Your life!" cried Olivia, while Jack ceased meddling with his bread. + +"To be sure. Is it possible he has never told you the story?" + +"Not a word of it! And only this morning, as we rode in, I asked him if +he had never had any adventures!" + +Her face was a flushed reproach. + +"I'd forgotten that one," said Jack sheepishly. "I really had. It's so +long ago; and it wasn't much when you come----" + +"Not much!" interjected Dalrymple. "I should be very sorry to find +myself in such a tight place again! It's some thirteen years ago, Miss +Sellwood. I was thinking of taking up some cattle country in the +unfenced part of Queensland. I had gone up to have a look at the place, +and the blacks attacked us while I was there. We were three strong in +an iron store: the owner, a stray shearer, and myself. The shearer had +his horse hung up outside; he could have got away quite easily in the +beginning; but our horses were all turned out, and he wouldn't leave us. +So we dragged his horse inside, and we set to work to defend the store." + +"I know that shearer!" cried Olivia proudly. "Yet he hangs his head! Oh, +go on, Mr. Dalrymple, go on!" + +"From daybreak to sundown," continued the squatter, "we defended +ourselves with a Winchester, a double-barrelled shot-gun, and an old +muzzle-loading rifle. The blacks came on by the score, but they couldn't +get in, and they couldn't set fire to the corrugated iron. It was +riddled like a sieve, and each of us three had a hole in him too; but +there was a wall of dead blacks up against the iron outside, and they +were as good as sandbags. We should have beaten the fellows off before +midnight if our powder had held out. It didn't; so I assure you we shook +hands, and were going to blow up the place with a twenty-gallon tin of +petroleum, that was luckily inside, when our friend the shearer came out +with an idea. His horse had a ball in its body and was screaming like a +woman, so that _it_ was no use. I recollect we put it out of its pain +with our last charge. But there was long dry grass all round up to +within some fifteen yards of the store; and after dark the shearer ran +out three or four times with a bucket of petroleum, and once with a box +of matches. The last time but one the blacks saw him. They had +surrounded the place at a pretty respectful radius, and they were having +what we call a spell; but they saw him the last time but one. And when +he went out again and struck his matches they had something to aim at. +Well, his first match went out, and there was a sheaf of spears sticking +in the sand and three new holes through the house. We waited; not +another thing could we see. We didn't know whether he was dead or alive, +and we heard the blacks starting to rush us. But we also heard the +scratch of a second match; in another instant the thing flared up like a +circular lamp--and us in the middle of the burner! The country was burnt +black for miles all round, and we ourselves had a hot time of it, Miss +Sellwood; but here are two of us, at all events, to tell the tale." + +Olivia bowed to him; she could not speak. Then for a little she turned +her wet eyes, wet with enthusiasm, upon the awkward hero of the tale. +And without more words the party broke up. + +Jack was still remonstrating with Dalrymple when the girl rejoined them +outside. + +"Come now!" she said. "Was it true, or wasn't it?" + +"More or less," admitted Jack. + +"Was it true about the horse and the petroleum and the spears?" + +He confessed that it was, but discredited his memory as a clumsy +qualification. Olivia turned away from him, and said no more until she +was in her saddle; then while Jack was mounting she rode up to the +squatter. + +"I am truly grateful to you, Mr. Dalrymple," she said; "and all the +others will be as grateful as I am, and will look forward to your visit. +But for you, we might all have gone on being entertained by a hero +unawares. You must tell us more. Meanwhile I for one can thank you most +heartily!" + +And she leant over and frankly pressed his hand; but said very little +all the long ride home. Jack assured her, however, that he had never +thought of his wound for years, although he must have a bullet in him +somewhere to that day; he also told her that the fight with the blacks +had been the beginning of his connection with his old boss, whose +service he had never left until the end. And for miles he spoke of no +one else; he was so grateful to Olivia for liking his friend, and he had +so many stories of Dalrymple to set as well as he could against that one +of himself. So the ride drew to an end in the golden afternoon, with +never a tender word between the pair, though his heart was as full as +hers; but she could not speak; and the great seal lay yet upon his +lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +END OF THE INTERREGNUM + + +Nobody was about when they dismounted, so Jack himself led the horses +back to the stables, while Olivia gathered up her habit and scaled the +steps. The stable clock struck five as the former was returning by way +of the shrubbery; another seven hours, and Claude would come home with +the news. For such an issue, it was still an eternity to wait. But Jack +felt that the suspense would be easily endurable so long as he could +have sight and speech of Olivia Sellwood; without her, even for these +few minutes, it was hardly to be borne. + +Yet this stage of his ordeal was made up of such minutes. He returned to +desolate rooms. Olivia had disappeared; nor could he pitch upon a soul +to tell him where she was. Door after door was thrown open in vain; each +presented an empty void to his exacting eyes. He ran outside and stood +listening on the terrace. And there, through an open upper window he +heard a raised voice railing, which he could not but recognise as that +of Lady Caroline. Her words were indistinguishable. But as Jack looked +aloft for the window, one was passionately shut, and he neither heard +nor saw any more. + +The first persons he ultimately encountered were Mr. Sellwood and the +agent. They had golf-clubs in their hands and wholesome sweat upon their +brows. The agent treated Jack as usual; the Home Secretary did not. He +stated that he had at last won a round; but his manner was singularly +free from exultation; indeed, it was quite awkward, as though perfect +cordiality had suddenly become a difficult matter, and he was ashamed to +find it so. Certainly there had been no difficulty of the kind before. +And Jack noted the change, but was too honourable himself to suspect the +cause. + +He next fell in with the Frekes. This excellent couple loved Jack for +his goodness to their children, who were not universally popular. They +now carried him off to tea in the nursery, where he stayed until it was +time to dress for dinner. Jack liked the children; it was not his fault +that they were so seldom in evidence. They were obviously spoilt; but +Jack thought they were taken too seriously by all but their parents, +who certainly did not take them seriously enough. So he had many a romp +with the little outcasts, but never a wilder one than this afternoon, +for the children took him out of himself. Their society, had he but +known it, was even better for him in the circumstances than that of +Olivia herself; it was almost as good as another meeting with Dalrymple +of Carara. He rose at length from under his oppressors, dusty, +dishevelled and perspiring, but for the moment as light-hearted as +themselves. And there were the grave, sympathetic eyes of the parents +resting sadly upon him to recall his trouble. Why should they look sad +or sympathetic? Everybody had changed towards him; this was the +difference in the Frekes. Could they have divined the truth? No +suspicion of a broken confidence entered his head; yet it was +sufficiently puzzled as he dressed, with unusual care, to make a +creditable last appearance at the head of the table which would prove +never to have been his at all. He had quite made up his mind to that; he +found it appreciably harder to reconcile himself to the keen +disappointment which awaited him in the dining-room. + +Olivia was not coming down. + +"She has knocked herself up," explained Lady Caroline tersely. "So would +any girl--not an Australian--who rode so far on such a day. Your Grace +might have known better!" + +Jack stared at her like a wounded stag; then he uttered an abject +apology, for which, however, he obtained no sort of a receipt. Lady +Caroline had turned and was talking to some one else. But it was not +this that cut him to the heart; it was her mode of addressing him, after +their conversation of the early morning. + +Later in the evening he remembered that railing voice and the shutting +of the window upstairs; and with a burning indignation he divined, all +at once, who it was that had been so spoken to, and why, with the true +cause of Olivia's indisposition. + +This was in the darkness of his hut, with Livingstone asleep in his lap. +In another minute Jack was striding through the pines, on his way to the +drawing-room for a few plain words with Lady Caroline Sellwood. He never +had them. Lady Caroline was gone to bed. It was almost eleven; within an +hour Claude would be back, and a moral certainty become an absolute +fact. Hunt's tale was true. Had it been otherwise, Claude would have +telegraphed. He had left, indeed, on the distinct understanding that he +should do no such thing; his mission was to be kept a secret, and a +telegram might excite suspicion; yet even so he would have sent one had +all been well. Jack was sure of it; his exhausted spirit had surrendered +utterly to an ineluctable despair. + +In this humour he sought the Poet's Corner, and found its two _habitues_ +furtively chuckling over some newspaper. Their gaiety cut him to the +quick. Yet he longed to enter into it. + +"What's the joke?" he asked. "I want something to make me laugh!" + +"This wouldn't," replied Edmund Stubbs. "It's not benign enough for +you." + +"It's only a piece of smart scribbling," explained Llewellyn, lighting a +fresh cigarette with the stump of the last. + +Jack was behind them; quite innocently he put his head between theirs +and looked for himself. The paper was the _Parthenon_. There was but one +article on the open page. It was headed-- + + OUR MINOR POETS. + + XXVIII. MR. CLAUDE LAFONT. + +"So that amuses you?" said Jack at last. + +"Quite," said Llewellyn. + +"You think it just, eh?" + +"Oh, hang justice! It's awfully nice copy. That's all it has any right +to be. Justice doesn't matter a hang; the _Parthenon's_ not written for +the virtuous shopkeeper; it isn't meant to appeal to the Nonconformist +Conscience." + +"Besides, the article _is_ just," protested Stubbs. "We know what Lafont +is, between ourselves; he's an excellent chap, but his poetry--save the +mark!--would hardly impose on Clapham and Wandsworth. His manner's cheap +enough, but his matter goes one cheaper; it's the sort of thing for +which there should be no charge." Stubbs drained his glass. + +Jack was blazing. + +"I don't know what you mean by 'cheap,'" he cried; "but from reading +that article, which I happen to have seen before, I should call it a +jolly 'cheap' word. I don't set up to be a clever man. I only know what +I like, and I like everything of Claude's that--that I can understand. +But even if I didn't I should be sorry to go about saying so in his own +house!" + +"_His_ own house!" exclaimed the Impressionist. + +"We didn't know it was his," said Stubbs. + +"What's mine is Claude's," replied Jack, colouring. "It was before I +turned up, and it will be again when--whenever I peg out." + +With that he was gone. + +"Sounds suicidal," remarked Llewellyn. + +"Or celibate," said Stubbs, replenishing his glass. + +"Poor beast!" concluded the artist. + +Here their host returned. + +"I'm very sorry, you fellows," said he, with absurd humility. "I'm all +off colour to-night, and I know I've made a rude ruffian of myself. Some +of these days you'll understand; meantime will you forgive me?" + +"_I_ have nothing to forgive," replied Llewellyn. + +"We'll say no more about it," said Stubbs. + +And Jack shook hands with them both before leaving them for good; then +he hurried through the length of the building to the great conservatory, +where Stebbings was putting out the lights. The conservatory was at that +extreme of the Towers which the dogcart would pass first. Here, too, was +room and air for a man distraught. So Jack called out to Stebbings to +leave the lights on longer. + +"And light some more," he added suddenly. "Light up every lamp in the +place! I shall stay here until Mr. Lafont returns." + +"Yes, your Grace." + +"Stebbings!" + +"Your Grace?" + +"For God's sake don't call me that again! I--I'm not used to it, +Stebbings--any more than you're used to me," added Jack inconsequently; +and he fled into the grounds until the old man should be gone. + +The night was very dark and heavy; clouds obscured the moon, shedding a +fine rain softly upon drive and terrace. Jack raised his face, and a +grateful sprinkling cooled its fever. He longed for a far heavier fall, +with the ancient longing of those prehistoric days when a grey sky and +an honest wetting were the rarest joys in life. Could he indeed return +to that rough routine after all these weeks of aristocratic ease? The +bushman might exchange his wideawake for a coronet, but could the peer +go back to the bush? Time must show. The only question was whether Hunt +had lied or told the truth; and the answer could not be much longer +delayed. Already it was half-past eleven; there was the clang creeping +lazily through the night, round quarter of a mile of intervening wall, +and half a hundred angles. + +He would have gone down the drive to meet the dogcart; but the night was +too dark; and beside him blazed the great conservatory like a palace of +fire. He entered it again, and now he had it to himself; the statues +among the tree-ferns were his only companions. But in his absence old +Stebbings had placed a little table with brandy and soda-water set out +upon it; even the butler had seen and pitied his condition. + +The third quarter struck. The sound just carried to the conservatory, +for now the rain was heavier, and the rattle overheard warred +successfully against all other noises. The dogcart might drive by +without Jack's hearing it. The suspense was horrible, but a surprise +would be more horrible still. He was becoming unstrung; why should he +not tune himself up with the brandy? His voluntary teetotalism was too +absurd; he had made no promise, taken no pledge, but only a private +pride in his self-discipline as it had gone on from day to day. Not a +drop had he touched since that afternoon at Dover so long, so long ago! +As he reckoned up the time, the forgotten lust possessed him; it had +been even so on Carara, when the periodical need of a cheque would first +steal over his lonely spirit. He thought now of those occasions and +their results; he knew himself of old; but he was no longer the same +man--resistance would be ridiculous now. He took another look at the +night; then he filled a wine-glass with raw brandy--raised it--and +impulsively dashed the whole upon the marble flags. The brandy widened +in a shallow amber flood; the broken glass lay glittering under the +lamps; and in Jack's ears the patter of the rain (which had never +abated) broke out anew. + +He could not account for his act; he did not know it for the culmination +of a highly nervous condition induced by the twenty-four sleepless hours +of unrelieved suspense. It was neither more nor less, and yet it enabled +him to hold up his head once more. And as he did so, there--through the +swimming crystal walls--between a palm-tree and a Norfolk Island +pine--were the two red eyes of the dogcart dilating in the dark. + +The great moment had come, and it was not so great after all. Jack's +little outburst had left him strangely calm. He went to the door and +hailed the dogcart in a loud, cheery voice. The lamps stopped. Claude +came within range of those in the conservatory, and shook himself on the +steps. Then he entered, looking unusually healthy, but dripping still. + +"A brute of a night for you," said Jack apologetically. "Take off that +coat, and have some brandy. Mind where you go. I've had a spill." + +This was the reaction. Claude understood. + +"Then you don't want to hear the news?" + +"I know it. I've known it for hours." + +"That I can see you haven't. Listen to me. There was no English +marriage. Give me your hand!" + +It was limp and cold. + +"You don't believe me!" said Claude severely. + +Jack subsided in a chair. + +"I can't," he whispered. "I can't." + +"You soon will. I wish to goodness I'd taken you with me to-day. Now +listen: there was some truth in Hunt's story, but more lies. The +marriage was a lie. There never was a marriage. There was something +rather worse at the time, but a good deal better now. My grandfather +patched it up, exactly as I thought. He packed my uncle out to +Australia, and he settled two hundred a year on the Hunts, on the single +condition of 'perpetual silence as to the connection between the two +families.' I've seen the covenant, and those are the very words. The +condition has been broken after all these years. And the Hunts' income +stops to-day." + +Jack had roused himself a little; he was no longer apathetic, but +neither was he yet convinced. + +"It seems a lot of money to hush up so small a matter," he objected. +"Are they sure there was no more in it than that?" + +"Maitland and Cripps? Perfectly sure; they've been paying that money for +nearly forty years, and there's never been a hint at a marriage until +now. Certainly there's none in the settlement. But to make assurance +surer, young Maitland took a cab and drove off to see his father--who +was a partner in '53, but has since retired--about the whole matter. And +I took another cab, and drove straight to the old parish church facing +the river at Chelsea. I found the clerk, and he showed me the marriage +register, but there was no such marriage on that date (or any other) in +_that_ church; so why in any? One lie means dozens. Surely you'll agree +with me there?" + +"I must; it's only the money that sticks with me. It seems such a case +of paying through the nose. But what had old Maitland to say?" + +"Everything," cried Claude. "He remembered the whole business perfectly, +and even saying to my grandfather much what you're saying to me now. But +I've told you the kind of man the old Duke was; he was a purist of the +purists, besides being as proud as Lucifer, and a scandal so near home +hit him, as you would say, in both eyes at once. He considered he got +good value for his money when he hushed it up. They showed me a letter +in which he said as much. Young Maitland unearthed it after he had seen +his father, and with it others of a later date, in which the Duke +refused to revoke or even to curtail the allowance on the woman's death. +That's all; but surely it's conclusive enough! Here we have a +first-class firm of solicitors on the one hand, and a clumsy scoundrel +on the other. Which do you believe? By the way, they're anxious to +prosecute Hunt on all sorts of grounds if you'll let them." + +"I won't." + +"I think you ought to," said Claude. + +"No, no; too much mud has been stirred up already; we'll let it rest for +a bit." + +"But surely you'll get rid of the Hunts after this?" + +"I'll see." + +Claude was disappointed; he had looked for a different reception of his +news. + +"Do you mean to say you're not convinced yet?" he cried. + +"No," said Jack, "I'm quite satisfied now; you hem the thing in on every +side. But I wish to goodness all this had never happened!" + +"So do we all; but if there was a doubt, surely it was best to set it at +rest? If I were you, I should feel as one does after a bad dream." + +Jack was on his feet. + +"My dear old mate," he cried, "and so I do! But I'm only half woke up; +that's what's the matter with me, and you must give me time to pull +myself together. You don't know what a day I've had; you never will +know. And you--my meat's your poison, and yet you've been doing all this +for me just as if it was the other way round; and not a word of thanks +at the end of it. Claude--old man--forgive me! Thanks won't do. They're +no good at all in a case like this. What can a fellow say? If it was +you, you'd say plenty----" + +"I hope not," interrupted Claude, laughing. "Wait till you do me a good +turn. You've done me many a one already, and I've never said a word." + +But Jack would shake hands, and even Claude's face was shining with a +tender light as a soft step fell upon the marble, and Lady Caroline +Sellwood entered from the drawing-room. The door had been left open. But +it was instantly evident that her Ladyship had not been eavesdropping, +or at least not to any useful purpose; for she planted herself before +the two men in obvious ignorance as to which was the man for her. She +was still in the handsome dress that she had worn all the evening; and +between her plump, white, glittering fingers she nursed the purple +smoking-cap that had always been--and was still--intended for the Duke +of St. Osmund's. + +"It was no good," she cried tragically, looking from Claude to Jack and +back again at Claude. "I simply couldn't go to bed until I knew. And +now--and now I'm torn two ways; for pity's sake, put me out of _one_ +misery." + +"It's all up," said Jack deliberately. He owed Lady Caroline a grudge +for the shrill scolding he had heard upstairs, and another for Olivia's +absence from the dinner-table. He was also curious to see what Lady +Caroline would do. + +She sailed straight to Claude, holding the smoking-cap at arm's length. + +"My dear, dear Claude! _How_ I congratulate you! I find, after all, that +the smoking-cap, which was originally intended----" + +"Dear Lady Caroline," interposed Claude hastily, "everything is as it +was. Hunt's story is a complete fabrication; I'd no idea that you knew +anything about it." + +"I couldn't help telling Lady Caroline," said Jack. Lady Caroline turned +upon him with hot suspicion. + +"You said it was all----" + +He interrupted her. + +"I was _going_ to say that it was all up with Hunt. He loses two hundred +a year for his pains." + +"Is that possible?" cried her Ladyship. + +"It's the case," said Claude; "so everything is as it was, and as it +should be." + +Lady Caroline exhibited no further trace of her discomfiture. + +"I wish we hadn't all interrupted each other," she laughed. "_I_ was +about to remark that the smoking-cap, which was originally intended to +have what one may term a frieze, as well as a dado, of gold lace, will +look much better without the frieze, so there's really no more to do to +it. Take it, my dear, dear Jack, and wear it sometimes for my sake. And +forgive a mother for what one said about Olivia's ride. Claude, I shall +make another cap for you; meanwhile, let me congratulate you--again--on +your noble conduct of to-day. Ah, you neither of you congratulate me on +mine! Yet I am a woman, and I've kept your joint secret--most +religiously--from nine in the morning to this very hour!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"LOVE THE GIFT" + + +Her answer was altogether astonishing; she leant back in the boat and +looked him full in the face. A quick flush tinged her own, and the +incomparable eyebrows were raised and arched; but underneath there was +an honest tenderness which Olivia was not the girl to conceal. + +"Was that your water-lilies?" said she; but this was not the astonishing +speech. He had lured her afloat on impudently false pretences; she had a +right to twit him with that. + +"There are no water-lilies," he confessed; "at least, never mind them if +there are. Oh, I was obliged to make some excuse! There was nowhere else +where we could talk so well. I tell you again I have the cheek to love +you! I can't help it; I've loved you ever since that day in London, and +you've got to know it for good or bad. If it makes you very angry, I'll +row you back this minute." He was resting on his oars under cover of +the little island; the Towers were out of sight. + +"Why in the world didn't you speak yesterday?" was Olivia's +extraordinary reply. + +"Yesterday?" faltered Jack. + +"It was such a chance!" + +"Not for me! My tongue was tied. Olivia, I was under a frightful cloud +yesterday! You don't understand----" + +"What if I do? What if I did at the time?" + +"I don't see how you could," said Jack. + +"Instinctively," replied Olivia, to screen her mother. "I knew something +was wrong, and I have since been told what. If only you had spoken +then!" + +She dropped her eyes swiftly; the tear ran down her cheek. + +"But why? Why then, better than now?" + +"Because _I_ care, too," she whispered, so that the words just travelled +to his ear. + +"Olivia! My--do you know what you've said? Do you mean it?" + +"Of course I care. I mean that much. You are different from everybody +else." + +"Then----" + +"There must be no 'then.'" + +"But you said you cared. Tell me--I don't understand." + +"I can never marry you," said Olivia, looking him once more in the face. +And her eyes were dry. + +"Why not, if it is true--that you care?" + +"Because you are what you are--and I--oh! how can I say it even to you? +I am so ashamed. I have been thrown at your head from the very +first--no, I have no right to say that. How I hate everything I say! You +must understand; I am sure you do. Well, in the beginning I couldn't +bear to speak to you, because I knew--what was hoped--and I seemed to +see and hear it in every look and word. It hurt me more than I ever can +tell you. The same sort of thing had happened before, but I had never +minded it then. I suppose all mothers are like that; it's natural +enough, when you come to think, and I'm sure I never resented it before. +I wouldn't have minded it in your case either; I wouldn't have minded +anything if I hadn't----" + +The words would not come. + +"Hadn't what?" he said. + +"If I hadn't liked you--off my own bat!" + +"But if you really do, my glorious girl, surely that fixes it? We have +nothing to do with anybody else. What does it matter how they take it?" + +"It matters to my pride." + +"I don't see where your pride comes in." + +"Of course you don't; you are not behind the scenes. And I can't make +you see. I'm not going to give my own people away to that extent, not +even to you. But--I can just picture my mother's face if we went in this +very minute and told her we were engaged! She would fall upon both our +necks!" + +"That wouldn't matter," said Jack stolidly. "That would be all right." + +"It would be dreadful--dreadful. I couldn't bear it when I know that +yesterday----" + +She checked herself firmly. + +"Well, what of yesterday?" + +"It would have been quite a different thing." + +"What! if I'd spoken then?" + +"I--think so." + +"You would have said----" + +"I should have found out what your trouble was. You would have told me +everything. And then--and then----" + +He leant still further forward. + +"If you had wanted me very much----" + +"I _do_ want you very much." + +"I should have found it easier to say 'yes'"--the word was hardly +audible--"than I ever shall now!" + +"But why, Olivia? Tell me why!" + +"You force it from me, word by word," complained the girl. + +"Then let me see. I think I begin to see. You like me in myself almost +well enough to marry me. Well, thank God for that much! But you don't +want to marry the Duke of St. Osmund's, because you're mortally afraid +of what people will say. You think they'll say you're doing it for the +main chance. And so they will--and so they may! They wouldn't say it, +and you wouldn't think it, of any other man in my position; no, it's +because I'm not fit for my billet, that's how it is! Not fit for it, and +not fit for you; so they'd naturally think you were marrying me for what +I'd got, and that you couldn't bear. Ah, yes, I see hard enough; it's as +plain as a pikestaff now!" + +The girl saw, too; with the unconscious bluntness of a singularly direct +nature, he had stripped her scruples bare, and their littleness +horrified Olivia. The moral cowardice of her hesitation came home to her +with an insupportable pang, and her mind was made up before his last +sentences put her face in flames. + +"You are wrong," she could only murmur; "oh, you are dreadfully wrong!" + +"I am right," he answered bitterly, "and _you_ are right. No wonder you +dread the hard things that would be said of you! Take away the name and +the money, and what am I? A back-block larrikin--a common stockman!" + +"The man for me," said Olivia hoarsely. + +"Ah, yes, if I were not such a public match!" + +"Whatever you are--whatever you may be--if you want me still----" + +"Want you! I have wanted you from the first. I shall want you till the +last!" + +Her reply was indistinct; her tears were falling fast; he took her two +white hands, but even them he did not touch with his lips. A great +silence held them both, and all the world; the island willows kissed the +stream; in the sheet of gold beyond, a fish leapt, and the ripple +reached the boat in one long thin fold. The girl spoke first. + +"We need not be in a hurry to tell everybody," she began; but the words +were retracted in the same breath. "What am I saying? Of course we will +tell. Oh, what a contempt you must have for me!" + +"I love you," he answered simply. "I am too happy to live. It's all too +good to be true. Me of all men--the old bushman!" + +She looked lovingly on his bearded and sunburnt face, shining as she had +never seen it shine before. + +"No; it's the other way about," she said. "I am not half good enough for +you--you who were so brave yesterday in your trouble--who have been so +simple always in your prosperity. It was enough to turn any one's head, +but you--ah, I don't only love you. I admire you, dear; may God help me +to make you happy!" + +They stayed much longer on the lake, finally disembarking on its +uttermost shore, because Olivia was curious to see how the hut would +look in the first rosy light of her incredible happiness. And when they +came to it, the sunlight glinted on the new iron roofing; the pine-trees +exhaled their resin in the noon-day heat following the midnight rain; +and the shadows were shot with golden shafts, where all was golden to +the lovers' eyes. + +Jack made a diffident swain; it was the girl who slipped her hand into +his. + +"You will never pull it down?" she said. "We will use it for a +summer-house, and to remind you of your old life. And one day you will +take me out to the Riverina, and show me the hut you really lived in, +and all your old haunts. Oh, I shouldn't mind if we had both to go out +there for good! A hut would take far less looking after than the Towers, +and I should have you much more to myself. What fun it would be!" + +Jack thought this a pretty speech, but the girl herself was made +presently aware of its insincerity. They had retraced their steps, and +there in front of them, cool and grey in the mellow August sunshine, +with every buttress thrown up by its shadow, and the very spires +perfectly reflected in the sleeping lake, stood the stately home which +would be theirs for ever. Olivia saw it with a decidedly new thrill. She +was looking on her future home, and yet her husband would be this simple +fellow! Wealth could not cloy, nor grandeur overpower, with such a mate; +that was perhaps the substance of her thought. It simplified itself next +moment. What had she done to deserve such happiness? What could she ever +do? And a possible tabernacle in the bush entered into neither question, +nor engaged her fancy any more. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AN ANTI-TOXINE + + +They rowed over, and were in mid-water when the landau drove up to the +house. It had been sent in for Mr. Dalrymple early in the forenoon. They +saw nothing, however, until they landed, when the equipage was +proceeding on its way to the stables, having deposited the guest. At +this discovery, the Duke's excitement knew no bounds, so Olivia urged +him to run on and leave her; and he took her advice, chiefly regretting +that he had missed the proud moment of welcoming his old boss in the +hall. + +Jack regretted this the more when he reached the house. There was +Dalrymple of Carara beginning his visit by roundly abusing the butler in +the very portico! The guest was in a towering passion, the butler in a +palsy of senile agitation; and between them on the step lay Dalrymple's +Gladstone bag. + +"What _is_ the matter?" cried Jack, rushing up with a very blank face. +"Stebbings, what's this? What has he done, Mr. Dalrymple?" + +"Refused to take in my bag! Says it's the footman's place!" + +"Then what's he here for? The man must be drunk. Are you, Stebbings?" + +The butler murmured an inarticulate reply. + +"Get to your pantry, sir!" roared Jack. "You shall hear more of this +when you are sober. Old servant or new servant, out you clear!" + +And he took up the bag himself, as Stebbings gave a glassy stare and +staggered off without a word. + +"I'm extremely sorry for losing my temper," said Dalrymple, taking +Jack's arm as they entered the house; "but it always was rather short, +as I fear I needn't remind _you_. Really, though, your disgraceful old +retainer would have provoked a saint. Drunk as fool in the middle of the +day; drunk and insolent. Has the man been with you long?" + +"Only fifty years or so with the family," replied Jack savagely; "but, +by the living Lord, he may roll up his swag!" + +"Ah! I wouldn't be hasty," said Dalrymple. "One must make allowances for +one's old retainers; they're a privileged class. How good of you, by +the way, to send in for me in such style! It prepared me for much. But I +am bound to say it didn't prepare me for all this. No, I never should +have pictured you in such an absolute palace had I not seen it with my +own eyes!" + +And now the visitor was so plainly impressed by all he saw, that Jack +readily forgave him the liberty he had taken in rating Stebbings on his +own account. Still the incident rankled. Dalrymple was the one man in +the world before whom the Duke of St. Osmund's really did desire to play +his new part creditably; and what could be said for a peer of the realm +who kept a drunken butler to insult his guests? Jack could have shaken +the old reprobate until the bones rattled again in his shrivelled skin. +Dalrymple, however, seemed to think no more about the matter. He was +entirely taken up with the suits of armour here in the hall: indeed +Olivia discovered him lecturing Jack on his own trophies in a manner +that would have led a stranger to mistake the guest for the host. + +It may be said at once that this was Dalrymple's manner from first to +last. It was that of the school-master to whom the boy who once trembled +at his frown is a boy for evermore. And it greatly irritated Jack's +friends, though Jack himself saw nothing to resent. + +The Duke led his guest into the great drawing-room, and introduced him +with gusto to Lady Caroline Sellwood and to Claude Lafont. But all his +pride was in the visitor, who, with his handsome cynical face, his +distinguished bearing, and his faultless summer suit, should show them +that at least one "perfect gentleman" could come out of Riverina. Jack +waited a moment to enjoy the easy speeches and the quiet assurance of +Dalrymple; then he left the squatter to Lady Caroline and to Claude. It +was within a few minutes of the luncheon hour. Jack wanted a word with +Stebbings alone. The more he thought of it, the less able was he to +understand the old butler's extraordinary outbreak. Could he have been +ill instead of drunk? A charitable explanation was just conceivable to +Jack until he opened the pantry door; it fell to the ground that moment; +for not only did he catch Stebbings in the act of filling a wine-glass +with brandy, but the butler's breath was foul already with the spirit. + +"Very well, my man," said Jack slowly. "Drink as much as you like! +You'll hear from me when you're sober. But show so much as the tip of +your nose in the dining-room, and I'll throw you through the window with +my own hands!" + +The upshot of the matter was indirect and a little startling; for this +was the reason why Dalrymple of Carara took the head of his old hand's +table at luncheon on the day of his arrival; and obviously it was +Dalrymple's temporary occupation of that position, added to his +unforgettable past relations with his host, which led him to behave +exactly as though the table were his own. + +A difficulty about the carving was the more immediate cause of the +transposition. In the ordinary course, this was Stebbings's business, +which he conducted on the sideboard with due skill; in his absence, +however, the footmen had placed the dishes on the table; and as these +included a brace of cold grouse, and neither Jack nor Claude was an even +moderate practitioner with the carving-knife, there was a little hitch. +Mr. Sellwood was not present; he took his lunch on the links; and Jack +made no secret of his relief when the squatter offered to fill the +breach. + +"Capital!" he cried; "you take my place, sir, and I wish you joy of the +billet." And so the thing fell out. + +It had the merit of seating the Duke and Olivia side by side; and the +happy pair were made distinctly happier by the mutual discovery that +neither had as yet confided in a third soul. At the foot of the table, +in the position which Jack had begged her to assume at the outset of her +visit, sat Lady Caroline Sellwood. The clever young men were on opposite +sides, as usual; nor did they fail to exchange those looks of neglected +merit and of intellectual boredom which were another feature of their +public appearances. Their visit had not been altogether a success. It +was a mystery why they prolonged it. They had been invited, however, to +spend a month at Maske Towers, which, after all, was neither an +uncomfortable resting-place nor a discreditable temporary address. + +Francis Freke said a Latin grace inaudibly, and then the squatter went +to work at the birds. These were a present from afar; there were no +moors "on" Maske, as Jack explained, with a proud eye on Dalrymple's +knife. It flashed through the joints as though the bird had been already +"boned"; on either side the breast fell away in creamy flakes; and +Dalrymple talked as he carved, with the light touch and the easy grace +of a many-sided man of the world. At first he seemed to join in +everybody's conversation in turns; but he was only getting his team +together; and in a little everybody was listening to him. Yet he talked +with such tact that it was possible for all to put in their word; +indeed, he would appeal first to one, then to another, so that the +general temper of the party rose to a high level. Only Olivia and Claude +Lafont felt that this stranger was taking rather much upon himself. +Otherwise it was a pleasure to listen to him; he was excellently well +informed; before the end of the meal it came out that he had actually +read Claude's poems. + +"And lived to tell the tale!" he added with characteristic familiarity. +"I can tell you I felt it a risk after reading that terrible +depreciation of you in the _Parthenon_; you see, I've been in England a +few days, and have been getting abreast of things at my hotel while my +tailors were making me externally presentable. By the way, I ran across +a young Australian journalist who is over here now, and who occasionally +scribbles for the _Parthenon_. I asked him if he knew who had made that +scurrilous attack upon you, Mr. Lafont. I was interested, because I knew +you must be one of Jack's relations." + +"And did you find out?" inquired Claude, with pardonable curiosity. + +"He found out for me. The culprit was a man of your name, Mr. Stubbs; no +relation, I hope?" + +"I hope not," said Stubbs, emptying his glass; and his pallid complexion +turned a sicklier yellow, as though his blood were nicotine, and the +nicotine had mounted to his face. + +"I should like to hear that name in full," said Lady Caroline down the +length of the table. "I read the article myself. It was a disgrace to +journalism. It is only fair to our Mr. Stubbs that we should hear his +namesake's Christian name." + +"I think I can oblige," said Dalrymple, producing his pocket-book. "His +name was--ah! here it is! His name was Edmund. Edmund Stubbs!" + +Edmund Stubbs was not unequal to the occasion. He looked straight at +Jack. + +"Will you kindly make it convenient to send me in to Devenholme in time +for the next train?" he said. "If the Australian--gentleman--is going to +stay in your house, I, for one, shall trespass no longer on your +hospitality." + +"Nor I, for another!" Llewellyn chimed in. + +And without further ceremony the mordant couple left the table and the +room. Jack looked embarrassed, and Claude felt sorry for Jack. As for +Olivia, she had felt vaguely indignant with Dalrymple ever since he had +taken the head of the table; and this scene put a point to her feelings, +while it also revived her first prejudice against the squatter. Lady +Caroline, however, congratulated him upon an excellent piece of work. + +"You have performed a public service, my dear Mr. Dalrymple," said she. +"Dear Jack will, I know, forgive me when I say that those two young men +have never been in their element here. They are all right in a London +drawing-room, as representatives of a certain type. In a country house +they are impossible; and, for my part, I shall certainly never send them +another card." + +Jack also was ceasing to disapprove of the humiliation of Edmund Stubbs, +whose remarks overnight in the Poet's Corner had suddenly recurred to +his mind. + +"Did you know it was the same man?" said he, pushing back his chair. + +"I'm afraid I did," replied the squatter, as he rose. "They told me he +was staying down here, and I could hardly avoid exposing the fellow. I +hope, my dear Jack, that you will forgive the liberty I undoubtedly took +in doing so. I am the germ that expels the other germs--a sort of +anti-toxine in cuffs. _Similia similibus_, if my memory serves me, Mr. +Lafont. Before long you may have to inject a fresh bacillus to expel +_me_! Meantime, my dear Jack, let me offer you a cigar to show there's +no ill-feeling." + +"No, thanks," said Jack, for once rather shortly; "you've got to smoke +one of mine. It's my house!" he added, with a grin. + +And the remark was much appreciated by those to whom it was not +addressed; on Dalrymple it produced no effect at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HECKLING A MINISTER + + +The engagement became known in the course of the afternoon, and the news +was received in a manner after all very gratifying to the happy pair. +Lady Caroline Sellwood did indeed insist on kissing her future +son-in-law, but the obvious attitude she now assumed did not impose upon +him for a moment. He had seen through her the night before; he could +never believe in the woman again. In any case, however, her affectation +of blank surprise, and her motherly qualms concerning the prospective +loss of her ewe lamb, were a little over-acted, even for so +inexperienced an observer as the Duke of St. Osmund's. She knew it, too, +and hated Jack with all her hollow heart for having found her out; to +him, it was, after this, a relief to listen to the somewhat guarded +observations of Mr. Sellwood, whose feelings in the matter were just a +little mixed. + +Of the rest, Francis Freke volunteered his services for the great +event, and both he and his wife (who brought down her entire speaking +family to say good-night to "Uncle Jack") were consumed with that +genuine delight in the happiness of others which was their strongest +point. Claude, too, was not only "very nice about it," as Olivia said, +but his behaviour, in what was for him a rather delicate situation, +showed both tact and self-control. Never for a moment did look or word +of his suggest the unsuccessful suitor: though to be sure he had +scarcely qualified for such a _role_. Olivia and he had never been more +than friends. On her side, at least, the friendship had been of that +perfectly frank and chronic character which is least likely to develop +into love. And no one knew this better than Claude himself, who, +moreover, was not even yet absolutely sure that his own undoubted +affections were inspired by the divine impulse for which his poet's +heart had so often yearned. At all events he had thought upon the one +maiden for very many months; and putting it no higher than this, his +present conduct was that of a tolerably magnanimous man. + +The one person who raised an unsympathetic eyebrow was Dalrymple the +squatter. He seemed surprised at the news and, for the moment, rather +annoyed; but Jack recalled the deplorably cynical view of women for +which the owner of Carara had been quite notorious in the back-blocks, +and the squatter's displeasure did not rankle. Nor was it expressed a +second time. Either the sight of the pair together, who made no secret +of their happiness; either this pretty spectacle, or the dictates of +good taste, moved Dalrymple, ultimately, to the most graceful +congratulations they had yet received. And it was characteristic of the +man that his remarks took the form of an unsolicited speech at the +dinner-table. + +He had been only a few hours in the house, yet to all but Mr. Sellwood +(who did not meet him until evening) the hours seemed days. For the +squatter was one of those men who carry with them the weight of their +own presence, the breath of an intrinsic power, subtly felt from the +first; thus the little house-party had taken more notice of him in one +afternoon than the normal stranger would have attracted in a week; and +to them it already seemed inevitable that he should lead and that they +should follow whether they would or no. Accordingly, they were not in +the least surprised to see Dalrymple on his legs when the crumb-cloth +had been removed; though all but Jack deemed the act a liberty; and the +squatter still adopted the tone of a master felicitating his men, rather +than that of a guest congratulating his host. + +Yet the speech was fluent and full of point; and the speaker himself +made a sufficiently taking figure, leaning slightly forward, with the +tips of his well-shaped fingers just resting on the black oak board that +dimly reflected them. An unexceptionable shirt-front sat perfectly on +his full, deep chest, a single pearl glistening in its centre; and there +was a gleam of even teeth between the close-cropped, white moustache and +the ugly, mobile, nether lip, whence every word fell distinct and clear +of its predecessor. The Home Secretary had heard a worse delivery from +his own front bench; and he was certainly interested in the story of the +iron hut and the savages of Northern Queensland, which Dalrymple +repeated with the happiest effect. Olivia forgave him certain earlier +passages on the strength of these; her heart was full; only she could +not lift her eyes from the simple chain about her wrist, for they were +dim. The speech closed with the dramatic climax of the tale; there had +been but one interruption to the flow of well-chosen words, and that was +when the speaker stopped to blow out a smoking candle without appealing +to his host. + +The health of the pair was then drunk with appropriate enthusiasm; poor +Jack blurted out a few honest words, hardly intelligible from his +emotion; and the three ladies left the room. + +"There's one more point to that yarn," said Dalrymple, closing the door +he had held open, "that I don't think you yourself are aware of, Jack. +It was when you got back to the store, with your shirt burnt off your +back, and the country in a blaze all round, that I first noticed the +legend on your chest. As you probably know, Mr. Sellwood, the Duke has +one of his own eagles tattooed upon his chest. I saw it that day for the +first time. I felt sure it meant something. And years afterwards, when I +heard that a London solicitor was scouring the Colonies for the unknown +Duke of St. Osmund's, it was the sudden recollection of that mark which +made me to some extent the happy instrument of his discovery." + +"To every extent!" cried Jack, wringing his benefactor's hand. "I've +always said so. Mr. Sellwood, I owe him everything, and yet he makes a +song about my scaring away a few blackfellows with a bush-fire! By the +hokey, I've a good mind to have him live happily with us ever after for +his pains!" + +The Home Secretary bent his snowy head: his rosy face was the seat of +that peculiarly grim expression with which political caricaturists have +familiarised the world. Dalrymple's light eyes twinkled like polished +flints; here was high game worthy of his gun. He took the empty chair on +Mr. Sellwood's left. + +"I understand, sir, that you are fatally bitten with golf?" began the +squatter in his airiest manner. The other lit a cigarette with insolent +deliberation before replying. + +"I'm fond of the game," he said at length, "if that's what you mean." + +"That was precisely what I did mean. Pardon me if I used an +unparliamentary expression. I have read a great deal in your English +papers--with which I never permit myself to lose touch--of the +far-reaching ravages of the game. Certainly the disease must be +widespread when one finds a Cabinet Minister down with the--golf!" + +"We don't pronounce the _l_," Mr. Sellwood observed. "We call it +_goff_." For though in political life an imperturbable temper was one of +his most salient virtues, the Home Secretary was notoriously touchy on +the subject of his only game. + +Dalrymple laughed outright. + +"A sure symptom, my dear sir, of a thoroughly dangerous case! But pray +excuse my levity; I fear we become a little too addicted to chaff in the +uncivilised wilds. I am honestly most curious about the game. I'm an old +fogey myself, and I might like to take it up if it really has any +merits----" + +"It has many," put in Claude cheerily, to divert an attack which Mr. +Sell wood was quite certain to resent. + +"Has it?" said the squatter incredulously. "For the life of one I can't +see where those merits come in. To lay yourself out to hit a sitting +ball! I'd as soon shoot a roosting hen!" + +"Hear, hear!" cried Jack. "That's exactly what _I_ say, Mr. Dalrymple." + +The discussion had in fact assumed the constituent elements of a +"foursome," which may have been the reason why the Home Secretary was +unable any longer to maintain the silence of dignified disdain. + +"I should like to take you out, the two of you," he said, "with a driver +and a ball between you. I should like to see which of you would hit that +sitting ball first, and how far!" + +"We'll take you on to-morrow!" exclaimed Jack. + +But the Home Secretary made no reply. + +"I'm not keen," remarked Dalrymple. "It can't be a first-class game." + +"You're hardly qualified to judge," snapped Sellwood, "since you've +never played." + +"Exactly why I _am_ qualified. I'm not down with the disease." + +"Then pray let us adopt the Duke's suggestion, and play a foursome +to-morrow--like as we sit. Eh, Mr.--I beg your pardon, but I quite +forget your name?" + +"Dalrymple," replied the squatter; "and yours, once more?" + +"Look in Whitaker," growled the Home Secretary, rising; and he left the +table doubly angered by the weakness of his retort, where indeed it was +weak to have replied at all. + +Decidedly the squatter was no comfortable guest. Apart from his +monstrous freedom of speech and action, which might pass perhaps on a +bush station, but certainly not in an English country house, he was +continually falling foul of somebody. Now it was the butler, now a +fellow guest, and lastly a connection of his host, and one of Her +Majesty's Ministers into the bargain. In each case, to be sure, the +other side was primarily in the wrong. The butler was the worse for +drink; the _Parthenon_ man had indulged in gratuitous abuse of his +friend; even Mr. Sellwood had taken amiss what was meant as pure chaff, +and had been the first to begin the game of downright rudeness at which +the old Australian had soon beaten him. Yet the fact remained that +Dalrymple was the moving spirit in each unpleasantness; he had been a +moving spirit since the moment he set foot in the house, and this was +exactly what the other guests resented. But it was becoming painfully +apparent that Jack himself would take nothing amiss; that he was +constitutionally unable to regard Dalrymple in any other light than that +of his old king, who could still do no wrong. And this being so, it was +impossible for another to complain. + +Indeed, when Mr. Sellwood joined the ladies, who happened to be in the +conservatory, with savage words upon his lips, his wife stuck up for the +maligned Colonist. That, however, was partly from the instinct of +conjugal opposition, and partly because Lady Caroline was herself afraid +of "this fellow Dalrymple," as her husband could call him fluently +enough behind his back. The other men were not long in joining the +indignant Minister. They had finished their cigarettes, but Jack had +donned his gorgeous smoking-cap by special request of Lady Caroline, +who beamed upon him and it from her chair. + +"Hallo! have you come in for that thing?" exclaimed Mr. Sellwood, who +was in the mood to hail with delight any target for hostile criticism. +"I always thought you intended it for Claude, my dear Caroline?" + +"It turned out to be a little too small for Claude," replied her +Ladyship sweetly. + +"Claude, you've had an escape," said the Home Secretary. "Jack, my boy, +you have my sympathy." + +"I don't require it, thank you, sir," laughed the Duke. "I'm proud of +myself, I tell you! This'd knock 'em up at Jumping Sandhills, wouldn't +it, Mr. Dalrymple?" + +"It would indeed: so the cap goes with the coronet, does it?" added the +squatter, but with such good-humour that it was impossible to take open +umbrage at his words. "I wonder how it would fit me?" And he lifted the +thing off Jack's head by the golden tassel, and dropped it upon his own. + +"Too small again," said Jack: indeed the purple monstrosity sat upon the +massive hairless head like a thimble on a billiard-ball. + +"And it doesn't suit you a bit," added Olivia, who was once more in a +simmer of indignation with her lover's exasperating friend. + +"No more would the coronet," replied Dalrymple, replacing the +smoking-cap on its owner's head. "By the way, Jack, where do you keep +your coronet?" + +"Where do I keep my coronet?" asked the Duke of his major-domo. "I've +never set eyes on it." + +"I fancy they have it at the bank," said Claude. + +"And much good it does you there!" exclaimed Dalrymple. "Shall I tell +you what I'd do with it if it were mine?" + +"Yes, do," said Jack, smiling in advance. + +"Then come outside and you shall hear. I am afraid I have shocked your +friends sufficiently for one night. And there's a very fascinating +moon." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE CAT AND THE MOUSE + + +"You're a lucky fellow," said the squatter as they sauntered down the +drive. "Give me another of those cigars; they are better than mine, +after all." + +"They ought to be," replied Jack complacently. "I told old Claude to pay +all he could for 'em." + +"He seems to have done so. What an income you must have!" + +"About fifteen bob a minute, so they tell me." + +"After a pound a week in the bush!" + +"It does sound rummy, doesn't it? After you with the match, sir." + +"It's incredible." + +"Yet it's astonishing how used you get to it in time--you'd be +surprised! At first the whole thing knocked me sideways; it was tucker I +couldn't digest. But once you take to the soft tack, there's nothing +like it in the world. You may guess who's made me take to it quicker +than I might have done!" + +Dalrymple shrugged his massive shoulders, and raised a contemplative eye +to the moon, that lay curled like a silver shaving in the lucid heavens. + +"Oh, yes, I can guess," he said sardonically. "And mind you I've nothing +against the girl--I meant you were lucky there. The girl's all right--if +you must marry. I don't dislike a woman who'll show fight; and she +looked like showing it when I tried on that cracker-night-cap thing of +yours. Oh, certainly! If you were to marry, you couldn't have done +better; the girl's worth fifty of her mother, at any rate." + +"Fifty million!" cried Jack, somewhat warmly. + +"Fifty million I meant to say," and the squatter ran his arm through +that of his host. "Come, don't you mind _me_, Jack, my boy! You know +what an old heathen I am in those little matters; and we have lots of +other things to talk about, in any case." + +Jack was mollified in a moment. + +"Lots!" he cried. "I don't seem to have seen anything of you yet, and +I'm sure you haven't seen much of the place. Isn't it a place and a +half? Look at the terrace in the moonlight--and the spires--and the +windows--hundreds of 'em--and the lawn and the tank! Then there's the +inside; you've seen the hall; but I must show you the picture-gallery +and the State Apartments. Such pictures! They say it's one of the finest +private collections in the world; there's hardly one of them that isn't +by some old master or another. I've heard the pictures alone are worth +half a million of money!" + +"They are," said Dalrymple. + +"You've heard so too?" + +"Of course; my good fellow, your possessions are celebrated all the +world over; that's what you don't appear to have realised yet." + +"I can't," said Jack. "It puts me in a sick funk when I try! So it would +you if you were suddenly to come in for a windfall like mine--that is, +if you were a chap like me. But you aren't; you'd be the very man for +the billet." + +And Jack stepped back to admire his hero, who chuckled softly as he +smoked, standing at his full height, with both hands in his pockets, and +the moon like limelight on his shirt. + +"It's not a billet I should care about," said the squatter; "but it's +great fun to find you filling it so admirably----" + +"I don't; I wish I did," said Jack, throwing away the cigar which he had +lighted to keep his guest company. + +"You do, though. And if it isn't a rude question----" Dalrymple +hesitated, staring hard-- + +"I daresay you're very happy in your new life?" + +"Of course I'm very happy _now_. None happier!" + +"But apart from the girl?" + +"You can't get apart from her; that's just it. If I'm to go on being +happy in my position, I'll have to learn to fill it without making +myself a laughing-stock; and the one person who can teach me will be my +wife." + +"I see. Then you begin to like your position for its own sake?" + +"That's so," replied Jack. He was paring a cake of very black tobacco +for the pipe which he had stuck between his teeth. Dalrymple watched him +with interest. + +"And yet," said the squatter, "you have neither acquired a taste for +your own most excellent cigars, nor conquered your addiction to the vile +twist we used to keep on the station!" + +"Well, and that's so, too," laughed Jack. "You must give a fellow time, +Mr. Dalrymple!" + +"Do you know what I thought when I met you yesterday?" continued +Dalrymple, turning his back to the moon, and looking very hard at Jack +while he sucked at his cigar with his thick, strong lips. "Do you know +how you struck me then? I thought you'd neither acquired a taste for +your new life nor conquered your affection for the old. That's how you +struck me in Devenholme yesterday." + +Jack made no haste to reply. He was not at all astonished at the +impression he had created the day before. But his old boss was still the +one man before whom he was anxious to display a modicum of dignity, even +at the expense of a pose. And it is noteworthy that he had neither +confided in Dalrymple concerning his dilemma of the previous day, nor +yet so much as mentioned in his hearing the model hut among the pines. + +"I don't wonder," he said at length; "it was the way I was likely to +strike you just then. Don't you see? I hadn't got it out at the time!" + +"So it was only the girl that was on your nerves?" said Dalrymple in +disgust. + +"And wasn't that enough? If I'm a different man to-day, you know the +reason why. As for being happy in my position, and all that, I'm simply +in paradise at this moment. Think of it! Think of me as I was, and look +at me as I am; think of my little hut on Carara, and look behind you at +Maske Towers!" + +They were on the terrace now, leaning idly against the balustrade. +Dalrymple turned and looked: like Melrose Abbey, the grand grey building +was at its best in the "pale moonlight"; the lichened embrasures met the +soft sky softly; the piercing spires were sheathed in darkness; and the +mountainous pile wore one uniform tint, from which the lighted windows +stood out like pictures on a wall. Dalrymple looked, and looked again; +then his hard eyes fell upon the rude ecstasy of the face beside him; +and they were less hard than before. + +"You may make yourself easy," said the squatter. "I shan't stay long." + +"What the blazes do you mean?" cried Jack. "I want you to stay as long +as ever you can." + +"You may; your friends do not." + +"Hang my friends!" + +"I should enjoy nothing better; but it isn't practicable. Besides, +they're a good deal more than your friends now; they are--her people. +And they don't like the man who was once your boss; he offends their +pride----" + +"Mr. Dalrymple----" + +"Enough said, my boy. I know my room, and I'm going to turn in. We'll +talk it over again in the morning; but my mind is made up. Good-night!" + +"I'll come in with you." + +"As you like." + +They parted at the visitor's door. + +"You'll disappoint me cruel if you _do_ go," said Jack, shaking hands. +"I'm quite sure you're mistaken about my friends; Olivia, for one, +thinks no end of you. However, as you say, we can talk it over in the +morning--when you've got to see the pictures as well, and don't you +forget it! So long, sir, till then." + +"So long, Jack. I'll be your man in the morning, at all events. And I +shall look forward to a great treat in your famous picture-gallery." + +But Jack was engaged; and he realised it in the morning as he had not +done before. Olivia lured him from the squatter's side; she had every +intention of so doing. The pair went for a little stroll. Neither wore a +watch; the little stroll lengthened into miles; it carried them beyond +the sound of the stable clock; they forgot the world, and were absurdly +late for lunch. Lady Caroline Sellwood had taken it upon herself to +conduct the meal without them. Dalrymple was in his place; his +expression was grimly cynical; he had seen the pictures, under Claude +Lafont's skilled escort, and, with the ladies' permission, he would now +leave the table, as he had still to put in his things. + +His things! Was he going, then? Jack's knife and fork fell with a +clatter. + +"I thought you knew," said Claude. "He is going up to town by the +afternoon train. I have ordered the landau, as I thought you would like +him to go as he came." + +When Jack heard this he, too, left the table, and bounded upstairs. He +found Dalrymple on the point of packing his dress-clothes, with the +assistance of none other than Stebbings. Jack glared at the disrated +butler, and ordered him out of the room. + +"I wouldn't have done that," remarked the squatter, pausing in his work. +"The fellow came to know if he could do anything for me, with tears in +his eyes, and he has made me a handsome apology. He didn't ask me to beg +him off, but I mean to try my luck in that way before I go." + +"You mustn't go!" + +"I must. Will you forgive the old man?" + +"Not if you clear." + +"My good fellow, this is unreasonable----" + +"So it is, Mr. Dalrymple, on _your_ part," rejoined Jack warmly. "It's +too bad of you. Bother Stebbings! I shan't be hard on him, you may be +sure; and you mustn't be hard on me. Surely you can make allowances for +a chap who's engaged to a girl like mine? I _did_ want to speak to you +this morning; but she came first. I want to speak to you now--more than +you suppose. Mr. Dalrymple, I wasn't straight with you last night; not +altogether. But I can't suffer steering crooked; it gives me the hump; +and as sure as I do it I've got to go over the ground again. You are the +man I owe my all to; I can't end up crooked with _you_!" + +Dalrymple sat on the bedside in his shirt-sleeves; he had turned up the +cuffs; his strong and shapely wrists lay along his thighs; and his grey +eyebrows, but not his lips, asked for more. + +"I mean," continued Jack, "about what was bothering me that day I ran +against you in Devenholme. It was only the day before yesterday, but +Lord! it seems like the week before last." + +And with that he unfolded, with much rapid detail, the whole episode of +Matthew Hunt, from the morning in the stable-yard to the midnight at the +hut. The story within that story was also told with particular care and +circumstance; but long before the end was reached Dalrymple had emptied +his bag upon the bed, and had himself rung to countermand the carriage. +He was interested; he would stay another day. + +Downstairs in the drawing-room the Sellwood family and Claude Lafont +were even then congratulating themselves upon the imminent departure of +the unpopular guest. Their faces were so many sights when Jack entered +in the highest spirits to tell them of his successful appeal to the +better feelings of "good old Dalrymple," who after all was not going to +leave them just yet. Jack was out again in an instant; and they next saw +him, from the drawing-room windows, going in the direction of the hut +with his odious old friend at his side. Whereupon Claude Lafont said a +strong thing, for him; and the most sensible of engaged young women +retired in tears to her room. + +"There's one thing you must let me do," Dalrymple was saying; "if you +don't, I shall insist. You must let me have the privilege of sorting +that scoundrel, Mark Hunt." + +"Matthew," said Jack. + +"Matthew, then. I knew it was one of you evangelists." + +"What would you do?" asked the Duke. + +"See that he annoyed you no more. And I'll guarantee that he doesn't if +you'll leave him to me." + +"I didn't want to clear them out----" + +"I think you must." + +"Or to prosecute; it's so public, and a bit revengeful too." + +"There I agree with you. I'm not even sure that you'd get a conviction. +It would be difficult, in any case, and would make a public scandal of +it, as you say." + +"Then I will leave him to you. You're the smartest man I know, Mr. +Dalrymple, and always have been. What you do will be right. I'll bother +my head no more about it. Besides, anything to keep you with us a few +days longer!" + +Dalrymple shrugged his shoulders, but Jack did not see the gesture, for +he was leading the way through the pines. A moment later they were at +the hut. + +The hut amused the squatter. He called it a colourable imitation. But it +did not delight him as it had delighted Jack; the master bushman failed +to share his old hand's sentimental regard for all that pertained to the +bush. Dalrymple sat on the bunk and smoked a cigar, a cynical spectator +of some simple passages between Jack and his cats. Livingstone was +exhibited with great pride; he had put on flesh in the old country; at +which the squatter remarked that had he stayed on Carara, he would have +put on an ounce of lead. + +"You're a wonderful man, Jack!" he exclaimed at length. "I wouldn't have +believed a fellow _could_ take a windfall as you have done, if I hadn't +seen it with my own eyes. I used to think of you a good deal after you +had gone. I thought of you playing the deuce to any extent, but I must +say I little dreamt of your building a bush hut to get back to your old +way of life! I pictured the town crimson and the country carmine--both +painted by you--but I never imagined _this_!" + +And he looked round the hut in his amused, sardonic way; but there was a +ring--or perhaps it was only a suspicion--of disappointment in his tone. +The next words were merely perplexed. + +"And yet," added Dalrymple, "you profess yourself well pleased with your +lot!" + +"So I am--now." + +"I begin to wish I hadn't changed my mind about going this afternoon." + +"Why, on earth?" + +"Because I also begin--to envy you! Come, let's make tracks for the +house; I shall have huts enough to look at when I go back to the place +that you need never see again." + +"But I mean to see it again," said Jack as he locked up. "I intend to +take my wife out, one of these days; we shall expect to come on a long +visit to Carara; and the greatest treat you could give me would be to +let me ride my old boundaries and camp in my old hut for a week!" + +"Nonsense; you stay where you are," was the squatter's only comment. He +seemed depressed; his cynical aplomb had quite deserted him. They +returned in silence to the house. + +A shabby-looking vehicle stood in front of the porch; the man said that +he had brought a gentleman from Devenholme, and was to wait. The Duke +and Dalrymple mounted the steps together. The first person they +encountered in the hall was Claude Lafont, looking strangely scared; but +a new-comer was in the act of taking off his coat; and, as he turned his +face, Dalrymple and Jack started simultaneously. Both knew the man. It +was Cripps the lawyer. And he, too, looked pale, nervous, and alarmed. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +"LOVE THE DEBT" + + +Olivia was not a little tired; this was the true explanation of the +tears which had driven her upstairs. It was also the one excuse she saw +for herself when she thought the matter over in her own room. Jack had +devoted the whole morning to her; it was the squatter's turn; and, of +course, Jack must invite whom he liked to stay as long as he pleased. To +think of limiting his freedom in any such matter at the very outset of +their engagement! Yet she had been guilty of that thought; but she was +tired; she would lie down for an hour. + +She lay down for two or three. Excitement had worn her out. It was after +five when she awoke and went downstairs. As she did so Claude and Cripps +crossed the hall and put on their hats. She hailed Claude. + +"What have you done with Jack?" + +"I think you'll find him in the little study at the end of the +library." + +"Thanks." + +Olivia glanced at Cripps. She had never met him. She wondered who he +was, and why Claude did not introduce him to her, and what made both of +them so glum. They hurried out of the house as though they were afraid +of her. What could it mean? She would find out from Jack; she felt a +renewed right to him now, and thought of hints, as she went, for Mr. +Dalrymple, if they were still together. But Jack was alone; he was +sitting in the dejected attitude engendered by a peculiarly long and low +arm-chair. + +"Well?" said Olivia briskly. + +"Well?" responded Jack; but he looked at her without rising and without +a smile; and both omissions were unlike the lover and the man. + +"I half expected to find Mr. Dalrymple with you. I'm so glad he isn't! +I--it's my turn, I think!" + +"I haven't seen Dalrymple for over an hour," said Jack, with his heavy, +absent eyes upon her all the time. "I wonder where he is?" + +Olivia would not ask him what the matter was; she preferred to find out +for herself, and then tell _him_. She looked about her. On a salver were +a decanter and three wine-glasses; one was unused; and on the floor +there lay an end of pink tape. She picked and held it up between finger +and thumb. + +"Lawyers!" she cried. + +"Yes, I've had a solicitor here." + +"Not to make your will!" + +"No. On a--on a local matter. Don't look at me like that! It's nothing +much: nothing new, at all events." + +"But you are worried." + +She knelt beside his chair, and rested her elbows on the arm, studying +his pale set profile. His eyes met hers no longer. + +"I am," he admitted; "but that's my own fault. As I say--it's nothing +new!" + +"Who was the lawyer?" + +"You wouldn't know him." + +"I mean to know who he was. Mr. Cripps?" + +Jack did not answer. He rolled his head from side to side against the +back of the chair. His eyes remained fast upon the opposite wall. + +"It is--the old trouble," Olivia whispered. "The trouble of two nights +ago!" + +His silence told her much. The drops upon his forehead added more. Yet +her voice was calm and undismayed; it enabled him at last to use his +own. + +"Yes!" he said hoarsely. "Claude made a mistake. It was true after +all!" + +"Hunt's story, darling?" + +"Hunt's story. There _was_ an English marriage as well as an Australian +one. He had a wife at each side of the world! Claude made a mistake. He +went to the wrong church at Chelsea--to a church by the river. He had +always thought it was the parish church. It is not. St. Luke's is the +parish church, and there in the book they have the marriage down in +black and white. Cripps found it; but he first found it somewhere else, +where he says they have the records of every marriage in the country +since 1850. He would have looked there the day Claude was up, but he +left it too late. He looked yesterday, and found it, sure enough, on the +date Hunt gave. October 22d, 1853. And he has been to Chelsea and seen +it there. So there's no mistake about it this time; and you see how we +stand." + +"I see. My poor boy!" + +"It's Claude after all. Poor chap, he's awfully cut up. He blames +himself so for the mistake between the two churches; but Cripps tells me +it was the most natural mistake in the world. Chelsea Old Church--that +was where Claude went. And he says he'll never forgive himself." + +"But I forgive him," said Olivia, with the first sign of emotion in her +voice. She was holding one of his hands; her other was in his hair. +Still he stared straight in front of him. + +"Of course you forgive him," he said gently. "When you come to think of +it, there's nothing to forgive. Claude didn't make the facts. He only +failed to discover them." + +"I am glad he _did_ fail," whispered Olivia. + +"Glad? You can't be glad! Why do you say that?" + +And now he turned his face to her, in his astonishment; and suddenly it +was she who could not meet his gaze. + +"How can you be glad?" he continued to demand. + +"Because--otherwise--you would never--have--spoken----" + +"Spoken? Of course I shouldn't! It's a thousand pities I did. It makes +it all the harder--now!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"Surely you see?" + +They had risen with a common instinct. The ice was broken; there were no +more shamefaced glances. The girl stood proudly at her full height. + +"I see nothing. You say our engagement makes this all the harder for +you; it _should_ be just the opposite." + +"Will nothing make you see?" cried Jack. "Oh, how am I to say it? It--it +can't go on--our engagement!" + +"And why not?" + +"I am nothing--nobody--a nameless----" + +"What does it matter?" interrupted Olivia passionately. "Do you really +think it was the name I wanted after all? You pay me a high compliment! +I know exactly what you mean--know exactly what this means to you. To me +it makes no difference at all. You are the man you have always been; you +are the man--I--love." + +His eyes glistened. + +"God bless you for saying so! You are the one to love a man the better +when he's down on his luck. I know that. Yet we must never----" + +"Never what?" + +"Marry." + +"Not--marry?" She stared at him in sheer amazement. "Not when we +promised--only yesterday? You may break your word if you like. Mine I +would never break!" + +"Then I must. It is not to be thought of any more. Surely you see? It's +not that I have lost the money and the title; oh! you must see what it +is!" + +"Of course I see. But I don't allow the objection." + +"Your people would never hear of it now; and quite right too." + +"My people! I am of age. I have a little money of my own, enough for us +both. I can do exactly what I like. Besides, I'm not so sure about my +people; you don't know my father as I know him." + +"He is a man of the world. He would not hear of it." + +"Then I must act for myself." + +"You must not!" + +"I must. Do you think I am only a fair-weather girl? I gave you my +promise when all was different. I would rather die than break it now." + +"But I release you! I set you free! Everything has altered. Oh, can't +you put yourself in my place? I should deserve shooting if I married you +now. I release you because I must." + +"And I refuse to be released." + +They regarded one another with hopeless faces. Their eyes were dim with +love--yet here they stood apart. This was the dead-lock. Nothing could +come of this contest of honour against honour, of one unselfish love +against another. It was like striking flint upon flint, and steel upon +steel. A gong sounded in the distance; it was the signal to dress for +dinner. Olivia beat the floor impatiently with one foot; her lips +trembled; her eyes filled with tears. + +"If you cared for me," she cried passionately, "half as much as you said +you did, you wouldn't be so ready to lose me now!" + +"If I cared less," he answered, "I would take you at your word--God +knows how you tempt me to!--and you should be my wife in spite of all. I +would mind less how I dragged you down--what became of us in the end. +But I love you too well to spoil your life. Don't you know that, +Olivia?" + +"Ah, yes! I know it! I know--I know----" + +He took her in his arms at last. He was shaking all over. Her head lay +back upon his shoulder. He smoothed the hair from the high, white +forehead; he looked tenderly and long into the wild wet eyes. His arm +tightened about her; he could not help it. + +"Sweetheart," he faltered, "you must help me to be strong. It is hard +enough as it is. Only help me, or it will be far harder. Help me now--at +dinner. I am going to take the head of the table for the last time. Help +me by being bright! We can talk afterwards. There is time enough. Only +help me now!" + +"I will do my best," whispered Olivia, disengaging herself from his +trembling arms. "I will try to be as brave as you. Oh, there is no one +in the world like you! Yes, do let us talk about it afterwards; there is +so much to say and to decide. But I give you fair warning: I shall +never--never--never let you go. Darling, you will need me now! And I +cannot give you up--much less after this. Shall I tell you why? You have +gone the wrong way to work; you have made me love you more than ever--my +hero--my darling--my all!" + +She stood a moment at the open door, kissing her hand to him--a rosy +flush upon her face--the great tears standing in her eyes. Then she was +gone. He watched her down the length of the library; the stained windows +dappled her, as she passed, with rubies and sapphires, huge and watery; +at the farther door she turned, and kissed her hand again--and fled. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BAR SINISTER + + +It was a close night; the men were smoking their cigarettes on the +terrace. Cripps was one of them; he was staying the night; he wished +himself a hundred miles away. But Francis Freke took him in hand; they +disappeared together, and a minute later the billiard-room windows burnt +out of the night. + +Mr. Sellwood was left a little in the cold. Claude and Jack were pacing +the terrace with linked arms and lowered voices, and he wished to speak +to Jack. Mr. Sellwood knew all. He was deeply sorry for Jack, for whom +he had done his best at dinner by talking incessantly from grace to +grace. The Home Secretary could be immensely entertaining when he chose. +He had chosen to-night, as much for his daughter's sake as for Jack's. +Olivia was his favourite child. + +But then Dalrymple had not been there to heckle and insult his superior; +he was gone nobody knew where. Not that he was gone for good, the luck +stopped short of that. It appeared, however, that he had been excluded +by a majority of two to one from the triangular council in the Poet's +Corner. Since then he had not been seen; but his bag was still in his +room, and it was only another of his liberties to absent himself from +dinner without a word. + +Olivia was playing the piano in the drawing-room. The windows were wide +open, and Mr. Sellwood listened with his white head bent in sorrowful +perplexity. The execution was faulty, as usual, because Olivia was an +idle musician; but there was feeling in her fingers, she had a certain +"touch," and her attempts were better to listen to than some +performances. To-night they went to her father's heart. The imperfect +music spoke to him with the eloquence of broken words. It told him of +his child's necessity for action in the stress of her anguish. It told +him also of her love; and here was this poor fellow so taken up with +Claude that it was impossible to say to him what must be said as soon as +possible. + +Mr. Sellwood gave it up for the present, and went to look for his wife. + +"There's only one more thing, old man," Jack was saying, "and then I'm +done. I don't want to load you up to the eyes with messages and all +that. But I should like you to take care of this little bit of a key, +and give it to her as soon as ever you think fit. It belongs to that +chain bracelet business I got her for her birthday. As you know, I first +wanted to give her a ring, but she wouldn't have it; and when I changed +it for the bracelet, which cost about half as many shillings as the ring +did pounds, I couldn't look poor Hopgood in the face. It was such a sell +for him. So we were going back to-morrow to get that ring for our +engagement, and to look old Hopgood in the face. That was one of our +plans; we made so many when we were out this morning! I never knew a +morning go at such a lick. But I remember it all--I remember everything. +I've started going over every word we've said, so that I shan't forget +anything. There's not such a vast lot to keep in your head. Only a day +and a half of an engagement; but I've got to live on those thirty odd +hours for the rest of my time." + +Claude looked away; the drawing-room windows were a blur to his eyes; +and Olivia's erratic rendering of Chopin filled in the pause. It was the +incoherent expression of unutterable emotion. Jack listened also, +nodding time with his head. The calmness and the nobility of despair +had settled on his spirit, as on that of a captain going down with his +ship. + +He talked on, and his tone was entirely his own. It was neither bitter, +querulous, nor wilfully pathetic; but chiefly contemplative, with a +reminiscence here and the discovery of some consolation there. He +recalled the humours of the situation, and laughed outright but +staccato, as at remembered sayings of the newly dead. Beyond the loss of +Olivia he had little to regret; even that would make another man of him +for ever and a day. (So he talked.) And his English summer would be +something to look back on always; it was pleasure to the good, which +nothing could undo or take away; the experience of a second lifetime had +been crammed into those few weeks. Let him remember that when he got +back to the bush. Suppose he had never left the bush? Then he would +never have seen the old country, and seen it (as he said) from the front +seats; he would never have found his own soul, nor known the love of a +lovely girl, nor the joy of life as he knew it now. So he was really to +be congratulated to the end; there was no occasion to pity him at all. + +Claude, however, was not comforted; he had never been so wretched in +his life. And he showed it so plainly, and was withal so conscious of +the display, that he felt quite sure that Jack's ingenious consolations +were not meant entirely for Jack. He was ashamed of himself on this, as +on every other score. He was to blame for the whole business, since it +was he who had scoured Australia for the Red Marquis's son. Nor could he +believe the other's protestations of personal solace and resignation; +they had been made with wistful glances at the lighted windows, glances +that Claude had seen as they both leant back against the balustrade. + +"Aha!" said Jack suddenly. "Here are Mr. Sellwood and Lady Caroline +coming to have it out with me. Better leave me to them, old man." + +"All right," said Claude, "but we have lots more to talk about. Where +can I find you, and when?" + +Jack hesitated; the Sellwoods were within earshot as he whispered, +"Twelve o'clock at the hut!" And Claude walked away, with his hand +aching from a sudden and most crushing grip. + +"My wife and I would like to speak to you," said the Home Secretary, +halting in front of Jack with Lady Caroline on his arm. "My dear +fellow, we are so very sorry for you: we know everything." + +"Everything!" echoed Lady Caroline, with slow dramatic force. + +"Thanks to Jack," put in her husband sharply; "it was he who gave +instructions that we should be told at once. It was so very good of you, +Jack, my boy, to think of us in your trouble. You have behaved +splendidly all through; that's what makes us all feel this so keenly; +and I am quite sure that you will behave nobly now. My dear fellow, it +isn't the fact of your not being the Duke of St. Osmund's that forces me +to take this tone; it's the unfortunate circumstances of your birth, +which have now been proved, I am afraid, beyond the possibility of that +doubt which nobody would welcome more thankfully than myself. We are all +very fond of you. I for one have learned to admire you too. But this +most miserable discovery must alter everything except our feeling +towards you. We are bound to consider our daughter." + +"Our youngest child," said Lady Caroline. "Our ewe lamb!" + +"Of course," replied Jack. "I see what you mean. What do you want me to +do?" + +"It may seem very hard," said Mr. Sellwood, "but we wish you to release +Olivia from her engagement." + +"To release her instantly!" cried Lady Caroline. + +"I have done that already," said Jack with some disdain. "Did you really +think, sir, that I should wait to be told?" + +Mr. Sellwood muttered an oath as he held out his hand. + +"I have made a mistake; I hope you will forgive me," he said; and his +hand was crushed in its turn. + +"And what did she say?" asked Lady Caroline. + +"She refused to be released." + +"I knew it! George, the girl is mad. And pray what do you propose to do +now?" + +"What do you think I ought to do?" + +"Ought?" cried Lady Caroline. "I think you ought to go away and never +see her again!" + +"Or, rather, let us take her away," said Mr. Sellwood. "It may seem hard +and abominable, but there's no doubt that from our point of view a +separation is the most desirable course." + +"It _is_ hard," replied Jack; "but, as it happens, it's the very plan I +hit on for myself. Not a word, sir, if you please. You're perfectly +right. She could not marry me now; and I would not marry her, knowing +what I am. It's out of the question altogether. But Olivia is quite on +to do it--at least she thought she was before dinner. I haven't seen her +since. I'm not going to see her again. She's just the sort of angel who +would swap heaven for hell to stand by the man she was fond of! But she +mustn't be let. I agree with you there. It was the first thing I thought +of myself. I made up my mind to clear out; and, if you want to know, I'm +off now." + +"Now!" cried Mr. Sellwood. + +Lady Caroline said nothing. + +"Yes, now; there's no more to be said; and the sooner I get it over the +better for all concerned." + +"But, my dear fellow, where are you going, and what do you intend to do? +Have you made any plans? I wouldn't do anything in a hurry if I were +you; we're a family party here; and all our wits put together would +surely be better than yours! We might fix up something between us." + +Jack shook his head. + +"You're very kind," he said; "but it's all fixed up. I'm going straight +back to the bush. This is Thursday; I can't catch to-morrow's steamer, +but I can do better. I can take the overland express to-morrow night, +and join last week's boat at Brindisi. I'm going to sleep the +night--never mind where. I don't want old Claude on my tracks; I've said +good-bye to him too, though he doesn't know it either. He wants to do +too much for me altogether. If you stay up with him till twelve, he'll +tell you he's got to look me up at the hut; and you may tell him, sir, +if you'll be so good, to sit tight, for he won't find me _there_. Say +good-bye to him for me, and tell him he's been the best mate I've ever +struck; but don't let him come up and see me off. Cripps I'm to meet in +town. I'm going to let them finance me out again, since they fetched me +home in the beginning; but not another red cent will I touch. Why should +I? I've had a good run for my money--that is, for theirs. I'm no worse +off than I was before. I should even be sure of the same old billet on +Carara that used to suit me well enough, if I only could see Mr. +Dalrymple before I start; but I'm bothered if I know where he's got to." + +Mr. Sellwood was heavy with thought; his wife had left them; and he had +heard a sob in her throat as she turned away. He had an inkling of her +treatment of this poor fellow; he did not know everything, but he knew +enough to hail his wife's sob with a thankful thrill. So there was a +heart in her somewhere still! He had thought otherwise for some years; +in another moment he doubted it once more. Lady Caroline appeared at the +drawing-room window, shut it, and drew down the blind. And yet--and yet +her husband had himself been wishing for somebody to do that very thing! + +Olivia was still at the piano, and her performance had sounded a little +too near at hand until now. It was near enough still; but the shutting +of the window deadened the sound. Chopin had merged into Mendelssohn. +Olivia happened to be note-perfect in one or two of the Lieder. Her +father had never heard her play them so well. But Jack had no music in +his soul--could not whistle two bars in tune--and though, even while +speaking, he listened visibly, it was not to the music as music, but to +the last sound of Olivia he was ever to hear. Her footstep in the +distance would have done as well. + +"I wouldn't go to-night, old fellow," the Home Secretary said at length. +"I see no point in it. To-morrow would be time enough." + +"Ah, you must think I find it easy work!" exclaimed Jack, a little +bitterly for once. "It's not so easy as all that: it's got to be done at +once, when you're screwed up to it, or it may never come off at all. +Don't you try to keep me; don't let anybody else try either! Let me go +while I'm on to go--alone. I might take it different to-morrow!" + +He spoke hoarsely; the voice was as significant as the words. Mr. +Sellwood was impressed by both; he followed the other to the nearest +flight of steps leading down to the lawn. + +"Let me come with you," he urged. "Surely there is something one can do! +And I've never seen the hut; I should like to." + +"Wait till I've gone," was the reply. "I want you to stand in my tracks +and block anybody from following me. Head them another way! Only give me +quarter of an hour to clear out of the hut, and another quarter's start, +and I'm--and I'm----" + +He lost himself in a sudden absence of mind. The music had stopped, and +the night seemed insolently still. Jack was half-way down the steps; the +Home Secretary leaned over the balustrade above. Jack reached up his +hand. + +"Good-bye," he said. + +Mr. Sellwood, hesitating, kept his hand. The window that had been shut +was thrown up again. + +"Papa, is that you?" + +"Yes, my dear." + +Mr. Sellwood had turned round. + +"And where is Jack?" + +"Not here," whispered Jack. + +"Not here," repeated Mr. Sellwood; and, looking behind him, he found +that he had spoken the truth. + +"Then I'm coming down to you, and you must help me----" + +Jack lost the rest as he ran. He thought he heard his own name again, +but he was not sure. He stopped under the nearest tree. Mercifully there +was no moon. Olivia could not have seen him, for he himself could see no +more of the Towers than the lighted windows and their reflections upon +the terrace. On that dim stage the silhouette of Mr. Sellwood was still +discernible: another joined it: the two figures became one: and in the +utter stillness not only the girl's sobs but her father's broken words +were audible under the tree. + +Jack fled. + +He ran hard to the hut, and lighted it up as it had never been lighted +before. He cut up a candle in half-inch sections, and stuck them all +over with their own grease. Thoroughness was an object as well as +despatch; nothing must be missed; but his first act was to change his +clothes. He put on the ready-made suit and the wideawake in which he had +landed; he had kept them in the hut. Then he pulled from under the bunk +the cage his cats had travelled in, and he bundled the cats into it once +more. Lastly he rolled up his swag, less neatly, perhaps, than of old, +but with the blue blanket outermost as before, and the little straps +reefed round it and buckled tight. He would want these things in the +bush; besides, the whim was upon him to go exactly as he had come. Only +one item of his original impedimenta he decided to leave behind: the old +bush saddle would be a needless encumbrance; but with his swag, and his +cats, and his wideawake, he set forth duly, after blowing out all the +candle ends. + +The night seemed darker than ever; neither moon nor star was to be seen, +and Jack had to stop and consider when he got outside. He desired to +strike a straight line to the gates; he knew how they lay from the hut, +though he had never been over the ground before. To a bushman, however, +even without a star to help him, such a task could present no +difficulties. He computed the distance at something less than a mile; +but in Australia he had gone as the crow flies through league upon +league of untrodden scrub. Out there he had enjoyed the reputation of +being "a good bushman," and he meant to enjoy it again. + +But his head was hot with other thoughts, and he was out of practice. +Instead of hitting the wall, and following it up to the gates, as he +intended, he erred the other way, and came out upon the drive at no +great distance from the house. This was a false start, indeed, and a +humiliation also; but his thoughts had strayed back to Olivia, and it +was as if his feet had followed their lead. He would think of her no +more to-night. + +The drive was undesirable, for obvious reasons; still it was the safest +policy to keep to it now, and the chances were that he would meet +nobody. Yet he did; a footstep first, and then the striking of a match, +came to his ears as he was nearing the gates. He crept under the trees. +The match was struck again, and yet again, before it lit. Then Jack came +out of hiding, and strode forward without further qualms, for the flame +was lighting the cigar and illumining the face of his friend Dalrymple. + +"Hallo, sir!" began Jack, "I'd given you up." + +"Why, Jack, is that you? I can't see an inch front of my cigar," said +the squatter, as the match burnt itself out on the gravel where it had +been thrown. + +"Yes, it's me; where have you been?" + +"Where are you going?" + +"Mine first," said Jack. + +"All right. I've been talking to Master Hunt. _Now_ where are you +going?" + +"Back to Australia!" + +Jack waited for an exclamation; for some seconds there was none; then +the squatter laughed softly to himself. + +"I thought as much!" said he. "I knew exactly what the lawyer came to +say, for I saw it in his face. Now tell me, and we'll see if I'm right." + +And it appeared that he was, by the way in which he kept nodding his +head as Jack told him all. Meanwhile they had retired under the trees, +and by the red end of his cigar the squatter had seen Jack's wideawake; +using his cigar as a lantern he had examined the cage of cats; whereon +his face would have proved a sufficiently severe commentary had there +been any other light for Jack to see it by. + +"Now," said Dalrymple, "stand tight. _I've_ got something to tell _you_, +my boy!" And he told it in the fewest whispered words. + +Jack was speechless. + +"Nonsense! I don't believe it," he cried when he found his tongue. + +"But I'm in a position to prove it," replied the squatter. "I'll give +you a particular or two as we walk back to the house. What! you +hesitate? Come, come; surely my word is good enough for that! Do be +sensible; leave your infernal cats where they are, and come you along +with me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DE MORTUIS + + +The Home Secretary had never spent a more uncomfortable hour. His +favourite daughter had stanched her tears, and gone straight to the root +of the very delicate matter at issue between them. Much as her tears had +depressed him, however, Mr. Sellwood preferred them to the subsequent +attitude. It was too independent for his old-fashioned notions, and yet +it made him think all the more of Olivia. Indeed she was her father's +child in argument--spirited and keen and fair. His point of view she +took for granted, and proceeded to expound her own. Much that she said +was unanswerable; a little made him fidget--for between the sexes there +is no such shyness as that which a father finds in his heart towards his +grown-up girls. But a certain bluntness of speech was not the least +refreshing trait in Olivia's downright character, and decidedly this was +not a matter to be glossed over with synonyms for a spade. She wanted +to know how the circumstances of the birth affected the value of the +man--and so forth. Mr. Sellwood replied as a man of the world, and +detested his replies. But the worst was his guilty knowledge of Jack's +flight. This made him detest himself; it made him lie; and it filled him +with a relief greater than his surprise when voices came out of the +darkness of the drive, and one of them was Jack's. + +Olivia ran forward. + +"At last! Oh, Jack, where _have_ you been?" + +Mr. Sellwood never heard the answer; he was bristling at the touch of +Dalrymple, who had led him aside. + +"Entirely my doing," explained the squatter; "but I can justify it. I +mean to do so at once. Am I right in understanding the bar sinister to +be your only objection to our friend?" + +"You may put it so," said Mr. Sellwood shortly. + +"Then I shall have the pleasure of removing the objection: the bar +doesn't exist." + +"Your grounds for thinking so, Mr. Dalrymple?" + +"I don't think. I know. And I'm here to prove what I know. Good heavens, +do you suppose he was no more to me than one of my ordinary station +hands? He was the son--at all events, the stepson--of one of my oldest +friends." + +"The stepson! May I ask the name of your friend?" + +"It is unnecessary. You have guessed it. I have a good deal to explain. +Where can we go? I should like Lafont and Cripps to hear what I've got +to say. Cripps especially--he will be able to check half my facts." + +"I think we ought all to hear them," remarked Sellwood; "we are all +interested and concerned." + +"You mean the ladies? I would rather not; you can tell them afterwards; +and as to the young lady, you may make your mind easy about her. If that +was the only obstacle, I undertake to remove it. You can afford to trust +her out of your sight." + +"I shall mind my own business," snapped the Home Secretary; +nevertheless, he led the way indoors with no more than a glance towards +Olivia and her lover, who were still within hail; and five minutes +later, as many gentlemen were empanelled in the billiard-room. Claude +and Cripps and Mr. Sellwood occupied the couches at one end; Francis +Freke palpitated in a corner; and Dalrymple leant against the table, his +legs crossed, his arms folded, a quiet smile upon his face. He was +waiting for a clock over the chimney-piece to finish striking; the hour +was eleven. + +"Well, gentlemen," he began, "I shall not detain you many minutes. I +have certain statements to make, and any proofs that you may want I +shall be happy to supply to-morrow or any time you like. Those +statements will ignore, as far as possible, my own relations with the +notorious Lord Maske. These I shall explain later, and you will then +understand why I have hitherto held my peace concerning them. I have +known all along that our friend outside--shall we call him John +Dillamore?--was not and never could be the Duke of St. Osmund's; and +though Mr. Cripps may look as black as his boots, he never consulted my +opinion when he took John Dillamore away from my station, and it was no +business of mine to interfere. Mr. Cripps seemed sufficiently positive +about the matter; and, knowing what I know, I really don't blame Mr. +Cripps. But this by the way. I shall first confine myself to those +incidents in the Marquis's career, of which, occurring as they did at +the antipodes, and as long ago as the fifties, very little has hitherto +been known here in England. And I repeat that I shall afterwards be +prepared to prove every word I am about to say. + +"The Marquis of Maske landed in Melbourne in the early part of 1854. +There for a time he cut a great dash, spent an enormous quantity of +money, and indeed reached the end of his resources by the middle of the +year. He then tried his luck on the Ballarat gold-fields, but his luck +was out. At the diggings he sailed under an alias, and under an alias he +drifted to Tasmania as early as July, 1854. And at Hobart Town, as it +was then called, he met the lady for whose sake he broke, though +unwittingly, one of the criminal laws of his native land. + +"Now, I happen to know a good deal about that lady; but the more +impersonally one enters into details of this kind the more chance has +one of making such details perfectly clear to you. As it is you will +find some little complications here and there. But I shall do my best to +present them as intelligibly as possible; and where I fail, you will +perhaps make a note of the point, and call my attention to it presently. +The lady's name was Greenfield. Mrs. Greenfield was a young widow with +one male child; but not, as you might suppose, a young widow with money. +And the Marquis married her at Hobart under peculiar, and really rather +extenuating circumstances. + +"Of course, he had a wife all the time. You know all about that. It has +leaked out through another channel--a channel I happen to have spent the +last few hours in exploring. I have only just returned from the Lower +Farm. I find the first wife died in 1860. But you may take my word for +one thing: her husband had reason to believe she was already dead when +he married for the second time in 1854. + +"As a matter of fact, Eliza Hunt, as she was called, was actually at +death's door in June of the latter year. On a day of which she was not +expected to see the close, the late Duke wrote to his son (I happen to +possess the letter, Mr. Cripps), telling him, with perhaps a pardonable +satisfaction, that the end was only a question of hours; and making +certain overtures which I fear only excited Lord Maske's contempt and +disdain. The Marquis did not profess to be a pious man; his father did. +They had parted in anger, and in anger Maske tore up his father's +letter; but I collected the fragments, and preserved them--and I shall +justify _that_ before I'm done. Maske tore the letter to little bits. +But that very week he married again on the strength of it. And I needn't +tell you there was trouble when the next mail came in! The woman was +still alive; though still hopelessly--or rather hopefully--ill. + +"So the couple in Tasmania lay low until their child was born--an event +which proved fatal to the mother, and brought the Marquis up with a +round turn, as the saying is. He was, as you may have heard, a very +heartless man; but I happen to know that he was reasonably fond of his +second wife, and reasonably grieved at her death. As a matter of fact, +it drove him almost crazy at the time, and embittered him for the rest +of his days. The point is, however, that he was thus left with two +boys--a new-born weakling and an absolutely hardy child of two, the +issue of its mother's first--and only legal--marriage. The weakling he +registered as he would have done had the marriage been really valid; +and, mark you, for all he knew it might be valid still. After that +second letter, saying that the English wife was still hopelessly ill, he +never heard again, either as to her recovery or her death, until the +latter occurred some few years later. But it might have occurred while +the second letter was still on the sea, for it was only a month behind +the first, and they took two or three months coming in those days. And +this is a point worth noting," said Dalrymple, uncrossing his arms, and +for the first time making a gesture. + +"It is a nice point," conceded Mr. Sellwood. + +"In a nasty story!" cried the squatter, with his sardonic laugh. "No, +not quite that; it's too strong a word. Still I am not here to whitewash +the Marquis of Maske; indeed, the next feature of the case is wholly +indefensible. You must know that all this time the exile nourished the +most venomous feelings towards his family in general and the old Duke in +particular. Unlovely as they were, however, I still think there was some +excuse for such sentiments; the boy had been harshly treated; he was +literally forced to desert his first wife; had they lived together, in +England or elsewhere, not a penny-piece would have been theirs until the +death of the Duke. Hence the silence of the Hunts--for the consideration +you wot of. It wasn't the sort of arrangement that would have gone on +very long had the woman lived, or left a child; but she died childless, +as you know; and the Hunts' subsequent policy was obvious even to the +Hunts. Nor was it an arrangement calculated to increase a young man's +respect for his father; in the case of Maske it intensified contempt, +and created the craving for revenge. I have heard him speak so often of +that revenge! He would spring an Australian heir upon the family; that +was his first, and, as you know, his very last idea. He even spoke of +it, as I understand, in the letter that was pinned to the tree under +which he was found dead in the bush! You see it was his dominant idea in +life. But the heir he spoke of was not his son at all. And that's the +indefensible feature of which I spoke." + +"If not his son, who was he, pray?" asked Cripps, with indignant +incredulity; for his own repute was in question here. + +The squatter smiled. "Can you ask? The elder of the two boys; the son of +Mrs. Greenfield by her first marriage," he quietly replied. + +"And what of his own son?" + +"Dead." + +"You will find that difficult to prove!" cried the lawyer hotly. + +"Yes? I think not; he died in Sydney, where the father migrated after +the mother's death; he was dead within six months of his birth. You saw +the certificate of the birth in Hobart, I believe?" + +"Certainly I did." + +"Then here is that of the death; better keep it; you will have more use +for it than I." + +And the squatter turned round, and rolled the red ball up and down the +board, with his quiet sinister smile, while the men on the lounges +examined the document he had put in the solicitor's hands. + +"It looks all right," said Cripps at length, in a tone that made +Dalrymple laugh heartily as he faced about. + +"It looks all right, eh? _That's_ all right! Mr. Cripps, your +discernment--but excuse me! We are not here to bark and bite; we are +here to clear up a mystery, at least I am. Is there any other point, +gentlemen, which I can elucidate before we go any further?" + +"I think there is one," said Claude, speaking nervously. "I have seen +the last letter my uncle wrote, in which he mentioned an heir. I +presume, in order to carry out the revenge you speak of, he called the +living child by the dead child's name----" + +"Exactly. He did it deliberately. I was coming to that." + +"But he seemed uncertain as to the living child's whereabouts. My point +is this: where was the so-called heir at the time that last letter was +written?" + +"Lost," said Dalrymple, shutting his ugly lips as you shut a window. +"Lost in the bush, like Maske himself, only the child's body was not +found. The father had tattooed one of the eagles of his crest upon the +little chap's chest--I am afraid, to further his deception. I was in all +his secrets, as you see; indeed, you may call me his accomplice without +offending me; and I'm bound to say I considered the tattooing a smart +idea. However, a judgment was at hand. The child was lost for many +years. And the rest is easily told; it refers to _me_." + +The squatter looked at Mr. Sellwood--not for the first time. As on the +other occasions, however, he ran his eyes against an absolutely +impassive, pink countenance. + +"Mr. Sellwood may remember my little anecdote of the iron store, the +Queensland blacks, and the French eagle on the chest of the stray +shearer who saved all our lives?" + +Mr. Sellwood very slightly inclined his head. + +"Well, that was the finding of the _soi-disant_ Jack Dillamore. I knew +all about him. For his father's sake, I never lost sight of him again; +for his father's sake (and also because the idea appealed to me +personally) I allowed my old chum's very reprehensible plan to come off, +and our friend Mr. Cripps to lay hold of my Happy Jack for the live Duke +of St. Osmund's: and for the sake of some fun for my pains, I came home +myself to see how matters were progressing. I'm bound to say I was +disappointed. Happy Jack had grown tamer than I could have believed +possible in the time. And hang me if the fellow wasn't in love! My +disgust was such that I was on the point of taking myself off this very +afternoon, and leaving the suppositious Duke (whom it wasn't _my_ +business to depose) to marry and save the Upper House by the example of +high morality he seemed certain to set; but at the last moment I +discovered his trouble. He was found out without my assistance; he was +cutting a worse figure than was in any way necessary; and was about to +lose, not only the title and emoluments he had enjoyed for some months, +but the charming girl whom he had fairly won in love. That seemed a +trifle too hard! I determined to speak out. I have done so: and I am +prepared to prove every word I have said. The certificate now in your +pocket, Mr. Cripps, was not the only one I had in mine. At the moment, +however, there's no more to be said--except a few words with reference +to Jack Greenfield's future. He has suffered enough. I have been, if not +at the bottom of it, at all events to blame in the matter. I have a +little inadequate scheme of reparation, which I shall submit to you, +gentlemen, in order that you may use your influence with Jack, if +necessary. The point is that I am never going back to Australia any +more. I was born and brought up in the old country, and I've got the +taste for it again during the few days I've been home. Indeed, I had +never lost the taste; but I don't intend to run the risk any more. I am +lucky enough to own one of the crack sheep-stations of New South Wales. +I shall want a permanent manager in my absence. I needn't tell you who +is the very man for _that_ billet. Jack Greenfield--if he'll take it." + +"A good house?" said Mr. Sellwood casually. + +"The best homestead in the Riverina. Trust me for that." + +Mr. Sellwood said no more. His mind was made up: better lose his +daughter than have her break her heart. He could not forget the earlier +experiences of the evening. The surprises of this hour were enchanting +compared with the embarrassments of the last. Then he had no reason to +doubt Dalrymple's word as to Jack's actual antecedents; where he doubted +it, was in another matter altogether. At this point in his reflections, +however, and with the inevitable discussion of the immaterial points +still raging around him, Mr. Sellwood was brought to his feet by the +violent opening of the billiard-room door and an agitated apparition of +his wife upon the threshold. Something was the matter: had the lovers +eloped? No; with Mary Freke they were at the heels of Lady Caroline, who +came the length of the room at something ludicrously like a run--her +very fringe awry, and a horrified glance shooting from the corner of +each eye at the nonchalant, well-preserved figure of Dalrymple the +squatter. + +"Do you know what they are saying downstairs?" cried her Ladyship, +looking as far as was possible at everybody at once. "Matthew Hunt is +here, and do you know what _he_ is saying? That neither Jack nor Claude +is the Duke of St. Osmund's, but you--you--you!" And she turned like a +podgy tigress upon none other than the squatter himself. + +"I could have told him that," remarked Mr. Sellwood calmly; he had +arrived at the conclusion exactly ten seconds before. + +"I shall tell him something he doesn't bargain for--the born idiot!" +added the squatter _sotto voce_. + +"Then you believe it?" cried Lady Caroline to her husband. "You must be +mad!" + +"Your Ladyship is so right; it would indeed be madness to dream of +entertaining so preposterous a notion!" cried Mr. Cripps, who was +literally dancing with disbelief. "Even Mr. Dalrymple will hardly go as +far as that. He has gone farther already than the law will follow him; +we'll do him the justice to hold him irresponsible for this absurd +report! He knows as well as we do that the Marquis of Maske was found +dead in the bush; of that we have absolute proof. Even if we hadn't, who +has recognized him? Has he one single witness to his identity? If so, +let him be called!" + +"The gentleman is excited," remarked Dalrymple, ringing the bell. "Does +it really not occur to him that I might have _found myself_ dead in the +bush, and authenticated my own death by very obvious methods? Is it +inconceivable that a young man with my then reputation should jump at +the chance of dying on paper--if you will permit the expression? Such a +death offers unusual advantages, a second birth among others. However, I +never meant to be born again, least of all in this rather melodramatic +manner; but I couldn't resist coming home to see the fun, and it serves +me right to have to stop and pay the score. Witnesses? I had certainly +no intention of calling any to-night; but now that my hand has been +forced it can't be helped. The elder Hunt is one; knew me at sight; and +here comes Stebbings for another. Shut the door behind you, Stebbings, +and answer a couple of questions. It's generally supposed that you were +drunk yesterday when I arrived. Were you, or were you not?" + +"I was not, your Grace." + +"'Your Grace,' you see!" repeated the squatter. "I'm afraid that was +premature, Stebbings! However, if you were not drunk, and you certainly +conveyed that impression, what was the matter with you?" + +"Nervousness!" cried Stebbings, who was sufficiently nervous now. "I had +seen the dead! I had recognised your Grace!" + +"Exactly; and I swore at you as a blind, to explain the complete state +of collapse that you were in. That's all, Stebbings; you may go. Jack, I +see your face! You wonder you didn't spot it at the time? Stebbings +backed me up, or else you would have done; for my part, I confess I was +more frightened when you found us talking together in my room, when I +was packing. I assure you all, I meant to clear out then; believe it or +not, it's the case. In spite of what I said just now, I'm not so wedded +to an English life as I fancied Jack was; and I had no idea at the time +that his position was at all insecure. Yes, my boy, you were welcome to +the whole thing! I was going back to the bush----" + +"_You_ were going back!" cried Jack, coming forward; and Olivia came +also, flushed with a joy that rendered her uniquely indifferent to the +great disclosure. Jack was hers. What did it matter who was the Duke? + +"To be sure I was," said the squatter; "but now I think it will have to +be you after all. What do you say to managing Carara? What do you say, +Miss Sellwood, to helping him to try? You must talk to your father about +it. And for heaven's sake, Jack, don't thank _me_; I've been the worst +friend you ever had in your life." + +Mr. Sellwood was already speaking to his wife. Jack and their daughter +stood hand-in-hand beside them. The new Duke turned his back and joined +Claude on his lounge. The solicitor had beaten a retreat; the Frekes had +done so before him; and the rest of their party, including Jack, did so +now. But Jack returned before either Claude or the squatter had left the +room. + +"The worst friend I ever had!" said he reproachfully, as he took his old +master's hand. "What should I be doing to-night if it hadn't been for +you? You may say what you like; you've helped to make me the happiest +man in all the world. I can marry her after all! Mr. Sellwood's as white +a man as I know; even Lady Caroline has just given us best! But +you"--and he laid an affectionate rough hand on Claude's shoulder--"dear +old boy, what can I say to you? I'm ashamed to look you in the face. +You've lost everything!" + +Claude was very pale; the other's honest eyes were shining with sympathy +beneath their bushy brows; but the new Duke laughed aloud. + +"Lost everything?" he cried. "Not a bit of it! I'm not going to live for +ever, and Claude's exactly where he was--the next man in. You think not? +And have you known me all these years, and do you really and truly +expect me to marry again? Jack--my boy--have I to tell you how it is +with me? I have been a bad old lot in my time; but one woman I once +loved well enough to spoil me for ever for all the rest." + +He paused an instant, and it was quite a tender hand he laid on Jack's +shoulder. + +"And there's one man I love for her sake!" + + * * * * * + +By E. W. HORNUNG. + + +THE ROGUE'S MARCH. A Romance. 12mo. $1.50. + +A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH. [Ivory Series.] 16mo. 75 cents. + +IRRAELI'S BUSHRANGER. A Story of Australian Adventure. [Ivory Series.] +16mo. 75 cents. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Lord Duke, by E. W. 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